The Voice of an Artist

The 2009 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival has just announced the winners of their Best Film Awards. Shanmao & Jimi Adventures had the honor of winning
Best US Animation!

http://nyfilmvideo.info/2009-festival-awards/2009-festival-awards-new-york-march.htm

I feel so lucky to have been part of this great project! Jimi has been such a fun character to voice and I can not wait to get back in the booth to record more episodes.

Tags: best animation, best film, lindz reiss, new york internation independent film and video festival, nyiifvf, shanmao jimi

Voice Talent Productions is planning the next VO Meet-up at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, on May 30th, 2009.

Click the link above to sign up and for more info! Hope to see you there!

Tags: great adventure, six flags, voice talent productions

I’ve been working on a cartoon series for Chabad.org for the past few months. The first episode just went live!

The series is called “What If?”, and each month the two boys, Eli & Ezi, ask a different question about Jewish history. Their friend, Dina, explains the history and facts behind each episode.

What If We Never Left Egypt

History and Facts with Dina

I’ve recorded the second episode as well, which should be posted sometime next month.

Tags: cartoon, chabad.org, history and facts, what if we never left egypt

So, I come bearing some very exciting news! Shanmao & Jimi will be premiering March 22nd at the NY Film Festival with a secondary screening March 26th. If you are in the New York area, please consider stopping by to see it! And hey! I’ll be there too! How awesome is that? As a film geek myself, (studied Film at Brooklyn College several years back) this will certainly be an extraordinary experience. ^.^

Tags: cartoon, new york, ny film festival, NYC, premiere, shanmao jimi

So, after quite a bit of thought, I’ve decided to change up my website a bit. Not that the yellow and black wasn’t nice, it just wasn’t really “me”.

So, I’m going with some cooler colors that I really think reflect my personality AND my voice!!!

Tell me what you think.

Tags: black, blue, brown, colors, design, tan, teal, theme, Voice Acting, website, white

Here is an exclusive preview of one of my upcoming projects!! I’m the voice of Jimi, the cute little rabbit with the pink dress!
The cast list includes me (LindZ Reiss), Keith O’Brien, Melissa S. Malone, Sarah Pesek and Chip Joel.

Don’t forget to also visit the website! ShanmaoJimi.com

Tags: cartoon, exclusive, jimi, shanmao, trailer

Click on the banner above to see the brand new website for Shanmao & Jimi. In case you didn’t know already, I am the voice for Jimi. You can visit the website to see trailers, learn more about the show, or even support the show (and me!) by buying Shanmao & Jimi products!

If the banner doesn’t work, click the link below:
http://www.shanmaojimi.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=107

Tags: cartoon, jimi, shanmao, Voice Acting, website

If you do, I’d love to add you to this nifty little list that I’m creating over on the right side of this page. I’ve already added the blogs that I’ve visited a few times. Show me what you got!

Tags: blogging

So, I had a gig today where I had to be a sound alike for a young girl in a Canadian cartoon. I found myself doing several odd things to completely alter my voice to sound like her. I would stand with my feet out a bit further than usual, clench my fists, and scrunch up my nose. I would say a series of lines that I had auditioned with originally to “get back into character” and would go from there.

Looking at other characters that I’ve voiced, I’ve found that there is often one thing or a series of things that I would do to get that character voice back. For example, there is a cartoon that I did where I had to be 2 teenage girls and have a 5 minute conversation back and forth between the two. Their voices are complete opposite sides of the spectrum and I found myself posing different ways for each character. It’s a split second change, my posture, my facial expressions, and even my hand movements. But it works because I become the different characters and don’t have to worry about one voice leaking into the other.

For another character that I voice, I have to take off my shoes and put the microphone slightly too high so that I have to stand on my tippy toes for each line. Hey it works!

I’m thinking this goes back to my animation training. Whenever I would be drawing a new character, a lot of the time I found myself making several funny faces and posing even though I couldn’t see myself unless I had a mirror. For some odd reason, it made me picture the character better in my head before putting it on paper.

So, does anyone out there have odd things that they do to get into character? Tell me about them!

Tags: characters, voice acting

So, I recently talked to my new friend Dave McRae (an awesome voice talent, and gifted filmmaker), and we started chatting about how important positive thinking is in this career. It is what will take you to the next level and allow you to succeed.

If you go through life saying, this is too hard, I wish I could get my big break, why do I have so many auditions and so few callbacks, you will NEVER get anywhere. But, if you go through life saying, this is hard work but it’s worth it, any of these gigs can lead to my big break, I will get chosen for this next gig, then you will succeed. All you need is faith.

When I went on one of my first auditions, I had only had 2 weeks of voice acting experience. The world should have been against me, but I went in there knowing that THAT would be my big break. That week, I would not let any doubt enter my mind. When I got the phone call that I was offered the lead role, everything just came together.

I’ve kept that same mindset and my career has really started to take off. I know that this year will truly solidify my career and it is going to be an incredible experience!

Tell me your stories.
Here’s to the power of positive thinking!

Tags: positive, voice acting