 And it's now time for voiceover body shop and it's our special stay-at-home-haven-shaped-in-a-while version I'm starting to look very old and the Mrs. Is like you know that makes you look really old But anyway our guest tonight is Carolyn Casey and she is a commercial producer wave and say hi Carolyn There we go. That makes it. Hello She is a commercial producer we're gonna talk about what goes on on the other side of the glass and how how commercials come together Should be fascinating. We'd love your questions and you can jump them and dump them right into our Facebook chat room and Jeff Holman's on chat duty tonight and we'll get those questions. We'll ask them a little later Anything else we need to add George Now let's get this show on the road. Let's light this candle like SpaceX voiceover body shop right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Whidham the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and new 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 Bring you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials.com home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes.com become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voice over training J. Michael Collins demos when quality matters and Voice over 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 Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham and this is voice over body shop or VO Yes Alright well My goodness, we've been home for a long time and we've been doing this show Virtually for some time now, you know, I miss the coffee. I miss the camaraderie. I miss the hugs but we're trying the best we can and I take it things are nice and quiet where you are though, George They were there was a helicopter circling for quite an inordinate amount of time this morning Sheriff's helicopter apparently we have no idea why but other than that It's been pretty quiet up here in Topanga. It's a good place to hole up in their current with the current affairs going on right now Yeah, so anyway, well, you know the other day you you I was last week You said hey, I had this great conversation with this wonderful lady named Carolyn Casey. Who's a commercial producer? Let's get her on the show so Okay, we're all wondering what goes on in the other side of the glass. There's so much You know Because everybody has to be in a home studio now. There's a lot of issues around there So we thought Carolyn might make a great guest and we asked her and she goes what she decided to show up Which is really good Carolyn. Welcome to the show Thank you, John. Thank you, George. It's great to have you here now your your commercial producer and a voice actor and Not an attorney though, but we're not yet. Not yet. Okay. You're working on that. My mom would love that though Yeah, my mom wanted me to be a proctologist, but that's that's a whole nother story and wow that there's a lot to unpack there Yeah, there is there is so where are you from originally? I grew up in Jersey. Jay-Z. What's your exit? Uh 9a Mid-state Yeah, so tell tell us a little bit. How about how you got into what you're doing which is apparently very multifaceted Um, well, I guess I'll start with the producing side. I really got pulled onto the agency side from just It's it's a story probably unlike most stories you hear now with the current generation of producers who all have gone to film school, etc I didn't I was a print journalism major and Quite literally was working with a guy who was a creative director. I was working in a different role and he said, you know You'd make a great producer. Why don't you come work for me as soon as I get an account big enough To fund it and I was like, what does a producer do? No idea. Um, I was I was loading film for a commercial photographer, you know to get a little bit more experience with photography and um, so that was that was a long time ago and I've stayed on the agency side a lot of people ask me, you know, if I work in film and Documentaries although I wish I did work in documentaries, but I work on the commercial side and very specifically I'm an agency producer, which is how I also got pulled into voiceover As many of us know you end up reading on scratch tracks when you're sitting in an edit bay or You work at an agency and they need someone who sounds, you know, mature And you know or conversational next door, whatever it is. So I ended up You know getting recruited to do a lot of things like case studies and new business pitches client presentations scratch tracks on Commercial spots and then people were encouraging me saying you really should pursue this on the side. So here I am And I we're glad you are carry on. Thank you. I don't know that I'd call myself a voiceover actor or artist But I I dabble so okay. Well, that that's good enough But at least, you know, you get to experience the side That we get to see which is getting in front of the microphone and you know learning that it's a one-to-one Conversation with people not to an entire crowd, which is not easy easy to do So, all right, so you so you're the person you're the one of the people that coordinates all the stuff that needs to get done So an advertising agency can Complete a commercial for a campaign and I I bet that's an awful lot of stuff. What are some of the details you have to deal with? You know the way I explain it to people outside of our business And I know that everyone who's watching is pretty much in this business But the way I explain these people outside is I work like a general contractor if you're building a home You know, I manage the schedule and the budget and I try to surround myself by the best people we can afford so Sometimes I make creative recommendations like I'll look at a script part of my job or I guess the crux of my job is To take the script and get it on air or live digital or in theaters or Wherever it's going so to get the final files out and delivered and everything in between So I manage the creative team. I make recommendations creatively might be about These are the directors. I think might be best for this I shortlist a bunch of directors same with animators music composers editors Visual effects artists all of those things. I'm supposed to have a really good working knowledge of all of those things so that I can Make recommendations to the team and then everything in between In terms of schedule and budget is my responsibility as well So, you know, sometimes people will come to me and say, oh, you should hire my makeup artist friend. Well Yes, ultimately that person works for us, but I don't hire The makeup artist. I hire the people who hire the people who hire Okay, now it all makes sense Crystal clear. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's that's how anything gets done. You need to do bathroom. It's like, okay I hire the tile guy. I hire this person. Yeah, right Okay, that makes it works like a like a contractor does it really does in so many ways It's interesting But you work are you on contract with an agency or are different agencies? Are you a freelancer in that? I have done both most of my career. I've been Freelance and I currently am but I've also held staff jobs. I've been a You know everything from a very junior Coordinator all the way to an executive producer. I do really enjoy freelance and I'm comfortable in it. It's not for everybody, but I like it. Yeah Well, voiceover is a very freelance business. So I think most of us probably understand exactly what you're talking about So I I know it's probably a little different every time because every client is different and every script is different but generally, what's the production process like, you know from advertisers saying we need these commercials to To getting it out Yeah Wow, it does vary. I mean the general timeline depending on, you know, where you're working what you're doing What the media, you know is that you're buying I work primarily in television production. I don't really do Why see say television? I should say video production. I don't really do much radio anymore When you're starting out, they give you a lot of radio stuff So it really depends if you're freelance You don't usually get as much lead time on a project So you're brought in once the script is approved by the client And then you're supposed to bid it out and the traditional way is that we bid at least three production companies sometimes more That's a more extensive process that I don't want to totally bore people with and it would take the whole the whole hour But again make creative recommendations and then bid sort of all the different pieces So there's the production piece. There might be visual effects piece editorial post music estimating talent Voiceover all of those things put a budget together get it signed off by the client I'm encapsulating what could be weeks or days or whatever Get it signed off by the client and then go and hire all the appropriate people and then You're you know, you're kind of you're managing a team and then you're taking it most of the time as a producer Uh in the role that that I play most of the time you are Taking, you know, you're doing the pre-production portion production edit post production delivery Um, which is what I'm doing right now. I was delivering some spots today that were staggered delivery over the past couple of weeks So it's it actually is like juggling dives is that picture we found you It Feels like it most of the time. Yeah, I'm sure what's the shortest timeline you've had to run up against and what are the scenarios where they become You know uncomfortably short. Yeah, it's a great question. George. I mean with the advent of digital media timelines have become so incredibly compressed in ways that we really never thought possible I Recently had a job that I I started on I was hired um Like november 20th we You know with Thanksgiving included we had to bid the job Prep it shoot it cut it do the post deliver it. We were on air with three spots december 9th And you know, the normal timeline timeline with that might have been You know, two three months at least but those are very compressed. Um, these were actually on air, but um Broadcast but I think with the advent of Yeah, the lav mic just started touching the collar. Sorry about that. That's okay Um There you go but so the um, you know, the timelines have just become very compressed with digital media A lot of it is just sort of a climate you know and With brands and they Want to be able to pivot quickly and want to be able to react quickly depending on the brand But we're seeing what I think are much tighter timelines, which is why as it relates to your audience on the voiceover side um You know, you often get scripts I think more often than not now that say we need this back in the next two three hours, right? Or tomorrow versus You've got a couple days to work on something and that that just kind of trickles down from What the kind of you know Economic climate looks like what individual brand climates look like how quickly You know social media forces brands to react. Let's just say Popeye's chicken is doing something on social media like they have recently and suddenly cute Suddenly Burger King needs to react quickly, you know So it really just depends it's it's um It's often a You know, we we know it's often a reaction It's a we have to react quickly. It's a tactical thing then by by different advertisers Yes, okay So, you know when I'm sitting around at my desk and and watching my email come in and auditions and stuff like that one of the things we get is an audition And it's and it comes You know, you've you've done all your work and and it's like, okay now Let's hire the voice talent and we've got the script and the script writer is like, okay. Here's the script Here's what we want and they give you the specs And I and I have you know, our our friend mark cashman does this routine called we're looking for a moose And uh, they spell it wrong and So everybody would like give him the worst specs they could find Uh where someone would go on for a paragraph and a half and then the script is starts friday You know something along those lines, but yeah where where how are specs determined and by whom? and Is there flexibility in that or what really happens with that? Where does that come from? Yeah It's a really good question It varies with the account with the agency and even within a brand group inside an agency So it there there isn't sort of one way typically the copywriter is responsible