 Wow, it's been a while, but we're back. Yay voiceover body shop and our guest tonight Joining us all the way from down under like on the other side of the world with the toilets flushed the wrong way around I Will have to ask him about that Lofty Fulton there he is say hi lofty. Hey guys. All right If you guys for having me on the show tonight, oh, we're thrilled to have you and if you got a question for for lofty Get it in the chat room. Yeah, we got both chat rooms one of them will be making this bubble pops So if you send us one, you'll hear the bubble pop on the show because Because we don't know why it's one of those way it is. We also have a Facebook chat. You can post your questions And all right all of that coming up right now on voiceover body shop From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio And together from the center of the VO universe, they bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars a Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain the professional video 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 Bringing 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 voice over business Welcome to voice over body shop Voice over body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm home of Harlan Hogan signature products source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites.com where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes dot com become a hero to your clients with a word-winning voiceover training J. Michael Collins 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 Hi there, I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whittem and this is voiceover body shop or VO Be as My we have been gone for a long time. Yes, but you were probably didn't miss being here that much No, what you were doing good. We took a Central European cruise down the Dan you yes great You know Viking cruises. They're great The food was great 180 people on the boat We got to meet all of that's quaint. It was quite no kids Wow first time RC and I had a chance to actually get away without the kids your kids or anybody else or anybody else's kids And you know it was our 25th anniversary and I've got a picture here of this restaurant in Budapest This is the New York cafe in Budapest and as you can see it is quite an elegant place holy cow And I don't know how it is they knew it was our anniversary, but they gave us more pastry So we were totally stuffed with pastry that night, but we had a Grand old time on the Danube. We were in nice Prague, which is not on the Danube but we were you know in Linz in Bratislava and Vienna and Budapest and I don't want Budapest was Gorgeous, just which place had the best concert hall that you went into well Vienna had the most concert the most concert but the concert hall We went to in Budapest was the Franz list Academy and it was beautiful Probably pretty good and the acoustic the acoustics and all them were marvelous We went to one concert in Vienna that was like half Mozart half Strauss It was very touristy and it was hokey and it was so much fun But it was in this this concert hall. It was very small It's 350 years old and Mozart and List and all these guys actually played there and it was like it was also incredibly hot, but oh really Yeah, oh just there's no air conditioning in these places marble block. That's right. You know totally airtight building Yes, but I'm glad to be back. I guess you went snowboarding. I never got to the snow yet No, go mountain biking. Yeah over the weekend I had friends that went mountain biking up to the top of Mount Wilson and got about two miles from the top Yeah before the snow just got too deep Right. This is just bizarre folks I mean to drive from Topanga over the hill and look at the valley and all you can see is snow capped Mountain range all the way from what looks like Oh hi all the way across. Yeah, so rare for us But it's amazing and we're gonna get more and it's only the beginning of December warmed up Yes, and it's only the beginning of our show and it's time to introduce our guest who is joining us from far Farwee where it's summer It is it's full on right it is it's getting into summer or full-on summer. It's well Let's see it. Well, we'll have to ask him. Yeah joining us from Sydney, Australia is a really prime voice from down there Mr. Ian lofty Fulton Let's turn on his mic. Shall we? Hey, there's an idea another intro Ian lofty Fulton Hey guys, there it is Ah Well played sir. Oh Been a lot of technology absolutely been a long time since we've seen you Now I remember the first time I met you. I thought your your name was lefty You're not the first to think that okay, I Have I have had lifty as well. I don't know where you would come from that's an interesting one others go I can't it's I Think it's shorty and that just sort of like yeah Most people is shorty and that just brings a blank expression No, no No, hey Meyer, please exactly So what now you're a voice artist in Australia or or I guess as you like an Oz as you guys like to call it and yeah, um, yeah, Oz is fine, okay, and So are you from Sydney originally or? No, I'm I'm originally from that little island state that when you look at the map of Australia You see little island state Tasmania comes from yeah, I'm originally a Tasmanian. So I'm far Yeah, there's many things said about Tasmanians two heads inbred all of that kind of stuff Not all of it's true. In fact, a lot of it's not Taz is a beautiful place and then My career brought me to the mainland and I just moved up the eastern seaboard and Ended up back here in in Sydney How's the fire situation right now? It's been pretty touch-and-go George to be honest I know California has been dealing with a with a lot of fires as well and it's You guys were talking about the season it is now officially summer, but these fires started way back in Pretty well the middle of spring and all the authorities are just going what is going on We're seeing the kind of conditions we're used to in summer and if this is a fire season in spring What is summer gonna be like so it doesn't necessarily go well for that. Yeah, really? Yeah Yeah, it's really sad for a lot of people who have lost property and and unfortunately some have lost their life as well Yeah, all that that's that's I Watch I watched one of those amazing clips where a lady rescues a koala Mm-hmm. That was incredible Moving and harrowing. Yeah, did the cool Nurse to back to back to hell That's amazing So you're a voice actor down there and now I am I imagine that the the business is a little bit different down there than it Is here you were we were talking earlier because it's it's a smaller market, but how you know You probably know how it works here a little bit, but how does it work down there? Well, I suppose the the thing about it and Dan that as you said, it's it's a smaller market We are we are a population in size of only 25 26 million people. So what are we talking about? roughly the Population of California thereabouts so the US being more