Working as a voiceover artist is a lot different today than it was 25 years ago. On her new voiceover blog, Melanie Haynes offers some excellent thoughts about the way things have changed and what it takes today to keep moving forward.
Good stuff, Melanie. You’re right. It is a glamorous business…just not in the way most people think. As I’ve said else where on the blog, I think it’s the best job in the world.
When we think about marketing, most of the time we think about ways to connect with people, especially people who are looking for what we have to sell. In my case, and the case of my brothers and sisters in the voiceover profession, what we’re selling is our ability to tell stories, to communicate, to read in a way that brings a script to life.
But, Tom Asacker points out that there’s another side of marketing. Maybe one you haven’t thought much about. Here’s a key thought from his post…
The Internet is one humongous story exposure machine. Whether you like it or not, people can now dig and dig and dig and get to the essence of your brand . . . any brand.
What will turn up when folks dig into your brand? Those hastily written posts on someone’s bulletin board, back when you just had to get something off your chest? Or multiple examples of how you lack command of the English language? Snarky product or service reviews?
If there are some cyber-skeletons in your closet, there’s not much you can do about them, thanks to the massive cache servers all over the Internet. Indeed, trying to do something about them could expose you to much more bad publicity that you could possibly want. Transparency isn’t just a marketing buzzword. It’s a fact. There’s no better time than right now to start paying more attention to what, when and how you present yourself.
(edited to fix typo)
Santa gets grilled in the voiceover booth.
Thankfully, very few of my voiceover sessions have gone like this! My thanks to Nancy Wolfson to sending along this link.
Have you ever been in a large meeting where at least one of those speaking is wearing a wireless lavaliere microphone? Sometimes that person will neglect to turn off the microphone, resulting in all kinds of embarrassing or distracting sounds echoing through the meeting room. The solution to this little problem is, of course, to always check to be sure the microphone is turned off except when it’s needed.
Life, on the other hand, doesn’t come with an off switch. Seth Godin offers a vivid illustration of this point on his blog, as he reminds us that we are always marketing, even when we think we’re not.
My thanks to Stu Gray and Joe Szymanski for leading me to this post through links on their blogs.
Is self-evident. Keep some tissues handy.
If you’d like to read just a bit more, check out these comments from Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. I know what you mean, Rick. I know what you mean.
In the last several months, and with his permission, I’ve re-printed a number of articles written by Bob Fraser on acting and business. I received a very interesting email today from Bob in which he offers the following comments about the writer’s strike. I asked his permission to post them here, because I think there’s much of value for us who are and who hire voice talent.
Word around town is that the companies have no intention of settling the strike before mid-December and that the recent meetings were an attempt to ‘soften up’ the guild.
My take on the situation is that this may turn out to be one of the longest strikes we’ve ever seen in LaLaLand – because what the writers are asking for is a piece of the fast-growing internet pie – and a fair share of the DVD profits. The current contract is not very fair – as I said at the meetings of the Guild, during the ’88 strike.
Now, as a member of six entertainment unions, I’ve gone on strike many times in my career. I’ve been there, done that, and gotten the free t-shirts — and I know that for many actors this current strike causes large worries about work, career progress, and how long the financial stresses are going to last.While there is little I (or anyone) can do to relieve your natural anxiety about the situation – I do have a few suggestions about how to spend your time more effectively … for as long as this first strike goes on. (I’m pretty sure the Screen Actors Guild is going to have to engage in a work stoppage as well, when their
contract is up in June, to get a fair share of the DVD and internet monies.)
Anyway – how to make the best use of this ‘down’ time:
First, make a commitment to use this time to work at improving your business. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking this is a good time to relax or chill. There are several elements involved in the process of improving your business, including product research and development, strategic planning, marketing improvements and further education.
Product research and development is essentially about sitting down and doing an assessment of precisely what it is that you are trying to sell to the industry. As I have mentioned more than once, selling a generic product is a very bad tactic in a business where brand names and recognizable faces bring in the big bucks.
A good place to start making specific changes is by going over my Unique Character Presentation idea. The UCP is a way of starting to brand your acting business with your own personality. But it’s only a start. There is a lot of work to do, in order to really separate yourself from the great mass of actors.
(You’ll find Bob’s UCP idea detailed in an earlier post on this blog called Actor’s Tool-Kit #15.)Once you have decided on a unique brand, that is both consistent and congruent with the sort of actor you are, your next step is developing a strategy for marketing this specific product to the buyers (producers) and the buyers representatives (casting directors).
