 Hey, we're back after a long hiatus and our guest this week on voiceover body shop is Thompson howl Don't look too excited. It's not important. He needs to microphone. Exactly. Why are there two? I don't get just want to make sure it works right. There you go redundancy. Yeah, and we'd love your questions for Thompson So stay tuned here on voiceover body shop Lots of fun stuff to talk about. We'll be right there 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 Whittem 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 calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote connections made even easier Vio to go go calm Everything you need to be a successful voiceover artist J. Michael Collins demos award-winning demo production voice actor websites calm 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 Whittem and Dan Leonard Hi there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whittem and this is voiceover body shop or V.O. B.S. Alrighty. Well boy. That was a long break. It was but we're back now. Well deserved break. I hope oh it was and a Fantastic well appreciating yeah to Alaska. Yeah, if you get the chance to go to Alaska do it You may not want to live there in January February March April Maybe May they spent Tuesday. They have three seasons there. They have I guess June is summer Yeah, and July and then August is fall and the rest is winter And which which cruise line we on we were on princess is that the one or is it well? They've been there the longest and they own everything. Okay, you know, they own all the lodges and stuff You know, it was interesting But you know, there's there's too much to tell in this show because we have other things to tell as you can Probably tell the backdrop is probably related to your trip. This is Hurricane Gulch It says this is a 300-foot trestle bridge on the Alaska Railway And I they're like get your cameras out, you know, as we're going by there on the way up to Denali and and that's why It's pretty swine. It's a great. It's a great picture and you can see the mountains in the background. Yeah, Alaska is mountains Yeah, I mean it's mountains from Vancouver all the way to Everywhere else they get bigger and bigger as you go They go bigger and bigger and there's more and more glaciers and it was amazing. That's cool. Yes And you're probably I'm going there for my 50th birthday. You're you're her to your first. All right I'll tell you where to go and you're probably wondering about this thing. I know it's a fez It is a fez. Well, my sister-in-law who was also with us in Alaska. We're giving each other all sorts of stuff She was just in Morocco as well. She gets around and she says what would you like for Morocco since I'm going to Morocco? I said, are you gonna be in fez? She goes. Yes. I said, I would love to get a fez from fez naturally I know how I'm just noticing how thick the felt is. Yes. It's quite thick. It is very impressive felt So anyway, but we don't need to be dealing with this the whole time anyway But I had to show it off. Yes, of course Anyhow, we have a great guest die and we'd love for you to ask ask him questions Because we're gonna ask him questions as well. Yeah, but let me introduce him Let's see what kind of stuff he does. Thompson Howell has a cool Rye with way with words with its spotlight stories with a focused identity and a distinct point of view Whether in commercials promo trailer or narration You've heard him on promos for many major broadcast networks and cable channels and countless radio and TV commercials For some of America's and the world's best brands Let's take a look at some of his stuff. Here. We are home sweet home. Have a look around. You're perfectly safe As long as it's fed welcome to a house things are quite different here with magic Let me show you what a little weed can do monsters So creepy and a mind of its own shall we? Seriously, God, I hate pumpkins the house with a clock in its walls Bad kidding use the litter box PG The world's greatest illusionist Cameron black is now working for the FBI. I couldn't have done without my beautiful assistant Deception coming to ABC You know I can be the devil Acrimony rated R in theaters March 30th. I'll learn your secret. Tell me a simple favor rated R September 14 Documentary now presents the bunker. Thank you the election That defined a generation and the political masterminds behind it. We're gonna win for young From Fred Armisen, I'm a cute hunk. I feel like I'm shy Bill Hader We change the way that election narratives a hot jet and executive producers Seth Meyers put the taffy down tubby Tammie Documentary now a new story each week Wednesdays at 10 start September 14th on IFC All right, he can't wait to answer your questions here is Thompson Howl Thank you. Thank you. I'm here. It's good to be here. Thanks so much for having me. This is wonderful Pleasure having you here. Nice to meet you. I want to hear more about your trip to Alaska. That's way No, oh, it's it's a it's a it's a quite the travel following the place Facebook. Yeah I didn't post much on Facebook, but anyway, I have time you're you're originally from Boston I am like our technical director Sue. Oh, yeah, but looking good good socks Salzy But were you interested in voiceover and acting in Boston and then went to Northwestern for For that. So, yeah, here's my my story in a nutshell I studied music when I was very young piano and pipe organ. I'm actually an organist Oh, cool, and I play around some churches here in LA. It's a really weird story And by halfway through high school I got the acting bug that led me to be in the drama club and all sorts of stuff like that that led me to a college in Northwestern while I got my acting degree and And then after after that I Took my very first voiceover class because I'd heard worked at the campus radio station and heard about this freelancing voiceover You make some extra money sometimes and that led me to Radio working as a disc jockey in Chicago Which I kept up with off and on for 20 years Simultaneously with that I began my voiceover career, which really started in earnest in the early 90s probably 1991 when I got my first exclusive agent in Chicago and And I they sort of grew together But eventually what happened is the radio is this and they kind of switched places I decided I kind of like the freelance lifestyle and was making more money at it than I was working for a Radio station in my two weeks vacation and whatever you get married you have a family It's like you know, I really need to make a