The glamorous world of voice over work.

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(Disclaimer: I am not a regular in the studio. I do just enough work to allow me to take an extra vacation every year. Others may/will differ with my opinions and have different experiences in this field. You have been warned.)

Part four in an agonizing series on voice over work.

Not the studio microphone but it sure was handy for this photo.

Back so soon from the tuba video? Well, today’s post will be a bit shorter in any event.

Once you’ve gone through the agony of training and doing your demo you’re ready to tackle the market. You have two routes to take at this point, and they are not mutually exclusive. The internet and the agencies.

The first route is the unconventional one – internet based services. Essentially you set up a studio in your house and try to get work recording for people elsewhere. I started this way and it was pretty interesting. I spent the money to buy the software, microphone, cords, stands, etc., and then joined Voice123. I put up my demo on the site and then auditioned like a mad man trying to get work. This was back when the service first started out and there were under 1000 artists on the site. Competition was tough, but it was not as crazy as today. Now, with thousands of people signed up, the people seeking to cast a voice spot have a lot more voices to choose from. And a lot of them are bad.

Well, shouldn’t that make it easier for a good talent? You’d think so, but what it does is make the producers skeptical about who they’re seeing in the audition box. Ten years ago when I started out doing this I auditioned 82 times before I got my first paid gig. It was wonderful to finally get a paying job. And they wanted it in 5 hours. I had to leave my job, run home and record the piece while they listened in on the phone. But it paid very well. I grew discouraged after a time because as the number of talents on the site grew some of them were obviously waiting for each job to post and dashing off a response. More than once I recorded my submission and submitted it within an hour but found that 24 people had done one before me and they’d shut it off due to the response. Voice123 has now changed their system so that can’t happen and that’s a good thing. But I got out of the habit and don’t audition as much as I should.

The other route is to get in with an agency. Talk to other actors about who they work with locally. Some agencies are… well, not much fun to deal with. They dont’ do a very good job for the actor and you can die of old age and frustration waiting for a job. Find one that is looking for talent and then follow their submission guidelines. If you know someone who works for them use that sparingly. Remember, if you are both going to be in competition for the same kind of work it’s mighty hard to recommend anyone to replace you!

The tough part here is that many agencies won’t really even talk to you unless you have some experience. I got that through Voice123 and reading for the blind. But the honest fact is that I still wouldn’t be working for an agency if I wasn’t also a pretty good Santa. That fat guy opened the door for me for on-camera and voice work. My credentials and photos as Santa allowed me the chance to talk to the agents and then once they got to know me I was able to do the voice work. You will have to gird yourself for rejection. The first time I talked to an agent she told me to “Just throw your photo and stuff away, it will save me the time of doing it myself.” I sent her the photo, demo, and resume along with some sheets of plastic to laminate the picture. In my cover letter I recalled our phone conversation and told her they’d make a good coaster or dartboard but don’t throw them away. I got an on-camera gig two days later from the same agent.

What’s the point? Agents are overwhelmed with new talent. Most of the people who submit are good looking, talented, and probably great people. But the agencies see dozens if not hundreds of them a week. And unless you stand out you will sink into the pool and vanish. But do it in some way that is not going to frazzle or annoy the agents. They have long memories. Be creative, it’s all about marketing.

Beware of agencies with a “door fee” to let you in their talent pool. The simple fact is that if you’re any good you’ll make them money. They should want you if you have potential, and not be demanding up-front money. It is not unreasonable for them to ask for a small fee (under $100) to do the work needed to get you into their system, put you on the web page, list you with major clients, and promote you a bit. The fee typically covers any mailings you might get during that first year. But if they keep asking for more money you should run away. I occasionally pay a small amount to my agency for the web presence but they take it out of my next check. That way they have an incentive to keep me working. And they haven’t asked in a few years.

Once the agency takes you on, do a good job. Take the low paying stuff they test you out on at first. Don’t complain, be on time, bring a beverage to sip, have your asthma inhaler with you and don’t wear clothing or jewelry that makes noise when you move. The microphones will pick up everything, including that pinky ring banging on the copy stand.

