 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop once again and George and I are here with our special guest Mark row Welcome to the show if you've got a question for mark and there's gonna be tons of them I'm sure put it in the chat room I know Jeff Holman is sitting back there somewhere with a quill and pen and Some probably some sheepskin writing down the questions so and relaying to them to us We're also on clubhouse tonight for those of you who are venturing way into the future as long as it lasts until my mother starts using it and And you'll be able to ask your questions on there as well We're waiting your mother's name actually Kelly cuz she's watching right now Anyway, we'll be right back with Mark grow and all sorts of fun stuff. It's time for voiceover body shop All right guys 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 of 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 a 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 our 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 comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites comm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes comm 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 Got that down. Well, I'm not in there our our magnificent studio facility here anymore You're just in the regular This is where I work. This is you know, this is the regular desks thing and it feels so real it does I mean the green screen technology is good, but I mean, this is just amazing Yeah, you know because I get to show off my radios and all this stuff my 1942 you know Zenith Consonant wait a minute. Wait a minute. This isn't green screen. This is not green screen. No, this is real my actual Hey Good timing on it. I think sue hit the tap-tap button right on time. No, it's for real It's really is the studio. It's kind of fun. This is a POV. We never we get to see on the show So I know I catch kind of like it. It wasn't working tonight Well, maybe we'll just stick with this. It's a lot easier. It's fun for anyone Yeah, we are celebrating 10 years over the next two weeks of doing voiceover body shop and and it's prior Incarnation as east west audio body shop Back when I was in Buffalo and George was in Santa Monica and I was shoveling snow when he was, you know, so fixing sand yeah but we're here in Southern California now and Enjoying it a lot and we're gonna talk a little bit about it on tech talk about some of the things that we've learned But again here five and a half years now Dan five and a half years July of 2015 I can't believe yeah, it's almost six years. We've been here and You know and if anybody wants some fruit, we're gonna have a lot this fall Once we get to have a party again, you have a fruit picking party your house We're definitely gonna have a party once everybody can get back together for sure anyway But we're gonna have a bit of a party tonight because we got one of our favorite people on You know and it here's the thing as owner of the legendary Mark grow voiceover studios a Burbank, California Landmark for over 35 years Mark has worked with Hollywood's elite voice talent for over four decades as a voice actor You can hear him as one of the iconic pirate voices on Disneyland's pirates of the Caribbean ride and Seeing that heard by millions daily on Alaska State troopers one of my favorite programs promos for shark week and DC's legends of tomorrow cartoon network and Nickelodeon parodies for Jimmy Kimmel live in real-time with Bill Maher and Hundreds of cartoons and video games welcome once again to our fabulous VOBS stage Virtually Mark Rao. Hi Mark. I had no idea that I was actually working. Thank you for that I Surprise We're doing great and it's great to have you back. I'm thrilled. Absolutely fact last time I think it was actually with you guys at the at the studio at your place. Well, actually we are at your studio That's true now. We won't talk about yeah No, that one didn't quite work the way we want so we owed you one and now here's your chance It only took eight years, but that's good I'm almost as long as the history of broadcasting Anyway, yeah, and the thing about it is you you've done everything I mean, I just went through a list of the things that you've done and I'm sure that's just the reader's digest Version of all the things that you've done. What's the most favorite thing you've ever done in voiceover? Well as a voice out the pirates give the ride was fun. I mean it hit During the session it was made very clear that you know, that was the last ride that well It was hands-on with and you guys are gonna be the voices for the next of you So that that was fun and now being at that age where you want to leave kind of a legacy. That's kind of a fun thing Um, you know, honestly a lot of the video game projects There's been some very very special things with even kids that You know don't get out much or having issues or medical issues or whatever and our love characters Whatever so there's something very special about that connection And you know when again, I mean we sit in a room and talk and sometimes realize just how much impact that has on people So that's kind of cool. What were the characters you did in that? Well, I say it's Lord stratosphere and we have to I mean Kind of them. I mean all the workouts. I just kind of depends on whatever whatever it may be whether if it's dead or muted And I'm usually there Is that on your business card? Yeah, because it should be We'll be seeing that on his website tomorrow. I'm sure when did you start the the legendary Mark Rouse studio? well, um, I Originally started in East Hollywood in a terrible terrible right off of Hillhurst when the ABC was still over there, you know, they have this wonderful Yugoslavian landlord who would come out and yell at me about everything and threaten to sue me He's with her you talk I can't talk about your cat shit my yard You know, it's like well, but thank you It's and he would be threatened to sue me again So anyway, but it was there and then moved out of there to a little building the commercial building on The corner of Hollywood Boulevard in Gramercy Place between the freeway and Western, which is a pretty nasty It's like oh look, that's not your elbow is it sir? Okay, it was a it was in a kind of a scary place Yeah, and then doubled in size they're tripled in size and then when I made the move to Burbank It seemed at the time like good Lord, it's like forever. It's like way out there Not realizing of course eventually everybody, you know, that's kind of a hot bed now But at the time it seemed like well going out of the hill and the city of Los Angeles charge an extraordinary amount of gross Received sales tax which was really absurd for a studio what a studio grosses and what it nets are kind of two different planes of existence So anyway made the move out there and have been there. I'm actually a little bit history on the building When it first moved into the building there's a wonderful company called stereo vision and stereo vision is the company that made all those crappy old 3d gorilla movies all the go all that kind So when I first went in it was a warehouse and the guy who is very well here Yeah, you've got rocket ships on strings and things all over the place and it's like well listen be kind of fun And so that's that's the building and basically now It's rather large and not kind of what even even through covert we're staying relatively busy with a lot Did you get to keep any of the props that? I wish I would have that and they had tons of 16 millimeter all of the all of the loads of stuff. It was like what would have been great to have some of that Localizations can you explain real fact because you I stepped