living right right, right? Exactly exactly And then yeah, I quit radio in October 1st 2006 my last day on the air and a couple days later I moved out here to LA. Wow, just the car and go Took a little more planning. Okay. Okay. Well, that's good like a trip to like now like many successful people in acting and voice acting the top people Went to the top schools. I hear this many times, you know, people went to Harvard Dartmouth Northwestern is one of those schools That gets mentioned a lot, right? And I know a bunch of Northwestern grads who are in voiceover and in acting What what was it about Northwestern that that is really good for drama and getting you prepared for this sort of thing Well from the acting standpoint, it has a great. I mean it's so different now. This is, you know, I graduated 30 years ago, but it was an outstanding acting program within a university setting And it that still exists though it has changed and evolved and grown But it's funny. There was no Some of us like our friend Tish Hicks and some other people we talked about, you know, there was no on camera acting classes at Northwestern at the time There was nothing about voiceover. We didn't really find out about it much until we got out and started You know doing theater work or radio work in my case So it became something I became aware of that way But the acting training you get at a high quality and it doesn't have to be Northwestern It could be any number of great schools or um, you know local classes here in LA the acting background Has such a huge amount to play in being a great voice actor because it's still acting even though you're just using your voice Right, right. So now you you your real specialty is promo as we were seeing from that particular that clip of your promo stuff I mean clearly you do commercial work and things like that, right? How does one make that transition from You know, just doing the voiceover and being on the right to do in the promo and trailer work that Not easy work to get in 30 minutes or less. Yeah. Yeah, I'll sum it up in five seconds Stuff at the Wal-Mart practice Relation no, it's it is. I mean you have to know you want to do it first of all, there's certain Skillsets if you if you look at commercial as being a sort of a foundational thing in voiceover, right? And you want to venture off into another area you've got to find out how to do that And there's certain skill sets involved in promo work That you need to learn about you take classes workshops, whatever and then Once you've got the skills and you've got the chops you put together a good demo you're gonna need an agent Primarily LA New York for the majority of promo work because that's where the Entertainment industry tends to be based and the news and broadcast industry tends to be based more New York So it's good to have agents in both of those cities Although you can be elsewhere You don't have to live in each of those cities necessarily, but you really ought to be Represented by agents in those two cities. Yeah, a lot a lot of people ask You know, we talked with a lot of people who are really trying to break into the business and I gotta get an agent Getting an agent not the easiest thing in the world was that all you just need an agent Yeah, of course, and that's gonna change your entire career How did you go about getting an agent? It didn't happen overnight. I'm sure you were probably doing fairly well and one said hey You know, it's they don't say you know, I think you got talent kid, right, you know It's it's a little different that explain to how it worked for you. Um, I started out Like I said, I took my first voice-over class and produced my very first voice-over demo at the end of that class And I still have it was on a five-inch reel. You know, this is like you know old wool and sacked machines and all stuff like that and I'd taken that class and I submitted to several agents in Chicago because you could be multi listed You could have several agents and was that way for a while and then one day I took a workshop With my friend Maurice Tobias. We know who was coming through Chicago for the very first time I think it was one of her first times in 1991, I believe and I took this workshop that was recommended to me and My then future exclusive agent happened to be sitting in had heard about her and Was sitting in there and heard me work went back to where she said she went back to her office The next day went to the top shelf Blew off the cassette blew off the dust off the cassette Demo I had sent her, you know last year the year before something like that said, oh that guy And put two and two together and she signed me So that's how I got my very first, you know, real agent Yeah, and and they and they're negotiating for you and they're well go ahead Yeah, well having you know having the the chops and putting a good demo together because that's You know these days I find that's the primary purpose of the demos to get good representation Your demo is it comprised of entirely Custom written scripts or is it a lot of real material that you've lifted from your it can be a little bit of both, you know To me the the thing about a good demo no matter what genre you're talking about Is And I talked it's a bigger picture about marketing and voiceover. What's your brand? What are you what's your what are things you're really in your wheelhouse? You you want to be able to show You want to be known for something you want to be remembered for something and you can show a little versatility over here And a little versatility over here, but for the purposes of a demo, which you know 60 seconds tops Um, you want to have your your best material. This is me putting my best stuff forward So it could be some stuff you've done But a lot of times you're going to write stuff or have stuff written for you with a pretty whatever producer you choose Who's going to be able to uh Find tune that demo so you're highlighting what you can do Not necessarily what you've done Because it's not just a resume of what you've done a good demo should be about what you can do And you know if you throw a little surprise in there somewhere say oh Thompson I didn't know you could do that. Well, yeah Well, you want to show your range exactly you want to show a little bit of range, but still keep that that specificity of You know being known for something. Yeah, that's important If you're just joining us our guest is Thompson Howell who's you know, you may not know his name But clearly you've heard his voice probably three or four