 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop another week another great interview because our guest this week is the one and only Mary Lynn Wisner Hi guys. Hi everybody Yeah, thank you for having me always This is gonna be great if you have a question for Mary Lynn and after you listen to us talk for a while It's gonna raise all sorts of questions throw them in the Facebook chat room And also I think there's a bit of a chat room over in YouTube wherever or wherever else we're doing this And Jeff Holman was sitting there Typing out all these answers making sure we are all these questions and making sure we get them So here's your opportunity get in there ask your questions even though I have a pile of questions for Mary Lynn so You got anything else to add mr. Woodham Nope a cat case. It's time for voiceover body shop right now From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voiceover audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech Grant with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bring you talks with the biggest names in the voice of a world today Letting you ask your questions and giving you the latest information to make the most of your voiceover business Welcome to voiceover body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voice over essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites calm where your VO website Is it a pain in the butt? VO heroes calm become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voiceover training Jmc demos when quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success and now Live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello out there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voiceover body shop or VO DS Body Jeff you were late that time. Yeah, really anyway Welcome to another week. We're still sort of locked down here in California. Although. I think we're starting to get out a little bit more Yesterday Marcy and I got to go on a hike up in the mountains And we're like climbing over this ridge and I see this trail on this one ridge That is like, you know steep on both sides And I'm like, that's the kind of nonsense that George rides his bike down Guilty is charged. I did the most ultimate non-nonsense thing today at the top of West Ridge Road If anybody knows this area, there's this chute. It's like a concrete 45-degree angle chute where you know debris and water would wash off the hillside, right? I thought that would be fun to ride down Didn't work out that well at the bottom The bomb of the chute it had like a basically a sand pit Because of everything that washes down there and as I was about about to hit it and I could tell I knew I was gonna crash I had that to like full second to go Like this sort of in slow motion and I hit that sand pit and over the handlebars I'm okay. I just banged up my arm a little bit. It wasn't too bad and this lady who's watching the whole thing She's like, you know, there's an easier way to get down. I'm like Do you think I think I chose the worst possible route because I didn't know how to get down there. Oh My god, I'm such a fool, but I guess I'm still 12 inside when it come when I get on a mountain I I guess so but at least you're taking chance in life. That's the most important. I'm fine Well, we're here to talk about voiceover for those of you who are joining us for the time Yeah, maybe maybe maybe you remembered that that we talked about that was mountain. We have a great cast tonight Let me introduce her, you know for the last 25 years Mary Lynn Wistner is an award-winning casting director and founder of voices voice casting And she's been hearing and casting the perfect voices for thousands of TV radio animation film games virtual reality industrials podcast documentaries toys e-learning IVR audiobooks promos events and Dubbing publications. She's a busy lady. Let's welcome to voiceover body shop Mary Lynn Wistner Hello, thank you for having me. Well, thank you for being with us. Yeah, it's been a while It has been a while, you know things are changed We're all like living in our little cubes here and you know not getting into the outside world But has has the the pandemic affected the casting business at all? You know when it when it first hit it was kind of slow and then Because I think everybody was sort of adjusting But it's it it didn't last long and it sort of stayed the same. I mean, thank goodness You know, I think most of us in voiceover Kind of we're used to being at home recording from home, you know working from home Being sort of isolated anyway, so that part of it didn't change much The type of advertising changed, of course, you know, we had all those what we call COVID reads But I saw that really gather. I know we're all in this together Standby together But I really start I started to see that shift, you know Kind of like November of last year the end of last year So everything started to look a little more hopeful, which usually kind of happens once you have an election too So, you know and now it seems like everything's kind of getting back to the way it was before pre-covid Well, that's good to hear. Yeah Well, you know like George and I you must hear a lot of voices I mean your head on your speakers from other people. Yes You what what are you hearing from people these days? I mean you probably get a lot of you get a lot of auditions obviously But I'm sure people are just sending you their stuff saying hey am I any good or anything like that? What are you what have you been hearing? Um, I get everything. I you know, I get it I mean, I've always received lots and lots of demos via email. I Sometimes people send them to me through Facebook messenger, which I wouldn't recommend because I usually don't check that that often I always forget it's there and I'll get phone calls. Sometimes may I send you a demo? Sure. That's fine. I get Lately and I I was you know mentioning this I had put a post on Facebook because interestingly enough I was starting to get a lot of people sending me their tiktok voiceover challenge Videos which you know at first was kind of cute, but now it's just really annoying And it's not a demo so don't yeah, but most of time I just get lots and lots of demos Either from the talent themselves or from you know agents or managers Mm-hmm. Yeah So you were sort of born into this business, weren't you tell us a little bit about how you got into all this? Well, yeah, I was born in the entertainment industry. I grew up here in LA. My dad was a TV producer In fact, my grandfather kind of started in the the movies back in the the teens and twenties So I am a native and Angelina, which is kind of cool and I was a kid actor I did a lot of commercials and on-camera commercials and stuff in school when I was in high school and college and I loved radio, but I didn't even know what voiceover was and I got my degree in broadcast journalism and kind