 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop and tonight our guest is Dave Finnoi Dave say hi Well, hi everybody. How you doing? All right? We got lots of cool stuff to cover tonight with Dave and If you've got questions for Dave Finnoi because this guy knows everything Yeah, how am I gonna tell by the great beard can't you that's right? Looking very sagely there gray means wisdom. That's right Well, though, I'm feeling particularly wise if any of you have a question for him though Throw it in the Facebook chat room and we will get that question to him a little bit later on But we got lots to ask him and George anything to add Nope just want to be pretty all right There you go. All right three pretty guys ready for voiceover body shop right now 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 of Virginia Tech Grant with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional VO studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master a Professional voice down with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world Bring new 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.com 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.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 Well, good evening or good afternoon depending on where you are I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voice over body shop or VO BS All right. Yes. We're here. All right, apparently every time I slap everybody's got to take a drink I'm not exactly sure where it would start. I don't know who started that one. Yeah, but you know in that case I'm putting my hands in my pockets They like this the entire night and in the squeaky chair There we go anyway We've got lots to talk about tonight Hopefully you're all doing well during this continued stay-at-home situation and Because of that, we got to talk to our guest at his home But he's got a wonderful home because we've been there and right. Let's bring him in right now a guy That is has done everything in voiceover is big and in gaming and has one of the nicest voices It's like a cup of coffee. Oh hot cup of coffee Dave Finoy Dave welcome back back back to voice over body. I hope everybody likes a nice couple of hot coffee Who doesn't oh? There's there's some people out there. Yeah, I'm a tea person myself. Yeah, but anyway, I like them both How you guys doing we're doing fine, you know, we're getting Fantastic, you know, it's been a while since I got to hang out with you guys and and when I did we were We were in your studio. Yeah Yeah, and it's a it's a different world now. It is I'm all alone in here It's kind of weird and yet and yet here we are together. It's amazing. It's really what we get Luckily by the time you've come on the show we had we've worked out all the Technical hurdles to make this look like we know what we're doing. Yeah, it was not easy for the first couple of months Oh boy had a had a you know release a bunch of valves and get these things running. Anyway, so anyway Dave First before before we really get into some of the other stuff that we can talk about Can we talk a little bit about where you're from originally and and how you got into voiceover? well contrary to my wiki page Wikipedia page it was wrong I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Oh, that's right and As when I was a kid we called it the armpit of the nation I thought that was Toledo actually well, you know, there's two armpits And I'm from Buffalo. I was the other armpit of Lake Erie. It's their armpit It was you know, it's like that Hindu God with the multi arms but born and raised in Cleveland and Left when I was 18 to go to college In Minnesota Went to school for a while a couple of years dropped out went on the road as a musician for a few years. I went back to school At Howard University Got out as a musician Played music for a while then I realized I wasn't gonna grow up to be a rock and roll star and I went into radio and I was one of those Jocks in San Francisco San Francisco Bay Area Last gig being a morning jacket one oh seven point seven K. S. O. L. I'm Billy David Ocean and we're getting it on with And but I discovered voiceover work while I was on the radio and It seemed over the years, you know, that's That's where I need to go. That's what I needed to go This this is gonna be much more fun than just radio which was fun But oh, there's cartoons and there's TV promos and there's commercial and there's narration and at that time there were no video games not for voice actors anyway, but Now there's video games too. Yeah, we can talk about that so I'm and and and here you are in LA and One of the most respected people in the business How have you been faring during all of this nutso stay-at-home stuff? You know, I almost feel a little guilty, but I haven't really missed a beat I Had a lot of clients that I was working from home with anyway. I've had a home studio for 20-something years so I Didn't have to gear up To do anything it's It's the way it's been for me for a long time. There are triple-a games and commercials That have wanted you to come into their home studio or home studio their professional studios that couldn't and So, you know, I've seen a lot of Tell us about your studio. We want to know what microphone you use What's your booth? What's your doll? What's your interface? Can you send us a sample so forth and so on? There's been a lot of that lately and I know a lot of people who May have rushed into home studios probably are a little bit over their heads, you know that thing of You could do it. It's actually not that hard But when so much information is coming at you, sometimes you're just a little bit out and What do I do? Push this button here? Oh, no, ah Yeah, George and I you're real familiar with that the last yeah, three months Who do I listen to right who I listen to it for advice to that's not a problem because we There's an avalanche of free advice coming at everybody right now and and not good. I've seen a lot of it I've seen a lot of it, but I've also discovered that just because the advice isn't always the same doesn't mean that that it's bad advice There are more more roads to Rome than one, of course. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, so if you you've had a studio for 20 years And then we've got all of these people who've been getting these edicts from the studio like you said they were asking you Well, what kind of a microphone does it really matter? It is is really the point because we're always of the the mind of it's what the studio sounds like if it sounds good It is good and well, I think the microphone is way down the chain. Yeah, what's the room you're recording in? That that's probably the most important thing of all You can have the best mic in the world the best recording Software The best interface But if the room sucks and you've got you know sound bouncing around or it's too flat or too live None of the rest of that's gonna help. Yeah, well, we we know that Well, I know you guys know but yeah, there's an audience out there Well, oh, we definitely have an audience But we like hearing it from you because it just it just reinforces what we've been teaching all these years that you know number one Acoustics is number one. Yeah, that's that's the first thing. Yeah And there are a lot of ways to get a decent sounding room without spending a fortune I Always tell Newbies or people who are new trying to set up a home studio. Well a closet with clothes in it You know, you got clothes you got a closet Might not work out so bad for you. Yeah, bigger the wardrobe the better it is. That's right You know, we've and we've got a lot of fluffy furry soft stuff hanging in there Yeah, and the more the better and I know a lot of people making good money next to their underwear So I had it And in their underwear by the way, I was gonna say it's more fun to make it next to your underwear than wearing your Can I can I put something to rest? I have never I've never worked in my pajamas Underneath my clothes. I do have underwear, but I've never worked in pajamas or underwear alone Wow Is it because it just when you go into your booth you like to feel like you're going to work You know what? just partially I Get up You know do what I needed to walk the dogs Do us a little exercise and get dressed actually I'm dressed when I'm walking the dogs But then I go in I treat every day as a work day, even though I'm just going downstairs to my studio I Mean I start late. I miss if I have to be in there by 9. I'm in there by 9. Usually it's 10 And I have no problem working late, you know I might be in studio until 8 or 9 but I get to take breaks in the middle of the You know, you've had a couple of students or a couple of gigs and I need a break I'm gonna go upstairs and chill out for a little bit and turn on the news and oh god now. I'm depressed and Come back and do some work. Yeah So what what have you been able to continue to do? Is there anything that you found that yeah, there's more of because of the situation what is there less of and what really has What has what has changed in you know over that period well, there was a in terms of work. It's it's about the same In terms of work that I'm doing and the ratio of work. I'm doing at home to work. I'm doing outside has changed of course because the studios closed down and you couldn't do anything and at first they were postponing gigs Especially video game gigs Commercial gigs that they were gonna wanted to have you in another studio and after a while they wait a minute This is going on longer than we thought. Let's find out How good that studio is and so now I'm doing video games and commercials from here Always was doing narration and some smaller games and some smaller commercials but Um The big the big boys the triple a's always wanted you in their studio so that we could have complete and total control over the sound But that has gone by the wayside now. However, I have my first out of my studio gig since the quarantine on Wednesday All right, so they're starting to open up Dave can you say which studio it is or? um You don't have to You know, I I don't know that they want that advertised and rather them Tell you than me tell you sure But what they have said is there will only be one other person in the building Which will be the engineer And all the other people will be you know from someplace else on the planet Yeah, maybe cross town maybe across the country. I thought it's fascinating because I was hearing from several people that Especially from the in the video game world that They were actually delivering equipment to people like that's gonna make a difference It's like well, you have to have the same mic as this person. Yeah, but if this person is doing it from their bathroom It really isn't gonna help You know, I think uh, uh people were panicking and now I don't think that was the engineers uh The guys the recordists the guys that you're working with and those studios are pros they know that You know, it's not just the equipment. It's it's the uh environment Uh, and they can't just send you a room right, but you know I heard microphones 737s various other equipment being sent to people Uh, so that they could duplicate the exact sound of this that or the other I had a lot of recording where they wanted to record at 96 Uh, yeah 96 kilohertz sample rate. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. What steam because your voice has twice as high frequencies in it than mine Whatever, uh And I didn't know this but uh several of the bigger games I've been working on that's the way they've been recording Uh in 96, which if you don't have to have a an online component to it as well Uh, isn't a problem for that studio, but if you're trying to do a zoom session uh, and So you've got that signal going and you're trying to uh record 96 your computer And zoom Uh, and you know stuff would click in and click out, you know, we got to reconnect Well, we finally got it done. Yeah, we finally got it. Well, we know it sounds better than the eight-bit games 99 Uh, there there was a point in in teaching some voiceover for video games I I wanted to go back and do comparison of what some of the first Uh, voiceovers and video games were like I could not believe how bad some of this stuff was and not just bad because uh, you know, oh, we need a girl on this one, uh Tell the secretary to take lunch and come in here, you know, oh, yeah. Oh, we need an old guy. Is your dad retired? Can we Uh, they were doing that kind of thing, but sometimes they would record and then record something else And you'd hear two things one of which wasn't supposed to be there Just amazingly bad stuff. Well as The video game industry has grown up and the people who play video games have grown up Uh, and the technology has gotten better. Man, uh, it's just amazing what they can do now and I Really believe in it They have to insist on good voice actors To pull it all off because when the graphics are so good when the pictures are so good When the sound is so good. You you can't have bad acting I would hope not how how have video games changed your professional life because I mean you're you still do all the Narration and stuff But was did that like give you a whole breath of fresh air of stuff to do? Well, it did give me a whole breath of fresh air of stuff to do and Gave me a fans You know, when I got into business, I wanted to work make a decent living um When I first came to town the thing that my agents were pushing me For most was tv promos and I did a lot of them. I was a disney channel voice Uh, I was a voice For uh cbs and abc Uh, the wb and soap net a bunch of different things and I still do Uh promo work. I'm just not under contract to anybody. So if you're out there listening, I'm I'm available Uh hulu for me was a big thing for a number of years um But that was the direction they were sending me and I did a few cartoons as well. Um, Did captain planet and uh, um pro stars Gosh, they're getting older great hair. I can't talk anymore. I can't remember but I did a number of cartoons and Somehow in the late 90s early 2000s a video game thing started and I did a number of uh games for lucas film Uh, I got to play lando cal rizian in one of their games I played a pod racer and I had to do the whole thing in huttees the language of job with the hut One of the toughest jobs ever five hour session Shouting the whole thing in huttees playing three different characters at the at the end of it I'd lost my voice And uh, I was done for a week and I was supposed to do An esp in a sports show is it going to be there and it's esp in sports with so and so, you know, welcome to and couldn't do it Uh had to bail out with a couple days notice that producer has never hired me again Uh, well that was I mean that was really the the controversy in the video game business You know spain well amongst voice actors is that it was very wearing on people's voices has that changed since since the strike Uh, the wearing on your voice has not changed. What has changed is um The directors and producers actually are kind of on your side to help you protect your voice Uh, they still want the screaming if you are coming into a session and it says battle chatter at the top Be afraid be very afraid But they give you more breaks, uh, they're going to spend less time on that Nowadays you have a lot of games that it's it's not just one session You're going to be doing a number of sessions over the course of days or weeks Or even years on some games And they try to break up that very Hard damaging work Uh to you know, like fridays or just a couple hours on this day as opposed to a four-hour session of doing that So you you've got people on your side Trying to help you with your voice, but uh, it can still be rough Yeah, well it yelling will do that and it could because it's a lot of Not it's like you were saying you're you're doing it in a different language or it's a lot of grunting and All that you know, oh, yeah I mean, my understanding is you can't really kind of Audio book yell or you know fake yell. They're really looking for For the real thing they want authenticity as a matter of fact, I think you do more damage Uh, if you're trying to constrict it down and make it, uh, you know pretend yell Uh, I think you're you're holding back so much. You're actually Pushing more air through there the wrong way Uh, I I think you do better just actually Go ahead and give it the shout um But one of the things they do where they might have you doing two or three takes Oh You know for regular dialogue when you're doing the efforts and the shouting things Uh, well, let's just break it down to just one take if we need another one will last for it But let's just do one take on that So, uh, they're they're trying to look out for you Well, I'm glad to hear that if you're just joining us you've missed a whole lot already We're talking with our good buddy Dave Finoy who is a very prominent voice actor here and here in Hollywood Uh, you hear him on games you hear him on promos you hear him on all sorts of stuff And right now you're hearing him on voiceover body shop And if you have a question for him We'd love to hear from you and just go into our facebook chat room and type in the question unless you have like dictation software And uh And we will get to that in our next segment But uh, it's fascinating hearing about about the gaming stuff. Do you play the games yourself? Actually, I am not a gamer. Don't tell them that No, I hey, you know You gotta tell the truth that I do have a a ps4 that I bought at christmas time I should have held out for the ps5 And I would have played just as many games on it as I've played on the ps4 Which is one and haven't played it again since I just don't have time Oh, and I think probably part of the reason I'm not a gamer is I suck at it Practice practice, Dave. Yeah You gotta put in your calendar just like two hours a day There you go because I could have a professional career as a professional gamer And which they have now and they make more money. I know there are professional gamers I was uh once a celebrity host At the world series of video games, which they decided to hold in the Maldives Okay, and and uh, this was a very high tech event They had 20 young men from all