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Sam Chwat, a dialect specialist who worked closely with people in business, politics and the film industry who wanted to lose their regional accents, died last Thursday. In 1994, Chwat explained how he helped clients like Robert DeNiro and Julia Roberts lose their famous regional dialects.

A good question: is the acting diminished without the physical aspect of actually being in front of a camera? My family absolutely loves “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which would have been much less entertaining without the stellar voice acting by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzmann, Bill Murray, et al. I strongly believe that the voiceover category will continue be ghettoized by the American mindset that cartoons are still always for kids. With that in place, it is acceptable to not give full credit to the artists that don’t actually appear on screen. Your thoughts?

Dan Lenard answers another age-old voiceover question in his inimitable way, this time on the subject of tube pre-amps for vocal “warmth.”

Clearly, this isn’t something that I normally post about. I am a huge sports fan, and I think it is important to share this story about how a small town in michigan dealt with the death of a star high school athlete. Wes Leonard died on the basketball court after making a game winning layup. He was 16 years old, and had an undetected heart condition. LZ Granderson looks at his teammmates, their opponents in the next game, and the entire community trying to make sense of the tragedy and how to move forward.

If you are on LinkedIn, you should do yourself a favor and join the Working Voice Actors group. There is a lively discussion going on right now pertaining to union membership and the Financial Core status. There are very good points on both sides of the argument of union membership, especially in the right to work states in the country. Bob Bergen, J.S. Gilbert, Connie Terwilliger, and Donna Summers all chime in. Definitely worth your time.

What Impact is Audio having on the E-Learning Industry? This is the second part of my article, which looks at the overall impact that audio-inclusion is having (What Impact is Audio having on the E-Learning Industry? New blog post Part 2: http://bit.ly/hJzRm6 #voiceover)