 They hit the exact top of the hour there. Hey, it's time for VoiceOver Body Shop, and George has COVID, so I'm doing this alone tonight. So just be nice to me as if I hit the wrong button or something like that. Anyway, our guest tonight is Kelly Muzhinsky from the VoiceCaster in Burbank. Hey Kelly, how you doing? Hello, I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. It's gonna be a pleasure talking with you. We're gonna talk about the casting process for all those voiceover gigs that we all are desperately trying to get. And if you have a question for Kelly, throw it in the chat room, whether you're on Facebook Live or YouTube Live or are watching over, God only knows how you're watching this. People are watching on 50 inch TVs. Like, I can't imagine us being that big. Anyway, again, if you've got a question, throw it in the chat room. It's time for VoiceOver Body Shop right now. It's time for VoiceOver Body Shop. Brought to you by VoiceOverEssentials.com, the home of Harlan Hogan's signature products. Source Elements, the makers of Source Connect. VoiceOver Heroes become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training. VoiceActorWebsites.com, where your Voice Actor website doesn't have to be a pain in the butt. VoiceOver Extra, your daily resource for voiceover success. And World Voices, the industry association of freelance voice talent. And now, here's your hosts, Dan and George. Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard and George is off COVID-ing somewhere. Probably at his apartment. It's going around, guys. Make sure you get your boosters because they actually work. Because I've had all five shots and I've only had it once. And I got it in Europe. So, you know, anyway. He'll be joining us in just probably later on and we'll be talking with Kelly in a second. And it is raining here in Southern California. Like you wouldn't believe. You know, I was telling the joke. I had to go run back in the house to get some coffee and it's like, is the Calypso filming me as I'm coming across here? No, I know our audience knows that joke. So anyway, it's time to introduce our guests. And again, if you have a question for it, throw it in the chat room, whether you're on Facebook Live or on YouTube Live. And we will get that to that question a little bit. Anyway, our guest tonight is, as I said, Kelly Moszinski, owner of The Voice Caster in Burbank, California, voiceover casting and recording. It's a legendary voiceover studio that's been around for 45 years. So let's welcome to the show, Kelly Moszinski. Hey, Kelly, how you doing? Hello, I'm doing good. How are you? I'm great. It's great to have you on. And thank you for not having to drive over here in this deluge. Oh man, it's like, all the rivers are running up and stuff like that. But that doesn't stop voiceover Body Shop because we're here. So tell us a little bit about yourself. And the studio's been around 45 years, but I know you haven't. So it precedes you. How did you come about to become the owner and director of this particular fine operation? Yeah, so The Voice Caster was actually founded in 1975 by Bob Lloyd, who is, he's still around. We've been chatting a lot lately. But yeah, it's been around since 1975 when he opened it up. It was the first voiceover casting house in the country. Basically, it was something that he kind of put together and he was like, nobody else has done anything like this. And so he kind of branched out from, he was originally a talent agent. So yeah, he ran The Voice Caster. He moved into this building in Burbank in 1985. So we've been in the same location since 85. So a good long while. And then yeah, in 2000, Huck Liggett took over from Bob and he had been working with Bob for a while. Bob came to him, asked him if he was interested in taking it over, he took over the company. So he was the second owner of The Voice Caster. And then in 2013, Huck came to me after working with him for several years and asked me to take over. So that's the rest is history. As soon as I started working here though, it was one of those things where I was like, yeah, this is definitely a future here for me. So yeah, it's the rest of history. Explain a little bit about how your company works. I mean, people are like, I got an audition for voiceover gigs. What happens to it when I throw an audition out there? And how do you work with clients to get their productions cast? Yeah, so yeah, clients come to us and they tell us what they're looking for, what kind of voice they're looking for, what the project is, all of the details. From there, we then start searching for talent. We work with a lot of talent who are unrepresented, people that we just have on our roster who have submitted to us. Some people that we've met through classes and different workshops and things like that, but also just people who email us their demo and we like their demo and we send them auditions, things like that. So, and then of course we work with all of the agents as well. Well, most of the agents were selective. We won't say which ones. We're selective, I'm not gonna tell you who. But we are selective on who we work with, both in LA and regionally. So yeah, they come to us. They're looking for a certain voice. We go to our roster. We go to the agents that we work with. And essentially we just, we bring in the best of the best. Pre-COVID, almost, I would say probably 95% of our auditions were done in-house. We tried to get as many people here as possible so that they could get our direction. Not everybody had home studios and not everybody was great at engineering themselves and directing themselves. So, when everything shut down in March of 2020, we were like, okay, well, let's see what happens. We can give direction over the phone, over Zoom, if figure out ways to do it all remotely. And I think we had a quiet like three days and then just everything's exploding and they're like, we need voice over for this. We're gonna re-voice this and we're reworking footage so we can have a new spot come out, things like that for commercials and all kinds of things. But we were able to keep going through the pandemic. Just fine, because it never stopped. So the process changed a lot once COVID hit and did you have to think about how are we going to adapt to this? Absolutely. What were some of your thoughts on how you were gonna do that? So I think one of the biggest things is we were like, okay, so first of all, we have to rely on people to have decent enough equipment that their auditions still sound good. Because they can't rely on coming into the studio and having us direct them and being on our equipment. So at first I was like, gosh, okay, we