times a day Uh, if you've got a question for him throw it in our chat room And I know Mike Merlino is uh hiding back there somewhere Me too. I'm also covering him on a forum for a while in case he's doing something else Yeah, uh, if you've got a question for Thompson throw it in there right now We'll get to it in our next segment and I'm sure this kind of stuff you probably have lots of questions because Everybody's you know looks at voiceover and they think well, I could be doing that trailer stuff everybody thinks they could do But it's not It's not a large roster of people doing this stuff Uh, it's highly specialized skilled work I would say so how does one prepare themselves to do this kind of thing And should they try? Well, I'm not going to discourage anybody. Okay, good You know pushing people's dreams away, but you know as the when I started in the business Way back then, you know 30 years ago It was much smaller. I'm not talking the entire industry was so much smaller pre-internet. No p2p sites No internet no mp3 No isd and none of that Uh, and none of the more modern uh connectivity technologies as The technology came along the whole industry has grown. So that's this there's a lot more competition It's a glow kind of a global thing and more people Can more easily get into the industry with with the with comparatively simple technologies um, so you need to stand out and um Making sure your demo stands out and having it's a people business too the whole industry is You know the technology is great We can all sit in our little holes and and do our work on a daily basis auditions work whatever But the um, it's really a people business and having good representatives um In my case anyway, I came up the old school way They threw the talent agency route and I still do it that way having great representatives who have uh great relationships in the industry With the buyers you're trying to reach out to is is is really key. Um Yeah Are do you see a lot of new faces in there though? I mean I watch a fair amount of tv because my life's not very exciting uh, and uh You know, I hear the tv promo voices and I see the movie trailers A lot of the same people rarely do I hear a new voice a few more female voices that we haven't heard You're hearing that more now. Yeah, uh, but not A huge variety. I mean each network has their people although there are lots of people to cross over between networks and stuff Uh, what does it really take? What is the technique? That's going to push someone there. Is it an inherent talent? Is it acting? Is there a specific technique? That they're looking for I think, you know, the gone way gone are the days when you had the voice of a network You know, right Ernie Anderson on a bc chuck riley on cbs um, my friend andy galler on on a bc those days are gone and and You've heard somewhat somewhat consistent voices on nbc up until very recently um With rino a romano and dorian harrowing But that's all changing the networks. They're always looking for new voices It's not just about the voice of the network now. It's the voice of this show or shows So there is more opportunity for for people to to get in there and and cable Let's not let's not forget about the whole cable universe Right and the netflix universe and what and the apple tv or whatever they're calling it Which is going to their streaming services which are going to start in the fall and um And everything else is there's all these opportunities to promote product And they need people to do that and you know the same five people can't do that. This is too much, right? So that's that's a way in All right, once again, we're talking with thompson holly get a question throw it in the chat room So what's your your day usually like? I mean, how much do you do in a particular day? It depends on the day. I'll be honest it can vary some days are very busy with auditions or sessions or whatnot and some days are very slow And That's just the nature of the industry today Trying to maintain And and when you're not working in the booth you're working on marketing your own social media You're promoting stuff, you know appearances like this, which I did earlier today. You've been happy to know And uh, you know thinking I'm starting to think you know myself about Updating my website and my demos and things like that that you want to do on a pretty consistent basis um So you're still thinking about what you need to do to grow your business even though it may not be all Mic time, uh, it can vary, you know careers are funny things. No two are identical Right, everyone's workflow can be different I have friends who work in different areas of the business that I don't work in because my career Which just hasn't led me that way and they say the same about me I'm doing work that they don't do they're doing more animation or video games or or even e-learning and IVR and That whole uh part of the industry the industry has grown so much and it's so vast. It's hard to Keep your feet in everything and I find from for my sanity and for and for what's left of it and and and and for Having some kind of semblance of control over it. Here's my I'm going to create a little my little square yard of the Voiceover industry and it can encompass several things but trying to do it all and spend all your time trying to audition for every job and um You have to sort of like Decide at some point you're staying a course here. Yeah for a while and this is what I do It's not that I can't do other things. You can't constantly be How much you try this new direction pursuing everything and that's back to my you know What do you know for what do you want to be known for? You sure you can explore over here and explore over there And if an opportunity comes your way out of the blue like it did for me recently with radio imaging Like I said came from radio, but I hadn't done anything I never pursued any imaging for And an opportunity out of the blue came my way and I took it and it led someplace and that's great. So that's another way to have um More thumbs and more pies these days especially you can't just rely on one avenue of work At least I can't um and I think most people would relate to that Try to be that's how you can show your versatility. You're still you But you're showing up in different ways different types of work Right and no one wouldn't even know what you're doing one or the other. They're totally Yeah, as long as you can manage the the workflow and the and and you know keep everybody happy No one needs to know what you're