than 300 million our market by virtue of being smaller operates slightly differently for instance, we don't audition which I know auditioning is Common in the States. In fact, you pretty well audition for most things There are exceptions to that rule if for instance, you're being considered for a Network promo gig or something like that. Of course, you're going to audition but Clients don't just ring up and say I'd like to hear what you sound like on this ad If they do that, that's fine but they will pay what is known as a submission fee which is a percentage of the final fee and Likewise being a smaller market. We also don't get the residuals. We get say a one-off payment For the job and the client will buy it as to whether it's going on TV Radio being used on the net or being used for something else like whether it's a conference Is there a union in Australia for voice actors? There is a union. There is a union and they've they've fought hard to create the rights that we all work from now and Even though we don't get residuals If the client buys the product for say a three-month buy or a 12-month buy and they go outside of that time frame then There is another fee due to be paid They can't just roll it over and kind of not let you know about it. No, well, it's nice that they have a submission fee You know if you if you're auditioning for something and they're they're they're paying you to because I mean How many people are they generally asking to do that? It's probably a fairly small number Well, yeah to to use an example You Myself and George could be considered for a job and the client thinks well I know all three of the guys can do it But I want to hear what their interpretation is and so you would be booked to go into a studio do your submission for it and Then the client decides which of the three he's going to use and generally the submission won't go final sometimes they do but Generally, they'll get you back again to to redo it as a final as a final track, right? What type of work do you specialize in or do do everything across the board? my my bread and butter tends to be promos and station imaging both for TV and Radio, that's the thing that tends to keep me the busiest the other one that is is a really good one for me is doing I think you guys would refer to them as industrials. We call them corporate narrations and as Stranges that might sound what is sometimes referred to as the voice of God stuff for a conference that might be being held whether it's a Financial year conference for a company and ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats The conference is about to start award ceremonies for industries. They're they're primarily the things I tend to do Yeah, and and that's great stuff because you got to have a flow of things You know a constant stream of of work if you want to make a living in this business And it's and to find clients like that who will you know help you out and and have you Get that stuff Done is really important. So that's great that you can get that kind of stuff How many TV stations are there? Well, how many Australia Chris is it's a bigger country than most people think? I mean, it's an island, but it's a continent, you know, it's like two two places in one Yeah, how many how many major markets are there? It goes my dog by the way adding sound effects when he wants Oscar, please be quiet whether he'll listen to me or not I don't know. Um, sorry about that There are four There are I beg your pardon, there are three major commercial network stations two government stations and Then there is Subscription or cable TV as well, which has a plethora of stations that you can choose from but we have three commercial freighter air and two free-to-wear stations that the the government is an enterprise in mm-hmm and and so When you look at the the cable stations and the subscription based of course your choices are Many and varied and they extend as to whether or not you're a sports fan Whether you're a news fan or whatever the case might be you would tailor your subscription to what it is that you particularly want to watch Yeah, love Australian rules football, especially when the man from glad comes out from behind the goalpost and Just points out. Oh, yeah Yep, and then waves these flags and says you've done a good job. Well done. You got yourself a goal That's right. Yeah, or if you only waves one flag, you've got a point So the goal is worth six points and the behind is a single point It's an excuse to have drink fosters. That's all I've oh gosh. No Dan. I've got to tell you fosters That's your yeah. Yeah, it's okay. That's what they have here. What's the good beer in Australia? Look at the moment. I've been I've been very fond of a pale ale called 150 lashes Yeah, it's it's a very nice beer one that I'm very fond of so Yeah, there's a few of them in the rounds, but that's that's my favorite beer at the moment Alrighty well if you're just joining us We're talking with lofty Fulton who's joining us from Sydney, Australia Where it's like like 11 o'clock or 1115 1120 what time is it there? Or does I go backwards down here's the freaky thing. It's just gone 20 past midday on Tuesday All right, so so a day ahead of you basically all right. Well, we won't keep you from lunch too long Thank you. Does that mean I'm boring? No, not at all not at all No, and I know that there are people who do watch the show live in Australia and they're always talking about We're just eating lunch while you guys are on live. Mm-hmm kind of cool Yeah, I was I got the Vegemite sandwich ready to go outstanding. I've never tried it. I probably never will So if anybody has a question for Ian and you want to you want to You're fascinated by what he does and and what it's like down in Australia or Some other stuff that we want to cover throw it in the chat room right now And I think George is watching the chat room and I am and we will pass that question on to him in our next segment So it you've you you've had a very interesting career now we met like ten years ago Yeah, and I don't tonight. I think it was yeah, so 11 years ago Yeah, we've been doing that this what we've been doing this show for eight and a half years So it's the reason we are doing this show is because Dan and I met at that same conference. That's right That's why you're kidding this. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Wow Well on behalf of the Luddites like myself who know very little about studio equipment and engineering and how to set one up properly Thank you guys. Well, you're quite welcome. Yeah, I was I was watching them I was watching a playback about noise gating earlier and I I got confused my my eyes started to sort of like Spin so I thought no, I'll ask George about that. It's probably for the better because if you do it wrong It makes you sound terrible. Yeah, I think we've actually sort of like gotten away from noise gating This is it. I don't use it here at home But then again, my um, it's not primitive but my the way I record is fairly basic Yeah, don't worry about the bells and whistles because I don't understand them most of the time Well, you don't need them. That's the whole point, you know So so tell us a little bit about how you set up there And you were you were saying that most of the work that you do is that outside studios But you do do some work at home That is that is correct. Um, we're starting we're starting to move towards the US model of of Working from home, but the reluctance has been and quite rightly so in the past that Some studios at home weren't set up properly and a very dear friend of mine has been a sound engineer for quite some time said No matter how hard you try you can't get the sound of drywall out of a mix but so as I say when When I was setting up my studio a very dear friend of mine, Jamie Green came and Help me set it up and got all the right equipment and actually here's one. I prepared earlier for you guys Just excuse me as I roll back from the camera. That's great. Is actually my booth so And people know I haven't shrunk it's just that I'm not that tall Um So I don't know how well you can see that we can see it from here. Sure. It's a cubby Yeah, that's my voiceover booth. So what it is. Um, I had the opportunity to get a Vocal booth from a client which they no longer needed because they were building a proper isolation studio and Then somebody said to me, where are you going to put it? I said well Upstairs in the second studio and I said, you know, how heavy that damn thing is so I had to I had to have a workaround It would have been great to have the actual vocal booth the weight of it would not be a good idea to put upstairs and So this is it. What it is is for Internal doors if you like, yeah, it's kind of doors you're having your home They've all been hinged together. They can be taken apart and moved easily and Lined with the audio phone and it does the job quite nicely In there just this microphone here an omen u87 oh and There is a mic stand that doesn't have a mic in it at the moment because that's the Sennheiser 416 that I'm talking to you Guys on and got sitting on the desk. So I'm a client of mine who I Would go and work with Dan in in the studio in Sydney And we live just south of the city about an hour and a half out He said what's the point of driving all that way if we can get you set up at home to get the to replicate the sound that we want and Yeah, it got bless him in a way that one night because he lives not far from me as well he came around and We positioned the bike and different configurations of door open door closed We're about in the studio and he got it to the way he wanted it to sound and now I work from home instead of driving Well, that's that's what we'd like to hear from people because that really is that that's what makes this business work Is that you can work from home? But it's interesting that that is different. It is different in your in your market, right? I mean if you guys are Home studios just weren't taken seriously for a very very long time Exactly and but with good reason as I said before George, you know what my friend said about you can't get the sound Drywall out of a mix and there was some poorly set up sounds and studios and clients couldn't be Guaranteed that the end product they were getting is something they could use Yeah, so that's that's why for a long time people were reluctant to allow Home studios to be used. Well, I think that's still the issue here, too I mean, there's you know, some issue that there's more of us now that have figured out how to Right get rid of the drywall sound right by not using Yeah, it's like but now we have now we're just recording my bathroom. Yeah, we sound fine. Yeah, the bathtub. It's got a great resonance to it But now now I am thankfully being able to work from home more frequently So my two major clients I mentioned before who I do imaging and promos for I do them both from here Outstanding and what do you record on software wise? I? Use I started out using twisted wave a brilliant program Which I still love and still sits on my computer, but now I tend to use audition. Yeah Two of our favorites are the best. Yeah, I like it for I like both programs for their simplicity That's that's the thing about them that I love It's some I'm not that technically minded as I've said earlier and you know Simplicity of both audition and twisted life great programs for me. I found I found pro tools and this is just my own personal opinion It was like trying to drive a thumbtack with a sledgehammer so Overfeated that's what I'm working for what yeah, I needed at home that it was just it was there were certain parts of it That were beyond me so I went for the easier option. Yeah, we definitely agree with you on that We definitely agree with you on that for sure. Yeah, I think of audition. It's like a twisted wave on steroids Still has the simple interface of editing, but it has way more features and stuff and so it's a good stepping stone George isn't that how twisted wave came about in the first place that there was the Frustration of those in-home studios having pro tools or whatever was available to them at the time which essentially you needed a studio engineering degree to use and It was a case that we need to simplify this for people who are working from home. Is that the story or I got well You know sort of we interviewed Thomas years ago Yeah, he was he was simply trying to create a good recording program a simple I think it was a dictation system. It wasn't he doing it as a as a just a I mean if I remember like an engineering exercise. Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't like a commercial It wasn't for commercial gain that he made it. Yeah, and then yeah, and then Bo Weaver discovered it and Told the rest of us about it both stumbled on it and thought he liked it And then he had the ear of the developer Thomas and you know, he'd say well be cool if it did this Be really nice if you could do that and then the software just started to evolve from there And even at this day if you get the ear of Thomas and the right time, you know You have a little an idea if it's not very hard to implement. He'll add it You know, and that's well amazing about the software all these years later Yeah, well on behalf of those who don't understand how to run Pro Tools. Thank you Thomas and thank you Bo. Yeah No need to use Pro Tools, you know from what you were doing Yeah, now unless you're like recording big multi-track albums for some band or anything Yeah, once again, if you got a question for lofty throw it in the chat room But I wanted to get into another thing with you. You've got a book that just came out mm-hmm and It's called my life in short In fact, here it is. I have one I prepared earlier Get the right camera angle right So yeah lofty my life in short and What fun because that's There's a few pages there's a few pages um, what is it? It's about 330 odd pages But yeah over the course of 55 years, I suppose that there's there's a bit to tell yeah, but that that