on you there But explain what the localizations are You'll notice that everybody is scrambling for content right now, and so especially like with Netflix Though green light anything you'll notice there's some truly awful shows that probably were shelved forever and now they brought it back It appears talking earlier. We did Tom Sawyer You know Huckleberry Finn except they had shot it in Hungary So it's so all of the kids out of the ancient joy sport in cave and thought it was kind of an interest So we had to go back and read of same thing as as far as video games You'll take a large game that was done in it could be anywhere from Israel to China to Korea to and then we'll dev it into English And that's become a huge market same thing with Netflix And all of those really is just they want stuff done in the English rod and subtitle. So Yeah, I know my son's actually is working on a show right now. They needed somebody who was slightly autistic and sounded that way and One audition and he gets a job. I'm just like looking. Well, that's great good I mean, you know, that's an interesting it's it's a there's a you know It's basically dubbing doing ADR, you know for that kind of stuff and it's interesting You have to kind of change things on the fly realizing that the script is not necessarily gonna fit So of course you kind of make that up as you go and see but yeah, it's it's kind of an interesting Yeah, and now they do it like this this karaoke style thing which works really well Yeah, well, yeah that you got vocal queue and all the all kind Yeah, there's a whole bunch of different with you know, the banners going across the bottom to time you The amazing thing is to with with a system like Pro Tools You can nudge things and scoot it over here in time for president You can get lip lip. It's called lip flap when you get that actual mouth and it's like right on you very rarely Of course, unless you have a client who doesn't want to spend the money and it's not right on it's like, so Are we going now? Things aren't quite as in sync as they should be as long as he's happy with it How in sync do you want it? Yeah, that's when the price goes up By the way, if you've got a question for Mark Rao and as he continued our discussion I'm sure it's gonna bring up lots of questions for you throw them in the chat room Or if you happen to be joining us on clubhouse Let Danny know that you have a question raise your hand and we will get to that in just a little bit Let's talk about The different genres available out there, maybe we're just talking about ADR and dubbing and stuff like that With so many different genres out there to perform and and you do a lot of coaching. How does somebody find their niche? It's really, you know, I think coaching Traumatically helps with that to find out. You have a voice that's suited for a commercial and show a narration, you know There's you know station imaging. There's animation. There's video games. I mean, there's a litany of different things and It's really doing you know part of that I think is ultimately where you see yourself What would you like to be doing and then kind of using that as a stepping stone to work toward? You know, there are some people that are more suited for commercial commercial works Brett and better work if you want multiple agents across knowing chances are you're going to see a lot more return for your Investment doing commercial work because that seems to be the majority of what they get But that's not to say there's an awful lot of video game stuff right now The video game industry with with coven back in march did over a billion dollars it was like Wow, there's no movie that's ever come close to that as far as movie industry So again, it's a very captive audience and anytime there's something like this where you have a lot of people at home Voice over that the business has gone right through the roof. It's extraordinarily busy. I can't I've talked to a number of people who Say this is probably want to be financially anyways one of the best years They've had because it's just so busy as long Interesting point as long as you are set up at home and able to handle that Which requires a little bit more than sometimes in the usb mic and it they really are looking for kind of specific stuff Yeah, and we and we see it George and I have seen so much of that this year You know a lot of people who are you know, they were I was talented I would just go into people's studios Well, we've only been telling you for like 10 years or more that you really need to have a home studio when The rubber hit the road And now that's that's hugely hugely hugely popular now I mean, that's that they're asking for it's no longer just good enough for an audition They want to be able to use those files for whatever Whatever the project may be So you'll see video game companies requesting large diaphragm mic in 87 or an ointment tlm 103 or something You know, so it's just it's just it's kind of being pretty doesn't mean you that you need to necessarily go spend You know $8,000 on a mic 103 is not that expensive, but it's being prepared for whatever the if they say this is what they want You want to go? Well, sure. No problem. I can do it. Yeah Find a studio or rent a mic if you need to yeah as a studio owner though Because I've always been curious about this although you are You know, you're one of us along with being a studio Um Does the fact that everybody's going to have to have a home studio going to affect your business at all? Um, you know, I think some somewhat sure, you know, but but at the same point you still need A place to with source connect You still need a place to lock up to that's going to do the mix on the spot Or that's going to lock it to picture that's going to do all of that So thankfully that portion of it still stays pretty busy. Yeah Once again, we're talking with mark row about anything he wants only it's going to be all the things I want to talk about Uh, let's talk about demos because demos are you know, everybody got to get a demo have today Why are demos so important? Well, it's like a headshot for an actor actress. That's what's going to represent you. It's it's The same situation that even with auditioning an agent doesn't know you and the thing is too is that that's very much like a relationship There are taking a chance on you that you are As good as what you are seeing you are and you're taking a chance on them that they're going to get you auditions um So it's that that demo is really representative and I know people I I understand that it's expensive and I understand people You know, oh, well, you know, I've done really well with my homemade demo and it's I that's a degree of where It's you may have done very well You haven't done very well in la or new york or with major agents because they know immediately that that's what that is um, so again, it's it's also It's it's like hedging on a resume. You're not going to you don't ever want to lie outright But if it makes it sound like oh, you were the voice of lexus for you know, it's southern arizona. Wow, that's great You know who's who's going to know whether you're actually were or not So it's it's you're presenting your voice in a number of scenarios that fit and that's an important point Is do stuff if we're talking commercial demo two things that you would actually book that an agent would send you on That's one of the comments a lot where they'll people will put stuff on and it hits There's no way you did that. I would never book you for that job in a million years Yeah, that's what you know what what you do Yeah, and why would some producer let that thing go out of their door too if they're you know, if they're