Marc Cashman writes that he’s received a lot of requests since he appeared as one of the keynote speakers at VOICE 2008 to do one on one coaching. He’s now prepared two options, over the phone or via email. Details, including pricing and contact information, are all on Marc’s web site. Once you’re there, click on the link at the bottom for V-O Coaching.
Getting started in Voiceover
Bob Bergen workshops in several cities this fall
Bob Bergen will be holding workshops in several cities this fall. Dallas and Atlanta in October, Boulder in November, New York City (that one’s all ready sold out) and Sarasota in December. Details are available on Bob’s web site.
My thanks to my friend Marian Massaro for posting the details on the VO-BB.
Giving depth to words
Stephanie features some extended comments from Marc Cashman on the Vox Daily blog, and I think he’s provided some terrific insights about how to infuse depth of meaning and emotion in even a single word.
So you want to get started in voiceovers?
My good friend Dave Courvoisier has published a blog entry with a ton of great information for you if you’re just getting started or are thinking about getting in to voiceover work.
ACTOR’S TOOL-KIT #20
Here’s another in the on-going series of posts from Bob Fraser that I’ve been featuring.
THE TRUTH ABOUT INSPIRATION
by Bob Fraser
In our little part of the business world we hear the word inspiration a lot. “His performance was inspired.” “Her voice inspired a generation.” Not to mention the claims of inspiration we lay claim to, when we relate our own successes … or once in awhile our qualified failures – which the French call “success d’estime.” (Please don’t write in about spelling, I don’t really know a lick of French.)
My humble opinion (LOL) is that there are many mistaken notions about the entire concept of inspiration and what it means to those of us who ply our trade on “the boards.”
For instance, there are those actors who don’t believe in inspiration at all. Who think that everything we do is a function of methodology, rules and plotted out behaviors. Not to put too fine a point on it … they are just wrong.
Or those of us who think that inspiration will come out of the blue, like a bolt of lightning, a falling Granny Smith, or a brilliant performance by Pauly Shore. They are also mistaken.
Most at risk are those folks who believe that inspiration is a gift from God. They are almost right – but generally use their belief as an excuse to skip over the most important part.
THE GIFT MUST BE OPENED
No matter who (and let’s not discuss the various Entities who might be the benefactor to our muse) gives us the gift of inspiration, it is important to recognize that it is a gift. And, as with all gifts, inspiration must be unwrapped, opened and used – for it to have any impact on our actual results.
Like a set of golf clubs, a food processor or an exercise bicycle, your inspiration won’t help you at all – if it’s left in the box it came in, and never used.
Here’s where many of us ‘come a cropper.’ We are often inspired to write the great American screenplay, but somehow never manage to sit down and start typing. Oh, we can tell you about our “great idea” until the cows come home – but pages are not forthcoming. Those of us who act, too, are subject to this ‘slothful’ phenomenon.
One week we are a flurry of crazed activity, doing all we can to pursue our dream of performing success. But the next week we vegetate in front of the idiot box (pick your poison … TV, Playstation, or computer), or we waste time at parties filled with other actors, like ourselves, who are doing their best to remain calm, collected and – above all – cool. Oh, we will hear a lot of “balloon juice” at these conventions, which generally never helps our forward progress an iota.
There is just no question that we all get inspired, it’s true. Almost constantly, in fact. But we, invariably, forget the dictum of Thomas Edison (who was probably not the first to say it):
“Success is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.”
The truth is that too many of us have a half-right, totally wrong or grotesquely twisted vision of inspiration – which is why we often expect it to do more than it’s required (and limited) 5%.
Worse, because of our less than perfect understanding of this phenomenon, called inspiration, we generally don’t even bother to find out how to use it. Believe me, inspiration must be USED – to have any value at all.
So how to use inspiration?
It’s my deeply held conviction that you must use it to encourage yourself – to convince yourself – to exhort yourself – to compel yourself – to shame yourself if necessary – into DOING the other 95%.
In other words, it’s in the DOING of the 95% where inspiration shines. DOING always results in something real, something concrete, something special, something useful – in other words, something worthwhile. Even failing at what you DO, has great lessons to impart.
If you don’t believe in inspiration at all, or you totally depend on it for forward motion, or you think that it is the “be all and end all” – then take my word for it, inspiration is as useless to you as a Christmas fruitcake from my Aunt Imelda.
My advice? Get inspired – but then get sweaty, too. It’s the only way to enjoy our precious gift.
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Play Among the Stars with Pat Fraley
Pat Fraley is holding a special day of training with Ed Asner and several other top voiceover pros on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at World Famous Buzzy’s Recording in Los Angeles.
