This theme of LOVING Voice Over was echoed in our June Voice Actor Newsletter.   Erica Kelly at Voicebank.net wrote:

“Recently, we had the honor of producing the Showbiz Expo 2010 Keynote Panel for Voice Over. We lined up an extraordinary group of panelists including Joe Cipriano, Rino Romano, Tara Strong and Rick Zieff, and our own Stewart Wilson-Turner moderated the panel. As I sat listening to this amazing group of people, I was inspired by their passion for what they do.  [Want to hear what these attendees at the ShowBiz Expo in LA had to say?  Click here to watch a video.]

The dedication and effort these voice over actors have put into their craft is remarkable. They started off just like anyone else with dreams of making voice over their full-time job. They went to classes, made their first demo tape, and auditioned for many jobs before landing their first gig. They worked hard and did not quit when it seemed like the dream was not going to happen. This is a life lesson, not just a lesson in voice over. You never know when YOUR opportunity is going to arrive – the job that can catapult you into more jobs, more money and more stability. If you quit, you’ll never know how close you came, but you have to be prepared and at your best.

The session ended with a discussion about how people became interested in voice over. I would estimate that 70% of the room raised their hand when asked if it was because they’d had people tell them they had a great voice, yet only 20% of the room raised their hand when asked who loved voiceover. I am here to tell you that if you want to be successful, as in making-it-your-full-time-job successful, you had better love the craft of voice over. The truth is you will be auditioning along with people who LOVE what they are doing. When you love something, you put your heart and soul into it.”

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT VOICEOVER?  SHARE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!

For the complete Q & A interview with Voice Actor Tom Wahl visit the links below – enjoy!

Part 1 – click here.

Part 2 – click here.

Part 3 – click here.

AD(Voicebank): Question #6: How often do you study and train at the present time?

TW(Voice Actor): I study and train/rehearse/practice every day…literally.  Often it’s in my home studio and/or in my vehicle traveling to and from.  At first back in about 1995 when I started really getting into practicing everyday in my vehicle, the looks from motorists ranged from puzzled, surprised and shocked to who in the world is he talking to and perhaps “that guy is talking to himself…he must have a screw loose!”.  Often I am in the home studio in the morning, afternoon and night and in between being in the studio, I am studying and voicing things in my vehicle.  I can’t count on both hands and feet the funny or strange looks I have gotten from motorists over the years as I am doing voice exercises or repeating commercials while driving.  I study and practice at various times around the clock all day every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  It’s a work in progress.

AD(Voicebank): Question #7:  What do you believe are some of the most important qualities that a voice over talent needs to have to make it in today’s industry?

TW(Voice Actor): THIS IS A MUST!  In the words of my voice coach…you have to absolutely be in love with voiceover to make it in the business.  Only those who truly love voiceover with all their heart and soul will be the ones who make it.  AND, it doesn’t come overnight.  It takes many months and years of rehearsing, coaching and persistence to be a success.   JUST AS IMPORTANT: You must seek out/find a top notch voice coach.  There are several working voiceover artists and voice actors who teach.  If you are really serious about becoming a voiceover artist and voice actor, do your research and hire a top notch voice coach.  To make it as a voice actor you must have a solid foundation.  In my humble opinion, you can’t simply just rehearse/practice or train on your own.  You need assistance and guidance from someone who has been there and done it for a very long time and preferably still doing it.

INSPIRATION + EDUCATION + DILIGENCE……………….sprinkle on a little LOVE FOR VOICEOVER to top it all off and you are on the pathway to success!!

Okay everyone – it’s your turn….what qualities do YOU think are important when building a voiceover career today?  Please share your thoughts with the voiceover community in the comments section below.  Thanks!

Part 2 of my Q & A with Tom Wahl continues today.   He shares advice from his voice over coach and the resources he has found helpful with his voice over education…

AD(Voicebank): Question #4: Have you studied with a voice over coach?  If so, what is one of the most important things he/she has taught you?

TW(Voice Actor): Yes, I have coached and continue to consult with the legendary voiceover artist and movie trailer voice Don Morrow.  Don is also a wonderful narrator, commercial voice and actor. I have known for a long time that if I was going to make it as a voiceover artist, I would have to study with someone who had been there and done it…successfully for years. Because money was tight at the time, I decided the best thing to do at that point would be for me to get his home study materials.  I ordered them, began studying and rehearsing and I noticed “instant improvement” in my delivery.  But I felt that if I was going to stand a chance of making it in voiceover, I had to coach with him one on one.  In July of 2009 I flew to New York to coach and record my demo at Don’s home studio.  The most important thing Don told me [is] you have to absolutely be in love with voiceover in order to make it. I knew Don was the voiceover artist I needed to coach with because we both have the same philosophy, voiceover is my first love and my passion.  It’s not about being a star.  If you get into [voiceover] to be a star, I would say forget it.  You’ll never make it.  That’s not what it’s all about.  It’s about loving this craft with all your heart and soul.  The common myth is that you have to have a great voice to make it in [voiceover]…it’s not your voice, although that helps, it’s what you do with the words and the space between the words.  You have to know how to interpret and convey the message. The other thing Don will tell you is you must, must have persistence, persistence, persistence because this profession is filled with rejection, rejection, rejection. I think most major voiceover artists will tell you that you must absolutely love voiceover to be successful at it.

AD(Voicebank): Question #5: What online resources and/or books have you found helpful with your continued voice over education.

TW(Voice Actor): I use the internet daily and very heavily for research and study.  I constantly listen to other voice actors’ websites and websites of the talent agencies and production companies including Voicebank to learn other artists styles and methods of performing various genres.  I know of several major voiceover artists who check Voicebank regularly to keep up with the competition and learn from them. It helps me keep up with the competition so that I know who I am competing with. Voiceover is a close knit family but it is also highly competitive. There are many extraordinary voiceover artists out there and they are always showing me ways of making my performance better.  I still study and practice with Don Morrow’s Home Study Course which is an extraordinary resource.  This is 60 plus years of Don’s experience as a voice guy condensed into several hours of no nonsense highly effective teaching.  I also I can’t say enough of about this course which is also used by several major actors who want to improve their performance while in the privacy of their home.  I also study with resources and books from the wonderful voiceover giant Harlan Hogan in Chicago.  Harlan is a great talent and has a wealth of experience.   I would strongly recommend the following publications by Harlan, Tales and Techniques of a Voice Over Actor, The DVD Voiceover Success, and The Voice Actor’s Guide to Home Recording which is a MUST HAVE for voiceover newcomers and veterans alike.  Several other must have books are The Art of Voice Acting by industry veterans James Alburger and Penny Abshire (two wonderfully talented voice actors and teachers), Secrets of Voiceover Success by Joan Baker, There’s Money Where Your Mouth [by Elaine A. Clark], Voice for Hire by the wonderfully talented Randy Thomas (the first woman ever to be asked to announce the annual Academy Awards show) [and Peter Rofe], and last but not least, many great resources from the incredibly talented voice actor/ADR talent Pat Fraley including Critical Skills to Voiceover Excellence.  (IMPORTANT: I have not, in any way, been asked by any voiceover artist or voice actor mentioned or not mentioned to list any publication or resource and I in no way am being compensated for mentioning these publications or artists).

WHAT BOOKS, ONLINE RESOURCES, ETC. HAVE HELPED YOU?  PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS.  And, next week look for Part 3 of my Q & A with voice actor Tom Wahl.

AD(Voicebank): Question #1:  How long have you been studying voice over?

TW(Voice Actor): I feel like I have been a lifelong student of voice over.  I have always wanted to be a voice guy since I was about 7 years old, maybe younger than that.  My earliest memory was when I was growing up in south central New Jersey in the shadows of New York City and Philadelphia. I listened to local radio and tv and was fascinated with the voices. I knew in my heart that I wanted to be a voice guy. From that point on, virtually every night, I was glued to the tv so I could hear the network guys doing breaks, promos and network i-d’s.  I would mimick those guys until I felt I got as close as I could to what they were doing. I considered watching television as sort of homework or studying.

AD(Voicebank): Question #2: Who inspired you to get into voice over?

TW(Voice Actor): I was drawn to certain network announcers…guys like Dick Tufeld (the voice of the robot on the CBS-TV series Lost in Space) who was a staff announcer at ABC-TV and later NBC-TV.  Other guys like Hank Simms who was the announcer on the openings of all the Quinn Martin television series like The FBI, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones and for some 25 years on the annual Academy Awards show. I was also influenced heavily by legendary voiceover artist and game show host Don Morrow, character actor Alexander Scourby, Ernie Anderson, Peter Thomas, Norman Rose and the wonderful Danny Dark.  The voiceover artists I listen to and study now are my voice coach Don Morrow, Bill Ratner, Beau Weaver, Wil Lyman, Norm Woodell, Les Marshak, Hal Douglas and many others too numerous to mention.

AD(Voicebank): Question #3:  In our correspondence you had written: “My first experience with the kindness of the voiceover industry came when the late great voiceover legend Don LaFontaine personally answered my e-mail a few years ago.”  Can you tell us more about that?

