Audiobook Narration

Speakers:
Mike Charzuk (Audible) and Jason Ojalvo (ACX), with special guests Scott Brick and Jenna Lamia.

Location: Conference Center, 2nd Floor, Blue Building, Suite 259

Time: 1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

Most voiceover jobs are like a sprint. Audiobook narration is a marathon. It takes serious acting chops and a wide range. What kind of actors tend to make the good audiobook narrators? How do you adapt you acting chops for audiobook performance? And how do you break into book narration? Who are the players, and how do you get their attention? The Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX.com) is a new initiative from audiobook producer and retailer Audible.com that allows audiobook actors and producers to find virtually unlimited audiobook narration work, so the time is now to learn how to do it, and do it well.

About the presenters

Mike Charzuk is an award winning producer, audio engineer and musician, having more than 25 years of experience in audio production as a recording musician and audiobook producer. For the past six years Charzuk has been the Executive Producer for Audible.com, the leading producer of spoken word entertainment. He has produced hundreds of audiobooks, dozens of which have been nominated for Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and his audiobook with Woody Allen was received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word project in 2010. Charzuk has also produced hundreds of promo spots for Viacom, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., and TV land and headed the production team that rebranded TNN into Spike TV.

Jason Ojalvo is a Vice President at Audible (an Amazon.com subsidiary). He launched – and now runs – the groundbreaking ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) service which connects voiceover actors with great books to create more audiobooks for the ever-growing base of audiobook listeners. He also oversees Audible’s audiobook production department which in 2011 received a Grammy nomination and 15 Audie Award nominations. Ojalvo holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Actor and writer Scott Brick has performed on film, television and radio, while his stage appearances throughout the U.S. include CYRANO, HAMLET and MACBETH. In the audio industry, Scott has won over forty Earphones Awards, as well as the 2003 and 2008 Audie Awards, both in the Best Science Fiction category. Having recorded 500 audiobooks, Scott has been proclaimed both a Golden Voice by AudioFile Magazine and the 2007 Narrator of the Year by Publishers Weekly. Among the classics Scott has narrated are Bladerunner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, Dune by Frank Herbert, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, White Jazz by James Elroy and Mystic River by Dennis Lehane.

Jenna Lamia currently lives in Los Angeles where she writes for the television series “90210.” As an actress, she has appeared on Broadway in “Ah, Wilderness,” on HBO’s Oz as Carrie Schillinger, and most recently played Mark Wahlberg’s youngest sister, Sherri Ward, in the Oscar-nominated film, The Fighter. Jenna has been nominated twice for the Audie award for best solo female performance of the year, the first time for The Secret Life of Bees, and then again, winning in 2010 for The Chosen One. Favorite titles include The Help, The Girl With the Pearl Earring, and The Firefly Cloak. Upcoming releases: Candace Bushnell’s Summer and the City and Clare Van der Pool’s Moon Over Manifest.