Our second day began with a 3 hour session with Dave Foxx, legendary Imaging Director for Z100 in New York City. Dave demonstrated 4 different styles of promos, building each of them live on-the-fly in front of us. It was quite quite impressive to watch him work, gliding from one idea to another and clearly a master at using ProTools.
I had the great fun of being cast as the “serious announcer” for one of the promos he built and Dave was nice enough to send me a copy of the file. The audio file is here, or you can listen using the flash player to the right. The promo is the middle (white) player. (Caution, the subject matter of the promo is a bit racy.)
(Update: The other voices in this promo are Dan O’Day’s daughter, who was at the Summit to help at the Registration table and Norman Ellis-Flint.)
The key quote from Dave’s presentation came right at the start:
If you learn anything at this conference, you owe a solemn debt to pass along to someone else at least some of the things you’ve learned.
Hmmm. Hopefully I’m following through on that challenge right now.
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Our next session, and the final one for this report, was a Voiceover Agents & Casting Directors Panel discussion. Dan O’Day hosted and on the panel were:
Terry Berland, casting director.
Mary Ellen Lord, voiceover agent.
David Lawrence, radio talent and game voice casting director.
The conversation began with a discussion of the changes in the voiceover business in last 20 years:
Technology has changed everything, especially the level of competition has risen. Today everything is global. The casting business might be the part that’s changed the most. Agencies are now often doing the casting work for free, rather than a casting director being paid for that work. Agents even in LA are now almost all working on non-union projects.
Next was a discussion of the differences in the way a casting director casts and the way an agent casts:
An agent usually knows much less about the specifics of a job than a casting director does. Terry cast the voice for the Taco Bell dog, but she was the second casting director called. A talent needs to see he or shee is there to solve the problem of the agent or casting director. They are both rooting for the talent.
Is the golden age of voiceover over?
It depends on who you talk to. Everyone only has a certain season when they are at their peak earning. Now top talent can work from anywhere which means that we are all competing with the top talent for major jobs. The top talent are even competing for the middle level jobs, which put even more presssure on the rest of us. But this has also resulted in a flattening of the rates. The top isn’t as high as it once was. Our attitude makes a huge difference in how well our auditions are received. We have to believe the job is right for us. Also there is no room for prima donnas anymore. Negativity will get you out of a job faster than almost anything else, because there are so many other very talented people who are willing and able to do the jobs. Celebrities are something of an exception to this rule.
Other notes:
Many people don’t realize what a huge market of opportunities are available recording for games.
We have to be able to take direction. This might seem like it goes without saying, but there are a lot of people trying to do voiceover work who don’t know how to take direction during a session. At the same time some of the best stuff comes after the direction is done. While working in a recording studio we have to let go of control and allow the producers, directors and engineers to do their work. Being directable means not only being willing to take direction, it means being able to actually react to it and often the direction is very subtle. So the changes need to be just a subtle.
Terry spoke about how she had at times helped someone with a good voice get through the audition, but she doesn’t do this anymore because at the session these people often can’t deliver the goods. This is where workshops are so valuable, because that’s where we can gain experience behind the mike so we can deliver the goods in the booth.
Suggestions about demos.
Identify ourselves on the packaging. The demo should be no more than a minute. Voicebank.net has many, many examples of of signed talent. Listen and learn from the best. Long is more than 1 minute. Don’t save the best for last. If we only have 30 seconds of good, then only use those 30 seconds. Mary Ellen doesn’t even listen to CDs anymore. (During an audition, even slating our names is important.) Put your best foot forward. All the time. The demo should demonstrate our range. Don’t let everything sound the same.