doing over here Exactly Once again, thompson howl is our guest here on voiceover body shop Again, if you got a question throw it in the chat room because we can How often do you get a chance to talk to somebody who's as accomplished as he is and really knows the business That well, uh, so make sure you you can do that. Um What are you working on right now anything that you can actually tell us about What can I tell you about? Uh God the usual daily grind is part of it. There's no particular campaign. I'm on right now Right, uh, I do a lot of work for disney xd a lot of their promo stuff. That's pretty regular Um, you saw the part of the clip. I have c documentary now. I'm the voice of that show which is Uh, very successful as you were saying you're the voice of that particular of that particular show not of the entire network Uh, recently done some work for food network or a cooking channel. Actually, they're all by the same company Uh for man versus food. Oh, you know the show. Oh, yeah Jonathan rich midi's name is uh, kasey webb is they got a new guy. No, they got a new Well, the other guy just exploded same idea. Yeah eating way too much waiting way too much for crazy hot food Just volumes of food anyway And they wanted me to do some crazy boys like this for it. So I did um And and the rest is just Day-to-day stuff. Yeah, but you see that's You know, we all talk about the announcer voice Uh in all specs these days say no announcers. No announcers except for you Well, sometimes there's a you know promo to call for they want someone a don part of us kind of you know Thing and it's a part. You know, it's not really how I talk obviously. I'm talking to you now Right. Um, but but there is a trend towards um In the business at large, you know, not to be a trend it's been building for a while You know authentic. We want a little more authentic kind of sound, you know, not especially in commercial non-announcery Don't push, you know sell the I don't tell don't sell Um, that's a big thing and that comes into promo sometimes too Uh, promo is a little more flashy and a little more specific than commercial is um, so it's got to have a a certain Scale to it. Right. Um To sell the show But it's still it's not all big big time Gary Owens announcer. Well, yeah Clearly not. I mean trailer trailer is generally, you know, some of the powerful voices and right although mostly, you know Most of the trailer stuff I do and I'm I'm relatively You know compared to some of the big whales into all the trailer were come fairly new to that game You want to talk about a part of the industry that's The tip of the voiceover pyramid it is hard to get into. Well, you work for don la fontaine for years, George You know, it's he was the iceberg. Yeah For a while he was the tip of the iceberg and then he was a big chunk of it And there's more opportunity to get into that part of the business too But it is so hard because there are the people who are doing it and it's very competitive And it and it's about people relationships And and and getting known Right for doing that work. But most of my work is very quiet You know, right? Very don't push. So that's you know, non-announcing in that sense On the other end of that, maybe after we have a break we to talk about the the radio imaging How that's how that's unique Like that. Yes, very another, you know, and like I said, I'm kind of new to it And that's a it's a very unique specific genre of voiceover that can be pursued All right, well, we'll get a chance to talk to it Let's take a break right now where we're with Thompson Howell on voiceover body shop and we'll be Right back Hey guys, this is Tom also known as the voice of spongebob square pants And you want to fill your ear holes and your eye holes with dan and george and the audio body shop? Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voice to 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 red It's you and me red 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, uh 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 Imagine mandatory retirement at age 57 and j rodney turner wasted no time when he got that news He decided what the next act in life was going to be for him voiceover And fortunately for him he chose the one form of acting voice acting for which the demand far exceeds the number of available performers audiobook narration He worked hard and smart and j rodney turner's name is now on the cover of over 100 of those audiobooks For sale right now on audible which he produced in just the last four years or so Want to know a secret? Here it is for free david h laurence the 17th has just released the first episode of a free video training series devoted to audiobooks and it tells just how j rodney turner did it in vivid detail Visit vo to go go dot com forward slash Vobs to see it if the idea of getting paid to tell stories appeals to you Or if you're already doing audiobooks, but aren't having the success you know, you're capable of achieving This video is a must-see Check out the video here visit vo to go go dot com forward slash vobs That's vo to go go dot com forward slash Vobs And we're back with thompson howl here on voiceover body shop again still got questions for him. We'd love to hear from you Let's talk about well. We're we're gonna talk about What was the subject radio radio radio imaging? I was curious I'm always curious about it because that's there's a lot more people doing that because there's a lot more radio stations And the pace structure is different too. Tell us about what Totally like I said Right, like I said my first radio imaging job came to me very recently and sort of out of the blue And i'm still pursuing it. Uh, yeah, it's it's the voice of a radio station You know tonight on k and x 10 70 or whatever Whatever station you're voicing for and it's all about Promoting the image of uh of a radio station And the cool thing about it is You know, I never pursued it because you and all we all have lots of friends who've been doing that work for a long time It's a very specific type of work and they're really good at it. So I never pursued it myself But when the opportunity came along I said yes because you say yes to opportunities like that But the cool thing is it's retainer. It's monthly. You're paid on a monthly basis Regular retainer work to do a certain amount of work until basically license your voice To the radio station exclusively in the city in which it's broadcasting So that's the cool thing about it And there are agents And agency talent agent