 Hey, guess what? It's time for voiceover body shop. And our guest tonight is the lovely Christina Castaneda Who's gonna talk to us about audio drama? Hi, Christina. Hello fellas Great to have you with us. We're gonna talk about audio drama. And this is a great way for voice actors to do more voice acting All right, George is in front of all my radios Boom check it out. We're in the same space. Yeah for once I'm far enough All righty if you've got questions for Christina or for George and I about tech throw it in the chat room Jeff Holman is in there and we will get those questions to her and It's time to roll time for voiceover body shop right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website Isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes dot-com become a hero to your clients with a word winning voice over training JMC demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO B. S. In sync in the same room in the same room which helps a whole lot Yeah, the inner you know the internet interfering with all that but anyway Uh Welcome to our show. We're here to talk about voice over and we've got some interesting stuff to talk about tonight an Interesting weekend I had because I got to we finally got invited to go to a friend's house in Oxnard You're invited to go play at a friend's house. We're invited to go play at a friend's house now Here's the thing, you know, I had this sudden weird observation that you know, there are people You know, you're hanging out with people who look like your parents because you forget that you're as old as they are It's like well, this is this is weird, you know, and he's mixing up martinis. I'm like, wow Yeah, it's it's fun to go hang out at a friend's beach house Yes, but waiting for seven years to do that here in LA and finally we're trying to meet new friends with beach houses That's the that's the thing you should be doing it anyway, uh, we're gonna talk about audio drama tonight and to Help us with that is somebody who does an awful lot of this Christina Castaneda is a writer and producer of the savvy creative podcast which features award-winning audio fiction with magic romance and dark thrillers Fully produced by indie writers and creative talent They also celebrate indie authors screenwriters playwrights and creatives who produce and publish their stories We're gonna talk about the scope of what's available out there and how you voice actor folk people Want to try it yourself or get involved? So let's welcome Christina Castaneda Hi there. Welcome to voiceover body shop. Hello fellas. Thank you for having me It's our pleasure. Great having you now. Now, I'll I'll leave this off by saying you found me Unlinked in not not a place that I hang out a whole lot But there was an ad there and you and I you hired me to do One of your one of your dramas, which was a lot of fun Yeah, well, technically you found me I put out the ad and you applied to me. Actually, no, it's not a contest. It's not a contest I was shocked to hear that dan was doing advertising and doing it on linkedin. So I was like, oh, this is new Yeah, I put out ads to my followers I just put out now casting put out a form then put out applications on linkedin Which I rarely ever go on linkedin because I feel like it's like facebook but with resumes so I just Stay away And yeah, and I got a lot of applications linkedin I got 50 and then I got a lot on instagram as well And I just wanted someone with experience with wide range And uh, we were on a crunch on on a deadline and dan you replied within minutes like I was really shocked And yeah, we just started working together. Yeah, just happened to be there in timing is everything. Yes Yes And as we say when the opportunity presents itself You gotta deliver and that's the most important luck favors are prepared and absolutely So, you know, let's talk about audio drama. This thing has been around For a long time. I mean before television. I mean, all right, let's go back. It goes around to the campfire Uh, you know where you've got storytelling and you know, and somebody's gonna be and he came down the path Anyway, uh, but it's a little bit different now on the internet, isn't it? And uh, so we get the opportunity to do what was used to be this great art form on the radio and uh You know, what got you into it? So I Had been in podcasting for years Not just for my own podcast, but professionally as well I did three live three live podcasts a week for beach body when I was working in the fitness business Yeah, two in english one in spanish And it went on every week and we did it for two years Every monday and it was exhausting And it was all like personal development interview style and although it was fun and it gave me a good background in broadcasting It just wasn't it just wasn't enough for me And I was a writer at the time. I was a struggling novelist who just like couldn't Put a novel together or just like it could never get through the second or third draft And I wasn't being taken seriously as a writer at that point Like I just couldn't get into the writers groups or anything and so Um during the pandemic I started reading my stories on my podcast just little short stories little narrations And then I started posting videos as well And I just my following just started to grow and my downloads started to grow And then I met chris gregory of the alternative stories podcast alternative stories and fake realities podcast and he is a major producer of audio drama On his own indie channel in the uk And he asked me to do voice work and I thought I've always been behind The mic or behind the camera. Why would I be the talent? I'm just having fun here And I did my first voice over with his Podcast that he did and it was the very beginning of the shutdown. I'd say april 2020 And he asked me to do more He asked to work with me and for me to write a piece for him and we've been I actually learned a lot from him and the uk is where a lot of this is so popular like they have the archers they have like a lot of network audio dramas And you know in the us Like you said it's old school. There was the shadow and dick tracy And like the very very like mystery noir shows Yeah, but the more I started working with chris and I started following his stories I realized that oh my god, what have I been missing my whole life? Like this is the form of podcasting I want to do So I started getting involved with more groups. I realized that horror writers Fantasy sci-fi are super big into this genre Which makes sense because you can do like the you know, pew pew and monster sounds and stuff you can do so much with it Just with the simple script And from that point on I decided to just start reading my writing again on the podcast and this time during the shutdown You know when we were in la it was when the riots were happening and it was so close to my home And I could hear like because it was there was stuff happening on venice boulevard So I could hear things going on and I just started writing like this really dark story And because that's just what we were