for the specs very often the client Uh asks for approval of those specs um You know sometimes the specs get to the voice over talent and Ultimately, you know sometimes ultimately they're really not what the client might have Expected, so it may be You know, we want someone who sounds 25 to 30 not like an announcer at all very kind of unpollished girl next door Whatever and then the client hears the reads and says well, these people don't sound like professional announcers at all We want someone who sounds 50 and sophisticated and like she might be your trustworthy aunt or you know So it just it really depends but but in general The copywriter is responsible for writing the specs. They go through the producer often To the account team and then to the client and the client will agree Yes 25 to 30 girl next door whatever whatever right if you're just joining us our guest is carolin kasey She is a commercial producer. She produces video and all the stuff that goes with it And she's one of the people that you know that helps us get hired If you've got a question for her about this process or really what happens to our auditions or anything like that Throw them in the facebook chat room right now Jeff holman is sitting there patiently waiting for you to ask your questions because this is an interactive show And we want to make sure you get the chance to ask the questions Although i've thought up just about everything we could possibly ask no There's probably a whole lot more about that. So let's really get into it carolin about how our spots cast I mean I get an audition I do a couple of reads. I shove it down this magic portal And poof it's gone and we never hear again unless we get hired What what goes on once at the other end of that portal where you're waiting for it to All right, we got all these auditions now what do we do and specifically as it relates to voice over casting right versus on camera Excellent, absolutely. Yeah, I know that's the subject of your show I just wanted to I just wanted to clarify for the audience that that i'm speaking about voice over casting so um I Dan you and I were talking the other day about in the old days back when I was a cubby producer The the way that it worked was so much more It was so much smaller And I don't want to say more streamlined, but it was small I remember the days when I could name A lot of the la voice over talent who worked all the time you would get in the early days you would get quite literally a tape cassette with maybe 20 to 25 recommendations from your casting director on it And all that has changed and it has changed especially with the advent of digital media So there are a few ways it works now When we're casting voice over It depends on the project. It depends on the budget. It depends on the timeline A lot of the time I will reach out to trusted talent agents limited handful of people depending on if it's union non-union, but limited handful of people Agents now have the ability to just Send you know email out to people do a blast and say hey, we need this uploaded in two hours You know we need it sent to us versus the old days when voice over talent had to go into a talent agents You know actual office and read with their booth manager, whatever so Agency producers like me can go directly to trusted agents If we have the time and the money we Most often at least I personally love to go to a trusted casting director. They just make our lives so much easier They do all the dirty work. They pull in all of the voiceovers from agents They reach out to their trusted agents and they pull in, you know endless voiceovers. They pull them down It's not uncommon for a casting director to get upwards of a thousand Reads sometimes and then pull that down to 25. It sounds crazy, but that happens um, and then they're obviously all of the sort of online resources, uh voice bank that used to be it's not voices.com, right and um You know, I know they're they're various ways to do that on the Agency projects that I typically work on they're usually larger national brand pro projects We either work with a casting director or uh I'll go straight to agents. I trust because honestly Going just sort of uploading something and then not knowing what I'm going to get and having to sift through 500 or a thousand submissions is just It's untenable but what what usually happens from there is Again, it depends on my relationship with the copywriter any producer's relationship with the group, but either one or two things one of two things happens either I forward all those auditions to my Creative team and the copywriter and sometimes the art director go through them And then once they create a short list it might go Up through several rungs of people it might go to an associate creative director a creative director an executive creative director Maybe even the chief creative officer and the account team before it even goes to the clients And then it might you know, there might be several layers of the client Right, so there's quite a succession of people who have to approve it. Um How many auditions actually get listened to them? Well Yeah, that's the burning question If if a if i'm working with a casting director who's really done his or her homework And has culled through the auditions and sent me 25 or 50 That's easy to go through right if I post something. I mean I remember A fairly recent job where we got 500 submissions and my copywriter went through every one of them but the the dirty little secret is that Agencies are off and brands who have their own staffs Their own copywriters their own producers are often these days running so lean That writers and producers and art directors and creative directors have so much on their plates that it's virtually impossible to get through 500 auditions And the truth is that they could listen to 100 or 200 and they hear a handful of people they like they may stop there We try not to do that. We try to make it fairer to all the talent and not Ask for 500 submissions It's best if we as producers can regardless of how we reach out say hey, can you send me your 10 best people And then if you've reached out to you know five or ten agents at least you have a manageable List of people because it's just not fair to let