If you prove to be a consistent talent they will work hard to keep you busy. It’s in their best interests. Am I busy? Nope. I’m not a full-time actor nor do I hound my agents. But I also know that I’m not the voice every client wants, nor the face they seek for industrial training films. And I’m good with that fact. As Harry Callahan said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

So, you’ve made it this far. The next step is the actual job and how that goes when you get to the studio. We’ll tackle that in the next installment on Wednesday. For now, please ask yourself what your goals are and are you willing to be rejected 82 times or more before you get a job. Can you take agents laughing at your photo and not putting you to work? Can you wait patiently for them to call or will you make them nuts with constant inquiries about jobs? And, finally, what will it be like when you get to the studio that first time?

Now, more tubas.


Another death-defying tuba video.

Five in the morning is a lovely time to be out and about.

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Foggy morning.

It’s just about freezing this morning and the woofers and I spent some time in the back yard when I got home.

I love this time of day. After a long night of working from my office on broken electronics around the country, I shut down the computers on my desk and click off the light on the bookshelf. Walking down the well lit stairs I stop just outside the door on clear mornings and marvel at the quiet of the city around me. Over a million people in this metropolitan area, over three in the more broadly constituted metropolitan region. And at 0500 it’s just me and the planets and stars on Stinson Boulevard. No cars anywhere in sight. Not even on the nearby freeway.

After a short drive home (during which you could count the cars on two hands) I close in on the final hill to my house. The vantage point allows me to see whispy bits of seemed to be a light ground fog now rolling as a blanket of icy smog coming in from the Mississippi River valley toward my house. I have a half hour at most before it fogs the joint out.

The two oldsters are snoozing by the couch and after I change a load of laundry they’re waiting for me to open the back door and lead them outside. I have to prompt them down the stairs, they don’t feel a pressing need to “go” and do their duty. I sit on the back step and marvel at the roiling mass of almost snow that is coming into the neighborhood. It’s cold on the steps and very quiet in the back yard. Something about the quiet that fog brings is so special. No other blanketing in the world is quite the same.

They finish and plop down in the wet grass. Like all predators they sniff the air and scan the area to get a better idea of what threats and opportunities are out there for them. I’m cold. It’s been a long week and I’m ready to go in and write for a while before hitting the rack.

It takes a while to get them up the stairs and inside. They’re old and their joints don’t work all that well. She needs to be lifted up the stairs and he has but tentative steps when approaching the back steps. But he makes it. Another day, another battle won.

I sliced up a batch of lemons and squeezed a few into my favorite beer stein. I don’t honestly know if I’ve ever had beer in that thing. Lots of lemons and Splenda, that’s for sure. And now I’m about to have a very nice looking macaroon or twelve. And I’m thinking.

I’m thinking harder than I ever have since starting this blog about writing about national politics. And I don’t want to alienate my audience by doing so. But there is a quote from Edmund Burke that keeps coming back to me over the last twelve hours while I pondered this blog post that’s occupied my mind: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Doesn’t ring a bell? Perhaps this paraphrase which is attributed to him will bring it to you: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

The quote is in dispute. My conundrum is not. I am asking for advice from the readers, especially my fellow authors and bloggers as to the advisability of posting a strong opinion on a political subject here. Please leave a comment and I will not publish it, but I will read it.

I purposely buried this at the bottom of an otherwise innocuous post so as to attract the attention of my “regulars.” Thank you for your consideration.

The glamorous world of voice over work.

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(Disclaimer: I am not a regular in the studio. I do just enough work to allow me to take an extra vacation every year. Others may/will differ with my opinions and have different experiences in this field. You have been warned.)

Part 3 in the voice over march to boredom.

Not the studio microphone but it sure was handy for this photo.

I know some of you are just skipping right to the tuba videos. That’s fine. But today’s installment will save voice over talents a lot of money, embarrassment, and agony down the road. It’s all about doing your “demo” and doing it right.

Just for the sake of argument let’s presume that you’ve made it through enough acting classes that you have a level of confidence somewhat higher than whale poop in the Marianas Trench. You’re ready to go out and get work as a voice talent! No you aren’t.