Here’s an audio recording of Pat with a quick preview.
[audio:https://bobsouer.com/pix/PlayAmongTheStars.mp3]Details on price and registration are on Pat’s web site. I wish I could be there, but I’m all ready booked that weekend.
While you’re on Pat’s site, you can check out the rest of his schedule this fall. I see that he’s holding events not only in Los Angeles, but also Chicago, New York City, Vancouver, and Atlanta.
It’s up to you
While digging around the Voiceover Universe site, I ran across this gem of a post by Rick Party the founder of the site. Take a moment to read the solid gold advice Rick offers from his perspective as a real working pro voice talent. Some advice isn’t worth any more than you pay for it (nothing), but what Rick has to say is worth more than one reading. And then look in your mirror and ask yourself if you are willing to pay the price of success, keeping in mind that price is denominated in effort and time far more than it is in money.
And while I have your attention, I’ll mention Banksey’s axiom, first documented (to the best of my knowlege) in this post on the VO-BB from June 2005 by my friend and mentor, Philip Banks. To wit: “95% of people launching themselves onto the voice over market will not make any money at all.” If you’re sure you want to pursue voiceover work as your new career, you have to make up your mind you’re going to be one of the 5 percenters.
Acting for Advertising, part 6 teleseminar
Nancy Wolfson and Anna Vocino are holding the next in their series of teleseminars on Acting for Advertising one week from today, Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 9:00 PM Eastern/6:00 PM Pacific. Registration details are at the Break Into Voice Over site. Price is $39.00 for the teleseminar (or $49.00 if you want also get an MP3 copy of the teleseminar afterward).
How not to ask for help
If you’re interested in getting starting doing voiceover work, you might have stumbled across this blog. You’ll find a bunch of posts in the Getting Started in Voiceover category through the link over on the right. But, as you’re reading, take a moment to check out this post from my friend Rowell Gormon, which will give you at least one good idea of what not to do.
Marc Cashman announces his fall schedule
Marc Cashman, who was one of the featured coached and speakers at VOICE last weekend, emails his fall schedule of Southern California voiceover training classes.
Beginner – Saturdays, Sept. 6th — Oct. 11th from 10 AM-1 PM
Intermediate – Mondays, Sept. 8th — Oct. 13th from 7 PM-10 PM
Advanced – Wednesdays, Sept. 10th — Oct. 15th from 7 PM-10 PM
Marc says to register call 661-222-9300 and leave your name and number clearly. They’ll get back to you with further details.
Free for work?
From time to time I post some of the thoughts of Bob Fraser, a man who has worn about every hat that can be worn in show business from actor to producer and back again. An email I received today was so full of good information that I promptly wrote and asked for permission to publish the contents here. And with that permission granted, I encourage you to read what follows and think about how it applies to your own career.
First a bit of background. Bob had received two similar letters asking him for advice on whether it made sense to do some on-camera projects for no pay in order to get some useful experience and maybe some material for a demo reel. Here is his response …
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The sooner you begin your ‘career’ the better.
It almost always takes a long time to get anywhere in our business – and the time you wait to take forward steps is time wasted.
When I urge actors to look for work that pays, I really don’t care how old the actor is, or what experience they’ve had up to that point. It’s more about encouraging the ‘pro’s mindset’ … a frame of reference that every actor must start building as early as possible – if they hope to act for a living.
The amount of work an actor can easily get – which does not pay – is huge. I’d guess that there are enough ‘work for free’ opportunities to keep any decent actor busy for decades.
However, it’s the transition you make when you decide that you are really only interested in doing this as a profession (and the definition of profession is pretty much totally related to a paycheck), that marks the point when you start to take your career seriously.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing student films, low-budget films, community theatre, off-off-off Broadway, summer stock, or putting together your own film, with your friends, on the weekends. But don’t make the mistake of believing that you will get any more out of those activities than the experience.
For instance, as far as working for free in the hope of getting material for a reel – think that idea through. If the material you get does not look like a totally professional production (in every way – music, editing, lighting, camera work, writing, acting, costumes, props, etc.) then it will not be footage that will be particularly helpful to you as an actor.
That’s because an actor’s reel is mostly used as a sales tool to convince an agent to sign you – and agents are generally not impressed with talent, passion, your desire to act, or cutting edge content — as much as they are impressed with actors who’ve managed to make money as actors.
That’s the best indication to an agent that an actor will be a good client. Period.