a voice over talent submit something that might never be heard I would say Unless unless you're submitting To somewhere where you know, they're just hundreds of people Also submitting, you know, so just an online submission I think your your audition is going to be heard. I think that there is just Truth to the fact that sometimes if you're submitting along with Everybody else and the mother your audition may not be heard, but simply because of the sheer volume Yeah, it's probably quite a few so it seems like There's a lot of people involved in this process. We don't realize that it's like one person And they're throwing it to somebody else, but ultimately as I think you mentioned a little earlier Doesn't it really come down to the client saying okay, I approve this person or no my brother law would sound much better doing this I yes, I can honestly say I've never had the client's brother-in-law. Oh good glad to hear Yeah, I've never had that happen. I hear you're saying yes, ultimately it comes down to the client's final decision I Have had clients say hey, I respect your opinions and I really trust you guys and this is why we hire you and And we're going to go with your recommendation. I've had that happen many times Um, but ultimately the client is really not going to listen to the hundred auditions. We did typically They're going to listen to this short list. We brought them and depending on what the project is That might be on average three five ten people usually not more than that So the list is you know, very distilled by the time it gets to the client usually Oh, all right. What's no client. No client has the time to go through a hundred auditions I wouldn't think so you would hope anyway Uh, they're busy, you know milking cows and making candy and all those other things Uh, what milking cows? Hey, somebody's got to do it. All right So our once again our guest is carolin kasey. She is a commercial producer We're talking about what goes on in the production process again if you've got a question for I know there's a few questions already We'd like to hear yours put them in the facebook chat room where jeff holman will get that to us so I I guess another topic is a lot of people get concerned because they think that well I can become a voice actor and I can do big-time commercials But most of the time we hear Celebrity voices now most of the time Are the clients that that you're working with are are they are they trying are they trying to be very media savvy And have these recognizable voices And are all good movie actors or tv actors good for this kind of stuff I I think I'm not sure that that most voice so furs are Celebrities, but I think what happens is if you've got the money to buy a celebrity To pay for a celebrity you have the money to buy a lot of tv So I think what happens is all of these big brands Uh, you know, let's take car brands. I work a lot in in automotive So One does it and most of them feel it's important to do it. You know, there's a cache to it. You're attaching yourself to Um, you know someone with some real star power and there's you know, there's merit in that. I I understand that um I think I think a lot of big brands Do do that. They like the recognizability Um, they like the tie-in I don't think that all On camera celebrity actors make great voiceovers. And I think we all know that Some of them are You know, it comes really easy for them and some of them It's a little bit more of a struggle because they don't have you know, the benefit of their On camera presence Yeah, yeah, I've heard some of them. It's like, well, I can see why they didn't get cast for this Uh, it's it's always fascinating, especially when you see the name, but we won't mention any names No, we won't But some of them can run the whole Gamut from a to b right in terms of their directability Right and there are some sarcasm, right. There are some people who are Really really good. I mean there are some voices out there. I mean, you know somebody like john ham or you know, we used to say What's his name See hunts Peter coyote Peter coyote. There's there's a good one. You hear his voice or They're just some people that are just really really good at it and you know, but you think that most of the stuff that we're seeing Network wise now is it's a wide net of of of talented voice actors that you're seeing I it feels like that to me. I mean, look, this is an anecdotal response. It's not I'm not I'm not sitting there telling up stuff But I think there are I think there are two really prominent waves right now Um with the exception of like pharmaceuticals and and you know things like that Which are go for kind of the more traditional announcers usually but I think there are two waves one is the celebrity wave And the other is the we don't want anyone who sounds like an announcer. It's like, you know Who sounds like your parents generation announcer who's got like the big booming Male voice or the female who sounds like she's a perfectly polished announcer Um, we want someone who sounds Conversational and like your best friend giving you advice, you know, we get a lot. I see a lot of that I see that spec all the time. Yeah, I'm like, yeah and I think I think part of that is it, you know, there's a younger generation I mean newer and younger generation of creatives who Don't really want to hear what they grew up hearing all the time and there's legitimacy to it You know that don't talk at me like an announcer. You're going to get lost in all the other announcers I think there's a time and place for it. Certainly. There are lots of big brands who still employ You know, whether it's male or female a more traditional announcer because that is That that is who they are. That's the voice of their brand But I think there are a lot of brands who want a kind of they feel like they want to cut through a little and they want to sound a little bit more Conversational although who knows in five years that may start to sound like wallpaper to all of us You know, we can we can hope for those of us that came out of radio Anyway, once again, we're talking with carol and kasey I think something that everybody is probably Looking at their computer or their phone or whoever they're watching and thinking What are