 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and George is off glamping this week. So we got Tim Friedlander. He's gonna be our guest host and our guest tonight is Mirna Velasco. Mirna Velasco wave. Hello. Hello. There you go. Fabulous. All right If you've got a question for Mirna or for me or Tim or anything Throw it in the chat rooms because we see them here and we can answer your question Plus we have lots of questions for Berna and I've got questions for Tim and people might have questions for me You never know it's voiceover body shop coming up 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 vio universe, they bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the vio stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional vio studios of the biggest names in vio 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 vio studio And each week they allow you into their world Bringing you talks with the biggest names in the voiceover 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 Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials dot com home of harlin hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone Voice actor websites dot com where your vio website isn't a pain in the butt vio heroes dot com become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training jmc demos when quality matters and Voiceover extra your daily resource for vio success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman oaks, california Here are the guys Hi there, i'm dan Leonard I'm tim freedlander and this is voiceover body shop or vio bs Well, hopefully everything's working and everybody can hear us and and life is good out there in internet land Which I guess is kind of an oxymoron. I guess Anyway, so tim your guest hosting this week. Yes, you are the owner of sound box group sound box group. Yes explain to us what sound box group is aside from this thing Above your apartment. Exactly. Um sound box group at this point. We are a group of five voiceover studios for in los angeles area one in colorado And a signatory service. So we provide conversion services for voice talent to convert from non union to union Jobs voiceover jobs and our pay master. We're also a voice bridging service as well So we can help bridge in You know multiple talent on different sessions So soup to nuts voiceover step we can do everything we can do everything Actually, we can do everything from casting to final payroll And so we've done some projects where we've come in and handled everything literally from casting all the way through production Uh mastering Final delivery and all the way into uh paying the talent. Ah See somebody who's totally qualified to be here You know, we were like george and I were like, well, who can we have as a guest host since he went off on his camping trip? I we were like, how about tim? Yeah And here he is here. I am heavy, right? But we have another guest tonight. As I said two for one Our guest tonight is Myrna Garcia Velasco She is a screen actor and voice talent. She's known for her role such as the voice of cj hook in the descendants Wicked world. She also voices carla delgado in elena of avalore on disney channel And torah doza in star wars resistance She's also played Mimi Mendoza in sydney to the max on the disney channel But I learned this tonight. She's hannah the hula girl and all of those commercials For arco. Hi there. I'm hannah. There she is. Welcome to voiceover body shop. Thank you for having me there Great to have you. You're our first in studio guest Get the jab get the good jab you can hang out in the 2020s. God it's been So long since we've actually had humans sitting here alone all this time. I don't know how to deal with people Can I touch your skin? Get the hand sanitizer Well, welcome to the show your life is very interesting now you're You're from like right here in la's everybody's moved here You're actually from here. Tell us a little bit about where you grew up and how you got into voice acting and acting and stuff Okay, um, yeah, so I grew up Mostly in pecoima van is area of my grandparents Also moved to and from mexico. They were migrant farm workers So, um, every summer my mom was like, I just can't deal with you You're not a very high energy person. No, not at all not at all And no, so, uh, we would spend summers in mexico Learning spanish and how to be good children um, and uh, yeah, I would come back for american school and speak english From september to june and do it all over again And there was also this like weird act break when I was 10 where we lived on a ranch in The high desert which was bananas. What was that like? What what was so bananas about? Nanas um, so Gosh, what wasn't bananas about it. So like you weren't growing bananas. We were not growing bananas We're growing alfalfa, which is just grass, right? And so like you try to tell like these big ranch people like we'll grow your grass And that sounds yeah, so a lot of cops were coming around like what kind of grass and I was like 10 years old having to explain No, sir. It's not marijuana um And then you know having to catch the bus for school and like the one thing I learned is that goats are very suspicious characters Uh and and pigs Are sweet and loving but they smell so bad. So well, they are pigs. They are pigs So yeah, it's been kind of a crazy wild ride all around southern california and Ended up spending my formative years in the suburbs and had just had enough of a crazy life to be like Well, the only place I fit in is LA. I better get down there and just started hanging out kind of And that's how you got into acting just by hanging out in LA. Yeah, I mean it was either that or or Music and I couldn't play anything. So I was like, well I could pretend real hard. Uh pretend to have a job, which is what I did for many years before my dad kicked me out of the house It's fine. It's fine. I'm not angry about that. Um, but yeah, yeah, so I Always wanted to be an actor. Um was jumping on top of goats singing Oklahoma songs and not sorry about that. They're very suspicious characters Yeah, and I um, I had the plan the big big plan to uh, you know go to university in new york and study stage And I had graduated high school right during the first financial collapse Not the first first one in the first 20s, but the first one in the Second odds you guys know what I'm talking about 2008. Yes I'm trying to be cool here Hey, I tell time by presidential administrations. I mean, I've been doing this since the nixon administration Trying to date myself carry on. No, that was like four