 Hey, guess what once again Monday night has descended upon us and it's time for voiceover body shop and tonight on our show Very special guest joining us from the Bay Area Mm-hmm is Samantha Paris the very smoky Bay Area. Yes, and But she's still breathing which is important, but she's the founder of voice tracks SF Up in San Francisco. She's a teacher coach She's an actress herself and she has just written a really fascinating book called Finding the bunny finding the bunny. Oh, oh the bunny is a green book Disappearing and we'll just put it down here. Well put it in front of you doesn't work. It doesn't work that way Technology Anyway, it's a great book. I read it today and it's all about her life and how it relates Finding your own voice and his voice actors. That's really important. Plus we have a pile of tech I mean it's piling up and viewer questions and viewer questions all that and more coming up on voiceover body shop right now two men Twin sons from different mothers with a passion for voiceover recording technology and the desire to make recording easy for voice actors everywhere together in one place George Whidham the home studio engineer to the stars a Virginia Tech grad with an unmatched knowledge of all the latest gear and technology in voiceover today Dan Leonard the home studio master a voice actor with over 30 years experience in Broadcasting and recording and a no-holds-barred myth-busting attitude for teaching you how easy it is together To bring you all the latest technology today's voiceover superstars and Leading the discussion on how to make the most of your voiceover business This is voiceover body shop Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go-go.com everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites.com where your voiceover website won't be a pain in the butt and voiceover extra your daily resource for Vio success And now live from their super-secret multimedia studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are George Whidham and Dan Leonard Good evening. I'm Dan Leonard, and I'm George Whidham and this is voiceover body shop or Vio BS Wow, listen to the crowds. They're going wild. Wow. It's like being in a football game You know, it's funny when people come in here and see the show live They're always like this place looks smaller than I pictured. Well, if you watch the intro to the show Right before we come on you'll see the actual space. We're doing right It's not something from you know from David Letterman where they show a little dimly lit window in a building That is the building. This is really where we do it from. It's that small. Yeah, but it's just doesn't seem it It's the illusion of television. That's right. Which is the great thing about television. That reminds me It's time to put our phones on stun. Oh, yeah, make sure you don't want to have to answer people's calls during the show It has happened though. Yes, we have if you do call us by mistake We will put you on the spot and on the air. That's right So anyway, we had the author of this very transparent book finding the bunny Samantha Paris Founder of voice tracks SF up in the Bay Area and it's a great book interesting and we're gonna find out how you're gonna find your voice Without unplugging everything while I move the book around and we've got lots of tech and Well, I already know all that I know but perhaps they didn't hear it in the first case People tune in and you know So we're gonna find our voice now because it's time for And here it is the voice over extra news for November 19th the VO Backstory are you satisfied with how conversational you can sound in a voice-over read better yet? Of course, are your clients satisfied? We all know it's not easy to shake the announcer from our voice But our good friend Mark Cashman has a three-step method He uses almost all the time to get into the tone of the script Especially when the script is chock full of advertising The kinds of buzzwords and phrases that you never actually say in a conversation For mark the technique is to create a backstory something you imagine to be happening in the world of the script before you begin to voice it Yes, you've probably heard about this technique But in a new article now at voiceover extra comm mark demonstrates a three-step method for creating an authentic back story quickly By the way, this is part of what you'll learn from mark in a voice-over extra webinar on Tuesday night Commercial voice-over delivery secret secrets that will make your head explode Here goes Create the backstory by answering three simple questions Dan one Who am I? Well, the script is gonna tell you you're a mom. You're a store manager. You're someone suffering a horrid disease Get into that mindset To who are you talking to a friend a store customer a Teleprompter a teleprompter roll when it listens to you in a clearly acoustically treated room with a very low noise floor exactly Okay, someone sitting next to you in a doctor's waiting room You're sitting there with a magazine and three Where are you? Well, that gets all am I once you've answered the questions one and two now put it all together and start an imaginary Conversation with the person or persons you're talking to and here's where this technique might differ from what you've learned in the past Mark suggests Imagining more than just one line before you start to voice the script create a dialogue with that person Become so comfortable in that setting that you just have to sound conversational You know without a backstory you jump into a script cold and you'll likely freeze if that happens And for in this voiceover extra article mark gives us a great example of how this works And while you're at voiceover extra comm click around for thousands of additional articles and resources there to help Your voiceover career good example today because yes I had one of those scripts come in and it's a Conversation Conversational laid back and I did kind of conversational laid back Dan conversational laid back. Well, which is yeah I still slightly, you know, you know, I tend to talk very formally. Yes And that's because that's you that's that's my voice. Yeah, and And then like my agent writes back, you know, try again Yeah, it you're still too formal like try harder, but not as hard. Yeah, but not exactly So I Essentially and this Roger Leopart do less do less. Yeah, what was that movie? We're the guys teaching someone how to surf and they're like he's like don't do that do less do less, right? So essentially I just I threw it away and she's love it. It's great That's the style that's that's the style for less interested you sound the more interested the Millennials are about pulling their wallet out of their pockets. That's true Actually, they don't use wallets. No, they use That sort of thing. Yeah, so yeah, so you create a backstory that's that's an old technique But Mark, you know, he's like he makes it so simple. He spells it out for you. He really does So what's up in tech this week? No, I've found a bunch of stories like I've been Scouring Facebook groups that I'm on and the voice over body voice over body shot the voice over bulletin board For for topics and a few things that have popped up recently You know, we've talked about Mojave don't upgrade. We've been telling everybody this. I I did it I did it on my laptop laptop. He's no problem Generally, if you use a laptop that's not hooked to a bunch of peripherals So you're not using Some controller thing and some other external video adapter thing and some other blah blah blah Generally upgrading is gonna be a pretty safe bet Now we have heard anecdotally that Mojave has been pretty darn good. There's very few reports of real problems Including folks using the universal audio Apollo, which we talked about a lot because a lot of people are using them It seems to be working just fine. So I'm not this isn't an endorsement It's just a notification that yes Mojave is working pretty well There is one thing to look out for when you do upgrade a Mojave Just like on an iPhone it wants permission to use your audio device, right? You know, like permission to use the microphone that now works That's how Mojave is so any audio device you plug in you have to go into Security and then give permission to using that device or no audio flows. So keep that in mind Yeah, I've noticed the upgrade on the iPhone Changes a number of your settings. Oh just arbitrarily just arbitrarily. It's like, oh, okay I'm now going to wake you up at 6 30 not 7 15. Oh It was nice of you to tell me that's good to know I Know thing it popped up on my radar is that apparently audacity which had been testing this feature on their latest release 2.3.0 as punch-and-roll So now in audacity you can do what appears to be proper punch-and-roll. I have not had a chance to test this I literally found this out today when I was browsing all my Facebook groups So I'm in the audacity check it out. Let us know how it works Yeah, report back if you've already tried to let us know and if you haven't give it a shot An Apple TV hack So like if you want to run a monitor in your booth and you're an Apple person But your MacBook Air only has one Thunderbolt port right and it's being used now if it's one of those new ones Yeah, well even even even my MacBook Air is a 2013. It has a single Thunderbolt port If you're using an Apollo well, guess what you now will have no ability to run an external monitor You've used up your video output But if you have an Apple TV and you can get these on eBay cheap now You can get a generation two or three for probably 50 bucks Now you have a way to plug that into a monitor in your booth So you're now sending video to the monitor over what they call Airplay. It's built into the Mac That can become your second monitor now So you can run that anywhere in the house that can be on ethernet It could be Wi-Fi although