some tips to help me get work? Although I think it's probably going to include a lot more don'ts than do's Yeah, um Especially with auditions Yeah, when it comes to auditions, I mean I wish that I were speaking from a place of you know in terms of voice over talent where I was booking auditions all the time Booking jobs all the time. I I'm not I'm really not I Think that I'm not an actor. I've never taken an acting class and uh I will be very honest with my agent and this is probably tip number one I will be really honest with my agents if something comes in and says we want An actor who has a ton of range and ability to do xyz I will often email back my agent and say, you know, I don't want to embarrass myself for you This isn't really my lane and I don't want to waste your time And I always get a thank you so much for the honest response I think that that's probably number one for me if if it's If you know that you're not right for it You know, I'm not saying don't ever stretch, but if you know that you're not right for it. Maybe just politely decline um I think that's one thing I I also think that I Have a very specific sort of Sound and I think a lot of the scripts I'm hearing they probably want someone who sounds You know, maybe a little bit younger and it's a little more playful or it's a little more conversational or Or whatever, but I but I I I feel like I can speak more as an agency producer than I can say here's the secret to getting booked because Unless you have a regular gig I don't know a lot of voiceovers out there. Maybe I'm being naive about this and I'd love to hear somebody drop it in the chat if I am But I I really don't know that many people who say I pay all my bills doing voiceover. I mean I it's it's just a different ballgame now The good news is that there is exponentially more work out there With the advent of digital and social media, right? There's that much more content out there So there's that much more work for all of us and that much more, you know, love to go around the bad news is because everybody can do it and has a home mic and a You know make shift home studio and can upload auditions The competition has increased exponentially. So some of the people I know who were making You know deep six figures 20 years ago are not a rarely booking jobs now or not even working that much or competing with people Like me who are new in the game for their code Yeah teaching So, um Yeah, so going back to your your question about don'ts. I would say You and I were talking down a little bit about improvising My personal take is unless it's indicated on the script To improvise, you know, don't take a lot of license with it. Just be respectful that a writer really You know spent a lot of you know, sweat equity over those those words and Probably worked on that script for weeks if not months and because it gets scrutinized and every word might have been changed and It's gone up through many many layers of people. So don't assume that you can just improvise if you're being asked to read as An actor and you're supposed to bring something to it and it's humorous or it's Uh an interpretation or it specifically asks for improv actors Then yes, the best thing to do is maybe check with your agent, but If you're reading You know a voiceover for a car brand I would say don't don't take a lot of license with that. You might you might just annoy the person on the other end Who's listening? Yeah Auto auto copy is very very precise. Well, are you ready to take a few questions from our vast audience? Yeah, of course, okay We're gonna get to those and you still have time to ask yours folks if you're watching us live Put it in the chat room on facebook and we'll be back with carolin kasey here on voiceover body shop right after these messages This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone It's a smartphone, but it's so much more. It's the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for rig When hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show You know you want to narrate audiobooks You know that the acx masterclass is the best way to learn how to be profitable and successful at narrating audiobooks But you may not know that this is registration week for the acx masterclass David h. Lawrence the 17th and dano day only hold the acx masterclass once or twice a year And this is registration week And here's one more thing you might not know If you register before tuesday night june 2nd at 9 p.m They'll pay the first 300 dollars of your tuition fee instead of it being $1995 it's just 1695 But you have to act fast Visit acx masterclass dot com. That's acx masterclass dot com for the very best audiobook narration and production training Just 1695 if you act before tuesday at 9 p.m. Pacific go to acx masterclass dot com Hey, it's time to talk about voiceover essentials dot com You know harlan has some great stuff over at voiceover essentials Like the vo1a microphone But you know if you want to hear your audio as you recorded it It's best to have a great set of headphones and harlan offers the harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones These are flat response headphones not for listening to pink floyd or whatever you want to listen to These have a nice flat response that give you what you record it Plus they're incredibly comfortable You can wear them for a really long time while you're editing an audiobook or some long format narration It's got leather pads a really flexible headband And if you happen to forget you're plugged in This thing just pops right out and then it pops right back in so you don't blow out another chord Go over to voiceover essentials dot com for your harlan hogan signature series voice optimized headphones voiceover essentials dot com And we're on i'm assuming Uh our guest is carolin kasey and we're talking about the production process and uh We got lots of questions from our vast audience, which is worldwide. They're having lunch in australia They're doing whatever it is they do in chile And uh, but they're watching our show and they want to ask you so george. Why don't you Pick it up and fire away with those you got it First one in the queue here is from kreg fergusson. He's watching obviously live. Um, he says hi carolin