 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. We're back after a couple of weeks with lots of weird stuff going on here Surgery and Memorial Day and all these other things that go on out here Our guest tonight is the wonderful Debbie Irwin. Say hello Deb. Hello Deb. There you go See I follow directions Well and being able to take directions very important in this business Anyway, we're gonna be talking about medical narration Which is a big market because there is a lot of medical stuff going on out there And if you want to learn a little bit more about it now It's a great hour to hang out with us and learn more about it and how to do it And if you have any questions all you got to do is put them in whatever chat room you happen to be in whether you're on Facebook live or whether you're on YouTube live or If you're one of the growing crowd that said LinkedIn live, I don't know what they call it now But anyway, throw the questions in there Jeff Holman is hiding in there somewhere And he will relay those questions to us in the next segment so you can ask them those questions as well Are we all ready everybody? Okay, all right, it's time for voiceover body shop right now Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect the oh heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes Voiceover extra your daily resource for voiceover success and by world voices the industry association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there if you're wondering I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whitton and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s Thank you very much Anyway, well, we're glad to be back after a couple of weeks of hiatus and Apparently the show that the last tech talk was only on YouTube because Facebook didn't want to upload it for some reason Meta is a freaking meta mess. It is like a real like a steaming pile of garbage fire dumpster So hopefully it'll all work this week and not get right. Yeah, I'm glad we got multiple platforms Yeah, so I had neck surgery a couple weeks ago and You know, I'm not gonna show everybody Essentially, you know, and then then sew it back up and fix my spine and all those things and now I can I can walk without tripping over My own feet. It was a very strange thing science. Yeah, science. I'm glad you're covering nicely Yeah, I'm you know, I'm not gonna show everybody my scar like I've been doing all weekend. So We will use our imagination. Yeah, it's it. Yeah, Marcy's talking my wife is talking about putting bolts in my head And you know, it's like you're looking like Frankenstein. Anyway, speaking of medical stuff. We have a great guest tonight Debbie Irwin has been spending years of her life lending her voice to everything from medical explainer videos for patients and medical professionals to pharmaceutical marketing to medical legal recordings and more Are what make her the expert in the medical narration industry? So let's welcome to the show. I guess for the first time as an actual guest Debbie Irwin Thank you for having me. Oh, it's a pleasure to have you I think we've we've interviewed you at at Fafcon and in a couple of conferences and stuff But this is the first time you're actually here sharing your expertise with us Appreciate that if if my booth were big enough, I would curtsy right now and say, thank you Not really necessary. So how long how long you've been doing voiceover? I guess just 20 years. Oh Just 20 years. Yeah. That's just 20 years. That's cause for a celebration right there. Yeah How did how did you get in? How did you find your way into this marvelous business? You know, circuitously like like many folks, I really didn't know anything about voiceover I had a background in theater and had come to New York back in 1980 to pursue that dream of being a stage actress And after I struggled for a couple of years Uh, I decided okay. I'm off of this. I'm ready for a real job So I started working at the Guggenheim Museum Doing pr and special events and if you know anything about the nonprofit world, especially in New York If you're not independently wealthy or married to someone who is Then uh, you just can't afford to you can't afford to keep that job. So I was ready for Uh, a serious job that paid serious money and I went to wall street became a stockbroker And did that for a number of years had a successful career there Then left wall street for sesame street when I started making babies and was lucky enough to be a full-time mom And somewhere along the line my mom planted the seed of what are you going to do when you go back? And I happened to find a course in one of these, you know, nyu school of continuing education books And I was like this looks interesting So I took the class and within the first five minutes standing up and with a script in my hand I was like eureka I found it. So, uh, that's the reader's digest version of of how I ended up Here. Yeah, and so I like to I like to say I'm living my dream that I came to new york for I just didn't know It's gonna look like this It usually doesn't work that way anyway, but and you're originally from chicago, right chicago. Yeah south side All right, you're from south side of chicago. Oh, oh, yeah. Well, that's Yeah, that that you know, that's not you know, I love to dance Yes That explains that too So how long how did you break into doing a lot of medical narration and how long you've been doing it? I don't think I I don't think I really broke into it I think it it found me and when I talked to my Medical students the people who coached with me. I say, you know, it's really important to to Go for the low hanging fruit. Why make it difficult? Maybe you you know, I have a dream to do animation But if people are hiring you to do IVR or e-learning go, you know do that don't fight it Enjoy the success of that genre and then work towards something