producing a demo Sure, very true. Yeah uh What makes A good demo, you know people are always asking us. Well, who should I go for a demo and where should I get this done? And and but they don't understand what it is that really makes it Stick out because that's what you really need is, you know, some Boom That's absolutely true. The key honestly with a demo is you'll hear about it needs to encompass your signature sounder And it needs to encompass this and it needs to come to set. No, it needs to be listenable You need to hit play and go holy come here and listen to this. My oh, this is amazing That can be comedy. It can be drama. It can be, you know, it could production elements something I use an adage remember writing a cartoon bit And usually what I'll do is rewrite stuff We'll use scripts to hone out where we want to be And then that's used as a template then we actually write rewrite stuff So we're not stepping on any toes that way it's specific to you But like the little girl's voice you hear the little girl very cute and sweet and you know, she Like that and gets out of bed and the little feet tap over to the door and it's opens up And good morning, mr. Bluebird and the bluebird chirps and she goes come on He missed your tree and the tree tangles and she goes good morning, mr. Sunshine And there's a great big thunder clap. She falls completely out of period and goes Hey, where's my sunshine? No, we'd be but of course, but you can't hope to go Because it's completely not right for that carrot and there's your hook You're not going to shut it off at that point You kind of wanted to get up and next and that's really the art to it It's it's leaving pieces that are long enough To let you grab what it is the person is is trying to accomplish and get across And yet quickly enough that if that's not what they're looking for you're on to something else Before they can hit pause or whatever maybe your poor rewinders just dump it all together So you want to grab that attention once you have it hold it Yeah, I mean and and that's you know one way I mean is it What's a if you're if you're when you're starting a demo I mean you've got what like three to five seconds to grab somebody by the gurgle with it Well, I think it depends entirely on what what kind of demo you're doing too You know, it's like if you're doing a video game demo that can be very dialect heavy But they need to be very real dialects. It's not like, you know, look at those lucky charms Oh, there's a photo go to think it's not that kind of you know, that would work fine for animation But you know video game they want much more realistic commercial. No, it's it's doing comedy again We've all done that. We're you know, it's obviously this come on. This is great. I love this spot This is hilarious. That's what the sense you want to create with your demo So that it stands out from everything else and isn't just this mundane. Yep, there it is You know, there's the voice doing this. It's like you want to do something that's fun You know or or again, it could be very dramatic You know, it's something that but something that the whole key to with with all voiceovers connecting emotionally with whoever that audience is And if you're doing that then you're in it's no different than a little girl sitting on the side of the road And she's crying. You're going to get down to her level. You make eye contact your facial expression changes You're like, wow, are you okay in that and you're making that connection And in this case, it's even more so because you're not there to work the room anymore to go Oh, hey, this, you know, it's basically the essence of you needs to come through an mp3 hit play and go wow You know and that's there's even there's an art even with auditions now To make stuff stand out because an mp3 is a player They can't see most people if you're doing two takes you do two full takes Well, then mp3 is a player. You can't see where that second take is and there's not a casting director on this It's going to go. Let me see is that this Yeah, there's it's not going to happen. It's like so bow me over at the top. It's an audition You don't want to do the same thing, you know on camera class You don't want to do the same thing the first eight people in front of you did exactly the same monologue Be you the only thing we all have the same copy. The difference is there's only one you So bring the essence of you to that and really shine Yeah, absolutely. Once again, we're talking with mark growl if you got a question throw it in the Facebook chat room or if you're with us on clubhouse tonight as an experiment You think it's going to work? I think it's going to work Yeah, we've already got one cued into the uh, excellent panel, which means I know there's somebody waiting with a question Cool. Excellent. Well, that'll be a lot of fun. Um Back to demos for a second. How many demos do you need? You know, I see people with like 15 different demos and they really break it down. You know, I think as you progress It's you know, I have a demo that I have a demo that's all bad guys I have a demo that's all creatures because I do a lot of that kind of stuff So if the agent goes, hey, can you have that there it is? It's like I'm giving them exactly what they want The the main reason you don't want to combine everything I mean I run into that a lot with well Can't we just put like commercial and animation on the same thing and it's like well if you're sending a Your demo to cartoon network, you don't want to hi mr. Squirrel That's century 21 real estate, you know, it's like what you know, and it's just and you'll lose And that's kind of the whole reason for having specific demos is that it's giving them exactly what they want to hear And in the context they want to hear so, you know realistically it depends on what you want to be doing You know commercial obviously is old school Very much like oh you have to have that and that's where you should jump off But if you are like a Razzle dazzler a dialects or you have a some really really good cartoon characters That might be a great place to start because you want to do something that's memorable that makes you oh, man That guy was wow, that's great Now they may ask you an age like if you're looking to get signed They may ask do you have a commercial demo and at that cross that bridge when it comes or have one in your In your you know cash of stuff to do But the key there is just again. It's really doing something that's memorable and whatever that may be Um, but again, you know and be honest with yourself And that's the other reason I think that having a coat is a good thing coaching because you you knock on wood should get Genuine feedback. I mean I've had people go. Oh, I do it dead on over a simpson. Yeah joke That's like well, that wasn't exactly dead on and Dan is not going anywhere. So Why? You know, it's like so do you know make the character yours? You know voice matching that's great to you know You can have a little section someplace that's that or a separate little piece of that same thing with Combining, you know, English and Spanish keep those separate if they're casting for an English spot Spanish is like what the hell is this Why is it and vice versa? You know, so you just want to give them exactly what it is that they want to hear and that's really the purpose for having You know as far as the amount of them that I mean the more the merrier as far as being able to give a potential client or a buyer specifically what they want to hear but Could be you know one demo it could be 10 Yeah, I've seen people with like 15. You know, I mean there's avi are French and German and Demo was really silly because it's like I remember a