across the world that were going to come and play four different video games It was going to be streamed across the planet and it was But it was a started a couple days late because for some reason in the middle of the indian ocean The Maldives there was not the hub of technology And and equipment for technology So if you didn't have a big bite over there. Oh, man. Oh, man. It was a mess Uh, so they got started a couple of days late And part of the funniest thing was it was all fellas and now we have a lot of professional women Video game players as well and 50 percent of game players are women Uh, but this was before the big switch and um, so these were all young men between 17 and 25 or 6 was the oldest and of course we're on this beautiful island the the water lapping the white sand and Just so romantic and all these guys with the testosterone just pouring out of their ears And all the women there were with somebody Oh brutal Oh, man Uh Who says voiceover isn't fun Uh Yeah, you know, it is once again, we're talking with Dave finnoi. You got a question Ask it now in the chat room so we can get to that in a second We're getting a bunch too by the way, and I'm glad to see that. Yeah I'm interested, you know in in your thoughts because you know people Really respect what you have to say about these things but with all the stuff that's been going on I mean because people have been forced to work at home Do you see The industry changing permanently? You know for the better or for worse because um, I don't think I don't see anything changing permanently I've learned doing this for 30 years is uh, you know sooner or later, whatever you're doing now There's gonna be a different way of doing it. Right Uh But I I do think that uh more and more people who might not have wanted to have a great home studio Or we're going to be willing to invest more money in their home studios Um, I think there are going to be some clients who once only would hire Professional studios and have you go there Uh are going to be more open to uh working with talent from their home studios I don't think the industry actually had a really good idea of how many people had really good home studios Uh And it it falls into two those who have had them the most the longest I think were people who Uh had careers doing tv promos I think the tv promo uh folks were the first ones to say oh, okay We can you know, they don't have to be in here We've got an ISD inbox. They got their 416 and a nice booth We even though they can't see it. They can take the audio cues or or better yet. We just know how long They're their little sections are And they can do it from home send it to us Saves us time and money and we can actually get more out of them It's it's a plus for us because we wouldn't have to drive from this studio to this studio to this studio um so That Was a big change and I think we're going to continue in that vein But looking at at voiceover From the time I got in in the 90s when you know, you went to your agents. You went to a studio You went to your agents to audition well now you audition at home Now you work more often than not from home Uh the opportunities for work I think are greater than they ever have been before You have more people knocking on the door and in the business than ever before And just taking a look at youtube the number of explainer videos And and corporations that are availing themselves of voice actors to do Corporate narration for them You know from even live announced that they're corporate events ladies and gentlemen the president of our corporation He's a wonderful guy makes lots more money than you do mr. Joe joneson or whatever, uh to The safety videos that they're have or the training videos that they're they're going to have Corporate companies that have products that the instructions well They got this little written out thing But now they've hired somebody to do a video so you can go online and watch. Oh, this is how I put this Ikea furniture together. Oh great uh So there there are lots of of Jobs like that I break it up. I call it the high profile and not so high profile work right and You know one's not better than the other one just gets more attention But uh, you know that green money still spins no matter where it came from So lots of opportunities there, but also the driving down Of the cost they're driving down of our renumeration what we get paid From fiver Which they weren't the first, but the the pay-to-play sites Have driven down the cost and they've driven up their own cost though because they become more expensive, which I find fascinating well I I think they're this close to being criminals myself um And I know a lot of people are having wonderful careers with them, but I think even more people Are just pouring money into them You know, uh, we've had a lot of jokes over the years about agents um But your agent ain't making no money unless you make some money Uh, you're you're not paying your agent every month or every year to be on their roster and They have a vested interest in trying to a get you booked and b get you more money Whereas the pay-to-play sites They're not working for you They're working for the person that's going to hire you and they're trying to get your services for the very least that they can Uh, so we become a commodity to be bought cheaply Uh, and some of them. I know, uh voices.com instituted the well one you're going to pay 20 percent for us to handle your money Uh, and you may never know how much this client Actually was going to Offer, so maybe it's the first place. Yeah, yeah, maybe the budget's $10,000 And you're going to do, you know 10 commercials or five commercials or something And but they ask you to bid on it and you bid 750 and you get it Oh And uh, then then you pay 20 of that 750 to them and the the rest of the money 9,250 bucks They pocket right It's to me. It's on it's not illegal But it's certainly unconscionable Well, we I I tend to agree with you on that which is why I dropped off of them like six years ago Yeah, that's not gonna happen But but they're there and I don't think they're