can do this for a couple months, no big deal. And then several six months into it, we're like, okay, we're gonna be doing this for a while. Also, no big deal, we've figured it out by that point. So yeah, some things are the same in that we try to pre-screen as much as possible. We try to send auditions to specific people. Obviously, sometimes when we're sending out to the agents, they will also just send us auditions for whoever they want to. So there are some projects where it's, we're casting typically when we cast, it's we're probably 10 to 30 people max is usually what we're sending to the client. So I talked to a client today and she's like, oh, I just don't wanna go online and cast because I'm gonna get hundreds of auditions. Most of them don't even meet the specs. They're trying to be that something different or things like that. So they come to us to really narrow it down. And so yeah, I've even had clients who are like, I just want your top five. And so we try to be very selective in who we're auditioning. We try to still keep that up as much as possible. We cast a little bit of a wider net right now because we're not trying to just fill audition times coming in studio. And some people are better at self-directing than others. Some people also just aren't available. And so there are those challenges as well, but by casting the wider net, it's worked. We get to listen to the auditions, choose the best of the best, send them off to the client. And so I think that's probably the biggest thing that has changed is we've been able to cast pretty much anywhere. You know, it's like we're not as limited to people who can come in to LA or have a home studio because more people have home studios now. And we can cast nationwide, which has been nice. It's really opened up a completely different talent pool that we never really got to utilize as much. Well, let's talk about that for a second. But in the meantime, if you're just joining us, our guest is Kali Mojinski. She is the owner of The Voice Caster here in Burbank. And they cast commercials, voices for commercials. If you've got a question for you, again, you can throw it in the chat room. And we will get to that question. I'm sure you are probably loaded with questions like this one, because you are asking or telling us about, you know, people can audition from anywhere. Now, that doesn't mean everybody can audition from anywhere if they want to audition or get the opportunity to audition for The Voice Caster's, what does that involve? And how do you maintain a list of people that you know are gonna work? Or how wide of a list do you have? Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, one of the biggest things is we don't want to, I just, I actually had a client meeting shortly before this and she was telling me, she's like, gosh, I feel like, you know, there's another place that we used to use. And it's like, she's like, we got to the point where we were just hearing the same people over and over. And when we go directly to the agents, we are the same people over and over. And so it's been nice because we've been able to bring in new people, but we do need to get to know people. You know, we are selective. One of the things that our clients love is that not only do we bring them great talent, but we also have the personal side of it. I've had clients tell me, you know, like, I know you're not gonna send anybody who's a pain into a session. And I strive very hard not to do that. Some get by me, of course. Some that I didn't know were gonna be difficult, end up being a little bit difficult. But for the most part, you know, it's, we're pre-screening, even if we just, you know, have an emailed demo from somebody and they're like, hey, just wanna get on your radar. That kind of a thing, it's, we'll listen to the demos, see if, you know, it's, you know, whether it's a category that we cast a lot or not, you know, it's, we'll definitely keep people on our list, but we are selective about it. We do usually write back, it may take a little bit, so don't panic if I don't respond to you quickly, super quickly, but yeah, we do, you know, have a few questions for people. We, you know, just need the basic information and then we can get you on our roster. Super. Once again, you got a question for Kelly. Throw it in one of the chat rooms you're in right now. So people send in auditions all the time. I mean, as voice actors, I'm sending in stuff all the time. Everybody knows, oh, it's audition, audition, audition. It tends to be that auditions go in the inbox and out the outbox and then nothing, it just sort of goes away. And all of a sudden, your phone rings and it's like, hey, somebody remembers I'm alive. So what's the most important thing you look for with self-tape auditions or as we call them in voiceover business, auditions? Yep. What do you expect from actors when they're submitting their stuff? I mean, first and foremost, honestly, and I can't stress this enough is, it's just paying attention to the directions, labeling it clearly, uploading it to the drop box when we're asking for it to be uploaded as opposed to attached to an email. Some of the things that seem so basic end up being the things that people kind of overlook and they're like, oh, it doesn't matter, but it does matter because like I said, there are times when as selective as we wanna be, sometimes the agents are like, I'm gonna still send my 30 people and I do my due diligence. We go through everything. So the first things, there was actually a project about, well, it was like mid December and I ended up getting 1,200 auditions for it. 1,200 auditions? 1,200 for one role, one role that we needed. Is this like a lot of different agents? Yes. How wide a net was cast? They went crazy. So we sent it to the LA agents that we work with and a few of the regional agents that we work with because the client wanted to make sure we had some coverage. Again, we were only submitting 30 and so, yeah, I had to narrow it down from 1,200 to 30, which is no easy feat. So this is- What were some of the things that quickly disqualified people? I, you know, honestly, the first thing is labeling. If there were spaces where there shouldn't have been, if it wasn't labeled correctly, bye. That sounds harsh, but you know, please give me any reason to not listen to your audition so I can listen to the ones that paid attention and did it correctly. Otherwise, you know, if I'm listening to all 1,200, it's like, it's a lot harder to narrow it down that way. So it really is, just give me any reason to not listen. Late submissions, of course, you know. See ya. Yep. In other words, followed the instructions, guys. Sounds