all feeling we were all feeling the anxiety when it first happened And then the story just evolved into like this dystopian type of story and Then I needed an actor to come in and then I needed a director to come in because I thought Oh, I'm not going to do a male voice. I can't I don't think I could pull that off And plus I need help like I knew I wanted to grow it at that point So a friend of mine who's a director a filmmaker came in and then another friend of mine Started helping me as well. And then chris gregory with his help It started growing the fans our fans. I thought that they would be Like put off because I was doing interview style shows But it wasn't they actually really liked it. They were excited about it. We started hyping it up on social I started growing the downloads were actually double than what we were getting before and I thought oh my god I have to like continue this And I finally got back into writing and loving my writing again It wasn't like a book where I wanted to throw my computer at the wall And where like the editing process was so brutal when you edit a novel But when you edit a script it's fast, you know, like notes need to come in fast and things need to get out fast You know, like I have to send sides to a another actor right now And I'm just like, ah, you know, like which scene am I going to choose? How am I going to pro? You know, what am I going to do and uh, it's it's but it it's that part of that run fast and break things kind of Uh creative development that I really like being a part of just from my background in tech So I just thought wow, this is such a fit. I get to do two things. I love writing and podcasting I get to be on the production side of things which I already had that background in from working in the fitness industry and doing all those productions And it was just when chris actually introduced me to so many cool people and then I started joining all the groups and started You know finding the fans and I was like, this is a really loving community Like this is a really fun community and they are just so creative and expressive They take chances, you know, they really push the limits differently that you can't do in hollywood Or you can't do on a major network and they are Like all backgrounds all ages all races. It's really cool. And I also realized that I said, okay How many are for latinos, you know, how many are for the latino audience because they have telenovela radio novellas But it's pure Spanish or like, you know, it's It's it's super dramatic like a like a regular telenovela Right And then I just thought, you know We're not taking advantage enough of this So why don't I create something for us because I don't see enough of it right now and I started finding more actors I started finding more talent And it's just growing from there and now people are asking me. Hey, what are you doing because for a filmmaker Things are so tough for them to get their stuff made versus an audio drama You know, it does cost money, but it doesn't cost as much as you think and if you manage it well and if you Manage your time well, like you can still make something pretty good or you can make a few episodes You can make something an hour long, which I don't recommend we did that and that was a disaster But you can make something 15 minutes long Yeah, an hour long a heavy file with sound effects and all these different takes Oh my god, like we were in tears at that one and I said I will never write a long script again like 15 pages is my cut off Long is like what you think of audiobooks as long and Clearly like there's this dividing line between audiobooks and audio drama. We mentioned it. You mentioned it a little bit ago Which was You're no longer having a man kind of doing a lady's voice or Throwing to be a woman or vice versa That just doesn't in audio drama realism Yeah, you know, it's immersive. Yeah, it's it's immersive with an audiobook It's one voice and it's continuous and you kind of get lost in the story It's a different experience. This this is a whole different thing, but you can enjoy them both equally. That's what's interesting about it Yeah, and there's nothing better than when a listener either dms you or writes in and says, oh my god I cried at my desk at work. I felt like right or I laughed out loud Um or I was driving and it totally was scared like I had one episode where there's a crash at the end And they're like I was not expecting that or killing a rattlesnake and they're like, oh my god And I love that. I love being able to make people jump and react I mean, that's kind of what we do is writers. We kind of ha ha love to love to torture you just just a bit, you know so And and and george brings up a good point This is you know, we have a lot of people a lot of our viewers who are audiobook narrators This is this would be a whole new way for them to you know To be even more creative and be part of a part of an ensemble as opposed to just you know making yourself the ensemble Which we know some people who are very very good at that But I would think that they would also be fabulous at doing this type of work Because this is when you know if i'm doing an audiobook. It's like, you know It would be a lot more fun if there was music if there were sound effects You know the more more the kind of stuff that you know that i'm used to doing as a producer I know audiobook seems kind of restrictive doesn't it when you have all that production background. Yeah Yeah, when I was doing novels, I thought oh, I want to add this like music into it How could I let the reader hear it? And then when I came into audio drama? I was like, oh, duh This is like I was meant to do this But with uh audiobooks, you know, it's also the Um like the the dialogue tags like he said she said I said, you know Because you're still like narrating it and it like to me it was always hard to read things Like that as well. So because I've I've done some narration too as well For as part of my voiceover journey and that was really a huge change for me And I said I'm going back to reading scripts. I don't think I could narrate But the great thing is that we react to each other And you never know what the actor brings and that's what's really fun When we were doing the last magician the actor who played the magician the bad magician Um, he just delivered something that I was not expecting and he just made his character so sleazy and despicable Which was amazing And we were reacting to it and it was actually one of our best scenes that at least in my opinion And we used it to promote on social later. So it was I actually just really love that That part of the that creative process. Yeah, you discover so much. Yeah Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun Just doing it because you know a lot of us came out of theater and it's like well I get to do it again and But all I need is my microphone and the right room as george and I will tell you Once again, we'll remind you if you're just joining us. Our guest is christina castaniera She is a writer and producer of audio