sees who specialize in that who have the relationships with those buyers at individual stations or radio station groups companies And that's how that kind of work. So you'll do it for a whole chain of stations occasionally or is it not me but there I mean, you know Howard kogan our friend Howard kogan, you know jack fm. I mean that's kind of his thing Um, I think they may have shrunk the number of stations that do that branding now, but but that's Howard That's about as close as you get. I don't know if there's one person who does every station in a group Again, I'm new to it too. So I keep learning right so they'll they'll send you like A script of liners and you'll read them like five six different ways. Yeah, that's pre arranged ahead of time I mean a contract calls for you know, we can send you a page of stuff and it's specified, you know It's not six point type and you know, it's 12 point type or a certain amount of a certain amount of words to read in a month Um up to anyway, you may not read anything. You may read that full amount Uh in exchange for this retainer and the use of your voice on stuff You may have recorded several months ago. They just keep reusing it a lot of the ever is a usage thing as well Yeah, yeah, nice. It's not a yeah, you're paid to do the work But also even if you don't get any fresh stuff to record you're paid because they're still broadcasting But how's the turnaround on this stuff pretty pretty turn around, you know, it Contractually, you know the one contract I was under was um They said 48 hours. I was 24 max and sometimes Immediately if I'm you caught me at the right time something came in it's a line or two I'll just bang it out there and get it back to you because They're waiting for me. I mean, you know what I keep in my head. I am getting the imaging and the affiliate stuff kind of mixed up I know the affiliate stuff is right and that's that's a world. I'm I'm not yeah Yeah, I hear my head. I'm getting the two kind of conflated But if you're working at a tv station tonight on abc 70s, it was a stupid They they typically want you we need you here. We need you here. We need you here. We just broke We've got to have three times a day and if story breaks, you know, yeah And I I couldn't really tell you with the conversations like that, but I assume it's But with the imaging, it's not so intense on the turnaround. Yeah, I'm pretty imaging. It's a little more relaxed You know, they're they're feeding you stuff out. Yeah, I suppose there could be exceptions to that Do they you get any direction with that? Or are they like just do it the way you know my experience Yeah, we worked on, you know, they they they heard something my agent Nate at cesd in new york Reached out to me and said hey, I got some stations. They're interested in something different They know a lot of the usual suspects. They're all fine and wonderful, but they want to hear something different They wanted something a little more promo in dark and done Which said, okay, that's kind of Somewhat odd for a radio station, but if they like it, let's go for it. Um So They sent me some material and what was your question again? You get directed. Yeah, and they said this is the kind of thing we want We heard some stuff on your promo demo and your commercial demo. We kind of want something in that range So that was initial direction and then we sort of when I started working with them when they hired me We sort of refined things a little bit more Um, and then we said that's the read. Let's stick to that and do that all the time It makes it simple as it makes it simple and if we need to change it We'll work on that, but this is this is what we want How much do you do Say how many times how often you call to a bigger studio and how much do you do at home? I rarely 99 easily 99% of all my work whatever it is comes out of my home studio, which is broadcast quality Thanks to my friend george here or better There's no better than broadcast broadcast quality. This is professional quality. Yeah, it's uh as like commercial quality We don't really have a word for it, but it's pro commercial quality, right? Okay broadcast is a standard. You guys are good about that. We always we love to argue about that. Um Anyway, it's where I and I still have I mean I've got Well george can tell you more about it because he's worked on it recently But uh, I still have old-fashioned ISD in Don't tell AT&T, but I'm paying a kind of nice price for my ISD in service She got one of those backdoor deal and I know I've had the account for a while So I guess they sort of grandfathered me and I don't know but you know when I move forget it Love it while you have it. Love it while you have it and Yeah, it gets used used pretty often. Um But it's I can also connect from source connector IPDTL But the way my workflow is I it's funny. It's funny. There are people who All they always use source connector always use IPDTL and I never do it's either stuff I record and an upload via ftp. Mm-hmm like to the radio stations or It's the networks or people using Work an ISD in or using my SD in box for phone patch. Yeah, same. Oh, yeah. Yeah Um, we actually have a question about more about your studio. Yeah, dwayne desolvo And he wants to know a little bit about the the microphone you use for promo Is it anything different? Not really. It's it's it's the sennheiser 416 my primary use for for promo. Yeah, um I have two mics in the studio. I've got my my 416 and and the neumann tlm 103 Um, I am I'm sure I could try tons of other microphones and spend a lot of money But you're still gonna sound like thompson. But I'm still it's still gonna be me. So I think Unless you're a real mic geek or tech geek It's go ahead and play around with different different microphones But find the one you think you sound best at and stick with that and don't try you don't need a whole closet full of microphones Right. I mean again, unless you're a real geek unless you're like these ones on the wall over here How do I use those? Yeah, they're on the wall. Yeah, that's why they're on the wall exactly It's a museum But it's it's the the sennheiser mkh 416 Of course, well, which is the mic of true and you'll find that most of the studio is here in la That's what the I mean and just for straight commercial work. I mean that's that's what I use in my studio and recently I heard that if you for some reason are like, I just got to go spend $1,200 This money is I have no room to put this money anymore. Go to Alaska. I've got to spend it. I must Then