 Hey, it's time for voice over body shop. How's everybody doing today or tonight or whatever you're listening to? Our guest tonight is Harlan Hogan. Hey Harlan Hey, how you doing? Pretty good. Hey, you missed my birthday. That's all right. The present can come in a couple days. Don't worry When was that? It was on Saturday. Oh, see we're not Facebook friends. How would I know? We're for Libra buddies That's right Actually, somebody pointed out once that if you were born on September 30th, then you were a New Year's Eve, baby Just give it some thought Yeah, really really Alrighty, hey It's time for voice over body shop George and I are gonna talk with Harlan if you got any questions for him Throw them in the chat room because we will get to those questions on voice over body shop starting right now Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials calm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect the oh heroes calm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voice over training Voice actor calm your voice over website ready in minutes Voice over extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry association of Freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there, I'm Dan Leonard as it says right there and I'm George the tech with him and This is voice over body shop or Vio Be as well, did I show this last week? I think we've seen it in a few formats. Oh, okay. Yeah Found it found it in in Leadville, Colorado Prince Albert has multiple Connotations I recommend googling at some time. Yes, exactly, but the old joke was is do you have you have Prince Albert in a can? What about Anyway, tonight we have a very special guest somebody who's been with us before and is actually with us every week If you watch this show every week, that's right joining us from From Chicago is Harlan Hogan, but let me introduce Harlan Harlan has provided the voiceovers for countless commercials documentaries and films many famous advertising catchphrases such as strong enough for a man You never get a second chance to make a first impression when you care enough to send the very best and Quaker life. It's the serial even Mikey likes ranked 10th 10th in TV guides list of best commercials Have been performed by Harlan He's also written several books on the subject of voice acting and his company voiceover essentials is the only Outlet for voiceover recording equipment made for voice actors by a voice actor And he was recently interviewed by Chicago magazine In an article entitled Everybody's got everybody tells me I have a great voice and we want to talk about that right now welcome Harlan Hogan Thank you You're not gonna say legendary are you because I feel like I'm gonna die the next day, you know No, no, no, that's Mark Rouse private property. I think You know people tell me all the time I have a great voice guess who's not trying to do voice Yeah, you're me. Yeah, you don't want you don't want to Compete with your own clients. No, I don't know. Yeah Anyway, so, you know, you could have just sent me the link, but no Harlan sends me the entire magazine and There's this great article For Chicago magazine about everyone tells me I have a great voice You know, sometimes I tell people, you know, I do voices. Well, you got a really good voice. I'm like, it's not about the voice but how did How did you come about doing that particular interview? It was a very long article It is a very long article well written I think and covers a lot of territory Just out of nowhere. I I did not know tell before this He just sent me an email and said I'm kind of putting this thing together and I've heard your name a lot Could we do a zoom together? Yeah, sure. So we did and then I went off to LA to do some stuff for the Magic Castle and If you could I'll send you the picture of me in my black tie outfit. It's Stunning and It's one of those he said thank heavens I have the tuxedo and now I can justify the three times I've worn it in a decade, but anyway He got a hold of me. He said, you know what he had mentioned a golden age back in the day in 70s and 80s and the other years said we'll get some more on that. So he came out to the house saw the studio and hung around together. He's a terrific guy and I think his journey is very interesting and very honest as he's taking classes from the really good people here and Trying to get his first agent and like almost all of us The first go around on the agent is probably not the one you're going to get signed on but you stay at it and talk to them and promote and I was one of those out of nowhere things Hmm. Well, it was it was interesting. What I found it sounded like everybody's success story Now you started doing this at a very different time in this business I mean both of us did our backgrounds are very similar. We did the radio thing and you know and That that helped, you know, some people get into into voiceover, but But what we saw was hardly something that I think most people see in their careers, you know There was successful people and the ratio was probably not that good. What do you what do you think and Based on what what we were reading No, it was a small club I mean There was so much particularly commercials and also corporate narration and some on camera Chicago has a checkered past on shooting things here. It's much much much better now than it was but for years The mayors would say things like we you can shoot here, but we need to approve the script Well, you say that to a writer, you know, there's we'll go shit it Philadelphia see you around But the commercial business was really Rocking and rolling and and there was a lot of work and some of that also was the ad agencies the way that they operated which was kind of unusual because I had done a little time in advertising as well and People Burnett in particular would set up teams when they got a new account and they would put together this whole package in competition with each other and then he would sit and look at all the storyboards and the pencil tests and all that and judge them and famous for saying This this one This one gives me an idea and he throw it down But for the voiceover people and me being a newbie They would generally get the pros or even the amateurs in to well. Hey there It's David H. Lawrence with VO heroes and oh We want him to interrupt There's the razor blade live if that one without okay, I know I know the 17th. He's a good guy, but anyway, you know Even not even knowing anything they'd say oh, hey, could you be over her at one