it might be a little bit more laggy Right, but that's another way that you can run a monitor in your booth Cool, and I thought about this for a while But somebody just recently said he was doing this and I'm very sorry that I can't credit you because I can't I think it was Andrew Pifco Andrew if you're watching and it's you then tell me I think it was Andrew But anyway, good nice little work around a little thing This may be old news to Windows people at this point But if you did upgrade to the newest Windows update which is 1803 It's doing a similar thing apparently that Mojave is doing where it turns off your microphone for security purposes They assume that if you're using audio devices on your Windows computer and likewise Apple that you want to give the computer Computer permission to use your microphone. I do get it. I understand where they're going with this They don't want built-in microphones to arbitrarily be available and then arbitrarily be listened to So that's why they're making us do this manually. It's just a little Hoop to jump through so if you're as Liz says if you're on Windows 10 and you have soundforge the latest update Which is 1803 also known as April 2018 update. It just updated on her PC today. This was a couple weeks ago We'll automatically turn off your microphone by default So to turn your mic back on hit the Windows key search for microphone privacy settings Hit change and turn it to on and allow access to microphone on this device and Allow apps to access your microphone It took her over two hours to figure that out This is why updating your system in the middle of your work day or your work Not a good idea, but I do get it I mean Windows systems are even a little bit more invasive with updates They tend to just push them out there while you're asleep without your authorization, right? So anyway, that's it for the tech news updates We want to talk about with you after the break because we got a few questions that came Yeah, and we love getting questions from you guys out there If you have a voiceover studio tech question, and you'd like us to answer it on the show right to us at the guys at Vobs dot TV there it is and if you're watching it live put it in the chat room We got yeah, we got Jack watching Jack's there the website chat room There's also the Facebook chat either one Well, we'll get it and Jack is monitoring it from his own studio because he's on call for He's made the big time. He's on call for updating trailers. Good job. All righty Well, we've got Samantha Paris coming up in about 15 minutes And she is waiting there chomping at the bit and we've got your questions coming up here on voiceover body shop So don't go away. We'll be right back after these This is Bill Ratner, and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with Dan Leonard and George Whidham Vobs dot TV Knew what they were doing or at least they have you convinced they put the BS and Vobs dot TV Okay, the one voiceover question. No one wants to talk about is how much work do you get and the reason is No one books as much as they want You audition all the time and your booking rate is never high enough and you have no clue what to do about it Well, I got some great news for you mark your calendar on this for December 3rd Vo to go go is going to help you change all that David H. Lawrence the 17th is going to offer an Amazing free. Yes free class starting that Monday for the next week called the Vo booking blueprint he'll share with you eight effective and proven ways to increase your booking rate and how to do so instantly Instantly, it's always the big elephant in the room. How much are you booking? How much money are you making? We don't talk about that. Is this all worth it at all? Well, how would you like to raise the bar on all that? Stay tuned Vo to go go will have some great training for you on how to up your game with the Vo booking blueprint It's coming December 3rd all from Vo to go go dot com Everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist As a voice talent, you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and SEO. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voice actor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change and our upfront pricing means you know Exactly what your costs are ahead of time. You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 so if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your VO website shouldn't be a pain in the you know, what? And we're back you're on voiceover body shop and We have a lot of questions tonight. I love that gotta remind you guys send in your questions the guys at VOBS dot TV and George and I love questions. That's what drives this show. That's what we founded this show on this show is influenced by car talk and That's what that showed that's what drove that show and that's what has always driven our show, right? So let's answer your questions that you have sent in and they're interesting questions. What's this first one from I'd miss the name It was from somebody we'll find it. Okay, whoever it is. I hope you're listening Yeah, chances are they are since they sent this in the end. This is hi guys I'm getting ready to start out in the voice over world And I'm heating the advice of saving all audio files on an external hard drive I am now shopping around for the best external hard drive for max for my 2015 Mac book pro Keep in mind that I have two Thunderbolt ports and two USB three ports Also, how many terabytes should I take into consideration to purchase since I'm on the verge of starting out in VO? My budget's a hundred to two hundred dollar. Okay, not hard Terabytes are cheap now. Yeah, I mean really for the purposes of what you're using it for They're really there really is no real differentiation in terms of between all these different consumer consumer hard drives Right USB drives don't blow the money on a Thunderbolt hard drive very very expensive stick to the USB Yeah, it's it that's something that someone that does a lot of video production that needs that really fast hard drive That's what they're gonna be looking for You're really gonna be using your hard drive as a backup method You you should be saving files there, but not as the only place you're saving files, right? That hard drive should be a backup for what is initially being stored on your system, right now Anybody with a with a modern Mac? Honestly, just record of the internal drive You're gonna have no problem if it's a 2015 Mac book pro It has a solid state internal drive that are stupid fast, right? And recording to that internal drive is no problem, right? But use that external drive as a backup drive use that with the time machine That's the built-in backup software on your Mac when you plug in a new hard drive The Mac will actually ask you right away Do you want to use this for time machine unless that drive was being used for something else? And you don't want to lose what's on there then say yes make that your backup drive Western digital C gate whatever's on sale at lacy leave there a little more expensive is fine You know you know a GTAC whatever is available to you on sale Internally, they're all the same hard drive. They're probably Western digital most likely, you know, so it's it's not that big a deal Yeah, it's important to know though that you don't want to clog up your your computer So every now and again take all of those audition files you have and all those project files and Move them onto the hard drive the external hard drive and perhaps onto your Google Drive Yeah, or your iCloud drive or your Dropbox. Yeah, where I have all my stuff. All right now Where did I put it? Was it Dropbox? Was it Google? Oh, here it is Oh, it's on that hard drive that I unplugged two years ago. That's in the closet Since we're on the topic if you I'll give you the quick version of what I personally do So I have my computer has two hard drives inside, but that's not important I record everything internally then when it's Then it's automatically backing up because I'm using time machine and I'm using something called crash plan that goes up to the cloud Also, those files are going to Dropbox because that's where I put all my work stuff. So it's being backed up again Now the hard drive. Yes, it's going to fill up guaranteed It will fill up doesn't matter how big it is you're gonna fill it up So eventually maybe about once a year whenever necessary then I get another hard drive And I call that the archive drive and I move stuff to the archive drive That means now that stuff is only on that drive It is not no longer on my computer and then it gets unplugged and sits on a shelf. So it's You know, that's that's how you can keep data for the long haul If it's in a hard drive not plugged in and it's just sitting in there off It's gonna be fine for years and years and years and they're making those drives so huge now I've seen six terabyte drives. Yeah, I think a 14 terabyte was just announced, you know for building servers and stuff Yeah, yeah, you're not gonna need that for boys. It'll take you a lifetime to fill But basically in the world of data if it doesn't exist in at least two places at once it doesn't exist Good point. Good point Matt Gilchick asks I'm looking into purchasing a new Mac mini 2018 for my studio as am I like those things. Yeah For VO purposes, is there any reason you would recommend upgrading from the base model? I use Adobe Audition CC and an Apollo twin solo Not for the purposes of the CPU even the base model CPU processor is it's gonna be fine, right? It's a little bit weak. I think it's a quad i3 or something like that. It's not amazing But honestly, it's still plenty fine for voiceover. I Personally because I do a lot more than VO I do video so I go up to the next step up But if you upgrade anything I would upgrade the memory the base is eight gigabytes again 16 fine