drama and has a webcast or i'm sorry a podcast called the savvy creative and Check it out. It'd be a lot of fun I was gonna say you have a good sounding environment. Actually like You're using a condenser mic. Yes. Yes. I am not everybody can get a good sound out of a condenser mic unless they've spent some effort Well with their space. So what are you doing over there? My daughter? Um, is uh, she just finished la film school Uh and in audio engineering and I can't tell you how many times she scolds me like mom You're lucky. She goes mom. Did you learn your lesson about echo? I was like, yeah That crumple pop app is awesome and she goes no mom not the lesson you need to adjust your mic You need to do this and she scolds me all the time because she knows that if I don't get get it right Then she's gonna have to help me fix it just like, you know, when you I feel like that parent who's always like kids I need your help with this So she actually told me, you know how to put a limiter on how to how to she she actually bought me a podcast kit For christmas because she was so sick of me And she's like here mom don't mess up this time and she she's into music But she actually was the first sound designer that we had I mean for the sake of our relationship She's not my sound designer anymore But the fact that the episode that she worked on was the one that got the award It was a good for her portfolio And uh, it actually helped her get into the music industry business But she's the one that helped me set up and then of course my son. He's also a gamer youtuber So he helped me with a lot of equipment as well. Um, so yeah, and and I say you can do chores You can help my podcast consultants in the house. Yeah, that's why I tell my kids You can do chores that you can help mama with her podcast and so they're like, oh, how bad is it mom? Maybe we'll do dishes Oh, that's funny. Yeah, really to work out both ways is a win-win for you They either want to help you with the podcast I'm a single mom too. So a single mom's gotta make it work. Yeah That's right. Yeah, if you've got a question for Christina about audio drama and the stuff that we're talking about tonight Throw it in the chat room. Jeff Holman is sitting in there writing it down personally on a pad and then transferring it to Into calligraphy into calligraphy then scanning the calligraphy. Yeah and turning it into cuneiform and then you know That's so fancy. I know it. Well, we're very sophisticated outfit What can I say? But if you've got a question throw it in there right now We'll get to it into in the next segment Uh, who's listening to this stuff? I mean, you must be talking to your fans and and what are they telling you and who are they? You know, I'm shocked that it's the fans are so much younger I thought like what would they want with a 41 year old? No, like who likes to play around with magic But you got to remember the young the generation the millennials and gen z years, you know, they grew up with harry potter The gen zers absolutely love They're the ones that you definitely can probably get some good recruiting if you want staff or if you want people to Get on board with your project because they grew up with youtube YouTubers are also doing this as well like, you know, because youtubers are they going to go into film? They probably could because they got the cameras and they got the audience But some of them did go into audio drama like markiplier, you know If you watch if your kids watch youtube, you've probably seen him obnoxiously gaming But he has his own Network audio drama as well. So a lot of the gen zers are going into this So I would you know, don't rule them out because they are definitely listening to it Gamers also and gamers are all ages too. Um, and I'm not just talking video gamers I'm talking like the people who play dungeons and dragons the rpg people Yes rpg people love audio dramas and when I go to these watering holes What I like to call them like discord or the facebook groups where they're hanging out because that's where I I get a lot of tips on how to do sound effects and a lot of tips on like when I mess up and I have a question where to find actors That's where I meet a lot of fans who are just like super hardcore And they love the monsters and you know, they some of them are game masters and dungeon masters Like I didn't even really know what all that was Um, but that's where like a lot of the hardcore fans are so you got to look in those worlds especially if you're going to do a fantasy or a monster based horror type of Script like go to those go find the gamers because they will be some of your big fans and when I was when I was younger My sister was a Trekkie like a hardcore Trekkie And I would go to conventions with her and you know My mom like made her like a little star trek uniform because my mom was a really good seamstress And I would just walk around and it was my first time seeing a convention where people were super hardcore into something And I just thought I hope one day that I can write something or put something together that would make people like literally dress up to the tea um Talk about characters with so much detail to the fact where like I don't even know how the authors keep track of it Now I have my own system to keep track of the world building but The way that they were so obsessed and like they it's almost like they felt like these characters were real I thought I want to be able to create that one day and you got to look for people Stories that have fans like that because most likely they're going to be able to You know like join in to your story. So like using things like magic and fantasy and mythical creatures and you know heroes superheroes, you know all that stuff using those kind of Tropes will will help you build that. So how are you finding your talent these days? Besides linkedin besides linkedin. Yeah Um, well, definitely. This is l.a. I mean If you know your filmmaker, you know your director, they're usually going to connect you And what I say is like look I need someone I can work with I need someone who's good on a long day I need someone who's actually going to read the script before they show up I want a native spanish speaker. Please don't be someone who's just going to come in and just say they're going to do An accent like I want you to be actual native spanish speaker No peggy hill high school spanish, please I want you know, I was looking for I was looking for you have no idea how much that happens I I was I was looking for a comedian So I would go and network with as many comedians because a lot of comedians podcast So I was able to find some in the podcasting world So and you just want to make sure that their voice is different from the other main characters because that's the hardest part They can be super super qualified, but if their voice is too similar It's not going to work or unless they could do you know impersonations or something Then it might work, but you have to be super flexible there So I use my network of connections first and then I and it's