of fell into the world of voiceover because I really I couldn't find a job right out of college and I started working for one of the big voiceover agents at the time John Pitts and and Kind of started that way and then got into casting at the voicecaster and then after a couple years there I opened up my own company voices voice casting in 1990 and I've been you know doing my own casting through my company since then so And I look I still love it I mean because the cool thing about voiceover is Especially casting every day is a different job every day you do something different, you know It could be casting an animation Project and then maybe a commercial or two and then maybe a narration thing So it's fun and for someone like me that that kind of likes that fast-paced constantly changing environment I love that and I love working with actors. So it's it's very inspiring and just a lot of fun Yeah, once again, we're talking with Mary Lynn Whistner if you're just joining us If you've got a question for throw it in the Facebook chat room and we'll get the question in just a little bit So tell us a little bit about what the casting process is like I think a lot of people, you know, they they they you know They'll get an audition and they throw it down the pipe and it just goes into this void I Get that all it actors asked me that you know because I also coach voiceover And actors will always say to me I know I've got a great voice and I've got a great agent and I'm getting great opportunities But I'm just not booking what's happening and I think it's really important to know what happens after you submit your audition So, you know, we work mostly with ad agencies and production companies And producers and we'll get a call, you know, just for instance, I'll get a call from an ad agency producer or account executive Letting me know that they want to have us have me cast a project for them and We talk about it. I try to pick their brain as much as possible, you know What they're looking for maybe a celebrity prototype just to kind of get an idea where they're leaning as far as the voice goes and then we Talk about the the product as well as how the spot's going to run what You know, what are where it's gonna, you know, what are the parameters as far as the talent goes? Can I bring in male and female, you know, all that kind of stuff? I try to get as much information from them as possible and then Then what I do is kind of break that all down and drop a casting spec And then I will either depending on the spot if it's a union or non-union I will reach out to the voiceover agents And of course with COVID, you know, we didn't have anybody coming into a studio So I would send that copy out to the agents and I also work with talent that don't have Representation because there's some fabulous talent out there that just haven't gotten an agent yet and whatever it is they're looking for I'll throw that net out and get the auditions out there and then collect them afterwards and Um Nowadays with casting, you know ad agency people in particular they don't want to hear, you know 40 50 people they just want to hear the 10 to I don't know 20 best The reason they hire a casting director is because they want us to do, you know, all that weeding out for them So I might throw the net out pretty wide and get, you know, maybe 80 auditions back But then I go through those 80 Listen to the auditions and then the first pass I'm only listening to the first line and then I end up, you know, cutting that down to Ultimately send them, you know, 10 to 20 or whatever they requested and then they'll get back to me and say Oh, we want to go with so-and-so or sometimes they come back and they say, you know, we have three choices We can't decide between, you know, George Dan and Jeff What do you know of them? So if I know the actor I can speak to the you know, the actors You know background or whatever or I, you know, give the agent a call or whatever So because that's my job as a casting director and then say, well George is great because he's really fun with ad lib and you know Or whatever so That's how it works and then we pick somebody they get the job and then a couple weeks later or so we see it on TV And I get very excited and then you move on to the next one and then we're doing the next one Yeah. Yeah, and I imagine there's probably several projects going on at once sometimes. Yeah, sometimes sometimes there is I love when that happens Yeah, what is your relationship to the agents? I'm not talking personally here, but I mean, but you know You've established relationships with a lot of different agents and agencies How does all that work? I mean are they you know, they're they know that they're going to go to you to do this type of casting or How does that all work? Well, um, actually some of it is personal because I'm I like to think that I'm friends with many of the agents so Just it depends on the job too because there's some agents that I know Um, you know, especially if I'm looking for a specific type of voice and I know oh if I call this particular agent She's got Five of those guys that are perfect and maybe this one agent only has one person So it doesn't really matter as long as I know it's the right You know fit and there's certain agents, you know Most of them that I really really trust and I can just say hey, give me your 10 best and I will get the 10 best from them There's some agents that are a little bit more Daring and I'll say give me your 10 best and they might send back 25 so you know sometimes that's a little difficult but um Most agents, you know, I think most all voiceover agents really want to collaborate and and You know work closely with the casting director because then that just obviously establishes and continues a really good relationship so um I feel pretty good about you know, knowing many of these agents for many many years and trusting them and just working well together and And then, you know collaborating on projects and booking some really nice jobs with them and their clients And some agents. Oh, sorry some agents are really good about um, you know, just kind of keeping me updated You know with hey, just wanted to let you know we now have so-and-so or So-and-so just booked this great campaign and just so I keep it on my radar Once again, we're talking with mary lin wissner. Your questions are of course welcome um A couple weeks ago. We had fred melamedon on the show and he was great. He's just just a wonderful guy He was talking about really the state of the voiceover business You know in the way he saw it If you were good to describe what's going on in the voiceover business these days I would how would you describe it because I I think you're one of those few people that I know That understands that there's you know, it's a very wide-ranging Industry, you know, it's not just commercials, you know, you you know that there's this