But if you can swing it go up to 16 right the beauty of it with the new Mac mini is they go They've taken a step backwards in a good way and that is they allow you to upgrade your own memory So if you can't swing more than 750 for the new Mac mini Don't worry about it and then just upgrade the memory later when you have the dough And get you can get a 16 gigabyte memory upgrade for probably a hundred bucks. Yeah, it's not it your as you've always been saying Ram is cheap it is cheap generally it kind of goes up and down in price But it generally is pretty in a pretty affordable The the the only thing that you're you know the base model has that maybe you cramps your style a little bit Is it only has I think 128 gig base SSD drive? Okay, so you're gonna fill it up probably in a few months So that might be something worth upgrading I I kind of priced it out and to get one that wasn't top of the line, but to me had all the right bells and whistles was roughly 13 $1,500 about twice the base model, but that was with a lot of upgrades So the short answer is By the base model, you're probably gonna be fine You're not gonna have any issue and the Apollo twin it does its own processing on board anyway If you're using it at all that doesn't put a load on the system So you're fine go ahead and get the base model it unless you have heavy video to do right All right, which leads us to our last question from the very lovely JJ Juergens who asks Which Apollo twin the mark one or the mark two duo or solo right? Yeah, she she was she sent me a screenshot of a couple different models available online and Obviously a little bit confused as to which one's worth buying So there's the silver unit that was the original one that came out three two three years ago That's mark one down. There's a dark colored one. It's black ish colored Isn't that this trend, you know with Apple it starts silver then it goes so it can match all your kitchen That's black color. Yeah, exactly They have that's marked to and they also have a solo and a duo model The solo and duo denote denotes how much processing power it has how many cores of processors This solo is perfectly fine You're recording one mic even if you have a couple of plugins on that thing solo will do it just fine But mark one versus mark two. I you know it there They made a bunch of little upgrades under the hood none of them. You'll probably notice as a voice actor I don't think you're gonna you're gonna care, right? Mark two has a nifty talk back feature Which if you if you're gonna coach people and you want to have someone in the booth while you're outside the booth That is pretty handy. You can press a button and it does have a talk back So that would be a reason yeah, we did that in Debbie Dairy Berry studio and that yeah, and that works really really well It is the thing about the Apollo twin and everyone's like it's the hot thing to have The fact of the matter is is you would have an Apollo twin one because like you said as it's all internal processing the only reason you would really want it is if you would like to use plugins and And have all that extra processing power in there But you really don't need that if you're just doing dry tracks, so right, you know stick with something basic That's not eight hundred dollars. Yeah, and you'll probably be fine if you have some experience of production Then yeah, if you're accustomed to having outboard processing like if you've used to use this processor or that Symmetrics or whatever Then it's something to consider investing in, you know, it's also something that really matters more for people doing real-time live sessions Source Connect ISD and that kind of thing if it'll those are the folks that maybe consider this because now they want to be able to put on a High-pass filter or a compression a little bit of this Little seasonings, you know here and there then they really can appreciate that right, but if you don't know what something does Don't use it vast majority of you are not going to need those extra bells and whistles for quite some time press me a Little sidebar about the Apollo since we're on that I have noticed that Windows 10 users have had a lot of problems with the Apollo Unfortunately, they released a USB version for Windows users, and they also have the new Apollo arrow Thunderbolt 3 which also works on Windows Apparently the Windows sound driver is not quite up to snuff and it doesn't connect well with Chrome And it doesn't connect well with zoom Sometimes not well with Skype It's just not quite up to par on the Windows side. So well, there's $600 that's not doing it for you So your mileage may vary there are workarounds. You can let us know if you have that trouble We can I can talk you through some ways to deal with that problem if you need to But it's not it's not fully baked yet, right? Okay, well if you haven't figured it out yet If this is the first time you've ever watched our show one, where have you been to? George and I are the guys that know home voiceover studio technology There's a lot of guys out there who are experts in one studio their own So it's important that you talk to a professional somebody who really understands and has built Hundreds upon hundreds of home voiceover studios. I guess that makes us the most experienced guys on the face of the planet I think between us the number is well past a thousand for sure personally It's past a thousand so whatever you've done. It's probably double double that absolutely if they would like to work with you And with all the marvelous things that you can do for their home studio. How would they contact you? Well, they head over to georgethetech.com or if you like short nerdy URLs, you can go to george.tec And you can find my website with drop-down menu with all sorts of different ways We can work together whether it's offline where you send files. I send them back scheduled support Remotely or scheduled support on site if I happen to be in your city And I do get around a little bit here and there so that's where you can find me and dandas Kind of similar stuff. Yeah, and he's over at home voiceover studio com Go on over there. I'll tell you all about what I do and how I can help you out Especially if you're a beginner you have no idea what you're doing. I can get you from soup to nuts or some other metaphor Fairly quickly and get you up and running in a very short period of time to where you can feel confident that it's not this big Boulder on your shoulder that I gotta have a home studio lock stock and barrel. That's the other one I was that's a good soup to nuts lock stock and barrel. Yeah from a to z from alpha to omega Go just down the line Anyway, also if you have a home studio and you want to check out your audio for 25 bucks All you have to do is click on my specimen collection cup Which is the bottom of my home page and that will take you to a drop box And I will listen to your audio and I will tell you if you need some help or if it sounds okay It's just a little tiny thing. I just adjust this a little bit, right? Alrighty well Samantha Paris is sitting by patiently in the Bay Area up in Petaluma, California And we're gonna talk with her about her book which still is transparent Finding the bunny right after this Anyway, so you got your shiny new Apollo and you want to connect with somebody and talk to them real time and you know Be a voice actor doing live sessions with other studios You need the right tool and that is source connect This one is the one that's been in development and constant updating for over 10 years now And it is very pervasive in the pro audio world So you want to get your hands on this if you if you've been dabbling in that world where people are needing you real time They want to be able to coach you or direct you real time You're doing you dabbling you're dipping a toe and doing affiliate stuff things that are very time sensitive You want to check out source connect you can get a trial For a 15-day free trial that is it source dash Elements calm and get source connect going right now. You don't even have to have one of those little I lock thingies. It'll license itself right to your your computer windows or Mac either one So give it a try tell them that we sent you we'd really appreciate it And without further ado, we'll be right back here with Samantha to talk about her book right after this Are you confused about how to set up and maintain a professional quality voiceover studio? No wonder the information out there is mostly Mythology this is the best microphone to use you'll have to have a preamp. You need a soundproof booth This software is the best your audio must be broadcast quality Consult with someone who knows the truth someone who's been there in the trenches doing voiceover for over 30 years someone with unparalleled experience with voiceover studios who's worked with hundreds of voice actors and designed hundreds of personal studios He knows how to teach and cares about your success in one of the harshest environments known to voiceover your home Dan Leonard the home studio master Separate myth from fact and get a handle on your personal voiceover studio Contact the home studio master at home voiceover studio comm Time to introduce our guest Samantha Paris is a three time three time. It was a big problem at Wovo con I kept saying four three three time Cleo award-winning voice actor She is the founder of voice tracks SF in San Francisco One of the largest and respected voiceover academies in the United States Samantha's trained over ten that I don't have ten thousand fingers Nor the time to count or dear cut. Yeah, exactly. She is trained over 10,000 talents from all walks of life since 1988 with a philosophy that talent can be taught Excellent thought above all Samantha has transformed the lives of people through the process of helping them find their true voices and Ultimately