years ago, right? Uh, so yeah, so I couldn't go to college because my sister Was going to this really prestigious Expensive art school in new york and I was like, well, I'll follow you sis. I'm going to tish and my parents were like so we We had a ranch where we sold grass not the lucrative grass but the regular grass Don't think you can go to new york kiddo um And me just kind of being a snob and didn't want to go to state school Was like well, I'll just be a server in los angeles then uh, so it did that and um, somehow also managed to acquire the skills and knowledge through just like studio classes in la and through stella adler and All of these weirdo people that just ended up in la to be actors and I was like, well, you teach me what to do and It seemed to have worked out just enough I think that that's one of the things, you know tim and I and I think what we notice this is that if you want to be an actor You just don't I mean you might have some natural talent, but you've got to take classes. You have to learn the craft What was the most important thing you picked up from from those particular classes that you took? Uh Well, I'll tell you what a first thought while I laughed there Was a saying in spanish that the women and my mother's family have carried through generations, which is um Dile que si y es lo que tú quieras Which is yeah, tell them yes and do whatever the fuck you want So that's kind of the best acting advice I can give anybody um because I I think what was really interesting and and what kind of made me good fodder for voiceover was that um There's a lot of pressure at least while I was in the acting studio classes There's a lot of pressure to be a certain kind of type um And so for me, I was like, okay It will it better be this type that does this stuff all the time and it just wasn't who I am And I'm quirky and weird and uncomfortable a lot of times So it it just never translated well on camera So a lot of the learning was me unlearning how to You know present something that people wanted and just kind of living in Time and space Were you were you typecast it off like you know for in latin rolls or oh was I uh made number one prostitute number three Uh Yeah, well there was a big push when I first got into the industry I was like signed with my first agent kind of thing I was 22 years old and the most notable latinas in the industry were sofia vergara and sam hike I'm not built like those ladies because you haven't noticed It's not is that something you pay attention to thank you for not paying attention to a gentleman We're gentlemen in this But that's that was a big thing um and still kind of kind of is I think with a lot more Feminist driven movements and me too movements gentlemen are learning once again to the eyes here guys um But yeah, so there was this big push with my first agent and first manager to try to fit a sexy latina And I'm just like let our fingers sexy like I don't know um, so I just yeah I couldn't hit that mark and and it was really Disheartening um, so like a good couple of years and by a couple. I mean more than 10 years serving at cheesecake factory And maintaining your weight at the same time A lot of night shifts and a lot of sobbing into the cheesecake instead of eating it Yeah, so after after a few few thousand auditions I was ready to just give up um, so I signed up for a yoga teacher training class in Bali, Indonesia and was like, yeah, I was like, I'm getting out of here. I'm done with this and um at that point that's when I Got a call from a brand new voiceover agent that was like we'd like to represent you and we think you Have some abilities that maybe you're not even aware of and I was like Yeah, what's the worst that gonna happen? You guys will drop me too. Yeah, it's great when an agent calls you because literally The best way to find an agent is for them to find you Not you know sending out audition tapes and all that stuff if you're making money or if you're really making an impression somewhere They'll call you. Yeah Yeah, I thought my impression was lighting their trash cans on fire So I'm not sure that that's something you all want to try it could be it could be an effective strategy Depending on what they've gotten their garbage can The other demos You know, you know, yeah So so there's like try some voiceovers. So how did they get you into voiceover? Um, they sold it to me as improv and um, well, what was really great is I you know, I did have a manager who was like Calling the agents of like have you heard a myrna and they're like not at all. Well, I'm telling you about her So they came in and like I came in and they talked to me and they were like, well, what are you What do you know about animation? And I was like, well, it's not that I know anything about animation It's that I really like animation And yeah, and it's just like I had I told this story and I always tell the story that when I was finishing up my cheesecake factory shift and I'm crying in the shower to try to wash off all the cheesecake smells You know before I would go to sleep. I would on my laptop turn on dragon balls e or cowboy bebop or You know Jimmy neutron even and just like watch a good half hour of heartwarming animated television where it doesn't have to be like this life or death thing that I had somehow partaken in and It just made me feel okay to start the next day. Um, and lo and behold here. I am Yeah, well, it sounds like you I mean looking over the stuff that you've done most notably You know since I I didn't realize until I listened to the voice a little bit And then you told me that your hand of the hula girl and the arco commercials And I'm sure you've all seen those I mean that's I mean that your voice is so unique and it cuts through in those spots And that's really you know, it's just It it's it's got what it takes You know, I mean that you've got that that's something that's like Why does this person stand out and I think these are the things I pay attention to Well, thank you. I think it's just my obnoxious nature, but thanks But it's it's obnoxious how your pistons work How did you how did you land that job? I'm sure there were lots of people trying to audition for that one And also like if we can put the feelers out in the world, um, just to put credit where credit is due I am not the first hannah. I am the second I would like to think that maybe you know She was the one that decided to take the teacher job in bali, you know or or something But I would love to meet her because she is such this foundation of what hannah's voice is and when I Auditioned