 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop, and we're starting off 2021 with our good friend Joe Cipriano. Say hi, Joe. Hi guys, I was muted Dan. I'm so sorry. Hi guys. Oh, there he is. Yeah, we got lots of great stuff to talk about about promo and some of the coaching he's doing and all those other cool stuff. So stay tuned. We'll be right with you right after this. Hello. Welcome to voiceover body shop. It's a place where you can get your body Shopped with voices. Come on. Look at Dan's head. So shiny Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat Were you? Stick around. You don't want to miss this At target we want you to come as you are be comfortable. Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Nuevo México necesita un cambio la representante Michelle Lujan Grisham Al luchado por nuestro estado en la cámara de representantes Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your Netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on That's it guys time is up. Hey, it's JMC. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out JMC demos comm and see a sample of our work now Let's get back to Dan and George and this week's tech wisdom When it comes to voiceover the mental game of auditioning is just awful for some people yet for others It's one of the best parts of their day. Now. How do you get your mind in the right place? Here's a link to a free three lesson mini course given by this guy Yeah, you recognize him, but you don't know his name It's TV film stage and voiceover actor Michael Kostrov an expert at teaching the mental game of auditioning He's created a free mini course with the help of VO heroes called audition myths tough truths and logic And it gives you dozens of tested strategies for approaching and nailing the audition process It works for voiceover on camera theater commercial or any other audition you might get and again It's absolutely free Here's the link VO heroes comm forward slash VOBS. Yep. VO heroes comm forward slash VOBS Go there and you'll get instant access to audition myths tough truths and logic. That's VO heroes comm forward slash VOBS Here's some big news from voiceover essentials comm They're now hosted on Shopify the leading cloud-based solution for online stores and retail point-of-sales systems It powers over 600,000 businesses and has more than 82 billion dollars in sales Voiceover essentials has been hard at work getting all their ducks in a row for the transition and converted over the holiday And they couldn't be happier They can accept virtually any type of payment from all major credit cards PayPal Shopify pay Apple pay square and even Cryptocurrency plus they can ship more efficiently and often save customers money on shipping costs because they instantly see What's the best bet for their customers that day across all delivery providers? Including DHL for shipments internationally they'll be spending way less time coding and tweaking their freestanding VOE sites So they can devote more time to customer service new products and more helpful resources for the VO home studio world Voiceover essentials comm is a great company to from Nescafe and Tesla to Sephora Bombas the New York Times in Wikipedia Shopify is the place to be voiceover essentials comm Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voiceover body shop From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech Grant with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voiceover business Welcome to voiceover body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites comm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes comm become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voice over training Jmc demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys And good evening. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voiceover body shop or VO Yes, so a slight little change in format they're gonna put the commercials at the beginning Therefore we get lots more time with our guest and More time for your questions and then you guys don't have to suffer through a long commercial break in the middle of this Well, maybe one anyway, and it's not suffering because we do have great great sponsors It's very important to to mention that but anyway, so happy new year to everybody George happy new year. Thank you. Happy new year to you. It's good to see you have had a good weekend at Mauro Bay I guess Yes, got the heck out of town found a cheap motel and had a nice few days off of relaxation by the sea and Recommended to anybody that has the luxury and opportunity to do so because it is good for the psyche Yes, especially if you're near the sea, which if you're in Iowa, that's gonna be a bit of a problem Even if you're in Iowa just go somewhere else in a car and sit by the road for an hour Whatever you got to do to get away from your usual surroundings. It's worth it It is well 2020 is in the rearview mirror mirror And as you said, don't let it hit you on the way the door hit you on the way out, right? but Let's get back into the world of voiceover and what better way to start 2020 than with our guest tonight Joe Cipriano who is best-known promo voice of literally Hundreds upon hundreds of television shows and all sorts of stuff He is the major domo of promo and I know he knows that Joe Cipriano Welcome to the show. Welcome. Hello gang. Oh by the way. I'm out of time. I got to go We had to get it in under one minute we blew that window, you know what the show before the show is the real show I mean, I I really believe that Sure Well, happy new year guys. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you guys, too It's been a while but he's looking chipper. Yes. We are because well This is a significant because you know, we've been doing this show from the LA studio where Dan is since August 2015 15 Joe and his wife were the first on that in that studio. We were I tried episode. Yeah, and into coming in tonight But she said it's okay But we like to see Annie in here. I know I'd love to see you But it's just so it's so it just feels right to have you to kick off the year So that's so sweet. You could be here. That was actually that was such a fun night because that was your first night in there Right. It was that was a kick. I think was We had a truckload of people in there, too I can't remember if Jack Daniel was there or not, but there were there were a bunch of men Yeah, we had about about 10 15 people in here. Yeah, remember when you could have more than three people in a room at the same time remember that Yeah, God, I miss it. I miss it so much. Yeah, now I'm all alone, but now