more specific So because of certain quality natural quality don't fight it Around my voice. I was just hearing an echo. Um, that'd be my fault. That was gonna say it's Georgia's fault I was here. Don't fight it. Don't fight it. Don't fight. I was like, is that my alter ego reminding me? Don't fight it So because of certain qualities around my voice it sort of naturally sounds and I feel a little Uh, I feel A little funny when I say this because it sounds presumptuous But it is a spec Intelligent authoritative Um, uh warm Um, worldly sophisticated So because of these natural qualities that are in my voice I was getting hired for this kind of work that Required somebody who? sounded intelligent and Could make sense of the content well enough to um to communicate it in a way that expressed My understanding of it, you know, and my understanding is not Deep it's broad, you know, I do do try and understand the content And we can get into that later but because sometimes it's very difficult to understand the content Yeah, well, and you know medical is it I mean, it's huge. I mean, I've done a lot of it too. I've done a lot of pharma And and it it's not getting smaller. It's getting bigger And and continues to be so but it's a very interesting reading, of course every every project's a little bit different Uh, but then again, some of them just seem to sound the same all the time Uh, so I I guess I could ask can anyone do this kind of stuff? Uh with a pen and a paper is anyone an author? Good, but just just because everybody can doesn't mean everybody should yeah, and and I would ask another question which is Does everybody want to do it? because It's challenging and there are certain things about medical narration That you don't find in let's say commercials. For instance, it's long form The terminology is can be very technical. It can be tongue twisting. It can be difficult to understand You have to have stamina in order to read, you know a long script. Let's say, you know ISI for an hour or whatever. So not everybody thinks that that's a fun job Uh, I remember years ago. I had won a session for an ISI and it was I don't know 10 minutes long something like that and really at the you know by law they had to have it at the end of their video But they didn't want it to be read Conversationally they wanted it to be read as fast as possible now I had done my homework to prepare because I always do before I get into the booth But I had no idea they were going to ask me to read it fast So That was a challenge like to disclaimer faster Like well not not not disclaimer fast. No not disclaimer fast, but but faster than faster than Too fast Faster than like comfortable conversation. Yeah speech. I guess even you know It just they were like pick up the pace pick up the pace. So it's very technical There are all kinds of you know percentages and dates and how many people in this study and that study and technical words So it was a it was it was a challenge if I hadn't prepared I would have you know Been horrible, but as it was you know, I certainly hadn't prepared like that Because that had never happened before where somebody asked me to read it quickly. So yeah Well, do you have to have a background in science or medicine to be a good medical narrator? No, absolutely not you don't but it helps and Not always in the ways that somebody thinks I am the daughter of a scientist. My dad was an entomologist And so, you know, we had insects and vials in the refrigerator growing up and You know, so science was part of my My my childhood And certainly having familiarity In the field is is helpful But the field is so vast to your point that You know, there's terminology in in in you know, cardiology that you're not going to hear in gynecology, etc So in all the different sub-sector sections sectors You may be really proficient there, but not necessarily in you know and content that You're not familiar with I got to ask a totally out of the blue question But that's just I just I'm a color guy. I'm the color guy here, right? So Is it is a man going to get booked to do gynecological No generation. No, right. Yeah, just Because here's the thing we always We're always storytelling and we're always thinking about not only who am I but who am I talking to If you're a woman, do you want to hear man telling you what to do with your body? Hell, no, right. No So it's you know, it's it's it's almost insensitive I mean, that's not to say there aren't male gynecologists and that women don't go to them, etc however However POV the POV of the Of the listener of the audience, right? Who are you? Who are you talking to and how do they want to be spoken to? Are they elderly? Are they young? Are they your peers? Are they, you know, above you? Are they, you know, there are all these different variables that have an effect on How you tell the story that you're that you're telling because when we're talking to our spouse or our kid or In-laws, we speak differently Absolutely If you're just joining us our guest is Debbie Irwin and we're talking about medical narration Yeah, we don't we just talk about general stuff on this show a lot But something really specific like medical narration, which is As we said very very large if you've got a question about this All you got to do is write it down in the chat room wherever it is You're watching our show right now and we will get to that question in just a little bit So stay tuned for that. So I guess a follow-up to that would be like When you're doing these types of reads Who are you talking to? I mean, are you talking to other doctors? Are you talking to patients? Are you talking to just the general public? I would imagine It's yes. Yes, okay. I figured it would be specified in the in the specs on that But rarely all three at the same time. I would imagine Yes Yeah So here's you know, here's the thing what I