easy. It's amazing. I mean, Kelly, I can tell you, because we're both getting files from people and there's very specific instructions on how to submit stuff. For me, it's for audio quality and for her, it's here's how you're supposed to label your audition. Do it that way. Copy it, paste it, put your name in where it says, like, first name, last name. And people just don't, what, give me an example. Don't mention any names. Give me a good example of some really bad labels. I've had people just copy and paste it, put it in there and it still says the product underscore first name, last name. It doesn't, they didn't even swap out the first name, last name with their own name. So there's that. But yeah, I mean, I've had people just completely, just do their name or just do the product and with, again, without a name. And it's like, well, if that's a particular project where we ask them not to slate and I don't have their name in a file, how am I supposed to even know who that is? You know, so yeah, we've gotten all kinds of crazy things. Yeah, well, you just mentioned slating there. Give us some guidelines on slating because, I mean, I, you know, over the past couple of years, they're like, add, don't slate. If your name's on it, they know who you are. And I'm sure producers are like, oh, great, another slate. What are the general guidelines when people get auditioned as far as slating is concerned? I love talking about slates. Because when they're wanted, they are super important. It's one of those things, well, first of all, again, that's part of following the directions. Do they wanna slate? Do they not wanna slate? Slates are one of those things that almost become a signature for people. It's something where, like, when I'm looking through our roster of people, I'm looking through all these names and I can literally hear people slating their names. It becomes that important. So I'm like, I don't even need to listen to their demo because I hear them in my head saying their own names. So it can become that important. And, you know, the biggest thing with a slate is like, that's your first introduction. So it's having that smile, that confidence. You're introducing yourself. It's like you're shake, you're reaching out your hand, you know, ready to shake somebody's hand to introduce yourself. That's how important it is. I also think it's really important to have a consistent slate. So sometimes people are like, oh, I slate, you know, based on the tone of the script and things like that. And it's like, keep it consistent. Whatever that friendly introduction is, that is the next thing, especially on projects, obviously on projects where we're asking for a slate, that's the next thing. As soon as I play going through those 1200, once I've gotten rid of the ones who didn't label correctly, the next thing I do is listen to slates if we asked for slates. And we did on that project. So if a slate sounds bored or if they didn't slate, again, following directions, I get rid of those ones. It's the ones who actually, you know, I listen to people's slates and I'm like, oh, that sounds like somebody I wanna work with. And I mean, it's, for me even, because we do some animation and video game and character casting as well. And even when we're doing that, I want people to slate in their natural voice so that we have your natural voice followed by the character voice. Now, some casting directors want you to slate in character, obviously do whatever they're asking. It can vary from place to place. It can vary from project to project. Slating can be so important. And sometimes that's, you know, clients instantly, I'll be like, yep, I don't know. They don't sound interested, let's move on. We've even gotten to the point with a couple of our clients where we end up reslating everybody because they just don't wanna get past the slate sometimes. And I actually had a booth director book a job because he reslated everybody and we're like, oh, we really like the person who slayed it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So yeah, it's super important. And I think just a lot of people don't really talk about it. Yeah, no, I've listened to several experts, you know, people who are coaches or presenting and they'll say stuff. Okay, if you're doing a slate, this is Dan Leonard doing Captain Fred, you know, make it sound like you're really busy or something, do you see people still trying to pull off stuff like that? Sometimes, yeah. Or like, I have a few people, I mean, I can hear their slates in my head as I'm talking about it, who are like, Kelly Muszynski. It's like, they like got caught off guard, like, oh, all of a sudden I'm here. Those ones always make me laugh. Once again, we're talking with Kelly Muszynski, she is the owner of The Voice Caster in Burbank and they cast commercials and probably more projects than just commercials. A lot of corporate stuff and things like that and we can talk about that in a second. But again, if you've got a question for her based on all the stuff that we're talking about, because I know you're all wrapped into, this is how I get work, you might wanna ask a specific question about how to help yourself get that type of work. So back to what we were talking about here because we were saying that, you know, people, some people slate, some people don't. What are the trends that you're seeing today as far as style and what it is producers are looking for? And I guess it would depend a whole lot on what the genre of material is. But what are some general things, say, for commercial copy? Yeah, so for commercial copy, of course there's still the dreaded conversational. I mean, like we're talking right now. Exactly. But it's amazing when people get in front of a microphone how it can be hard for some people to get into that conversational zone. But then there's also a lot of confusion on what conversational even is. You know, it's one of those things where the word conversational drives me a little bit crazy when clients, you know, put it in specs because there are times we do some infomercial casting as well. And when infomercials tell me they want conversational, I basically am like, no, you don't. Because I know you don't. Infomercials are not conversational. But I think there's a difference between truly conversational, you know, where you're just having that conversation with somebody and actually talking, not trying to emphasize anything too much. You know, honestly, truly conversational can be pretty boring. But then there's commercial conversational where it's, you have to be relatable. You have to sound like a person, not the announcer. And I think that's usually, it's that relatability, the