This, naturally, starts with your headshot.
Now, a lot of people will tell you that your headshot is your business card and although it seems ‘right’ – I just don’t happen to agree with the analogy. Your headshot is much more like those pizza shop door hangers we all find on our front doors, almost every day.Joe, the pizza shop owner, knows perfectly well that most of us will toss his expensive cardboard advertising in the trash. But he also knows that on that day when you have a yen for pizza, his regular and consistent advertising will be there — to remind you to buy from him.
Of course, the slicker and more appetizing the picture of the pizza happens to be, the more likely you are to salivate a little.
This is precisely the goal of your headshots, postcards, zedcards, business cards and now, your website – to be on their ‘front door’ when they are looking for your kind of product – and make sure your advertising is designed to get the buyers’ juices going.
So, use this ‘break’ to assess and replace (if necessary) your marketing tools. Yeah, I’m suggesting that you get new headshots, postcards, etc … and do a ‘make-over’ of your website. What’s that you say? You don’t have your own website.
Then that’s a project you must get started on immediately. I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise to you that this is 2007 and a website is a necessity for every actor. The best thing about a website is that it’s an excellent place to do some actual selling.
A well thought out site can communicate volumes more about your brand, your commitment, your professionalism and your ‘rightness’ – than your headshot could ever do … and at about the same yearly cost.
Don’t know anything about getting a website up and running? Then it’s time for more research and development.
If stars are convinced that they need a website – then you probably need one too.
You’ve probably realized by now that all of this ‘work’ implies a great deal of planning – and if you’re anything like me, the idea of sitting down and writing out a plan is about as appetizing as a mimeographed pizza flyer.
But planning your business is the only way to improve your business – and putting up with the drudgery and labor of making that plan is the price you must pay to get it done. There’s just no question about it … a plan makes life (and career) so much more rewarding.
“Even a bad plan, vigorously executed, is better than no plan at all.” ~ Patton (The general, not the actor.)
So, stop kvetching about the strike and use your ‘free’ time to really get down to planning your business – and executing your plan.
A few months from now you may find that this strike is the best thing that ever happened to your acting career. Or, you could let it slide – and look into the thrilling possibilities of delivering pizzas for Joe. He’s got more business than he can handle – and he never goes on strike.
Now, if you don’t do on camera work, a headshot isn’t going to be part of your package. But, the same advice Bob’s given here applies to your voice demos.
For more about Bob Fraser, get a free subscription to his Show Biz How To, check out ACTION! The Professional Actor’s Workbook and Planner, as well as You Must Act! The #1 Virtual Acting CAREER Course.
The best job in the world? Voiceover. No question. As exhibit A I present this interesting YouTube video.
And our thanks to the fellow who posted this fine piece, none other than Joe Cipriano.
Donna Papacosta is a veteran podcaster and blogger. Her podcast show #66 offers a chance to compare the sound of several microphones and recording devices that are often used for podcasting.
With my thanks to my friend Joe Rodriguez for posting this link on the VO-BB, here is an interview by Howard Schwartz with the legendary June Foray.
What an amazing talent she is. Thank you, Joe!
And yes, it’s a cliché to say that we should be thankful all year, but it’s true. A grateful heart is a joyful heart. My friend Dave Courvoisier offers some valuable insights about giving thanks that are well worth practicing all year round. Thank you, Dave, for writing such an excellent blog. And for helping me remember that it’s not enough to just be thankful. We need to express that gratitude in tangible ways.
My friend Bobbin Beam has written some excellent thoughts about how to stay hydrated while you’re working in the studio. Good stuff, Bobbin. Thank you.
My friend Rowell Gormon is one of the most talented people I know. Also one of the nicest. Most humble. Generous. I think you get the picture. If you ever get a chance to spend some time with Rowell, you’ll really understand what I mean.
He’s also a brilliant story-teller, as he demonstrates again with his latest blog post…a Christmas story you’ll remember for the rest of this season…maybe longer.
With my thanks to my friend Liz for posting the link on the VO-BB, here’s a sage bit of career advice for anyone in the voiceover business: Don’t make fun of your clients, especially not publicly.
Update: In Ms. Clarke’s defense, it appears she was misquoted. I’ll update again if I learn of any further developments.
Further update: Ms. Clarke has written a piece in the Guardian with more detail from her point of view.
