Something happens to us when we become adults. A switch flips on that tells us, “Alright, buckaroo. That’s it in the ‘fun’ department. No more playing in the sandbox. No more dress-up. No more goofing off or running around just for the sake of pretending you’re a knight fighting a dragon. That’s it. From here on out, it’s only mortgages and suits and words like ‘invoices’ and ‘accounts receivable.’ Pack up your imagination instinct, because you are now an Adult™ and Adults ™ need to take things seriously.” [Read more…] about How to Give Yourself Permission to PLAY in the Booth
How I Record On the Go
Recently, my husband, Troy, and I went on a cruise to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We had a blast, and I was still able to take care of my clients while traveling. Believe me, we had all kinds of time to eat and play and get our vacation vibes on, but taking an hour out of our day to make sure all of my regular clients had everything they needed has led to long-lasting, wonderful business relationships. My clients trust me. They know I care. They know they are a priority to me. This has served my career well over nearly twenty years. At the end of the day, in addition to the super fun creative work we get to do. it’s all about serving our clients’ needs. [Read more…] about How I Record On the Go
Gratitude is Everything by Melissa Moats
Curl up with a cozy blanket and a mug of tea, because I’ve got a story for you:
About 18 years ago, I was sitting in the lobby of a local studio waiting for my recording session to begin. I was hired to voice some commercials for a Las Vegas casino client. I arrived about 10 minutes early.
(Side note: It’s always a good idea if you’re recording in person for a live/directed session to get there a little early, but not too early. About ten minutes ahead of time should do it. Otherwise, it gets weird for the staff because they don’t have time to entertain you! If you can print your script(s) ahead of time–if they’ve emailed you in advance–make sure to do so and bring them with you. Also, it never hurts to bring a bottle of water, a pencil, and a piece of hard sour candy just in case your mouth goes dry! Never assume the studio will have everything you need–though most studios do! I just like to come prepared. I’m kind of a Girl Scout like that) [Read more…] about Gratitude is Everything by Melissa Moats
Jacked Up: GEAR: The Final Frontier
I recently took the second biggest financial leap of my VO career. The first was the first year or two of lessons and classes, before I’d submitted a single word for an audition. The current leap was buying a pre-made booth, for— let’s just say— four figures.
But I want to be sure you all know that you don’t need an expensive recording booth to have a successful career. In fact, before making the jump to a pre-made booth, I operated in my $100 booth starting in 2012. [Read more…] about Jacked Up: GEAR: The Final Frontier
Are You A VO Perfectionist?
Do you overthink things? Me, too. (I’m a little weird about locking doors. I’m a double/triple door-lock checker!)
Thinking about overthinking makes me think of (bear with me here) voicers I see struggling to make their reads ‘perfect.’ I’m here to tell you that a perfect read is impossible. Heck, perfection is impossible! Who is your ‘perfect’ read for, anyway? You? Your client? Your cat? Millions of listeners? [Read more…] about Are You A VO Perfectionist?
A Take-Action Plan for Every Voice Actor
I often say that no two voiceover journeys look the same. This is because we all define success differently!
To you, success might be booking your first voice over gig, or finally getting your home studio tuned in just the way you imagined. To others, success might mean booking voice work on a regular basis or building up enough steady clients to leave their corporate day job. No matter where you are on your VO journey, I’m here to remind you to be patient, present and to take action. [Read more…] about A Take-Action Plan for Every Voice Actor
Jacked Up: Posting on Social Media and Your VO Career
Everybody has opinions. Social media lets you express them, but only YOU can control them. If you’re getting into business as a voice actor (or any other form of self-employment), you need to add a new filter: How would expressing myself on social media affect potential customers and my reputation?
Want to complain about (pick a topic)? Want to advocate for (pick a candidate)? Want to single out a bad client or lousy experience in VO?
THINK before posting. What benefit would you get for your VO business? What harm might there be? [Read more…] about Jacked Up: Posting on Social Media and Your VO Career
Tips for Practicing Your VO Performance
Building your VO expertise shouldn’t stop when you leave class. Here are three tips for practicing your VO performance!
1. Learn the art of paraphrasing.
Being an excellent voice actor means you know how to get to the heart of the copy writer’s message. We turn written word into spoken word and make it sound natural. In order to do that, we need to understand what the heck it is we’re talkin’ about!
Sure, we want to tell a great nuanced story, work our exceptional mic technique, and be mindful of how we ‘sound’, but are you ever guilty of focusing too much on how your voice sounds and overlooking the key points the writer is making? (We’ve all done it!)