really hard to find people who are available at the time that you want to shoot and record so there's also that and Finding a spanish-speaking actor. I think it was probably Really really tough because I wanted to find somebody that was like local to la and all that stuff and So I I think it's also a matter of being flexible as well because You don't know The work ethic is most important to me like are you going to show up? Are you going to have a good attitude? Or am I going to have to send you home because and just pay you out for the day Which has definitely happened before so and yeah, I'm not I'm very quick to do that as well so I think And also being if you When people say that like they've heard my podcast before or they follow me on social media already and they're already engaging And they're already a fan of our work Then I am a little bit more likely to listen to their reel or to just hear them out a little bit or give them a You know put them to the front of the line When i'm looking through reels as well And also, uh, I mean there's so many things I look for do they have good branding on their site? Do they have good are things broken on their links broken on their site? Is what they do clear what they offer clear and Are their reels playing because I've even been on sites where I couldn't even access someone's Reel and that was a you know, that's a problem as well So, um, I want to make sure like all deliverables are tight and wrapped and And good to have your act together everyone right well, I mean together Yeah, I mean also, you know the when people are very responsive. That's also a good sign as well So those those would probably be the most and oh, I will I will peep your socials too as well I'm going to look at how you answer comments. I'm going to look at if you have legit fans I'm going to look at if you um have haters which wouldn't even wouldn't even scare me I actually think that's you might be saying something or you might be saying your opinions, which is also You know, I it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me if you had some haters in the comments or anything But I do look at how you interact with fans because most likely my fans are going to go over to you And interact with you So I want to make sure that you know you're answering comments or you don't have a lot of bots and spam and stuff You know, I always I do check that as well Interesting Once again, if you've got a question for Christina about audio drama and how to produce this stuff throw it in the chat room We will get to it in just a little bit Uh, one of the most important things new indie creators should know if they want to create their own audio drama I mean you've got here's a fabulous opportunity for voice actors people You know that george and I know who actually know how to hit record and make it sound like you know the way it's supposed to sound Uh, what what do people need to know to to get this going aside from the audio stuff aside from the audio? um how to find fans how um how to Make the how so when you're doing a film and this was also very um A very interesting thing that I noticed with the filmmakers and the audio drama You know, you look at a script and you're you're kind of hearing it not really seeing it You know what I mean? Like you have to instead of camera angles You're looking at sound effects to replace camera angles and things like that So you you kind of have to train your mind and train your ears a little bit differently It's really it's really a crazy thing your ears will even hallucinate sound effects for you But a good way to get started honestly, it's your um, you got to know you got to have that rock star team And some people like friends could join you like my close friend who's the director She's the one that helped me out and she joined me and you got to really really be open to tightening up that story And you got to really really super believe in your story Because there are so many moments when you're putting that story together And the actors bringing something different if you're working with the director They're going to bring something different the sound effects may not work the way you planned It's like baking a cake, you know, it may come out the way you want or it may not and You kind of have to be able to almost Lead yourself through this process because there's so many moments of imposter syndrome There's so many moments of like this is not going to work. This is not going to work and you're freaking out Right, but it always happens right before you hit publish too You're just like, uh, it doesn't sound the way I want I want to change this and you're like No, I have to get the episode out But you're you're really struggling a lot in your mind If you're doing this all yourself So you really got to get a good team of people you can trust of people who tell you the truth And just say like look there's a big plot hole here. You really got to fix that Um, or that just does not sound it sounds like nails on a chalkboard does not sound Cool at all, right? Um, and you have to you have to really Have that moving forward and then it doesn't take a lot to produce it Um, it it's actually You know, if you're overwhelmed by like how much it's going to cost to pay the actors pay this you can negotiate You can talk to people. Um, you can figure out some you can always work things out If you really believe in your story and you really want to get it out with me I knew then the last magician I knew venus magic shop was going to be great That's actually like one of my most favorite things I've done Um, and I knew like no matter what I was going to be able to make this I was going to find a way I was going to find a way to pay everybody and to get the marketing out there everything Um, you would think that people would just be on board to produce your story like isn't it great like You know a magic shop on the boardwalk and a magical talking cat. Who wouldn't love that, right? No, no not a lot of people did like it You know, they turned me down a lot and it's you know, sometimes you need more than money You need like a really clear pitch. You need a really clear way of saying hey actors join me on this This would be fun Like do you really see this character? Do you really believe in the character? so you have to You have to have all that very clear Before you start reaching out to people as well because that was the lesson I learned too was like, oh Magical talking cat not so interesting. Okay, you know All right, you have to have you can't have a little bit of the thick skin, right? Yeah well, I mean just like any business but um, you like that that was a hard lesson for me that I It was it was tough to get people on board It was harder than it was the first time and I wasn't anticipating that as much So I was like, okay, I need to build a strong team And I need to have a better plan I need to have more assets ready like sending the scripts and sending character sketches and everything like everything had to be solid And sent out and just you know, the way I