other whole world out there And that was mostly our viewers and listeners here Um that are also trying to get into the business But how do you how do you see what the the totality of the the voiceover business these days? That's a great question. Um, it's totally different than when fred started for instance Then when I started, you know, I think we probably started around the same time or give or take a few years, but You know the the non-union world is now completely dominating the voiceover industry and Not that that's a bad thing. I mean, it's it's not necessarily you know, um horrible, but it's it's just something we all have to be aware of and watch because um, there are so many more, uh Talent out there than there were many years ago. There's so many more ways to get talent than there were many years ago So for someone who's a veteran Like say fred for example Um, who's who's wonderful and has a beautiful voice I could imagine that that would be very frustrating because back in the day it used to be very easy There was just a big group of voiceover actors here in la and they pretty much got everything Um, and nowadays the the trends are different, you know, the sounds that they're looking for the uh platforms that there's you know, so many more So many different platforms out there not just in casting but just ways that people hear voices and um, you know Budgets are different than they were And ad agencies that used to have agreements with the union as well as the talent agents don't have those anymore And they have all kind of set up like their own little non-union divisions So they can do some major products under a non union umbrella. So it's a really different um kind of atmosphere and You know, I think any voice actor really just has to be educated and learn and know and decide whether they want to Play that game or this game or how they're going to You know maneuver that for their career um Again, I'm not saying I'm not like condoning one way or the other It's just that you know, things change very quickly and you kind of have to roll with the punches So I don't know if that really answered your question, but yeah Yeah Uh, what are some of the common mistakes you're seeing people make? I mean, you and can you're dealing with professionals people You're not, you know, you're not seeing the hobbyists send things into you Although I'm sure you're probably getting a handful of those every now and again But you know, there are people out there that have been doing this for a long time And they're not booking jobs and what are some of the reasons for that? um There's a number of reasons for not booking those jobs or for for maybe not making it past the first cut You know when we first hear, you know the the audition um It's unbelievably so, you know, you'd be shocked to hear this a lot of it has to do with your sound quality um Right, you know, um, I I sometimes i'm pretty shocked that some people sound quality It's not that it's sound like they sound bad. It's just that maybe their levels were so low Or there's just this echoey noise in their booth or um I don't know. There's just uh, you know, maybe they didn't edit correctly Or they took every single breath out, you know, there's there's a lot of things like that that, uh I cannot pass on to my client, you know I feel like as a casting director the reason they're coming to us Versus going to a pay-to-play where they get it just done for free Is we are sifting through all that crap and we're giving them the best of the best So as a voice actor, you know Do yourself a favor and check your sound um, and uh, you know Make sure everything's as close to clean as possible Um, also when it comes to your performance as an actor What are you doing to stand out on that audition because you have to remember You know, I've if i'm getting 80 auditions You're all going to kind of sound the same to me Because you fit the specs You got that copy because you fit the specs So what are you going to do to not sound like the other guy that Is in the same spec range as you are and so on So things like that are very important and that's stuff you'll learn from a really good coach Um, and obviously just doing it, you know enough times and and um, but yeah your sound quality and your performance obviously are very important Because some agents As much as we like to think and a lot of them do so i'm not You know picking on anyone in particular um Don't always listen to the auditions before they submit them. They might just be too busy and it's like, okay Here's we got to get these off to maryland or wherever and they don't listen back to their actor's auditions You know, I've heard some auditions where an actor made a mistake in the middle and then you know used a curse word or something and Sometimes it can be kind of funny, but I don't want to send that to my client You know, sometimes the actors don't listen back to their own auditions. Yeah, trust me based on what i'm hearing people send me sometimes I know I know so what are you listening to your auditions on? That was No, it's actually most of the time. Yeah headphones. Um, and I just have a I have a two computers I have a big uh desktop mac and a and a laptop as well So you could be listening to them on these headphones, right? To them on the computer speakers speakers. I mean, sorry. Yeah, you could be listening So you could be listening to them in a variety of different environments Right Yeah, I figure a lot of people are you listening to their auditions or listening to on their phone You know and perhaps they're not getting the audio quality. They're not hearing the low end. They're not hearing all sorts of steps So it's important that you know, you know is george and I always say if it sounds good It is good But but if you don't know what good sounds like or you don't have a proper way to listen to something You can't really Judge it accurately. I had someone had been working with me for several months or Had worked with me and then was sending me audio and I was going This is never sounding the way it should sound And to her credit she booked some more time. We did a one-on-one. We talked it over And she was only ever playing back her audio through her computer speakers That was and she had she literally didn't own a pair of headphones and You know, it's kind of funny. You just I don't think sometimes to ask The very basic things. How are you listening to what you're recording? She just didn't hear what it is. She was missing and then when I had her get her good headphones and Really showed her how to listen. She was then she it clicked Right, you know, but you really do have to listen to what you're sending out Yeah, I think the the main thing is I mean because initially I think most the time I guess it just sort of depends on the job but I think initially I'm listening on headphones and then Kind of when I make my top picks I listen back