we have this beautiful new set I love that set. That is that is just killer You know, I'm a little worried about this We've been you know sitting in our homes and doing pretty much nothing except working going into the booth and and ordering from Postmates or Burdash or whatever I'm a little worried when we get back to normal that's like Nobody wants to make the effort. I really don't want to go out. I really like We're gonna have a new dysfunction Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Right. Yeah, but it's someone actually anybody at home could act as the waiter every night Work that out So let's get back to the world of voiceover since that's why this is voiceover body shop It did it kicked in today for me. I imagine for a lot of folks Yeah, it does. It's like first of the year suddenly things are happening But how how has the the lockdown affected your business? you know, uh The interesting thing is, uh There's a lot of content for people to watch during the entire lockdown from last march to now so There are so many streaming shows and network shows and cable shows And yeah, they still need promos and you still need to let people know when What the shows are what they're about and you know when to see them. So it's actually been a busy time and uh I was telling actually I was talking to jay michael, uh about this Radio imaging has has kicked up because I think that you know, sadly radio Across the country is is struggling and they're actually kind of furloughing of a lot of their on-air people And it makes the image voice a little bit more important, you know to help You know be that cohesive a sort of sound for the for the station. So Believe it or not. I mean this past year 2020 was one of my biggest radio imaging You know sides of of doing voiceover and and a lot of new radio stations came on which was exciting and it's fun Because you know, I have that in my blood george. You you do as well And that's where I came from you're from radio too dan. That's right, of course So, you know, I love having that connection. Um, and then the in-show stuff during the the lockdown a lot of shows like Hollywood game night was doing socially distant shows and I was doing the announcing for that And I just did the cbs Thanksgiving parade, but there really wasn't a parade You know, it was kind of like a look back at previous years It's all so strange. It's so strange. But thankfully the work has been there Yeah, and I bet you guys are busy helping folks, you know, tune up their studios at home or Or actually start a studio. Yeah, there's been a lot of that this year A lot of people are like we it's it's not like George and I didn't warn them like 10 years ago You're gonna need a home voiceover studio. You're gonna need this. Yeah, it's like the old fram commercials pay me now or You can pay me later Yeah Yes, I've had George at at numerous locations where Annie and I Have lived over the past how many years 10 10 years or more George has been in there Yeah, even in a short-term rental where we we did a studio that Someday I'll tell that story. But let me just say it was a calamity Oh That's calamity. I was gonna say which calamity you're talking about exactly Let me tell that story. My life was a daisy chain of calamities. You got to fill me in That was a crazy day Do you still have the piece of equipment that was involved? I do that's in my in the florida in the miami studio and thank god it still works That is a story. I'm happy to tell it. I'm happy to you know what man Let's kick it off with a doozy this year Ann and I had left Bel Air. We we sold our house and we moved into this amazing Building in Beverly Hills right on the the line of Beverly Hills and Century City It's the tallest building there and super super high end, you know I mean literally you go down in the morning to you know the the restaurant and Free breakfast That used to have free cocktails in the evening Two swimming pools Tennis court. I mean it was just an unbelievable place. How do they get to the how do they get you to the shopping to the mall again? Oh, that's right, of course They had two Let's count them two Bentley's white Bentley's that would take you wherever you needed to go They would also take you to the airport, you know if you needed to go to lax or wherever It's pretty it was a very high end and but that's not part of the story I had to sneak my tools in there Joe That's right. You did because they wouldn't allow we were after hours or something. Yeah, just well, I didn't I'm not You know, I'm not a licensed contractor to show a license, right? So I had to pack my tools into a roll-a-board case, which to the to this day I still use that roll-a-board. You still use that. Yeah, that's awesome To shorten up the story a little bit So we had this really nice two bedroom apartment and in one of the bedrooms It was kind of like what we have here It was my office and also, you know, we have the studio bricks that george put together here But there we had a little closet with swing out doors And I think george came up with the idea we can swing out the doors and put like the desk into the closet Uh treat the inside of the closet treat the doors Put a baffle up on top That was sitting on the open doors now. Keep that in mind. These are open closet doors They're just on a hinge. They're just sitting there They're not locked in and because I was working before george had come over I had put the baffle on top of it and I was able to to do sessions So george comes in the first thing I said to george is now be careful because the you know the The the treatment is which is made out of wood, right? I mean it was heavy. It's a wooden frame. It's pretty heavy Yeah, sitting on the doors and he goes. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course And I'm sitting in this very chair and I'm watching him and he goes, okay, so let me get started He opens the doors The treatment falls down hits him on the head And then it bounces off hits the table where the uh apollo was sitting Where the video monitor was sitting the video monitor launches off of the desk. It cleared the desk And that panel came down to hit me that cleared everything off the desk It was all happening in slow motion and the apollo launches off of the desk And falls and then there's like what would you call it an explosion? There was quite a big spark. There was a huge spark that was just like Why did I not hear this story because I was too embarrassed to tell anybody I feel like every in in our apartment and probably several other apartments was not was knocked out Everything was off everything went off and I thought oh my god What the heck just happened? And I thought that the the spark in that kind of explosion type thing was actually the the video monitor cracking But the amazing thing is the apollo fell off And the actual the corner of the apollo landed directly down on an ac cord So it had power going through the cord and sliced there you go that corner Here's a visual through the cord. You see the see the corner of this thing It's pretty pointy But look at how small that is right that is just a tiny it That hit the extension cord Precision and sliced it and sliced it made a big spark and cut out the power bought Pop the breaker and I think george said godfrey daniels. What doesn't happen here But he picked up the apollo We're looking at the apollo and on that corner that you're looking at it was totally it was singed It was singed black I'm mortified right I mean I'm in this really fancy building. It just moved in I'm just mortified and I think I was in the other room and said what the heck is going on in there I carried all the gear into the kitchen plugged it all in we confirmed it was still functional the video monitor still work Everything still worked. It was a miracle unbelievable the very very end of the story to wrap it up Yeah, is that cord that went to that equipment was plugged into the wall behind a humongous Murphy bed shelving unit that had to be removed had to be moved To get to that cord it would have had to be it would have had to it was locked in It was screwed into the floor and the wall I couldn't get to the plug. You did a you did a spliced it in the core He was like a big Electrical cord wart on the thing and I was like I promise this won't short out again I I mean the faith that Joe had to have in me To know that that splice I had done with wire nuts and electrical. Yes. I was gonna be safe I'd look down there from time to time. It's still it's still This sounds like the the christmas tree story from a christmas story Exactly Oh Imagine if that was the first time I had worked with george This would be the introduction and this would be the point where my business takes a dime For the rest of 2021. I was on facebook do not use this you know this tech But uh, thankfully Joe still had faith we I sat back and I did say George that was I've never seen a calamity happen before my eyes I use a different word. It has a c and an f Cluster But did it sound okay? In the end In the end Yeah, in the end and the fact that that Apollo is still being used that that thing Deserves to be like in some kind of that's universal audio Yeah, you a should they should have that story dan Can I shoehorn in the question about universal audio since that came up? Oh, there you go for it go for it Why do you why I know that you're a big proponent of the Apollo? You've done packages With with the with the uh BSW Mm-hmm. Why is that and I know why I like it, but why is it for you and pivotal an important part of your Well, you know, uh, you and I talked about it, you know, but I had also heard Oh gosh, you know, I had talked to a few people. I mean, I think maybe tim tibbitt's at 1.2 He always loved it. There were a bunch of people that really liked it and I think it was when you told me about Uh, you know what you can do with it and all of the different plug-ins And you know, I was in in our studio in the big studio in bel air that we built from the ground up That was all about the outboard gear, you know in the avalon M5 and and everything that we had there and the fact that Now that especially going into that rental that you can pretty much You know do get all of that sound and just get it out of the box. It just does so much and that's why I have two of them and I actually As kind of bulky as it is it still fits. There's my little briefcase Back there it still fits in the briefcase with the 416 and headphones and I take it with me to europe I I take it wherever I go and that way I I still have my same sound, you know I have all of the plug-ins. So that's really and I would have to say that was a few years ago And it's kind of like urt. I stopped there. I don't know if there's something beyond it That's even better and better and better, but I'm I'm still there with it. Well to that end I mean, you know, we've talked about I talked about the apollo a lot on the show I've also told a lot of people not to get apollos who are getting started in voiceover or getting started with their own home studio because it is considerably more complex than a scarlet 2i 2 Absolutely, and you know what I used that focus right which you know like like the scarlet And I use that for for years for my remote, you know studio and it sounds fantastic, you know But uh having the apollo with me you could do so much more with it Yeah, I mean the thing is it's like people to keep in mind like you can do Technically you can do a lot of what the apollo is doing in Pro tools or in logic or in any in a multi-track Environment where you have plug-ins and stuff. Mm-hmm, but what makes that thing so unique, which is what's so good for promo I think for you guys, you're so For you wearing headphones is a big deal. Yeah, like right I mean like there's a lot of the world of voiceover where wearing headphones While acting isn't really a big thing you have to monitor you have to have good monitors Right, and so as an actor you're monitoring everything in real time including your own production chain And you can do that in the apollo that'd be really hard to do Here's the other cool thing for a lot of the in-show stuff that I do and You helped me with the setup on this Dealer no deal. Um, we did all of those shows we for the 20 Uh 19 shows 2018 shows. Uh, I think we did like about 40 shows something like that I did all of them remotely. Sometimes I was in that apartment The 10 000 Santa Monica boulevard Sometimes I was in a hotel in Miami beach before we had gotten our apartment there And we had set up In pro tools and in the apollo where for example deal or no deal or Hollywood game night They'll send me the video clips that i'm reading to And i'll import that them into pro tools and put them in a You know, I can I can watch it while i'm reading to it Have different uh audio channels one for recording me one for the audio of that video And the cool thing was We could also bring in skype on another channel And they could hear me reading they can hear the audio from the spot that I was reading to the portion of the show And I could do playback for them. It was a full functioning. They have no idea how good they had it They had no idea you would have thought well everybody does that Yeah, they could can