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Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

As it’s kind of a quiet Saturday afternoon with folks sleeping or running errands from the house, I took the opportunity to visit Voice 123 and submit some auditions.  As I’ve mentioned before here, my bookings, auditions from agents and production schedule offer me less and less time to fiddle with the cattle call that Voice 123 has really become. But I still have months left on my paid subscription so I figured I better get to it. 

It has been awhile since I sent in some auditions.  I threw out the ones I didn’t think I’d be the right voice for and the ever present low ball audition (especially those folks requesting custom auditions for message on hold…who are they kidding?)  I was reading one audition that had a low price for the amount of work required and the usage of the voice and was about to delete it when I read down a little further and notice an addition to the usually inane Voice 123 disclaimer on price which read: 

“Voice123 Team Note: We recognize that this project may be below Voice123 pricing recommendations. We have become more flexible with budgets as it was brought to our attention that we could be violating United States federal anti-trust laws by limiting the participation of voice seekers in our marketplace when they don’t met our budget recommendations. It seems that, legally speaking, it is up to the providers (the talents and voice producers) and not the marketplace (Voice123) to determine to exclude the voice seekers they don’t want to work with.

Right after the release of the new Voice123, we will be working on several improvements that will help talents and voice producers filter the types of projects they want and better match projects with talent and voice producers depending on the budget and experience of the talent. On (sic) the meantime we are trying to be flexible to keep everybody happy.”

 “It seems that, legally speaking,…” Wow, what impressive attorney filed that hard hitting legal brief? 

As you might guess, I find this disclaimer highly suspect.  But I am also not an attorney. I am however a big David Letterman fan (not the stalking kind, I just like the show) and I thought of a Dave quote when he interviewed Bill O’Reilly from Fox News as I read the Voice 123 disclaimer. To paraphrase, it went along the lines of “I’m probably not as smart as you are but my gut tells me 60% of what comes out of your mouth is crap.” 

If Voice 123 is going to be “filtering” projects and pricing in their “next” version (which it seems they’ve been working on since 1950 and which might be ready by 2010) why can’t they filter now? Likely, they can.  In my opinion, the real answer is Voice 123 will take any voice job that comes through, slap it up on the board and let all the $50 announcers quote that price on a $2000 job just so Voice 123 can jack up the number of leads they provide VO subscribers and thereby justify the company’s existence.  

As always….I could be wrong.

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, commercials, internet, marketing, message on-hold, narrations, podcasting, radio, rants, technology, voice 123, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you listen to the majority of voice over demos from most voice talents (especially the guys), you’d think that there must be a billion radio stations out there and each and everyone one is a CHR or Hot AC format (hey, I’ve got one too, so I’m not throwing stones, just making an observation.) The power voice or the raspy voice or the cool everyman voice can be offered by about a thousand voices.

But once a VO’s done his/her few contracts for the month (be honest, we KNOW who gets the majority of the work…it CAN’T be all of us), what else has one got? Well there’s the straight announcer voice that can be altered with a few inflection changes. OK, that’s good.

Let me ask a harmless question: are you a voice actor?

“You mean like impressions?” No, sort of, but more acting.

“You mean like my Homer Simpson impression?” Uh, no.

I mean can you leave your imaging and announcer voice behind and actually become a character with only your voice?

(Silence)

Hmmm. Well, while you ponder that thought, let me just point out that I have a very marketable announcer voice, and I have done my fair share of imaging work. But when it comes down to making money, my voice acting abilities are what sets me apart from many voice talents. It also allows me to pay a mortgage. Oh yes, voice acting isn’t about $50/spot work….did I fail to mention that?

Am I the greatest voice acting talent ever? Yes, when I am in the booth alone or in an ISDN session, that’s what I subliminally tell myself; but in reality, no. However to the producers that hire me for President’s day commercials or St. Patrick’s Day commercials or for video games, I am the best voice because I can bring their character to life like no other.

Can you?

That isn’t a “one-up-manship” question, but rather a way for you to critically look at your abilities.

I know some voice overs who will never be voice actors- the creativity or the vocal abilities really aren’t inside them. They make their money off their “money voice”. That’s awesome!

But if you have some characters inside you but you’ve never really fleshed them out or you’ve never strayed far from the voices you’ve been doing since high school, I’d like to offer you some unsolicited advice.

Get your ass to class.