for that part. I had watched the hannah commercials from arco because I was like that these are hilarious This is great who doesn't want to be a part of that Um, and I would you know in the car while listening to the radio. Hi, I'm hannah and just kind of mimic it back to her Hi, I'm hannah and uh, so I kind of had that foundation already So I can't say that like I made up the character. I certainly did not I copied this other girl and Somehow they chose me over her. I hope she's okay I'm sure she got over it Jumped off the hollywood side Uh, yeah, so I I got the copy and it was kind of how I'm like fully thinking about this It's kind of this really cool thing back in the before times I don't know how many times you guys would go to your agents to record auditions, but I went All that time. Yeah, which is the only way they knew my name So like now in this brave new world. I'm like, I feel so sorry for you guys who have to try to cultivate relationships with agents I don't know how you do that Mine are my grandparents so Not literally but you know that that's the relationship. I feel I have with them parents and grandparents. Anyway, uh, so yeah I was in there recording one different audition and my amazing Uh commercial agent peter just like popped his head out of his office try this exactly and I was like, uh, okay Had 30 seconds to read it, but I was like, oh, it's the hula girl. I know this. Okay, great Just really didn't think about it, but kind of mimicked the other hula girl In this sense of like well either that's what they want or they want something completely different and I can't deliver that anyway, so Thanks for the opportunity peter. Have a great afternoon. Did you want coffee? You do? Okay, I'll be right back kind of thing uh bribing agents 101 is My specialty Yeah, lots lots of coffee. Yeah, so they remember her name Uh, I put my name on their coffee cups Yeah, and I don't know what your guys is like audition turnover rates are because for me it's like two and a half years later Welcome to the show Um, but yeah, it was a couple months later. I just got a call and they were like You got it go to Santa Monica and record the hula girl and I was like Told my dad and he's a big car guy. So he was like, you know, I think you made it You've made it to a guest Yeah, if you're just joining us Our guest is marna velasco and we're talking about her career and uh, some of the cool stuff that she does Tim freed lander's a guest host who's not saying much, but he'll jump in I've heard a lot of this already If you have a question for marna you can put it in the chat room And I know jet holman is out there somewhere writing all these things down and transferring them to us So we can ask her in the next segment of our show anything you want to ask her You know if she's single those sorts of things and and about her career and about voice acting in general, but uh Uh, so I'm looking forward to hearing what some of you guys come up with um So you're doing a lot of animation and I mean question. What's that really like? I mean, that's kind of a general question But what does it involve? I mean, it's auditioning and it's like and then going in the studio and you don't really get to work with other actors Do you not anymore? Well, I started my animation journey, uh, so spoiled So spoiled, uh, you know, disney was my very first employers. Oh Fanning me while I talked into a microphone for the first time. Um, and I also the first uh animated tv show I was on was star wars resistance. So it was like the biggest group of terrifying creators on the planet But so besides me just being terrified the whole time that I'm like, I think they fired me today. Uh It was also just like me just implementing the actory things that I thought I didn't learn in in all of the studio classes and kind of really fine-tuning and picking what Worked for the script and what a luxury a to you know Be so spoiled with these giant companies But b to have the script in front of me was this odd sense of relief that I never had Right, right exactly. I could like write notes down and I'm like, you know, listen to the vocal director like, okay That's what you mean. Um So I felt spoiled just in that world alone. But on top of it. We were recording in the round So I did have other actors. I had other real good actors. Oh, I'm sure Tara strong and great a lion and you know, like real celebrities like donald phase on and like, oh my god These people are bobby moinahan acted with me with me. Yeah me Um, so that was like such an experience because I honestly felt like well I I need to learn from these people and I need to like pay as close attention to everything they're doing And inherently I guess that meant I was finally listening and then I was being a good actor. I don't know Um, but so it I was I was very spoiled. Um, and then you know cut to couple years later the pandemic happens and I was like I record auditions in my closet or at my agents. What what do you mean? I have to do all of it at home And that's when you started talking to tim about it So, so what did you what did you guys do? Well, we actually we met through your work So actually I heard your work before we met in person because we worked on your course demo with everdolliver Yes, yes three years ago three four years ago. Yeah, yeah at one of our other studios We actually sent you to one of our other studios the west side studio With paul mercy and palatiso And they handled the original recording there and then We spent like six months editing. Yeah, and and we put together all this work So I like I went through Like all of your episodes like tons of episodes to try and find Like you know high quality pieces that represented what you did best. Yeah, and then we met in person after that So so I knew your character is really well before I met you in person Which is pretty which was actually I hadn't really thought about it was kind of interesting to like Kind of go that reverse direction that way because most people I meet first and then I kind of hear some of their work um Yeah, and now for the um help help you try and get set up in your home So you'd have a lot of people to get set up in their home studios this last last 18 months um But help you transition over which we're currently you're currently in the middle of doing right now. Yeah as of like last week Yeah, yeah, I'm a new booth. Oh my gosh new life. I feel like I have new skin How do you got her set up? Well That's a good question. Um, but first of the biggest things you move locations So so, you know anytime and you have to