authenticity, the, you know, natural, real, you know, that whole thing where they're like, we want real people, not actors. That's always one of my favorites. Because actors aren't real people. So yeah, conversational is definitely, definitely one of those things that I also think is shifting, you know, we are seeing more on the announcer side. We're also seeing, yep, yep. And it's been fun because it's like, you know, getting to do the announcer side without it just being a parody or a spoof or that stereotypical announcer, you know, getting to do that in a more legit way is a lot of fun too. And let's be honest, like the conversational side, it's like you do a conversational audition and then you hear it on the radio or on TV and you're like, that's not conversational. And that's where, you know, and this is another thing I can talk about all day, but the difference between what you have to do for an audition versus what the final spot is going to sound like, because if you do what the final spot is ultimately going to sound like and you know it's going to sound like that, you're probably not going to book the job. So. So do you have classes over there at the voice caster you were mentioning that before? We do. Yeah, yeah. Tell us about some of the classes you offer over there. Yeah, so we have a few different levels of commercial animation and video games. I'm also doing an audition techniques class. It's a three-week class that's starting in a couple of weeks here where it's basically focused on self-directing, primarily in commercials. And yeah, we have a level one commercial class, which is just kind of an intro, intro to commercials, intro to voiceover, a level two commercial class that I teach as well. And then a level three beyond commercials class where it's, you know, we still work on commercial copy, but then we're expanding into all the other areas. So we work on phone on hold messaging, IVR, narration, whether it's audio book, industrial narration, animation, video games, infomercials, promo, just kind of a six-week introduction to all the different areas of voiceover. So if nothing else by the end of that class, you have an idea of how to approach things as you get the auditions. Are you offering these online as well as in person? Yeah, so right now everything is still online. And we're hoping that within the next, hopefully within the next couple months here, we're planning on doing a hybrid option so I can get some people, you know, back in the studio with me, but we also don't want to cut off the, you know, again, we've been able to have so many people who don't live here, be able to have access to all of our classes. I mean, we've had, we've had somebody from Kuwait in our classes recently. I've had all kinds of people from Australia and Europe and, you know, all over and of course across the country. So, you know, we also don't want to take that away from, you know, everybody else out there as well. So yeah, the plan is to kind of do a hybrid option. Right. So if somebody wants to take classes, you go to thevoicecaster.com? Yep, voicecaster.com. And yeah, you can find the information there, a list of the classes that we offer and all of that. And then you can always, you know, shoot us an email to get even more specifics on start dates and everything. Outstanding. Once again, we're talking with Kelly Mosinski from The Voice Caster. And again, if you have a question for her, I've got plenty of questions, but if you've got questions, throw them in the chat room and Jeff Holman is hiding back there somewhere with his fountain pen, writing these all down so I can ask her in the next half hour here. So, you listen to hundreds of auditions, obviously, because you're saying, well, 1,200 auditions at once, apparently. Yeah. When you're listening to all of these auditions, no, I can tell, when I listen to for audio problems and stuff, in like two, three seconds, I'm like, oh, I know what's going on in there. But what stands out or catches your ear? Maybe somebody you've never really heard before and they're like, okay, what is it that you're looking for? What are the things that stand out for you? Yeah, so first off, you know, right off the bat, there's usually some sort of, there's like a comfortability about it, whether it's the slate and I'm like, ooh, I wanna work with that person. Sometimes, you know, a lot of times when I'm going through all of these auditions as well, I'm listening to the first three seconds, five seconds, maybe the first few words. And I can tell in those first few words, if they're gonna move on to my round two, I essentially do my casting in kind of three rounds. And I'll see if they're gonna move on to the next or if they're not. And so, you know, usually, it depends on obviously what the client is looking for. Some of the first things that I can hear are gonna be the conversational relatability versus the more disconnected kind of announcer sound. And that oftentimes is a deciding factor as well. Sometimes right off the bat, I can tell if somebody is doing more of the final spot versus, you know, what's gonna book the audition. Also, you know, it just ad-libs, ad-libs, I love ad-libs, or any, yeah, yeah. Or anything that just brings it to life, whether it's a sigh or kind of that almost laughed sort of a thing. I like things like that because I'll be honest, with 1200 auditions, you know, it really is one of those things where I might get distracted by something else over here. And so it's like I'm kind of half listening. And so those are the things that kind of catch my ear. And imagine listening to the same thing 1200 times. It gets painful after a while. Yeah, it's like, oh, jeez. Have you listened to a bunch of like, and then forget who you've listened to? I'm good about like, you know, basically, I'll tell you a little bit of my process. I have folders. I have folders. So basically what we've been doing to kind of streamline the process, especially when I was finding out that like, okay, even if I asked for my top five, some agents are still gonna send me 25. So instead of downloading all of that from emails and missing things and things like that, we started a system with Dropbox. So essentially we send out a link, people upload their file to Dropbox, and then it's one big thing that we can download. So then from there, I have them all in a folder. And as I go through, I put them into other folders. I have a yes, no, and a maybe folder. So yes, essentially means that they're gonna go on to my second round. No, obviously means I'm done with them. So those are the ones that were either submitted late or the ones that were labeled incorrectly, things like