Voice acting class actually. There you’ll find other voice actors of various professional experiences, abilities and talents who have gathered with a teacher they trust to develop the basic skills they need to create or expand a character repertoire. They’ll help you try new things without pointing fingers or laughing. It’s a group of sincere, like-minded folks who want to succeed and more often than not want YOU to succeed.

Finding a class in your area may take some work. I would start with some professional recording studios that often produce commercials or a college with an acting program. I alternate between two acting classes (mostly because I enjoy the students and teachers at both). The Voice Squad is run by Len Tobin. The Voice Actor Workshop of WNY is run by Toni Silveri who has performed and trained with some of voice acting’s greatest talents including the late but still infamous Daws Butler. There are some great national teachers who often take their act on the road including Pat Fraley as well as James Alburger and Penny Abshire; if they are presenting within a “state” of you, get your ass to their class too. James and Penny offer this voice acting teachers guide too. The Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) also have a resource page you may want to check out as well.

I also work with and train voice talent through the Voice Talent Workshop.

You’ve have got to stretch not just your vocal muscles but your creative muscles as well. If you think you can act, you need to try. There’s money in them there pipes…you just need to flush it out!

Tags: character voices, commentary, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If only jobs were as easy or exciting as they initially sounded.

The idea of being a chocolate taster seems like a good idea but if you think about it, maybe not. After a while, you are likely going to be pretty sick of chocolate.

It’s kind of the same thing when casting a voice for a production. There are lots of talented men and women out there who serve as professional announcers or voice over talent and can easily a voiceover your commercial, imaging project, on-hold message or video narration.

And I mean lots.

That’s where the challenge comes in.

Describing the type of voiceover you want

As the potential voice over employer (client), having to describe a voice you want for your project for a production house or on-line audition service will almost require a PhD in similes. If it makes you feel any better, voice talents are just as bad as describing their sound for clients (the over used description “voice of God has always struck me as a rather unqualifiable reference that always makes me chuckle).

But these totally subjective descriptions from clients and voice over talents are a large part of what makes voice casting an incredibly inexact science that rarely proves accurate. It’s not because the employer or announcer wants to mislead, but more because the spectrum of sound quality is so skewed to each listener’s taste.

Sifting through voice over talent auditions

If one voice over talent audition is heard, a hundred are heard. Old voices, young voices, sleek, rough, country-bumpkin and city slicker. The even worse news is that on some auditions all the aforementioned voices may be on just one audition.

Set some uninterrupted time aside and plow through them… it’s going to take awhile.

The weird science of voice auditioning

From the office secretary of a small business to the Chief Creative Officer at a worldwide advertising agency (and that IS how broad the range is of people selecting a voice talent nowadays), what you think you want at the beginning of the process is rarely what you end up with at the end of the voice over auditioning process. Of course, there are exceptions but usually the process of voice talent auditioning creates some sort of epiphany for the client at some point in the production process.

Whether it’s the special sound of a female talent’s low vocal register or the dead-on impersonation offered a male talent, a voice talent can cement an ad campaign’s direction or so amazingly enhance a marketing concept that a new campaign idea is born. It happens all the time.

Ultimately, the best suggestion for a client is to keep an open mind, even when you “know what you want”.

Going through the process

Here are some simple tips to get you through the voice audition process:

• Decide whether you want to request general audition recordings (which mean listing to generic voiceover demos) or if you want the talents to record a customized demo for the audition. While customized auditions are usually free (especially for non-union voice over talent) voices usually want to know a budget range to see if the project is ultimately going to be worth their time to audition for so…

• Establish a reasonable budget for the voice talent’s services and let the talent know what the “range” of that budget is

• Be sure to indicate the type of production it’s going to be: commercial, video narration, voice imaging…and be as specific about details as possible. This will ensure the voice talent can send you the demo that most suits your needs

• Be sure to indicate what format you want the audition to arrive as: MP3, WAV file or mailed on a CD. Voice talents are usually glad to give prospective clients want you want in whatever format you want it

• If you’re going to initially ask for generic demos, make two piles, keepers and tossers:
– The keepers you may ask to audition again with a more specific piece of copy or you may want to interview them, your choice
– With the tossers, while it would be more professional if you created a generic but personally addressed letter politely saying “thanks but no thanks” most voice over talents subscribe to the notion that they didn’t get the job they just auditioned for; which make the “you got the job” call THAT much sweeter.