look for you know people are walking closet No, should we tell him? No, okay I can't wait to hear all of this. You know, it's one of the things you don't think about well Normally unless you're a voice actor, you don't think about What's my place gonna sound like as um somebody I saw read something on facebook the other day They said they found a house they wanted to look at and they happened to show up at like New and on a weekday and the church bells were going off and the the realtor was like Oh, yeah, that happens every day. You're gonna love it right and she's like nope trend around and Was like I had to give up. I can't remember. So whoever whoever takes credit for that story. I read it on facebook And I'm sure so remember I remembered that story. Um, but you moved Apartments. Yeah, so during pandemic. I called oliver oliver. Wow Mr. Oliver I called every because I think I was getting dialed down from you. No, just kidding. Um, no He's like he was like my first contact. Yeah And he was like, you know, set yourself up. This is gonna be a couple of months She's gonna be a couple of months. Just a couple months. Um, yeah, three months max. So what you really need anyway is a Like a to-go vocal booth like a a booth that you can collapse and then put it back up Because you're not gonna need it in your apartment in a couple of months. Exactly Yeah Uh, so I went to vocal booth to go dot com grabbed myself like their last To pop up vocal booth and I was like, great. I'll use this 18 months later Poor thing is like falling apart. I'm like sweating in it all the time Sparks are flying and I was moving. Um, so What do we do Well, then you get to a new apartment and maybe you hear the air conditioning through the floor that you didn't hear When you were looking before maybe you went up in an apartment. That's all tile floor Right. That's so chic. Right as a clogging troupe upstairs. Yeah, exactly So we we uh You ended up getting a booth Yeah, we ended up we ended up signing the booth was going to be the way to go as opposed to try and fix the closet Right, um, especially, you know with when Someone of your caliber is like I have I have nicolodian wants to do a test next week Or this studio wants to do a test of me somebody's big, you know, that's you need to be Able to record 24 hours a day seven days a week when you're on call when your session comes in so You know the solution at that point becomes either a full build out in the space that you're in If you have the ability to do that or you got to go to booth and And get the good space. Yeah rental property was not going to let me put giant holes in the wall Yeah, take out the air conditioning. So we're good stuff to the wall or glue stuff to the walls Yeah, or big mistake the ubiquitous like so I have all this foam. How do we get out to stay on my wall? Conversation everybody has well You stand are you moving you're not living there? What's what's happening? What can you do? That sound isolation versus soundproofing which we know are two different things everybody confuses those two Yeah, they have soundproof foam. No, you don't have size for the foam You have some nice sound isolation that may help diminish some reflections in your space. We do not have soundproof. Um, so But I did get us. Did I get a sound? You Custom booths are yeah, it was so cool, right? Like it was so serendipitous Tim came over and he's like, I got bad news for you and I got more bad news for you. I was like, no That's why that won't work. We just hopped on to craigslist and just out of like Maybe this will happen. Maybe I won't have anything this lady down the street Had a vocal booth for sale It's a scott's booth Triple wall. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Say it again. I need to hear triple wall scott's booth that was not square rectangular Oh, it's even better. Yeah Fairly new And was willing to deliver it. Yeah. Well, she's down the street down the street. Put it on a Yep and deliver it and install it. Yeah In in the price. So I was basically I looked at like there's like go buy that. It's like you sure I'm like go go buy that I'm like, I don't care what you'd like just email or tell you're gonna buy it and you'll get it tomorrow and they'll deliver it Great, then that's that's you know, that's I've done my my I've paid my penance setting up and dismantling and moving booths In my time and I don't need to do anymore. So to have Somebody who is gonna offer to deliver it and install it. Yeah Yeah, and they were so sweet and just like super helpful super quick. Um, Yeah, yeah, and then it just kind of like hung out in my apartment for a little while While I was like, okay, so I've got this laptop and I've got this Video camera here when I sync them to my phone and Tim was like, don't do that anymore ever again Um, yeah, yeah, and we just kind of like built it Well the the nest or the great guy who delivered it built it out and had worked with scott before so it was really secure and Calling Tim every night. Does it sound okay in here? Does it sound okay now? Um, yeah, yeah, and then just it was so easy so easy to just stick phone Like what like you have her on You have a gefel m930. Oh geez which I have not say I have two but I very rarely use them But they are awesome. I had and it works. They're great. Great microphone. Great microphones Not something you see all the time. No, I don't see very few people who ever have a gefel m930 But I they sound sounds great on your voice and I guess it's the you know The m9 should I get well the one you have is working works great for you. Does it sound good great use that mic And it sounds great, right? Yeah. Yeah all mics sound great That if the thing is is there's no microphone that's going to make you a better voice actor You know, it's only going to pick up everything So if you're in a good environment It's you're you're in good shape But you know, I mean an average good mic is going to sound fine no matter who you are If you're good already what you clearly are You're quite welcome. Well, we're going to take a quick break here again If you've got a question for murnett, just put it in the chat room. I'm sure we let's let's see If we've got a few questions already So get your question in now so we can ask murnett in the next section So we'll be right back with murnett of elasco and our guest host tim freelander right after these messages. Don't go I think I heard the voice of a body shop. I did I did hear the voice of a body shop Well, hello there I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat. Were you? Stick around