Showing an agent a lot of ‘free work’ pretty much defeats the purpose of a reel. So, a useful reel almost always contains clips from real productions – where actors are paid. That’s pretty much the only kind of reel that works with agents.
And – despite what you may have heard – casting directors are almost never excited about seeing your reel – until they’ve met you (and very few casting directors have time to look at reels when they are casting something). In fact, the only time a casting director will really want to see your reel, is in order to show it to higher ups – to convince them that it’s worthwhile to consider you.
Now, picture a casting director showing your reel (filled with free work) to Spielberg or other A-List director …
Got the picture? Are you really interested in risking what may be your big ‘shot’ – relying on work that was done on weekends by volunteers?
This is a huge subject – and to be honest I’ve written about it extensively in my courses. But, for now, please take my word for it – look for work that pays.
Don’t look for reasons to do what’s easy – in the hope that it will help you skip doing the hard stuff. Looking for work (that pays) is hard – but that IS the job. Getting to do the work is your reward for doing the job well.
Go ahead and do free work … because you love the material, or want to work with someone, or to build a network, or for the experience in front of the camera or audience – just be clear that free work rarely helps you skip the job of finding paid work … and is never a short-cut to achieving your long term goals.
Hope this brief overview is helpful.
Have a splendid week and, as always …
Much Success,
P.S. One week left to save 30% on The Agent Code by pre-ordering.
Discover the “guerilla tactics” that get actors noticed by agents. How to get an agent and how to agent yourself in the meantime.
http://www.theagentcode.com
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What Bob has written is obviously aimed at on-camera and on-stage actors, but the connection for those of us primarily doing voice acting is there. The single most important point being that looking for paying work is hard, but it is the job. If you don’t want to do that hard work, you probably want to plan on a career in something else and do a bit of voiceover work on the side now and then.
Yes, that’s pretty blunt. I always want to be nice and kind and likable, but I also want to tell you the truth. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be much of a friend.
Tennis and voiceover
I have been quite remiss in my own reading of the voiceover blogs of my friends and peers of late; so even though this was posted quite some time ago, I commend the excellent comments and thoughts of my friend Liz de Nesnera to you on the parallels between tennis and voiceover based on her observations following the finals at Wimbledon earlier this month.
Study weekend with Bettye Zoller in Dallas
There’s a study weekend coming up in September (Saturday and Sunday, the 6th and 7th) in Dallas with Bettye Zoller of VoiceVoices.com. The weekend will cover four areas of focus …
- Character cartoon voice techniques
- Voice acting for commercials today
- Audiobook narration techniques
- The business of voice-overs worldwide
Tuition for the weekend is $495.00, which includes breakfast buffets, catered working group luncheons, a festive cocktail reception, and take-home packets. The Two-pay plan lets you enroll with $295 deposit–balance of $200 due on or before August 25 non-refundable.
For more information, visit Bettye’s home page.
ACTOR’S TOOL-KIT #19
It’s been a while since I posted one of these solid gold nuggets from Bob Fraser. Here’s the 19th in the series.
WHERE TO GET MENTORING
by Bob Fraser
As most actors who read my scribblings know, I’m a big fan of quotes. There is a good reason for this; I think that it really helps to have advisors, as one pursues a goal. And it’s always been my experience that wise advisors are the best advisors.
Now, many wise people have come before us – that is indisputable. Most have left behind some instructions, cautions, insights and advice. My attitude has always been, why not make use of, and benefit from their experience?
One of the wisest people of all time is Anon. No one knows who this Anon person was or when he or she lived, but Anon had some great things to say.
“Most people miss opportunity because it arrives looking like work.” Anon.
This is an important piece of advice because it goes right to the heart of the “I need an agent” (or manager) plaint that we hear (and say) so often. Deep down we know that getting our faces in front of people who hire actors is very important and yet we all fall prey to the rather silly idea that there’s a one-step solution to that problem – one that skips the hard work part – and that ‘brilliant’ idea is to get someone else to do it.
Believing that you need an agent to get started is bass-ackward. In the real world, you need to get started in order to attract the attention of a good agent. Believe me it is pointless to have a top salesman for your product if your product is still in the planning stages. 99.9% of agents know this. You can’t fool them.
When I tell actors this, they often respond with another complaint. “I’ve tried to get started on my own and it just isn’t happening.”
There’s a quote for that:
“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” ~ James Michener
SKILLS, ATTITUDES AND TENACITY
A successful acting career is mainly the result of skills, attitudes — and, most importantly, the ability to keep showing up (tenacity) despite the rejection that we all face. No matter what some people say, talent is not a skill. Using your talent to entertain for a living – that’s a skill.