TW(Voice Actor): This was absolutely a thrill and was key to getting me fired up for my assault on the voiceover scene.  About 4 years ago, I had begun seriously my pursuit of voiceover.  Along with my lifetime of listening, studying and learning from the voiceover pros and having worked in radio I used the new technology to help me…the trusty computer and internet.  …I was checking the many websites of voiceover artists both in Los Angeles and elsewhere.  One of them was Don LaFontaine’s website…there was a page that said something like “contact Don”.  I sent him a brief e-mail telling him where I was in my pursuit of voiceover.  About 3 hours later I returned to the computer and found an e-mail response from Don LaFontaine.  I opened the e-mail and there it was, a personal response from Don.  I’ll paraphrase his writing…he thanked me very much for writing to him, welcomed me to the world of voiceover, offered much encouragement and gave me great advice which I carry with me every day.  He said “if you truly love voiceover with all your heart and it’s your passion, rehearse/practice every day and don’t give up. You will make it.  Only those who truly love voiceover will be the ones who will make it”. I say to myself, this is a guy who is at the top of his craft.  He is the best of the best and the most successful voiceover performer ever.  He took time out of his busy day and schedule to answer my e-mail.  That says a lot about Don LaFontaine the voiceover artist and gentleman. He has made an unforgettable mark on the voiceover profession and has changed it forever.  Don is the benchmark for most everything we do as voiceover performers.

June 25th, 2010, was the Grand Opening of the SAG Foundation Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab

Click here to read about the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab grand opening event

Click here to view our exclusive 4 minute video from the event

Next week look for Part 2 of my Q & A with voice actor Tom Wahl.  Tom will share what he’s learned from his voice over coach along with what voice over training resources he’s found to be helpful.

SO, WHO HAS INSPIRED YOU?  PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW – THANKS!

Cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a steady stream of good cheer flowed through a crowd of prominent voice-over artists including Randy Thomas, Paul Pape, George Del Hoyo and Don LaFontaine Legacy Award winner Joe Cipriano. After the Lab’s grand opening ribbon was cut by Nita Whitaker LaFontaine and SAG Foundation Board President JoBeth Williams, words of rousing welcome and appreciation were shared by members of the Lab’s Advisory Board in the Actors Center Screening Room.

Many of the top voice-over talents on hand for the event were personally mentored by the late “King of Voice-Overs” Don LaFontaine, whose generosity and professional reputation inspired the construction of the Lab. The Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab’s classroom and dual-recording booth capabilities are designed to facilitate production as well as instruction of voice-over work, making it the first resource center of its kind.

Voicebank is proud to be one of the contributing sponsors to this wonderful project.  Congratulations to everyone involved.

The Staff at Voicebank

THAT’S VOICEOVER! (http://thatsvoiceover.com/) is an exciting, interactive, behind-the-scenes career event where the top talents in the voiceover industry reveal the practical steps to establishing and sustaining a career in this highly rewarding and intriguing field. Through targeted Q&A, audience participation and audition scenarios, a finely tuned and comprehensive picture is conveyed for anyone desiring to become a voiceover actor or to work in one of the supporting careers (producers, writers, directors, agents) that make up the broader industry. And new this year, a first of its kind: Push Creative Presents the CBS AUDITION Spotlight - A chance for attendees to WIN an actual voiceover job with CBS Television.

To purchase tickets – CLICK HERE

If you make it to the event, be sure to find our own Stewart Wilson-Turner milling about the crowd.

TALK ON,

The Voicebank Team

Voice Over experts, Bob Bergen (voice of Porky and other Looney Toons characters), Joyce Castellanos (former audio director/producer for NBC, Disney Channel) Bill Holmes (commercial producer/director/demo producer/ The Voice Over Doctor) share their insights about the industry in this NEW! Voicebank/Voice Registry Roundtable. You can reach Joyce Castellanos at promoteach@aol.com. Check out Bob Bergen/Bill Holmes upcoming workshop Sept. 27 & 28 in Los Angeles.

Right + Click here to download podcast (12.0 MB)

{Intro Music}

This Voice Registry podcast is brought to you by Voicebank.net

Tracy: Hi everybody I am Tracy Pattin and I am here at Compost Productions in North Hollywood yet again. This time we are going to do something a little different, we have some sort of round table. I have a panel of experts that are going to talk everything voice over. We have animation voice actor extraordinaire Bob Bergen.

Bob: (Character Voice) Hi!

Tracy: Wahoo and Bob has voiced hundreds of cartoons, he is in commercials, promos, radio imaging, he’s been the voice on Looney Toons for Porky, Tweety, Marvin the Martin, Henry Hawk, Sylvester.

Bob: Sylvester Jr.

Tracy: Sylvester Jr.

Bob: Yeah, Sylvester has a son that nobody knows who Sylvester Jr.’s mother is but he is the legitimate child of Sylvester the cat.

Tracy: Interesting, okay and then we have promo, trailer, producer, director Joyce Castellanos.

Joyce: Yay!

Tracy: And also teacher of promo and trailers.

Bob: Brilliant

Tracy: And she has been doing that for twenty five years, you have been producing and directing promos and trailers and your teaching.

Joyce: I am and now for almost ten years now.

Bob: Use the mic.

Tracy: Great

Bob: Ten Years, there you go (Laughs)

Tracy: And then we have Bill Holmes commercial, voice over teacher, producer, director, film maker, you do just about everything.

Bill: And the Voice Over Doctor.

Tracy: And yes, the Voice Over Doctor. On this podcast that we do, we do a whole series.

Bill: (Laughs) Tracy Pattin is making me famous.

Tracy: Yes

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: We will get you a new doctor’s outfit soon

Bob: Are we going to talk about your crap’s table escapades too?

Bill: Well eventually

Bob: Because we want to make sure that this is a well rounded podcast.

Bill: Oh yeah, no we will talk about gambling.

Tracy: Oh good, this will be a very balanced podcast. So let’s start with Bob.

Bob: Alright, well sure.

Tracy: Bob Bergen

Bob: Yeah!

Tracy: Okay, so everybody wants to know you are the guy, the animation guy. Most of my listeners know who you are.

Bob: I love these people, I pay them well.

Tracy: (Laughs) And so tell us how you got into animation, how did you get into it?

Bob: Well see a lot of people want to get into voice over, want to do cartoons, want to do promos, want to do commercials. I wanted to be Porky Pig since I was five years old and my mom said “You can’t be Porky Pig your Jewish”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: And I didn’t know what that meant because we basically ate BLT’s and ham.

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: So

Bill: (Laughs)

Bob: We moved to LA when I was fourteen, not for me to be Porky Pig but my dad took a job and I picked up the phone book and started calling anything that said animation and cartoons. And through some connections I studied with Daws Butler and I met Mell Blank and I crashed a recording session and I stalked him. I got my first agent in cartoon a week out of high school, I found out that A. Mell Blank was still doing Porky Pig but also B. You have to do other things in this business; even if you have a real specific goal like that you can’t just make that it. People know me as these characters but that is really a teeny percentage of my day to day work, mostly it is commercials and promos and imaging exedra. So I found out that I had to get into the voice over industry to be available to be professionally available when opportunity knocked which was 1990, that is when I started doing the Looney Toons characters.

Tracy: Before you got started doing the Looney Toons, you practiced all of these characters on your own.

Bob: Sure yeah I mean this was before VCR’s or Beta Maxes.

Bill: (Laughs)

Bob: I know, before silent movies we were so old.

Bill: (Old Voice) You were doing a wonderful job.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: I would put my tape recorder in front of the TV and I would tape record cartoons and I would memorize the cartoons and I remember when I was about five that I said I think there is one person doing all of these voices.

Bill: See that is where I made my mistake I was recording Adam Twelve.

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: Oh, was that you basically you are an expert on Kent McCord.

Bill: I never became a cap and I never got to do Kent McCord stuff.

Bob: (Theme Song)

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: So Bob how did you go from practicing these voices, how did you get from that point I know my listeners are dyeing to know this I mean here your practicing these voices, you are recording the cartoons and you end up taking it all to the next level. How did you do that part?

Bob: Well when we moved to LA I found out that this was a business called Voice Over. I heard voice over’s on commercials but I didn’t realize that there was not only a business and a name but a craft. I took classes from everybody that offered. I studied with Daws Butler, I studied Bryan Cummins, I studied with Joanie Gerber, and I studied with Michael Bell, Louise Channis. If they offered a class I took it. Well they were $10.00 back then.

Bill: Yeah, right

Bob: They have gone up a little bit.

Tracy: The good ole’ days

Bob: My mother had fit when they went up to $12.00, this is the same lady who every years says “Honey, you should raise the prices for your classes”

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: So I studied voice over, back then they wouldn’t hire you if you were under 18 today they will but back then they wouldn’t.

Tracy: Okay

Bob: So I had to wait until I was 18 and I was of legal age. I had studied for four solid years and not just voice over but acting and scene study and improve.

Tracy: That is another very interesting thing about your background, it is really important to be balanced.

Bob: I have not met any successful voice actor’s ever and when I say successful I mean the major players who are not either trained or have a background in theatre, improve, acting, music, something other than voice over. I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they do that. People tell me I have such a great voice.

Tracy: Right

Bob: Well there is no such thing as a great voice because there is no such thing as a bad voice or only great actors and bad actors. So these are the people who go spending thousands of dollars in voice over classes without becoming a solid actor first. My personal opinion is that improve is the greatest training anybody could ever do.

Bill: And I totally agree

Tracy: Too shay, yes Bill Applebaum has been on this podcast talking about that very thing because I think that it is so very important. So you have studied improve over the years.

Bob: I studied improve, I studied acting, solid, my technique of choice was Meisner but I tried everybody to see what worked for me.

Bill: And that is very important

Joyce: Yes

Bill: That you go to different people and you get different opinions and you know I mean I studied at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago one of the best schools in the country. I like to brag that I have been thrown out of some of the best schools in the country.

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: And the Goodman was one of them it was not the technique for me but I also studied with a guy in Chicago who his name was Bud Meyer who used to teach at Northwestern University I still think he does. And he was the guy who I latched on to and I understood what he was telling me as an actor and when I was at Goodman I just didn’t understand what they were telling me so I moved on.

Bob: We are getting to a place right now in the world of voice over where because under $500 you can have a home set up, microphone, program, you can pursue voice over. But because you can purchase it t a relatively cheap price people are not training.