Are there any common irritations? voice actors cause you in a session I'll look obviously things to avoid doing. Oh good question kreg unless you want to be fired You know, that's that's a good question. I do find most people to be really professional I mean obviously being tardy is a tough one because we're paying a lot of money for that session So that's a tough one. Um I would say if there's anything to avoid and I don't think most people do this but be sensitive to the fact that the Writer giving you feedback has written that script and it's pretty precious to him or her So if you think something's really clunky and not working Just be sensitive about it and maybe say, you know, i'm having a tough time with this phrase. Could I try something else? um One thing I do find helpful is if a talent is a little bit proactive about stuff and in terms of like Hey, do you want me to give you a series of three on those? Or would you like me to try a series of three with completely different reads on that tag things like that? Let's see what's irritating I I'm not usually well I was gonna say I'm not usually really irritated by voice over talent Don't don't get into to a lot of personal stuff and talk and whatever Not not that we don't want you to be personable But it's really easy to sort of get off track when you're isolated in the booth and not realize that you've you're burning away money so You know, just just be there and be aware that that We want to engage with you, but we also need to kind of move quickly probably onto our mix I hope that answers it craig Sounds pretty straight. I mean, uh, yeah, I mean, it's easy to want to be personable But overly verbose or taking time people don't know Maybe they're just not realizing how much money per hour this production is actually costing So yeah, and I guess if you need a break if you need anything I need some water I need a break. Could I walk away? I'm you know, whatever it is totally fine. You're human being too We, you know, we don't want to treat anyone like they're, you know a commodity Great. Um, fred north One of our regulars. He says where are you casting most of your talent? Is it pretty much all agencies or are you guys going to other platforms? It really just depends. Uh, you know, I bop around and I work at a lot of different places So there might be agencies that prefer a certain casting director who work with the same casting director all the time um They're Sometimes it's the producers got favorites. They've got talent agents. They really trust and and not not favorites like we're We're you know, we're kind of greasing each other's palm at all. Nobody's doing that. It's just a matter of Someone you could trust, you know that I mean, I've got an agent I go to all the time they're my first call here in LA because I don't even want to say how many years ago when I was a baby producer The founder of that agency was so kind and patient to me And I said to him you will always be my first call and they and they always have been You know, I think I think when when projects can afford it, they prefer to go through casting directors But I think if you've got a good agent you trust there is so much Work out there that I think there's enough to spread the wealth, you know, that there are low budget projects that are going to go to You know, maybe non-union agencies or people who have You know more affordable, you know scale talent or whatever, but I don't know that there's a A trick maybe can we ask him if he has an agent? Does he have an agent? We'll find out. I'll see. Well, yeah, he he'll maybe he'll reply in the chat again Not not that I want to talk specific agents on this I'm just saying that that number one is and I want to go to that I want to go to one of the don'ts for a second. Number one is you need an agent if you're going to be talking to Producers who are working on even decent sized brands So one of the don'ts I have is don't send a voice over demo directly to an agency producer Don't sift through Lincoln and find all the commercial agency producers You can't send your vo demo because chances are good. It's just going to get lost in the shuffle that on any given job we are Going back to the well whether that be to agents or to casting directors so you're I think it's a waste of your time if you're just kind of You know blasting out your reel to a bunch of people It's like it's like the equivalent of sending your headshot like I'm not going to cast you directly off a headshot I'm going to have a casting session. So unless you have a direct contact at that agency my advice would be Not to contact them directly and certainly not to follow up with I would recommend you don't follow up with your agent the casting director Certainly not the agency producer, but usually that information isn't revealed on an audition because they just don't have the time um I have said to my agent in the past if you ever want to give me any criticism on an audition I'm all ears or on anything that I've done. I'm all ears But I don't ever reach back to my agent and say hey, how come I didn't get that and who got that like Imagine when you're an agent and you've got hundreds or you're a casting director and you've now listened to hundreds of auditions It's not going to sit well with that person. So just let it go you might I mean, you know to dan's point a little bit earlier You might have lost the job to somebody who just sounded less like the ex-wife copywriters ex-wife Right, like sometimes that's the reason you're skipped overs. Oh my god this woman reminds me of my college roommate and You know, I'm okay with that if I annoy you because I sound like your college roommate like move on I don't even remember what my college roommate sounded like but I can sure remember his face Oh a couple more quickies Uh debbie smith says please describe the steps that happen once a via talent has been selected and then hired What paperwork should I expect? Uh, uh, I it was debbie. I don't know if debbie union or non-union Uh, depends on that. Yeah. So if it's union, there's really standard paperwork. Either it's a Template union contract a second or after a contract whatever it is Or a lot of larger agencies have their own version. It's just kind of their