came about because I had been interviewed for a number of Pieces out here in Australia, which appeared both in press and also on TV and in the course of Posting those on social media somebody just said lofty you should think about writing a book and it had been suggested to me Previously, but I'd freaked out at the gun like god no one's gonna want to read my story and for some reason this time it just resonated with me and Got in touch with one of the ladies friend of my journalist and neighbor who'd done one of the pieces that it appeared in the Press out here and said Nicole. I'm thinking about writing a book and she said, oh, I'll be your ghost writer and Week later or two weeks after that. We met with Harper Collins here in Australia and a week after that We were offered the contract to publish it. That's amazing. I think I might write a book to Having a contract was about the space of three to four weeks Wow, that's incredible. That is impressive. You didn't have to self-publish. That's amazing. Yeah. No, um, I I'm a big believer in the whole universal law thing and The world operates in mysterious ways It was just the way things lined up met Nicole week later She introduced me to a friend who was a scout for books. She got the intro to us with Harper Collins We met them and then they said, yeah, we'd love to publish it outstanding. So tell us a little bit about yourself I mean, you know, I mean, we know you but most people may not be familiar with you or your work because you're in Australia Those in the voice business know you but tell us a little bit how you got into the business and that sort of thing well at the ripe old age of 15 I woke up one Saturday morning and said to my mom cup of tea and toast. Thanks mom She she had heard this request several times in in the course of raising four children myself being the youngest and As a side note, I'm the only one who was born in my family with a controversy Which is the form of dwarfism that I have most people think well, you know, there's got to be a history of it Yes, there does but it's also got to start somewhere and it happened to start with me So my my opportunities career-wise were Shall we say fairly limited physical labor is not it not something that I could easily take on and On that day that I asked mom for a cup of tea and toast my my voice had dropped. It literally had just It was it was kind of freaky because I don't remember it doing that whole choir boy phase that you know Anyone who's got a teenager in the home and adolescent boy Hi mom, can I have some please can I have some You know going all over the shop and I don't remember that and the reason I remember this day So clearly is my mom was was cleaning and she had a you know best Alice from the Brady Bunch outfit on and she had the feather Duster in hand. She had it back to me and when I said can I have a cup of tea and toast? Thanks mom She just stop Oh She held the feather duster like you know the Statue of Liberty holds the lamp and and she just Turned around to look at me and said What did you say? I thought obviously I forgot my manners. My mom was huge on manners. I said oh cup of tea and toast Thanks, mom What happened to your voice? Don't know so yeah from that day fourth and it was mom who suggested to me that I should Think about getting into radio as a possible career. She'd worked in radio herself in sales Media for a while. There you go. There's a connection. Yep, and of course I'd say to her. Well, you know, mom Only famous people getting to radio. There's there's not a chance and being a noxious teenager at the time It was like yeah, whatever mom she suggested to my speech and drama teacher at the time that Radio might be a good career for me and when the speech and drama teacher suggested it was like hey, that sounds like a great idea and one of the local radio stations in the town I lived in would give the school's time to come and report on what they'd done and The speech and drama teacher was in charge of handing those out I went and did those and after the last one I got a call from the radio station to say come on in we'd like to have a chat to you and They offered to train me and from there I was able to start on my radio career which I worked in let me see about five radio stations all up over the course of ten years and Then at the end of it I got kind of a little bored with playing the same songs over and over again, and it happens Yeah, I thought, you know, I've had to learn how to read commercials So why don't I have a crack at this freelancing thing and I came to Sydney 27 years ago and the rest been doing it pretty much ever since so it's um I Equate taking that step out of radio, which is although a job that I was Over at the time and provided a steady income to jumping into the freelance world sort of like and don't try this at home people Jumping into a swimming pool fully clothed just to see if you can swim. Don't try it. It's not a good idea Thankfully, I swam but and didn't sink. Yeah as we like to tell people, you know If you want to start from this and you know stock up on ramen noodles Stuck up on what ramen noodles ramen noodles dry noodles. Yeah stock up on dry Yeah, that's a mac and cheese. Yeah, lots of lots of canned goods are great when you're starting Yeah, it's about all you can afford but you you've overcome some odds Obviously, you know, you're your your physical size and appearance and and you know, which you know to some people is like Oh, you're a dwarf But it's obviously you you've you've had to overcome a lot. I'm sure you took a lot of bullying when you were a kid and So how did you deal with all that? um unfortunately, Dan what it did was just sort of and I equated to like trying to hold a you know a basketball under water eventually the basketball's gonna get the better of you and pop Up out of the water and it's exhausting trying to do that all the time I just had to keep pushing these emotions of having been bullied not just in school But there was one of the radio stations I worked at which I actually got bullied in as well and After the last round of bullying from management. I just decided, you know, it's it's time to get out of here and That opened other doors for me, which was great But all of that kind of thing of having been born different and born into a different Born into a big person's world for one of a better term it It set up a lot of negative emotions, which I had to deal with and Around about six years ago. They all came to the fore by bubbling up to the surface and I had a breakdown I went into a about of clinical depression and general anxiety disorder and I basically stopped functioning, but thankfully with the right help and Continue to this day. It's an it's an ongoing process Um, I've been able to get my mental health back in order I think that's good. Good to know. Yeah Well, once again, if anybody else has a question for for lofty Fulton throw it in the chat room We'll get to it and Ask him all of your questions because I know you're just dying to talk to him Uh, right after these incredibly important messages. So don't go away This is Anthony Mendez. You're watching voice over body shop Question what's the biggest challenge you have with voice over? 