going to go away Yet, yeah, they're there there seem to be a plethora of them all of a sudden But a lot of them have come to the website They won't go away because they provide a service that's convenient and that's the problem Yeah for like little business people online or around the world. They're Hold on. Hold on a second convenient. Oh, yeah, you want to let me take you want to take that? All right. All right. Who's calling during my show here? Let's find out Okay Well, see see that's the rule on voiceover body shop. If if you forget to turn your phone off, which I now have Then uh, the call goes on the air you have to answer the call it was usually made the rule. I did and I'm the producer. It's my studio. I make the rule And but hasn't happened in a long time. It's been a long time. Yeah, it's really anyway We're talking with Dave Finoy and Again, if you've got a question throw it in the facebook chat room, we're gonna get to that in just a minute But right now We have to hear from our fantastic sponsors And I know the first spot leads off with a familiar voice So we'll be right back here on voiceover body shop with Dave Finoy. Don't go away This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover 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 Power 1039 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 In the camera de representantes Watch anywhere anytime on an unlimited number of devices sign in with your netflix account to watch instantly at netflix.com The ice cream maker is a big risk that can have huge reward Until you forget to turn it on Well, that's it guys Time is up. Hey, it's jmc. Thanks for watching the voiceover body shop If you're demo ready or looking to get there check out jmc demos.com and see a sample of our work Now let's get back to dan and george and this week's tech wisdom What question do we get most often far and away? It's how do I even get started in voiceover? And we have a great answer to that question take the vo heroes dot com free getting started in vo course You heard right. It's free and it's available online 24 7 at getting started in vo dot com That's getting started in vo dot com If you've been watching vo bs and thinking that you need to get in gear and start your own voiceover career This is the course you should start with You'll learn about the vocal skills you need the storytelling skills you need the equipment you need the business skills you need And the mindset you need to have all in one single comprehensive online course taught by vo heroes david h. Lawrence the 17th This course won the backstage readers choice award four years in a row And again, there's no charge. It's absolutely free Want to take it? Of course you do getting started in vo dot com. That's getting started in vo dot com And now a word from harlin hogan and voiceover essentials dot com Has this ever happened to you embarrassing The washers on these booms. Ah, they're not so great at holding up your expensive microphone And here's the answer the adjustable boom stop is great easy to attach and works like a charm No more droopy mic. It's simple ingenious and infinitely adjustable The padded non-slip pouch fits almost any size boom arm unique double loop webbing system for unlimited angle of the downstrap Works with tripod and solid round bases light gray webbing lets you mark and repeat stand settings for each performer It's three ounces of protection for your expensive microphone with free standard shipping in the continental us Hold up your mic with the abs adjustable boom stop Yep, this is v obs proven anybody can have a show these days Hey, uh, are we back? We are back. Uh, see we're yeah, I promise we're gonna again Like you were saying we're gonna have to relearn all this stuff I mean one of the monitors isn't working. So i'm like i'm sort of flying blind here Well, you know what get used to this this is going to be our lives from now on as technology changes so quickly the things that Uh, we're working on that. Oh, we've got this is new technology a year later two years later It's obsolete. There's a whole new way of doing things So, uh, I think we're gonna be A population of human beings that's constantly relearning. Yeah As long as you're learning you're still alive, which is good. Yeah, there you go I wanted to ask you about, uh, you you do you do a weekly thing on wednesday nights Yeah, wednesday six Well ask dav finnoy anything you can't just ask any dave. There are a lot of daves you could ask But this is specifically ask dav finnoy anything. Okay, all right And uh, you know, uh I just wanted to do something To kind of give back something to share One of the things I like about the voiceover industry is the people in it and people like yourselves who Not only making a living but you what you're doing now is you're you're giving of yourselves So this was my way as many others have done and I couldn't come up with a really cool neat title. So, uh, since it was going to be you could ask me stuff I said, well, I'll call it ask dav finnoy anything Wednesday six p.m. Pacific on facebook live and uh, it's It's a lot of fun even for me Uh, sometimes you as the weeks go by Certain questions are always always get the my questions. You always get the booth questions Um, you always get the how how do I get started in a career questions? But there's there's always something new and unique The last one I did I didn't do one this last this last wednesday nor will I be able to do it this wednesday because of work um, that's first double miss in a while uh, but the One just before that we were talking about what was going on In the world we were talking about the the protests um Because it just felt Like talking voice over at that particular moment in time Yeah, yeah, I think people need I think there was a need for some catharsis with a lot of people at that time so that was and and and we may have some I had a student today that uh We got 45 minutes in and she wanted to talk about black lives matter and and and things Political and I said now you realize you're paying me for this time. Why don't we just