branded version. The language is the same If it's non-union get it in writing. I I think that there are unfortunately a lot of stories where people say they got hired Uploading something and doing a final piece and they were never paid And I'm hearing this from people with a lot of experience. So I'd say, you know, make sure You get whatever in writing but once you book something it just it just really depends if you're non-union on on Who who the agency is you'll probably get an email and then You know, you should ask for paperwork to be signed before the session So you know what the agreement is including session and use you should know what those numbers are And if you have an agent that agent should have worked out those numbers already for you All right, this one comes from Brad giffin. Can you guys hear my daughter singing to herself in the back a little bit? But you know, no, but let's hear it louder. Yeah, it's not unpleasant. What's she singing? I have no idea Passing the time on camera Brad giffin or giffin I should say sorry about that Says the past 10 weeks the most sought-after voices appear to have been deep and comforting I wish I eat me he says And me I guess he's booking Now as america begins to cautiously reopen have the lighter more youthful voices started returning to casting I think so. I mean, I I only do one job at a time. So I don't know that I can Speak to exactly where things are going. I am seeing personally a lot of lighter copy coming through. Yeah, there was um A great piece on I don't think it was pot save america But one of the crooked media shows where they were kind of did this montage of all of the you know In these difficult times in these trying times and you know that we're in this together together together You know is all that I got a million of those scripts. So yeah, I agree It's been rather somber and more serious and I do think we're heading back into Hopefully into You know some of that still we need to as brands be sensitive to it But but maybe a slightly lighter more hopeful tone We can only hope Boom the last one Go for it one more in here. Yeah Maybe so we've talked a lot about some of the don'ts and some of the irritation things But douglas voice guy says what do you wish voice talent did more often in their auditions presentation demo, whatever like What should be what do we what do they need to be putting out there more? You know, I I don't really have any complaints. I know that's kind of a lame answer, but I think I hear such a range of people I think there's so many talented people out there and I think that there so many people who just sound great as is so I say just keep just be true to who you are And uh, you know cutesy is never good But we get that more with on-camera people a lot of kind of cutesy, you know, sort of I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna be memorable and it's not always the truth but I I think that they're I think they're good choices out there and again I my only real advice is if it's not your lane Just say so and um that that might be That might be a good kind of way to go and show up on time and follow the instructions Yeah Always follow the instructions because it's like Yeah, you don't even get the you know the labeling system, right? That's amazing how people screw that one up We've got I've got one. I've got one more topic. I want to cover here before we go to break here Uh, George and I have been watching these threads Of the entire production process of where some of these tech specs have been coming from When uh, you know the agency you've got to have this and you've got to have that And those of us that have been doing this for many years are like, well, you don't need that stuff Why is this coming through and this is coming through from clearly from Initially from the engineers going to the casting directors and on to The producers and on to the agents and it's turning into this giant game of telephone Where it's getting lost on the other end And we're wondering where do you know the technical specs that are you know, they're saying you've got to have This type of microphone you've got to have are you've seen any of that I have not seen a lot of that dan what i'm seeing is that You know since We're all you know living through this pandemic and Recording studios aren't open and businesses aren't we're not together. We're all you know all production projects and posts are being done virtually Um I'm I'm seeing every single script including the ones that i'm sending out as a producer There it's the the specs seem to be you either need source connect Or is dn and the equivalent of a home studio and I feel like the agents and brands are leaving it up to the talent To really know if their you know equipment is up to spec It is a guessing game to be honest for me. I've turned down a lot of auditions and George knows this is why I initially contacted him because I don't have a soundproof Home studio in quotes, you know, I've got a situation where I got some bleed from the outside with the dog across the street And things like that. So I don't want to make myself or my agent look foolish by saying Oh, yeah, no problem And that's just sort of I think the reality for a lot of people now, but what I'm seeing more in terms of Specs are you must have ISD and you must have source connect and You know and and a good professional mic, but no one is getting that specific with Equipment so you might be seeing something different Yeah, well, we've we've been seeing a lot of stuff coming down from agencies and it's Scaring a lot of people. However, it's been great for georgias in my business So, yeah, yeah, there's that which is which is is wonderful and we're teaching people how to do it right Well, carolin it has been a pleasure talking to you and wonderful to see the other side of what goes on of this magic portal between talent and everybody else and We'd love to have you on again sometime and but we really love to do it. Yeah, it was fun We appreciate you being with us today and We're not going to tell you how to people how to contact you because you don't want all those auditions and demos Anyway, thanks for being with us. It's great talking to you. Absolutely. Thank you I can't wait till we can