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.

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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

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