Bill: Right

Bob: They are not getting prepared, so just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I worked with a hand held tape recorder that was what I worked from that was my homework, this is what I worked with and I did just fine. People aren’t doing that training that I think is necessary.

Bill: And you also have to understand that you know people like Bob and I who are out in the field acting every day. When we tell people in our classes that you need to read out loud every day and you need to practice every day and you have to do this. We are doing it everyday, we don’t practice at home anymore but we audition.

Bob: Well we do but we call it an audition.

Tracy: Right

Joyce: Exactly

Bill: I mean this morning before you all came to the studio I just banged out three auditions that I sent to Atlanta.

Tracy: Yeah

Bill: I have an agent in Atlanta, so I am auditioning every day and that is my practice.

Bob, Joyce, Tracy: Right

Bill: That’s how I get better.

Joyce: And having the home studio is really important.

Bob: It is so great

Joyce: Because once you do need to train, you need to have the right techniques and you need to understand the technology and the styles and all that. But having the opportunity to work at home to work at home to practice that is very important but you can’t for go the training because the training gives you the tool you need to do the right practice.

Tracy: And Joyce now you have done, you have done promo and trailer which is a whole other area from animation.

Joyce: Completely

Tracy: So you started out directing and producing and working with actors at the WB, Disney and NBC.

Joyce: NBC was my first area, yeah.

Tracy: And so many of my listeners are always asking the promo industry and how to get in and what does it take? So what does it take?

Bill: Ha-ha me too, I am curious myself.

Joyce: Well like I said every area has it’s own techniques so training is really important it is a different type of technique from commercial, narration, from animation. Each one has its own tools so the training is very important because you have to understand that you are working to picture for promo and you have to understand to create a timing clock and to make those adjustments and how to tell your story. It is all about acting; it is about telling your story honestly.

Tracy: So it is always working to picture, promo is always.

Joyce: 95% of the time you are working to picture because they have created a thirty second, a twenty second, fifteen second or a ten second spot that has to fit. They have to know that you are fitting into what they want.

Bill: And for those of you who don’t know, working to picture means you are looking at the television screen, you are seeing what you are going to do.

Bob: You are seeing the video.

Joyce: Exactly, you are seeing the video and you are hearing the music, you are hearing the sound bytes, you have you have to act.

Bill: You have to plug your voice right in.

Joyce: And with that, that is where you get more of the acting because you are acting and responding to what is being said and what are you seeing.

Bob: And can I, I want to share because I did my very first promo job with Joyce.

Tracy: Uhuh

Bob: I was the fill in guy at the Disney Channel when their regular announcer would go on vacation and I eventually became the main voice for about five years. But I had never studied promo; nobody had ever told me how to do it. The way the studio worked, the producer Joyce and the engineer were in one room and I was in another. And I am watching the monitor and they are watching the monitor and there is a little window when the announcer is supposed to talk and I have got my lines in front of me but nobody told me here is how it’s done. And after that clip was done and I was really quiet, Joyce really sweetly says “Well let’s just try that again” and I ran again and it was quiet and I am waiting for somebody to say talk or something on the screen to say this is where you talk.

Joyce, Bill, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: And after about twenty, thirty times Joyce very sweetly says “Honey that is where you talk”

Joyce, Bill, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: And I went “Oh, okay” and I learned by the seat of my pants because when I was hired to bet he voice of the Disney Channel I would get twenty thirty promos a day. And the amount of sweat that came from my brow that first day because that was not easy. Thank God there are workshops for people to study the technical. It is storytelling, it is absolutely storytelling.

Joyce: There is the technical side and then there is the creative side.

Tracy: And in your classes you work on that too. And that is the beeps right, the one, two three?

Bob: We don’t have beeps

Tracy: Oh, not even beeps.

Bob: Not for promos

Joyce: You might, you might

Bob: Do they do beeps now, those lucky people!

Joyce: In some studios you will, when we work we don’t have beeps we have time code. You have to get used to, if you can do it without the beeps you are going to be fine when you have that.

Bob: But we didn’t have time code at Disney Channel.

Joyce: No, no

Bob: We just had windows of silence

Joyce: That’s, right

Bob: yeah

Joyce: Each place is different, so you have to learn how to prepare yourself for it. How to do the breathing, how to get prepare to start.

Bob: I also say that one trick that she taught me, I don’t even know if you know you taught me this but have your mouth open ready to go. Don’t have your mouth closed at the line, have your mouth wide open and ready to go because it takes time.

Tracy: Oh

Joyce: Because you have your deep breath while the sound bytes are coming and then you talk.

Bob: She taught me that the very first day and it was like I heard the angels, Hallelujah!

Bill: (Laughs)

Bob: It was such a, the end of the miracle worker, he gets it yes!

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Tracy: This has been Part One of my Round Table interview with Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes and Joyce Castellanos join me next time for Part Two. And don’t forgot Bob Bergen and Bill Holmes have their upcoming workshop here in Los Angeles on September 27^th and 28^th, you can find out all about it on BobBergen.com

This Voice Registry podcast was brought to you by Voicebank.net

{Outro Music}

Voice Over experts, Bob Bergen (voice of Porky and other Looney Toons characters), Joyce Castellanos (former audio director/producer for NBC, Disney Channel) Bill Holmes (commercial producer/director/demo producer/ The Voice Over Doctor) share their insights about the industry in this NEW! Voicebank/Voice Registry Roundtable. You can reach Joyce Castellanos at promoteach@aol.com. Check out Bob Bergen/Bill Holmes upcoming workshop Sept. 27 & 28 in Los Angeles.

Check out Part 1 of the Roundtable Series.

Right+Click here to download podcast (13MB)

{Intro Music}

This Voice Registry podcast is brought to you by Voicebank.net

This is Part Two of roundtable interview with Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes and Joyce Castellanos.

Tracy: Joyce another question that so many people want to know is about the whole trailer promo and the men and woman and men is always get all the jobs. Is that the same and has it changed?

Bob: It’s the same and we don’t mind it do we Bill?

Joyce: (Laughs) It is the same in many aspects especially in trailer, trailer is really a mans world.

Tracy: And isn’t that such an odd thing that it’s always men who does those trailers.

Joyce: It is because women are wonderful storytellers but it has to be written for a woman and they are being written for the man. So in order to do it for woman to get into it, there are appropriate cells that the woman could be selling that I think is not being utilized right now.

Tracy: Because even in woman movies, movies all about woman they will use a man.

Joyce: Exactly and I believe the man will always be doing their part which is wonderful. It is a male cell, it is a general cell but if there is a female cell you may want to try writing for a woman to bring out a different. If you have an action film it’s a guys film normally, okay so the man is out there giving a hard sale. Now if you want to draw some of the woman to it, some woman love the action film but if you want to draw the woman to it give a female cell bring out the romantic side they are going to say “Oh, there is something for me to” and I think having woman train in the area when the door opens they have to be ready.

Bob: I have to tell you something I think the door is already cracked open because there is more work today for woman.

Tracy: For TV promo for sure

Joyce: Definitely women have a large opening

Bob: Listen, Randy Thomas is the voice of entertainment tonight

Tracy: Yes

Joyce: She is fantastic

Bob: Yeah

Tracy: She just did a podcast interview with me, so she is great

Bob: Melissa Disney, Jennifer Hale there is more work today I think in promo, trailer, staff announcing I think in the history of broadcasting.

Bill: Oh Yeah, Definitely

Bob: And it is just going to get wider and wider because there are more and more outlets.

Bill: Because there are so many more chances

Joyce: Right, exactly

Bob: That’s it, exactly

Bill: Filler channels that need to be filled

Joyce: Absolutely and I think

Tracy: Oh, Sorry

Joyce: Oh, I’m sorry and I think one of the problems for woman in voice over for promo and trailer has been that they weren’t secure in telling their story as a woman they thought they had to be cute or everything had to be (High Pitched Voice) “Isn’t that sweet”

Tracy: And sound like they are twenty (Laughs)

Joyce: Yeah

Bob: Joyce can I ask you a question?

Joyce: Yes

Bob: Do you think that because of Oxygen, Lifetime, WE all these outlets that have been marketed for woman and have staff announcers woman, hasn’t that helped a lot?

Joyce: Oh it has

Tracy: It has helped over all.

Joyce: It has, Lifetime I think has gone more to men now

Bob: Was the first, Lifetime has gone more to men? I have got to call my agent

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Joyce: And they are doing wonderful but I still think it is still missing out being a woman’s channel you want to relate and have the woman talk. So I would like to hear them bring back some of woman for some of the right spots.

Tracy: And what does it take for a woman to be in promo, because that is a different kind of voice then just commercials across the board?

Joyce: Well again like Bob said there are spots for every voice, it is knowing what to do with your voice.

Tracy: Okay

Joyce: It is about bringing a person to your story not just a sound. So they have to understand, woman as well as men have to understand the point of view that they are taking to tell their story. There are a lot of shows or a lot of stations that want that young & hip cool sound and if you have got a 18-30 something sound that can be working quirky can be great. You know the texture can be great or just a full bodied to do something very sensual. You just have to understand yourself and your characters that you can create. How to find that person, but it’s not just a very low sexy voice or a high cute cheerleader voice there is every place in between.

Tracy: Yeah depending on the programming, I noticed that.

Joyce: Absolutely

Tracy: Whether it is Lifetime or any of those networks and depending on the show you definitely have a different feel.

Joyce: Depending on your audience, if you know your audience you can talk to your audience you don’t talk down. If it is children or elderly you or not talking down to anybody you are talking to them and with them.

Tracy: Yes

Joyce: So if you understand your audience if you are talking to kids or teenagers you want to have more of a contemporary coolness to your sound because you are talking you want to relate the people.