presented it had to be strong if I were if I was going to get actors and The team together. Yeah. Yeah, having a team is really important I mean, I don't you know, we've learned that in video production. You can't do it yourself I mean, you you got to have an audio person. You got to have somebody who knows understand cinematography somebody who knows lighting and scripting and the continuity and all those things otherwise you're doing it all yourself and it takes 10 times as long And generally isn't as good. So Important important to to mention Once again, if you've got a question for Christina Castagnetta about audio drama and how you can get involved in it and What's involved throw it in the chat room and we'll get to her in those questions just a little bit so We were talking a little bit earlier about about Tech but again, not about audio tech, but what are some of the things that people need to understand in order to get this product out there product out there on Platforms or yeah on platforms. Yeah um, well, I mean Getting it out there like the best thing is like audio is definitely a lot more visual If you want to go network, you have the option to try to pitch to the network like gimlet on Spotify or q-code media or Wondry or all those places because you know like some of the big hulu and apple tv shows that you're seeing started off as audio drama podcast or narrative podcast as well um, also I would be um I I know I mentioned gaming earlier like you want to look for the gamers but you would definitely also want to be Looking out for the future as far as you know bringing your audio drama to vr You know bringing your sound design skills to vr um to the metaverse Things like that because a lot of our content consumption is moving in that direction and soon like you know All of us just doing a podcast right here. We're going to be little avatars You know talking and everybody who is watching us their little avatars are going to be in our audience You know comedians are already doing that in the sandbox or wherever they're you know hosting their metaverse So that's definitely where it's headed So if you can start learning that technology now or you can just even go play in the sandbox for free for a little bit Create an avatar, you know if you want and start getting into that world You will see that you know, not only that's where we're headed you can probably It's going to help you stay a little bit more relevant than just you know, here's another episode download it You know here's another film in a film festival, right? If people see you regularly in the metaverse where they can interact with you Um, it's going to be a way for you to keep your show going build your fans And also it's it's cool that you can be able to just interact with them. They can buy, you know, we have Magic in our episodes, right? They can game and buy one of our magic products and keep gaming that way So there's a whole future that your stories and your characters can live in this digital space And it's so fascinating. Like it's just really really going to keep growing. So I would definitely Go for the next step beyond past podcasting ar vr metaverse. Yeah. Yeah, I just be before we go you said you said sandbox Where you go go and there's that means a lot of things Is there a sandbox that you think of when you say the word sandbox? What do you think sandbox is a digital land? It's land in the metaverse. It's a gaming platform. So um snoop dog has his own land there Where like he sells like his little doggie metaverse avatars And you know, yeah, and his music blast there, you know, I hope it's having kids and possibly grandkids too I'm sure because it keeps you wanting to be engaged with that Those generations Well, if I if my son didn't game so much like I wouldn't have known a lot about this And if you if anyone has kids they know about minecraft and oh my god Yes So Why not get into that? It's because a lot of people like it's just gonna keep going up. So you definitely want to be Involved at and I've always been a geek for techie stuff like this. So And I just think well podcasting it's constantly constantly growing. There's over what 800 000 podcasts on apple. So and growing Yeah, and more a lot of them are inactive though, but you know, they're they're still it's still really hard to keep growing there What's next? So and how can I make these characters live without putting them on tv or selling it to netflix and then it just goes down a Abyss of You know, yeah, look at the savings on makeup alone Anyway, we're talking with christina cast in yada and we're talking about audio drama And again, you got a question through it in the chat room But we're going to take a break right now and we'll be right back with more of christina And voiceover body shop right after these messages Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smartphone But it's so much more. It's the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. 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I don't know, but I really want to do this I'd really like to help you Please go to vio heroes.com slash start That's vio heroes.com slash start and you can take our getting started in voiceover class Which tells you everything you need to get started as a voice talent And i'd love to hold your hand along the way and help you with that journey Again vio heroes.com slash start That's vio heroes.com slash start This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop And we're back with christina castan. Yeah, and we're talking about audio drama Not an area that you know, we really talk a lot about george. No, no, we have this is something completely new We've always been talking to people about you know doing commercials and audiobooks and e-learning animation Animation all this stuff. This is an another area that clearly is growing So we're really thrilled that based on the volume of questions. We're getting that obviously is true Right, we got a lot of questions. I'll let you take the first one. All right, let's dig in The first one in the queue comes from daryl nobles and he says greetings all question for christina. I love audio drama Where to get coaching For otr for the otr resurgence. I think it means on the radio I guess that's what that stands or on the road depending on So I got to admit i'm completely self-taught when it comes to the uh, all of this I'm pretty much running and doing this on my own and just pretty much learning acting from my director's notes And then trying online stuff like just to learn And producing I had that produce production Experience from working actually like those long hours before Where can you get coaching? Honestly? I would just say there's so many discord and facebook groups There's a really great discord group run by julie hoverson They do table reads two times a week So I do I just go just to practice And I swear there's one guy who sounds just like scooby-doo He like sounds his voice is so good and he does all these like things And i'm like wow people can do like it's really like wow people can do