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.

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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

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