when I talk about medical narration I say it's a huge umbrella under which you have commercials and explainers and e-learning and IVR and voice of god and MOA mechanism of action and mechanism of disease animations ISI the important safety information So you have all these different sub sectors that are areas that people work in Without you know outside of the medical sphere. So in terms of commercials, it could be a commercial for A senior living center. It could be a commercial for a hospital. It could be a commercial for okravis. I'm on My voice is on the currently running okravis and everybody tells me they hear it all the time You know giving the the fair balance information. So there's a lot of work There and that's not complicated and it's not Challenging you're talking to one person and um, you know, it's a it's more intimate and you're either talking about you know, you're You're generally not talking to doctors in a commercial because That's not how they're reached. They're reached privately through other kinds of of media explainer videos or These medical animations and scientific animations because they need that they have a Well, pharma sales people have a toolkit with all these different assets and sometimes it's let's say an e-learning Video that's a conversation between a patient and a doctor. So that's more appropriate for them And you know in a commercial again, you're you know, you're you're targeting either, you know people to go to a certain hospital or You know providing resources or Medicaid Medicare, right? All that stuff is all over right here at all over. Are you probably more likely to book commercials for pharmaceuticals if you've been doing medical narration for a long time? well I don't know that you're necessarily more likely to but if you are if you are proficient in in reading The more challenging medical text then yes, you're more likely to to be hired for that specific role in a commercial which is the important safety information, which is the fair balance, you know Do not take this with you know, do not take this with milk and the the serious side effects could be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah If you happen to be Right to this drug exactly exactly but for you know for the commercials that are You know at at st. Joseph's You know healthcare we we care about everybody in the neighborhood not just the blah, blah, blah, blah, right? You don't need to have a background in you know medical Or be a strong medical narrator in order to do that. Well, you'd need to be a storyteller And be compassionate Mm-hmm Yeah, so yeah, just I want to finish answering your earlier question dan about Does it help to have a background in science? so Yes As I was saying before It helps that you are, you know familiar and comfortable with many of the many of these, you know complicated terms But where it's really helpful Is when it comes time to market yourself So some of my students, you know, I've had an anesthesiologist. I've had nurses pharmacists Science writers, etc. So at the point at which you're ready to hang hang your shingle, you know open for business and I'm a stickler on when that time is because You need to be able to do any and all of those different kinds of medical narration In particular and especially the complicated stuff in order to call yourself a medical narrator and a pro Right because I've heard plenty of stories from uh from clients who just you know, so frustrated that people represent themselves Is that anyhow i'm getting off track um So once you're ready to really put yourself out there and say yes, this is what I can do when it's time to Start knocking on people's doors via linkedin, let's say When you have a background as an anesthesiologist You know that lingo you know those people you can join a hundred groups on linkedin I don't know that you'll find a hundred anesthesiology groups, but you will find many and You join the group and you start to converse with them and you have things in common with them So you can add to the conversation because you know what they're talking about I usually suggest being a fly on the wall initially just to hear and see what people are You know talking about but at any point when you feel like you've got something to add add it And that way people start to get to know you and you're you're presenting yourself as someone who is also Familiar with anesthesiology the fact that you're a voice actor They'll discover when they click on your name to find out more about you. It's secondary Right and as I tell my students look if you know when uh, you know If the job has to do is with anesthesiology And i'm knocking on the door and my student who was one is knocking on the door They're going to open it a lot faster for him than they are for me because they share something in common with him Right So so where is the work? I mean you were saying there's so many different pieces of this I mean pharma and You know pharma to doctors pharma to the general public you've got You know doctors to doctors. I mean we can discuss some of the weird jobs we've had in a little bit Because I have a doozy Anyway, so we're how do you find the work for all these different types of genres? Well, let's talk about what kind of work it is. It's um You know many times when you're talking to somebody who doesn't know about voiceover when you start to list all the different Kinds of voiceover they are there are they'll be like, oh, wow. Yeah, I never really considered that that was voiceover and the same thing um happens in here So I'm just going to rattle off a bunch of different kinds of projects There are aftercare videos Right. Are you maybe you were sent home with one after? Yeah, no, I know I well I was sent a few of those. Yeah Okay, somebody voiced those somebody shot them and voiced them right and it could have been you dan um