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 voheroes.com want to know As we head into the new year, they're planning new courses and new training and they want to find out what you need most And it's easy to let him know just drop him an email at David at voheroes.com and let him know what you'd like to know Is it tech oriented? Is it about auditioning? Is it about booking more work finding an agent podcasting audio books performance questions? Whatever that one thing is that keeps you up at night that makes you scratch your head or that you've always wanted to know about Success and vo email david and ask the email address again is david at voheroes.com That's david at voheroes.com As a voice talent, you have to have a website But what a hassle getting someone to do it for you and when they finally do they break or don't look right on mobile devices They're not built for marketing and seo. They're expensive You have limited or no control and it takes forever to get one built and go live So what's the best way to get you online in no time? Go to voiceactor websites.com like our name implies voice actor websites.com just does websites for voice actors We believe in creating fast mobile friendly responsive highly functional designs that are easy to read and easy to use You have full control no need to hire someone every time you want to make a change And our upfront pricing means you know exactly what your costs are ahead of time You can get your voice over website going for as little as $700 So if you watch your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voicehactor websites.com where your vo website shouldn't be a pain in the you know, what? This is bill ratner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george wittem vobs.tv 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 This is virgin radio. Well, okay. We're not that innocent. There's genes for wearing and there's genes for working Dickies because I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values A leader for california and a voice for america. It's smart. It's a phone It's a smart phone, but it's so much more. It's a the files are ready Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song. It's the end of the road for rig When hope is lost the i8 from bmw Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's j michael collins. Bet you think i'm gonna try and sell you a demo now, huh? I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email It's j michael at jmc voiceover.com now if dan will stop waxing this mustache for a minute. We'll get back to the show This is bill ratner and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham v obs dot tv Back all right, and we're back And we're back and we're back and we're back Say it with more verse We're back with in lofty falton joining us from sydney australia and uh jerky had a question for him Yeah, I mean we're i'm just curious how you know actors like peter dinklage Having had that incredibly prominent and success the role in such a successful series on game of thrones How that may have affected actors like yourself and anybody that has the same kind of stature, you know and I can't remember the technical term. We tell me again the right proper term. Um dwarfism dwarf. Okay dwarfism There was another medical word you mentioned earlier, but oh, yeah, sorry There are there are many different types of dwarfism most of which. I don't know I just know the um the one that I have yeah the most common one and it's also the one that peter has achondroplasia is the medical term for it and what that refers to Is the shorter long bones being the arms and the legs. Yeah the torso is of A uh normal height and the head is enlarged so that gives us that disproportion of course with the short arms and legs The long body and and for one of a better term fatter head Well, I mean you like you you were saying earlier that I mean it went during the break how you know for many many years that your roles were limited to Circus freaks Basically, absolutely and now because of his role. I mean are you seeing that as a as a positive thing now for you guys? I see it as a very positive thing because his role was taken seriously and I have not um with the exception of a couple of pieces which were really well done um I for that reason have steered clear of on-camera work because Generally what people have offered um has been Oh, we want him in there as the point of derision to laugh at him treat him like the circus freak all of this kind of thing In fact one story I'll share with you my agent knew that I wouldn't do on-camera stuff And this is going back a number of years now and she was a fantastic gatekeeper when it came to this kind of thing Somebody rang up and said um, I'll look we want to use lofty in this commercial that we're doing And it's going to be really really tastefully done and she just said look he won't do it But you don't even know what it's for you I'm telling you he won't do it because he's seen these things come through often enough to know what they're like And you know, he's he's just not prepared to put himself out there as a circus freak, which is my choice And um, they said oh no look it's going to be really tastefully done He said okay. Well send me through the roll and uh, if I have a look over it And I think it's worth handing through to him to consider it I'll let him know so a week or so went by and I hadn't heard anything and so I rang her and I said, um What happened with that commercial that they were saying was going to be really tastefully done And it was for a foot odor commercial and the scene as I was led to believe Was people commuting on a bus or standing up holding the upper handrails And of course the camera would pan along there's the taller people then camera comes down to me And then it goes back up again to the rest of the people standing on the bus And it was like basically the premise being because I'm sure that I was going to smell foot over first. So use this powder Really tastefully done. Yeah Yeah, really Yes, uh, I applaud her for not sending it through and They're generally roles that you know have been offered and I've always steered clear of them because um, I I'm just not interested. I I had enough bullying and freakish behavior at school And you know, you still get the morons on the street calling out. Hey short ass and stuff like that. Hey fathead Hey, look at him. Um, you know, I don't need to put myself out there for that Further derision is just no point Well, you showed them. Yeah, because now you're doing something that You're obviously extremely skilled at and become quite successful at so We'll thank you Yeah, I didn't know if I was allowed to say ass on the um on on the thing or not But um, can I share with you a couple of stories that in relation to