o'clock at the universal? We've got six scratch tracks which paid 150 bucks Which was 50% of the session fee hey and the beauty of that was you are actually getting directed by writers and producers Soon if they liked you Would say let's get that guy back So it was a wonderful it was a wonderful time if you were smart you realized it wouldn't go on forever But it it was good. Well, it's it's really changed. You know with so many people in the biz What is it in your mind that allows people to succeed in this business? A lot of work Promotion treating it as a business Even when you get the audition and you look at it and laugh because you think it's stupid Send it back the person who said it that's a courtesy. There's a lot of floppiness in it. I think and If you can find an Classic if you can find in chicago a niche But if you find a niche like the rest of the world Something you can specialize in and that that may be phone answering it may be medical narrations It could be any number of things That really helps. I think they're psyche. I do a lot now at my age a lot of political work And they're very loyal. I enjoy doing it During the season you I mean it is not unusual here to have calls at three in the morning because the lawyer's got a hold of it We said that so-and-so did something we got to change two words He was he was possibly. Oh, okay. I can do that. Hang on Happy to do it call anytime So I found that to be good and I think also just Longevity is important you start to see I think a long-term career Not just something you get what you look into in a lot and you're right a lot of the stories are that we look into it So part of it is also showing up. I forget whose quote that was but that was like 90 of success is showing up Hmm There are so many people Yeah, yeah do what you say you're gonna do which is You know and and deliver when the opportunity comes Which is I think that's that's the the one thing, you know Somebody says well, I was doing I was in theater and somebody said hey try this And because they were actors They were able to pull it off immediately And you know, but I guess people the really good people continue to study And and try to keep up with the trends and stuff. What what have you been seeing? I mean, you're I'm sure you're talking to a lot of voice over people in your in your business and What what are you seeing as far as You know what people are doing to try and keep up Well, pretty much what we're talking about and staying staying in there and and you kind of have a thick skin it it is difficult um Rejection is going to come over and over and over and over and over again I just get used to it but go back and listen to that audition for example and see if you can hear Something you didn't do or you might want to try next time and I'm huge on looking into scripts It's part of my theater background. I could be a fan theater and I worked in radio as well as Dan did and Tons of community theater. I can't tell you and dinner theater. That was that was a joy I listen pay a lot that you got free dinner Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, I was in the odd couple in both roles Felix and oscar Go figure not at the same time. Oh, yeah, I was gonna totally different bodies, but um Keeping working keeping doing it and look look at that strip Unless it's just totally like it would be an ai script like number one number two number three But look is what's the storyline here? What are we trying to do? And if it's decent writing there there is a story in there and I don't think it's about how you have a good voice. I Never ever thought I had You know a good what is a good voice to a big d boys and all of those things That's not the point and It was back in maybe the early 50s or late 40s I mean, you know, you had the hand over the year and ladies have you looked at your laundry? Well, we did stop it Who are you talking to? And when I was persecuting in the business, there were still a few people like that and they were going Take the cans off and talk to themselves now somebody does that they're doing it because they're basically playing a character Of that yes style of that genre. Yeah. Yeah back in the day That's about the only time anybody wants that kind of delivery and it can be very funny and The fact is to just Take take time with copy take and break take a breath That's all part of one of the things will hopefully keep the ai kind of robotic voice away Like like the musicians say when they had the All of the the electronic musical instruments the problem was there were no clams For those of you who's not musically oriented there were no mistakes. It was too perfect Yeah, and in chicago in particular. We have wonderful jingle singers. I mean god They were the best in the world and everybody they had to be drummen They had to be super incredibly impressive musicians because if you botched a take I mean, there was no punching and there was no moldy track man. It was like a one-shot deal and So the musicianship was like absolutely next level. Yeah. Yeah And even doing voice over go to universal and it was on an optical track And you read the script the whole script and got it in on time. Not that that's any pressure And when you did screw up and your mind went nuts They had you know, they had to roll it back. So you'd be standing in this little booth and you just no no harlan. No, no, no, no No, you you plugged it. Okay. Okay Ah, I'm thinking we'll hold back meanwhile your your whole your whole career is passing before your eyes And but you get you learn how to do it and sometimes even you know Even do a little a dr on it and It was fun the thing that always cracked me up in the bigger studios here universal and CRC and studio one When you work there huge beautiful room Fabulous speakers and everything and you go, wow, this is great. You got the singers doing like a good neighbor's take on this They just beautiful beautiful music going out and the all the mcdonalds stuff And then you go home at the time and head your tv on and it had one of those little speakers about this big So the thing that sounded so great when you recorded it sounded kind of like that And you had to kind of say believe me. It was really good when we recorded. Oh, yeah Hey, we're talking with harlan hogan if you're just joining us and we're talking about What's going on in the voiceover business reminiscing a little bit here, but what's let's get into what's going on today because uh There's I heard the word I heard the the letters ai in that last