There are award ceremonies, you know hospitals have benefits annual benefits and they've got their their um anthem video showing what they've accomplished over the course of the year and that needs a narrator there are there's tons of e-learning continuing medical education for All kinds of hcps healthcare professionals there are Funding pitches. So I was hired to narrate a video for Johns Hopkins University. They were pitching to Get funding for some research around blood testing and They put a lot of money into creating this video And I got to voice it and they won a 50 million dollar grant now, you know That's just one other little kind of thing people probably never even thought about that and then there are in-office videos, right? When you're in the hospital or in your doctor's office, it you know They don't want to have to say the same thing to a hundred people over and over So they'll create a video of content that's relevant to everybody so that they can consume it on their own There's student education. There's what to expect. There's medical and surgical videos anatomical cellular I mean, there's research videos. There's just a tremendous amount of Work happening globally. Yeah Once again, we're talking with Debbie Irwin about medical narration and I'm sure that brings up a lot of questions for everybody And you were talking about, you know in-office stuff when you see when you're sitting there in a doctor's office There's now they have, you know a video screen in there and they're running some medical network or something specific to that particular Uh area that the doctor you're seeing is about like, you know, it's like you go to the cardiologist Here's how you take care of your heart, you know, and then they'll be interviewing a doctor or something But somebody's got to narrate that stuff. So Where can you find copy for these types of things so you can try to practice it and see if you can do this kind of stuff? Well, uh, you can transliterate a commercial, right? Uh, but my favorite place to tell people where to find copy is in their Medicine cabinets Yeah Now, I don't know about you, but when I go to the drug store And um, you know pick up my in this case. Okay, it's zolpidem every now and again I need a little help sleeping So I like to have that little pill just in case or if I'm traveling to europe I want the help to go down And so most of the time, you know, we just take this and we toss it and we go into the bag and get You know get our goodies, but actually do not toss this document. This is invaluable There is so much wonderful information here and this is isi This is important safety information that you'll be asked to read So just hit up your medicine cabinet your ibuprofen It I can barely read it. I need a magnifying glass and it says peel back here And then underneath here are all the warnings and symptoms and indications and all the rest of that stuff Or even if you have a a pet, right? And you have to get some Medication for your pet You know, there's instructions in here Right the ingredients it's for xymox advanced formula octic hc one percent Warnings and cautions uses contra indications, right? Whether it's a dog or a human So there's lots and lots of wonderful information Right here. Even if you're still testing yourself for covet, which I did the other day negative um that the that Packet of information, you know that tells you what to do what the steps are that's medical e-learning right there First you do this this these are the pieces in the in the box You have this that the other thing, you know first you unscrew the tab Then you do the this and then you do the that so it's not just isi information that uh that you can have easy access to Yeah, uh Where where do you find buyers for this? I know I remember I worked for companies that Contract out to the pharmaceutical companies And I assume the pharmaceutical companies do it themselves as well. How do you and how do you find them? I mean the names are all pretty well known, but Yeah, it's it's hard to work directly with J and j or You know any of the any of the big pharma companies Um because they are so huge and they either have their own ad agencies or and or in-house Production companies or they're dealing with agents You know to provide them with with talent so on the On the p2p's you'll oftentimes see projects that come through for you know medicare or hospitals etc And You can also do your google research to find production companies and you know those science communication studios, let's say or medical device manufacturers um, you know government agencies also produce a tremendous amount of content that has to be um narrated universities and academic institutes I've developed a relationship with uh a couple of universities and for their graduate students Um masters thesis projects. I have Narrated many of them. So they are learning how to be animators. They're getting their master's degree in this and so for their thesis they have to create a project and part of Making a project perfect and the best it can be is to have a professional um voice artist So I see that as an opportunity to also teach these young people who are coming into the field About working with a voice artist and what kind of information is helpful for us to have So um, you know so I can hopefully Send some people out there who uh think about voice and sound and music Earlier in the process Right, right. Once again, we're talking with Debbie Irwin. We're talking about medical narration It's it's a big long subject I mean if you're you're teaching it and there's so many different things there But again, if you've got a question throw it in one of the chat rooms you might be hiding in right now And let us know what you want to know and deb will be able to answer that uh, all right This is this is get to some interesting stuff here like the hardest