that. And then of course, as I'm listening through, it's like, if it's asking for, you know, specifically an American accent, and I hear a British accent, they're gonna go in the no folder. You know, things like that. And so once I've gone through everybody, then my second round is going into that yes folder and then figuring out like, okay, how many do I have in the yes folder? So for that casting with 1200, I had just over a hundred in my yes folder. So I knew that was plenty for my 30 that I was gonna submit. So that on my next round, that's when I listened to the beginning of the first take and the beginning of the second take. So if somebody didn't do a second take and I asked for two takes, they go into the no folder. And so when that starts to narrow down then my hundred that I saw potential in. And then from there, you know, I'm listening to make sure that the two takes sound different. If you have two takes and they sound too similar, then right off the bat, I'm like, okay, well, I know that's what you can do. So great, if that's what I'm looking for, that's fine. But I wanna hear, I wanna hear some variation between those two takes. I have to hear some difference, even if it's just a matter of energy or pacing, anything like that, that's the most important thing. So making sure that those two takes are different. All right, once again, we're talking with Kelly Moszinski here on Voiceover Body Shop. Still got lots of time to put your questions into the chat room and we'll get to those questions right after these important messages. So don't go away. Hi, this is Bill Farmer and you are watching Voiceover Body Shop. It's great. From voiceoveressentials.com, it's the relationship savior, the multicolor LED VO recording sign, not just a stock on the air or recording sign. It's our exclusive voiceover recording sign. This brilliantly lit LED 20 color beacon tells everybody at home, which is currently everybody. Hey, I'm auditioning, recording, podcasting, narrating or broadcasting here. And a few moments of relative quiet would be very much appreciated. What's more, the wafer thin remote control lets you choose a multitude of options from color to brightness, flashing to fade in and out. You can even set up your own personal codes. Red means I'm recording, blue, playing back, green, it's a wrap. Plug in the seven foot long cord and hang it on a door knob or wall hook using the included chain. For voice workers, silence really is golden and gold is one of the 20 colors you can choose from. Order yours now for just $69.95 from voiceoveressentials.com. That's voiceoveressentials.com. And it's me again. And it's time to talk about Source Connect because George isn't here, he always talks about Source Connect. But I get the chance to do it without a script, without a net. Let's see how it goes. Source Connect is the way that you communicate with other studios. And so that they can direct you and you can hear them directing you and they can record you on their end. Which is really the best way to do things because they get the stuff in real time and they're able to direct you in real time. That's what Source Connect is. People are like, what's the Source Connect thing? That's what it is. It's what we used to call in the broadcasting business a studio link. So we're trying to let you know that Source Connect is the best way for doing this. There used to be ISDN. We said for like 10 years, perhaps it would be a really good idea if you guys started using Source Connect and IP-based things because ISDN's gonna become outmoded after a while. So here's what we do. We buy Source Connect. We hook it up. It's not that hard to get on your computer using their software. It's all platform-based and all you have to do is give them the party that is recording your name and that will allow you to communicate with them. So try Source Connect. Go over to sourceelements.com, download it, see how it works and when you're ready for it, you'll have it. That's sourceconnect.com. Hey there, I'm David H. Lawrence, the 17th and with my company, VioHeroes and my team of coaches and my community of voiceover talent, we guide voiceover actors along their journey. And you may be watching VOBS here and not nearly as far along as many of the other people who are watching. You may not even have started yet and we actually specialize in helping you do just that. So if you're watching all the stuff going on here on VOBS and going, I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't know, but I really want to do this. I'd really like to help you. Please go to VioHeroes.com slash start. That's VioHeroes.com slash start and you can take our Getting Started and 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, VioHeroes.com slash start. That's VioHeroes.com slash start. This is Ariana Ratner and you're enjoying Voiceover Body Shop with Dan Leonard and George Wittem, VOBS.tv. Hey, we're back with Kelly Mozinski and we've got lots of questions for you to answer, Kelly, because people are listening carefully so let's roll through them. Are you all set? I think you're still muted here. Let me unmute you. Uh-oh, there we go. It's just like Zoom. Turn off the mute, you're muted. Why can't I hear the kids? You're muted anyway. Let's see here. Our questions here. First from Play the Voice, Real Kids Voiceover Family is on YouTube. How frequently do you need kids? Great question. I would say probably once a month we're probably casting kids. It kind of depends on what projects that we have going on. We've been doing some kid casting and some podcasts that we've actually been casting, full cast podcasts, which has been fun. And commercials, they're definitely our kids. Kids are used quite a bit in commercials. So yeah, I'd probably say we have one or two projects a month where we're working with kids. Yeah. She has a second part to this. How much variation in loudness do you hear across everyone's audition? Is a louder perceived as better? Not necessarily. You know, I guess overall, I would probably rather it be a little bit too loud, not blown out and distorted, but I would rather it be a little bit louder so I can turn it down than some people, you know, recording so quietly that it's impossible to even turn it up enough to hear it. We try to teach people to modulate properly, you know. And as long as they do that, it's going to be loud enough. But you know, it's like, you know, either too soft or too loud, what's the right amount? And that's the stuff that George and I teach. Alrighty, next we have one from Kana Ali. She says, Hi, where he know he says or he or she says, I live in Senegal Dakar. Can I take part in auditions? