MorningStar Smiles

This section is for all posts of news or updates made in 2008.

I've got two more recording gigs at NYU coming up soon. One is tomorrow evening for a short radio play about a family's decision to put their dog to sleep and the other is Tuesday for a Rumpelstiltskin radio play. There's a fantastic voice over mixer tonight for area professionals but I can't go because I'm still recovering from a bad fever I've had for the past few days. I'm so bummed too because Harlan Hogan and Bob Bergen are going to be there. I'm going to see if I can get Lucien to ask Harlan to autograph one of his books that I own for me. There are so many great voice over prizes that are going to be given away throughout the evening too. I'm dissapointed that I won't be able to go. Oh well.

Well this has been a fun, eventful day. I headed over to Actor Fest. in Manhattan with fellow vo friends Lucien (also roomate), Chris, and Corinne due to an e-mail from Edge Studios that they were offering a free all-day voice over workshop. Typically, if something sounds like it's too good to be true, it probably is. Turns out it was "this is our pamphlet about our classes you should take" quick thing available in the exhibit hall all day instead. To their benefit though, they did have a quick fake audition read-through where we read a copy clip of our choosing and they'd give us quick feedback. Not enough time to learn to much but it was still helpful and good auditioning experience. We also made a few connections (always a good thing). I met a woman who has a similar situtation of working full-time like I do and yet has been able to still do professional voice acting as well. Hmmm. Maybe I don't have to wait to jump into this full-swing until I've paid off my loans like I originally thought...

With the whole day now open, I tagged along with Lucien to his recording session at Pratt for a short animation in which he played several characters. I went chiefly to watch and learn but it ended up that the girl there had some crowd voices she needed filling so I got to record for those. It was a fun variety of voices and I guess she liked ir because she had me read the lines for a few other characters as well which she said she would definitely be using some of them later too. Yay!

After that we went back to Manhattan for Lucien's recording session for a satire audio drama at NYU. Holy cowz do they have an awesome set-up. Best school set up I have EVER seen and even better than some professional ones. It was so much fun to watch Lucien and the other actors. I wanted so much to be in that booth as well. While they went through scenes the sound engineer and director kept skipping one scene that had a female interviewer voice because the actress hadn't shown up yet. I told them I did voice over so they waited until they didn't have any more scenes let to do and then had me cover her role (two scenes) so they could get through everything. Oh my gosh it was so much fun. What a great day. I signed up for the Tisch Talent Guild afterwards (finally) so I hope do be doing a lot more with them further down the road.

Basically, I've learned that I can do well on my own recording environment but when put in something foreign it's a bit daunting for some reason. Today was a great start to breaking free of that. Being around people who were really friendly, good directors, and supportful was really helpful as well. i had an audition for a character in the next Pokemon movie a few weeks ago that didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped but I know that next time around (thanks to that awesome voice actor contest that guarentees me a role) I'll do much better next time. Can't wait!

I'm going to be in an anime. I can't believe it. It's so surreal. A real professional paid gig in an anime. I'm so freaking psyched!!!!!!!! This is pretty much the best day of my life and hopefully an excellent foot in the door for the future as I keep pushing towards more professional voice over work. For once I'll have an actual director with me while I record! For once I won't have to edit my lines!!! It's also 2:18 am and I made a crazy huge post on facebook about the day that wouldn't fit in here so check out details of the contest that led to the role here if we're not facebook buddies: http://www.nyanimefestival.com/en-us/669.cfm I'll put up more info later.

Thank you New York Anime Fest, Michael Sinterniklass, Tom Wayland, Veronica Taylor, Jamie McGonnigal, and Bill Rogers!

PS: Oh man I need to re-do my crazy old demos asap. Casey offered to let me record in his studio in a couple since mine is currently still half in Minnesota and half in NYC. Argh. Should be a great time though. Yay! I love voice acting!