you play that back? For us I go sure and play it back with the audio from the video with my read Oh, that one it kind of bumped I hold on a second and I cut it and moved it and I played it back and how about now? Oh, that's perfect, you know, and then of course you invoice them for all the engineering term. Yeah, right. Yeah I should Let me ask you this because you are also a very early proponent for ISDN Yeah, speaking of remote work Yeah, uh and and that sort of changed over the last year because all the studios were starting to accept a source connect and other Remote systems. So how did you convince the the networks to do that? That was a long long long You've been tried for years long I mean when did I I think source connect when it used to be a plugin for pro tools Maybe came in around 2002 4 Long time ago and then it went to a standalone and I remember taking Uh the the the folks from um source connect and why can't I remember? The woman who runs source connect who is rebecca wilson rebecca I brought rebecca into both fox and cbs Physically demonstrations physically back when we actually would really make house calls Exactly She came in from I think she was living in mexico city one time and you know, she was in new zealand another time Would come in and we had meetings at fox and we had several meetings with the head of engineering and production And you know, they would always come up with something. They were always worried. This was the big thing back then They don't want to put their rigs On the internet because they were afraid that people were going to get in to their stuff You know, I start missing things up and I said listen We have ISD inboxes in the machine room and they patch it in you just put a computer in the machine room And have it run source connect and and you just patch the audio. I mean that's all you have to do Treat it like a zephyr. Yeah, exactly and and uh Literally, I think we had three meetings with fox and we had a couple with cbs and um fox would say Yeah, but we don't like this and she goes. Well, what is it that you don't like about it? And they would explain it and she goes I'll rewrite it. I'll rewrite the uh the program. I will change it so that it works for you. She I mean she was the The brains of it. You know, she's been over backwards trying to Solve those problems and to this day, that's what she does. I mean, yeah She's remarkable. Those guys have so many products. You have no clue how many Products they have beyond source connect and I will say that cbs went for it first and They embraced it. Uh, they kept their ISD ends as backup But most of our sessions starting whenever that was not really good on the year Maybe it was 2012-13. I don't I can't remember But they went to source connect and then a lot of my vendors that I work for like studio city They're all source connect some places use, uh, you know ipvtl or whatever, but um, It's really rough to find anybody using. Um, ISDN anymore. Well, I you're especially not able to use ISDN I have a really good reason show Your box is right there So And it happened that's right. I hate to tell you, but you can't use ISDN. I can't use that. Yeah right here It's in my ISDN museum There's a zephyr express above that right there. There's a My other one that I had bo stevensson, uh Got from me. Oh, that's great. He uses it. Um, still Is that hooked up? Are you using that at all? Like is it? No, it's like a museum anymore. Yeah, I have the the binders. I have all the user manuals the original I remember writing on facebook. I said, you know, I'm done with my zephyr boxes. I can't believe it and I must have read You know 100 000 promos, you know For all the networks through these things. I can't let them go. I'm I you know, what should I do? And one somebody said that you should turn it into a flower pot and I actually thought about that for a moment But then if you ever went back Joe, it is safe Right here on this shelf If you if you just want to I am so happy that it has a happy home back there And you've lugged that around from a couple of places. Yeah It's it's it's cargo if you're just joining us, uh, we're talking with One of the top promo guys in the face of the earth or on the face of the earth. Joe Cipriano Who's uh does promo for and and imaging for all sorts of Every network show that's out there. There's only one person and they use Joe One of the things you talked about was affiliate work and how that's really increased Explain to people what affiliate work is Dan, are you talking about affiliate radio or tv? Well, we'll start with radio and then we'll get radio. Yeah, so uh more it's referred to as radio imaging and uh, so radio stations I don't I won't say they need to but I think it's smart for their marketing to have one or two voices That represent the radio station. It's kind of like what what we do for networks We're kind of like the audio image of the networks the net tv networks have to work with two things They're working with with what it's going to sound like with the comedy sound like what the dramas sound like in the promos And also the look of it the colors that they they use in the back plates and and for the logos for the shows um And a back plate is at the end of a promo where you usually see a slide Or it could be a motion as well Um along with the title of the show and the time that it's on the air and the network Those are the three real important things at the end of the promo so with radio stations You know, uh, they hire voices to be the image of the radio station So you have on air talent that are the personalities of the radio station But then there's also an image voice voice for the station that is also a personality voice many times and it Brings in that continuous sound throughout the day and night So that when you tune into a radio station and you hear, you know The best hits of the 70s 80s and 90s boom 97 3, you know, or whatever they they know that that's boom 97 3 um So it's it's a great gig for voiceover folks Uh, I recommend that anybody who's interested in doing it to really really Jump into it and start listening to radio stations start listening to demos radio imaging demos and understand what's happening there And there are you know any number of people aging the k is a great Demo producer eric is a great demo producer. There's so many that do um radio imaging Is this continuing on into the world of streaming now this type of thing? Yeah Um, you know a lot of times I've been hired uh, there was a station in washington dc That hired me to be the image voice for their hd to feed and They had they had turned it into a