My friend David Houston, a very talented voice actor in Austin, TX has landed the role of James Bond in the new Casino Royale video game. Good for you, David. I’m delighted to see you doing well and wish you much success going forward, in not only this role but many more.
In fact, sometimes you need to say “no” to a prospective client. Samuel Ryan offers these 10 Reasons to Say No on his site Wake Up Later. While this list is aimed as web writers and developers, much of the information is valuable for us in the voiceover world as well.
Here is an important moment that took place during the recent workshops I attended in New York City with Marice Tobias. It’s significance to me personally is considerable. Hopefully it will be valuable for you, too.
During the first round of performances I had fully intended to volunteer to go first, if for no other reason that to get my initial time of reading out of the way. However, because of where I was sitting in the room, no one could see when I would start to get up to go into the booth and someone else would end up ahead of me. This turned out to be a very good thing because as I was sitting there, I realized that I was filled with anxiety about wanting to do really well, to impress everyone there with my performance. As the same moment, I realized that I was about to derail myself, because the anxiety I was feeling was preventing me from being able to accomplish what I wanted.
So, I began to listen to the coaching that Marice was giving to each of my fellow students as they worked through their copy. Not with the intention of imitating that coaching, but in order to get a handle on how to internalize and make these coaching points my own. As I did this, I became very calm and peaceful. Then, there was a lull, so I was finally able to volunteer.
Then another blessing. As Roger, our engineer, was adjusting the microphone for me, someone asked Marice a question. I was able to listen to her response on the talk back system. The answer to that question led to a couple more and in all several minutes passed. This really was a blessing, though, because it helped keep my focus off of myself and to just concentrate on the conversation. So, when it was finally my turn to read, I just took a deep breath and read the copy. No nerves. No fear. Just a clean take in which I hit every point that I hoped to and none I didn’t. I realized afterward that I was able to just be in the moment, and thus not derail myself.
I hope that when find yourself filled with anxiety, hoping to really impress someone, that you’ll be able to find a few moments to get your focus off of yourself so that you too will be able to stay in the moment.
In the flurry of activity of the last several days, I neglected to mention that another of my friends came through Charlotte last Friday. DC Goode is a tremendously talented voiceover artist from Sacramento, California. He was in North Carolina on business for a few days last week and made a point of letting me know that he would be driving through Charlotte on Friday.
We were able to get together for a very nice visit, though sadly I didn’t think about taking a photo to document things until after he was already in his car and back on the road to complete his business travels. Thank you, DC for going out of your way so we could meet in person.
This evening I had the great delight of visiting once again with my friends Kara Edwards and Peter O’Connell. Peter was on his way through town for business before joining the rest of his family for Thanksgiving a little further South and West of here, so the 3 of us met at Cracker Barrel for dinner and conversation.
Peter had never eaten at a Cracker Barrel before, and I think we’ve made a convert to the cause. Before we left, we made a stop in front of the fireplace for a quick photo with Kara’s camera.
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “mind-boggling” at one time or another. This weekend (as I’m typing this I’ve just moments ago walked through the door back in Charlotte after flying home from New York this evening) has given me a new appreciation for this term. For my mind is well and truly boggled.
I think it will likely be weeks before I entirely get my head around all that I’ve learned. I used my Treo 680 and typed notes as fast as my thumbs would allow (and sometimes faster!) at all of the great coaching, ideas and thoughts Marice Tobias shared. A month ago, when I took my previous workshop with Marice on commercials and narration, I thought I understood mind-boggling, but this weekend has topped that experience.
Today was the promo part of the promo/trailer workshop. We worked on several pieces of copy, taking different approaches to each piece. Each of these approaches helped us understand how best to deliver the copy as ourselves. This is so counter-intuitive. After all, who else can I bring into the studio with me? Just me. My natural human tendency is to want to adapt myself to the copy, rather than finding the best way to present the copy as me.
Here’s one other inescapable conclusion I’ve reached regarding all that I learned, there’s no way to really understand how to put into practice what Marice teaches unless you are able to take the workshops with her. The experience is too tightly woven into the fabric of the entire experience.
One last note to this post before I go collapse for a few hours. With us was Stacey Stahl, owner of In Both Ears. What a fantastic experience it was last night at dinner to sit across from Stacey and learn many valuable insights about how voiceover agents like to be treated and (more importantly) don’t like to be treated by voice talent. Eye-opening and more than a little mind-boggling in its own right.