girl doing that. She's it's because I did a dead on clary starling It was like, well, how do we know that's you and not I mean Okay, we'll just take your word for it. I mean it just seems like kind of a mood point I have a demo that's commercials, but only while running at full speed. Yes That's a Steve Barton. No George Carlin joke. I can't say the real joke but In order to get an agent Is everybody we have a lot of people trying to get in the business like I gotta get an agent Well, perhaps if you had some work first it might help But is is the demo first thing an agent's going to look for or is an agent going to come looking for you because you're making money That's well the money is that that's the biggest thing. You realize that's hit there only 10 percent human Um, I know there's money in there Really, yeah, that's that's again, they're looking at what are you going to bring in the shop? They're keeping their doors open with 10 of what the people they book are making So they want to make sure that you're not just going to be sitting there That you're actually going to be making the money and and doing something But you know cross that bridge to when it comes people assume. Oh, I've had people that You know brand new so like I'm making my own demo. It's so like So what kind of mic is best like a usb and it's like Well, why don't you get a little training first and figure out the best avenue to go You know, which what's your best approach for this? And you know, I'm not a huge fan of pay-to-plays. I think they're they're wonderful from a standpoint of Really honing your licks as far as auditioning editing setting up a timeline for yourself So, you know at three o'clock every afternoon. I'm going to do this. I will do x amount of auditions I can edit these very clean edit in edit out and turn out a nice mp3 That's you know, not like we were talking about it really low bill rate, which is silliness And sounds terrible so that you know, it's nice. It's clean from that same as far as booking stuff I know there are people that make you know, amazing claims. It's the same thing with explainer videos Well, you know, I mean I I've been making 300 000 a year of a gaff explainer videos It's like, well, I have certain parts appendages that are 20 inches. Sorry So it's it's just I mean the idea of that obviously that I mean There's a lot of that kind of fodder on the internet a lot of claims and a lot of You're talking about you know, uh-oh good for the 20 inches No to make the end you know Really? But Oh, I love you guys. Anyway, um, so it it's really to me. It's just it's it's doing What you do the agent portion will come but again and there are agents that will take you don't set your eyes necessarily on LA and new york right jumping out of it because again If you don't have a track record their chances are they're kind of remiss to Want to bring you on You know, because the bottom line is you know, how much money are we gonna make? So it's not the days of the old, you know, swab drugs to a candy. You're gonna do great I come with this is gonna be grabbing to make a star out of you. That's not gonna happen You know, so but you don't get a couple of things under your belt. Sure You know, we do the same thing at the studio we bring in usually people that you're familiar with And and there's a way to market yourself to agent and keep that Power going so it's a new people have a tendency to go, you know I got three demos and they send them all at once with a cover letter and go, okay, I haven't heard anything That's like, well, no do it Come up with a nice place to do this then feed them this then feed them this now you have a legitimate reason to contact a person right, yeah, we we've got One of the other things you do is you do you do coach because coaching is a very important part of making demos You you have a lot of classes and stuff like that and there are so many choices out there And I know in our vast audience out there. They're like, who do I who do I coach with? you know and and What's a good way to determine what's the best the best way to go for you? I mean because you've got one-on-one working with some coaches and some have classes and workshops I mean, I guess it really depends on you know, how you learn best But All the other coaches are communists. Oh, well, there we go. It's Um, no it You know vet, you know go online look and see I think it's having somebody coach who that is in the business that works Doesn't hurt I think you know if they've been in the business why and know what the how this works and The process of an agent etc There's an awful lot of people that hang their single that make a lot of claims and it's like look and see if those claims are true You know, it's uh, I mean because I've heard All kinds of things from a number of of people that that I know For a thing it's like really they're they're teaching. Wow. That's interesting I mean, it's and I know that they haven't actually even actually done a paid gig per se You know, and it doesn't and it doesn't mean it's all about doing a pay But at least you'll learn like the difference like with me is obviously with the studio I mean you look you deal with directors you deal with producers you deal with writers You understand how that the whole process works and what they're expecting on that end and then same thing with agents I mean to deal with every agent in town. So it's kind of a different skew on things as far as what they're looking for Um, you know, how to handle yourself what you should send all of that kind of stuff And even though that's changed and because we're doing so much stuff at home You still need to have that that you know Essence of of you know, yeah, I know exactly what's going on here. I will give you what basically when you have a session Even at home you want the client going man This this is so far but much better than what we were expecting and it's like great and you're in and the That's that is going to be a return plan And that's the way to do it. I find a lot of coaches that I that I've I've seen Tend to try and recreate people in their own image as opposed to trying to find what is unique about somebody, right? And I I guess trying to find a coach that will do that that's going to teach you as opposed to Well, I think you're my methods and I think you know for you but for me, honestly, you're right I've been doing this for a really long time. I've been Very successful to H paid for let's see. I have two divorces three houses, but three kids through college So I'm ahead so at this point I'm a happy camper So I I to me it's much more exciting to see somebody else's success and get that email going Oh, man, I you know, I got my first enemy of feature. I just picked I got my first big video game I signed with this agent. It's like, yeah, that's I love that. I mean, that's that's great And that to me is a lot more Excited even that, you know, like booking a session because now it's like, you know, you know that I mean, when you've done anything for I it's been 47 almost 48 years That I've been doing in LA, you know, in the voiceover business, which has changed, right? But I mean, so the idea when it's, you know calls because hey, you booked a session. It's like, okay, where is it? You know So it just you know It's it again It's much more exciting to see that new blood and somebody else and see the excitement that that they're experiencing when they're Going through this and getting a job and stuff. I think that's great. That's that's what it's like paying it for it a little bit All right We're talking with mark row. We're going to take a quick break right now We're going to get to a pile of questions from our vast audience all