political talk Kind of feed and so they really wanted to go into it full on and had the budget and so You know, I wasn't even on the air literally, you know in dc. I was just on their hd, you know So yeah, it does it goes into streaming it goes into promos that would be on the website They repurpose a lot of the promos that uh, they're running on the air that also run on the website and oftentimes A lot of these stations are so very creative that station boom in toronto um is incredibly Creative troi mccallum is the program director. They'll actually cut video Just for the website that'll go along with the audio that's running Um on the radio station. Well, that's like a whole another thing is like is this terminology now that radio is taking in video now and they're calling it visual broadcast or is that right visual broadcasting Visual broadcasting. I haven't heard that but that's Why not like if you look at a bsw catalog? Oh my god, there's like a whole section and in the bsw catalog, which is a radio which is traditionally Radio stuff right and they have a whole section for video now. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's called video rate. It's called visual radio I think it's okay. Yeah, they have uh edit or switching uh, uh software for radio stations that are also Live their morning show is live on the website of video Live stream And the switching is is amazing, you know, they're doing tyron and and throwing all kinds of stuff in it Everything's crossing over. Yeah. Yeah, is that as any of that crossing over affected you in any direct way? Or do you are essentially doing the same things? Essentially the same way that you have been Uh, you know, I think essentially Yes, the same thing at the only thing that changes is the style Uh, you know, we've seen how voiceover has changed and especially in promos You know, when I came into oops, sorry when I came into promo All of the voices were like dandy dark and Ernie anderson and they were big deep voices And I was really uh when fox hired me to be their comedy voice in 88 You know, I was the first kind of youthful sounding Voice for a network and that you know started um a change where They started getting away from that announcer kind of sound and into Something that reflects pop culture and what regular people are and and that just has continued To a point, you know, you watch network promo or cable promo. It's like it's like your next door neighbor It's it's it's a buddy of yours telling you about a great show. Yep. Yep. Yeah once again, we're talking with joe sip riano and We're gonna take a quick break here if we can and we'll be right back if you've got a question You should be able to throw it into facebook or into the chat room on youtube And we'll get to that in just a couple of minutes. So we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop. 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It's crazy How many things they're doing because they're they're trying to innovate And solve a lot of problems that we're facing now working from home I mean not only are you the actors working from home The whole production is oftentimes working from home and for them to be able to record Remotely direct share share video streams all at the same time do it securely And send that video to other studios around the world all at the same time They're really the only ones that have all of the tools to do this and the knowledge on how to set it all up But basically what you need to know is one thing as a voice actor and that is source connect Get it set up get it running Learn how to use it and have it on your belt because you want to be ready as we say the luck that luck Favors the prepared so you want to be prepared when those opportunities come So go ahead and get yourself a trial at source dash elements dot com Of source connect they even have ways to do licensing by the month And even by the I think two day So you can ask them about that just send them an email at support at source elements dot com And also if you just want to get up and running with minimal fuss and you want to see some help on how to do it Go to george the tech george the dot tech slash sc Where i've got a whole bunch of information on setting up source connect But anyway, you should have it so you're ready to go connect to studios around the world Don't make any more excuses. There's no reason not to be ready 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 dot 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 audio books 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 dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our buddy shop And we're back Oh, wow It's a good thing. I finished that story. I I had no idea where we're coming back. Okay. Yes No, we're back here. We like to fly by the seat of our pants. We do we're talking with josep riano Who is one of the top promo and? announcers you you hear him on the simpsons you hear him on well He's been talking about all these places Again, if you've got a question throw it in the chat room in youtube if you have to be watching there But we do have a couple of questions But I wanted to talk to you but now that you've been doing this all this time now I see that you're really reaching out and Coaching people and you're doing a bunch of different things. Tell us about some of the the coaching work that you're offering now Yeah, you know, uh, I I really enjoy I always enjoyed No matter what through the years answering folks questions I encourage people I I always have my email address up on my website So it's easy for people to get in touch with me and and I like You know helping people out whether they're just getting into the business or If they've been in the business and they want to achieve something they want set goals And so a lot of the stuff that I do Dan, you know with with coaching is talking about setting goals and How to get into that mindset and move your career Forward and I really enjoy doing that. So when I do Do some coaching I don't do a ton of it, you know, I I do what I can in my day and and um You know when I when I have time to put towards it, but um If I've got somebody that wants to do an hour I go into their website. I Check the entire website. I send I even go into their contact me and send a Something through contact to make sure it's working I check all their demos to see if they're working and also what they're doing And so that when we get on and we talk about it, we can we could talk about a number of things, um, you know their presence online And how they're presenting themselves their demos, whether they you know are