PPS: Sorry I haven't updated in so long! Details on everything voice related that I've been up to this summer will be coming soon! Promise!

eeee! It's been so long since I've updated this! Sorry! Let me bring you all up to speed. Most of June was spent job hunting which eventually resulted in a position as assistant to the art director at C-Life Group in Manhattan. I do basically the grunt work of graphic design but at least it's graphic design related and for the most part I like it. I was looking for a full-time salary job to help pay off my college loans as soon as possible so I can save up and jump into VAing full-time and that's what I got so yay! It's not a very large salary so it'll take a couple years (my school was pricey) and I might jump into VA whether they're all paid off or not. There's so much opportunity here and I know I'm ready now so we'll see. I know I'll stick to my day job for at least a year though.

ANYWAYS, VA update: Due to lack of good recording environment and working a LOT, I haven't done much but I'm saving up money right now to get the rest of my studio shipped to me at the end of the month. In the meantime I'll keep using Lucien's set-up. Cool VA news is that a friend from church works at a sound studio that does professional non-union voice over work and he not only said I could give them my commercial demo but that he would let me record it there for free and even mix it for me!!! I'm so excited! The studio's really busy these next two weeks but he said I could come in anytime I'm available after that. Yay!

Random un-related news: I'm adopting a kitty today!

Enjoy Everything!
MorningStar Smiles

I'm finally back on the Voice Actor Alliance! After almost year of hiatus (except for roles I was scouted for and the audiobook production I was doing for my senior final theater project) I'm getting back into the swing of auditioning and recording. I finished my lines for Cobolt last night with the aid of Lucien's equipment (my mic's still being fixed in California) and plan to audition and record for more projects this week. Yay!

I've also updated the links in the Voice Credits section. I'm taking out roles that have disappeared because the producer never finished them and moving them to a hidden page in case they ever do get copleted. So the roles you see are the ones that are completed or I expect to be finished in the future.

Enjoy Everything!
MorningStar Smiles

Hello from NY! I'm living in a very strangely laid out but inexpensive apartment in the lovely neighborhood of Ridgewood with three other friends. Kat and I share a room and Matt Alan and Lucien Dodge (fellow voice actors) have thier own rooms. So far we've been having a blast and I've already learned a lot from them in terms of getting to know and recognize the names of famous voice actors and their most well-known roles.

This place is filled with awesomeness. One only has to look. Case in point, in my first couple of days I was able to get great free tickets to Hamlet at the Public theater in Central Park (they're all free but extremely hard to get once the reviews hit the presses) and tickets to go up into the statue of liberty monument after they stopped giving them out for the day. I spent my first few days doing touristy things with my mom before she went home. Originally she was coming along to help me move but she saved me a lot on shipping by bringing my stuff in her luggage and I figured now was the best time to play tourist so we just had fun instead and I unpacked after she left.

My computer arrived a few days later from home but the video card was busted so I had to buy a new one (which should be here tomorrow or Friday). Unfortunately, this means I've had to wait to apply for graphic design jobs because I can't access my computer to finish my portfolio and none of my roomates have computers that are strong enough to run the programs I need. No computer also means I can't record unless I borrow Lucien's when he's not using it.

So, in the meantime I've been sketching, getting to know the neighborhood, reading a book on voice acting, and studying voice actors and listening to thier demos. It's extremely frustrating to go from being a workaholic to feel I'm wasting day after day bumming around so hopefully this new video card will do the trick to fix my computer. Either way, I need to get a full-time job soon.

Oh, one cool career-advancement happening was that Lucien invited me to come along to one of his auditions for McDonald's. It was at Just Voices and although I wasn't able to go into the booth and listen in, I still got to know the process by experiencing it first hand rather than just reading about it. The familiarity will make it easier for me when I start going to auditions of my own someday. Up till now, all my professional work has been done online.

Well, that's all for now!
Enjoy Everything!
MorningStar Smiles

This will be short and sweet because I'm on terrible dial-up internet at my parents' home that likes to frequently commit jihad on itself.