meet not virtually anyway Uh, and good luck to everybody out there. I know it's a it's a it's a tough time for everybody, but We're trying. Alrighty. Thank you. All right, georgia. I'll be right back to wrap this up into a nice tight little ball Right after this This is anthony mendez. You're watching voice over body shop As a voice talent, you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do They break or don't look right on mobile devices. They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra.com Whether you're just exploring a voice over 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 Voice over 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 audiobooks auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voice over success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voiceover extra.com. That's voice over x t r a dot com And action. Hey, all right Should I do my commercial you should All right cool all right three two Well, it's the time of the show where we do a spot for our beloved sponsors for a quite a long time source elements The creators of source connect and by now if you haven't heard of these guys Well, then you're not in voice over because this is they're really the bell of the ball right now in the voice over business in terms of Tools that voice actors need and productions are using It's basically the software that allows your studio to connect to all the other voice over producers and engineers of the world in and be Piped into their studio live real time But in very high quality non wavering consistent time locked audio That is especially important when working to picture and a lot of people are now doing that they're doing animation ADR and there's a video component Sometimes in the mix and to do that right you need source connect So this software you can install on your system and have it up and running within a couple of hours There's training videos. In fact, if you go to george the dot tech slash sc There's some helpful information linked on there including a video about how to set up source connect standard But you can get that demo set up Get a 15 day free trial have it all teched out and sorted out So when the client says do you have source connect? You can say yes Those chances are that's going to be coming up more now than ever So anyway, thanks again source elements for your support of our show We do really appreciate it and you guys are the best. We can't wait to see what you guys have coming down the pipeline We'll be right back to wrap it up right after this This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez And you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of her body shop And we're back Like carolin was great. I you you found her and you said she's going to make a great guest and she was Yeah, it was it's rare that I have a client who has her pedigree with all that background and production You know a vast majority of my clients are voice actors and or they come from You know other world lines of business or they come from acting or they come from radio But that was she was definitely unique. So I'm so glad we had her I last act all the way to absolutely and I hope everybody got something out of that All right next week on this very show. We'll be doing tech talk number 34. Believe it or don't and We'd love your tech questions. You can always send them to us at the guys at v obs dot tv Who are our donors of the week and we since we were actually off last week because we did that pre-recorded bit On the interface. It's uh, there are a lot of a lot of donations in here It's fantastic. A lot of familiar names. Um, dwayne desalvo, brian rush ant land productions michelle blinker christopher epperson Phillips appear tray speaks for you. That's tree moseley Dominic carlos voice presentations limited Mr. George widham. That's my dad patty gibbons Stephanie southerland Mike gordon shana painton baird martha con don griffith And nine four nine designs, which I happen to know who that one is. Who is that? That's lee penny. Well, that's right Well, that's his new company. He he makes radio control car parts A really high-end rc cars Amazing cool, huh? That's absolutely cool. Thanks. Yeah. All right. Well, we appreciate all those donations There's a donate now button if you go to our main website V obs dot tv and click on that and It helps us keeps this thing running week after week giving you fresh Content every week. So we really appreciate all your support. Uh, we'd like you to show us your booths We've got a few that are coming up Uh, and well when we get back together, I think we'll start getting george and ibeck in the same booth Uh, because it's fun to be in other people's booths I mean, we do it all the time anyway, but to be sitting on them and doing our show from somebody else's booth Is kind of cool. You can send those you send those in in landscape not portrait To the guys at v obs dot tv And uh, you can't be in our studio because you can't go anywhere right now So anyway, literally literally it's like hey, I'm I'm alone if we could pan the camera in here and you'd see that I'm all alone kind of weird Anyway, uh, we need to thank our sponsors because we couldn't do the show without them like harland hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra sore celibans vio heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and jmc demos all ravey and dana marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of live and recorded webcasting jeff holman sort of for a chat room duty and our technical director who's sweating it out there in burbank Getting it done going what on earth are these guys doing? Sumer lino. We love you sue. Thanks for doing all the great hero. She's definitely a hero tonight Anyway, yes and lee penny for being lee penny from 949 designs Anyway, that's gonna do it for us this week. We're gonna re-racket for tech talk. You don't want to miss that either So stay tuned for that uh, but uh You know something We're trying our best to get you guys to understand what this business is all about But as we like to say if it sounds good Oh It is good There we go. We'll fix that one in post. I'm dan lennard and i'm george woodham and this is voiceover body shop or vio bs See you in a bit