sounding a little tired You know, a lot of folks still have demos up that are shows that were five six years ago Or commercials or narration and you know, it can be costly But you got to try especially for the The genre that you are focusing on you got to try and keep that as current as you possibly can So, um, I do I do that. I enjoy that. I also do, um, probably about 10 demos a year usually promo demos, uh under the fresh demos brand and I enjoy doing that as well And we do it an entirely different way We front produce the demos so that the talent is actually reading to the spots Instead of having them read wild and I find that that Comes off more like the way we really do promos. Wow. Yeah, and um, you know, it it it takes a little time ahead of time, but it pays off I think in in the session and I like to to do it that way Yeah, are there a lot of up and coming potential promo people coming up along or always always and And you know coming from like, well, I mentioned jack daniel You know, I worked with jack when he was still up in san francisco And I actually encouraged him to come down. I he also he was using a different name And I found out that his real name is jack daniel and I said you're not using jack daniel as your name so, um, I encouraged him to come to la jack is the kind of guy and there there are a lot of great talent out there that get it and know, um, about the work that has to go into it and The thing that I think is most important is relationships and creating relationships and, um I did his promo demo. I did his trailer demo And after doing his trailer demo, he signed with one of the top, um trailer people, um And he's doing, uh great work and very busy And he was a he's a real good success story, you know, and I have others that haven't cracked yet But I know that they're going to, um They're they're just so good that it's just a matter of time and a lot of times You know, that's the issue is for those people that I know they're going to crack it, uh that they don't give up And you just have to be persistent and and keep at it and I know it's going to happen But what what does it really take to try and break in? I mean aside from you know getting good coaching and stuff Where do you start? Yeah, well, you know what? I think, uh part of is that you know the the good coaching but it going back to the relationships, uh dan um Finding your ways to establish a relationship. A lot of times it could be going to a maryland whizner Uh coaching night, you know, sadly, we're not able to do that but we're doing them online And to have that opportunity to either read for an agent or read for somebody who is in promos in in creative Um and then once you meet them in person You have to be relentless in keeping in touch with them Now a lot of people worry about, uh, you know, I don't want to be a pest Well, there's a way to Establish a relationship. That's an honest way of establishing that and not being a a pest do tell You know what you have to be creative you have to for example learn about that person Maybe something you picked up about them that they love fishing and you see this great article on fishing You know, I mean it could be something as simple as that anything that takes it away from and this is the most important thing Can you hire me? Uh, you know, I'm here. Uh, can you hire me? um Make it about something else that is uh an interest of theirs And you'd be surprised at how you can you can grow that, you know, and so that's that's one thing, you know using linked in um and establishing relationships there um, I know when I do a promo master class um, I have a very good friend brett win who Owns a trailer company. Um, he does movie trailers one of the best movie trailer cutters in the business And now he's grown to be the guy that that runs the the shop and I've had him into promo master class and the smart and attentive talent that Have taken the class will continue to be in touch with somebody like that And you know, you end up doing auditions and scratches and you know, a lot of times You you'll miss uh, you'll keep missing and keep missing But you know what maybe in two years time all of a sudden you get one campaign That's all it takes, you know, if you can get one campaign. Yeah Patience is a virtue in this business. People gotta people gotta learn that one two piece patience and persistence Yeah, yeah, yeah good good to know a couple questions here from our vast worldwide audience here Um, if there's no name with this. Oh, it's steven blair. It's just on the next page Uh, this is how do you prepare for a promo session and would you walk us through a typical session? Thank you Well, uh, that was from who from steve steven blair yet Yeah, steve, you know a lot of times with promo, uh, and you know I think I've actually done a couple of live promo sessions with you guys Uh on v obs going back years ago Well, could put in v obs to superano and watch joe do on live on on the show. Oh, how about that? That's cool. There's they still live. They're still up there Uh, a lot of times with uh with promo you have absolutely no time to prepare because they're so busy In doing what they're doing you don't get the script until You know 30 seconds before the session begins and they don't have much time for you to Get up to speed They'll play the spot if you're doing it for a network a broadcast network and you're reading to the spot They'll play the spot for you if you're working for a cable network where they read you wild they'll talk about the visuals and talk about the feel of it and You know, I always ask is there any chance I could hear the music? And a lot of times you can't even hear that So I think the prep Steve goes into the years before the session begins, you know Just continuing to do workshops. Um, the kind of workshops that I do and and coaching sessions that I do When I'm on like a j michael collins Um Retreat or you know with gerald at vo atlanta or any of the The conferences I like to Bring the spots with me The talent that are in the class are reading to the spots Getting used to the fact that they have absolutely no time to prepare and You know paying attention to the video paying attention to The specs or what the producer is telling you that they're looking for and then turning that into a read and doing that in workshops and sessions and Retreats and things like that is what prepares you for the real gig you guys I typed v obs. Joe. Cipriano demo or promo. I'm sorry into youtube. I couldn't find it. I couldn't find it Oh, I typed in e-wabs e-wab That's where it was and there it is episode 118 e-wabs november 18th 2013 