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, we have people all over the world. So, yeah. Okay, so how would one, how would someone in Senegal send you something so that they would be considered to be considered on a consistent basis? The biggest thing is emailing us a demo, you know, letting us hear your voice, get to know you. We will obviously have some questions for you, you know, union, non-union. We always ask where people are based. If you have a home studio, you know, that kind of a thing. So, yeah, we'll have some basic questions, but then, you know, get to know you through your demo or any samples or website, things like that. Okay, how many demos do you get a day? Oh, that's a great question. A lot. Define a lot. I mean, like, after doing this, I mean, I'll probably wake up tomorrow morning, too. Yeah, quite a few. But, yeah, I mean, it's some days, honestly, it's only like five. And then other days, it's like, you know, it's 100 easily. It just, it all depends. Throw that into the outbox or into the inbox. I'll get to these tomorrow. I have a folder that's actually, I have it labeled demos to screen. And there have been times where I'm emailing somebody and I'm like, I'm so sorry it's been four months since you reached out, but I'm finally getting through everything. We're trying to stay on top of it, but sometimes it takes a minute to get back to you. I mean, you got lots of stuff to do here, so. Haley Porter asks, hi, Kelly, do you work with Canadian voiceover talents? Thanks. Now we have this joke here in LA, what's the third largest Canadian city in the world? It's Los Angeles. Yep, we work with Canadian talent all the time. In fact, I've had several projects, especially over the last year, I feel like, almost probably once a month where we're specifically casting Canadian talent as well. Looking for specifically a Canadian accent, which only people from upper Minnesota and upper Michigan can do. Or from Wisconsin or something like that. Oh, I think I'm gonna barf. Okay, let's see here. Terry Brisco asks, considering that we aren't audio engineers, thank you, what is the expectation of the level of engineering of auditions from voiceover artists? I know what I'm looking for. I have the phrase, what it's supposed to sound like, whistle. What is it that you're listening for? I mean, the biggest thing is having a decent quality. You know, it's not having the background noise. I would much rather have just a raw file that has the basic pickups and stuff edited than to have it be completely over-processed. I actually, I booked somebody a couple of months ago where the audition sounded great, client loved it. And then they were actually calling me in the middle of the session, they were like, he doesn't sound like his audition. And, you know, like we listened back and ultimately what we figured out is he just over-processed it and he just didn't sound the same even as his audition. So of course that was a problem with the client because they're like, we can't get him to sound like that again. So, you know, that kind of thing on the extreme end happens as well, but keeping it simple, you know, you don't have to be a professional engineer just to, you know, just keep it clean, keep it simple is really my biggest thing. Exactly, let the engineers do the engineering. Yes. And work with George or I and we'll teach you how to do it properly. Yes. And then you don't have to worry about Kelly going, well, this sounds like, you know, they're in a tube. I think people spend too much time on it too. It's like, you know, they'll spend an hour recording an audition that probably should have only taken 10 minutes. We can talk about that later too. But then, you know, they'll spend an extra hour editing and it's like, shouldn't have to be that way. Yeah. Terry also asks, outside of authenticity, what is a good way, a good way he emphasizes to set yourself apart from other auditioners? Honestly, personality. I always listen for personality because it's one of those things where every, not everybody, but almost everybody, I'm generalizing here. So many people want to try to be what they think the client wants. Well, guess what? The client has no idea what they want. Honestly, that's really, that's a huge thing. And I've actually, I've had clients, I had a client recently finally say that in a session after about an hour in just pushing the talent all over the place. They were finally like, yeah, we can't quite agree on what we want to do with the spot. So I was like, thank you. But don't ever try to be who, you know, you think the client wants, you know, be yourself. I want to hear that personality. That's where the ad libs come in. That's where the, you know, adding little things that just bring it to life a little bit. Those are the things that stand out to me because I want to hear you and you can be what the talent want or what the client wants. You know, that's really the biggest thing. Don't try to be anything about yourself. Yeah. And that's why it's important why we tell people, take improv classes because that's really vital for setting yourself apart. All right. Next question from Linda Joyce Minor. Kelly, since you're our guest, what is your favorite area of voiceover or acting in general? Because I know you're a playwright and a director as well. What's your favorite area of the entertainment business? Oh, I mean, I of course love character work. Who doesn't? But honestly, I mean, I do love the commercial side. Like I feel like there's so much to dig in. So many people approach commercials like it's just I'm just gonna read this commercial copy whatever and be done with it. But you can approach it the same way as you would a character. You can approach it so many different ways and dig into it. So it's, you know, I love being able to do that with people and the collaboration. I feel like the pandemic has kind of killed some of the collaboration. That's one of my favorite parts is I love working with actors. I love directing. So it's, you know, it's like the actors will do something and that gives me an idea. So then I mentioned that idea and then they're like, oh yeah, and then, you know, it's just that back and forth collaboration that you just don't get right now with all of the self tapes and doing everything at home. So, you know, really ultimately that is just my favorite part of all of it. Excellent. Already once again, we're talking with Kelly Mosinski from The Voice Caster. We're talking about how commercials and other projects get voices get cast. Catherine Jade Jarvie asks, is there an it factor when comparing two auditions that are similar? If so, how would you describe that decision process? Because I have