Bill: And again that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to try to be cool and hip.

Bob: No, no

Bill: The old guy who has the deep voice too because then you are going to sound kind of silly. I think you need to be comfortable with the voice that you are and who you are and you want to find how that fits into the type of advertising or promo’s or whatever you are going after.

Joyce: Absolutely, you have to be appropriate. That is one of my pet peeves.

Bob: Right

Joyce: Not having an appropriate voice for the show.

Bob: And you don’t have to, you don’t have to be all things voice over.

Joyce: Exactly

Tracy: Yeah, That’s always

Bill: Right

Bob: You have to know what you do well and trust me nobody in this business needs another voice. What they don’t have is you.

Bill: Right

Joyce: Yes

Bob: Your heart, your brain, your sense of humor, your individual timing, your branding

Joyce: Your experience

Bob: The you that you are with your family and friends

Joyce: Right

Bob: If you can’t convey that in a commercial or a trailer a narration you are just another voice they are going to pass because you are just trying to be another voice over person instead of putting the personality your born with into that script.

Tracy: And improve is the best way to build that school

Joyce: It takes you out of your head

Tracy: And it turns you into who you really are

Bill: Improv teaches you how to react on honestly, that’s all it does.

Tracy: Exactly and Bill in your teaching techniques

Bill: Yes

Tracy: Speaking about finding you being real, tell us about how you work with commercial acting.

Bill: Well commercials in my opinion they just want you to be who you are. See what actors, especially actors who are just starting out what they don’t understand is the people on the other side of the glass who are doing the auditions or producing. They want you to succeed at the audition, they want you to walk into the room and be the person that they hear in their head immediately so that they can all go to lunch.

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: It is more about lunch to them, so what you have to do as an actor is exactly what Joyce and Bob have been saying. You want to figure out who you are, you want to figure out what you do and be comfortable doing that because when I am making demo’s for people. Okay we produce demos, when I am making some of the demos and I am directing them

Bob: I am so proud of you for not saying tape

Bill: Yeah, yeah (Laughs)

Bob: I am so proud of you

Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: I know I am getting old, when we produce a demo people come in and when I am directing them in the demo session. I am not directing them into a read that I think they should do because then it would be come my demo. What I am trying to do is figure out what they do and put that on digital audio recording materials.

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: How is that Bob?

Bob: That’s good

Bill: And what we are trying to do is figure out what they do and then where the variety on the demo comes from in my opinion is how their voice fits into advertising. So when I am teaching people in my classes I teach them a lot about acting because acting is very important but I also teach them about advertising because even though I didn’t study advertising when I was in college I have been in the advertising business for thirty years. I have done thousands of commercials over the years on camera and voice over wise, so I understand advertising; I understand how it is supposed to work. Again a lot of advertising doesn’t work; a lot of advertising is bad advertising okay. But when you get into that good advertising that is when you realize “that is when I understand what I am supposed to be doing, so I am just going to be myself and I am going to walk into the audition and I am going to hope that I fit into their advertising.” If you go into an audition and you try to get the job, you will never get the job. I have freelance, I have been freelancer at places like that Voice Caster and Sheila Manning Casting and places like that over the years. And it was amazing to me how easy it was to see to me who was going to get the job because it is the guys the veteran guys, guys like Bob Bergen and hundreds of others out there and they walk in and do what they do and they walk out. A lot of times you will go “Do you want to hear that back?” and they are half way out the door. And they will say “Nope, thanks got to go to lunch”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: You know

Bob: It’s really all about lunch isn’t it?

Bill: (Laughs) It is for me, it’s about lunch and margaritas

Tracy: I was just going to say, margaritas you’re forgetting.

Joyce, Bill: (Laughs)

Bill: Those are the people who work all the time and the people who come in, my children do voice over’s and they are college age now but when they were little kids they wanted to do voice over’s because Daddy did voice over’s and Daddy’s friends did voice over’s. And I said you can do voice over’s but we are not going to go into the whole acting thing and I never told my kids go on in there and get the job. It was an after school activity for them and they booked all the time, my oldest son put himself through college with voice over’s and he is not an actor by trade he is a baseball coach and a teacher but basically once he started working at starbucks for a month and I make $1,200 and I go do a voice over a job and I make $1,200 and I worked about an hour.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: And he came to me and said “Dad this talking thing, I like that let’s do that more often” and again the thing I am trying to teach them now and he is older and he is actually pursuing it as a living, what I am really trying to get in his head is don’t try and get the job, it worked when you were a kid because it was fun keep it fun. And as long as he keeps it fun, he keeps booking. Okay let’s go back to advertising, advertising wise he is in a good category is 23 years old so he sounds 15-25 he is in a great category. I don’t know about you Bob but when I was that age I worked my ass off, when I was that younger guy the young voices because demographically in advertising 18-25 those people spend the most money in advertising, so there is a lot of advertising geared towards that. So all of the sudden my son has this part time job that he is making more money at then his full time job.

Tracy: So Bob was that true for you what he was saying, when you go in for an audition do you just kind of do your thing not worry about it and not try to hard.

Bob: You have to; I tell my students pay no attention to the man behind the glass.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: Be available to their direction but when you are doing an audition either ISDN where the client is in a different city or let’s say you are in a studio like this, that silence after your read is so loud.

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: You know that they are saying, okay who can call Sandi Schnarr

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: Call these people find another actor, see now I tested this once I put a tape recorder in my backpack and I put it next the client.

Tracy: That’s great (Laughs)

Bob: During that silence they were talking lunch. Okay, so

Bill: Yeah

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: Right, right (Laughs)

Bill: Are you going to get the tuna, I am going to get the tuna

Bob: Now I saw the look on their face, I thought they didn’t like me but they didn’t like lunch. So the bottom line is be available to their direction. I think the biggest mistake, there are two huge mistakes actors make when pursuing voice over. 1. Is doing the demo before they are ready 2. Is trying to please. Billy is absolutely right if you do it fort he fun, you have got theatre actors in New York who remember they were in high school drama, they were in college theatre and they are doing it for the fun rather than I have got to please my agent or my agent will drop me if I don’t get this job, I have got to pay my rent, I have got to make my parents happy because if I don’t make a living at this they are going to say that I am loser or whatever. You have got to do it for the pure joy and if you can’t see yourself doing anything else than do something else.

This has been Part Two of my Round Table interview with Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes and Joyce Castellanos join me next time for Part Three.

This Voice Registry podcast was brought to you by Voicebank.net

{Outro Music}

Voice Over experts, Bob Bergen (voice of Porky and other Looney Toons characters), Joyce Castellanos (former audio director/producer for NBC, Disney Channel) Bill Holmes (commercial producer/director/demo producer/ The Voice Over Doctor) share their insights about the industry in this NEW! Voicebank/Voice Registry Roundtable. You can reach Joyce Castellanos at promoteach@aol.com.

right+click here to dowload podcast [14MB]

{Intro Music}

This Voice Registry podcast is brought to you by Voicebank.net

This is Part Three of my roundtable interview with Bob Bergen, Joyce Castellanos and Bill Holmes.

Bill: I have been doing this for thirty years, I mean when I was in high school somebody told me, I mean I was acting in high school and I just loved it; I was hooked on it. And then one of my drama teachers Fred Katner said “You know you could do that for a living” and I said “You’re kidding me “

Bob, Joyce, Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: I said “People will pay me for this?” and that is when I made my decision and you know what I have not changed, I am going to be forty nine years old next week and I have not changed at all. I am having a great time doing this, my kids have a good time doing it, all these people the Joyce Castellanous and the Bob Bergen’s. All the voice over people in this industry are fun, fun people.

Bob: You know what is interesting about that is it is true. We have the most wonderful community of actors.

Bill: Of support

Bob: I can’t think of any other town, I live in Los Angeles but so often I would get the “Hey, did you go to McCoy today to read for 7-Eleven? If not call your agent because your perfect for this.”

Bill: Oh Yeah, I am from Chicago and Chicago is the same way. In fact when I was about twenty three years old starting out in Chicago a guy named Chelsea Ross and Marie Curkburk a group of people in Chicago took me under their wing and started recommending me as the hot young voice in Chicago. My agent there is Linda Jack

Bob: Hi Linda!

Bill: Hi Linda

Bob: I love you!

Bill: And she grabbed a hold of me and started my voice over career but if it wasn’t for that group of people in Chicago that said “You know there is this new voice” Chelsea Ross is the god of voice over he used to be the god of everything. And I think he still is and he just said “There is this young guy that I think you should take a look at” you know to some producer. And boom, I am the voice of Marshall Fields in Chicago!

Joyce: Oh my goodness

Bob: But don’t you find its more voice over than on camera.

Bill: Oh Yes!

Joyce: Yes

Bill: Most definitely because

Joyce: Very, Very kind to one another and because a lot of people what we do is when we are taking our training and all we are finding out what your best place is, what is your most competitive area. So you find your range and you create the image. If you get called into a spot that you realize is just not you, I have seen more and heard of more people saying “You know I appreciate you having me in for this but I would like to recommend so and so because they are perfect for this.” It is a very generous group of people.

Bob: And then there is the I will get a piece of copy, my agent’s god love them send me everything that asks for a mouth.

Tracy, Joyce, Bill: (Laughs)

Bob: And I do pass on stuff because sometimes I am just not right for it. But every once and awhile I will say okay I am so not right for this, for what they are asking for so I will give them what I can do.

Joyce: Yeah

Bob: I am going to put my stamp on this.