conversation Yeah, well, we'll we'll get to that but there's there's all sorts of stuff, but You know, we've got so many people in this business right now Uh, but we also have a lot of coaches Uh, it seems like if somebody can't make a living they become voiceover coach I mean it's It's very difficult to make a living doing that doing this these days unless you're an established talent Breaking in can be Pretty tough. I mean, I just want to remind everybody if you have a question for harlan Throw it in the chat room because jeff uh jeff holman sitting there. He looks very lonely And he will take the uh, he will take those questions and get us to uh, get it to us in a second See not now gave me gave you a chance to think about your answer there harlan So with all these coaches out there, I know I know I know and I'm not saying that they're all bad But there's an awful lot of people, you know with it It's the get rich quick scheme or will come study and uh, we'll do zen and and you'll Think it went in the article that I disagree with is well You really should be taking improv classes because you're going to be doing commercials and you're going to be improving Trust me when you've got 27 seconds to get something done You're not improvising anything And I think that's a false a false idea Perfect on stage. It makes sense. In fact actually at one time in second city here in chicago And saturday night live was coming on and we had john belushi and all all these wonderful people Were coming in my wife at the time wasn't a very very very respected and very good voiceover talent agent She found out that some of the ad agencies were hiring the people from second city when they'd get there there was no script They'd say yeah, we're going to be selling this deodorant. What do you guys think? And several of them would come back and say leslie What are we going to do and she she went to the union and straightened them out and said ah We know what you're doing. So there's an improv fee So they would get something like triple if they did improvisation, but this is things out there I saw this quote that i'm not and i'm not saying everybody is this but it's from a financial guy and I thought it was kind of interesting In terms of being coached or taught something Because you may notice there are So many gurus out there Everyone is a guru Why are they calling themselves gurus? I'll tell you why because It's too difficult to pronounce and spell charlatan Yes I'm sure in the financial world. That's got to be a lot of it Very very much so yeah, I mean I mean when someone's looking for a coach I mean Got to look and see who are their clients who are their students. How would they succeeded? Um, you know, what was this person's record? They did one one spot one national flight spot and suddenly they're they're an expert or as you said a guru Um How do you find a good coach? I mean, are do you still take any coaching? No, no, okay. Well forget that then Well from my wife, yeah, of course Of course. Well, that's that goes with that. So I don't but I mean I would I did early on but there was there weren't that many in Chicago There were plenty in new york who were doing coaching but hardly anyone And you basically went and you got a little job or a little demo And you learned from all these wonderful talents around you what works and what doesn't work because you're actually performing but I'm kind of in you know on both sides of that you can certainly have someone who Works with you on let's say your demo who really knows what they're doing That makes a lot of sense, but I do think you got to do a lot of research Because if I read believed everything that I see in my mailbox every single day And I do have it there because some of many of those people Come to voice over essentials. So I want to see what what are they being Taught I just saw a new one And I want to I don't go too close on it, but it was so Big that I had to read it four times to figure out what it was she was selling In this particular course Yeah, and it's just me. So I sent it to a couple of other people around You know who've been around a long time. They said I have no idea what she's talking about. What is this activity with voice over There's kind of a zen kind of thing you'll get in this mood and you'll read better like showing up Read the words clear That's your job. If you want a good book on acting get david mammoth's book. It's the only one that I think Any accuracy in it Rather than all this stuff and you're gonna want to get a background and find out what was I doing before I walked in the room Man that says here's the script your job is delivered in a free in a very clear voice No cute voices. Just read the words that I wrote The meaning is all in the words that are written And he's right If it's well written it's there you don't have to nudge it and laugh and turn it into something that isn't Isn't accurate now. He's basically talking about theater actors But it's a heck of a book to read boy. You really is a good writer surprise Yeah, exactly Once again, we're talking with harlan hogan if you've got a question for him throw it in the chat room Whether you're on facebook live or on youtube or watching on our our website We want to hear your questions too because harlan just loves answering questions from all sorts of people because he runs a business that It's all about voiceover, isn't it um, you know, yeah Equipment has really changed the equation somewhat why we see so many people out there You know trying to get into voiceover, you know easier access to technically Being able to compete has become a lot easier What prompted you to start voiceover essentials? desperation Kidding kidding kidding kidding kidding um Well the store is such a bad joke and I have made it for a long time I think hey, you know what I've been doing this for Four decades 44 actually years And I've never had to have a retail job So I started the store so I could have a retail job. I mean, that's what actors do, right? But the store came about because of the need I had which was to record in hotel rooms and less than wonderful acoustic things and that Was coming out of doing the political jobs When we're doing that during season I mean, I've done a couple of hundred in the season We're just knocking them off knocking them off and then they change in the next day And it's good work But you know, for example, jeff and I with some books about home studios You know, we're out in Las Vegas at the national association broadcasters