• If you want a custom audition, make sure you provide pronunciation keys in the script. A mispronunciation is upsetting for the talent and frustrating for the listener

• On customized demos, be ready to hear the same script over and over….focus on listening for script intrepretation, tone and inflection. Don’t focus on the words or you’ll zone out (see the earlier chocolate taster reference).

Tags: advertising, character voices, commentary, commercials, narrations, podcasting, radio, technology, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I get asked all the time about producing voice over demos. I certainly have produced more than my share and its a lot of work for one minute’s worth of voiceover, job-getting magic. But you’re impatient and you want the golden ticket NOW.

Well to answer all the voiceover newbies, here’s the magic answer:

You’ve got 20 seconds, if you’re lucky!
Now get in line, cross your fingers and say a prayer.

You’ve just sent in your voice over demo for a possible voiceover job….along with anywhere from 5 to 200 other voice over talents.

In 20 seconds (usually less) a producer is going to toss your demo into the :

• “Keep for review pile” (which will get whittled down again until the producer picks “the” voice talent) or
• “Throw in the garbage” file.

Anyone in voice-overs (even the so-called “big names”) know a voice over talent is going to get rejected more often than they get hired…the numbers are not in the talent’s favor no matter how talented.

Since most times the voice actor is not likely to be auditioning in person (especially outside the big 3 U.S. markets) you (the talent) have only one tool at your disposal to represent your enormous talent, range, creativity, charming personality, client-friendly demeanor, multi-faceted character repertoire and stunning good looks (in the eyes of the listener). That tool is your voiceover demo.

And now you’re only getting 10 seconds…this better be good.

A 10 second demo?

No, I was just kidding. The industry standard is one minute for the length of your voice over demo with segments of spots ranging anywhere from about 6 seconds to 12 seconds depending on the content. The point is that whatever the producer hears in the first 10-15 seconds will determine whether your voice has the exact (or very close to exact) quality the producer is looking for.

What is that quality? Only the producer knows (it’s very subjective) so all you should worry now only about showing your best work as professionally as possible.

Generic or customized?

Every voice artist should have at least one strong generic demo to be able to present to a prospective client (at the moment, the most favored demo format is an MP3 for e-mail and a CD for snail mail….and yes, the CD should have a professional look to it, not a Sharpie scrawl of your name across it).

Some folks create generic demos based on category…a generic commercial demo, a generic narration demo, a generic character voice demo and so on. Tailored demos simply mean the producer has a demo script he/she wants you to voice; if you are asked, do it.

How do I determine voice over demo content?

Assuming here we’re talking about creating a strong generic demo (not a category voice demo) the recommendations here are:

• The best or most widely heard of any spots or narrations you’ve been paid to create (this should include straight reads as well as character voices). Preferably you want the fully produced cuts on your demo, not the dry reads unless that’s how they were produced.
• Any tailored commercial, narration or voice imaging demos that you felt really presented your talents well.
• Determine your best work from all your categories (commercials, narrations, voice imaging, on-hold, audio books etc.). Then consider the type of work you’re most often hired or considered for and include best of all those segments mixed as you think works best.

When you’re done producing your voiceover demo….you’re not. Play it for other people in the business, get their opinions, and tell them to be cruel, put it up on some voice over bulletin boards that encourage member-to-member critiques. Take all the info to heart (but not personally, the critiques are about “the voice”, not you) and make the changes that you think make the most sense.

What’s in that first 10 seconds?

Your money voice. Every voice artists has one, some have a few. The money voice is either:

• That voice that seems to bring you the most work/that you’re most known for OR
• The voice that you can do well that seems to be in vogue among those who are hiring (at the moment, it’s the sort of conversational, everyman voice as opposed to the big-balls announcer voice).

Now the truth.

Voice demos are close to the apex of and imperfect science. It is an ever-evolving tool and one for which your lively hood depends…but no matter how good it is, your demo is useless if no one hears it. That requires marketing.

And that’s a subject for another day.

Hope this helps.

Tags: character voices, commentary, commercials, marketing, narrations, podcasting, radio, technology, tv, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Jack Nicholson
 
Michael Douglas
 
Demi Moore
 
Julia Roberts
 
The story goes that Jack was offered over a million dollars by a U.S. car company (or more properly, its ad agency) to simply do a voice over for a commercial some years back.  Supposedly he turned it down. Michael Douglas did not (although it seemed Douglas’ fee wasn’t so high).