1. I graduated Bethany Lutheran College with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art (emphasis in Graphic Design and Drawing) and a Theater Minor on May 16th. Yay!

2. I'm moving to New York (Queens to be a little more specific) on Tuesday (May 27th). I will be living in an apartment with 3 other friends (two of which are fellow voice actors) and am very much looking forward to all the art and acting opportunities that will soon be available.

More details to come once I move!
Enjoy Everything!
MorningStar Smiles

I'm back in lovely USA. London and Paris was awesome and I'm definitely going back again someday to visit. London nights especially rocked because of the all the shows we got to go to. We went to The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe, Lord of the Rings the Musical at Royal Theater Drury Lane, and a "classical spectacular" (which wasn't so spectacular after how amazing Lord of the Rings was) at the Royal Albert Hall.

Seriously though, it's a given that The Mousetrap and Much Ado would be awesome but a couple friends and I actually went to Lord of the Rings on a whim because our theatre professor said we should see something at the Drury Land theater and we were all Lord of the Rings fans. We thought it was going to be silly and a bit ridiculous but it was actually the most spectacular sound, lights, and set I have ever seen in my life. Just, absolutely amazing. The music was also fantastic and although some of the actors weren't the best, the singing was great. My favorite actor was Boromir and Galadriel was hands down the best singer. The hobbits and Gollum were all absolutely fantastic though too.

And of course, we went to quite a bit of museums as well to study art: British Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Courtauld Institute, Rodin Museum, the Louvre, the Orsey, and I did walk by the Pompidou Centre when I got the chance so that was cool.

My senior art show is finished and over with (thank goodness) as of Thursday so that's one less thing to worry about though opening night for the play I'm in, The Essential Lunatic, is coming up in a little over a week. Yikes. I went through the script and really analyzed my character throughout the weekend while polishing lines so practice went really well tonight. I also was home this weekend to hang out with family and go see my little brother as the Scarecrow in The Wiz at my old high school. He did great! He even sounded exactly like Michael Jackson, which I wasn't expecting but was sooo funny.

I have a ten-minute final directing scene for Directing 1 that is also in need of attention (performance is May 8th) since my senior art show finished and I still need to somehow find time to finish my senior theater project which has been sorely neglected due to studio troubles. Other than that, I agreed to do a new small voice over role in a fan dub which I reeeeally shouldn't but just couldn't turn down. I missed voice acting too much.

Enjoy Everything!
-MorningStar Smiles

I should start a map and make it my goal to be heard publicly in every country. So far I've got the UK covered, USA, Australia, and now France:

Wild Poker (a short machima film in which I voiced the character "Sandra") will be shown at the WEB FLASH FESTIVAL 2008 in Paris at the Pompidou Center: http://www.flashfestival.net/2008/ 

Coolness. :) I'm actually going to be visiting the Pompidou Center while studying Art and Theatre in London and Paris in about a week so that's a strange coincidence. It's a bummer that I won't be there in May when the festival actually takes place though. Oh well.

Speaking of the London/Paris trip, yeah, I'll be studying art and theatre (mostly art museums during the day and going to theatre shows in the evening) in 5 days. With all the chaos and mayhem of my senior art show coming up in a few weeks. It's going to be a great break. I'm going to be gone from March 11-21.

Other acting news, play practice for The Essential Lunatic is going well.

Enjoy Everything!
-MorningStar Smiles

Things have gotten so busy here that I'm on a complete voice acting hiatus. However, I just couldn't resit trying out for my last chance at a college play (since I graduate in May) aaaaaand, I got the lead female role of Joan! It's an original comedy called The Essential Lunatic by a BLC alumni and this was the role I really wanted because she's really quirky and a ton of fun. Joan is an insurance agent who convinces her friend Marty to pretend he's crazy so that he can collect a huge insurance benefit and never have to worry about money again. Chaos ensues! The guy who plays Marty, Paul Gansen, is actually a good friend of mine in real life too so I know we'll have a ton of fun along with the rest of the cast.