know? I just want to I just want to talk about this right now And I think a lot of people Have something to get out Uh have thoughts they want to share Um, I have gotten more calls from more of my white friends who may have called me just to say hi. What's up? Or uh, can I get you on this project or but hey man, how you doing? Uh, so what do you think about this? um So I I kind of think worldwide when we look at these black lives matter Demonstrations and protests. It's all over the world. Yep all over the world um And I'm hoping that there are enough and when you look at the crowd it's everybody Uh that uh, we we're going to hit a tipping point towards justice um And uh, then of course we'll need to Show up at the polls and vote justice. I well I I think one of the more important things is yeah, you can go out there and yell and scream But if you don't go vote then you're not helping out here Yeah, but it's interesting. I I hear people all this protesting doesn't doesn't do anything But it always has Actually, it always has. Yeah But anyway, yeah back to voiceover. Yeah, you're ready to take some questions from our vast voiceover audience Well, let's let's take some questions All right, we got a lot. So we'll keep it moving. Yeah, because there's at least 10 of them here Um quicky from randy thomas. Hey, Dave Hey randy Did you know my friend billy bass in cleveland? He was a jock Then I did not know billy bass. I left cleveland in 1970 And and my parents moved and I haven't been back Yeah History ancient history Joe mambu says hey How do you go about finding a voiceover coach? Especially in these self quarantine times now randy He she chimed in because she's in the chat and she said ask people who have What you consider great demos and ask who coached them and then let's see what Dave says Well, you know, I think that's there more than one way to skin a cat. I think that's a pretty good way people who have good demos I would start paying attention to voiceover over social media and who people are talking about who are people taking voiceover lessons from the names that keep coming up Over and over Are probably the people that you want to talk to there are a lot of people out there have no business teaching um And you know, usually these are the people that they're not going to have a long track record You won't if you google them. You're not going to find that much But randy herself you you google randy. You're going to find a lot about her not only her teaching but her work um And the same thing of so many Good voiceover teachers here and I always suggest people look You should work with more than just one person um I do teach promo. I do teach narration. I do teach Commercial work, but I have a really special niche in video games and I I don't have any problem sending people to Somebody who's really specializing in tv promos really specializing in narration really specializing in in commercial uh, so If you know a good coach one of the things you might do I refer people to other coaches all the time Yeah, talk to a good coach Because that good coach a They've got enough business You know, I'm I'm not trying to to stack up my business. I'm trying to help people Uh, and if I'm not the one I I can send you to the one It's always helpful if you know somebody's going to work well with somebody else Who has a particular niche then then that's that's always very helpful for whatever reason maybe okay. This is a woman. Let me Let her talk to this woman over here who you know has been through the the ringer that women have to go through and Is doing a similar thing the kind of thing that this woman wants to do Randy has a question also about um video game voice how you keep healthy or how can you be healthy? Really she's saying is if someone is a healthy voice Or has a a healthy voice practice How many video games can an actor actually manage to do in a year? Who uh, well, you know, I don't know how many games do I do in here? I'm on Almost 500 games now um A couple of things here first of all It's not a myth that video games can be tough on your voice But it's also true that not all the games Have a lot of shouting and screaming in them So they'll look back at the game. I'm best known for the walking dead game There was very little in the way of Screaming Like you might find in in uh gears of war that I'm also in where you have days where okay We got two hours of shouting here um And there's so many games now that they're they may they may be some shouting. There may be some efforts But they're limited. So not all games are going to be as tough on your throat as some others um But the thing to do stay hydrated If you're in a really tough session Take your breaks, you know, usually they're going to give you a break every hour But if you've gone, you know 40 minutes and you've been you know burning that voice Take some time Get some hot water tea and honey Give yourself 10 minutes before you go back The voice does heal quickly More quickly than say your outer skin But if say you're had a tough session on a friday Shut up friday night Give yourself some rest Saturday morning All right, there you go. Yeah Let's see here. Uh lad wed wed Wendelin I'll bet you I got that right Uh, he says two questions. I've made a commercial promo narration reels and feel confident I have something to offer. What's the next step in furthering my career? Seek agents or go after clients Why not both? Absolutely Um, you know depending on where you are and what your status is with the union um Agents are going to be more or less interested, but you're going to have to keep knocking on those doors Because most agents are not at the point of looking for new talent. They're They're they're looking For a reason not to take you on because they've got so much talent and everybody's trying to get at them Does that mean they're not going to take people? No You know if you've got the goods, uh, somebody's going to be interested in helping you out Because it will help them out But in this do-it-yourself world that we're living in now Unfortunately, we live in the same world That