Wow, and it says what a unique opportunity. We had this episode. Joe Cipriano came on to talk about his book living on air And had to break away for a promo vo job, but he took us with him into the booth That is one you got to watch that was fun. That was cool. You really get to see it. Oh my god e-wabs 118 Yeah, I think I think what we're going to do is because we've got our 10th anniversary show coming up in march So I think that's wow that's going to be one of the the highlights That that in the time that george held me up on the on his phone Did the whole show at dan on my skis cell phone? It's like he's just holding my picture up there But the stuff like that that was that was way back in the day when you would have technical issues and of course in 2021 you have no Sailing just Here's another question this one's from our very own jeff holman Is our chat room moderator? He said I saw a video of george helping to put together your studio bricks booth How do you like it? And what did you decide to why did you decide to go that route rather than having george build a custom booth? Well, you know, I've gone both ways You know, I've had george build a custom one and and then of course the the calamity day That was kind of custom as well Yeah, I was custom by the way that was something that happened and it was 30 seconds and and then I had you know The next we were there for eight months or whatever it was and it it worked beautifully and it was amazing You know, um, I went with this is the studio bricks right here. I don't know if you can Ah, sorry so I I went with studio bricks. Hey george. You see the lights in it that you put in it. Oh, yeah. Oh, cool They're still yeah, there they are. Yeah, they're they're in green right now. I had them doing red and green for christmas Of course. Yeah, uh, I went with studio bricks because Being on several, you know being at vio Atlanta Where I was with george, he was right next to me at whatever booth I was in and you were building a studio bricks live uh at vio Atlanta and Almost killed me. But yeah, it was. Yeah, I did really literally Uh, and I've done a number of there was a oh gosh In london of the conference one voice. They had a studio bricks there and the rep with them and um I would just use them because I was at the conference and needed to do a session And I would bring my laptop down with source connect fact We have there's another one george in either e-wabs or whatever it was. I was doing At vio, atlanta stacey aswad was there with me and I was doing a session that you um, oh, that's right Kind of engineering engineering. Mm-hmm But after using it, uh dan, you know, um, um at all those different Uh conferences. I knew that this was the classiest the the best Ironically today right outside this window right here. I have a neighbor who was Tilling their, um cement walk for about two hours today just like And I was like, oh my god, I got into the booth. I closed the door and did the handle up George you couldn't hear it. It was amazing. It was brilliant. It was great It reminds me of course nothing will ever be as as good as that one that uh, you built in In bel air that thing we would have helicopters overhead and you know, you was was completely silent But yeah studio bricks. I love it George And there is a great video and a time lapse that's actually on george's uh website of building this booth And I was amazed I I was out at a session Came home and it had been delivered and george was here and his assistant and The entire booth was on my front lawn and in the driveway uh, and You know, they just take it in a piece at a time and guillermo was here That was crazy. The timing of that was insane. He was at nam and he and Oh gosh, who uh, who's the the rep for us? It was it was Guillermo from from spain Who owns and it was Miguel and Miguel from the rep from the us rep who was in new york Yeah, they were all there. They were here and they helped build this That Guillermo was amazing. He was like bring me b3 D2, you know or whatever the heck it was and it was just going just just just an spanish accent We have great pictures from that I just posted the links to everything you referred to Oh, that's in our youtube chat. Hopefully that's great. Somebody will memorialize that wait, George I uh those pictures that you have up on your website of that build Um, because it's whatever it is. I you can buy a book Um, yeah the pictures I have it. It's yeah And it's yes in the family room. Yeah, it's awesome. I love it Well, I mean, I don't want to speak out of school here and we don't want to keep you too long, but I I think To be really pointed about the question. Why did you build versus buy? um joke Tell me if I'm way out of off base here, but you moved into a completely new Construction home that was totally finished And the last thing you probably wanted to do Was bring a contractor in there and make a big mess and Turn that into a whole long process. Yes. And in this case through that. Yeah, yeah In this case, like there's a certain size point where if you buy a booth, it's there's a certain point where the studio bricks cost actually really saves money The other thing is some money too, George, you know, I I don't know how long we'll be here You know, we may be here 10 years. We've made, you know, I don't know but the nice thing is We could take it apart and we could Move it somewhere else. Yeah, the house and the house restores back to it Becomes a normal bedroom and and it's not some custom thing and Absolutely there. I have these talks with all the time with my clients. Should we build or should we buy it's I have a link for you That I don't know if I've showed you this but the old clubhouse Which was the studio in bel-air the the people who bought it from us Turned that whole guest house into a rental And the booth with the glass and every oh they took out the glass they turned that into that's the kitchen That is they have no idea what is In that room the world's quietest kitchen double-studied You know box inside of a box. Oh my god. I have to send you the link from zillow Uh of yeah the actual listing of that you you will go. Oh my god, and it's now That amazing studio is now a lovely little kitchen That's insane. Yeah, we got another question here from jim mcnicholas Uh joe is in a place where he is very much in demand um But do you market yourself? If so, how do you go about marketing yourself? Do you really have to well good? That's a good question jim. You know what? Um You know, it depends on the on the genre um A couple years ago. I actually wanted to focus a little bit more on radio imaging and