part of this business Of doing medical narration is pronouncing some of the names There's if if you're good at latin or some of these other things it helps I imagine But you've got a couple of words here that I you know two of them. I have no problem with the last one I don't think anybody can do although. I'm sure you've probably practiced it a million times Uh, like, uh, I wonder if if sue can put some of these up there as we're saying them like the first one here is Spheno palatine ganglia neuralgia. How'd I do with that one? Yeah, pretty good. Spheno palatine ganglion neuralgia Yeah, which I yeah, and he guesses as to what the heck that is Well, I already know. Let's see if anybody else knows that. You know what that one is george Heck no Spheno palatine ganglion neuralgia. It's a very serious condition. You should know it george everybody should know it Is it one of the things that are really stupid long name and it's a really simple common Yeah, sort of But it's it it's an ice cream headache Uh That's a good one Which is more acute than a migraine headache apparently. Yeah, just not as long lasting more brief, right Yeah, I didn't know that. Wow. All right. This one the the second one here is my personal favorite Because when anyone asks me about medical narration like what could I do medical? Well, you have to say something like ankylosing spondylitis without thinking about it There it is ankylosing spondylitis I knew that one, you know, and I had to do it because what ankylosing spondylitis is a Not plexoriasis, but it's a it's an inflammation thing with uh, due to your Uh spine and joints right right right and and there's lots of different treatments for it and say it's and You know what your non-steroidal whatever it is. See I've done a lot of this stuff I know where all this goes but But let's look at the last one here because I have no idea what it is Uh, no not not spalentine ganglioneralgia, but the last one we had there, so, uh Let me see if I can really really really long really long one. It's All right She's gonna put it up here and then we're all going to say it together Okay And then we're gonna go to a break and take your questions. It's pneumo mono Trauma microscopic silico covo clenan anosis Okay, I need to do a little uh, you know a little Okay Thank you pneumono ultra pneumono ultramicroscopic silico volcano coneosis Boy does a special skill at looking at that very very long word and knowing kind of mentally where to divide No, no, I need help smaller chunks or I I need help. I use the dictionary all the time There are medical dictionaries that I refer to and it looks it looks completely fanatic It's a matter of not Tripping it's a really long long word, but it's really just a bunch of words, right because medical terminology is based in Germanic language Germans love to string a bunch of freaking words into one new word And it's like if you can subdivide that mentally, right you can break it down, but when you look at it as a whole as a whole it's like Letter right and and what is this stuff? What is pneumo mono black lung disease? Ah Why don't they just call it that no they've got to come up with that name Anyway, once again, we're talking with deb erwin and we're talking about medical narration If you've got a question throw it in the chat room right now because we're going to get to it in just a little bit But right now we're going to take a quick break and listen to some of the people who support our show And we'll be right back with debbie erwin here on voice over body shops. Don't go away This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice over body shop Have you noticed the specific demands of clients regarding our home v.o studios? Are they at a professional level to record for broadcast? And what does that mean? To me it means it doesn't sound bad I've seen several now demanding cardioid condenser microphones Some are great and cheap ones not so great. So how do you choose? It's like standing in the checkout line at the supermarket deciding which candy or mince you want to buy So which is right for you? 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You sign up. You're paying for a subscription, but you're getting the support and it's worth it I recommend it. I know many times in the past. I've said just get your free trial Get a demo and that might be fine for some of you who are much more technical Have a higher aptitude for learning new tech and jumping through a lot of hoops to get things to work However, if you feel like this is going to make your career To have the technology and you really want that extra level of help Sign up get a subscription and have them walk you through it It's really worth it You'll feel confident in your studio when you've gone through this And if you do the extra mile of certification, which you can also opt to do is get certified You're telling your studio clients the ones that you work with that you know what you're doing and you know They know You have a great sounding studio. Anyway source elements as a great software get familiar get certified and feel like a pro Right now head over to source elements.com and get started Now back to you Well, hey there heroes It's david h. Lawrence the 17th of vo heroes and I had a chance recently To talk to amy joe berman Now who is amy joe berman? She's somebody who can help you with your career If you visit the url below you'll see it amy joe berman is The former head of casting at hbo So she sits on the opposite side of the table when you're doing your auditions Whether it's on camera or voiceover and she has a lot to say About things like AI and synthetic voices and getting paid for auditions that people have been talking about Self tapes at home, which we've been doing in the world of voiceover for like what centuries now This link will take you to a place where you can register