what you're just talking about george That in the in the days prior to the internet where of course you could google you can google anyone now Google me you'll see stacks of images But before captain google came along the way we were cast was Back in the old days off cassette our demos were on cassette And the client would listen choose who they want that ring the agent and book the talent It then went to cds and then eventually onto online casting So back in the days of cassette and cd most people didn't know what I looked like And this is back when um, I mentioned before about cable tv was starting Was very much in its infancy here in australia and uh, the sports channel now known as fox sports was Casting for voices and they they booked out a studio for the day And they had voices coming in on sort of like 15 minute 30 minute intervals one after another just rolling through And I'd not been to this studio before and uh, it was an old tv station Which had been converted back into a production suite And so I've walked in and it was about seven o'clock at night and this lady looks up at from the reception desk and she goes Um, can I help you? Yeah, hi, my name's lofty. I'm here to do an audition for hu and she went Okay out the stairs along the corridor down the stairs you'll get to another receptionist and she'll let you know you're here So I went in got to the other receptionist who looks up from a desk quizzically goes Um, can I help you? Yeah, hi, my name's lofty. I'm here to do an audition for hu And she went, oh, okay, please take a seat Pointing to a couch that was the way to her right and the door to the Production suite was in front of her. She said I'll let them know you're here Anyway, a few minutes later a cast of a few guys I would say there were about five or six of them all piled out of the production suite and they're looking at their watches This guy's late I'm just watching this out of the corner of my eye trying not to freak out and the receptionist And the receptionist goes to uh hu as subtly as she possibly could I'll just that's What that's Are you sure? Yeah, I'm sure And so hu comes over extends his hand to shake it and uh lofty cute. Yeah good Anyway, the upshot of it is they rang my agent the following day and I said, why don't you tell us about lofty? What do you mean? Tell you what was he late? Was he hard to work with? Was he rude? Was he difficult? What's the story? No, what he looks like Uh, well because you're hiring in for his voice and not what he looks like and eventually I got the gig anyway and Went on had an association with fox sports for about 10 10 years or so. Oh, I'm glad you're happy ending to that story. Yeah Yeah, I did there have been many a client surprised I'm sure uh Well, we've got a lot of uh questions from our amazing audience that is scattered about the uh the four corners of the globe Yeah, we have a one-man interview from paul stifon Well, we'll start with um Actually, I'm gonna read off your screen because it's a lot easier to see with there you go over here, huh? Okay So one from paul, uh asking How much do you need to adjust your schedule to work with international clients? So Yeah, are you having to work wacky hours or is a lot of that stuff send and record and send stuff? Um, I I haven't done a lot internationally. Um, I have worked with abudabi Singapore. I have worked with the states and Yeah, we we do adjust our hours. You basically you make it easy for the client So if the client has a studio that or wants to hear you at nine o'clock in in california And it happens to be I don't know two o'clock in the morning here you um You you get up and and work around it. I don't I haven't had to do it all that frequently But one job that I did do which was um for he uh, hunday as you guys say over there. We say the hunday and major league football they did this thing of Draft day 2020 I ended up being the voice of that and I was in the booth on On istn back when we had it at two o'clock in the morning But you you you do what you've got to do to get it Yeah, no, no, I'll bet it gets messed up with schedule since you're on the other side of the international date line It's like well, that's my tuesday morning. Uh, but it's your monday night Or absolutely dad. Is that happened much at all or? I am I've um, I've relied on this website world time converter and thankfully a lot of the iPhones You can put in locations and if you're any good at math, which I can't profess to be you You know, you can't out the hours and work it out that way, but um yeah, the I had one situation where I was uh, I was booked for a certain time and um The client didn't realize the time was pacific and pacific time rather rather than the east coast time and um That sort of got a little out of whack, but thankfully I was there at the right time So we did a bit of jigging around and it was all good Yeah, that's always fun. It's like three hours ahead three hours But it's messed me up plenty of times. Yeah, luckily the podcast I'm along with a guy from australia a guy I mean two guys from australia Sydney and melbourne they they coordinate it and they're so used to dealing with you know pacific time And then robert marshall is and you know, uh central time, right? They've gotten pretty good at coordinating it, but then we have a guest on from somewhere else. It's it's not easy Um fred norris, um Oh We had it on the lower third, but would you say out loud? What is your website because people may want to hear your demos love like falton dot com lofty falton dot com Because release the show is a podcast too. So people may only hear it not see Yeah, um, can I can I give a plug for the books website as well? Oh absolutely, please. Yeah Um as I hold it up to the camera one more time Uh lofty my just like the title is there lofty my life in short dot com Unfortunately, the paperback is only available in australia, but if you'd like to read it or hear it I did the audio book for it. Um, it's uh available on audible and Other other sites. So if you go to lofty lofty my life in short dot com that'll tell you all about it Thank you excellent Oh, have you used coaches and if so are they always Australian due to the accent differences from the u.s. Coaches and does that matter? Um I have my coaches I've worked with uh a dialect coach out here a lady by the name of kathryn beck who Formerly well is from chicago originally married to an ozzie living out here in Sydney and i've also done quite a deal of work with maryce tabias who is just incredible she She is quite rightly referred to as the voice whisperer and if you have the opportunity to work with her to hone your craft and I Thoroughly suggest you do so because it doesn't really matter in that case particularly with maryce Um, she works with people all over the world Uh, so the accent isn't an issue. Sure Absolutely Yeah, but I I would I would say that Coaching is is particularly important because it's I suppose it's like being an athlete in the sense of you know You run 100 yards Sprint you