beyond doing ads in the radio trades Which is one way to go about it um another way to go about it is finding out who the format captain is for a big company like an enter calm or like iHeart um, they actually use some of their talent their their program directors and um and another talent creative talent to be the head of their format for the entire chain so there could be a Contemporary hit radio format captain who oversees A thousand radio stations, you know coast to coast that might be a good guy to know or gal to know, you know And uh, that's one thing that you can go after and do that in marketing and I have um, I also went with an agent that specializes in promos and in radio imaging and that's part of my Amazing year that's happened, you know, is because of that. So it was nice to have a plan set a goal that I want to do this uh identify who the agent is that I need to be with and Do it and it actually worked That's you know, that that's wonderful How much of your public presence that you've created for yourself because you work really hard in social media and just Being out there like being at the comp being visible being Writing a book How much do you How much can you possibly attribute to? All those other things To your career as well. Do you do you have any way of really? You know, I think that a lot of those things george are for within our industry for Within the voiceover industry You know, when I talk to a talent, um, and we're discussing, um, you know creating relationships A lot of times I'll say now listen. Let's not confuse Being in a a voiceover Facebook group For doing something for your career now. There are some opportunities that may come by but it's it's it's not the Educational opportunities. Maybe yeah, exactly or you know somebody might say who's a voiceover person Say to another actor. Hey, I just auditioned for This did you know about it? No, I didn't know about it and I actually had that happen to me George Deloio had this is back in 2005 had auditioned to be the drama voice at NBC of the network And I saw him that night And he said wow, I you know, did you do that audition today? And I said which one he said NBC is looking for a drama voice and I said I had no idea So I actually called my agent I Produced a demo specifically for drama Got it to them They got it to NBC and I actually got the gig and I was the drama voice for two and a half years You know, so you do hear things from other voiceover talent, you know, that can work But uh, don't over invest in it though. Don't spend all your time in facebook For me to answer your question, you know, a lot of that and also the the the book and and and Going to conferences and things like that is partly giving back and and also Having a kind of a presence within the community, you know, what you and I did with the Don LaFontaine A voiceover lab that was part of that as well I think it's just important to be a part of something that gives back To the community. That's why we're here, right? Yeah 10 years later. Yeah, there you go. You guys Yeah, well joe it is always a pleasure to have you on our show. Thanks, Dan. It's been a while It's been a while and the next time you can actually be here in the studio with me I can't wait that that'll be great and I'll bring and with me. I'm gonna bring her along We were looking forward to that. Thanks for being with us and we will see you in the flash sooner or later I hope so. They're gonna let us out of our our compounds here eventually Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks guys. All right. Thank you. All right. Well It's time for us to now is the time to say However, that's on anyway Coming up on this very show We've got some great guests coming up We've got to do tech talk number 48 next week The week after that we have Will Lyman Believe it or not. We got Will Lyman who was like apparently a real regular guy. He's like, yeah sure. I'd love to come on your show So the voice of front line The most interesting man in the world commercials Not the guy with the beard the guy who says the most interesting man in the world That should will add a bunch of other things but a very well known voice A very good actor in his own right and Apparently a very funny guy which I because he sounds so serious on front lines So what they ask him about that. Anyway, who are our donors of the week? Oh, yes, our donors got like yeah, that's pretty awesome Oh, we've got christopher epperson sarah borges philips appear Trey moseley shelly abuelino thomas pinto larry hudson natasha Or marxevka Yes, yes. All right nailed it Brian page george witman. No george witem. That's my dad Walk walk walk uh rob rider patty patty gibbons dianna birdsall stephanie southerland shana pennington baird antlamp productions martha con and don griffith A lot of familiar names in there, which is awesome. That means they must be subscribers using our little paypal subscription thing Even even only a buck and won't be your name on the show each week So why not talk about cheap promotion go for it Hey, we'd like you to join our mailing list too If you know if you're on our website, which you could be right now There's a it says join our mailing list click on that and join our mailing list people still get I've got to get it up to 800 by the end of january We're getting up there and you get to know everything that's going on with the show You get advance notice of who's gonna be on And and that sort of stuff Uh, we need to thank our sponsors, of course like harland hogan's voiceover essentials Oh, we got more. Yeah, I just got a picture of somebody watching the show it cracked me up. I had to see that voiceover extra Uh, voiceover essentials dot com. Oh, I got that already. Oh, it's source elements elements voiceover heroes And jmc demos and voice actor websites dot com all them Yeah, you didn't even do a source connect spot tonight, but you were talking about it with joe We'll get one in there. We'll we'll we'll figure that out Anyway, uh, we need to thank jeff holman for being a trooper in our chat room tonight for sure and uh So about being a trooper and sue merlino who's merlino who's out there somewhere Getting it done. Uh, so anyway and lee penny, of course for being lee penny Well, that's gonna do it for us for voiceover body shop this week. We're gonna re-racket for tech talk Uh, if you're watching You get the chance to ask your questions in real time with george and I get to Listen in as we talk shop. Uh, and uh, that's gonna do it for us. Uh, anyway, I'm dad lennard And i'm george wittem and this is voiceover body shop or vio be Have a good week everybody. Bye