speaking In fact, I think we wrote in your car that one time george when we went over to have dinner With jeff fisher and me and you And oh my gosh, I took I took you to a great restaurant and big beautiful steaks. That's when I discovered your vegetarian No, I'm not a vegetarian. I'm pestatarian uh-huh PST That's very funny But I started working on some way to do it beyond just building pillow forts because that's what we used to do We can put them as pillows or hide them wherever to try to get the glass down. Of course there Everybody wants to see the strip. So you've got miles of glass, right and talk about a bass trap But that's what I started playing around with it and making some things out of foam core and this and that Putting acoustic stuff in I just put it out because we had written two books Just put it on the internet and said, okay Here's a way you can record on the road on the cheap and that was basically taking this little laundry thing that I'd found a target for about seven bucks and Didn't caution them to buy real acoustic foam. There's there's another area where you see people. Oh boy There's so much crap. Oh my god, amazon. It's ridiculous. Yeah, and they just lie those guys just lie Yeah, so I I got it and I wrote an article I taught him how to cut foam because you can't cut it with the scissors Because it compresses And just set it out there and people kept writing me saying oh, I made one of these That's actually one time I'm early on on I first started making and this woman complained because she had made a portaboo And she didn't use and she's flat out said I used a cardboard box and such and such and it just doesn't work Well, I give it no stars. Well, duh Are you nuts? But that they're out there But then it kept getting people saying we could you know, could I buy one of these things? One of the things was a big sheet of oral x or That's the other one that's really good oral x is one on x me Yeah, um, you know four by eight sheet you you'd have to get about five friends together and then make these panels In there Yeah So eventually you think you know dummy these people are asking about these. Well, maybe maybe I'll make some So I did I made ten of them And priced them at like 75 bucks. I didn't know but I was gonna cut the foam put it together in the basement They've sold out immediately And so I started making them here. So in addition to doing voice over and everything else I was manufacturing them here And then little by little they got a few more sophisticated I found the company who could build the pros are beautifully, you know the workmanship on it is fabulous And so once I had that it was like well, we got to put it on on the internet I'm gonna go to amazon, of course and we bay and wal-mart And so just there I started looking there's the dogs. Um, and it's there. That's Leslie Thank you There's nothing we can do about it just put the type Um But I started looking at a lot of the stuff out there. They're there. Hey jack. Hey, it's mom You know, everybody tells him he has a good dog, you know Every season if he's got a great dog, he does Get that dog a job. Yeah One of the things that did occur to me when I was kind of thinking about getting that product into something like bsw bnh or And I started looking at the catalogs and the amount of stuff No, I wondered the first three questions and what microphone should I buy, you know, can I get an agent? You have a hundred different microphones And they all sound great on piano and drums and vocals No, they don't that's when I started talking to mxl about it and developing the vo1a They did a fabulous job on which Then is pointing to let me say great mic and but we kept the price under 400 bucks You know despite inflation And very proud of that and the way they built it then you always gave us a great review on it And uh, well, then you kind of go. Well, what else could somebody use and the sign came along and then the cans came along they had headphones But I've kept it now. We still only have about 12 items in an in one time I don't need to have two or three things and Hopefully someone who's new and they they know that they can trust me And I'll buy that mic and I'll get these things and you know, we're in business Well, it's it's the problem-solving stuff that I tend to appreciate the most, you know, like the abs The adjustable boom stop. I mean, that's a unique device that fix Fixes a real problem because so many people get boom stands at banjo and pourium And they don't hold the weight of a professional mic Not by the length. They're they're made to hold like a an sm 58. Well, this is a fake one They're made to hold one of these and that's about it. That's about the what they can muster, you know And the only thing worse would be that part that soap one that you can buy and sing in the shower. That's not really cool I think if I cut the end of this off it's sponge on the inside that that might work Um, but yeah, that that was a really clever solution to a problem and I thought that was great um and the You know, it's just yeah It's great making a product that people ask for and then just exceeding their expectations and making it better and better It's a really. Uh, it's a really cool thing and yeah, like you said, I'm not trying to sell 100 things you're just choosing really hand choosing the right stuff people need Yeah, you're right And it that is very rewarding. I mean it really is and uh, the thing I always looked at was Not so much show some people want a dynamic because We're used to cardioid condenser microphones. Well, what's better? It isn't really the question. What's better? What does our client particularly on an audition or a job expect to hear? So if you go in there with a cheap crappy mic and it sounds like hell Your odds are greatly reduced of not getting the job Or if you have a decent mic, but it's just a completely wrong mic for the job That can still shoot in the foot and you can spend a lot of money on a not right Not correct microphone Because there's a lot of mics out there for podcasting and they're not the same thing, right, right? Yeah, I find a lot of people are if it's 39 dollars. It's not good. Let's just put Well, even ours 300 dollars just some not good microphones out there because they're not made for voiceover. Yeah, don't buy stuff off facebook Uh, I think it's the it's the best thing to think about with that You know, but a lot of people keep buying these sm7b's and I'm like, why who is suggesting this? I'm hoping I got that out of