for her free webinar Where you can ask any questions you want about making your auditions better and your auditions Are the one thing that you have control over that can increase your bookability So visit voheroes.com slash berman. That's voheroes.com slash berman This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham vobs.tv And we are back with debby urwin. We're talking about medical narration Now one of the things that I wanted to challenge you with was what's the weirdest medical narration job you've had I gave you a couple of days to think about this What what did you come up with I it's lame. I mean it That that really tough is I won right which I where I had no clue that they were going to ask me to do it at you know speed 45 instead of 33 Um Times when you know the word there come, you know the the name of a drug and people in the same company don't agree on how It's supposed to be pronounced, which is kind of funny Uh And you know in a situation like that you do it every which way they ask and then you let them duke it out later after the session Cover your bases right Um, and then I have one it's kind of funny that came to mind. It wasn't a medical. It was for a a uh It was for a perfume and this was years ago Uh, I was in a studio session And I tend to move a fair amount when I'm when I'm working even when I'm not working And I was in this adorable Jumper And for you know, what a jumper is right folks, you know, you're wearing stockings You have a shirt and then it's like a dress skirt kind of thing over Well, this adorable jumper was lined with some kind of satiny material and every time I moved it It was So I had to take my dress off In order to get the job done well Luckily even though there was a mirror there Luckily, uh, the mirror was like just to hear so, you know, there was nothing they were seeing but I had to disrobe To uh to get the job done Hmm take that context. Yeah Yeah No, I've had not fully just partially. Yeah. Now in the medical stuff I've had two really weird ones one was Some doctor doing a lecture And nobody could understand him because his accent was so bad. So they hired me To be his voice on this thing and it was like, well, okay I can't even remember what the subject matter was but that was weird But the the weirdest one And probably the most uncomfortable one was some doctor who was selling a product And showing people how to use it to diagnose ed Which involved needles and a number of other things and the video was Very graphic and and it's like but this and I'm like why why don't just have the guy do it himself He's voices but no no no I want somebody professional to do it And I'm watching this video and I'm going So yeah See I told you I'd come up with a good one, but that's And that's just one out of a million, you know that we we've all done those types of things Got a video was still like stuck in my mind. Can't unsee it. No, you can't you can't you can't Anyway, let's get if you've got a question for for debbie Irwin about medical narration throw it in the chat room right now We still have time for a couple here, but let's get to these george Why don't you get the one from patricia andre? I will thank you Hi patricia. Thanks for writing in from youtube I have a degree in radiography and when I worked at a legal office for many years And where she did or then because I can't read You can read it on screen and correct my terrible comprehension of the english language Where can I look to get medical or legal narration and in spanish too? Well, you gave us a little bit ideas, I think Well, first of all Are you able to you know the fundamentals? Do you do you have a? An excellent space to record and you know how to record yourself. You know how to edit, you know There are these fundamentals That have to be in place in order for you to then take the next step the next step is Uh training is learning how getting familiar with with the content, right? So the fact that you're familiar with radiology is great But that does that that doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to tell a story That doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to act in the case of dan that he needed to act calm When he was narrating that he wasn't feeling calm But he needed to act calm and professional even though he was you know coming screaming and you know His his skin was was whatever I was laughing more than anything else. Okay Well, the good good good thing about patricia. She's a fan and watched our show for a long time and worked with dan on her studio So she's got a great place to record. But like you said it is a form of acting Absolutely. I mean no matter every kind of voiceover is storytelling So you have to be comfortable with with the format right and know what to expect Um, so different You know when I when I approach a script, I approach it from like three different doors The first door is the genre. What do we know in general about the genre if it's Um, if it's e-learning, we know that it's going to be sort of more professional a little more buttoned up It's going to be instructive. They're going to be um, you know Very detailed things that you're being told to do in sequential steps If it's an explainer, you know that as a genre they're light and friendly and and easy going and very conversational And if it's isi, you know that it's you know, really serious and um, you know You have to get through these complicated terms and the complicated text in a way that sounds like You know exactly what you're talking about. So that's the first doorway the genre What can we what do we know about the genre in general? And then there's the structure you take a look at that script and how it's structured if it's a commercial it's structured, you know um problem solution, uh, you know Yay, everything's going to be okay again. If it's e-learning, you