on the computer speakers because I often think that's how my client is listening to them Yeah, and if something by the way if if something doesn't sound good and I know that actor really Has a shot at it like they might have done a really great audition. It's just the sound quality I I will call the actor directly if I if I know them or call their agent and say hey Really loved his take. Can you just have them redo it because the sound sounded, you know, funny And everybody's, you know, usually very happy to do that. Oh god The best thing they can ever hear is that you're in the running but the sound quality isn't quite right get it straight out That's much better than Getting absolutely zero feedback. I'm just never getting a call and going. What the heck's going on here Right, and I again, I mean that goes back to my that's my job My job is to find the perfect voice for my client And I don't want to take somebody out of the running if their sound quality wasn't great But their performance was good, you know, I know they can fix that Yeah, right. So what is it that people can do To break out of the crowd. I mean this is it is an absolute tsunami of voiceover people out there right now How do you how do you break through, you know the surf there and and get yourself noticed? I mean, what what is it that you're looking for that, you know, that says this person not that person and You know, what what what is what is the sieve like? You know for me, it's always that first line that first line of copy because You know and this is just kind of Basic knowledge to me. It's what I kind of coach too, but That first line um and just to give you an idea when we're casting if I have 80 auditions to listen to Um, I on the first pass of listening to all those auditions I only listen to the first line initially Because I you know, I've been doing this long enough. I can tell from the first line, you know Does he sound great? Does he sound does he fit the specs? Did he sound like he was talking to me or did he sound like he was reading to me? You know, there's there's things that I kind of have like a checklist that I go through And if one or two of those are not where I think they should be Then I don't even bring that person to the next step um Because ultimately with any voiceover, you know, you you guys have heard this from every coach you've ever talked to as well You know, you always want it to sound like you're talking to somebody Not like you're reading to them. Right. Um, so if that and there's certain things people do That um certain inflections and things that they do that right away give it away that you are reading versus talking So, um, you know, these are things that I'm listening for and like I said before you have to remember That yeah, there's 80 people on there and for the most part like I said, you're all going to kind of sound the same to us Because you fit the specs So what are you going to do differently that the guy and gal before you did or didn't do And that's what's really important. So make that first line, you know Something that's you something obviously the whole reach should be you but something that's going to be a little bit different and not reedy So and that's what a good coach will teach you as well Yeah, I some people just are afraid to take that leap of faith. Sometimes I really they just wanted like they want to play it safe And you know, sometimes I think, you know, maybe half a quart of vodka might help before I do this audition and Who's that why I mean, but that's why they don't get bookings, you know And again, it's not I'm not being like crass when I say that and I'm not saying that you even have to ad-lib or do a Lead in of course, right? It's just there's a certain Technique and there's certain You know things that you can do as an actor as a voice actor that will I promise you make you sound different than other people You know, so It's it's it is acting as you guys all know, you know, it's it is about acting. It's interpreting that copy It's it's creating a scene and figuring out what the intent of the spot is and you know The copyright or what they're trying to say and and so on but overall Yeah, you're still selling something But it's how not to sound like you're selling something and most people sound like they're selling something when they're just Reading the copy and they're not Creating a you know a moment in time Mm-hmm. Once again, we're talking with Mary Lynn Wistner. She is a casting director a coach You know and a bunch of other things All nice all good what no Yeah, no in in in your in your coaching and You know some of the work you do One of the things you have is something called the vo pros tell us a little bit about that um, thanks The vo pros um, we started that gosh, I think it's been 12 years now and um at the time when I started it there was nobody else doing Events where you could in the voiceover industry where you could come and learn from a voiceover professional There was lots of those going on in the on-camera world But nobody was doing anything in the voiceover world So I just I thought well shoot, you know, all these agents are my friends and plus I was coaching as well All these agents are my friends. I have many producers from ad agencies and You know animation houses and and promo departments and so on that are my friends So I'm going to ask them if they want to come and be a guest and Actors can you know glean and learn and everything from them. So that's how that started and We used to always call it meet the pros and then A few years ago. I tried to get that url and it was taken somewhere else So we call it the vo pros now, but it's still everybody still refers to it as meet the pros um, and we have You know guest agents come on we have Casting directors from all the animation Houses all over video game companies. I'll have promo producers Trailer house producers, you know, I've had coaches I've got you know people that are experts in their particular fields, you know like We've got tracy linley coming up who's going to teach us all about linkedin, you know, we've got You know, it's got park and come and do a whole improv night. So it's um, it's really great It's a great opportunity not only to get in front of these people But to hear their process and then learn from them and and get to read in front of them and get direction And some feedback on their reads and so on so it's been a great networking tool and just a lot of fun and so Just it gives me a lot of pride because so many great connections have been made over the years and I love that Yeah, yeah, and I've been to a few in there. They are a lot of fun and you meet some fascinating people Yeah, yeah, and and this whole past year, of course, we've done them all via zoom Which is wonderful because people that were not in la and we're always frustrated that they couldn't come So are able to join us now So we've had people all over the world come in on some of our classes and we keep them kind of small never more than I think like 15 is about the most we've ever had so it's anywhere from like 8 to 15 people And um, yeah, it's just a really fun fun opportunity Yeah, once again, we're talking with marylin wissner and as I suspected when we bring the people on Who are responsible for hiring you guys out there? There are a lot of questions questions, so we're gonna take a break right now and we'll get to those right after this stay tuned Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voiceover body shop. It's great Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you stick around? You don't want to miss this Do At target we want you to come as you are be comfortable. Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices Sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys Time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos dot com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom Hi, here. I am in my normal workspace with a question What's the biggest challenge you have with voiceover? What's been the puzzle you need to solve the question you need answered? Well, david h. Lawrence the 17th and the coaching team at vo heroes dot com want to know They're creating new courses and training and they want to know what you need most and it's easy to let them know Just drop an email to david at vo heroes dot com. That's david at vo H e r o e s dot com And let him know what you'd like to know. Is it tech oriented? Is it auditioning? Is it about booking more work finding an agent podcasting audio books performance questions? Whatever it is that keeps you up at night that makes you scratch your head Or what you've always wanted to know about success and vo Email david and ask the email address again is david at vo heroes dot com I was talking to harlan hogan this morning. He described chicago as having Parmafrost with more snow on the way But something warmed his heart a letter from a satisfied voiceover essentials customer and here's what he said Hi harlan getting started in the voiceover business and want a big value for your dollar Look no further than harlan's portabouth pro and the vo 1a mic These got me started and have proven valuable in producing over 50 titles on audible Great results for a great price right out of the box. Douglas Burke the agile narrator So if you do audiobooks clearly these two products from voiceover essentials dot com can help you get it done Go on over to voiceover essentials dot com to see all the great voiceover recording equipment and accessories You'll ever need that's voiceover essentials dot com the home of harlan hogan signature series products like the vo 1a mic And the portabouth pro and plus. Thanks harlan Yeah, hi, this is carlos. I was rocking the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Welcome back And we are back here on voiceover body shop. I'm still getting used to this camera being so I know You're used to it being all the way across the room and now it's only two feet away It's less than two feet. So yeah, I'm going into this. It looks like a robot You need to have like your hand distance like your mic Yeah, exactly just like that Anyway, we're talking with marylin wister and boy you guys have Tons and some questions as I suspected you would George, why don't you take that first one from uh, lani manila at the very top? Uh, yeah, lani or lani Lani manila if you have two completely different sounding auditions should you say one of two Then two on the same file or submit the second take as a file named alt Yeah, I should even slate it that way um you know That's a good question because Usually when I get two, um takes That's because I've asked for two takes When I'm putting a casting call out. I always am very specific in the casting specs Well, I'll say only one take please or two takes Um, and so I know to expect a second take So I guess that kind of depends on where you're getting your audition from um, and most casting directors are pretty specific about that, but um If it was me and listening to you know, say auditions like that and if say I didn't write that down on the casting specs I would say in your you know in your slate You can say you know, um two takes and then I know to expect another take Um, I personally don't even like slates. I just like to see your name on the mp3 file and you can put you know your name Um, mcdonalds, um underscore two takes, you know something like that um Sometimes if you have too much information other than the read itself It's very distracting to the casting director because You know we you kind of get in this mindset and you're listening And then you get it's sort of almost a little bit distracted when somebody slates their name and then they go second take and Um, so it's it's sort of a personal thing. I think you know, if it if it doesn't say on the casting spec itself I would just say your name and two takes And then just leave a little bit of a space between the takes so we know to expect it All right, that's good. I thought you were gonna I thought that wasn't such an obvious Sort of an obvious question, but it wasn't so I'm glad she No, it's really not because I think it really does depend on the source. You're getting it from True. Yeah, always read the spec always pay very close attention to the instructions. Yeah, so that is a good question Um, the other part of those it's actually a two-parter There's no way to know if one's agent is submitting your auditions When I do casting and submit a large number of actors. I'm often surprised who the client chooses No, interesting Often not the best or who fits the specs closest Is there any actual way to ensure being submitted since it's often very subjective? No Yeah, sorry, it's sometimes I'm I'm not surprised I mean sometimes we'll do a casting and I'd be like, oh for sure George is going to book that you just nailed it And then the client comes back with someone who I thought was I mean, obviously I thought they were good because I submitted them But I wasn't thinking they were the Most unique or what you know, I was surprised And you never know you just never know. Um, I've had you know ad agency clients choose somebody because Um sounded like my old boyfriend or oh his his name is Jeff. That's my brother's name You know, I've all kinds of things I've heard So it just really really depends and it might just be The one way you set a certain word or just kind of your phrasing that that hits something in them. It's a very, um Subjective it's it's very personal a lot of times Yeah, yeah, it's many times. I've I've you know, I'll hear some spot and I'll go I audition for that and they hired this guy Yeah, I don't I don't quite get that Yeah, it's it's very individual fabulous anyway question from from Sonya Mowbly she says she wants to know if you're going to have any zoom workshops