Standing in front of that microphone in your classroom for a whopping 10 hours over the last ten weeks didn’t prepare you for what you’re going to face. For starters, how versatile are you? Can you do anything but a straight read of simple copy? Can you do a respectable accent? What about cartoon voices? High register or low register? Are you ready to work with another actor and not walk all over each other? Or, perhaps more importantly, are you ready to work with another actor, take direction, and walk over each other just the right amount? Mind you, most of the “mixed audio” can be fixed in post production. But you have to build the sense of timing that is required to sound like it’s happening live. You have to keep the same level of enthusiasm and energy through dozens of takes and one-line repeats. It’s not uncommon to do a whole dialogue and find the man on the board or the client asking you to read just one line differently. It has to sound like the stuff that came before it if they are going to edit it into the mix. And that’s a demanding skill.

How do you get these skills? For starters you need to find a partner or two to practice with on a regular basis. Maybe it’s someone in your class that wants to work with you every week. Perhaps it’s a theater group where you can run lines with someone. You won’t be in the play, but you help the actors memorize their lines. You grow from that experience as well. Or, you can really luck out and do what I did: read books for the blind.

To hop back to the Christian nature of this blog for a moment, what could be better than serving a brother or sister in need while improving your skills? I’ve read plenty of books for the blind, and not just in a formal setting. One year for Christmas I asked a blind friend what books they’d like read for them. No having to wait for anyone to get to it, I churned the book out in a few weeks. It was a gift of love. And to this day she probably still laughs at this silly white boy reading Steve Harvey’s book just for her.

But I suspended the reality of who I was while I read it for her. She told me that she’d forever hear my voice when Steve was talking. That’s pretty cool. All of my reading for the blind was interesting. I read everything from technical manuals on the Australian phone network’s bar switching system of the 1960’s (obscure, I’ll grant you, but that degree in computer science/telecommunications finally paid off) to sex offender manuals for the state prison. I read books on the feminist nature of the Queen in the history of the game of chess and electrical code manuals. I read the newspaper live on the radio and I read high school history books. I read it all.

And during that experience I strengthened my voice to the point where I could walk into a studio and work for two hours without a worry. I learned that this “talking” job was tough. I couldn’t talk for more than 2 hours nonstop when I started. And now I can (and there’s plenty of people who will sadly vouch for this) talk for hours and hours and hours… You need that ability to do a good job recording.

And that’s the point of today’s missive. You will eventually do that “demo” I mentioned earlier. Find a good studio to record in and ask questions. Make sure that you get a good engineer and that they will do the music and background noise for your recording. Make sure that the price is reasonable as well. Most studios will give aspiring talents a good rate with the understanding that they are also scouting talent. So don’t appear in front of that talent scout until you’re ready. Spend enough time to prepare 20 different commercials/industrial reads (reading technical material) and possibly an audio book before you even think about booking time. Rehearse it until you can do it in your sleep. And the get some sleep before going to the studio.

Don’t go dirt cheap on the studio. Lots of “schools” will record your demo. They usually stink. They do it in a room not designed for the recording of this kind of material and they don’t have the right equipment. Don’t record it on your uncle Lester’s gear he uses for his garage band. Find a competent professional who does commercial work. They are your best bet. Without them, you are probably wasting your money.

Take direction when you do your demo. I lucked out and the man who ran the board for me was an old pro in the area who’s now retired. He was a great director, thousands of hours in the studio. And he brought out the best in me. Here’s a link to my demo joecourtemancheaddemo. The only problem with it is the first spot is slow. That was not his fault, it was my choice. And I regret it today. He tried to warn me but I was too headstrong. But once you get past that it’s a great demo for a new artist. I’m still using it years later.

Here’s another thing you will want to do: get all the files in file format of the recording software as well as mp3/.wav format. That way you can manipulate them later.

And you have one more thing to do before you approach an agent – get a good “head shot” done so they know what you look like. Every agency will want one at some point, either for their website or their “book.” (It looks like mugshots of pretty people… until you get to my page. Big clients get a copy or online access so they can take a look at who’s available for work.)