a feeling there are probably more than one or two that sound exactly the same. Absolutely, absolutely. Sometimes it's just a matter of if I hear something, you know, first of all, your first instinct is probably most people's first instinct. That's not to say that your first instinct is ever wrong. In fact, usually I would say within the first four or five takes that you do when you're recording at home, one of those is probably the take that's gonna book the job. When you get into takes 10, 15, 20, then it's you're overthinking too much. So as far as listening to all of those auditions, if I'm deciding between a couple, sometimes the personal factor comes in, if I know people and I'm like, oh, this person is gonna be great to work with. Sometimes it's, I know this person has even more range or their two takes are even more distinctly different than the other person, then I'll go with that. You know, there's not necessarily one it factor. I would love to say that there is, that would probably make my life easier. But there really isn't, it is project by project. It depends on the two people and what the auditions sound like. Sometimes also if we're requiring a home studio, some of the clients are doing that, we're trying to get more of them to be open to talent recording in studio if they want to. But if they're requiring a home studio, then obviously audio quality plays a factor into it too. Listening to the auditions that way. Okay. Bill Hepburn asks sort of a similar question, but you can let yourself go with this one. Two part question, what annoys you most about talent? Oh. Well, first of all, one of the biggest things is just not following instructions or emailing me with a list of questions that I can literally say, did you read the email below? Cause that happens an unbelievable amount. I've stopped responding to those emails, in fact. So if you email me a question about an audition and I don't respond, just look through the email again, more than likely the answer's already there and I just didn't have time to answer it again. So that's one of the things that kind of drives me crazy. Part two is, what annoys you most about clients? Well, first of all, sometimes they're language in the specs, just using words either incorrectly or not how that need more clarification. Or saying one thing, yeah. And sometimes it's a matter, I mean, I've been on the email chains where there are eight creatives involved and it's like they all have their say and so they're like, okay, well, let's just put it all in a spec and I'm like, well, that's not. Cause now you're saying just things that are contradicting, it happens all the time. And so in those cases, that's when I usually tell people do two takes, do one in this direction, do one in this direction, don't try to do that entire spec all in one take because it's contradicting. Yeah. This sort of follows up on that from Greg Cooper. He said, should the first take stick to the specs and the second be on my own interpretation or vice versa? I ask myself that one all the time. It's like, well, maybe you're kind of listening to that little voice in your head as to what you think is gonna work best, I guess. Yeah, I honestly think it's whatever you feel is the strongest one. And for most people, the take where they made it their own is usually the strongest one. So yeah, I like to have some fun. And then that kind of goes back to the, what I had mentioned earlier about the take that books the job versus the final spot. It's like you can give the take that books the job first and then give the final spot second, you know. All right. Jeff Holman, our chat room monitor has a great question. He says, what happens when a voice actor's booth has too much outside noise for the client on a Source Connect job? Booth sounds great, but the neighbor might be trimming trees that day, et cetera. How do you tell the people you book how to handle something like that? Yeah, so especially earlier on in the pandemic, it was clients were willing to be a lot more flexible. And they were like, oh, you know, we can pause for a couple of minutes, we can adjust things, you know, like, oh, let's give it five minutes or the gardener's outside. Like, okay, well, let's reconvene in 20, you know, things like that. And now I think the expectations are a lot higher where it's more of like figure out the best time to do it and see if, you know, see if you can make it happen. I've had clients who are actually also like, you know, it's, if it might be too loud then, you know, maybe they need to get a studio and it's like. I know my neighbor's gardener comes on Tuesday at about 11 o'clock. So I'm like, okay, I'll go for doctor's appointments at that. Yeah, exactly. AJB voice actor on YouTube says, please explain the difference between the final spot versus what it takes to book the job take. So if you, you know, start listening to commercials with your eyes closed, especially TV commercials or web commercials. And you will hear that most of the time things are pretty much straightforward. It's aiding the visuals, you know, not usually doing a whole lot with it. If you do that for the audition where we don't have the music, we don't have the visuals, then a lot of the times it just sounds boring. Like, oh, why is it so flat? Why is there so little energy, you know, things like that are, you know, the things that come to our minds as we're listening. So that is your final take, your final spot take. And your booking the audition take is gonna be the one that has the energy, that has the personality, where you're doing a little bit of something with it, whether that's ad-living or just giving it a little bit, a little bit more life, being a little bit more you. Maybe it is a spot that tends to be a little more straightforward, but, you know, give it some of your personality. That's really the biggest thing, you know, we want it, it has to be interesting to listen to without the visuals and without the music. Catch our attention and then show us that you can do what ultimately is gonna be done. Okay. Patricia Andre asks, are you handling any Spanish-speaking voiceover stuff or with Spanish accent? Yep, we do both. We do a lot of Spanish casting. Excellent. We have a big Spanish project coming up soon, actually. Ah, bueno. All right, last question from Stacy Allen, who's on YouTube. What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a casting director and a business owner? Every day is different. That could be the favorite and the least favorite, right? Every day is different. That's one of the reasons I love my job. I love the people that I get to work with. Again, that can also be the least favorite as