there's the mkh 60 that's certain. It's it's sort of sennheisers Let's redesign a 416 maybe with slightly better everything and then they put that mic out It's like I'm done. It's a little bit newer. I'm hearing it's great. I've heard some I mean Is it gonna change your business? I don't think so. Yeah, I've heard some friends use the shorter I don't know what they have the model number. There's a little teeny when you do when it's like this long That's not even a shotgun. I think it's the 80 40 or something like that. Yeah, Anthony Mendez or something Yeah, exactly. He uses it's a little teeny weeny mic Um, but it doesn't matter if it's a good quality if it says sennheiser on it It's pretty much or no, I mean You're pretty much, you know The guys like you and Anthony Mendez you would sound good on a wall and zack recorder Yes, and you can you know the the 416 is you can get it for what? It's ubiquitous. You can get them for around 800 bucks. Yeah new ones. Yeah, I got my very first one I bought online What was the website was a tech website that went under that I think eBay bought anyway. Yeah, um, but it was originally used because it was originally designed for location recording wasn't it? Yeah, it's a video and it was still set up that way It was so you had the 12 volt something or other I sent it to sennheiser And I had some special going on at the time said We're basically giving you an entirety a new microphone except for the outside the shell right the insides are replaced So it's 48 the fan. Oh, that's cool power and stuff. So and then I bought another one for my for my road rig Yeah, I call it the the travel rig. Do you and that's the thing if you're doing Promo work and that sort of thing you go on the road You gotta you've got to you've got to be able to a lot of people are like, well, I gotta have a road rig Well, if you're not doing that kind of work, you're doing why have a road rig Well, you can use the road rig for auditions of auditions come in But certainly if you're on it if you're voicing a show and they you know, you're on the beach somewhere and you want to bring Bring your good equipment your travel equipment with you. You need to have it Because your client is paying you, you know, part of what they're paying you for is to be available when we have a new promo We need to cut we need it done Um, so Absolutely another question from Bob early doing with the questions keep doing with the questions. Okay. Here we go Um, Bob says hey Thompson And I'm he actually said hi Thompson. Sorry. I didn't mean it. Well, Bob and I are quoting Bob He didn't say hello to us, but uh Since you are an avid keyboardist Can you speak to the musicality of promo and vo in general and how it and your musical talent helps inform your reads? Thanks. Great question. Um, I'm a voice actor. Yeah, definitely from guy who knows what he's doing too, uh, bob hurley um Yeah, I mean I think in any area of voiceover certainly promo having a musical background helps you just with the music the musicality of Phrases how to highlight a word just a little bit Timing pauses, you know, like in music it's their notes or rests or things like that the same It's a sensitivity you have To the words you're speaking great quote from my angelo. I read recently, you know It's not just about the words on the page. It takes the voice to give them meaning, you know Um in hearing them back and I think someone with a musical background or or musical sensibilities Whether you play an instrument or not is very helpful, uh in um In in in voiceover in general, but certainly I think in in promo and trailer where you've got such short periods of time To tell the story you're telling if you're telling this little 30 second story You're not talking all those 30 seconds But it is a tiny little story and you're part of it and you want to maximize, you know take advantage of The skills you have to really bring out the meaning of those words You think it's just thinking of like music terms. I I studied music a long time ago And it's like what's one that would translate Do you ever have an occasion to use an accelerando for example like accelerate accelerate? Yeah, well, that's sure. That's part of You know, especially in promos, you know the It's got a certain structure to it. Yeah, and then at the end especially these days you're driving to the end. It's always You know Something new show on fox coming tonight Kind of picks up Because the time is here. I gotta cut you up. Yeah. Um, so that's That's what it's like. Yeah, okay Good question. That's a great question. Yeah, you got a music background. Yeah Um, and from mark chen I've heard that much of pro no work Trump much of promo work comes through managers Um, if so, how much of your work comes this way? Thanks Got a good question mark. Um mark. Was that right and mark chen mark chen. Uh, good question. Um promo work For me and other people who I do have agents and several agents and my manager divi cope Um, probably it can be a split. You can get a lot of work promo work through agents for sure Um, where a manager is especially helpful because sometimes there's intersecting Relationships that your agents and managers share but All of my trailer work comes through my manager um And you know, most of the voiceover managers Based here either in la or new york are the ones who really have the relationships with the the trailer house and trailer producers and the studios themselves To um, get you in as a consideration for the voice of a trailer campaign. Uh, but promo Yeah, you if you have an agent who is Strong in promo and not every agent's agency is depends on where you are. I'm not sure. Did you say where mark said where he was? um You want you still want whoever your representative is they still have to have a strong footprint In promo or in whatever genre you're trying to work um So That can we let's squeeze one more in real quick go for it. No, we got time. Um gerard maguire All right. Yes, uh prisoner in cell block eight Follow up regarding music. Do you use the music to uh, do you ever get to use the music track to inform your read? Have you had it played while you narrate I just heard of somebody doing this recently actually Surprised me you ever happened not um for the cable stuff Uh, typically not because i'm recording on my own, you know with foreign patch phone paths to them They may play me music down the line just so I can hear it and get a feeling for the vibe Yeah, uh, but then i'm it's not a live feed if you're working network promo You know the