across the fruit and plain and across god's green Earth and all the other places there may be a few planets involved too But we'll find out in our next half hour. So stay tuned. We'll be right back here on voiceover body shop with mark row Don't go away You're watching v obs dot tv I don't know why it's crazy what they do here. I think I'm going to go somewhere else and have a cheese sandwich 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 stick around? You don't want to miss this At target we want you to come as you are be comfortable Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please New Mexico necesita un cambio la representante michelle lujan grisham ha luchado por nuestro estado en la cámara de representantes Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're a demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Hi, here. I am in my normal workspace with a question What's the biggest challenge you have with voiceover? What's been the puzzle you need to solve the question you need answered Well, david h laurence the 17th and the coaching team at vo heroes dot com want to know They're creating new courses and training and they want to know what you need most and it's easy to let them know Just drop an email to david at vo heroes dot com. That's david at vo eros Dot com and let him know what you'd like to know Is it tech oriented? Is it auditioning? Is it about booking more work finding an agent podcasting audiobooks performance questions? Whatever it is that keeps you up at night that makes you scratch your head Or what you've always wanted to know about success and vo Email david and ask the email address again is david at vo heroes dot com Let's face it If you're a voice talent not everyone in your family or close friends really understands what you need for your home voiceover studio You want a what? Well voiceover essentials dot com has the perfect answer when it comes to birthdays and other gift giving for us voiceover folk New for the first time ever after countless requests Voiceover essentials dot com is thrilled to offer the voiceover essentials gift card You pick the amount you want to give and they take care of the rest The recipient will receive an email with their digital gift card and gift code to use on anything they offer on voiceover essentials dot com Give them or give yourself the gift of getting exactly what you want Like the harlin hogan vo1a microphone the portabouth prower plus harlin hogan signature series voiceover optimized headphones You want a what go to voiceover essentials dot com and click on shop and gift cards and choose the amount Gift cards now at voiceover essentials dot com. Thanks harlin Hi, this is bill harmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great And we're back with mark row professional show business. Yes It's interesting too. Actually it made me think also that you know one size definitely does not fit all So when it comes to me we need to make sure that it's specifically tailored to you both coaching and demo Just so it makes sense to you and What fits and works for you may not fit and work for somebody else Absolutely. All right, george. You get to ask some of the questions so far that have been submitted by our vast audience Well, just because it's novel and we haven't used it before let's come right out of the gate. Oh god with a question From clubhouse. So danie our clubhouse host tonight danie. Who's who's up at bat? We got chris rosetti from san francisco chris. You're up, bud Thank you so much and I appreciate the opportunity mark good to hear you and learn from you and everybody So my question is this i'm a 64 year old community college freshman Is it too late for me to get into voiceover work? And what would you advise me as opposed to a younger person or is the advice the same? Thank you Listen to your mother and get your contractor advice Um got a loss, you know, honestly, I'll tell you what what's very interesting is the age thing strangely enough It works to your benefit now because the aging of america and As the baby boomers get older they're wanting voices that that identify with that much much more so So no, I think honestly there's there's room for for everyone. It's not just a young person's game There's certain genres that are you know, a lot of anime is is younger that kind of stuff, but you know, commercially narratively And quite honestly even video games a lot of no, it's it's There's a it's a wide open field honestly So I don't think age really is going to enter the picture not to mention They can't see it because if they did I'd be in a lot of trouble. So it's Seriously, so yeah, it's it's great. That's a good question. But honestly, I think you Age really this is one of the rare fields. You can work basically tell you draw I remember doing a session believe it or not with does but we're one of the last Jetson sessions And does was well into his 80s and they all had this is terrible with oxygen tanks and they go Hi, this is Al Roy and he'd be doing this kind of stuff and then he'd go, okay cut Um You know, and they he was right up until the very end. I mean still working loads Yeah, jim june ferret was on our show. How many years ago dan sure and uh, she was our third anniversary or second or believe she was 93 Sure She was great too. She was a lot of fun. Oh, what a gracious woman. Yeah, she was wonderful Well, uh, I guess I'll throw it now to a text question this top one in the list is from brian hail He says hi guys just started watching v obs and i'm loving the show and a question for you For those who are new to the business just starting to make connections How can you tell when someone's blowing smoke your way one of those warning signs? They should be aware of so as an actor. What are the don'ts? Stuff you shouldn't do like making your own demo Well, usually you feel kind of funny back there and you realize it's probably smoke. Oh, no, it's not. Oh, sorry It's a callback. Okay. Um it's um, well, there's a couple things obviously if it's a callback and it's a Rented house and it's you know, don't go. Um, it's probably not what you're going to It um seriously, you know, I think with the internet it's very easy to to vet people And really see what's out there and ask a couple of people man jump jump online if you see somebody You know giving somebody's break. Hey man. I'm just curious. What about so and so have you heard about this? Have you worked with this person? You know, do they um Did they do what you were expecting them to do? Are they ridiculously expensive? Was it cheap? Did they you know, were they really pushing a demo? You know, because there's a lot of people that's kind of a mill thing Like it's four classes and then a demo kind of thing and it's like I don't think you can do that really you just You know, once again one size doesn't fit all So, you know, I just vet whoever you're with in comfort level for you Be sure that you're comfortable with whatever person you're with and whatever their style is Absolutely Why don't we take another clubhouse question since that seemed to work so well It did work. Well, Danny. Who do we have up at bat in the clubhouse? All right, calling in from florida. We got scott chambers. Scott. Hey scott. Hey scott Mark, thanks for taking the time out of your day to do v. O. B. S I have a question And it's not necessarily for me as much as is for other people in the industry We were talking on clubhouse the other night and this topic came up Regarding demo production Why do you think it is that a lot of demo producers do not publish their rates for demos on their website? Um, that's a good question. I because I do You can go in there and look it's pretty much what it