can't just sit on your couch and pull it out on a Saturday morning as you head to the track You've you've got to train for it. You've got to you know, you've got to keep it in your bag. So to speak to Keep keep up with what's changing and and how yeah, yeah How things are moving because that is one thing sure fire about voiceover is it's constantly changing Yeah, pause another question here says do you work in new zealand at all? Uh, any crossover in the two markets? No, I know there's hefty competition between the ozzy's and the kiwis Is is is it a slightly different accent? Is there is there a crossover in those markets? Not a lot across over Because the new zealand accent is different It's it's different in the way as the difference between the canadian and the us accent um that As an american you would hear all the different nuances in canada that uh that make somebody's accent Stand out to you whereas to somebody from another country they might go they sound very similar Or they sound the same are you canadian or are you from the us and so from that perspective? Uh to those living in both places they can easily tell the difference between the accents Of course already Uh, let's see. He has also asked in the us. It seems we can't go to the grocery store without seeing another voice actor How much of your competition or colleagues? Do you know or have met in person? A lot, um, we have the We have the the beauty of going out to work as as we discussed earlier dan that a lot of our work is done in um commercial studios in town And we're generally part of us an agency roster So we all tend to see each other or bump into one another every now and then we're not as We're not as isolated as perhaps just being stuck in your home studio all the time so yeah a number of my friends are voice actors and If we get together as an agency and the roster is having a party so to speak then of course you you get to see the people You know Yeah, that kind of answers the question. I don't know if it does. Yeah Well, you should probably have an australian meet-up group Which is something, you know, we encourage it at world voices is that you know people should you know Work within their own communities and and support each other and get together and uh Because that's really important in the in the voice over world. So, uh, I don't know if there is one in australia It's huge. Um, we have a we have a get together at the end of each financial year I don't know. I think you guys might call it a a fiscal fiscal year. Yeah where the um The studio engineers and the voice actors and the agencies Just go raise a glass to the end of another year and get a chance to catch up but There's not so many workshops that I see obviously, you know keeping in touch with the state's market I see a lot of things online about workshops and get-togethers. We don't tend to have those so much here I think I think part of it and something I've also been guilty of is that um People have their piece of pie and they they tend to want to protect that piece of pie and they feel it You know, if they go and share their secrets with other people then they might come along and take their pie I don't know. It's I can't speak for everybody. But I know previously that was the kind of feeling I had Sure, I understand. All right So all right to finish up with Now you you've you've had a very challenging, you know Challenging early part of your life and you've been able to pull it together Any words of encouragement for somebody who's trying to get into the voiceover business and and how to overcome the The obstacles that you do to to try and be successful I would say um something we touched on a moment ago work with good coaches and The best way that um, you find out about good coaches is talking to fellow voice actors um uh I heard about marise a lot online and a lot of the trailer guys and promo guys were talking about it. That's how I I came to know of her and I think you've got to you've got to get with somebody that you like and can work with easily and also trust uh, it's not a one-size-fits-all so find the right coach for you and um You know talk to your friends and colleagues in the industry and find out what their recommendations would be for moving for Perhaps who you do your demo with and as there are different facets of the industry as we know um It would depend on which coach you go and work with like if your passion is say animation For instance, you've worked with an animation coach promos and trailers. You've worked with somebody different commercials ebooks for argument sake or audiobooks. I should say so Yeah, it's a matter of doing a bit of research, but thankfully And dan you just said that people share a lot of that information within the community. There's a lot of that to be had out there and um, yeah, just pick the right person for you to work with Alrighty Ian lofty falton Thanks for joining us here on voiceover body shop We've been it's been great to see you after all these years too and uh, you're planning on coming I had a lot more here last time. You saw it. You we saw each other down I had a lot more here. You may remember I was sporting a fantastic mullet But uh, George and Dan, thank you so very much for the opportunity to catch up with you guys today. I really appreciate it Yeah, well, we hope we hope to get you here in the back out in the west coast soon And I want to see australia now. I've seen central Europe now. I want to go see australia in new zealand Definitely, it's worth it. It's worth it make sure Alrighty lofty falton everybody. Alrighty. Well, george and I'll be right back to wrap things up right after these This is anthony mendez. You're watching voiceover body shop Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voiceover industry has to offer that place is voiceover extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voiceover career or a seasoned veteran ready to reach that next professional level Stay in touch with market trends coaching products and services while avoiding scams and other pitfalls Voiceover extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions Bringing you the most current information on topics like audiobooks auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voiceover success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voiceover audition It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com All right, it's time to talk about our good friend harlin hogan over at voice over essentials Dot com that's voice over essentials dot com great place to get all sorts of stuff and the other day was black friday today cyber monday and You only have a little bit of time To save a lot of money over at voice over essentials not that his prices are always great But he's got this great deal right now You can today is the last day you can save up to 150 dollars over at voice over essentials It's the one time of the year when they discount the portabouth plus and the portabouth pro so far they've said that black friday has been