the one catalog that uh Was promoting it heavily the last couple of years. I would every year I'd email some sales reps So can you get that mic? Can you take the word voiceover out of the description of this microphone? Please? Yes, please. It's not it's not that you know, it is interesting too because at the time when I started first thing past the port of events was that Nobody at that time had even in any of their ads san heizer or whoever or road or any of no one ever mentioned voiceover ever It's great for singing. It's great for stage. It's great for everything. I thought okay. I see I see a niche Here for niche, but yeah if I see and we did design it was soft in the folder And we put they're very good jfets in it and mogami wire The only place we didn't spend too much money is the outer two because that would have cost A fortune to create so it has that standard look sometimes people got confused and thought that the less expensive version You know it looks like it But you got to know if that thing 79 dollars and this one is 389 there certainly is a difference Wake up Yeah, this mic's got all the best Like you said the best components. Yeah once again, we're talking with harlan hogan and uh, if you have a question for We'd like to hear from you because you can go in the chat room and you can type out that question And jeff holman will sit there and look at it and go Yeah, that's a good question pass it on to us and we'll get to that in our next segment So stay tuned for that in the meantime. We're going to take a quick break I still got a couple of things that harlan and I want to talk about And we'll do that right after this This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony meadows and you're enjoying dan and george on the voice of our buddy Shaw Just so okay, there we go Okay, this this is usually where we have our voice over essential spot So I figured I'd give harlan the opportunity to to sell it himself because i'm doing it every week, but he's the man and Tell us why people should go to voiceover essentials Is this live? Yes, it's live. Oh, okay. Okay Because we narrow it down to the really good stuff if I've got my name on it You know, it's going to be good and you know, you can send it back if you don't like it I think i'm still the only mic manufacturer Anywhere that allows you to return a microphone and I encourage them We don't ask if it isn't for you because every mic will sound different right then on different voices And sometimes it doesn't work as well Send it back Because I've got but I have a bunch of things over here that I purchased and thought oh, you know, it's okay But not great It also just you know, keep it keep it simple And try to try to improve the parlake every time we do have each time I've got a stand finally It's developed. They've been delivered It will hold your portable pro or plus beautifully made totally adjustable eight pounds And that'll be the next product that I put out because we always needed it We had a stand for a while, but it was so handy It was unbelievably it cost more to ship it than make it and We sold them that then you know now Nowadays sounds like a really old guy, but now You know UPS guy whoever us ps gets it and then tries to you know, not break it Bricks Did not you still offer free shipping? Oh on that stand we did because we had we had to because otherwise We were charging more for shipping than the product itself But we no longer have it. It's just was way too heavy way too much warehousing and stuff So this new one you could actually travel within it I had I like I've always done you take an existing product and find a way to make it Better for voice over not doing any other reason So what we needed on this product was more height There's a lot of negotiating with the factory because If you ever go into the world of getting things from not necessarily just china, but other countries In the you say what would it cost if I could take that product and do this that and the other and then you get a quote back And you say hey, that's not bad. We can sell that during reasonably and make a little money on it And then you realize There's this thing called an moq Do you know what an moq is dan? I do not know what an moq is you will now know So you see yeah, yeah, we that thing We can sell these moq means minimum order quantity So if you see yeah, so you see oh one of these oh, that's going to be 29 dollars In china in particular It's very rare to have anything less than a thousand In the moq. Well, hey, I'm not that big, but I don't have a huge warehouse here. You'd have to move out It's tough. Yeah, you can't do that's worth saying for example mxl was so great because they could say okay, harm We'll give you an moq of a hundred on these and see how you do That I could hand all right Go on over to voiceover essentials.com because This guy says you should and I say you should Well, we'll be right back George has to talk to you about source connect right George You got it Should we go straight to it? Why not? No bumper needed. So source connect another one of our sponsors the parent company Being source elements actually and what's funny is we're keeping it Chicago tonight because one of the founders of source elements Robert Marshall is also in the chicago area So how about that for regionalism for our show? But source elements is Very very well thought out product because The their source connect product particularly is something that is being honed And improved and fine tuned To be the perfect way to connect studios between each other and still maintain the highest of audio quality There's no drifting Of sync If there are any sound dropouts it hasn't built in tool set called q-manager Which will replace any dropped out audio Automatically in the producer's session It's incredible and it's actually surprising how few producers bother to use this function Because it does work so well most of the time But with q-manager it takes care of Concerned about dropouts and audio when you've got Your kids playing a video game while you're trying to record or who knows what there could be anything between you And the studio halfway around the world that could cause issues So the system backs that up for you automatically it can even with q-manager replace whole Audio tracks from the compressed data audio file. That's basically aac With a completely undata compressed wave file and just do this automatically Completely in the background after the session So it's really amazing tool and it's integrated