Bill: Right

Bob: And I get those I have booked those because they are listening to everybody doing same old same old, “OH! There is a direction” talking about the generosity. Joyce and I were sitting next to each other at Don Lafontaine’s memorial last week and as people got up to speak we just kept hearing over and over again “Don would take you on the limo ride”

Joyce: Yeah

Bill: (Laughs) Yeah

Bob: People who were aspiring actors wanting to get into voice over

Joyce: The ride along

Bob: The ride along, spend a day with Don and go from session to session in his limo. The generosity I mean I crashed a recording; I called Mel Blank at home when I was fourteen.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: He spent time with me on the phone, I bugged the conversation in case you want to hear it, it is on my website. It’s completely illegal but it has been over forty years or something like that.

Tracy, Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: I am not that old but I love the voice over community because of the generosity

Bill: Yeah

Tracy: So what you all think about currently the whole voice over industry right now we know we have got lots of high tech things happening, things are changing all the time, what are the trends now? Where do voice actors go now to get started?

Bill: The nice thing about now is you have so many avenues of classes and workshops and things out there that when we were starting out they just weren’t available. Bob talks about his on the job training I basically did it the same way to, when I became the voice of Marshall Fields in Chicago I had to do a little doughnut piece of copy no beeps in my ear, you just heard it once and they would go that’s where you come in and you kind of go oh okay.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: And you learn on the job you know. There is so many people because of Don Lafontaine so many people are so aware that it is an avenue of vocation, that everybody kind of wants to do it and because of the internet and because of the technology everybody in the country can do it now. So the thing is there are so many people who want to do it there is so much competition now even for the veteran guys and gals out there and the money has gone way down because as well these smaller advertising agencies I can just put it out on the voice over blog and people will do it for fifty bucks.

Tracy: So has that changed, you really think that it has changed the dynamic?

Bob: It has changed the dynamics but I also am hearing that it is coming back to the agents.

Tracy: Really?

Bill: Which is good because again I think they are realizing out there that the quality

Bob: They don’t have time to listen to ten thousand submissions

Tracy: Oh so it’s swinging back

Bob: I will also tell you this that when I started out in voice over and I wanted to hear the agents clients I would call the agents and I would say I am a producer and I would love to get a copy of your house reel because I have got some projects I am casting and it was on reel to reel and it was a one minute snip it of all their clients stuff that was updated maybe once every couple of years. Now we have this thing called Voicebank where every body and their mother can just go to their computer go to SBV commercial male sit back and listen. So when you are marketing your demo or preparing to make your demo you can not only listen to the competition but in your cover letter you can be very specific I know you have announcers like this person, this person and this person but they don’t do the promos I do and you have nobody that does the animation I do and nobody does the imaging that I do, I have a client list I am bring to you. The amount of homework and preparation no matter where you live in the country can do today, can you imagine if we were starting out?

Bill: Oh Yeah

Bob: I mean if or if they had brought this technology twenty or thirty years ago the opportunities that we never had.

Bill: Yeah

Joyce: Right

Tracy: In speaking about LA versus the rest of the country and all of the accessibility now, do actors need to be here to really up there career to the next level? Or can they still be in other cities?

Bob: I think every city has voice over.

Bill: Yeah

Bob: Commercial at least

Joyce: The training how ever you know, there is training all over between seminars that will travel to do or internet, over the phone doing training. Its accessible from anywhere but I think that there are agents who prefer people locally.

Bob: It has harder for actors outside out of Los Angeles without a track record to get a Los Angeles agent.

Bill: Yes

Bob: But Billy and I have agents in every port, we do.

Joyce: And that is the big thing now

Bill: Milwaukee, Atlanta

Joyce: And it is not a conflict with your LA agent because they are regional agents, so one of the things that I am doing is marketing talent to agents around the country

Bill: Because then you have the LA talent going to the smaller markets so if you are in LA you can market. When I moved here from Chicago it was funny because my commercial career took off because everybody said oh he is the young funny guy from Chicago and then when I lived here for about six or seven years I would go back to Chicago and work and they would market me “He is out here from Los Angeles, he is a Los Angeles talent”

Joyce: (Laughs) Right

Bill: But little did they know I came from Chicago

Tracy, Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: But it got me work because that is the mind set sometimes “He is from LA and he is just here for a short time, let’s use him!”

Tracy: Yes, it is always interesting that whole cache here LA, NY

Bob: Well if animation is your thing you are going to live in Los Angeles

Tracy: That was another question

Bob: But you know what today because ten years ago Trace if you said to me “You know you could live in Cincinnati and have for under $500 have a broadcast quality mic, a recording program and have access to the same copy they have got in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago” Ten years ago I would of said that you were crazy. Now today common place, all my agents send me the same copy that my LA agent has.

Bill: Yeah

Joyce: Really?

Bob: OH yes, now animation I don’t when but right behind Tracy you people can’t see this but there is a pane of glass and on the other side of the glass there is the engineer in five, ten years, two years, twenty years I don’t know when. Who is to say that, that is not a plasma television set with a two way video and I am in Cincinnati looking at the camera and the client is in Los Angeles Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, whatever and it is just like you are there. They are directing you, look the bottom line is that they want the best talent.

Tracy: Yeah

Joyce: Right

Bob: So as technology grows you have to be prepared which is why I travel the country and do weekend animation seminars.

Bill: Yeah

Bob: I go to Atlanta to teach a class, is there animation in Atlanta? Yes, first of all Cartoon Network is in Atlanta but if you want to be prepared when opportunity knocks you better study. Because you know if you’re not somebody else is.

Tracy: Yeah, exactly well speaking of the rest of the country we have some questions from our listeners.

Bill: News with Larry King

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: What’s the question?

Tracy: (Laughs) yes

Bob: Hurry up, not much time my suspenders are rusting.

Tracy: Let’s see I have got a question for Joyce from Margaret in San Francisco.

Bill: Margaret in San Francisco

Joyce: Hey Margaret!

Tracy: Joyce do you recommend that VO talent be able to do all the categories of voice over work or should they focus primarily on what they are really good at?

Joyce: Oh I think definitely with what they are really good at, to be honest commercial is really your bread and butter that is how you are going to find an agent.

Bob: For your day to day

Joyce: So you need to start with commercial, definitely find your way, find your signatures your styles and then find it is great to take a class in another area to see what you like and then you pursue you do not as Bob said have to be all things to all people you need to find what work for you and if your promo is something that is great or trailer sounds really good or animation is fantastic, narration there is  a zillion areas but start with commercial, understand the techniques the tools everything in commercial and branch out from there. But I would not try to do everything at once you need to start with a foundation.

Tracy: Okay

Bill: I have people who walk in to my class and that have that certain sound and as soon as they open their mouth I will just go “You are going to make a million dollars”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: I have heard you say that

Bill: I have said to people I go “If you figure this out, if you can figure this out you will make million dollars, okay” and then sometimes I will say “If I had your voice and what I have in my head I would make million dollars”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: So figure this out, keep pursuing it.

Tracy: Okay so this is for Bob from Bill Price

Bob: Hi Bill!

Bill: Hello Bill

Tracy: Another Bill here we go with another Bill please share some techniques for creating characters to read for reading relatively straight copy, so how do you make the transition? How do you take your characters because you know for commercials they want characters?

Bob: Well first of all people have to stop thinking they need to do voices for cartoons, you are creating characters. Quiet often an actor or an animation actor, it’s a series of teenagers or young adults and you get five different characters they are all the same age and they are all from the same town, how do you make them different. Okay the bottom line is you only need to book one of them but the more you book the more they pay you, so instead of  changing your thinking I need to change my voice from character to character it is all about acting and personality. So look at the characters traits change the attitude.

Tracy: And that changes the change would you say if you have to play a teenager versus a twenty five year old?

Bob: Yeah and I think that if you start, as far as this is my technique there are three things that make up a character voice acting and a little signature that you are adding to the character. Every character has a voice but not every voice has character. So if you are thinking voice first you are blowing it, it has nothing to do with the sound it has to do with the personality and if you look at the character traits the description of what they are asking for even if it is a straight sounding character. There is going to be something within that personality within that performance, your voice is automatically going to adjust as you figure out that personality of the character, so again it is all about the acting. The other thing you need to ask yourself with every script is who am I talking to, what is my relationship with them and where are they in the room? Because acting is reacting because even though you are auditioning with a solo piece of copy you have a scene partner and you better in your mind think about what is my relationship with this scene partner, quiet frankly the scripts give you very limited direction as far as what they want from scene to scene you must create that you must make those choices and you can’t waver from your choices otherwise the mic is going to hear that you just aren’t confident, you are not committed this is where the improve training comes in handy but the bottom line is character and acting over voice.

This Voice Registry podcast is brought to you by Voicebank.net

Join us next time.

{Outro Music}

Voice Over experts, Bob Bergen (voice of Porky and other Looney Toons characters), Joyce Castellanos (former audio director/producer for NBC, Disney Channel) Bill Holmes (commercial producer/director/demo producer/ The Voice Over Doctor) share their insights about the industry in this NEW! Voicebank/Voice Registry Roundtable. You can reach Joyce Castellanos at promoteach@aol.com. Check out their upcoming 2009 VoiceLympics cruise.

Right + Click here to download podcast (14 MB)

{Intro Music}

This Voice Registry podcast is brought to you by Voicebank.net

This is Part Four of my roundtable interview with Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes and Joyce Castellanous.

Bill: Again what actors don’t realize is there are people that sound like those characters naturally; those are the people that are probably going to be called in for that. So for you to try and be something that your not, chances are you are not going to book it anyway. People come to me when they are making demos and stuff and they go “I do a great British dialect, I do a spot on British dialect” and I’ll say unless it is perfect you probably don’t want to put it on your demo for the commercial portion of your demo. If you want to do a dialect portion that’s fine, what people don’t realize is that there are a thousand people here from England that I could cast in that role. And if you are better than them, which you probably are not going to be, you know don’t bother with it.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: You know what I mean and again you know we need a gruff cop well then they are going to call in guys that sound like this (gruff voice).