is. Um You know, I I think if they don't you should ask them right up front And there's a couple of things too that that should include and that is how many revisions do you get? You know when I do a demo I will send it to you and it's finished and However, it's like if you want to change the order or if you want to reread something to me That's all included in that So usually what it is it boils down to about an additional hour To make changes if you want rereads that kind of stuff even though stuff is played back to you But the bottom line is is you feeling and don't don't feel awkward about you know asking to go Wait a minute. I wasn't happy. Can we redo this if you had somebody come over and fix your washer and dryer And they didn't do it. You'd be on the phone pretty quick going. Hey, what's going on here? So don't feel I've heard people, you know the order show of people Well, I talked to so he said oh, you know that I'd be ruining that I'd never work in this industry and it's like, well I don't know a lot of those people. It's like seriously It's if somebody is seeing that then I think they are indeed going colored smoke Um, you know, it's like so as far as somebody saying that oh, you'll never work in this business because you question my You know my mixer, whatever it's like. Well, that's a little tacky. You know, it's it's very much a collaborative work You're you're relying on a good producer to do what they do But at the same time it's your demo. So you need to be you know, don't feel push like, you know Kind of really like it but that third piece. I don't whatever, you know, whatever that is make sure you Ultimately are happy with it and and you know, a producer will try and guide you in the right direction and go Hey, you know, this is really good. This is a great spot to open with but again, ultimately that decision really rests with you You know, you're you're the one paying the tab Absolutely and one quick follow-up to that part of the other question is in a clubhouse room a new Someone that was very new to voiceover that has not really taken training from anyone Contacted the demo producer and certainly was not you They were quoted a rate of about 3,400 dollars and did not have training and so that Why are prices continue to rise? I understand we all have to make a living, of course But why why isn't the demo prices continue to be higher say in the us than they are in other places? You know, I I think that depends a lot on I mean, I I'll be I mean I I've charged 17 hundred dollars for a demo for for ages and I think that that's realistic It's the amount of time that's been itself. I know there's people that charge 2500 that charge 3500 that charge to and I think there comes a point where it's like, well, you know Unless this includes driving me to the audition molding the copy for me and doing something else for me while I'm reading the copies sorry, um, you know, it's That seems like a pretty extreme amount of money. And so I you know, just just listen to some stuff I mean if there's stuff is that good I If you listen to my there's demos all over the place you can check out and see what's out there And I'm not hiding, you know, it's like listen to them, you know and ask, you know They should be if there's charging that kind of money. They should certainly have some samples to check out You would help. Yeah, you would think so Thanks so much mark. I appreciate it. Sure, man. Absolutely. All right question from Lonnie Manila. George Mm-hmm. I love mark and I've known him for years says Lonnie. Is that true and Lonnie? I just got the check you said I love you Oh man, hi, I know he's I know he seldom has to audition for anything But here's a question I'd love to take on and that is what if any what if any? Processing do you add to your auditions? Um, honestly, I don't think you should ask Really put any on there at all if you any time that you have a Backup like in other words you're recording Stuff and they want they will always ask for no compression flat Which means you've really got to be watching your mic pre to back stuff off and Always err on the side of less because less you can fix and you can increase volume if it's over modulated you're showed out a lot It's you know, even though there's a couple of programs that say go fix it. They don't they can't Um, if you're doing promo stuff sometimes a little compression to bolster that a bit But honestly, that's really up to the up to the client and if you're turning in auditions or Like in that case with dignity usually they ask pretty specifically not not to do that You know not not to put any any kind of compression on it. No gating anything like that just you know, no eq Just make sure it's it's pretty straightforward You know the whole the whole reason for that obviously is because after the fact that you can manipulate and make it sound However, you want whereas if that's not the sound you're looking for and you're stuck with that then it's and I've heard some stuff That's pretty You know people that aren't familiar said well, yeah, I rolled off and it's like, oh Yes, it sounds like you're on a phone. I mean It's like that's what they're looking for Yeah, I mean wait i'm george and I tell people this all the time don't over process your stuff I tend to think that a lot of the specs we see that say no announcers is because people are way over compressing their stuff Sure And introducing just so incidentally on the side, no to their lawn. You know is also a phenomenal video game director Really very very very good. So I just thought I would get that further Yes, she also mentioned that at least one game company requests submitting levels at around Minus 12 db, but I don't really see this as the norm I guess the bottom line is you have to do what they want You know, I've seen that I've seen but you know minus 18 I think as long as you're not pinning it You know right up there just back it off a little bit and just have it nice nice and clean Just that's that's really what I mean I've had companies that have asked for they want to hear like you know I have a whisper room here at home and they want to see if you have to so run um, you know 48k 24 bit and Talk quietly then yell then do this and run 30 seconds of nothing and just kind of and they can kind of test the The waters to make sure that it's exactly what what they want it to be And you know, you come as close to but I don't think you know Might as well my most people if you're tracking I don't think you're gonna get quite that I mean if you're in a studio and you have an engineer then he's writing that you can do that But I as long as you're in that realm I mean honestly, it's oh my god. Did you see that? It was minus 16 not 12, you know, it's like, I don't think If it sounds good, it is good. You know what I mean? And uh minus 12 db The problem is they half the time when they give you these numbers they don't give you the full The full deal they give you minus 12 db What peak or rms. Oh, I know very different value run into that and they'll it's you'll get a lot of It's it's like when they say, you know, well, we wanted, you know in 87 and it's like and you want to pay how much really? Right, right, right. We want this. We want that at $5,000 Mike pre and $8,000 microphone and and the session's a grand really okay, you know, it's it's You know, so it's I think in that in that case I think they're just looking for home studio to see how it sounds honestly The if it's nice and clean and usable what it is interesting to what a lot of companies I know that michelodeon is doing this They're working with a couple of you that are on tv series and they're actually sending them out a rig So that it for