so well for producers that it's the reason you as actors should have it So go to source dash elements calm Get a 15 day free trial and ask them for support because their support is fantastic I'm telling you so thanks again for your support source elements. Let's go on to the rest of the show Well, hey there, it's david h laurance with vo heroes and wouldn't it be cool If there was a very simple tool drag and drop tool that would guarantee That the audio you need to upload to acx or any other audiobook platform is perfectly set up in terms Of the tech standards the root mean square normalization the peak normalization the noise floor Guess what there is and I want you to have it absolutely free It's called audio cupcake and you can find it at audio cupcake.com I helped create this software It was built to my specs and my standards for when I do audiobooks And I know it's going to work for you now. It's only available for macintosh Because you windows users you have the ability to use other tools that work for you But in this case you edit your final raw wave file for a chapter You drop it on audio cupcake and outcomes the 192k mono mp3 file. You can upload immediately That's audio cupcake.com audio cupcake.com. I hope you love it This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv And we're back with harlin hogan Uh, again, if you've got a question throw it in the chat room. We have room for a couple of questions here Uh, george, you want to take that first one from justin rummose? Happy to do it. All right, justin. Thanks for your question. He came in on youtube And the question is what is an improv v And does it still exist and or apply to voice acting? Is it only for union jobs? My understanding is you can do a bit of improv for an audition but charging the client for that I've never heard of this. Is this a bell to anybody else me? No, not you either harlin No, no, it's not an audition And as I said, you know The wilder producers here were taking advantage of the second city people, but that's gone That's job. You're gonna get paid because you're basically writing the script I wonder if you met an audition fee versus an improv fee. Yeah But yeah, it's been proposed a lot of a lot of times over the negotiations that you know I've been involved with from time to time with union trying to get back a little bit And I do believe in the uk that you get paid For an audition it could be wrong on that but I think they do and Yeah, you can see some but well particularly if you're auditioning and working out in l.a And you can't even park the car. I love when they have a sign that says no auditions Because you can't park there. Yeah, thank you And uh, you know and if you if you got to go from William Morris and you want to go some like three hours When I was just out there. I came back and said I I finally figured out the traffic in Los Angeles It consists of standing still Or going a hundred miles an hour. That's it. There's nothing in between. That's how they drive It's something right rapid succession. Yeah. Yeah, you have to have a lot of patience to drive here Which I have oodles of I don't know about you george, but you know, it's you're on the highway more than I am but downtown Yeah, finding a place to park almost impossible And because of that we should charge a fee for that But you know at least give us a quarter for the meter I'm saying yeah, they do have uh in the contracts if you are at a call call basically And there is I forget the exact amount of time you can be Sitting there waiting to go in an audition and if they keep you too long Then they have to pay you Oh, okay. So and that's been there for decades. I don't know how many people enforce it I mean generally I don't think I've ever enforced it because usually you're there with your friends that you haven't seen in a while We're all going to go have a beer 10 minutes from that. Yeah, so yeah, I can sit here But you can see the logic of it if you had a session coming up And you better get paid for this Sue mentioned something about second city at some time actually Paying something called an improv fee because you're basically writing the ad for them Is that was that a thing or that's probably long gone, right? Uh, I think it's still in the contract and I know I was so proud of my wife for Going to the to the union and saying hey good. No no no no no no this is not right You know, I can't send this talent over there and ask them to write your scripts I haven't looked at the contracts a long time, but I think it's in them. Yeah, and it should be I mean, yeah, yeah total sense. Yeah, I mean we talk about doing improv You know taking a class here and there so we keep ourselves a little sharper when we when we get a script Because you just want to do something different sometimes when you're doing an audition Ellen conquerin Ellen conquerin asks and she's on youtube. Hi harlin. I am loving your experience How did you handle the evolution of technology as you were doing voiceover? Very well, thank you You know, I have really given a lot of thought to this with a smile, but when I look at My age now and you know, I always is interested in sound My grandparents lived in the little apartment and they had you know a little tune that you push the button and say hi grandma hi Even then and my mom was a dancer So she had a record player and she taught dance in the basement to Kids who want to learn how to dance So there were always records around there's always sound around I Would get in trouble all the time listening to radio stations You know with a flashlight reading and listening You know what a crystal set is my dad might built one of those look it up You'll see it's Amazing thing that you can build with a kid. They still make them Didn't you like attach it to the radiator in your house or something like that? You needed a grout Yeah, you had a grand grant and you got this little crystal one thing called a whisker whisker And you do that as you move it is magical you're moving like hey You get something out of st. Louis. It's a 500 thousand watt radio station So I was always my dad would come up, you know, he was a steel worker said he's a little more Straighter than my mom and I'd like what are you doing? Uh, I'll do I'm just going to bed dad go to bed. Okay No, but I was always on the radio Then my sister was five years older She you know by then was 45s were coming out and you're listening all the disc jockeys on you know Which records climbing which one's going down? And I remember when