coming up soon ever at oliver's suggested I work with With you and was signed up for one. She did at the Atlanta voiceover studio But it was rescheduled and she couldn't make the new one and haven't seen anything else upcoming So you have any other workshops coming up? Yeah, if you just check our website the vopros.com you'll see all the classes coming up Um, if it's for me personally, you know, if you just want to do personal one-on-one coaching you can just go right to um Voices voice casting at gmail and reach out to me. Um, and sometimes I'll post my workshops up on the vopros as well um, I'll probably do one I'm thinking like june, you know, because I usually do one or two a year and right now. I'm just so busy I haven't had time to organize one. So the probably I usually do one or two a year on self-direction for for voiceover Yeah, and do you still have the app or about to do that tell us about that. Yeah, um, so about I don't know maybe Let me think here about 10 years ago. I created the app called the voiceover self-direction app Because um, you know for years and all my coaching I I have this process of you know Breaking down commercial scripts and how to break them down And actors would always say oh, I love that. I wish you could be in the booth with me And um, so I thought I'm going to create an app for that So it's kind of everything I teach or how to you know In basically in an app, you know the five popular directions that are the foundation for commercials And um different little tricks and things that you can do to make your auditions stand stand out because as we know 90% of your auditions you are well now it's pretty much 99% of your auditions You are self-directing you're auditioning from home and um Yeah, it's on your um apple or you know android device It's been pretty successful. I'm very very proud of it a few years ago. We added um character uh have self-direct yourself on um character reads if you get a video game or an animation audition so Um, that's awesome. Yeah, it's called the voiceover self-direction app I need to put that on my site. Yeah, and if you if you can't find it You can always just look at my name and it'll come up. Oh, there it is. Thank you Sue Merlino doing her job Alrighty, that's what we like to see. Yeah. I've got that app. It's right next to my starbucks app Perfect perfect. It's easy and a little caffeine. We're all good Uh, george one from shelly Yeah, uh shelly asks, uh, firstly, it's been way too long since we've had a drink together in second A little well friend you could picture although she is on screen You don't even have to picture her if you're watching the show on camera not the podcast version Um as a casting director too, I'm interested to hear the biggest changes that you've seen if any during the pandemic With the amount of work and type of work you've been seeing What is your one pet peeve? Also, oh my god, that voiceovers do that drive you nuts So that's a two-parter. Um Yeah, so during during the I think I I think the question was what what did I see changing changes during the pandemic? Yeah You know, it's funny right before the pandemic as you all know. So like 2018 2019 everything was about the millennial read Um, and then of course the pandemic hit hit and then everything was all about, you know What we called the covet read and the I'm here for you La la la, you know everything very cozy and warm and and kind and reassuring and then um Uh, it did change a bit, but at the same time I noticed we rarely got any calls all last year all 2020 for Millennial which I was kind of happy about so we didn't get those calls In fact, um, I remember one ad agency guy saying just I need an older millennial which just Is not I like a gen X or or something. Um So that's me. Yeah That was kind of funny. I have an old millennial but now Everything is way downplayed Which kind of bounces off the millennial read which was sort of a downplayed read but younger But now every read even when you're doing sort of the authoritative Adds sort of thing. They want it just very calm just talking throwing it away Not a whole lot of nuance at all. That is really really what's in style. Um But I think that was her question. And what was the other one the pet peeves pet peeves My pet peeves are people ask two questions. No, I'm just kidding. Shelly. We love shelly. We love shelly. Just kidding. Um, she's a fun gal. Um Pet peeves are What do I start? Let's see You know, I really have a specific pet peeve Um, I don't know if she means like when you're auditioning or just in general Um, I guess one better acoustics With that and then one one pet peeve of mine is um, you know people calling me mary instead of mary lin Um, because mary lin is my name Um, so, you know, if you're going to reach out to a casting director or an agent or anybody and any You know, this goes for any business get their name, right? You know, that's just I think kind of common courtesy That's just professional. Yeah Uh, jeff holman asks what do you think about adding a lead in to the first line to differentiate your read from others? So in other words Not starting from the beginning but from a lead in do you see that much and can that be effective or is that a Yeah, I'm I've kind of known for that. Um, I'm known for loving that actors do that, especially Especially when it's a real person read or a very, you know, the rye dry sarcastic snarky read Um, we kind of expect that, you know that in casting We expect actors to do that many actors are very nervous about doing that So when I'm putting that casting spec out there, I always say feel free to ad-lib, you know Let's hear your improv skills and the reason I do that is because number one. I want the actor to know it's okay I want to hear it. I've already checked with my producer. They don't mind and um Honestly the people that do that are usually the ones that book, you know Now if you're doing it on an authoritative read or kind of like a sexy cosmetic read It usually doesn't work. It sounds gratuitous. It just doesn't work Even kind of a basic nice warm friendly read. It usually doesn't work, but it has to mean something to the script um I I there was a whole facebook thread about this not too long ago When I say a lead in I don't mean Yeah, well, hey, you know, you know I promise you if I got 80 auditions back I guarantee you at least 25 or 30 people will do the exact same lead in So you don't sound original you don't sound super, you know, it's like you you know You thought you were doing a really great job of doing this fabulous lead in well, so did You know 39 other people Like uh, like if it's like it's like a character of an older gentleman, maybe you might say Let me fix my glasses. Um, this is a little something like whatever if it works with the script You know, I always tell actors, um, you know riff on a word in the first line, you know um And kind of make that your