The other cool thing is that if this would ever get published, I'd be listed under the original cast. Nifty.

Enjoy Everything!
-MorningStar Smiles

I can't believe I forgot to mention this yesterday but Tiger's Quest: The Second Quest is finished! I'll let you all know when it's up for sale. *grin* All of the cast and crew got copies of the recordings sent to us about a week or so ago and, as always, it's really great to hear the finished product after all that work. I really enjoy working with the Everlasting Films production team too. They a really great bunch of people and bring a lot of professionalism to those of us who are just starting out or have been in the biz for a long time. Next up is Tiger's Quest: The Third Quest!

Also, a bit of more awesomeness, I happened upon this, in a google search for videos of voice over projects I've been in, on the Lionhead Community forum:

5th Golden Film Awards
PAST WINNERS (from the last four award shows):
Lots of past winner categories...*keeps scrolling*..

Best Romance-
    Listen! by Tal0n
   Cleopatra Part I by TheMGMKid1
   For My Fellow Soldier by Rileyma
   In the Nick of Time by Meowan <--That's my director! I was totally in that! *continues scrolling down the list*....

Best Actress-
    Dulci in Pax Romana
    H_Finnochiaro in Cleopatra Part I
    Sisch in Panic Radio
    Crystal Lonnquist,  In the Nick of Time <-- ...what?!

So I guess I won Best Actress in the 4th Golden Film Awards last summer. Yay! From looking around in the forum (which I had never been to before and probably explains why I never even knew about this though David should have let me know :P) the Golden FIlm Awards are an opportunity for amateur machinima film makers to submit their movies for recognition. Five top nominees are chosen from the list of all the submitted films in each category and then out of those five, a winner is picked.

There's nothing better than doing what you love to do and I'm happiest when I'm up to my elbows in it. I would take being crazy busy over bored any day.

New news today is a paid acting gig that's going to be a blast to do.  Basically I got recruited to be an actor (and helping with the planning) in a murder mystery hosted by a bar & grill in my town for a Red Cross fundraister. The event is going to be big with multiple radio stations covering it and quite a few sponsors. There are going to be at least 100-200 people there too which is a great size for this sort of thing. I'm really excited because this is my first paid stage acting gig. But more importantly, it's my first time helping to host a murder mystery and great practice for character building and improv. This is going to be so much fun! I have to admit that all the media coverage is a little scary but all the planning is going great so far so I think we'll be able to put together a great show in time.

I'm sorry to keep reporting that not much is new in the voice acting department but my graphic design portfolio is really getting beefed up as a result so that's fine with me. I have a senior art show coming up fast that that's going to help out quite a bit too. Considering I'm currently in the market for graphic design or illustration internships this summer in order to graduate, this does take priority for the semester. But don't think I've forgotten about voice acting entirely. I have a couple of amateur roles to do lines for and a very cool opportunity that I auditioned for last week and will hopefully be finding out the results of at the end of this week.

Oh! And last night fellow voice actor Matt Alan and I made a vow to each other to make more money and talk less for a voice acting job than friend and voice actor Lucien Dodge whom we very much admire. It's a hard goal to beat considering he had an awesome union job last Christmas where he basically said two words and got union pay. It's inspiring and motivating at least if nothing else!

Enjoy Everything!
-MorningStar Smiles

Wow. I missed a month somehow. I have to say though, this year has not been looking good in the free time department. I'm now in the home stretch -- my last semester of college. It's insane and I have no idea how I'll get through everything but it'll all work out somehow because it always does. However, no free time means no voice acting for me. *sigh* I'll be working on finishing up a couple of roles tomorrow and auditioning for one more (it's pro, I can't help it) but I had to turn down two amateur ones and I don't think I'll be auditioning for anything else in quite some time. If I do have free time, I'd really like to brush up my demos (especially commercial and character).

Hopefully I'll have good, exciting, and new voice over news soon but right now I need to focus on school.
Enjoy Everything!
-MorningStar Smiles