stereo came out That was a big deal Disney did a thing on television And what they had that they did and I love that show and Walt Disney hosted it. You guys are too young But you know the wonderful world of color Yeah, that's right. That's the name of it. Yeah, so they said, you know, hey next time Get your radio that you have which everybody did we had this kind of Only just motorola thing, but you know mono Get that and put that X feet away from your television set and you'll experience stereo And that's the first time they've ever heard, you know, it's classic here comes the train And then my dad knew somebody they had yeah mark the player then I was in junior high school and uh Our teacher mr. Jones had an ampex 601 tape recorder And that's a serious tape recorder with a shiny silver microphone and he kept us in line Doing old radio shows Which I love doing it. This is so much fun. So all of a sudden I wanted a tape recorder You know graduating from junior high to go to high school Hey, they were like 75 dollars. It was not 75 dollars for recording machines, but I did get the Little cocks gay recording. Oh one of the worst Devices ever I didn't read the Johnny cash had one too. So I felt better You know crappy little microphone But I loved that tape recorder and then I started recording other people more than myself I didn't even look at performing that way and then all the high school plays and all of that stuff And then there was paper tape and wire. I have a wire recorder here that actually works It's a 40s Yeah, and I think thing weighs a ton too. Oh god. Yeah, you know how you you know how you You forget if you've got a I'm gonna make a splice you tie a knot in the wire It kind of glops past the head And then all of a sudden, you know, we've got records. We've got all this stuff and then cds And of course the cassette thing because our demos were all on five inch reels Of tape and a little white box Most of you are younger. So I think it was around and around and around And so that's how you did your demo and everybody wrote their name on the end I got into the business because I wanted to be different. I wanted to get recognized I had a little label printed out You know in like fluorescent orange. It wasn't fancy, but you know postal instant press was on michigan avenue So I had him print this out and it's an arland hogan demo Volume one And I had a number of people say why did you do that? What do you mean? No, no, we all write our name on me and you know with a felt pen and oh, that's how it's done Well, I'll tell you what for long I'll have my demos out in four color Then they laughed at me And they didn't laugh for long because I didn't Promote promote promote. I'm a big fan of Looking at Barnum Barnum in particular, man, Barnum has a was a wonderful line I don't want to kind of follow how interesting pt Barnum was and how Even though we think of him as a humbug and all of that but people then enjoyed it They knew it wasn't a mermaid. They knew it wasn't whatever it was. He was showing it his dime thing But he always had this great quote. I've always remembered it Without promotion something terrible happens Nothing nothing That's how I live my life, man. You got to keep promoting. Yeah. Yeah One more question here from linda joce minors is harlin Can I use another one too? Which is not in there yet? Oh, okay. Yeah Can I use your mic and the vo1a? uh For voiceover and for my studies in opera which I use to improve my voice studies in voiceover Can you use the this for? singing opera Sure, absolutely Just get back a little bit If you're really hitting those notes, uh, but I wouldn't put it on a bass drum. I can put on a piano. But yeah, I think in fact, uh Remember her name right now. It's very good operatic singer in washington dc that I know does use it And she does voiceover. It's got a wonderful demo where she's talking to her husband. It's a little dialogue, which is Nice, it's hard to get good dialogue. They're going to the opera and her husband doesn't want to go Yeah, yeah, well, let's skip this one right in the middle of it. She says, oh, yeah, and she just burst into this beautiful opera I mean really a wonderful singer pause Okay, we'll go Sometimes you can take that other skill and throw it in there and I'd slip or demo through there Yeah, I think it's important to realize like if it's a good condenser mic for a voice It's going to be a good condenser mic for a voice Whether it's speaking or singing because you know, it's an instrument if you have dynamic range It's capturing the full, uh Audible range of your human voice no matter what so yeah, that's absolutely uh true Here's one from a name that you might recognize This is from James R. Alburger and he says Um, I'd love to hear your story about the session when the director said your read was a bit burgundy And he'd like it to be a bit more rosé Yeah I mean the descriptions I kind of you know, I'm selective on stuff. So if I get a script Even before I look at the script if there's two pages of direction I don't want to do this If they have to take two pages to describe you want someone young but also old My favorite in the last couple years was we want a morgan freeman type But young and no ethnicity Who are these people? They have an idea in their mind what they want to hear but they forget they're talking to other humans I just I would argue with you But what I see is they don't know what it is they want. They tell you what it is That they don't want right and then of course, you know, oh, yeah I'll have to sound like uh, so-and-so or adam driver or whatever star is working this week I'm old enough that I don't know most of those people anyway. So I don't bother I mean, have you ever have you ever seen your somebody you ever seen your own Name on the direction Saying yes Yes, yes, you know, absolutely. Absolutely. And did you get the gig? Yeah My wife before leslie became my wife 34 years ago The 34 uh 100 isn't bad. Um, but She would get a call sometimes she would laugh about something. Hey, hey, hi, leslie. I want we want a harlan hogan type and she would say well We represent harlan hogan. Hey, I know that but you know, he's on too many things I just want someone like him. She's always so hard for her not to laugh like well On his wife, but don't tell anybody But there's that Yeah If you can get a client to actually not call you a announcer anymore and you've got your name on it I think I had fast food fish place called Skipper buds something like that skipper buds and We're