find their bunnies What on earth does that mean and in that process? She found her own bunny Now what does that mean Samantha is author of the book? Finding the bunny as we found out it looks much better in red than it does in transparent Where she peels back the curtain on our fascinating world of voiceover and a whole lot more So let's welcome to voiceover body shop Samantha Paris. Good evening. Hi guys Welcome to the show. It's great having you on Excited to be here. This is actually my first zoom. Oh Wow, we've moved her into the 21st century. This could become a new coaching tool. You never know. Yeah, absolutely Look at the possibilities. Well, you're celebrating 30 years of running voice tracks in San Francisco And you passed a really big milestone as we were saying training over 10,000 aspiring working voice actors in the Bay Area Tell us a little bit about the house the Vio house that Samantha built what makes voice tracks Such a unique experience Well to fast forward that that answer to that question Three years later, I can tell you for sure the thing that makes voice tracks so incredible is the camaraderie It's such a supportive environment I usually have anywhere around 300 350 active students and Everybody there supports each other. Everybody understands that as you lift others up you lift yourself and so That that's my dare I say like my modern-day answer Initially about the house that Samantha built the interesting thing is is that I never really intended to be a teacher I moved to the Bay Area in the late 80s. I've been doing tons of, you know Cartoons and commercials and you know all sorts of things Back in the late 70s and 80s and I absolutely adored what I did but I just didn't like living in Los Angeles and of course back then there was you know, really there was You know, just I mean, it's only been what in the last 10 years I guess where you can really live anywhere you want and do voiceover Back then when I moved up to the Bay Area, I figured I would do voiceover work in San Francisco And I would do voiceover work in LA It was the during the days of the first fax machine had been invented So my agents at the time SBB, they were faxing me my additions and I was having to Direct myself in my own little home studio and I would record it on a cassette And fed X the cassette to SBB Anyway, that was that was what I was doing back there. And so that's what I thought I would do and then all of a sudden one day Somebody called up and said, oh, I understand you teach. I was just speaking with Your former husband Tom Pinto and he said you taught voiceover and I live in the Bay Area And I like for you to you know, take lessons with you. The thing is is I didn't teach and So I was really kind of put on the spot I didn't want to admit that I didn't teach because I didn't want Tommy to you know have egg on his face So I was like, yeah, I teach Of course afterwards I called Tommy and I said, what the heck did you tell him I talked for it? That's another long story, but One student turned into two turned into four four turned into eight It was never my intention to have a school and yes Eventually grew into the biggest academy of its kind in America We have classes at voice tracks morning noon and night seven days a week in every single imaginable category you can think of and I have an incredible team of instructors. They are, you know top voice actors and agents etc from LA San Francisco New York And the real beautiful thing is, you know, having the school now for 30 years So many of my students became tremendous success stories and now they have come back to give back and To teach and you know, so when people come into voice tracks You know, I would say probably 60 to 70% of the people 70% I'd say the people that come to voice tracks. They've never acted a day in their lives They just either someone's told them that they have a great voice or an interesting voice or it's just You know, no pun intended or maybe pun intended There's this little voice inside them saying that this is something that they should Explore, but they don't know anything about acting. They don't know anything about home studios Nothing and we will literally take people from the very beginning Through a lot of my classes are for still, you know, working professionals who feel like they still need to Stay sharp and plus, you know, the industry is always changing Plus voice acting is an art form and and really if you're an artist, you're never done exploring But anyways, I take people from beginning to end. I personally mentor Every single student of mine. There isn't a student that is ever in a class that I haven't Okay, that I haven't suggested every six months I write a handwritten letter to every student telling them how you know, how they're doing You know, maybe what they should work on whether or not I feel like they're ready for a demo I tell them how much I love them. You know, so it's a whole Mentoring thing that goes on as well, which is nice. Yeah, very. Yeah. Yeah, the Bay Area It has always been a hotbed for for voiceover. We have a lot of friends up there that are very successful J. S. Gilbert and Elizabeth Holmes Creative variants. Yeah. Well, because of the gaming industry is up there and There's some great people there that we love up in the Bay Area and now we know you which is really cool but what is it that's sort of, you know, what is it that's What kind of big changes have you seen in the Bay Area? In the last few years from from what used to be a really great place and then, you know, but it's changed, hasn't it? It has it has changed. I mean again when I first moved up there in the late 80s You know, there was such incredible Major major advertising agencies in San Francisco as a matter of fact living in LA I would see so many of the commercials. I would be auditioning for They came from Bay Area ad agency So that's what kind of gave me the courage initially to move up there. But yes, things, of course have really changed I'd say, you know, the probably the the biggest change, you know with with San Francisco being the leader in tech first of all just home studios and and and Not going to your agents office or to a casting director anymore to audition but doing all of your auditions at home That happened in San Francisco first And that's just, you know, that's just because the Bay Area is the Bay Area So all of that initially started there and there's no I'd say that's the biggest biggest difference. I mean you A voice actor starting out today in the Bay Area will never know what a voiceover casting director is Because there is no auditioning done anywhere except from your home studio, right? And I think that's probably the case in a across the country, which of course has expanded the entire Industry and including a heck of a lot more people. Yeah, but I think in LA I mean you still have depending on the agency you're with you still have the option of coming in and You know, I know my agents DPN, you know, there's if there's a Commercial dialogue going on, you know, they still bring the actors in to audition and of course there are still Casting directors, you know, one of my dear colleagues. She comes up and teaches for me all the time Mary Lynn Whistler She's still doing casting sure, but None of that exists in the Bay Area Okay, now I understand. Well, you you just wrote this great book that I was it's kind of on a Biographical we're using the side because it's transparent on this side Finding the bunny I sort of got that for reading it First off the four was written by your good friend Peter Coyote Who's on every spec sound like Peter Coyote? Fascinating to read in the forward That he doesn't he reads most of his stuff cold. He did all of the yet. No, I'm going okay I remember this and just started off with it. I mean, it's amazing what he can do It is he's an extraordinary person. He's an extraordinary talent. I'm proud to say he's an extraordinary teacher He's he's now a regular teacher at voice tracks And it's always so fun because of course like who doesn't want to take class with Peter Coyote I You know, I it's an Well, like all my classes there they're invitational classes Everybody wants Peter and then every six months we have to just you know, the old-fashioned way We have to put everybody that wants his class with to put their names in a hat and we have all names and yeah Roll scientific. Yeah, we got to get him on the show one of these days Like he'll do our show but anyway So it's it's a fascinating book. It's it's somewhat. I am autobiographical and it goes from place to place But what's the story? Behind the story, what's the transparency of this book? Well, initially I didn't want to write the book because I didn't think I could I Just had always it was bad programming I was always told that I was Stupid and and that I never read I always had my nose buried in the television and because I didn't read and I was an idiot and you know all that kind of stuff so anyway, I really believed that it was impossible for me to do it and I initially hired a ghostwriter to do it and Although he was well-meaning it was an utter disaster and so one day I sat down and said no, no, no I wanted to be more like this, you know, and I just started Writing and it was my publicist Nancy who who read what I wrote and she said you have to write your book And so when I initially sat down to do it It started out that I wanted it to be one big Love letter to my students In my 30 years of teaching what I have discovered is and I think this is in any form and any type of teaching since you are the expert in that I found myself for 30 years sitting at the controls and kind of you know always feeling like I've been put on a pedestal and It's a very for me anyway a very uncomfortable place to be because we're all the same and So I really wanted my students to know That I struggled