you don't want to miss this At target we want you to come as you are be comfortable. Okay, maybe not bathrobe comfortable Pants for the customer on aisle four, please 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 rewards Until you forget to turn you down That's it guys time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voice over body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos.com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom For voiceover essentials.com. It's the relationship savior the multicolor led vo recording sign Not just a stock on the air or recording sign. It's our exclusive voice over recording sign This brilliantly lit led 20 color beacon tells everybody at home, which is currently everybody. Hey, I'm auditioning recording podcasting narrating or broadcasting here and a few moments of relative quiet would be very much appreciated What's more the wafer thin remote control lets you choose a multitude of options from color to brightness Flashing to fade in and out you can even set up your own personal codes red means i'm recording blue playing back green It's a wrap plug in the seven foot long cord and hang it on a door knob or wall hook using the included chain For voice workers silence really is golden and gold is one of the 20 colors you can choose from Order yours now for just 69 95 from voiceover essentials.com. That's voiceover essentials.com The first thing I want to share with you is the plan for these classes the The five lessons that we're going to do the first thing is we're going to start with an introduction today And then we're also going to take a look at what I call the first discipline of voiceover And that is the art of voiceover commercials audio books Animation and so on there's lots of them in fact some that you may not even be aware of And then in the next lesson we're going to take a look at the second discipline of voiceover And that's what I call the commerce of voiceover how to build your business How to do the things that any business needs to do but in particular how to do those things for voiceover In the third lesson and the fourth lesson because it's such a big topic We're actually going to do two parts We're going to take a look at the science of voiceover and the science of voiceover is the technology that you need to know This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shot And we are back with mernival asco Come back and we invite your questions. So put them in the chat room right now plenty of time. Um So okay, so she's got a new booth. Yep In you know, and it's everything's working out for you and everything I wanted What what else are you working on right now that you can tell that I can tell you about um, well Madagascar a little wild is the I play a Costa rican sloth named lucia. Uh, they've were a really great employer during the pandemic I'm also oh in santiago of the seas reprising a bad guy I did a little bit of like a good guy stint for a while but villains are just more fun So I am playing escarlata lapirata in santiago of the seas, which is this really fun. Um I should know this nick jr show um and uh Little wild madagascar a little wild is on amazon Yes, little dreamworks animation there Uh, those are like my two babies right now and they've just been these really fun gorgeous little animations That are for kids and it's heartwarming and everything ends with the happy ending Which was just kind of a great way to end every awful lonely night It's been a rough pandemic for me friends As long as you're working that yeah, yeah, exactly I'm very grateful that the industry was like well, let's let's make it work I'm very grateful for people like tim and everett who are just like yes. I'm busy and what do you need? Well, they're always going to help the people they know can actually make it Yeah, because you know, it's a lot of people like why are you doing this? Yeah, anyway, so are you you're like you must be bilingual. Do you do any any spanish words? um, so That's kind of the funny thing um about spanish voiceover. It's very regional based and Unless they are looking for Bocha mexicanas Meaning we were born here in the u.s. And have a very My accent is very la. Um, it's it's not like But it it when you pair my voice like my normal speaking spanish voice next to like My mother's voice who grew up in mexico or another girl who grew up in um, you know Mexico city my same age. We have totally different accents and the same goes for cubans dominicans portarecans We all have regional accents and so Spanish market is very um, you essentially need to have uh I want to keep calling it there if it it's mexico city, um Spanish or columbian spanish because those are the clearest spanish sounds you can get uh, and my voice like I guess it has nothing to do with the voice. It's just i'm lazy That's what it comes down to and like yeah, I could spend The time really softening out my accent, but I like it And i'm kind of lazy So i'm not going to change it. So and they're still hiring you and the check's still clear exactly so So i'm like the worst person people do as like how do you get into voice over? I'm the worst person to ask that because i'm like, I literally was just doing whatever I wanted and some people were like Hey, that's cool. Come over here. Yeah. Yeah, but the majority of people are like, oh gross Go over there out the door forever So it's just yeah, if there's anything it's like just you do get that one champion And then the rest will kind of fall through for you. That's great. Once again, we're talking with learn of elasco. You got a question for Get a chance to ask it and we we got a couple of questions here So exciting starting with the phyllis for it. You actually get to ask this question. It's george's job to ask Oh, all right. I got to ask the questions. Okay So do you help others with animation demos and or scripts? And I will add that maybe to coaching as well as acting there might be what is being asked as well I do not uh mostly because I Some i'm like thinking about something specific right now. So whenever i zone out. I'm like in a different part of my brain You don't have time I don't have time. Um, and I I don't consider myself an acting Coach or teacher in any way. Um, just because what I feel I do is just really intuitive on my own and I've hodgepodge so many different things together that aren't even acting like I do helotropic breath work before an audition Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that. Um, so I I kind of don't do that because I don't want to freak people out mostly and um, I'm not sure where to begin with like well do it this way. Um So no, I I don't do coaching but I can you know recommend everdoliver's amazing. So is tim. He's a fantastic vocal director in the booth um, and also just like taking improv classes You will probably never improv the script in voiceover probably never but it is incredibly helpful to have this wheelhouse of like Three characters you can always go to, you know, can I do my petulant child? Can I do my um Brassy Mexican woman and can I do my New yorker or mid-atlantic, you know that just have three or four Characters not just accents but specific characters that have names that have identities and homes That way you get the vocal director to laugh at the very least and remember you Right, exactly. So yeah, if there's any wisdom I can impart it's it's to get free and do some improv and have some people in your mind Yeah, build the character out the voice. It's the character out the voice. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah Have you ever thought about doing any directing or had the chance to? No, then don't do it. I won't I want to get really really good at this. I just want to get really good at this stuff excellent Okay, j. Horace black asks something about pay master. We won't go there Yeah, we come back to that. Yeah Says I am sag actress. So what's the process once a client reaches out? To me directly for work I've had a few friends who is an exec in a large corporation that wants to have me Read vo for one of their in-house training videos Do you just work with the talent in the states that you're located in or do you cover every state? Do I need to find their budget or j. Horace That's a lot of questions. You ask a lot of questions. There was a lot of there's a lot of stuff there Okay, so Do you want to email him? I will try to distill this as much as I can so Signatory pay master Services one thing to think about when you're sag after is that there is not in voiceover There's not just union or non-union. There's also a non-jurisdictional Which are projects that don't fall under a union contract And a lot of times you get jobs that can be converted for example I think this non-broadcast is very easy to convert meaning you could take this job that was non-union If it meets the sag Minimum scale including your pension health contributions as well as payroll taxes You can then convert this job to a union job through a third party signatory and pay master, which is what we do So we will handle all the contracts. We'll make sure all the paperwork gets submitted We'll handle submitting pension health as well as payroll taxes and get the talent paid as well And there are a a lot A lot a lot of jobs that can be converted corporate education or anything industrial non-broadcast training videos They can be converted So if you are a union member and you would like to work on these jobs You absolutely can you can convert them and make this job pay into your pension health We work globally so because sag after is global rule number one sag after contracts apply all over the world And we have worked with talent in london. We've worked with talent in south africa in the united states any state in the united states We can help talent with Best thing to do is to reach us at sbsignatory.com Fill out an information sheet and we can tell you if it meets the scale Minimum scale needed to convert the job then it is convertible if it doesn't meet that rate then you can't convert it Make sense. Hopefully that helps So execs, you know, if you have an exec with a company who's doing training videos or Anything that's not going to ever be seen outside of the company Those fall under this coed industrial contract and can very easily be converted for approximately 650 to 750 dollars depending on On the job. So if you're getting about that Obviously, these are very rough numbers. Don't quote me on any of those But we have to look at the act that contract the scale Add up all the costs for pension health payroll taxes signatory fees And whether you're a loan out or an employee will determine how much you pay in taxes Whether you do pay taxes employee taxes It is and that is the tip of the iceberg Of this that is that is the simple version Of this But it's convertible, you know, I I've I've said this a few times we've converted in the last year well into the mid six figures of jobs for voice talent and have helped Dozens of voice actors meet their pension health so they can get their health insurance and with You know approximately 150 to 200 jobs that we've done the last year It is there. It is an option it is not just Union or non-union. There is a lot in this middle that is convertible And can be converted to union and still allow you to work As a union sag after voice actor on jobs that on the surface appear to be non-union See now, I figured he'd give a good long answer for this. So marna could take a deep long breath Always running on high That's okay You get hungry boys question. All right. I'm really just verbatim just to make sure that I don't mess this up Yeah, because marina has a light upper tenor voice Did she get typecast for? Fat quick rapid speech characters or did she get to voice some little old nanas too? Who is this person? My boy, my boy, uh I don't I I did I was a nana in uh, we bear bears Was a little grandma. I play a lot of kids a lot a lot of kids. Um I I don't know I I can also drop lower a little bit lower snack boy So yeah, yeah, I mean I I don't have a mind for vocabulary, so I'm like tenor So I'm just kind of thinking about that. But I again, it's it's all about character for me. So I can Play with whatever the good lord has given me. Um, I'll try to find yeah, something uh, that that is Interesting to listen to so I do listen back to my takes. Um, even if I'm having someone as fabulous as You my dear friend him, uh, kind of putting it all together for me and making it sound nice I do want to know what what sounds funny what sounds interesting what has peaks and valleys So to me that's more important than just like what types of characters can I play? I think I can play everything That's what it feels. I mean you'll you'll feel it as well and you can feel that read. I mean some things You know sound right but feel right exactly. There's a lot of of opportunity to put in those things especially And in care in creating characters that maybe aren't supposed to be Sound a certain way or or have a certain personality that something feels right and feels right in that moment That's really and that's probably where this improv