done actually with ISDN at that point with Organization in st. Louis. I'm on the motorcycle. I'm an alamese coast riding around And I see one of the captain deeds. That was it. I did we don't have much progress So I stopped and was sweating like a pig, of course But they took a photo of the captain deeds and then just sent it To the recording studio and I said so even on vacation. Mr. Hogan thinks about nothing but captain deeds They thought it was hysterical. So they sent the photo over to the captain deeds people From that day on all the scripts said harlan they now knew my name Wow Yeah, rather than an announcer Harlan, yeah Well, hey pretty much a couple of years doing that gig and because you know, we they can't get rid of harlan We're gonna do Well harlan your name is well known out there and we really really appreciate you coming on tonight and telling us your stories and And making the stuff that you make so keep doing that I will Alrighty, thanks for being here. Thanks for being with us tonight. All right. We'll be right back to wrap things up and And uh re-rack it for tech talk right after these messages You're still watching v obs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead There's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer That place is voiceover extra.com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audio blows auditioning home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more. It's time to hit your one stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports. It's all here at voiceover extra.com. That's voiceover Xtra.com Well, it's time to talk about a company that I have a very good relationship with because it was my idea Voice actor.com voice actor.com from voice actor websites.com. What is it? It is a templated Website where you can make templated websites Uh, because as a voice actor you have to have A website and joe davis and the folks over at voice actor.com came up with all sorts of templates And the great thing about a template is is just a template. You can put whatever pictures you want in there Whatever color scheme you want But most importantly and everybody forgets this when they're putting their voice actor website together It's there's three things you got to have. Well your name Your demos so they can hear what you sound like And Your contact information. What else do you need? You have to show them how artsy fartsy you are with these things No, use a template make it quick You can do it for free at voice actor.com And then if you like the site you have it's 20 a month and they have all sorts of other services But you can get yourself up and running in half an hour not six months go over to voice actor.com right now tell them i sent you We are the world voices organization Also known as wovo. We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent Voice over is a complex entrepreneurial business Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voice over practice And to those who want to pursue voice over as a career Membership benefits include a supportive and creative community a profile and demos on voiceover.biz Our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent our exclusive demo player for your personal website our mentoring program Business resources and our video library our annual wovo con conference a fun and Educational weekend with other members with the chance to learn at network webinars and great speakers And weekly social chats with other members around the world if your world is voice over make wovo part of it world voices organization We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rock in the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop And it's time to say goodbye and then re-racket for tech talk See you folks that are watching the show live right now You can stay around for tech talk and ask your questions and get them in and so that's really important Anyway, uh, thanks to harlan hogan for joining us tonight and all his stories. He always fun to talk to Uh, next week on the show, you'll hear and see tech talk number 111 Which we're about to do one. That's right Uh, you've got discounts for people george Yep, you can head over to george the dot tech slash v obs That's the landing page for the show and you'll find our coupon code Go check it out and see what we have to offer for you and uh, take a look around All righty And thanks to our donors of the week. Let's see how fast we can do it. Greg cooper Grace newton Christopher epperson robert leadham steven schandler kasey clack jonathan grant thomas bento Greg thomas a doctor voice ant land productions martha con 949 designs flea uh sarah borges philips appear ryan page rob rider shawna pennington baird don griffith tree moseley diana birdsall maria maccas and sandra man willer Hey, you can donate to the show if you want to mean want us to maintain the amazing technical quality Which is about to take A quantum leap we hope don't sell it too hard Well, we'll see Trying something new, but we'll we'll see how we're trying something new soon. Yeah, yes Uh, join our mailing list too because then you'll know who's gonna be on and just to go to our website v obs.tv and click on Join our mailing list Uh need to thank our sponsors. Of course our good friend harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements Vio heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org where I am currently the president so join up We got lots of cool stuff for you. Uh, we need to thank of course jeff holman for doing all that great stuff I am db dot me jeff holman Got to go there Uh And doing all the work in the chat room and in facebook and all that kind of stuff h o l m a n h o l m a n j e f f Right and of course first and last name could be spelled multiple ways Good point Uh, we also need to thank the one and only sumer lino for directing us and making it all work Every week when we do this show and of course leap any for just being leap any All right, we're going to re-rock it and get ready for tech talk If you have a question for us throw it in the chat room In the meantime, look, this isn't an easy business harlin will tell you it's not an easy business hard to get into Hard to maintain a career at it But we're here to give you the information you need to make sure that you're doing everything you can to make your Sound really good, but we found it really if it sounds good It is good. I'm dan Leonard and i'm george widdon and this is voiceover body shop or vo b s See you next time kids