and then I still do struggle just like them, you know We're all human beings. We're all so perfect in our imperfection And so I really wanted all of my students to To really know the real Samantha I wanted to just knock out that invisible pedestal. Yeah, so I initially did it for that and then I Guess I you know when I teach it's very unconscious. So I I didn't really realize how many messages I had to share with people and so the book is really about finding your purpose and Also being open to the universe and the universe's messages and Discovering that maybe what you think is your purpose isn't and that that's okay But what's really important is to listen to your inner voice Listen to that voice that guides you because it's telling you the truth. It's telling you your truth And for years I fought it, you know, I always thought I wanted to be an actor And so for so many years I had voice tracks and it was taking me away from my voice overacting and that I had a lot of anger and frustration and and resentment and and then You know, it's the school just kept growing and growing and I Started to realize what a difference I was making in people's lives and what ultimately I discovered was that Helping people find their voice or find their bunny find their purpose for me personally is far more rewarding Yeah, if you're just joining us, we're talking to our guest Samantha Paris Who is the founder of voice tracks up in San Francisco and we're talking about her book finding the bunny Where is it? Where's the bunny? hopping by here Yeah, so it's a metaphor Obviously for finding what is your true voice and that's that's really cool if you've got a question for Samantha throw it in the chat room or in the Facebook chat and we will relay that question to her in our next segment So what are some what are some of your voice acting philosophies that your book reveals? Well, if we're talking technically about voiceover I found it really interesting at the beginning your show Was it Mark Cashman? Yes. Mm-hmm. He was talking about how to be conversational So I was smiling because of course the who am I where am I who am I talking to is is what I've been teaching for 30 years But for me it goes even beyond that. It's not just who are you where you who are you talking to but Why are you saying what you're saying in other words? What do you want? What's your intention and that all very much has to do with whatever your Backstory is So, I mean I do talk about that in the book, but I I Well, let me go back because you we keep talking about finding the bunny Really one of the biggest most important things that I teach or what I feel like my Gift to teaching voice acting is all about I am really fantastic in script analysis and in my mind script analysis is key if you don't get the script you're not going to get the job and So years ago when I was when I was a young girl like 15 years 15 years of age or so I was in my first voiceover class. I Discovered really quickly that there was nothing special about my voice. I had a very average sounding voice I sound like average teen girl now I sound like average mom in the 40-plus years. I've been doing voiceover. Nobody has ever Commented on my voice and said oh my gosh. I love your voice. I always would get oh my gosh Your interpretation was better than anyone I ever heard or oh my gosh You interpreted my script even better even more than I interpreted it when I was writing it And what it goes back to is that when I was a little girl growing up I grew up in a real dysfunctional family my parents divorced when I was about 10 So I can remember being about 7 years old 8 years old and my brother is 3 years older than me He was allowed to have the centerfolds of the Playboy magazine He was allowed to have the centerfolds plastered all over his bedroom walls And he had taught me so I would sit on his bed when he was putting up the centerfolds And he had taught me that on the cover of Playboy magazine. There was always a little hidden bunny and so Sometimes I would see it right away. Sometimes I swear to God it felt like hours before I could find the bunny So here it is now so I'm like then age seven or eight now I'm age 15 and I made my first voiceover class and I'm looking at these scripts that I'm thinking okay Because I don't have some unique special voice or something I am gonna have to act better than anyone and so I used to look in the scripts like what's that little twist What's that little something maybe that I can see in the copy that nobody else is gonna see and so therefore my interpretation I'm gonna stand out So my scripts I was always searching for the bunny Ah That makes now we understand it makes total sense. Yeah, which then also is a metaphor for life, right? Absolutely, and it goes through your life, which is fascinating Big thing though that I teach which is key and I really I love your guys show I find all this really is so interesting all this technology I'm gonna use a but here, but at the end of the day You can have the greatest technology in the world, but if you can't act and if you can't direct yourself I don't give a darn what your equipment is about We've been only been saying that for about eight years here and in every Facebook group It's like an eighth of my kids. It's how you use it And I really feel unfortunately like there's a lot of people out there now that because they love technology They're spending all their time Learning that but they have no clue how to act nor direct themselves And so that's a lot of what I focus on in my teaching ten hours a day. Thank God That's what we that's what we like to hear because we're always telling people it's like look There's all this marvelous technology out there But if you're trying to be a geek about it geeks don't hire voice talent casting directors do You know that we have all these Facebook groups, you know about the technology of voiceover about all the specific software and It's the problem is is that new voice actors stumble into all of them, right? And then they see this ongoing conversation about the newest Apollo and the plug-in or the newest microphone and all this This is one good and they get so distracted and so enamored by that I even got emails from folks who wanted to know what exact equipment was in Don LaFontaine Studio so they could go buy that gear and what Sound like Don LaFontaine like what were they what are they this is this is what goes on, you know I think it's something like only three percent of all the people that are on voice one two three book jobs Yep, but I proudly say that 75 percent of my students that are on voice one two three Are part of that three percent and that's because they get really good at voice Over and directing themselves all that stuff then they get their home set up then they learn all the technology and You know There you are. Yeah, there's not that much technology to know horse cart Yeah Exactly right We know that one. So let me ask you this. I mean We George and I hear everybody I mean they're sending us their files. I'm like, yeah, they're okay Yeah, okay, we never comment on whether they're a good voice actor or not We're simply want to make sure that their technology is working for them So that they can shine and not worry about their technology, but what do you think separates? good voice actors from From great ones like Don LaFontaine and and some of the great people that we know here in LA and San Francisco and in New York Chicago I gotta tell you what I was just saying I think it's just a slight scale of how good of an actor you are and how good you are at self direction and One of the key points I want to make about good self direction is that when you hear When you record something and you hear it back Don't direct in the negative direct in the positive and what I mean by that is you'll hear something back and you'll go Oh, Jesus, that's really flat. So you and so then you'll do it again But the last thing you told yourself was oh, that's really flat No, no, no, you want to hear something back and go. What do I need to do to make it better? Oh, I have to give it more energy and I have to I have to have a clear idea on who I'm talking to and why I'm saying what I'm saying make those choices vocalize that choice and Then do your next take but 99% of people will say well, that's suck I did blah blah blah and Well, how's that going to get you to your next take exactly in other words play to win don't play to not lose You you can quote me on that Hey Once again, we're talking with Samantha Paris and we're talking about her book finding the bunny and about voice acting technique that she teaches by the way We're giving away a copy of this. Yes, we are but the one that's not transparent It's and we're gonna have a little contest later on and you know, you can call in no You can use the chat room and we'll do that. Also, we're gonna be giving away A class of yours which is gonna be a little essay contest. I bet I guess Which which we'll do in the chat room as well. Once again, we're talking with Samantha Paris if you have a question for her right now now would be a great time to throw it in the chat room and We'll get to ask her that question in just a couple of minutes One of the most important things that and you you were just talking about this is self direction You've got to be able to self-direct because yours is you saying there's no casting lounges in San Francisco and most of the time We're just auditioning Blindly like vacuum. Yeah, you know, it's like, you know Conversational and like, you know the guy you'd like to have a beer with sort of thing What are the keyers? What are the what are the keys to to mastering self-direction in your opinion? Well, like I said, you want to direct in the positive. I think that it's you know So much of time. It's so hard for us to be objective About our own work a lot of the classes