Yes, people want to know what that voice looks like. Silly but it’s the plain truth. Don’t go get a glamour shot done with lots of cleavage (I tried it and it turned out funny.) Go to a professional who specializes in theatrical work. I use Jennifer Bong for my headshots. She even makes a clown like me look good. There’s an added bonus to this picture: it might land you some on camera work. I’ve done more than a few commercials and modeling jobs based on my voice over photo. I filled a need I didn’t even know existed. So go get that picture done before you start banging on doors. It shouldn’t cost more than $300 to get it done including rights to the picture. Be very wary of agencies that “require” you use their photographer. Reputable talent agents will not do that to you.

Now you’re ready to go out and land an agent or some work. What kind of niche does your voice fit into? Are you going to do technical reads or zany commercials? Will books be the venue for you? These are all questions to contemplate before Monday’s installment. And now on to tubas.

Yet another in our series of highly acclaimed tuba videos.

Three weeks and counting.

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In our lives as Christians we face decisions about our faith every day. I promised to keep political postings to a minimum on this blog, and I aim to keep that promise. Today’s posting, and a few more in the weeks to come, will deal not with partisan issues but an examination of each individual’s participation in their faith of choice and how closely they adhere to Biblical teaching.

This post is meant to provoke your conscience. Many who read this blog are Christians. And while I’m not ignoring any others who read this today, I am directing the post to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Each one of us proclaims Jesus as our King and Savior. We want to be, and expect to be, in His Kingdom of Heaven when we leave this Earth. And as a result we often separate the two as though they had nothing to do with each other. I beg to differ. If you do not frame your life in terms of that faith, and at least try and walk in it on a daily basis, you are failing to honor Him.

On November 6th my fellow Americans will have an election. I am asking you now, while you have plenty of time to do the research, to look into the candidates and issues you will be voting on from a Christian and Biblical perspective. Your challenge will be to ignore the world around you and think about that Kingdom that you aspire to in eternity.

I’m sure that many of you are already looking for a tuba video to watch instead of reading this post. It makes you uncomfortable to read it and consider the implications. Sorry, no links to tubas today, come back tomorrow. But if you really follow Christ and believe the Bible to be the truth, you have to open your heart and your mind to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And now that you’re prepared for the challenge, I’ll outline it for you.

You must eschew your identity politics. You cannot vote for or against a candidate because they are black or white, straight or gay, liberal or conservative, rich or poor, native born or naturalized. You cannot consider if they are a man or a woman. You cannot consider ballot referendums based on your personal level of comfort with your peers and how you “should” vote based on the group you know. (With the exception of some issues that have no philosophical nature to them. But even then, shouldn’t you include the Biblical teachings on stewardship and dominance of nature?)

Once you have cast those distractions aside you must make your decision based on how well the people and items involved reflect the Bible and the tenets of your faith. That means you have to look at their past, their platform, and their character. And you have to search your heart and look past your favorite issue and cast your vote with the Bible in mind.

Because if you do anything but go with the dictates of the God that you worship and hope to spend eternity with, you’re not being faithful. I’m sure that statement will upset some people. And I’m quite sure that I’ve voted for the wrong person on occasion in the past. But this time around on the local, state, national, and spiritual levels the choices have never been more clear in my lifetime. This does not mean voting for a fellow Baptist, Catholic, Jew, Lutheran, or Methodist. Many candidates take on a label and proclaim it often and quite loudly but vote for and endorse positions that are the polar opposite of the teachings of their faith. Look deeper than the “I’m a good XXX and I’ve always been a good XXX.” It’s probably not true – they are, after all, politicians. Look instead at the man or woman and read about them in exact ratio to the importance of the office. The local water control board candidates may not even have that info out there to find. But the ones running for the House, Senate, White House, and a host of other offices will (hopefully) have gone on record as to their faith as proven by their actions and votes in the past. Weigh those actions on the scale of Biblical teaching and make a Godly decision this November.

Are you prepared to look beyond yourself and vote with God? Are you prepared to declare your faith openly in that very private balloting booth? Are you enough of a faith warrior to be honest with yourself and God and cast your vote based on your immortal soul’s value system?

I’ll be back to this topic again before the election. You have time to think. So please engage that wonderful brain of yours and look to God for guidance.