I suppose an introduction is in order
It has been some time since I last blogged and much has happened. When I look back, I don’t believe that I introduced myself. So, let me.
Hi, how are you? Good is the standard answer. I truly am good. These past few months and year has been challenging not only for me but for most people. Life is challenging, but this is not an introduction now is it?
I am a voice actor, coach, and guide if you will. That is what I do and for the most part consumes me in a very good way I might add. But who am I? I am a father, husband, son, and sibling I love sports (football, golf, baseball, hockey, downhill skiing, and many others…). I love the outdoors.
When I was growing my love of the outdoors came from my family. We camped. Every summer Dad would pack up the camper with what Mom had packed and we would head to a campground. Some were provincial parks others were private campgrounds.
We had a canoe and would paddle around a lake; we didn’t fish much and that’s ok I never did like to touch them. Campfires were my thing and still are to this day. We would hike and see what the parks offered in terms of education which was great.
I played sports, namely basketball and baseball, but did play soccer and hockey. We had a local community pool which operated in the summer as it was an outdoor pool and that doesn’t work well in Montreal winters. My summers besides camping and playing baseball were spent at the pool.
School for me was a challenge and I didn’t like it much. I did like to see my friends and play but schoolwork sucked quite honestly. It wasn’t until I graduated high school that I found what I liked. That was geography. I studied physical geography at Concordia University. I really got into map making and loved the field work in bogs and researching glacial landscapes. What came first the drumlin or the moraine? I don’t know esker! Geography humor.
My dad worked for CAE Electronics and over the years I had visited the company at Christmas and for Boy Scout field trips. CAE made and still manufactures flight simulators. I remember one field trip, where we got to fly in a helicopter simulator, and I loved it.
After graduating from Concordia that is where I worked. I was hired in May of 1992 as a summer student and began working as a visual database engineer. I truly loved it and was hired in September 1992 full time. My colleagues were great, we worked hard and played hard. I was young and naïve and that ended up costing me a bit. From 1992, to the end of 1995 I created visual scenes that pilots would fly or be immersed in while training on the flight simulators. This work enabled me to travel to China and Australia. In 1996 I switched jobs at CAE becoming an instructor. I taught simulator technicians how to modify and or create the visual scenes.
This is where my journey in voiceover began.
Part II next week