this And then sarah golding. Um, she's in the uk she runs also She she wants in a while her and I forget what the other guy's name is but they they host table reads as well So just join an online table read for audio drama. They're out there You just got a search in some of those groups, but facebook and discord There's usually people doing it. I practice there all the time Sometimes we do feedback on scripts and sometimes it's just to just for a little fun And it's really interesting to see the way people Interpret scripts and write scripts and everything. So yeah, definitely check those out Alrighty, uh, here's an interesting name. She shed critters from youtube. That's her youtube net. She put her name elsewhere I'll find it. Oh, okay. All right. Then I know who this is Uh, hi, I'd love to hear christina's tips on starting an audio drama group with college students We have our own radio station and this is the kind of work that'd be great Would also love to know how to audition for you as well Oh my god, honestly gen z years get them involved in this right now. They love, you know, they're great for youtube They already have um, most likely they've probably done their own youtube videos They know how to promote on social media too. Like they're great on social media So get them involved as quickly as you can get the theater department, right? Because in audio drama You get to have so much fun with monologues. You can't really do this in film You can't really do this in a lot of other genres. There's still a fourth wall that you're kind of thinking of It's just a bit different. I don't know what you would call it in audio drama But you get to have fun with that so get the theater team involved find those actors find the director From the that department or the filmmaking department You probably have great access to writers as well English department, you know, you got it all And you can definitely build an entire strong team from there and most likely I think if you just search a few popular audio dramas From either their favorite youtubers or favorite tick talkers or whoever is relevant to them They'll be on board. I'm sure, you know, you can you can actually build an awesome rock star team And get them fans for audio drama for life It'd be amazing Yeah, get the gen z years. They're great. Yeah. Now, how would someone audition for you? I mean, have you been auditioning people? I mean, you said, you know, you're looking at reels and stuff like that But are you auditioning people like for specific roles or is it gotten to there yet? Well, I do have a few open roles because we do have to shoot the next few episodes for venice magic shop Um, what else I have like a mean girl role if anyone wants to take on that I do have a form and a form link in my instagram if you just want to Add your information there To apply as well. I have, you know, google forms are your best friend So I put one there. Yeah, just click on my profile and you should see a form to Add submit whether you're a composer or a sound designer tech or actor Love it. Um, terry briscoe asks, hey christina Does everyone pretty much stick to the script or is there a lot of improv going on as well? It depends on the actor. I find it's always like one or two actors that will improv and some won't um I've only had that happen Once in venice magic shop. It was actually dan Who went off a little bit and then I only had that happen one other time with the last magician where they They did that as well. Um, I kind of like to see if an actor's interpreting a character I kind of like to see what they do or what they have to say um And if it works it works because I you know, I also remember robin williams used to improv all the time And it would work So if you're good at it, then I'll kind of let it slide But if we're getting carried away and we're off schedule, you know strict capricorn me likes to be on schedule So I will reel you back in and say, okay. Uh next scene But yeah, it depends on the actor depends on the scene and it depends What we're doing and if it works it depends Yeah, it just depends you got to be flexible when you do this, right? Well, you didn't stop it when I started doing it So I I figured I was doing the right thing It kind of worked a little bit now that I'm listening back You know, it kind of worked. Yeah Yeah, uh All right, we'll just leave it there, uh, jeff holman asks How do you monetize this who buys this stuff? Well, you monetize it like you monetize anything you solve a problem for people and they buy it, right? You solve a problem you help them entertainment can or lack of entertainment could be a problem for people to solve Sometimes they just don't want to pay a lot for it Um, my plan is to I'm self financing it through other investments that I have that are paying off very well right now um sandbox but You know, it depends on it all depends on your business model how fast you want to grow how What you want to pour money into do you want to make money for better quality of life? Or do you want to make money to grow and make more episodes? Like you kind of have to decide that and then um, I would say this why I'm looking into gaming because there's a lot of money to be made in gaming versus like, you know selling tiered prices on patreon and Uh, you know selling t-shirts like I wouldn't do something with low profit margins to me It just doesn't seem to make much sense. So I'm going to hold out and try to build the gaming Um, but there's there's not one way to do it people do sponsors people do merge people People monetize chat rooms like they do all kinds of things so, uh, you know, I get facebook bonuses and Bonuses for posting reels. So I mean you never know, uh, it depends on what problem you solve for people and what you're willing to How you're willing to do it that's gonna make money and reach the right people So I would say the best thing to focus on is fans like give your fans that love like You know and make a show that's uniquely for them. I don't care about awards anymore I don't care about any of that I just care about getting that email that says you made me laugh out loud in the middle of the work day Or oh my god, I was driving and I got scared and I you know, like it just made me jump Or we have one scene where this guy is like a fake profit and he's doing like this like monologue and his voice is super strong And it just like Can make the walls shake and I want people to be like, I believe you know You want people to react and just love you Like you got to focus on that first before you're really going to bring in a lot of money um You got to find the fans find out what they want Solve a problem entertain them and then figure out, you know, what can you offer that they'll pay for so absolutely Yeah, uh, you get the question from Ann Grist. Yes, Ann Grist. Hi Uh christina. She says remember me from brian rosa's class Yes from nashville, tennessee and I remember you and your horses Hey, how does a voice actor get into an audio drama talked about this a bit now? This is so exciting ps you look