Remember in school, when your teacher asked you to summarize a book or a chapter in your own words? Paraphrasing, baby! As a voice actor, it’s critical to be able to understand the general message of the copy well enough that you can put it in your own words in a sentence or two—well enough that you can paraphrase it!
To paraphrase a script, ask yourself these questions: What’s the main objective of this script? What’s the big idea(s) the writer wants to drive home?
Then, flip the script over (so you can’t see it—no cheating!) and then say, in your own words, out loud, the general message that the writer is communicating. If you can’t say it in your own words yet, read it again until you can…
Boom! You did it!
Next, quickly flip the script back over and begin reading your script again out loud. What do you know? It sounds way more conversational and less announcer-y or read-y.
When you put the copy in your own words, you tap into a more conversational YOU. And that’s what producers want—you!
2. Fall in love with lead-ins.
Another great benefit to paraphrasing scripts is that you can use paraphrasing as a lead-in.
What’s a lead-in? A lead-in is an unscripted word or phrase you say right before you start reading a script. I describe it as a little performance “trampoline” you can use to bounce into your actual “script-reading.”
Holy cow does it help! It’s a miracle worker. Why is that? Well, when you start reading without a lead-in, sometimes it takes a sentence or two of reading before you find your stride or momentum—before you settle in to that script. If you add a lead-in, by the time you get to the first sentence of the script, you’ll nail it. This is super important, because do you know what the most important sentence of the script is?
You guessed it! The first sentence! How your first sentence lands on the ear will dictate whether or not that casting director or client will continue listening.
(Now, do me and yourself a favor and rock that read all the way through, but if you’re gonna stress over any part of an audition… make it the very first sentence. First impressions count!)
Jacked Up: How Much Should You Know About Audio Editing?
WHAT? I have to be an audio editor, too?
I recently listened to an online webinar where a well-accomplished audio editor gave a class on Twisted Wave, an audio recording app. It runs in the cloud as well as on Mac computers, iPhones, and iPads. It’s my go-to editing and processing app.
So, I wanted to listen in to see how the big-city pros use Twisted Wave. (Lifetime learning; always a good thing.) And I did learn some things about this app I’ve used for 6+ years. The app itself is simple, inexpensive, and easy to learn—and all the time, I discover features I didn’t know it had.
But I also heard something in the webinar that’s worth sharing here: being highly skilled in a craft means you know A LOT about the craft. It also means you could easily overwhelm a rookie audience.
It’s like signing up for a painting class. Rembrandt shows up to teach and starts showing you little brush-stroke tricks he does to make water look 3D on the canvas. Meanwhile, you’re just trying to figure out which brush to start with and how to get paint on the brush and not in your hair!
With VO, you spend months learning your performance skills, being creative, and following directions. Acting. Emoting. Now, all of a sudden, you and your computer have to get up-close and personal. You have to take some audio you just recorded, do “something or other” to it, and turn it into the “finished audio” that your client wants.
Gulp.
Suddenly, you’re back to Square One on the learning curve. EQ? Compression? Normalizing? Room tone? Special pasting? Effect stacks? Racks? “Sweeten the audio?” Huh?
There’s a whole world of audio editing knowledge and skills that take time and practice to learn—just like with VO performance! You can decide that you want to be a skilled practitioner in two fields: performance and audio editing.
Or, you can keep the focus on your performance skills but learn a simple, straightforward way to process audio that works for most situations and is good enough for the client*.
You can “call it good” forever or just for now, until your brain can handle taking on another learning curve.
Eventually, if your passion leads you to VO work that regularly requires full editing and production (like some e-learning jobs and audiobooks at ACX and a few other publishers), maybe by then you can hire out the editing and processing to competent engineers. Let them flick their “paint brushes” like Rembrandt to make your audio soar. And while they’re busy with your audio, you can be busy making more audio for another gig.
*Contact TVAS to set up a private lesson with me on using Twisted Wave to fully produce your next e-learning gig or ACX audiobook.
5 Things I Learned as a New Full-Time Voice Actor
Back in February of this year, I finally said, “To heck with it.” (I actually said something else to that effect, but it wasn’t G-rated, and this is a G-rated blog). I’d had enough with only tip-toeing around my lifelong dream of being a voice actor; I wanted to go after it full-time.
So I quit my full-time job. I quit a secure paycheck. I quit predictability and dove into my booth and only surfaced for air in between auditions for more coffee (and occasional Frasier binges, because come on, girl’s gotta have a break). [Read more…] about 5 Things I Learned as a New Full-Time Voice Actor