lead in or pretend you're answering a question and kind of riff on that So it's it's this is why improv is so valuable and acting of course for me I'm glad Jeff asked that because I had this impression in my mind. Maybe I'd heard somebody else say this That those were fine to use in in your to get you to get you to get there But to take them out when you submit edit those out So you're saying no no this could be should be and this has always been a discussion Um, and again, I always say to people and I don't mean this again to sound snotty I always say well, I bet the person that told you that was not a casting director We know we know that it's okay to leave it in because the people that book are the ones that leave it in and I always bring this up to um You know in my 30 years of casting I have never ever ever had a producer or a client come back to me and say I can't believe they ad-lib. I can't believe they did that. They don't say that, you know um, but then again, too, I'm always very specific and I ask my client, you know when we're Initiating this casting, you know, hey if the actor wants to do some lead ins or an ad-lib. Is that cool? Yeah, great fine. And you know what give him one take Where you showed I always say show off your party tricks do all that stuff in the first take And then on the second take stick straight to the script But this is only for the real person read and the rye dry, you know snarky quirky You gotta know the context. You gotta know exactly. Yeah, exactly. I don't want to get I don't want to get in trouble. Yeah Yeah Awesome. I'm so glad he asked that Um, this one's from Cassie Mockler. I'm hoping that's right Um, what are directors looking for in a good audition? That's probably a pretty big question, but acting Good acting a big question with an easy answer. Yeah, I mean good acting It's all about, you know, do you sound like you know, as I said earlier Do you sound like you're talking to me? Yeah, or are you reading to me? I don't need anybody to read to me. I can I can get you know, my mom to do that I I need somebody to sound like they're talking to me. So it you know, basically, you know It all boils down to we want the consumer who's watching this on, you know, their Their tv or driving their car listening to the radio to feel like you're next to them talking about this product Excellent. Yeah Heath Martin asks if an actor has a commercial demo But not a character demo for animation or video games Would you want to hear from them or should they wait until they have a professional demo in every genre first? That's a good question. Um I I Well, if it's for an animation or a character thing, then of course I'd want to hear a character demo specifically But um, if you have only a commercial demo, send it. I mean commercials I always say the first demo you should make should be your commercial demo commercials are the bread and butter of our industry commercials are cast every single day And the first demo an agent is going to ask for is your commercial demo You know, even if you only want to do video games, you know, you still need to do your commercial demo first If it's for a specific part and I need to hear character reads I might and if I know the actor and I know they don't have a character demo I might just say hey, you know what I've got this client. He wants to hear a demo I know you don't have a demo, but can you just go in the booth and record? Maybe three or four different characters so I could submit that to him that that rarely happens, but I hope I'm answering his question But yeah If you only have a commercial demo send me that demo All right, thank you. This one's from linda joy sminer Have you heard about the change in demos some directors are now requesting no background Music, etc. They just want to hear the voice. Is it a good idea? Actually had to redo three of my demos. I didn't mind at all That's what linda says. Good question interesting. I have not heard that to be very honest Who are these directors? It's a good question, right? Are they add agency people? I I've not heard that and if that um, I have actually had a producer once asked, you know, hey Instead of submitting because sometimes Some producers like they might have a very small budget or they have no budget And they'll say can you just send us demos? um, or if it's say it's a big job and I you know, I know a certain Like actor could do something. I'll say well, I'll just have him read a Script so you can hear his voice But um, I've not actually heard that so I don't know that that's a thing um But that's kind of interesting. This happens a lot in our business, too Dan will Dan will uh completely cooperate that you know, you'll get the somebody told me that Blah blah blah blah saying I always want to know who is that somebody because you know, again, and that's what I always say When you say directors, there's like no in this industry. There's nobody that's really a director everybody's like You know, um, there's an ad agency producer. There's a casting director But there's also, you know an agent. There's a you know a tech person on all that sort of thing. So a director Uh, that's yeah, maybe I don't know. Maybe an animation director. I'm not quite sure I'd be curious to to see if there's a follow-up to her question Yeah, it may be a matter of me, you know, it was an e-learning demo or a narration demo or something And then I kind of get that. Yeah, but yeah that I get but not and in an audio book demo You don't have anything but your own voice Yeah, yeah, jv martin the one Ah jv For self-directed auditions when to always add lib when never add lib Well jv should know this because we used to coach together, but actually we coached a lot on narration um Oh, no, we did commercial jv Uh, but that was a while ago. So as I said, I think always add lib on a real person read And a rye dry snarky read unless it just doesn't it's not funny or it doesn't add to the script You know, because sometimes people try to add lib because they think they have to and it just sounds very You know gratuitous and it sort of just doesn't work. It's not funny Um, but you know, it's it's letting us know your personality. They're not going to end up using it in the Commercial because obviously if it was a union spot, they'd have to pay you more because then you're a writer Um, but it's what gets you noticed on the audition reel. That's the whole purpose of that Um, because they want to hear how much fun you're going to be at the session So if you have something kind of funny to say and it wants to spit out let it come out We want to hear it So and and usually that's why I'm saying like the real person reads and the the rye and rye snarky quirky You know, a la John krasinski chris pratt reads are the ones that really lend itself to that. I hope that helped jb Couldn't hurt it. Yeah. Um time for one this George. Oh, we got one more. Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy Let me just scan real quick to see what the big big big question is Um big question Well, we didn't get one from thomas. So let's we'll throw to thomas is here He says for auditions. I'm seeing that they are wanting your gear slated at the end Are there any good or bad parts about this? What is the best thing or detail to give or avoid? Is this happening? I haven't seen that not with any of my clients. I I don't know. Maybe that's a pay-to-play thing Um, we have clients that will ask For their, you know, if their isdn or source connect, you know, or they'll sometimes ask us to Have the talent label what city they're in but um, I have not actually had it an ad agency client ask for their studio gear and so on so I yeah, I would just follow the directions if they asked for it and you better say it, you know, that's all the specs That's that's another that can go back to the pet peeve thing follow the specs if you know that they're there for a reason Yeah, yeah exactly. Yeah. Well marylin as always. It's a pleasure to to to talk with you It's more fun. I think actually hanging out with you when we get to go to dinners and stuff like right now I miss those days. No, well, they'll be back People want to get a hold of you. Tell us about your website and what you offer there Thank you and it's always fun to hang out with you guys. Thank you. Um, it's uh voices voice casting one long word dot com and then our classes and all that fun stuff is the vo pros dot com My email is voices voice casting at gmail and Yeah, and then of course like we talked about earlier the the voice over self direction app and What else i'm a vergo I like long walks on the beach It's all good. So i'm i'm i'm around i've been around for a long time and and i'm happy to help anyway You ain't going nowhere either And you know where to find you all ready for the we're ready for the roaring 20s again Rowing 20s part do yeah part do Thank you guys. Love you. Thank you so much for having me to take care All right, we'll be right back to wrap things up right after this Yeah, hi, this is carlos ellis rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voice over boy shop In these modern times every business needs a website when you need a website for your voice acting business There's only one place to go like the name says voice actor websites dot com Their experience in this niche webmaster market gives them the ability to quickly and easily get you from concept to live online In a much shorter time when you contact voice actor websites dot com Their team of experts and designers really get to know you and what your needs are They work with you to highlight what you do Then they create an easily navigable website for your potential clients to get the big picture of who you are And how your voice is the one for them plus voice actor websites dot com has other great resources Like their practice script library and other resources to help your voice over career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the You know what? Well, you're you're climbing the voice over ladder your book and bigger gigs You might even have an agent or two at this point. So guess what you better have source connect This is a a technology that's been in development and in use now more than development It's been development for over 15 years But it's been in use regularly in the voiceover business for long cheese at least 12 or 13 that i've been setting it up for folks And so because it's been around for so long, it was very well positioned When the pandemic hit and we were all stuck at home And uh, so that is the tool of choice and there are many out there Trust me that you may find in your in your journey as a voice actor But the one that is most pervasive shows up more on any spec for an audition And we all know how important specs are you just heard merlin had to say about the specs It's going to be source connect and so you better have that on your system by now If you're listening or watching our show and you don't have it already Maybe you're not a voice actor yet. Maybe you're just kicking the tires or maybe you're not quite ready But everybody else at this point i'm sure Has probably done it and they've gone over to source dash source dash elements dot com Signed up for a 15 day free trial got it up and running on their system And possibly even headed over to george at the dot tech and went to my site To make sure there's extra things you might need to know about source connect That maybe you missed the first go around and got a little help from me too But anyway get source connect be ready be a pro have the tools that pros need and this is definitely one of them So thanks so much for source elements Support after five at least five six years now. We really appreciate it and we'll be back to wrap it up This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on The voice of our buddy shop And we are back We got a re-racket to do tech talk, you know, we do tech talk when we do the show live We do tech talk Afterwards a lot of people like to watch it in replay But if you want to be active and you want to Watch when we do it live and ask questions live We'd love to have you so stick around after we finish with this particular show Uh next week. We'll have tech talk number 52 Yeah, if you don't it's they're starting to add up in two weeks mark growl will be here to help us Celebrate our 10th year Of doing voiceover bodies officially Officially 10 years and we'll tell the story Again, it's sort of like pass over where we tell the story of how it all happened Um, who are our donors of the week? Yes, again, many Recognizable names, which is awesome Don Griffith Steven Chandler Martha con Shawna Pennington baird ant land productions philips appear Thomas pinto shelly avaleno. Hey shelly george widham. That's my dad brian page patty gibbons rob raider and Greg Thomas Thank you so much for all of your support Absolutely really appreciate it. It's it's great that you help us out to to Produce the show and maintain the technical superiority and magnificence Of it all if either of those are worth the splendor Yeah, it's Anyway, uh, we need to thank our sponsors like harlin hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements Vio heroes comm voice actor websites comm and jmc demos Our thanks to jeff holman who really did a great job in the chat room tonight getting your questions to mary linn And our technical director su merlino sharp is attacked tonight just right there with it And of course lee pennie for being lee pennie Anyway, uh, you know, this is not an easy business But we're here to help you Get your sound right to get your career in the right direction for bringing you the right people But really it comes down to one thing if it sounds good Yeah All right, we're gonna be racket for tech talk. We'll see you next time guys. Have a great week