gorgeous. Thank you Ann. It's good to see you I I think it was 2020 when we last uh when when she took the course So you have a good memory, um, and I hope you're still going on with your podcast So yes, I co taught a podcasting course uh with london rail um for probably for about three years and uh, we taught people how to launch a podcast interview style podcast and um, and is a very talented voiceover artist and Yes, she is and um, I would say if you're going to get into audio drama find the watering hole Find where all the audio drama people that are losing their minds going crazy like me Um, where we ask questions to each other facebook groups, uh, discord chats go to those table reads and um follow them on social media engage in their comments and uh get on their radar So that way when you go and try to audition they kind of know that you're a fan or they know that you like their work and stuff and then um a lot of these Sarah golding who I mentioned before she has a newsletter called fiction podcast weekly and they list auditions As well, and I know I um buying some ads in there when I launch, uh, venice magic shop So you definitely want to be like, you know, where they're Where the inside information is and she's a great resource for that It's the fiction podcast weekly newsletter. She's really great with a lot of everything all about audio drama and I learned so much from her but yeah, um Chris Gregory who I mentioned earlier who who's the one who's I've learned everything from as well I've learned so much from him. Uh, he has sometimes open calls for actors as well and a lot of um Producers or people who are indie and creating like us will sometimes put posts for open calls So just keep an eye out for that But yeah, go to the watering hole go where they are Sometimes we go on those voice platforms, but not very much like voice bunny or one two three voice crafters or whatever We just get so much spam So we tend to stay off of those So if you're paying for those platforms, uh, that might be something to think about you probably would be good Just engaging with your favorite podcast so Excellent. Thank you for that note. We need more people to say that Those are a waste of money and time. Oh really you guys pay. I thought we paid No, no, no. We need to help people to stop using those platforms got off of those like 10 years ago. Yeah, yeah Anyway, george has a question here. So i'm gonna ask it since it was my turn This has have you ventured into spatial audio such as atmost mixers. So in other words lots of you know the Audio dimension to uh to your sort of vr for audio. Yeah Oh, no, actually, I haven't um, I can barely I barely do my own sound design Um, which i'm getting better at but no, I haven't ventured in there. No, but I will check that out Sounds like you need some help. Oh, I'm new to it too. I heard a cute cute code media podcast that was I was I heard about it through something and they were like you should take a listen to what this sounds like and the sound design was Amazing absolutely amazing. But that's a whole another level of complexity that at You know, you don't want to get into that unless someone lands in your lap Who says this is what I do and I love what you do and I want to do this for you Otherwise It's a it's a beast. It is. Yeah Yeah, uh, I you'd be surprised the production quality that you can churn out It's it's better than you often think. Yeah, um, but yeah, I will say there are yeah gimlet same thing I'm like, wow, how do they do this? It's like watching a video on your phone versus a big screen camera, you know big screen movie So yes, yeah, there's nothing to it if you know if you know these pck Uh, douglas voice guy you get this one. Okay. Uh, uh details without naming names obviously What are some of the things that you sent people home for? Oh just because I might have missed this, uh, but uh Was there anything that you know, just I guess it's a cautionary tale Just how to how to be prepared and be great on on on your sound set It was just it was it had nothing to do with the sound it had it was purely attitude You know the complaining from the beginning was a bit of a red flag And you know, it's such a long day when you do a shoot and especially you're straining your voice too So, you know, it's it's tiring for everybody because we had like an eight hour day And even though he wasn't even going to be there the whole eight hours first on you get on your complaining Then you tell me you haven't even read the script. You don't even know anything about your character You know, you're the reason why we have to do multiple takes because you're not prepared We have a three take rule that we started back with the last magician And yeah, and it's like come prepared and it was slowing up our day and then Just disrespectful to me and to uh, you know, I felt like he was just being an overall problem And I was like, I don't care how talented you are go home and I said, you know what? We're good for the day. Your your work is done here. I'll pay you out Thank you. Good luck. Goodbye And I I just I just want to let you know like you cannot be disrespectful I don't care how good you are you will not be disrespectful to anybody Because I'm responsible for everybody's work environment too as well And um, I wanted to be I want you to come back. I want you to enjoy what you do And I want you to focus on your character what you came here for Any kind of tension that makes everything weird is just awful. So yeah The work ethic is super important and the work attitude So he had a part two and that was how are the recordings actually set up? Are they these are online or do you always have people come physically into the studio and What more can you tell us about gear? Equipment a little bit of both right So if I if I see that you have good Sound quality Then we can do it online through clean feed or whatever we're going to use to record But we do it together If someone only has a few lines or you know, and they just can't make it and they need to record remotely then we can But I do love it when people come into the studio because first off we get content We get stuff for social media I get to meet them. I order tacos and catering. It's a great day. You know, it's fun. We go to Burbank I get to With the last magician it helped a lot to look each other in the eyes and plus when you have a lot of physical action Like we had a killing scene, you know stabbing choking things like that wonderful stuff, right? So it helped to really be in that room now if you're just doing a few lines and it's Um, it's not an action intensive climactic scene. Then yeah, probably you can do it remotely But I also just loving love to be able to have stuff that we can post on instagram have stuff that we can post on tiktok So we can promote promote promote As well. So it depends on the role it depends on the actor. So Um, so yeah Well, Christina, I I'm so excited that we had you on this was we had a great audience participation tonight This is a fascinating subject If they want to get a hold of you