that I have we will Email the students ahead of time that the the script and you know, they have to record it from home If you send it back in and then, you know, this is the beauty of actually coming to a you know, a real life place You know, we play everything back and I'll initially have the actors Tell me themselves, you know, how good of a performance that they did And and the other students in the class we have we have this rating system So, um, if you do a recording and it's competent, we give it a two And competent means back in the day you go to an audition You go into your agent's office and you record and they go, oh, you know, that that's good And they would think it was good until another actor five actors later came in and really nailed it And then they go, oh Jesus, I told Samantha her take was good. Actually Susie's take now that was good So a two is competent a three is totally competitive and you should book the job And we listen back to these things and normally the performances are somewhere between a 2.0 and a three And with with just a little bit of practice in other words, I'll have in my head. Okay that was a 2.3 because she still needed to focus a little bit more on uh On her intention or she kind of threw the product away here. I'm gonna give it a 2.3 and then I'll say, okay, Susie Q What do you give yourself and she go she'll go? A 2.3 Okay, what do you need to do to make it better? Well, blah blah blah blah blah blah so What I'm getting at here is that when you first start out I can think something is Like really good even and the actor will think it's really Terrible you're just as bad to do something really well and then keep tinkering with it That can be the kiss of death just as much as thinking something is good when it's bad and sending it in, you know so really learning to um To know yourself and your work and what's good. That is a real Practiced thing so to be able to get it to to where everyone in the class can zero in and come in on that same Number is really extraordinary and it just takes practice. Absolutely Uh, we're gonna have a little contest in just a second. So jack daniel pay attention because you're gonna have to judge this Uh, but right after we asked this last question, which is What's the number one message you have for voice actors who are trying to take their career? to the next Level as we're always saying it's like I gotta take it up. What what what can you do? You know, it's sort of like what we've been talking about a little bit. Um If you want to take your career to the next level you got to check in with yourself Because in other words are your chops really that good to go To the next level because again a lot of times people want to look at all these other factors But they don't really want to check in with themselves and their skill level You know, I had an acting teacher many years ago His name was cliff osman. He was just an extraordinary teacher an extraordinary man And he always used to tell his students he'd look you right in the eye and just say If you're good You'll work people Don't take the time to really know what good is Or like I say, it's a sliding scale. They'll say like well, you know, I I took Five class five different classes of voiceover. I'm great Well, why don't you talk to somebody that you know studied day in and day out For five years 10 years Most likely that's good and those are the people Working so if you want to take your career to the next level you need to really make sure your skill level Is up the next level and if it isn't you got to dig in and do the work. Yep It's all about voice acting or sometimes some people do voice overacting Which is a bit of a problem Our guest is samantha paris and we're talking about her book finding the bunny and we're talking about Her coaching methods and if you've got a question for right now, it would be a great time to put him in the chat room And jack daniel will pass that on to us Also, if you would like to get a copy of this book because not well, maybe not this one, but uh We'll get all you have to do is in the first person in the chat room who can write down Where samantha is talking to us from tonight You'll get the book and we'll send it to you All right, and we'll be back with your questions and more with samantha right after these incredibly important messages the specific city The specific city. Yeah Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone It's a smart phone, but it's so much more. It's a the files are ready Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song It's the end of the road for rig Just you and me rig when hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. I bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's j michael at jmc voiceover dot com Now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show All righty, we're back. You know, we were talking with our great sponsor today harlin hogan Who's a great guy? He is just a wonderful but human being not to mention a great voice actor in the traditional sense the kind of guy If you wanted a friend in voiceover, he'd be the guy you'd want and we love him for that But he's got a new set of headphones Now we've got the older pair here the harlin hogan Voice optimized headphones from his signature series george is now modeling them for them. They're really comfortable They have a very flat response to them, but he's got new ones He's improved on perfection. Can it possibly be that's impossible But he's done it and one of the things is is now has a detachable Uh cord on it. So it's nice if you happen to walk away from your console It'll just pop out and it won't like tear out all the innards of it and stuff Plus it's got great, uh memory foam pads in it It's comfortable. It has the twist-of-flex headband on it It's not gonna it's gonna you're gonna be able to wear it for a long period of time So if you're an audiobook reader Uh narrator or if you do long-format e-learning narration great pair of headphones to have We'll have the new ones here in the studio soon You'll be able to get to see them up close in person. I'll bet they look just like this only better But most importantly they have a very flat response. They don't Color your voice It's you it's like a good pair of studio monitors because what you record is what you're gonna hear in your headphones And there's only one place you can really get them Well, there's probably a couple places, but the best place to get them is from voice over essentials dot com So go on over to voice over essentials dot com. That's the name of the place voice over essentials dot com Best place is to go to the bottom of our home page down there somewhere Is a picture of harlan hogan and He's talking into his port-a-booth pro And you click on that you'll go to voice over essentials dot com And you'll see all the great signature series stuff that harlan has over at voice over essentials dot com And you too like mr. Whitham here could be wearing a pair of those They're not that expensive But they are fantastic for voice over because that's what they were designed for most stuff Most stuff that we use designed for making music not these headphones They're the harlan hogan signature series voice optimize headphones And you can only get them at voiceover essentials dot com So go over there right after the show and buy a pair then We'll be right back with samantha paris and your questions right after these Alrighty well who won? It looks like Jim sprift key won the book Congratulations Yeah, he figured out you were in petaluma people aren't listening here san francisco san francisco I said very specifically You were in petaluma. That's right home of the world wrist wrestling championship We will proud of it. I'll bet remember watching that on wide world of sports with jim mckay. No way. Yeah We'll get his information and get it off to you Great Alrighty well mr. Whitham. Yes. Do we have questions from our amazing audience? It looks like we do because I've seen them come into the chat room. So let's see what we got here in the audience questions area and the first one is from jim Edgar What do you find is the most common stumbling block for people new to voiceover? There's a follow-up, but we'll talk about that one first. So pick a stumbling block for new people um, well Traditionally, I think the biggest stumbling block is that people think voiceover is more about your voice And when I give my introductory lectures and I I go around the room and I say how many of you are here because somebody I say you have an interesting voice or a really beautiful voice or a deep voice, whatever and My lectures are usually for about 20 people and I'm telling you if not all 20 raise your hand 19 of them do So people think it's about their voice and when they first start studying they're just so concerned They're so worried about their voice or they're listening to your their voice. Do you know when I teach voiceover? um, for the first at least year or so you're not even allowed to wear headphones. That's why I was finding Talking about these new headphones That's great, but um Because you can't listen to yourself. You have to stop listening to yourself. You have to talk from your heart not from your ears And people just they're so concerned with their Voices it takes a long time for people to realize doesn't matter how many times or ways I say it I'm always saying voiceover is about acting. This is acting and usually after about the first year people will say, oh Now I know what you mean. This really is acting and I'll go Oh Let's figure it out eventually and we tell people don't wear headphones when you're recording They're for monitoring and playback and stuff like that or if you're in a directed session and you got to hear what the director is saying Right, but even then I mean I'll I'll usually I'll wear the headphones, but then I'll