voice is about the the last thing they're dropping in So they've already produced the promo the the sot's uh the the drop-in sound on tape. Yeah, it's old That's a whole another topic old technology a terminology. We still use yeah well back in the radio days It's like you got to pick the right music to go with the spot Right and stuff like that and that totally, you know regulated how you were going to talk about it So they'll already have the sot's the sound effects the music whatever they're using already in there And you're just slotting yourself in which is where the timing comes in to each of those Places where you need to speak so That's really the only instance where you would be hearing the music to help or the the whole entire sound design of the production That's going to help inspire your read But for the stuff you're reading and uploading Not typically All right a little esoteric Maybe maybe if you don't know the answer just say I don't know But why do you think the trailer business is basically controlled through the relationships of really three Managers three management companies. Why do you think why do you think that is from a talent standpoint? Yeah, what? I mean, you know, that's that's I I don't really know the No, I think but I think it's it's it's it's been that way for such a long time. Yeah, and I think I don't know enough about the history of how that all started The manager, you know Debbie my man Debbie cope was one of the first out there and Wittner and Jason Marks and ACM and I'm probably forgetting one and I can't remember but but It just seems to be the best way to Get your clients work is to have a relationship with the bi personal relationship with them, you know Good working relationship because there's a lot at stake. They're going to pay you a lot of them If you got a if you got a trailer campaign, they're going to pay you well, especially if the movie does well Yeah, the movie does well you do even if even if it's just a few spots it depends, you know Campaigns can vary in size you're going to get paid. Well, they want to work with people they like and trust It's like like everyone else in the world you if you find people you like working with and to do a good job for you um, you want to try and use them again, um, so I Could it work another way? I Maybe but I think there's so few People who hire for trailer in the trailer houses and the studios themselves It's easier to have personal personal relationships with them That is in the commercial industry where you know, yeah, you know back in Long time ago you could I could call up a copywriter in Chicago at leo brunette make a lunch or coffee date Play my demo and my little cassette demo crappy setup. I had yeah and get feedback You know now and then you know voicemail came along on that I don't want that much for that crazy one last question sure, uh If you were going to give somebody some advice to get into this business Not mean we've been covering different things, but what you know in a nutshell, what would you tell someone who's like? I really want to do this How would how would you get them to pursue it and understanding is not going to happen tomorrow morning, right? Yeah um Yeah, first know or trying to figure out, you know, what do you want to pursue? We were talking earlier about, you know Trying to do it all Scattershot can can be tiring and expensive So, you know We commercial is kind of the foundational Um area of voiceover to me anyway um Take a class This is going to depend on where you live if you live in LA, New York, Chicago. No problem. There's plenty of voiceover classes I don't know if Omaha has voiceover classes. They may But they're there may be uh ways you can take a class online and I and a group class Um, I think it's especially when you're starting out no matter what genre take a class with other people who are in your boat because you're there's Subjective learning you standing in front of a microphone other people watching you And the objective learning where you're outside the booth Watching other people work with the director or teacher and I guarantee you're going to learn My experience is a lot more being the objective viewer watching someone else do it You learn both ways One you learn what it's like to do the work yourself When you're watching someone else do it, then you have a clear understanding of why It works because you have a little more analytical Brain activity at that time. I think so take Definitely take a class. Um It's um, you know, coaching is great one-on-one coaching is great for certain things at certain times But not if you're first starting out. You need you need the benefit of other people's experiences And and they from yours Excellent Thompson hollow ladies and gentlemen, uh, thanks for being with us. Absolutely. Thank you. Pleasure to meet you and have you over here and uh and for your expertise and information I'm happy to be here and glad to be glad to be working. All right. Thanks for coming. Yeah, George It's in you. All right, George, and I'll be right back to wrap things up right after this You're watching v obs dot tv. I don't know why it's crazy what they do here I think I'm gonna go somewhere else and have a cheese 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. 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That's voice over x t r a dot com This is bill radner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv Well, it's that time of the show where we get to talk about our wonderful sponsors source elements the inventors of source connect to the ones that make it and sell it and Basically, there's a lot of these systems out there now that stream your audio from your studio to the other studio in real time We've talked about them endlessly on this show Um, and it's becoming harder to probably differentiate what they're for what they do when they don't do And one thing that just really definitely sets source connect standard and pro Apart from the other a lot of the other platforms out there is it is really a dedicated application Um, and why is that important? It's because that application is Supported developed and supported by source elements and it's completely independent of anything else on your machine It doesn't care what version of chrome browser is running It's independent of you know chrome updating itself at random, which it does all the time And just provides a really more much more reliable stable platform Another thing is when you buy it you buy it you can buy a license for source connect