She was an attractive actress as many were and are on soap operas but when Demi Moore was on General Hospital in the 80’s, what made her stand out more than her looks was her voice.  Keds noticed…so did Oscar Mayer.
 
And when America On-Line decided to slant their logo, round their typeface and freshen their post-merger image, they called on America’s most famous actress to help build membership. A fairly pregnant Julia Roberts surely covered the twins’ college expenses with her AOL voice over.
 
But bottom-line, what’s the value to the client paying the voice over bill?
 
Well, it depends.
 
And hadn’t commercials long ago become un-cool for A-List celebrities?
 
Um, sort of.
 
But what about the everyday announcer who doesn’t act in movies or television?
 
It’s just a few more swimmers in an already overcrowded pool, I guess.
 
The Value of Voice

There are no two ways about it; a celebrity endorsement can help build brand awareness…whether the celebrity is in front of the camera or behind the microphone. But for realistic brand and selling impact, the celebrity tie in must make sense…either by cutting through the clutter with a celebrity’s unique qualities (looks, sound, image, reputation, etc.) or by some sort of logical or direct tie-in with a product (a quick example would be a golfer endorsing and pitching golf products and/or apparel).
 
Does Demi Moore serving as voice talent for a TV spot for Keds women’s sneakers cut through the clutter? It did in my case…I didn’t think of her looks when I heard the spot…but her voice truly cut through the advertising clutter…it’s up to Madison Avenue to tell me whether women bought more sneakers because they “bought” Demi’s voice.
 
On the other hand, if the concept was that “America’s Sweetheart” would tie-in well voicing spots for America On-Line (America’s Sweetheart/America On-Line…get it?) it was lost on me after the initial “shock” value of having realized Julia Roberts provided the voice over. Somehow it made me think I was already paying too much for AOL’s service and now, if AOL had to pay Julia (a lot, I surmised), I was going to end up paying more for AOL. That didn’t make me want to stay an AOL subscriber. And I have nothing against Julia Roberts.
 
Are Actors Cool, Uncool or Just Trying to Pay Bill Via Voiceover?
In the old days, celebrities were expected to serve as pitchmen and women and accepted. Heck even newsmen did on-camera ads (Paul Harvey is the modern endorsement exception to what used to be a broadcasting news given).
 
More recently, it seemed un-cool for celebrities of any stature (fleeting as that stature always is) to appear in commercials…at least in the U.S. Brad Pitt has even done commercials recently….overseas. However, via voice over, celebrities can offer tacit endorsement of a product without actually being directly associated with it…it takes a trained ear to catch some of the relatively well known celebrities who are heard on commercials nowadays.
 
But hey, not all performers are really well known or always employed. When I hear David Duchovny pitching Pedigree Dog Food or Corbin Bernsen hawking Chryslers I think these are just folks trying to pay the mortgage between acting gigs…I bear no malice towards them for trying to make money.  But does such commercial work gel with their more artistic, less commercial endeavors? Should Fox Mulder really push puppy treats? I’m just asking!
 
The Poor Slobs Leftover

So what does the future hold for the rest of us (yes, me too) voice over artists in this growing circle of celebrity commercial voices? Well, whether or not we’ll need to wear shades, I see the voice over talents’ future as bright.
 
If a celebrity has the right voice for a spot then a producer will pick him/her…especially when it’s the voice and not the “celebrity” aspect that won the job. Kathleen Turner could easily become a voice over millionaire and there are fewer voices more recognizable or more listenable than the ageless Lauren Becall even when selling cat food (Fancy Feast) or discount retailers (Tuesday Morning). A great voice is a great voice and should be appreciated and enjoyed as such.
 
Better news is the new uses of the Internet for communication, marketing and advertising purposes…there’s lots of work for voice over artists who are sharp enough to embrace the opportunities the web presents. Plus, there are always plenty of reasonably well paying jobs around the world for aggressive, talented voice over artists.
 
Celebrities are taking some jobs because some companies need the extra push a celebrity voice can bring…initially. But whoa to a celebrity voice over that doesn’t positively impact sales and only results in a higher advertising expense lines…then even the most “in the moment” celebrity will become an “Apprentice” (i.e. “You’re Fired!”)

Tags: character voices, commentary, commercials, narrations, radio, tv, voice actors, voice casting by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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