However, in the absence of a good attitude, learning the skills of a professional entertainer is almost impossible. And without tenacity, even the best set of skills will never see the light of day. If you want to be a professional actor, have a gracious attitude, a willingness to learn new skills and never, never, give up your quest.
I am often asked “when is the best time to start? Pilot season? When I’ve saved enough money? When I turn 21? After the kids are grown? September?”
I’m no expert, but here’s someone with a very clear instruction on this “when should I start” matter:
“Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows.” ~ Michael Landon
GOOD ADVICE IS FREE – IF YOU ARE WILLING TO ACT
See why I like quotes?
Because someone, somewhere has already dealt with my problems and found a solution. And many of them have been kind enough to write it down. All I have to do is read, understand, and begin to use all this great advice.
I urge all actors to start collecting quotes, find a few favorites, and make little signs. Stick them up on the refrigerator, computer or bathroom mirror.
These little “reminders” can have a beneficial effect on your career. You will be astonished at the education you will get – and the results you will achieve – when you start listening to your “advisors” and start “doing it.”
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PERMISSION TO REPRINT: You may reprint articles from Actor’s Tool-Kit, on your website or electronic newsletter.
However, in order to comply with my copyright, you must also include the following paragraph with your reprint:
“Reprinted from ACTOR’S TOOL KIT, the email course just for subscribers of Show Biz How-To — The Free Actor’s Monthly. Get your own free subscription by going to: showbizhowto.com
Copyright © 2006 Bob Fraser Productions All Rights Reserved”
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10 ideas for your voiceover career
With thanks to my friend Steve Stone for passing along this link in an email today, you’ll find at least a few solid, actionable suggestions in this list of ten things a voice actor should do on the Back Stage site.
I’ve added Wendy’s Actor Inspiration site to my blog roll, after reading this article.
Telling yourself the truth
In the interview John Florian did with me at VoiceOverXtra (part 1, part 2) I mentioned one of my ongoing projects, to get the “radio” out of my voice. On that subject, there’s a very interesting post at Dan O’Day’s blog. One of the hardest things in the world is to hear ourselves as we really sound. What are you doing to avoid or work through your challenges? I’d love to hear. Comments are open.
Study with Rodney Saulsberry
You have a couple of study opportunities coming up later this year with Rodney Saulsberry. On Saturday, September 20, 2008 Rodney will lead a one day Voiceover Workshop at Tree Falls Studio in Los Angeles, CA.
Or if you don’t live in Southern California, Rodney will conduct a Commercial Intensive Teleclass for three Thursday evenings in October, starting October 16, 2008.
Registration details are available on Rodney’s web site.
Tools and Talent
With thanks to my friend Liz de Nesnera for posting a link to this article on the VO-BB, there’s an excellent piece on the Digital Juice site by Viv T. Beason, Jr. about the technology shift that’s been going on for some time now in our culture. While his article is mostly for the video production crowd, not surprising given the focus at Digital Juice, there’s a solid application in the voiceover field.
Today, just about anyone with a few dollars to spare, and some desire, and set up shop as a voiceover talent. With USB microphones and free audio editing software, the cost of entry is very low. But, Viv points out that just as we’ve seen in the desktop publishing arena, so we’re now seeing in the video production (or, I’d add, the voiceover) arena.
Those who can produce truly high quality work are ever more in demand. So, if you want to get work in the voiceover field, I wish you well. Truly I do. And I hope you’ll find lots of ideas and resources here at the Voiceover Boblog and many other sites on the Internet to help you along your way. But, please, get some professional training. Learn your craft. Aim for excellence. Learn how to get there.
Because the alternative is going to be disappointment, at best.
5 tips for getting voiceover work
Voice Over Experts is a series of podcasts presented by Voices.com. There’s loads of good information available through the site, including a very tasty presentation by UK voice coach Gary Terzza called 5 Tips for Getting Voice Over Work.
(Update: When I put up this post a moment ago I neglected to thank Bill Smith for posting the link to this podcast in the Yahoo! Voiceover Group. Thank you, Bill.)
Story-telling advice from Ira Glass
With thanks to my friend Rowell Gormon for posting the link to this video on the VO-BB, here is some really cogent advice from NPR personality Ira Glass (This American Life) about finding your own voice. Please note, as you start to watch and listen, that Ira is talking about video production so it takes him a while before he gets to the stuff about narration. Be patient. His self-critique is truly brilliant.
Thank you, Ira for this excellent material. And if you pop over to YouTube to watch, you’ll see that Ira has a whole bunch of these videos.