one time When everything else has gone subscription, they still offer that ability to just buy the license One time and own it for good And uh, I've got a license that's probably five six years old still works beautifully on my systems I haven't had to upgrade it once and that's just something that really differentiates it Another thing is it's just it's the one that's in all the studios by far So if you want to be ready to work with those top studios Go get source connect you can get it right now at source dash elements dot com And get a 15 day free trial get it up and running have it ready get that demo And then you'll be ready when the job comes in. Thanks a lot source elements. We'll be right back From boys over essentials dot com The skies will soon be a glow with brilliant colors Just like our vio recording sign now on sale act fast There's a limited supply Bask in the lovely glow of our remote control 20 color led sign with more colors than most fireworks displays Just be sure your significant others can see it and odds are when it lights up They'll quiet down whilst you're making a living and because we're celebrating the fourth You'll save ten dollars when you buy now Hurry we revert to our hard-hearted stingy selves at the stroke of midnight thursday july 4th Free shipping in the usa the voiceover recording sign sold exclusively at voiceover essentials dot com It looks great anywhere used by voiceovers everywhere Even in the city of love save ten dollars now sale ends midnight thursday july 4th Harlan hogan's voiceover essentials dot com porta boots add so much more Oh Thompson's really interesting. I know we get everybody's good on this show. Yeah, his information was tight That's what yeah, that's what people need to hear concise Absolute master class in 40 minutes for free right here. All right And you only get it here at voiceover body shop. Um next week, of course, we'll run tech talk number 12 I only had 12 12. I only had 10 fingers So we'll get 10 and then two there was your hands up that does that work? No. Oh, okay there. All right That was terrible, right? Can you edit that in later and then the following week we'll have another great guest Yeah, we won't tell who it is quite yet. Uh, who are our donors of the week Well, maybe I should close this save as browser window and take a look. Um donors of the week include Christy burns don griffith dwayne desalvo Martha con antland productions and that's uncle roy diana birdsall patty gibbons brine page And pilar uribe and if I see more names pop up in our brow in my browser I will read them out to you before we wrap So I want to miss anybody and you can donate simply by going to our website if you're watching there right now Dwayne desalvo Dwayne desalvo Thanks to thanks dwayne ask a great question and donated to the show because he got his question answered Appreciate, uh, just have to click the donate now button and you know, it doesn't take much and it helps us maintain the Technical magnificence that this show has shown for the past six months don griffith Martha con a few more names that slipped in here So yeah, thank you everybody. All right great Hey, we want you to show us your booths because if you don't we get to show pictures of alaska instead Um, which is fine, but we'd really rather have your own booths because it's just more interesting to share What it is you're doing at home. So even if it's a pile of mattresses What does this mean that means Landscape not portraits. Thank ansel adams. We want it to be a wide shot So we can put it up behind us and have a A view of your studio and like ansel adams. It could be a black and white. Why not? Yeah, really? You can have half dome in the back Anyway, uh, let's see we need to uh, Of course, we need to tell people if they want help with their home studio All you have to do if you want to work with george is go to george the tech dot com That's my website. You can shop over there You can also go to george and the dot tech for those who like short domains save a keystroke All right or three. Yeah, and if you want to talk to me about your home voiceover studio You can go to home voiceover studio dot com and i'll be happy to get you set up Yeah, especially if you have no idea what you're doing I have a new thing on there. What by the way on my website I decided to figure out a way if somebody wants to bring me to their city Yes, I came up with this group buy thing. I just call it bring george out So if you go to the website look at services You'll see a thing in there called bring george out If you're in a city that maybe i've been to ever or in a long time And you've got a few voiceover buddies like maybe you're in kansas city Maybe you're in miami I don't know There's a way that you can bring your bring me in and come and have you go Go to your own studios and share the costs of the travel and all it's great So and speaking of take a look and speaking of bringing people in if you like to be in our audience here in this Magnificent humongous studio of look at this place You can you can see you can join us by writing to us at the guys at v obs dot tv and say hey I want to be it. I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be in los angeles I live around the corner and I can come over and watch the show and that would be great Let us know and you know, but we got to give you the secret handshake first and able to get in here We need to thank our sponsors like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials Oh, there's more of them. Yeah, the voiceover extra source elements v o to go go voice actor websites dot com and j mackle collin's demos All right, we also need to thank the dan and marcy lennard foundation for the betterment of better web casting uh also Catherine curidan will be back eventually and she's taking a little brace. That's true family break. Uh mike merlino whatever it was He was doing tonight And his mom sue merlino our magnificent technical director for all the work that she does and making it just Absolutely seamless and lee pennies simply for being lee pennie Well, this isn't an easy business and we appreciate you coming out and watching the show Uh and watching all week or watching it live or whatever it is But we're here to help you out with your home studio and with your home voiceover studio and with your voiceover business Because if it sounds good, it is good I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdum and this is voiceover body shop or v o b s Thanks for watching everybody Now don't go away