take them off when I'm performing Yeah, exactly one year on one year off. You have to exactly And he has a follow-up for the pros that are out there What is a really common blind spot for the person that's been doing this 10 plus years of veterans? What is a blank? Okay, uh I would say Especially because well first of all if you go back maybe 12 15 years ago So hard for the seasoned professionals to all of a sudden have to be auditioning from home and directing themselves Because any great actor, right? Just always just to rely on on a director to bring out the performance So first of all for voice actors back then learning to now perform in front of an audience of none Really difficult and again trying to be objective about you know, was this take good or bad or or whatever Um, but I would say now for the modern day The voice actor that started to train and started doing voice over 10 years ago and and onward I think One really tricky thing is that because you don't get feedback As you guys said you do millions of auditions and you just you don't hear anything You don't necessarily realize that you're developing bad habits And uh, I don't care how great of a voice actor you are the basics are always so important Remembering to go back to your basics. I don't care how great you are You cannot just pick up a script and just peel it off without thinking about again Who am I? Where am I? Who am I talking to? What's my intention? There's no shortcuts And I think what happens over time you're in your studio You know, you're getting you know, at least my working students You know, they're getting anywhere from 10 to 20 different auditions a day And you know, they've got to peel them out in an hour or two Whatever and so they they feel like they can kind of gloss over all those steps And and because you're not getting any feedback like I said, you don't realize that you are developing bad habits Well, I I have so many clients of course who are seasoned actors and you know and And I think they sometimes they strike a vein, right? You know and they they can be very busy for a year or two five years even And that vein will go dry eventually and boy, is it time to go back to some training and some re-learning some things I mean, that's really I do a lot of that in private lessons where I'll I'll work with people that you know Haven't studied with me for quite a while or you know, it can be 10 years or something And I say, okay, bring in some of your auditions. Let's listen And you know what's really interesting is that I usually find It's sort of the good news. I find a pattern. So if I listen to to 10 auditions they do I'm I'm never saying that you know x is wrong with one take but y is wrong with the other and z is Usually I can hear there's a thread. There's like one or two things That the performer is not doing in all of them. So they walk the private lesson going. Oh god Yes, I just need a post-it note that says, you know blah blah blah and you know That's never worked for me. They tend to fall off after a while What was that about? I know it was something. Well, Jack Daniels got an interesting question here. Uh-huh. Shall I read that one too? You shall. Aw man, thanks. You're welcome. Samantha regarding narration from Jack. He says I've worked with your NorCal colleague Tom Pinto. Of course teaches with you He talks about how handling a cold open can quickly separate the men from the boys At least when a speck is male Is there something that you can point to in listening to narration and parsing copy that you think quickly separates someone In terms of their professionalism, I guess Um, if I well if I'm understanding the question, I I think my brain Uh, and maybe I'm not but my brain really was going to Peter Coyote Yeah And the fact that all of the really great narrators and Peter certainly is at the top of the list Again, it's it's it is acting If I I would prefer to call narrating storytelling and I'm not just talking about I'm not in my audiobooks, but I mean You're always you're narrating a story. It's storytelling so um Again, I I think people forget that they just they see all of this really long narration and they just sit down and kind of Go at it. Um So if I'm understanding the question the question, that's that's my thoughts on it Yeah, I mean, I'm just reinterpreting it But like I think he's saying when you when you the first that that that voice actor who can sit down and read something cold What do you hear? Is this this is how you're talking? Yeah, what do you hear and you go? Oh, wow This is a real pro. I'm hearing right now. You know what? I don't you know Again, like we were talking before the show about you know how peter Uh, just sits down and does it cold and he does and that's extraordinary. I've never been like that And it certainly didn't stop me from completely earning a living as a voice actor all of these years I'm not a good cold reader. I don't think that that especially nowadays, you're you know back in the day You'd go to an audition, right? You only had you could only do one or two takes because there was a million people It didn't out but now you are in your home studio. So excuse me, but What what's the rush? Who are you competing against to you know to be brilliant on that first cold read? It's it's not imperative that you do a brilliant cold read What's imperative is that when you push send that what you just whatever is is there that's recorded Is brilliant and whether you did it cold or whether you did it five takes it took you five takes Who cares? Yeah, he did send a little clarification point He says really he means in terms of sizing up the copy making those decisions not really so much about the cold read But when that's what he really he said me off the scent with a cold read thing But it's really about for him. He's talking about sizing up the copy and making decisions What is it something that you separates that that someone that's got little years in and someone that's kind of fresh Yeah, um, well, I think again it goes back to script analysis and it's the more The more scripts you look at the better you get at at seeing what it's really saying and seeing all the different layers You know, it's like I I love to play tennis but and when I took it up, you know, like 10 years ago I was absolutely horrible and uh, my serve was terrible and you know It's just a matter of you've got to throw thousands of tennis balls up in the air To get that toss right so that you'll have a good serve Well, you've got to just look at thousands and thousands of scripts And you might think you're seeing a lot in the copy You know year one into your voiceover career, but just wait year four year five you're gonna see A hundred times more in the copy. So when I read something and just kind of suss it up Of course, I see way more in it than the average voice actor But that's just because I've been doing it. So it just takes it just takes practice Jack says thanks That's exactly what do you want to hear? Yeah, Gary Lewis asks this is an interesting question. Um, they're all interesting questions, but um You know, we do most of the stuff on our own and we sort of create our own styles of doing things But Gary asks how much technique on average Is self-taught Wait, how do you answer that? How much technique is self-taught? Well, I think Oh gosh, how about you know, I have this expression talent can be taught so And what I mean by that is I do think voiceover is a craft Again, because the vast majority of people that come to my school They've never had an acting lesson in their law and they've never had an acting lesson in their life And so it's like anything else How can you expect to be good at something or grade at something if you've never ever done it? When I start working with beginners, I assume they're going to suck and anything above that is shocking And of course, I'm not judging. I'm thinking like, okay, they're not going to be very good Which is why they're coming to me and my goal is to Make them great so If somebody going back to being self-taught well I do think that there are some people Including myself because I actually didn't have very much training who I do think you have natural ability so just an innate ability or an innate ear for this and so That can be a gift And so maybe there are some people that have a gift And so they feel like so when they are first starting out and they're teaching themselves they're self-taught Well, that could very well be because they just they have an innate gift for this but If you don't I can tell you it will be impossible For you to teach yourself how to do this You do need guidance and whether that is going online or physically going to a school It's going to you're kidding yourself if you think you can teach yourself how to do this All right, which leads to the last question we have today from borkels That's the name. That's the name Yes, and and hopefully we've helped you along here with this question. Does voice tracks offer virtual classes Actually, we're just starting. Uh, I fought it for a long long time. You guys might figure that out because I said, oh, this is my first zoom I had to wrap my head around being able to give Super super high quality High mentoring Instruction like we do live And I've been just struggling with how can I do that? In a webinar kind of way. Oh, we can teach you that And so I mean because there's just something again at voice tracks about the camaraderie and the minute you walk in the door You just feel just such a a sense of support and This is such a supportive nurturing environment. I thought gosh, you know, can we really Create that with our webinars? And so we've been just giving a lot of thought to all that on how we could structure them And so we are actually doing our first webinar in january And i'm also starting to teach private lessons This way and and we're just