Bob: But also along those same lines everybody I do a really good witch, I do a really good little kid well so does everybody represented and working today. So when it comes to your character demo it is all about originality and character.

Bill: Right

Bob: You said British voice well big deal, take away the British and what do you have left? Nothing, there is no character there is no personality, so you have to think not just the accent and the dialect not just the voice but originality in character.

Bill: What’s behind what you’re saying.

Bob: And what’s behind you.

Bill: Right

Bob: Because I listen to a Bill Holmes commercial, good god if you got a residual every time I heard E Harmony you know. You know I hear Billy, I hear Rob Paulson as Mr. Opportunity for Honda, I hear Jack Riley with Shedspread. It’s the people I meet on the street when I see these actors I hear on their commercials. If you can’t put yourself into it you are just trying to be Mr. or Mrs. Voice Over and you don’t need that.

Bill: They are just being who they are.

Tracy: You know isn’t it amazing how simply that is, but for some reason so hard for us for so many to just be yourself.

Bob: And this is why if you go to acting class, if you learn technique, if you learn the steps and the techniques of how to be real, how to be organic, genuine with the copy when you are doing scene study with a David Mammoth play it will absolutely translate to a toilet paper commercial. It doesn’t sound like it will, I used to say to my teachers when I was studying voice over because for two solid years I would hear “Be real” in my ears but what came out of my mouth was trying to do voice over

Tracy: Right

Bob: And on a Saturday morning at 9:32 am I got it.

Bill: (Laughs) Epiphany

Bob: It was, it was a Hallelujah moment. I don’t know if it was confidence, timing or whatever but I all the sudden I put me into the copy, I stammer that’s just the way I talk so I put myself in the copy I went “Oh, this is a breeze. Give me another piece of copy.”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: Yeah

Bob: And it’s an exciting exhilarating moment, don’t make the demo until you have that moment.

Bill: The biggest direction that I give people the most in voice over classes is “Stop complicating this, stop complicating it”

Bob: Mhm, You’re working to hard.

Bill: Yeah, you’re working to hard. Why are you working so hard when if you do it quickly we can go to lunch?

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: It’s all about lunch.

Bob: Don Cuco’s in Burbank, great margaritas, good chips and salsa!

Bill: Oh, the best!

Joyce: Think less, feel more.

Bill, Tracy, Bob: Ohhh!

Bob: I love Joyce!

Joyce: That’s my whole thing

Bob: Say that again Joyce, say that again.

Joyce: That’s what I say

Bob: Say it again

Joyce: To everybody I work with, think less, feel more.

Bob: Oh, I love you.

Bill: Yes

Joyce: It’s get out of your head and get into your heart.

Bob: If I give you credit, can I borrow that?

Joyce: You may indeed.

Bob: That was great

Joyce: Anytime

Bill: I steal from both of you all the time.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: Borrow

Joyce: Oh, I love that response, I love that. But it is so true.

Bob: It is

Joyce: People are always trying, that was the big difference, okay here is the big difference where you are talking about announcer and story telling. It went from the big announcer style to the conversational, a conversational doesn’t mean flat, it doesn’t mean a dead read. It means you are talking to somebody you have inflection, you have impact.

Bill: You’re sharing with them.

Joyce: You’re sharing

Bill: You’re sharing the information as opposed to talking them into the information.

Bob: And you’re engaging

Joyce: Exactly, it’s about the way a sentence is phrased.

Bill: Right

Joyce: Instead of these big pauses in awkward places, you don’t speak like that. You might take an ellipses to make your point and then you continue on.

Bob: Can I stop you for one second

Joyce: Sure

Bob: You people can’t see this but Joyce is talking with her hands

Bill: Yes

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bob: I call it conducting yourself.

Bill: Yeah

Bob: For every word, for every idea, whether it’s a commercial, promo or animation.

Bill: Which Bob is doing right now with his hands

Joyce: That’s right (Laughs)

Bob: What you do physically with be translated vocally, so for whatever intent you want to perform vocally you must and what with animation physically play the character and the voice with follow. Joyce and I again we are going to go back to Mr. Lafontaine, God love him, I did a seminar with him last year at the screen actor’s guild. He did an exercise for the audience, he said “I am going to recite something to you that you have all heard you could do it back to me but I am going to do it in a way that is going to touch you” And all he did was the pledge of allegiance and we were in tears because the words, he brought the words to life, the importance of them. One nation under God, I mean the way he did it was organic and real and we are sitting there going “I pledge allegiance, nah, nah, nah…apples and oranges, guitars and couches…

Bill, Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: Wait I don’t remember that in the pledge of allegiance.

Bob: What naked individual

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: Well I said one naked individual

Bill: One naked individual

Bob: Yeah

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: He did that and that was like one of the greatest voice over classes I have ever had in my life sitting next to him at this panel because I learned more that if you can put yourself and what were you saying, what is your rule again?

Joyce: Think less, feel more

Bob: If you can do that with something like the pledge of allegiance, you could be Don Lafontaine.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: You know what is interesting because collectively the three of us here have been doing this for a couple hundred years.

Joyce: (Laughs) At least

Bill: What gets me is every time I do one of these round table discussions or panels at the voice over convention or whatever, I learned so much from listening to what these people are saying. And a lot of times we’re all saying the same thing because you know there is no real patented way of doing any of this stuff. We are all teaching the same thing in different ways as you can hear just from this discussion but the point I bring up is I have been doing this for thirty years and I am still learning how to do this. You know, that is the cool thing about acting and again voice over is acting. And the cool thing is that when you become an actor you never stop learning, it’s the discovery process that makes it fun. It’s that cool thing that where Joyce said that little phrase there and Bob and I say “Oh! That’s so cool!”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: I wish people could of seen us, it’s almost liked “That’s called chocolate!”

Tracy, Joyce, Bill: (Laughs)

Bill: So I say to people out there at all levels “Don’t stop learning, keep learning all the time!” And again I will go back to the improve class, I don’t teach improve classes so I don’t get any kick backs or anything for telling people to take improve classes.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: My training for improve was a comedy club in Chicago called “Who’s on First” with every Sunday night for five years myself, Brian Phelps, Steve Rudnick, Leo Benvenuti, Lou Schynder look up their names they are very famous people.

Bob: Are these Space Jam writers?

Bill: Huh? Yeah the guys who wrote Space Jam. We would do improve for free in front of an audience every Sunday night for three or four hours a night and that was my training. We train in front of the audience and you know when you’re doing improves for a bunch of drunk people and you say something and get a beer bottle thrown at your head you go “Oh! Well I’m not going to do that again!”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: You know it is really good training you know but then when something does work and you feel hat feeling and you go “Oh, Wow! Oh, that worked, I am going to remember that, I am going to take that out and I am going to put that in my bag of tricks and I can going to do that again some day” Because that is the cool thing about acting is that you are paid to remember things, you’re paid to hit your marked, you’re paid to remember your lines, you’re paid to remember things all the time. So when you come across a script its like “Oh, that’s like that scene I did in that improve thing that really worked, I am going to do that” and boom you do that, you book the audition and you get paid for it and you go to you lunch and have a margarita.

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: Okay, because that is what it is all about. Do you understand what I am saying? It is like you are always learning and you are always putting something in your bag of tricks and again I have been doing this for thirty years now and it is still exciting to me when I hear something new. Why, because it is fun.

Bob: And also you have to adapt to the marketing that is the other thing you can be the most brilliant actor in the world but if you don’t know how to market and adapt what you have to offer to what the market wants. When I got into the business and probably you too everything was (Uppy Voice) “Hi! I am very Proctor and Gamble” and I used this and you still had to be yourself but it was a little bit over sell. Now it is very conversational “Listen here’s the thing Trace I don’t use the product I don’t even like the product, they are telling me to talk about he product so bottom line I bought the product and it worked for me, I don’t know if it is going to work for you”

Bill: It’s kind of like a sharing thing

Tracy: Of Course

Joyce: Mhm

Tracy: So everyone what are your classes? Speaking of all of these great techniques, great insights, I know you teach these techniques to the masses, where are you guys teaching?

Bob: Joycie

Joyce: Well, I teach in studios in Studio City, Sherman Oaks, I do phone private sessions over the phone.

Bob: We’re not supposed to talk about the phone stuff.

Tracy: (Laughs)

Joyce: Oh…

Bob: That’s between you and I

Joyce: Phone sex (Laughs) So we

Bill: I expect more money out of Joyce Castellanous

Bob: That’s Right

Tracy: (Laughs)

Bill: It has nothing to do with voice over

Joyce: Oh, but I’m worth it

Bob: Nice mic technique, what are you wearing?

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bob: Yeah baby

Joyce: So I have you know a twelve week program for promo, I have a four week program for trailer

Tracy: So you have on going classes?

Joyce: On going classes

Tracy: Okay, good

Joyce: And I’m available for anywhere, anytime

Bob: And I have to say that she is brilliant, she is brilliant

Joyce: Oh, I’ll pay them later

Bob: These are two of my favorite people in this business to recommend for whether it is classes or demos. Not because they are just friends of mine but because they are good and I have to tell you that if there was third person here I didn’t respect I would just keep my mouth shut. So I am not going to offer that just because their here but because they really really are.

Bill: But that is kind of how we really became friends

Bob: We did

Bill: Because we would hear our names all the time

Bob: Oh, I just kept hearing good demos and I would say “Who is doing that demo?” “Bill Holmes” Oh, okay and the same with your promo trailer “Where did you get that done?” “Joyce Castellanous” Okay because you start consistently hearing good stuff and there is a common denominator and you want to contact that common denominator and “I need to keep recommending you, what is your phone number?”