the of everybody else where unions are not as strong as they were 20 30 years ago uh, and There's been a war on The american worker for a long time. How can we get you to do more for less money and that includes us so, um You might have to turn to the pay-to-play sites a little bit. You might have to turn to marketing yourself Doing the research on a LinkedIn or chambers of commerce to find out the kinds of businesses that you want to work for How to get in touch with them and then market yourself to them Of course now once you do that Your website has to be ready to receive that business so they can hear your demos and get in touch with you And I would recommend that, uh, if you're setting that up set up yourself a, uh, a rate sheet So you don't have to have those uncomfortable conversations. Well, I'm not sure how uh, I was thinking maybe no Oh, well my rate sheet is this You can base it off of union rates and there's some other, uh, places Some other both silver groups that you can base those rates off of Uh, so that you show up as A professional that you are offering a service Uh to people who are looking for your service and never Ask for work Offer your services. Don't ask for work Alrighty, uh Got a question here from Dominic Carlos Uh, what motivation techniques have you used When work doesn't come in as frequency frequently as it did for Well, you know, we all we all go through that. Um If you set yourself up as a business that this is what you do Uh, you're really looking at, uh working every day at this So When you're you've got a lot of auditions coming in and you've got a lot of work. That's what you're doing Uh, when you don't have a lot of auditions coming in, uh and a lot of work, uh market yourself That's that's when you spend your time instead of auditioning because there aren't any or work because it's not coming in marketing yourself You got clients that you've worked for a lot and haven't heard from in a while Send them a note. Let them know you're there. Uh, you haven't got an agent. You've been working on your own Now's a good time to Send out your demo to agents And and and follow up a lot of people want to send Something one time and expect a yay or nay Chances are as a salesman will tell you it's five touches before something good happens So if you have sent your goods to an agent and maybe they sent you back a note Thanks, but no, thanks. We have somebody like you on our roster already If they got back in touch at all count that as a win Uh, you get something new Let them know what you're doing Come circle back as they say Uh and and keep staying in touch Alrighty George Next one i'm seeing here that uh, let's jump to Um, how do you deal? This is also from lad. He asked one earlier, but this one's about sibilants How do you control sibilant s's for people? I have maybe a little bit of a gap Yeah, a gap a gap in there's front teeth Have you helped somebody coach the sibilants out of their voice before? Actually, I've never helped anybody coach the sibilants out of their voice One stay hydrated Uh, so that you know, you're cutting down on mouth noises anyway um One of the things you can do is is work your mic off access Uh, and that will help you cut down on some of the sibilants um Yeah, as you get to the side a little bit more it gets less and less bright Yeah, it gets less and less bright um And there there's some electronic ways. There's the s's and whatnot they tend to Do a little more than just get rid of the s's um But I would practice How you pronounce things I would spend some time Practicing how you pronounce those words that have those s's in them so that you Kind of work your way out of What your mouth and tongue is doing to create them? Yeah, I find that if people are over projecting which you know, I listen to a lot of stuff from people They they're over they're pushing it too much. They're not keeping that intimate conversation that you know commercial voiceover really is and when they talk louder they tend to Hit the t's and the s's a little bit harder and that tends to Cause more sibilants because I don't I don't particularly believe that anybody's more sibilant than anybody else But no, I I don't know either but and which is why I say one of the things you want to do Might be to uh, okay. What am I doing when I'm sibilant? Oh, I'm doing that. Well, let me Learn how to not do that Yeah, all right got one more question here from Betsy Zalcho Zajko, that's what it is. She says I'm and now you know how the olympic Sport announcers feel when all those names. Yeah, really? Yeah, I mean, but they practice them. It's like, you know Here comes. Yeah, they do they get you it helps I'm an actor and came into voiceover via radio. Welcome to the club Uh, I recently have gotten more game auditions and I'm not a gamer So every time I get an audition for a game, I end up going to twitch or youtube And even after listening to examples, I wonder if I'm missing a key element What adjustments do you need? Do you make for acting in games? Well, uh Acting in video games is probably closer to uh being on stage or on film than any other area of uh, voiceover work Like except for the very high-end commercials where they're hiring high-end actors to do them um A lot of times I came out of radio And often when we've come out of radio We have gotten used to uh Reading scripts that we're really not connected to Uh, but doing a dance with the words to make it sound like we know what we're talking about and that we care about this And if you just stop by you can get 50 off now. That's right 50 We're doing a little bit of that thing now if you've got that and you do that great, uh, it'll serve you For the things that require that uh But when you're playing a character uh Stop worrying about your annunciation Stop worrying about oh the sentence starts here and ends there and I need to go from there to there without stop Play the words are not that important then. I know that sounds crazy The words are only important in that they give you detail of what your character's thinking and feeling But what you want to play Is this