We're going to be diligent in trying to bring the voice tracks experience to online teaching fabulous which brings us to Giving away a lesson yes And if you would like to win a lesson with samantha paris, uh, if you can make a comment in our chat room about, uh What you found most helpful or interesting about our conversation with samantha tonight and put it in the chat room and samantha and her staff Will go over these and they will find the best ones and they will draw a name out of a hat Make sure you put your name with the uh with the uh with the comment. It's a little essay question And uh the winner will get a lesson with samantha, which sounds like a very exciting sort of thing But we want them to uh like our facebook page and post it there. Uh, absolutely. Do we have the facebook page there? Yes, we do. Well, it's it's uh, we're we're currently, uh, tagged it on our facebook of the show tonight Right, and if you're looking for it, it's voice tracks one word sf That's the facebook page you're looking for right that's like a place to go and like make sure you like it Samantha it has been a major pleasure, uh Talking with you tonight and and I can't I I I skim through this and I'm gonna read the rest of it because now I find it fascinating And uh, even more now even more so now and uh, so everybody else should go out and buy that book right now finding the bunny Samantha, thanks so much for being with us tonight Thank you guys. It was a lot of fun. Alrighty. We'll we'll see you soon next time. We're in the bay area Alrighty Okay Start writing kids. That's right. Alrighty. Well, we'll be right back and we'll wrap things up into a nice tight little ball for the kittens right after this Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now 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 audiobooks auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com All right, we are back indeed. We have returned for a short bit here Uh, again, write your comments in the chat room there. You could get a free lesson with her That would be great. She's a marvelous acting coach voice acting coach And uh, and now she'll learn how to do it virtually You know, it's it's I I really um, I appreciate her desire to maintain that way of teaching for so long. I mean I I for me was well It was also a learning of big lesson and learning how to transition what I do in person to on the internet You know, I just how I was kind of an early adopter of all that But yeah, it's a learning process and she wanted to make sure that when she was ready to do it It was fully baked. Right. That's why the conferences are so good because you're around your colleagues and and again It's a very supportive community. Yeah Uh, let's see next week on this show. We have roya samuelson. Mm-hmm Look him up. Look him up guys done a lot of stuff that like, oh, that was him No, oh that guy It's the faceless, you know voice over world I love getting people on who and I and I go who is that? Because you know, it means we're bringing in names that are working in this business Have a lot to say they're actually working, but they're saving it all up to be on our show That's right. They're not on they're not all over the internet spewing it everywhere They're gonna he's gonna talk about it here on the show next week. Great. Uh, then on uh, december 3rd Jonathan tillie. We have an interview with him talking about You know his instagram challenge and all the other things that all these people are like I'm doing the instagram challenge. I know I see that all over instagram. Even my wife is doing it. It's fantastic Yes, uh, who are our donors of the week? Well, we got one that just came in from elizabeth home. So that's very kind. We love you elizabeth So nice of her to support. Um tracy h reynolds who's a regular donor as well as andrew kaufman And tremaine moseley. Hey trey And coming down we've got eric erigoni eric hill hitting come on down. Visit us eric. Come on. We miss you man uh philips appear and Looping back to the week before we're all the way back to This is a sponsorship and sarah borges. So thank you so much all of you It's a nice little extra that we get every week sometimes once a month and just Sometimes just whenever you feel like it if you have a we have a guest on that you really enjoyed You know, it's like like elizabeth homes did tonight. She gave us this donation. It was really appreciated So you can do that right on v obs dot tv at the bottom of the screen It helps a lot and the fact that our show has technically improved and become incredibly reliable Is because of you guys and we really appreciate that One of the things that's interesting is the growth of our mailing list It's like over 500 people now. We want to grow that to a thousand So how do they get on the mailing list? They can get on the mailing list by going right to v obs dot tv And filling out the little form that's on the website. You've probably subscribed to a mailing list before You'll see the little box where you type in your name and your email address and we won't spam you It's not a spammy thing. It's just uh, here's what's happening next time right on the show Right plus another way to stay in touch. Yeah plus we got to do a new survey We do we're gonna do a new we're gonna retool and do a fresh short more focused survey. It's more about Basically how you how you consume the show and what is the most important things about our show to you? I think that's right what we're concerned about right. We're gonna make a few little changes. Yeah, nothing drastic It's gonna be better for you Yeah, so let us know what you want to hear about Show us your booths. This is Malcolm McDowell's booth. It is he doesn't know I've sent this in We won't give the address in an undisclosed location somewhere in california. That narrows it down. Yeah Give or take but anyway, this is a this is a space in in his barn outside of his house And uh, it was really fun and different to work with a client like that Especially going into his home Sitting down finding finding out what he needs and then asking if I would like a cup of tea Yeah, and when Malcolm McDowell offers you a cup of tea you say yes Absolutely, that was really good. Would you like some tea? God, he was so good in a clockwork. He is every other than ever that he has right on kind of good agent getting him He's killing already Uh, let's see here I once again if you need help with your home studio, which is why you watch this every week But you want some personal attention if you'd like to work with george, they go to you can go to georgeofthetech.com And right over to dan's world. You'll find him at Homevoiceoverstudio.com looking forward to hearing from you guys There's the place right there. Uh Hey, I got to be on your geeky podcast this week. That's right. He's gonna be on Well, actually two episodes one about wolvo con right we just did a really brief Here's what we did a wolvo con and there's another episode coming up in the next two weeks Where we delve into an interview with a fellow who is a major brain in the world of recording and studio and engineering You want to check that out as well? He just he made me feel so good about myself And all the things that we talk about he's like, yeah, that's what we do Like like the expert said, yeah, you guys are right on. Yeah, bobby is a brilliant man So tune into that fascinating Uh, hey, if you'd like to be in our audience like this full house We have tonight all you have to do is write to us at the guys at v obs dot tv And say hey, I want to be in the audience and we will let us know when you're going to be In the greater los angeles area or if you live in the greater los angeles area This is a convenient location folks. It's anywhere in the valley. You can get here in about 15 20 minutes Right at the crossroads of the 101 and the 405. I've become so california you might describing these things. Um We're here monday nights at 6 p.m And uh, we'd love to have you here the podcast version a lot of you may be listening But if you prefer to listen to the show you can listen to it as a podcast It is a long show So you might enjoy it that way while you're driving around la sitting in traffic sitting in traffic You might like it that way and uh for those who are listening Do tune in once in a while and see what we look like and see who our guests look like and be involved in the chat room It's another way to consume the show. Absolutely every monday night at 6 p.m Pacific at v obs dot tv very good We need to thank our sponsors once again like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra Uh source elements v o to go go voice actor websites dot com and j michael collins demos Alrighty, we also need to thank the uh the dan and marcie lennard foundation for the betterment of live webcasting live live live live Our producer catherine curidan who got us Samantha paris she was great. Just one nailed it. Yeah, uh jack daniel on chat room duty even though he's Remote chat room do remote chat room duty doing his trailer thing and uh of of course our amazing technical director who's got it down at height As it can be don't do that so hard if something's gonna rattle loose and we're gonna lose everything Actually, the fact that you can hit the desk that hard and we're still on the air. Yes. That's thanks to sumer lino sumer lino our great technical director Uh, well that's gonna do it for us this week. Oh, and of course lee penny for being lee penny Oh lee never want to forget lee. Where are you? He's into rc now. I know what the cool thing out with him All right. Anyway, that's gonna do it for us this week Again, not an easy business, but we're here to help you out because if it sounds right It is good or right If it sounds good, it's right Anyway, i'm dan lennard on george widow and this is voiceover body shop or vio bs We'll see you next week kids bye