continuity sake now. It's interesting. I'm no and I'm not sure how that works with somebody who's not Tech savvy who's not sure how they're setting that up or their recording space. I don't know how well even even though you've got Equipment continuity. I don't know what that's doing sound wise But that's what they're doing. Yeah. Well, I mean at least one of my clients, you know She's using in her space because she already has a space that's probably set up But they went with a kit that had a believe it or not a USB mic that's digitally controlled so that the engineers are remote controlling everything Is that rolling? They're setting the gain remotely. They're doing everything remotely. So it's it's clever. It's very clever Interesting. Yeah, let's let's go back to clubhouse because this is like, you know, 10 years going 10 years back, george Because I know we started our very first episode taking live questions on the show It turned out to be so cumbersome that we stopped doing it But now thanks to clubhouse. Maybe we has caught up with Maybe we'll do some real clubhouse. We had a can with a string and everything Danny, who do we have at bat? All right from brooklyn new york adam g you're up adam Hey, what's going on guys? Hey george. Hey everybody there and hey Danny It's really great to uh to finally get to speak with you. I really appreciate. I'm new to clubhouse So it's really awesome to uh network and and find out so much really awesome information So I was really wondering I'm having a little trouble Networking with the with the right people in terms of the voiceover agents voiceover casting directors Some i'm having real luck with I actually uh had an awesome call with andrea romano, which blew my mind She's so awesome and she gave me some great feedback on my demo Which i'm i'm reworking. I am self-produced. So I know that's a little bit A little bit of gray area there, but I did get some really Good thumbs up from chuck durin gave it a listen He gave it a listen over there where we've been chatting we're friends now, you know email During all this corona time. So but what I was really wondering i'm sending it out I'm sending it to the agents. I'm reworking the demo according to andrea romano's You know, I trust her as a good source, but um in terms of casting and agents and things like that I'm in brooklyn. I have the home studio set up sending it out to people in la You know with your guys's experience You know, it's hard to even really get a response sometimes of course, they're incredibly busy But will they give that a listen will they appreciate that i'm reaching out to them I'm thinking about la next year possibly because I know so much of the voiceover work that I want to do is Is out there animation and video games I know some of it is here I can i'm trying to work with you know trying to get into tip mouse and the casting director's there But that's really what I was wondering is if you guys had any other tips, you know, I'm represented for film and TV and that kind of stuff with What what kind of what kind of home studio do you how what are you running at home? So it is it is it is a nice padded out closet, but it's fully uh, it got some, you know, I gave the uh Gave it to chuck. I let him hear the room tone He said it was really good. I'm using a a tech zone audio condenser vintage two Which he also recommended through an iMac through through logic, which is all Which is all soundproofed My the 80d convergers are pretty similar. So that's yeah, that's that's good The the the thing is with you know, um, do we have source connector any connectivity at all at ptd all I do I sort of connect. Yep source connector. Yeah source connector So, you know, you you should be you know flying with that. Basically, it's just it's the proper. Have you done Any any projects at all at this point paid or unpaid? Yeah a couple so uh another one that I was uh speaking with I I Booked a project with jay mortell arrow who who did breath of the wild Which was amazing. Um, so we've been chatting and I've been you know, auditioning for him every now and then Um got booked for a small little role Um, you know in a in a project. Hopefully that'll be coming out soon. Can't really talk too much about it, of course, but uh Just you know a couple things. Um, but really just trying to you know Just break in there and get get in more as much momentum having a hard time getting my Yeah, the real the real thing me agent wise is to just really talk up The voice over portion as far as what you've been doing studio wise. They don't overly care I mean you can say broadcast quality. That's great You know, but most most they let them reach out to you and ask if there's a specific like oh Do you have a 103 because most cameras want that way whatever it may be? But but you know, um, but really just really talk up, you know, don't don't you know Oh, I've studied with so-and-so or I'm new to the business and dad and hoping to make or I'm gonna make a move To la and wanted to know me and you want to talk like you're you're booking now and that that's what's going to peak interest You know above above and beyond anything is like the fact that oh, you're a working pro meaning that somebody else has already taken a chance on you and You know and you're doing well and that's that's really above and beyond everything That's the biggest thing of all. He's like, oh, he's working, you know, he's a working pro Obviously, there's stuff going on and that that's great and that's really the best possible thing you can do You just want to make sure to know, you know, never as far as listening. Yeah, even though they'll say, you know You know, we don't accept, you know, um, you know unsolicited Etc. They don't of course are always going to listen to a demo. I probably know you could be the next frank wilker I mean, you know, so they're gonna, you know, check and see You know, so it's just it's really, you know in the end like I said, man If the demo is flying and and you're happy then you've gotten great feedback and stuff. Yeah, man go with it All right, quick. I told him that's really great to hear. Yes Thanks, sorry. Yeah, it's just kind of getting it out there. Really doing the numbers. Thank you so much guys I really appreciate that. Thanks for taking this on. Sure. All right. Thanks for joining us This one's from the text room because we got a lot more left Let me see if we can squeeze in a couple more real quick On this one's from Jim McNicholas and he says mark you run a huge studio Do you have advice for us as at home running our little one-man? Show studios. Sure. Um, you know, it's it's like there really doesn't It well, I guess size-dash-mattery and something is but No, it's just, you know, I've been I've been lying about the size of my studio for years. No, it's uh, honestly I think it's it really It's giving them a really good product. I'm assuming again that you have, you know, a Nice setup that's really clean that sounds great. The other thing too is sometimes man check You know levels do things like send an mp3 to somebody and have them check it for you Because a lot of the time people go. Oh, yeah, I've got this and I'll get stuff and it's like, you know Where you're used to seeing away from in an mp3 and it's like It's it's like barely audible, you know And it's like if so if that's stacked up to other auditions they kind of go, you know, okay great next So you want that, you know, right right in your face So I didn't you know Right up there and right on par with there used to be a thing that nobody utilizes anymore But it used to be called red book is towards you probably know with cds and that's every These were all the same level You know and so just