know, that's you know We're going to talk about what we're going to talk about we're going to talk about what you're going to learn Then we get into the learning and then we talk about what you learned And that's that structure when it comes to Important safety information when you look at these at these documents, you know, you'll see And become familiar with the format of them. Um, you know, there's indications. What is this used for? um, you know contra indications, um, you know Etc etc etc. So you become familiar with the structure and then the third doorway into a script is by The content right water. What's the story that you're telling and what's the subtext? Who are you telling the story and who are you telling the story to? So all of these components are really important and assuming that you have all of that kind of training Then then you're ready to start to put it put yourself out there and find work I think that was the crux of the question which I did a terrible job of reading Which which says where can I Look to get medical or legal narration. And I think she means work She didn't put the word work at the end But I think that's what she meant and you mentioned earlier that paid of play sites are a common place to look for that Yeah, and also production companies right and Again, what what I suggest is Being a fish in a different Pool of water where you are the only voice actor, right? So I use a metaphor that you know what when we have a project There are there are a series of actors of people who are players right in the project And I say that we're all in the same show. We're just not on the stage at the same time So I've made it my business to get to know the other players in the show Right the writers the animators the illustrators the editors um the producers I'm a member of swiney, which is science writers in new york, right? And i'm the only voice actor there And why am I there? Well, I tell them chances are I've voiced some of the things that you've written it makes sense Go find your swiney The more I understand about the entire process the more helpful I can be She needs to go find her swiney find your swiney. There you go I think I left mine in at home. Uh, let's see here Uh, jeff holman asked a great question. Is medical narration sourced through agents like the big pharma companies? Yeah Yes, yes, and and Not not all work comes through agents, um, you know and not all Uh, I don't know The big agencies well enough to know if some of them are the go-to for certain genres like recently somebody told me that atlas is the go-to for In-show documentary narration And I don't know if that's accurate or not, but in hearing that it makes me think. Okay. So maybe there are You know agencies that are more Prone to get certain kinds of work. I don't know of any that's just does medical or specializes in medical But I talk when I if I go knocking on a door of a production studio, you know In the states or in the us production studio or even a talent agency in in europe I say this is my expertise and that immediately makes me different from everybody else. I'm not just a jane of all trades Um, this is what I and I also take a look at who else is on their roster to see Do they have voices that are like mine or do I bring something different? Yeah Uh ajb voice actor on youtube says hey debbie. I'm on okravis. Can you say progressive multifocal lukko and synopilophily? Encephalopathy. Yes progressive multifocal lukko and cephalopathy. I think I just said it Was that what you had to say ajb? I guess Justin ramos says uh, hey, did debbie mention their mic of choice? Is that the shotgun on screen? It is a shotgun on screen. Tell us a little more about your actual studio studio bricks the voiceover version um I know now they're making the the the pads out of recycled blue gene material or something like that There you go right there I this is my home inside my home And I love it here. I also use it as a storage area for my lipstick because I love wearing lipstick Those those are pens This is lipstick and over here are my lemon glycerin swab sticks Which I adore your mouth de-clicking For mouth de-clicking if I'm too wet if I'm too dry I you know, I open this up and I swab swab swab and then I stick it in I have a pencil Holder that's like a broom So I just stick it right in there and then I just continue to use it now over here where you can't see I have my pens and pencils and uh Chapstick Yeah, do the guys at studio bricks think about this when they were designing all this stuff? Pretty fascinating good use of that. Yeah, uh, tony hoover Question or comment here some people who used Uh google translate They type the word that hit the microphone icon and hear an ai voice speak the word Is using google translate a good idea? More importantly, is it accurate? well, I often triangulate um resources because There's a british pronunciation of a word and there's an american pronunciation of that same word um You can be you you can be given a reference to how to pronounce something in a video and that person is speaks english with a very heavy non-english accent and it can be hard to decipher what it is that they're saying and also just figure out if that's really the correct pronunciation Or if that's just a reflection of their accent and their understanding of it So I will go to the company oftentimes to ask how it's pronounced generally the person who answers the phone Knows it pretty well because he or she or they are saying it on all the time But I like to use webster's medical dictionary A lot and I also use the cambridge dictionary Um To you know to get the british and english Um pronunciations and I check with my clients Yeah, that's always a good one. It's like, yeah, they're the ones that make it. Perhaps they know how to pronounce it Uh, yeah, it always amazes me how how weird some of these