Bill: And also you know hear the three of us talking here, one of the reasons we came up with the idea of the three of us you know chatting with you, we are all kind of on the same page and we all kind of believe in the same things, the same styles of teaching and stuff.

Tracy: Which brings to mind the three of you are teaching together?

Bob: Yes

Tracy: Next year

Joyce: Oh!

Bill: Yeah, a year from next week Deb Monroe up in

Bob: What is she calling it? Voice Olympics

Bill: Yeah, Voice Olympics. And it’s a voice over cruise. Bob you know more about it. You have actually done one so.

Bob: Well it’s basically, I did an animation workshop on a cruise ship three years ago and Joyce came along and Deb came along and a few other people who happen to teach. I was teaching animation but I spent an afternoon doing Q & A, so Deb had contacted me about a year or so ago and said “Hey! Would you want to do a workshop on a cruise ship again from Vancouver to Los Angeles?” I said “Great!” Then the voice conference this past summer with all these other teachers and instructors gave Deb the idea of “Why don’t we have different people with each category of voice over?” Joyce for promo, Bill for commercial and demos, me for animation, Deb is from Canada she is a voice over instructor and Julie Williams for commercial. And spend four days on a cruise ship; it’s basically a vacation with workshops.

Bill: Yeah

Tracy: And how do they find out, how do our listeners find out about the cruise?

Bob: Well first of all they can go to website bobbergen.com, all of my classes because I am doing the cruise it is listed there. Deb Monroe I don’t know what her…

Bill: Mic and Me

Bob: MicandMe, yeah

Tracy: And we will have that on our site as well

Bill: Mic, C mic

Tracy: Mic and Me

Bob: Right

Tracy: And lastly Bob Bergen, your going out of town your doing your one man show

Bob: Yeah

Tracy: In addition to your classes

Bob: It is the story of a nice Jewish boy who wanted to be Porky Pig basically. Yeah I teach, my LA class has about unfortunately a three to four year waiting list but I teach weekend workshops all over the country.

Bill: Right

Tracy: Okay

Bob: So usually when I go to a city to teach a class I bring, I find a theatre and I bring in my one man show. So I am doing Atlanta in October and I have got a class in Dallas in October, I am going to Portland next year, Atlanta, New York.

Tracy: So they can find that?

Bob: Everything is on my website; I will also say that if people have questions. If you have a demo you want critiqued or listened to please don’t hesitate to pop me a note, you know.

Tracy: Okay

Bill: Yeah, likewise

Joyce: Me too, I would love to do that.

Tracy: Okay everybody you have heard that so definitely take advantage of that. Well I thank all of you Joyce Castellanous, Bob Bergen, Bill Holmes

Bob: Did we get a good level are we ready to record this now?

Joyce: (Laughs)

Tracy: Yes we’re ready now

Bob: Oh good

Tracy: In closing the very last thing, Bob Bergen will you do a little Porky

Bill: Do the pig!

Tracy: and sign out

Bill: Do the pig!

Bob: Bill Holmes will call me, I have been in different countries, I have been out of state and I will go “Hello?”

Bill: And I will just said “Uh, Hello, Porky?”

Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: Because I have some kid standing next to me

Bob: I think my mother had, had gull bladder surgery and I was at Cedar Sinai

Bill: (Laughs)

Bob: (Strained Voice) “I can’t do the pig right now, maybe later”

Tracy, Joyce: (Laughs)

Bill: Okay, just do the pig!

Tracy: Okay!

Bill: Show them a little pig, just do the pig!

Tracy: Just…

Bob: (Porky Voice) Eh Thanks for listening folks, eh that’s all folks! (Porky Laugh)

Joyce, Bill: (Laughs)

Tracy: Thank you all!

This Voice Registry podcast was brought to you by Voicebank.net, join us next time.

{Outro Music)

Los Angeles, CA – February 23, 2010

Voicebank.net, the standard in voice over delivery, is working harder than ever to help voiceover actors no matter where they are in their voiceover career. Voiceover actors take classes, work hard, spend money and create a voiceover demo, but how does that demo sound to an agent? Is that demo going to get them work?

With over 150 talent agencies using Voicebank.net on a daily basis, there is an amazing pool of knowledge that can be tapped into. Some of these agents will be taking the time to listen to actors’ demos and put together their thoughts on what is great about the demo, what needs improvement and their overall views.

This premium service will be available for an introductory price of $30 per one minute of demo. Actors will receive their written critiques back in less than 10 days.

Don’t miss your chance to perfect your voiceover demo!

Contact:
Voicebank.net, Inc.
Erica Kelly, COO
direct line: 661-877-4355
toll free: 1-877-294-9910
e: Erica@voicebank.net

Joan Baker, and a panel of experts, will give you the inside scoop on how to launch and maintain a successful voice-over career. Becoming a successful voiceover actor isn’t just about having a standout voice, or inside connections, or even raw determination.

At this Learning Annex seminar you will learn…

- Training – What to avoid and where to train
- The power of the demo – What to include (and exclude) in your all important “calling card”
- Partnering with an agent
- Finding Your Voice/Identifying your niche
- The Business of You/Marketing
- Unions – what you need to know
- And much more

Joining Joan Baker will be special guests:
- Katie McGrath, Voice over agent, Innovative Artists
- Rudy Gaskins, Executive Creative Director, Push Creative Advertising
- Sherri Hodes, Casting Director, TV & Radio commercials
- Johnna Gottlieb, Education & Preparation, Professor NYU “Beyond the Booth”
- Valerie Smaldone, Voiceover Actor (Broadway on Broadway)
- Steve Zirnkilton, Voiceover Actor (Law & Order franchise)

Bonus: Six lucky participants get a chance to do a live audition and have the Industry Panel coach you on your script readings.

More Info & How to Register

Planning on attending or attended this seminar in the past?  Please post your comments – thank you!

UCLA Extension ONLINE Class “How to Become a Successful Voiceover Artist” Spring 2010 is now open for enrollment. April 14th – May 19th  MORE INFO

About the Instructor, Johnna Gottlieb.

If you have attended either course in the past please share your comments below – thanks!

- Amber Dahlin at Voicebank.net, Inc.

In tomorrow’s podcast (part 3) with Dialect and Accent coach Amy Stoller, her talks about:

•How we learn accents

•Whether the ability to do other accents is innate or if it can be learned

•The challenge when you begin speaking one language and learn another. What happens to your first language accent if you move to another country and primarily speak that second language?

•Commercials and accents. Do you they have to be authentic?

•The Six Flags commercial British actor who did an American accent for that project

•Southern accents. Their challenges.

and much more…

-Tracy Pattin

“Japanese Anime has become more popular because subtitles have been replaced by dubbing” says Animation Voice Director, Rene Veilleux. To hear more from Rene Veilleux, listen to our previously posted Podcast – enjoy!

Have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!

- Amber at Voicebank.net, Inc.

“The Don LaFontaine Voice Over Lab will keep Don’s legacy of giving
back to the community alive. The Lab will be at the SAG Foundation
Actors Center and feature 2 state of the art recording studios and a
classroom where voice actors will be able to hone their craft.
Seminars will be taught by the best in the business and the studios
will be available for actors to work on demos, do auditions, jobs and
take workshops all for no charge whatsoever.

The Don LaFontaine Lab at the Actors Center will become the place for the voice over
community to learn, teach and inspire.

It’s going to be an incredible night. Fantastic food, drink (a DLF
signature cocktail at the bars) and live entertainment with SPECIAL
SURPRISE GUESTS performing LIVE. Valet parking provided.

This is a great opportunity to remember Don and meet and mingle with
colleagues and friends from every aspect of the industry on both sides
of the microphone who have gathered to show their support of this
tribute to DLF. You’ll meet new friends and I’m guessing you’ll see
some you haven’t seen in years.

We’ll also have a few one-of-a-kind original drawings that Don penned on
his scripts during sessions that will be for sale in the silent
auction. These are very rare and you’ll be amazed when you see them.
Fantastic memorabilia, with all proceeds going to the Lab. 100% Tax
deductible.

For more info and ticket information, click here.

It’s going to be a high-powered, special event! I look forward to seeing you there.

- Stewart Wilson-Turner, Partner, CTO, Voicebank.net, Inc.

Joan Baker, Author of Secrets of Voice-Over Success with the Neumann BCM 10

On July 29th at 7pm sharp, at The Times Center in New York City, JOAN BAKER and PUSH CREATIVE ADVERTISING will once again unveil A VOICEOVER EVENT — girding the industry that comprises the lucrative and highly guarded world of voiceover acting — and doing it in style. It all begins with the nationally regarded and celebrity voiceover talent that have generously contributed to the 2nd edition of Baker’s book: Secrets of Voice-Over Success.

Talents like the Tony Award-winning actor JIM DALE who is the single voice of the entire Harry Potter audio book series. And then there’s RICHARD THOMAS, famously known for his portrayal of John Walton, and who is now the voice of Mercedes-Benz. And then there’s the voice of Deal or no Deal and FOX Entertainment, JOE CIPRIANO, and the voice of Broadway on Broadway — VALERIE SMALDONE. These formidable talents mix it up with agents and ad executives to bring out the practical, fundamental skills and practices necessary to succeed as a voiceover actor.

This isn’t the first time Ms Baker’s book has set the voiceover community on fire and each time it has been to rave reviews and inspired hearts. And rightfully so; the SECRETS OF VOICE-OVER SUCCESS EVENT not only provides an extraordinary learning forum and career opportunity, but it does so in a highly generous and entertaining fashion. And if that weren’t enough value for your dollar, Ms. Baker donates 100% of the book royalties to the Alzheimer’s Association. You couldn’t ask for more.