you know make sure that your your levels are up there and you know do do You know do the kind of work that you enjoy doing, you know There's all kinds of tricks the more you do it the better you get you know that kind of stuff But yeah, man, I'm realizing you know, even with that I mean I started out the same place. I started with the studio in the house Strangely enough back to my studio in the house Full of circles All right, why don't we take one more clubhouse question while we have the opportunity here Well, there happened to just be one more person I think in the queue over there and it looks to be jamie. Is that right Danny? That's right jamie. Hey, I'll go for it It helps if I turn up the fader. I don't know why I just did that. I pulled the fader down the second You threw to jamie. Sorry jamie. We start over on the air go That was really subtle, Jordan So subtle And I actually started doing a lot of commercial work um So I have that however I don't know what um program I should use to record it with What do you recommend? Keep it simple Well, it's honestly whatever whatever works for you. I mean obviously the you know Odacity is out there which again is is you know a freebie and it's I mean it can it can work Okay, it's really but I mean a lot of people swear by twisted wave or Reaper or I've used pro tools everywhere because I've had it forever both in the studio and here at the house And so it's really kind of whatever, you know, whatever works for you pretty much now A to D converters the analog to digital are pretty similar. I mean unless you have dog years and you're going well That's I can tell that's definitely not. You know, it's like, you know I think just for the auspices of voice human voice. I think you'll be fine. It's really whatever you feel comfortable using Well, that's awesome and we we we basically ran out of time But I want to make sure I do say that this from our from our chat room moderator Jeff Holman. He says I want to thank mark growl. He did my vo commercial demo. I just got a real vo agent because of it You rule mark. So jeff says it checks in the mail jeff Jeff just actually booked a movie too Oh, that's great. We're really excited about that. Yeah, finally getting out getting his break. That's great. Look at that. That's awesome. That's very cool Yeah, so mark a pleasure to see you eventually. We'll all be able to see each other face to face one of these I sure hope so absolutely. I I'll buy you both a beer or something wonderful. Yes. We got to do something here Absolutely, and it's closer than farther than I'm certainly I'm Keeping fingers crossed that people would like we were talking about earlier that people Don't get stupid and just kind of stay the course because we're there is light at the end of the tunnel. I hope You know, that's right. Yep. All right. Well mark. Thanks for being with us and we will see you soon This was a pleasure man. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. You guys are the best Alrighty, all right. We'll be right back to wrap things up right after this message. Thanks mark this message Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop 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 vio website Shouldn't be a pain in the you know what? Well, it's the time of the show where I get to riff and make up some real cool story about our amazing sponsors source elements the creators of source connect It is a tool that is just ubiquitous now when it comes to running a voiceover studio from home When you want to have a professional personal studio, you have to have source connect I mean, that's pretty much straightforward It really is now taken over the momentum that used to be held by istn That sort of tool that was used by all the big jobs all the big names and all the big television networks istn is gone. It's Really gone. It really is gone source connect is what's stepped in its place now. There are a lot of other tools out there I mean, there's tons of stuff that run on chrome And you may along the way be asked to use some other system other than source connect because again, there are many But by by and large when you get to big auditions, they're gonna say Do you have source connect or don't audition unless you have source connect? So at this point if you don't have it, you're probably not interested in working on those kind of jobs you're probably just Doing kind of the lower budget work and you really want to step it up if you're ready If you feel your studio is ready if you feel your quality is consistent And you're ready to do real-time jobs where you're being recorded real time Any time of the day If you're ready You need to get source connect if you want to find out if you're ready You should definitely get a sound check from dan and I and see where you're at with all that whole that whole thing And if you need help getting it set up I also have a whole source connect set up at george the tech slash s See anyway, thanks source elements. Let's go back and wrap up the show We really appreciate your support. See you in a minute This is ariana rattner and you're listening to voiceover body shop v obs.tv Yeah, it's always great having mark on he's he always manages to fill an hour without too much effort And it's just street shooting too. I know absolutely. You know, he says it like it is he makes some jokes You wince once in a while and that's all part of the fun Strap it in that's right. That's right Well, we got tech talk coming up next if you're still with us live, especially on On clubhouse or if you're watching this on facebook, so stay tuned. We'd love your questions for that Next week on this very show. We will be having tech talk number 53 where it's going to be Talking a little bit about our 10 years on in doing the show and And some of the stuff we've learned Then on april 5th, we're taking a week off for passive, you know, the wife won't let me do it It's passive. It's the second night of passive. You can't do it that night. I got more days off. Thanks to having Having all those holidays Not so bad. That's a bad it's been it's been a very busy few months. I don't mind Yeah, and then on april 5th. I'm really looking forward to meeting kevin gershan Brenda years george who's a producer. He knows the biz inside out back television producer That's a lot of shows on cbs. That's going to be fun. Yeah Who are our donors this week? Looks like in green written here. I have maureen reardon Eddie faria. We write his name in all caps because he's the king of all caps Graham spicer michelle blanker christopher epperson and sarah borges Thank you so much everyone that have donated just maybe a little bit here and there a one time thing or a subscription Using paypal. You can even send a buck and we'll keep reading your names Yeah, really talk about cheap Cheap uproach in there. All right. Uh, we need to thank our sponsors as well. Harlan hogan's voiceover essentials Oh, we also had voiceover extra supporting us tonight Source elements makers of source connect vo heroes.com voice actor websites.com and jmc demos All right. Our thanks to jeff holman in the chat room tonight and uh, and you know in facebook and our chat room and Danny burnside for helping us out so far in clubhouse. It seems to be working I'd like to see that it didn't work. Yeah, and of course our amazing technical director Sumer lino making it happen tonight and uh, and of course lee penny for being lee penny Well, that's gonna do it for us on this stay tuned for tech talk as we record that one But we'd love your answers or your questions and you'll love our answers Stay tuned for that. I'm dan lennard and i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vo b parents