stuff comes in Yeah, you can find these emotions and then find these different parts of this character that feel right In the scene in the moment. Well another thing as well is um, I spent a lot of time. Um Through Stella Adler, Leslie Kahn, uh, Lee Strasberg a lot of time working on script analysis Script analysis is huge. It's huge and it's huge in commercial too. I think a lot of people Yes, kind of gloss over that there is A lot of times it's Part of a sentence or a couple words that is like, oh That's the reason this spot was written. Right. That's the joke that they have or oh, okay I get I see the perspective of what this writer was or what they're trying to get exactly. Yeah Commercial and commercial like script analysis and commercial is huge Especially in character work too. A lot of times you'll have that the one word Or the one little one little aside in in a spec that is really the key to that character. Yeah Yeah, and find that is it's so important. What's your process when you when you get a script? Uh Uh, I get a script and then I scream because I'm like no Did it work? No, I'm kidding No, I love doing this. Um, I I read it. I read it Oh, no, what's your process and so anthony hopkins once said Uh to read the script and then read it again and then read it again And then read it again. Um So that's that's all I'm doing. I'm reading the script. I'm reading it out loud. I'm Reading it into a recording with no voice just to or like no affectation to the voice just to hear what the words are I'm writing on the script. Okay. Well, there's three my is so which my is the most important and how do I build the my's and how do I You know break the the building so that it's funny or so that it had something different or what's a reversal What's the antithetical here? So all of the script analysis BS stuff Hey Yeah, yes, there's just a lot of script analysis for at this point It's like I I read it and I read it and I read it and I'm like, okay What is this also is this, you know a commercial that's 15 seconds And so maybe I don't have time to well, what about my happy play, you know, you know Okay, so how do I shrink it down or is it a 45 minute animated? Almost feature and how, you know, is there drama in this isn't an adult comedy or Yeah, also who who No, you're who what where when wise Um for the scripts like who is producing this who is the voice director who is the animator because that's also going to give you clues as to How realistic how broad how silly how Grounded you have to be for these parts. Um, so yeah, I get like super obsessive I literally have like my mom has Texted me being like, are you camping? Did you even called me in like four days? Are you okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm just really into this character right now. And she's like, all right Call me when you're normal again So that's why I don't call mom, uh, but Yeah, so it's a lot of that processing and then getting it On on to tape sienna the old words Uh, yeah, so then I just record it and At the first that's not true It's sometimes you found some really good first takes but I always tell myself like the first take is trashed Uh, but it probably might not be the first take is gold a lot of the time I do too. Well, there there is a Depending on I guess depending on Where you are, but there's a lot of There's a lot of discovery that can happen in that original take that Can get glossed over in in subsequent takes sure sure But I mean, yeah for like as you build this character, you'll find more depth to it But I think it's a lot of like honesty in that first take That can happen that that you can miss out on if you Whole sale throw it away as oh, that's my first take true true good point a lot of my first takes are maybe like So today was the arnafas lacticle. That's not a word, but let's try again Do you do a lot of um When you've been over I You're off to the side so actually I don't actually see you in the booth, right? Do you have a lot of physical do you bring like staining like stage or theater? Body work into your characters. Yeah Oh, yeah, um, which is really exciting now that I'm finally recording in the booth because I'm like I can move my What uh, yeah, yeah, it's a lot of physical physicality Physicality. Thank you. It's a lot of that. Um, and for me personally because I'm insane Uh, it's a lot of grounding. So I think voiceover if it did anything for me Uh, and make sure I'm always eating food and living Uh, is it gave me the sense of grounding because I had to stand still And be in front of the microphone. It's like, you know, I'm trying to go around. It's not going to catch all of the words So stand still marna. Um, which is was always such a big problem on camera. I'm like Kind of move around as much as possible. Uh, so yeah voiceover just gave me this really beautiful sense of like just rounding in and Learning how to stand still So, yeah once I figured that out I was like, oh, I can add some weird stuff like like, okay, I'm just gonna like Tense this body part and then all of a sudden I'm getting shot in the stomach or something. Um Another thing that I did I can't tell you what it was for um because it's still out in the ether but so I had a retainer in braces and uh There's a character where like she had braces and I was like, well, I don't have braces And it's really hard to kind of keep the stuff in your mouth. So I just put my retainer on And like yeah And like booked it So like little things like don't be afraid to like just play with okay. Well, if I had a prop on stage Wouldn't I why won't I just use a prop and and that character lives in the whole body too? Which I think people forget and in voiceover is it doesn't live from the neck up exactly and even on stage like um Yeah, I use my dad's a drama teacher and I still use One of the earliest things I learned from him was to watch people on stage and watch their feet And see if they're acting all the way to their feet And you see a lot of people who act from the waist up or from the knees up or from the neck up And somebody who's fully grounded in that character. I think this goes in for voiceover as well Is it you can take this character and ground this character all the way to your feet? Um, I think uh, it was Aaron Fitzgerald um She coached it at my studio and I talked about getting into the skin of that character and all the way down to The toes and all the way down into that entire body of that character How beneficial that can be and how much that then that adds into that then that becomes Where the sound of your of the character comes from right because how you're standing versus the character You're still gonna live in the honesty of The moment of the acting that they're in but then the sound comes from How am I standing? Do I is my you know, I have a sprained ankle I have You know, I've I hurt my back or I have a bad knee all these these are all just normal things that happen to me on a daily basis This is how I feel anyway, exactly But all of those things will Will build into how things come out of this character. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah It's just acting it's just The the thing that like was my big epiphany was just knowing who your audience is and for voiceover your audience is your microphone And for camera your audience is a camera for stage your audience is the giant room of people staring at you So Yeah, yeah, it's all acting. It's just how do you tailor it to the audience? You still need those tools We got time for one more question here. Well, it's a great question from grace newton. She says murna What are your long-term goals and voiceover and do you have a dream job? um To do all the characters Um, you know, I I really felt that like when I stepped into voiceover was the first time I was just kind of living moment to moment and living in the present um, so I don't actually have Huge long-term goals at all because I'm like, I don't know. I might get hit by a car tomorrow. Who knows? Uh, but also just I'm I'm so happy to Finally be able to be doing what I love to do which is to just create characters and hang out with people who love telling stories um, so I'm just Yeah, I'm just gonna keep doing this until I get good at it and someone either tells me go do this other job or Uh Then I die. I don't know Should have a positive attitude Anyway, it's been a pleasure having you one. Thank you for inviting her the size of meeting all these wonderful people in this job And uh, but you've been a delightful and I really appreciate you coming on and You know, and so they can see you is hannah the the hula girl And and all these other things that you've been doing and now when I hear your that voice i'm gonna Will mern all righty. Thanks for being with us. Thank you so much for having all right We're gonna take another quick break and then tim and I will wrap things up and rack it up for tech talk right after this Yeah, hi, this is carlo solis rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body 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 voiceover career flourish Don't try it yourself. Go with the pros voice actor websites dot com We're via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what And we're back to talk about one of our fabulous sponsors that have been with us So since the early days back in ewebs and that is source elements the makers of source connect Yes now as a studio owner. Yes I'm going to assume that you use source connect all the time. I was on it had hours three hours of source connect session today Three hours three hours on the day. Yep connected to new york And we had we were connected to cutting room in new york with One talent at los angeles and three in new york in the studio over there. Yeah, and it's great Record it sounds like they're in the same room with us Yeah, so you really if you're if you're a full-time working voice actor You really need to have that capability now in the pandemic hit the everything like you have to have source connect Absolutely We've been telling people that for years that you have to have source connect but now you absolutely have to have source connect and What it is is a studio to studio link where you can talk to They can hear you you can hear them and it's just like it's like being there It's like being in there and we can record on our end So we would record the talents on our end. They could record the talent on their end and as a studio We're done. I don't have to send them files that have send me files. It's great. Yeah So if you want to have source connect, it's real easy. Just go over to source elements.com And look at all the different options they have for you know, they've got budget plans and you can I mean You can buy it monthly now. I just get monthly. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, so go on over there check out source connect and source elements and tell them we sent you You know 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 sandwich And we're back So we got we got to wrap things up here. So you have to go through what we talk about here Like for instance, great next week on this show, which we're about to record is tech talk number 62 I can't believe we've done that many Then we're going to take a week off for labor day and russia schoen And we return on september 13th with vocal therapist. Amy chappen So which and she's fabulous and you'll you know, we'll learn about you know How to get your voice work in the way it's supposed to and then on september 27th vo legal eagle rob siglampaglia Rob's the only person who actually can pronounce his name Uh, but he's you know, we're going to be talking about ai and some of the issues that we're dealing with now and and how to Legally, you know be a voice actor in his book voice over legal. So that would be a lot of fun Uh, we have to thank our donors of the week. We can alternate on these. All right So I'll start with george widham senior, which is george's dad. Gotcha brian page rob raider adi gibbons Antland productions uncle royer michelle blinker, uh christopher epperson sandra men willer philip Sapir trey mosley Shelly avaleno and Thomas thomas pinto tom pinto Tom pinto We also need to thank our sponsors harland hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extras source elements vo heroes dot com voice actor websites dot com and j mc demos uh, thanks to jeff holman in the chat room tonight and Our technical director sumer lino getting it done tonight because that's what she does and of course lee pennie for being Lee pennie uh and tim for being our co-host this week. Thank you for having me. All right We're gonna re-racket and get set for tech talk. So don't go away Unless you're watching this and replay in which area so you're gonna go. I missed it. Anyway, uh, you know something This is not an easy business. You got to really work at it You got to learn as murder was telling us you got to take classes And you got to watch voiceover body shop because listen if it sounds good It is good. Oh, you got it. Excellent. Wow. I'm dan lennard tim freedlander and this is voiceover body shop or vo B s Have a great week everybody