fabulous and The sales of the new centrance mixer face have been great But if you want a portabouth plus or a portabouth pro now before midnight Pacific time harlin says you can get 150 dollars off the pro the pro or plus the only time of the year they do it Because they want you to have one of those great little portable units in your arsenal as a voice actor And they got all sorts of other great stuff We talked about the centrance mixer face and of course the harlin hogan vo1 a microphone That you see right here that i'm now tapping on never do that in the studio and uh also the harlin hogan Signature series headphones and a bunch of other stuff go over to voice over essentials dot com right now well after the show And get yourself all the stuff they have but right now save 150 dollars on a portabouth pro or a portabouth plus Thanks for being our sponsor for almost nine years harlin. We love you This is the time of the show where we get to talk about one of our wonderful sponsors source elements Those are the creators of source connect That is a software that voice acting pros are being demanded to have in their home studios By the commercial studios of the world. How do I know this? Well, I've set up software for everybody on every platform and in every scenario you can imagine And this is the one that people are being requested to get It's a standalone application doesn't run on a google chrome browser So you have a lot more stability involved And this software has been tried and true tested improved the whole nine for well over 10 years now So if you really want to be establishing a business and voice over that works with the top studios in the world Top agents that kind of thing make sure you have source connect locked and loaded in your studio Absolutely important go get a 15 day free trial at source dash elements dot com 15 day free trial You don't need an iLock little usb dungley thing to get set up with source connect standard right away So go give it a try and tell them we sent you we'll be right back right after this Oh, I think I heard the voice of a body shop. I did. I did hear the voice of a body shop And we are back to say goodbye at least for this segment Uh Next week on this very show it'll be tech talk number 21. All right. We're racking them up. We are lots of great stuff over those 21 episodes of tech talk and It's like the bible of home voiceover studios Yeah, I mean we used to run the tech talk part was part of the episode, you know as one show And we have found that just there sometimes people just want the tech, you know and we give it to you It's easier to find specific topics that you want to hear about so stay tuned for that And we'll be taping that live here right after this Yeah, and we've got a lot of great guests coming up. Hopefully jack daniel in a couple of weeks Yes, not the drink the voice actor Uh, and hopefully next year elaine clark and greatest hits like our good friend josep briano and bob bergen who you just heard Uh chris frieze fries Fries he goes professionally now by fries for a fresh and we want to do a couple of round Round tables on tech and demos and all sorts of stuff. We have it never ends. There's no shortage of content Yeah, and that's why we bring it to you and how we bring it to you every week. I don't know We have donors though that help us along to pay for all of these fine equipment that we have and the great technical prowess that we have attained in this show And who are our donors of the week actually it's cut quite a few because it's been a couple weeks We've accumulated a few weeks of shows here, but we've got patty gibbons Michael kerns brian roush ant land productions. That's our friend. Uncle roi michelle blinker sarah borges philips appear tray moseley tom pinto stephanie southerland george widham senior. That's my dad Obviously shana pennington baird. I'll feel better on griffith joseph harrison and harlow rodriguez. All right the majority of those names are subscribers, please repeat Donate every month, but harlow is a new one. Thanks for watching harlow. We appreciate Yeah, thank you. It's awesome. We'd love you to join our mailing list That way you get to know what's going on And uh, you know we get to know who you are and although we're up to about 625 names We'd like to get that up to a thousand. Sure. Let's shoot for a thousand. It works for me. Sounds good to me And show us your booths. Uh, this is a marvelous dude. This is Rob What's his last name? I know it's in here somewhere Rob uh regal Oh, I have it in my finger. I have it. I have it written down here. So I have to find it. It's uh scrolling scrolling scrolling scrolling Rob riddle right is it riddle? riddle riddle rigby rig Now i'm just making up the last name Anyway, he's got a gorgeous studio doesn't he this is this is fabulous It's top shelf it it really is not everybody in voiceover goes that far I would have mentioned I would venture to guess he does a bit of production himself And he has a lot of instruments in there. So he records music. That looks like a fun studio. Absolutely Senders in we want to have more pictures just like that one. Yeah, whatever your studio is Even if it's just moving blankets We don't care. We want to see the space you're working in and send it in To us in a landscape format in a nice high resolution You know any cell phone may last five years will send a good enough picture But make sure you send it in high resolution so we can show it on the show. That's right Also, we'd love to have you in our studio. I guess since we started doing this at five o'clock We haven't had a lot of people in here. They don't know what they're missing Yeah, if you're in town or if you're between jobs or whatever it is Come in we got a comfy comfy place to hang out with us. We have a a radio museum There's a lot to it's a cool place to hang out for a little while We love having the energy of live audience when we can get in here. Absolutely We also need to thank our sponsors like Harlan Hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements voheroes.com Voice actor websites.com and jay michael collins demos and of course the dan and marsy lennard foundation for the betterment of live and recorded webcasting and Today I was doing the chat room and our amazing technical director who came in She hasn't been here for a month and she's like, I know how to do this picked it right up super lino And flawless tonight. We appreciate that and of course lee penny simply for being lee penny Uh, well, that's gonna do it for us this week We got tech talk coming up. So don't go away if you got tech questions Stay tuned for that. Uh, but uh, we know this isn't an easy business We know that it's important to learn from other people that have Walk the walk and talk the talk literally talk the talk since their voice actors and We're happy to bring them to you here on voiceover body shop. I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdem And this is voiceover body shop or v o b s. Have a great week everybody. Good night