pronunciations are and how do they come up with some of these drug names? You know And then there's the actual name of the drug and then they come up with the commercial name for it and it's like Okay, and boy, they are really pushing it on people if you watch, you know, the nightly news or something It's one med commercial After another they must have a hell of a scrabble game these get must And now we're noticing that the disclaimers and the the uh and uh Adverse reaction stuff is like 40 percent of the commercial sure Yeah, well So the the law changed. I don't know. I don't remember when but it used to be that all of that um important safety information of fair balance the disclaimer stuff was read really really fast and You know Somebody in washington said this doesn't make any sense because nobody can understand it So now that disclaimer information is not read quickly and in fact it's read Um in the same kind of almost conversational voice as the rest of the spot They don't want it to really stick out and it's read over people who are you know on screen They're having a wonderful time and they're laughing and they're in a bathtub or they're at the beach and you know All the rest of these really beautiful things so that what you're seeing and what you're hearing are not really matching up But that's that's the way they're that's the way it's done now Yeah So deb if someone wants to learn from you how to do this and enter this marketplace because there seems to be plenty of work out there How would they get in touch with you at my website debbie erwin.com? And there's a contact form there and you can fill it out and let me know I you know, I ask you questions about your experience and uh, what areas you're interested in working and and then I'll get in touch with you and schedule a free 20 minute chat And figure out if if it's a good fit I'm not the right fit for every project or every person And I offer both private coaching and i'm also doing small groups now as well I have a couple of medical ones coming up in Next month and the month after Excellent well deb it is a pleasure to see you We don't get to see each other much during the pandemic But now we're running into each other in all sorts of places, which is great Thanks for being on the show tonight and we really appreciate your expertise in this and i'm Looking forward to having you out again when thank you something else to talk about. All right. There must be something We always find something when we get together. Thanks so much. All right. Thanks for being with us Alrighty, well george and i'll be right back to wrap things up and re-racket for tech talk right after these important messages So don't go away You're still watching vlbs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like Audio books auditioning home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. 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We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop And we're back with voiceover body shop to wrap things up for this particular segment Our thanks again to debbie erwin for her expertise in medical narration and It it can be a lot of fun doing medical narration, especially when you get the weird words and the weird jobs Anyway, uh, let's see here next week on this very show And we're about to do it live if you happen to be watching live You might want to stick around and ask your questions for tech talk Not otherwise, you're gonna have to watch it and replay But it's a lot more fun when you watch it live because we never know what's gonna happen So next week we'll have tech talk number 104 and then on june 19th Hugh klitsky will be joining us to talk about Getting your demos the way they should be and he's an expert on demos and he's a fun guy to talk to Uh, let's see here george the tech you got any specials for all the people going to your website Now we just have the same coupon code i've been telling you guys about for quite a long time And that is on our site at just put in v o b s fan 10 You can get 10 off on anything that you buy or do through george the dot tech All righty, uh, here are our donors of the week. We got a couple of new ones. So we'll start off with grace newton Christopher epperson robert leadham, steven chandler kasey clack jonathan grant thomas pinto Greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions martha con 949 designs Sarah borges philips appear brian page patty gibbons rob rider Shawna pennington baird don griffith Trey moseley diana birdsall maria makas and sandra man willer All righty. Thanks. You can donate to the show if you go to our website if you're already there V o b s dot tv. There's a little button there. It says donate now and you can give us a dollar a month 10 dollars a month. You can give us your entire life savings and we will not complain Anyway, uh, but that helps us keep this show going and technically fantastic The other people helping us out are our sponsors like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Source elements do heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent joined today Because we get lots of cool stuff going on there our thanks to jeff holman in the chat room getting all those questions to us Uh from facebook and youtube and all that stuff Sumer lino who has to leave us for whatever reason so george and i get to control everything for the next hour For getting things done on the technical end and of course lee pennie just for being lee pennie Well, this is not an easy business, but there's so much to it And that's why we bring you people like deb urwin and all the other great guests We have to tell you how to succeed in this business with lots of trying anyway, uh I'm dan lennard and i'm george woodham and this is voiceover body shot or vo bs Stay tuned for tech talk. 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