well. But for the most part, I mean, every day is different. I get to work with some amazing people. I love the collaboration projects, you know? It's like, I like to be a part of something. And I love that, you know, all the pieces coming together and I'm a part of that. And, you know, the actors are a part of that. And, you know, it's just, it's fun to get to work with all the different people and do so many different things. Least favorite part is, I mean, paperwork. Who wants to do paperwork? So I get to do the fun side of the casting and the directing and, you know, production stuff. But then I also have to do the business side and I get to do the paperwork and, you know, deal with all of that too. Well, Kelly, it has been fabulous having you on here as it always is. And I look forward to waltzing down the street and seeing you in your office. Hopefully to do an audition one of these days and see how things are going over at The Voice Caster. If people want to write to you, where do they write to you? Casting at voicecaster.com. And that comes directly to me. So casting at voicecaster.com. All right, and there it is right there. See? I can do this kind of. Perfect, you're amazing. I know, so I'm told. Anyway, Kelly, thanks for being with us. We really appreciate it. And good luck with everything over at The Voice Caster. Thank you so much. Alrighty, well, we will be right back after these important messages and get set up for tech talks. So don't go away. We will be right back. Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky, the voice of Rocco and you're watching Voice of a Body Shop. Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead. There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer. That place is voiceoverextra.com. Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level, stay in touch with market trends, coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls. Voiceover Extra has hundreds of articles, free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed. Learn from the most respected talents, coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books, auditioning, home studio setup and equipment, marketing, performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success. Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceoverextra.com. That's voiceoverextra.com. 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, voiceactorwebsites.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 voiceactorwebsites.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 voiceactorwebsites.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. Voiceactorwebsites.com, where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the, you know what. You're still watching VOBS. Well, look what the cat dragged in. Hey, I made out of bed, took a shower, and I'm here. Thanks to a little bit of help from my lovely partner who gave me great food, tea, coffee all morning and I think Paxlevid. Oh, good. Yeah, that'll give you a little bit of a saltiness taste in your mouth if you haven't noticed that already. It's pretty strange, but hey, I got diagnosed with COVID yesterday and I'm here now. So it must do something. Well, good. Sorry, sorry I missed that, but I'm glad to be here for the tech talk. Alrighty, well, next week on this very show we'll be doing tech talk. We're gonna do it like right after this. So if you're watching live, you get to hang out and be with us during tech talk and ask your questions and George and I will answer those questions. Let's see, what else we got going on here? You've got TikTok stuff you're doing now. Less than a half. Oh yeah, freaking TikTok. Hey, it's how them youngins do things today. Yeah, well, there's a lot of folks of our age group on there too I've noticed as well. So it's everybody's kind of latching on and getting into it. But yeah, I have some tech talk. I put up tips when I get around to it about once a week or so to tip videos and try not to waste your time on there too much instead of TikTok wasting my time. That's usually what ends up happening. Boy, you sound like a radio announcer with that voice of yours right now. It's not, my voice sounds weird. I'm even confused. Like I keep thinking, are my headphones must up or something? No, it's just my voice just sounds this way right now. Yeah. Here's our donors of the week. We have Grace Newton. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong week. Let me scroll up. Here we go. Robert Liedem. Steve Chandler. Casey Clack. Jonathan Grant. Thomas Pinto. Greg Thomas. A doctor voice. Antland Productions. Martha Kahn. 949 Designs. Christopher Everson. Sarah Borges. Philip Sapir. Brian Page. Patty Givens. Rob Ryder. Shawna Pennington-Baird. Don Griffith. Trey Mosley. Diana Birdsall. And Sandra Mannweiler. All right, you know, you should join our mailing list because if you were on our mailing list, you knew what it was we were doing today. Go over to our website vobs.tv and sign up to get on our mailing list. And then you'll get an email every week saying here's what we're gonna be doing this week. So that's really important to do. I don't think the mailing list predicted that I was gonna have COVID. But, you know, it's not clairvoyant. It doesn't matter. We were able to handle it at least this part without you. Tech Talk is another deal. Yeah, well, let's make it happen. All right, we need to thank our sponsors, too, like Harlan Hogan's VoiceOver Essentials. VoiceOver Extra. Source Elements. VioHeroes.com. VoiceActorWebsites.com. And WorldVoices.org. It's world-voices.org because that's the Industry Association of Freelance Voice Talent. Okay, now I have to get into the banners here and take those out. Oh, how do I take that out? I think I, hold on one second. I know how to do it. That's how you do it. Bingo. Hide. Presto. Got it. Get in the hang of this. Alrighty, our thanks to Jeff Holman in the chat room tonight. Thanks, Jeff. And Sumerlina, wherever she is, she didn't do anything today. But we do have to thank Lee Penny for being Lee Penny. So we're gonna get set up and re-rack for Tech Talk. If you've got a question for us about your Home VoiceOver Studio or Home VoiceOver Studio technology, now would be a really good time to throw it in the chat room so George and I can discuss it. And so that's gonna do it for us this week here on VoiceOver Body Shop. Thanks for hanging out with us. And we'll be back next week with Tech Talk that we're about to do. If you're watching live, you can be part of it right now. In the meantime, it's only been me, Dan Leonard. And this latecomer, George Whitom. This is VoiceOver. Body Shop. Or VO. B-E-S. All right, we'll see you in just a little bit.