Where can they find you? You can find me on instagram at Christina with two a's cast on yada. Um, you can also check me out apple spotify The sabby creative podcast we have the last magician and coming soon is venice magic shop starring Dan Leonard as well And you can hear uh all of our actors and talents you will get to hear It's our first time doing magical creatures like mermaids and uh other Fun, uh creatures as well. So, uh, we'll be launching that very very soon Uh, so check us out apples spotify itunes wherever you, uh, listen to podcast Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining us tonight. This is this has been fabulous And I've been a great education for for our viewers everywhere. So good luck with that and uh, we will see you again very soon All right. Thank you for having me guys. Welcome. Bye everybody All right. All right. Well, george and I'll be right back and wrap things up get ready for tech talk right after this This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept To live online in a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the You know what? It's that time of the show where we thank our lovely wonderful amazing sponsors Source elements the creators of source connect and a growing suite of Audio production tools that allow producers to work remotely from their clients and their talent All over the world and you'll hear so many new technologies coming out right now that work on web browsers and Have these you know clever cute names. I'm telling you Those are all great and they're used all the time for producing podcasts and stuff But the jobs that actually are likely going to be paying you the big money Are generally using things like and specifically Source connect because it is a tool that allows the production To flow and run the way they are accustomed to the audio flows from your mic over the internet Straight into the timeline of pro tools and the engineer gets to work edit do takes They get to pipe in direction from the from the director Have the client listen in make an edit Get approval it all happens real time and that's why source connect is part of a lot of the biggest and best paying production So if you feel like you're ready to be playing at that level and you're seeing that word source connect pop up More and more often on scripts It's time head over to source dash elements dot com and get yourself a 15 day free trial And if you need help getting it set up George the dot tech Slash sc where i've got tutorials tips instructions and services to get you up and running more easily This is bill ratner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv well Another hour has gone by now. That was interesting No, I know we we I keep thinking. Oh, we've talked to everybody in voiceover. We've talked to no There's a whole another thing and it's a whole new You know thing that It's a it's a genre of interest and it's gaining this momentum And if you're not paying attention It might pass you by and you could be the next big thing Right in that genre of voiceover. So I was able to jump into it. It was a lot of fun I didn't know anything about sandbox boy. I'm really feeling my age. Oh god. Yeah, right Yeah, and and then there's discord which my son jack up is I do actually make use of discord for a couple things But the sandbox vr. This is a physical thing you physically go To a location. There's one in woodland hills And you strap it on with your friends and you actually Play in this virtual sandbox together. All right. I was I knew nothing about it. So you better believe i'm gonna be trying this I I I think this might be something we can have fun with Anyway, uh, let's see here Next week on this very show which we're about to do if you want to hang out Live while we do it because you can be interacted with it is tech talk number 78 Believe it or don't that's right. It's coming. Yeah, and then the following week Well the the messes and I are heading to france for 10 days. So all right So we can't do a show for a couple of weeks But you know, this is uh tech talk 78. This is episode 228 a voiceover body shop So if you miss something somewhere over the past five six years You can go back and find it. It's all there on our website and on the facebook page Just go back and oh that looks like an interesting topic or somebody interesting they talk to Go check it out. So, uh, plus plus we're also going to be running a an interview we did today Which is we're going to talk a little bit about on tech talk. So that that'll be really cool Who are our donors of the week? Well, we've got several but i'm going to take my opportunity. Oh, you've got a cute You've got a coupon code. I finally made a coupon code for bobs viewers, so if you're If you've been on the fence about doing a tech support session with george the tech myself um Now i'm offering you a discount finally You can use this coupon for your next service and you will get 20 off whatever your next booking is and that counts for webinars that we do live And any bookings that you do through this through the website booked Scheduled services. It doesn't work on the stacks and sound checks. It's technical. It's annoying. Sorry But it works on the other stuff. So anyway, try that out v obs fan 2022 Is the coupon code. Thanks stan. Okay, right. Oh, and by the way, we'll be back Live with our next show on may 23rd May 23rd got it 23rd. Okay. Make sure you're here putting that in my calendar. Okay, good Who are our donors of the week? Well, we'll start off with robert ledum steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant thomas pinto Shelly abaleno patty gibbons rob rider Greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions. Thank you. Welcome right. Yes, sir and martha con our buddy. Alrighty Hey, join our mailing list that way. You know what's going on I gotta send out more stuff on the mailing list Uh, and you'll see who our next guest is and what we're doing and if there's any special announcements We'll throw it on there. We also need to thank our amazing sponsors harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Soros elements bio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and j mc demos Our thanks to jeff holman in the chat room getting all those questions to us. Thank you Sumer lino another spectacular job at Directing this show. Thank you through all this craziness and of course lee pennie for Just being lee pennie. I mean, what does he need to be doing other than be himself? Well, that's gonna do it for this segment of a voiceover body shop Again, stay tuned for tech talk if you're watching live because that's where the fun is Uh, but uh, you know, it's not an easy business We're here to help you out with all the ins and out of the voiceover business Whether it be with you know other talents that are showing what they're doing and how it's done Or if it has to do with technical, you know, this is the place to come In the meantime, the bottom line is if it sounds good It is good. I'm tan Leonard and i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vo bs