Ms. Baker has quickly become the heart and soul of what is becoming a visible voiceover community, where before there was only anonymity and a closely guarded, almost impossible path to entry. SECRETS OF VOICE-OVER SUCCESS is the preeminent voice-over event anywhere in the world  offering a wealth of real-world information, career advice and industry insight for newcomers and professionals alike. Writers, producers, creative directors, talent agents and advertising executives are all ultimately and wonderfully served by this unique experience.

For more information on this exciting event, click here.

-Tracy Pattin

Event: The Audiobook Reader Royalty Event
“A one-day event with the “Audiobook Royalty” getting participants ready for this season’s onslaught of audiobook works”
Host: Pat Fraley
Start Time: Saturday, May 9 at 9:30am
End Time: Saturday, May 9 at 6:00pm
Where: Buzzy’s Recording Studio

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below click here.

-Tracy Pattin

Course Description: “Talent and technique are just starting points in the voice over business. In this course, participants learn the essentials for developing a career and succeeding in this exciting and lucrative field. Topics include developing a marketing strategy, the different categories of voice overs and their rates of pay, standards for a competitive voice over reel, signing with the right agency, and understanding contracts. Instruction also covers the future of Internet casting, unions that govern voice over work and how to become a member, union vs. non-union work, the use of celebrities and the impact they have on the industry, and the basics of creating your own home studio. Guests include top voice over talent, agents, casting directors, and producers.”

About the Instructor: “Johnna Gottlieb, President, Johnna Gottlieb Consulting, a firm that works with voice over talent and talent agencies. As a former agent, Ms. Gottlieb has represented such top voice over talent as James Earl Jones, Jason Alexander, Stockard Channing, Philip Bosco, and Blythe Danner; has provided talent to top broadcasting companies, including ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, The Discovery Channel, HBO, TNT, and Fox; and is a judge for the Daytime Emmy’s Performer in Animation category. ”

More Info: Enrollment is limited.” For Registration Info CLICK HERE” Questions? Please contact Johnna directly – her Bio and Contact Info is on her website.

If you take this course please share your comments with us here (or if you’ve attended past classes with Johnna please share your experience here)!

-Amber Dahlin/Tracy Pattin

“Better, Faster, Now”

The Voiceover Master Intensive for Established Talent

Focus: Promo/Trailer/Commercial/Narration

March 28th & 29th

Limit: 12 participants (industry referral required)

New attendees: $775 Returning: $650

Check or Paypal

Payable to Tobias Entertainment Group

P.O. Box 15396

Beverly Hills, CA 90209

Paypal: Tobiasent@tobiasent.com

No Host Dinner Saturday Night/Drinks Sunday evening

Private Sessions Available March 20-27

Course Description: “Talent and technique are just starting points in the voice over business. In this course, participants learn the essentials for developing a career and succeeding in this exciting and lucrative field. Topics include developing a marketing strategy, the different categories of voice overs and their rates of pay, standards for a competitive voice over reel, signing with the right agency, and understanding contracts. Instruction also covers the future of Internet casting, unions that govern voice over work and how to become a member, union vs. non-union work, the use of celebrities and the impact they have on the industry, and the basics of creating your own home studio. Guests include top voice over talent, agents, casting directors, and producers.”

About the Instructor: “Johnna Gottlieb, President, Johnna Gottlieb Consulting, a firm that works with voice over talent and talent agencies. As a former agent, Ms. Gottlieb has represented such top voice over talent as James Earl Jones, Jason Alexander, Stockard Channing, Philip Bosco, and Blythe Danner; has provided talent to top broadcasting companies, including ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, The Discovery Channel, HBO, TNT, and Fox; and is a judge for the Daytime Emmy’s Performer in Animation category. ”

More Info: Enrollment is limited.” For Registration Info CLICK HERE” Questions? Please contact Johnna directly – her Bio and Contact Info is on her website.

If you take this course please share your comments with us here (or if you’ve attended past classes with Johnna please share your experience here)! Happy Monday!

- Amber Dahlin at Voicebank.net, Inc.

-Tracy Pattin

In tomorrow’s “roundtable” podcast, Improv teacher, Bill Applebaum, voice over teacher Bill Holmes and three improv (voice actor) students gather round the mic to talk about the impact of improvisation on voice over career.

-Tracy Pattin

Here are Tracy Ashton’s valuable insights from her comments on my interview with Bill:

“Excellent points about listening and why listening helps you to ‘get out of your own way’. It really frees you up to tap into your creativity because you’re not busy ‘thinking’ about what you’ll say next but rather you go with the flow and that’s where you’ll find the truth of the scene. And gibberish helps by freeing you up from ‘dialogue’ or trying to be funny with your words. See, Bill….you learned me good! And Tracy, great interview with one of the best teachers out there. Keep up the great work!

I love that you interviewed Bill, one of the best. He’s such a wonderful person and a great teacher. Bill has been so supportive of me. He knows when to be tough and when to be gentle, but always with love and compassion, never hurtful or condescending. Your questions to him were well thought out & brought his philosophy & personality out for all to see. Well done!”

Tom Dheere had this tip:

“Breathe, smile, and don’t get caught up listening to how rich & creamy you sound!”

PETER O’Connell says:
The simplest trick I know is to have a picture of a friend or family member in your booth with you. This would be a person with whom you speak on a regular and very familar basis.

Take the time during one of those real conversations to think about or record how you sound.

Build from there.

And Dan Nachtrab had this insight:
By Dan Nachtrab on Nov 3, 2008

You might be over thinking this one. Simply, scratch out the word “Announcer” and write in Tracy.

Works every time.

Thanks everyone! We always welcome comments and I will do the occasional blog post with your comments AND URL!!!

-Tracy Pattin

As I did my redo audition, trying to sound non-announcery, I started to wonder, How do we sound non-announcery/real person/conversational with announcery copy?

Maybe it’s my own challenges as a voice actor to sound more like myself and less like a smooth promo sounding announcer. After all, it is our job as voice talent to overcome these hurdles.

Here’s what I came up with.

1. Throw away the punctuation

2. Or at least pay less attention to it.

3. Speed up in places, vary the inflections.

4. And of course BE that friend talking to a friend.

Personally, I have a hard time trying to sound like a friend when I’m selling shampoo, cough syrup or any number of products.

Voice actors! What is YOUR strategy of ridding yourself of the announcer within? Got any advice? A few tips for ridding yourself of the announcer within?

Share your thoughts with us!

FYI- Haven’t heard if I got the gig. Stay tuned.

-Tracy Pattin

-Tracy Pattin

TJP: What are the benefits of being in a voice-over workout group?

RS: Benefits are incalculable. Let’s start with being in a professional studio with a top-quality engineer, and microphone that costs more than a cadillac convertible.

TJP: How has your workout group helped your voice over career?

RS: At VOWOL, I’ve personally met more in the industry on both sides of the booth in the last two years than I have in the past 10 years when I worked at an Audio Post Production Facility Todd/AO (which does ADR and loop group among other things). It’s exciting to meet people, and takes a lot of the imaginary pressure off, while increases the fun. Obviously meeting other good natured actors makes a big difference. I’m so grateful for the actors I’ve met — they have steered me to some great opportunities that I may never have found out about on my own.

TJP: What are some success stories from your group members?

RS: Actors have found agents, met coaches that “get them,” taken away immediately applicable actions for auditions, marketing, and goal-completions, renewed their passion for the business, changed slight elements of their thoughts to create whole new businesses, created great demos, reduced the difference between what they think they are doing and what they are doing (that’s a big one!) and most importantly laughed and played a lot. Strangely, I love when people leave the group, because it means that they are now getting paid for doing what they love to do. I think I stole that one from Bill Holmes.

-Tracy Pattin

TJP: What is a Voice Over Workout Group?

RS:”A voice over workout group gives voice actors a behind-the-scenes environment to play with Voice Over copy, listen back, try a few different directions, and grow a community through networking, sharing, and support.”

TJP: How did you start your group, VOWOL?

RS: It began as a voice over work out group, and has grown to be a portal for various producers, casting directors, agents, managers, coaches, teachers, yoga instructors, improv gurus, character specialists, dialect coaches, audio engineers, and booth directors to share their thoughts on the voice business in an intimate environment for a few hours with positive, likeminded Voice Actors. (Whew)

TJP: What is the difference between a voice over workout group and a voice over workshop?

RS: There are a few differences between a workout group and a workshop. A workshop has a specific agenda of teaching a lesson. A work out group is more like a gym — sure, in both places you can learn, but at a gym, there are skills that you can practice and hone in on your own terms, no matter what shape you are in. Karate Kid’s “wax on, wax off” is the bottom end of the spectrum, the top end is recreating a voice session or audition. In any given night at VOWOL, either are possible, but the emphasis is “safe haven” for all involved. It’s certainly less like a showcase and more like a gym.

Check out part 2, next week, when I ask Roy about the benefits of a workout group and success stories of group members.

Bill Holmes is “The Voice Over Doctor” in Voice Registry’s NEW podcast series. The “Doctor” will be taking voice over students through the paces of an audition, from a cold read to a hot performance. Bill is an award winning director who has freelanced with casting houses over the past 15 years including, The Voicecaster, Sight n’ Sound Casting, Sheila Manning Casting, Danny Goldman Casting as well as his own company Compost Productions. Not only has he been working very successfully in the voice over business for the past 25 years but he has been teaching commercial voice over classes for the last 15 as well. Currently Bill can be heard on radio and TV commercials nationwide. This guy doesn’t mess around! He knows how to drill in and find the truth of it all. It’s an entertaining and educational experience you really don’t want to miss!

Right + Click here to download podcast (10 MB)