character's thoughts and feelings this who this character is their worldview? That's what you want to play It it's forget about enunciating the words and making that clear Play this character. It's acting It's acting acting. Yes Dave it has been a super major league pleasure having you back on the show here and hearing your wisdom and and and really, uh Seeing what you know your view of the voice of a world and I can't wait till you can actually come back over here Oh boy, and see how we've changed everything in here I I know you've moved on up and doing things, uh much slicker We uh, but yeah, and let me pet you guys on the back because you've been doing this for years nine years nine years and uh, I mean Dan I knew George before you George was the go-to guy and then you moved to town. You guys hooked up um But the service you offer and and and things like this you get the best talent on um talking about what they do and it's uh, it's a real benefit to a whole lot of people So thank you for what you guys do. Uh, we really appreciate it. Thanks for being with us today My pleasure. All right. We'll see you soon. Hopefully face to face All right All right, we're gonna take a quick break here. We'll be right back to wrap things up and ready to re-rack things for tech talk so Stay where you are. Don't go away. We'll be right back This is Anthony Mendez. You're watching voice of our body shop 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 voice actor 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 dollars So if you want your voice actor website without the hassle of complexity and dealing with too many options Go to voice actor websites.com where your via website shouldn't be a pain in the you know what Your dynamic voice over career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead Now there's one place where you can explore everything the voice over industry has to offer that place is voice over extra dot com Whether you're just exploring a voice over 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 Voice over extra has hundreds of articles free resources and training that will save you time and help you succeed Learn from the most respected talents coaches and industry insiders when you join the online sessions bringing you the most current information on topics like audio books auditioning casting home studio setup and equipment Marketing performance techniques and much more It's time to hit your one-stop daily resource for voice over success Sign up for a free subscription to newsletters and reports and get 14 bonus reports on how to ace the voice over audition It's all here at voice over extra dot com. That's voice over x t r a dot com Hi, this is bill farmer and you are watching voice over body shop. It's great Well, it's the time of the show. We get to talk about one of our longtime sponsors source elements the creators of source connect At this point if you're a voice actor you've probably been asked to have source connect by one of your agents Or just another voice over person in the business who's heard something about source connect Well, yes, it is true source connect has become an extremely popular tool For remote recording voice talent anywhere in the world from elsewhere in the world Or just down the street sometimes in this current environment. We're in now where we just can't go into studios So you want to get on you want to get it together get up and going and with source connect But the good thing is you don't have to spend money right now. You could just go to source elements Set up a demo account and get a 15 day trial and that way you're up and running you understand The how to make the software work. You know that it works with your system You've done all the homework and the preparation to have it running great. So when that Request comes along saying do you have source connect? You can honestly say yes and at that point activate your license You can buy it out for a lifetime buyout. You can do a monthly subscription And I think they're even doing like a two day Day licenses at this point. So there's a lot of ways you can get source connect So head over to source dash elements calm Get yourself set up. You need a little extra hand holding go to georgethetech.com I have a source connect help section over there with a lot of helpful information Including a video that you've got to watch to get yourself up to speed. Anyway, thanks source elements We appreciate it. We'll be right back to wrap this up right after this This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on The voice of our buddy shop Oh, i'm good. Well, we know that anyway, um Thanks again to dav finoy for imparting his wisdom on us and uh, that was that was just great. Uh, george Yes, who are our donors of the week? Oh, yes, we do have donors. Don't we? Um, let's scroll down to the donor section Uh, we've got a list of names you guys have probably heard before because We got a lot of regular donors to the show, which is really kind. Um, we really do appreciate it On the list right now. I'm seeing is harlow rodriguez michael curns christy berns gram spicer Uncle roy's ant land productions michelle blinker and christopher epperson. Thank you so much. All right. Yeah Hey, join our mailing list too, uh, if you go to our home page is is you know, join the mailing list You can get on there. We're getting close to 700 george. I like to see that Uh, that's great. Yeah, and we'll send out notices to you that you know, who's coming on and what we're up to and uh Keep you informed as to what the guys are doing here Speaking of numbers. I just saw we ticked over the 4 000 subscriber mark on youtube. How about that 4 000? Pretty awesome. All right, so keep watching guys. Thanks everybody. Yeah, we need to thank our sponsors too like harlan hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements Vo heroes.com voice actor websites.com and and jmc demos. All right Thanks to jeff holman. I think he was on chat room duty tonight. Didn't he was he was all right. It was a good job uh, and uh our technical director doing it Flying blind from her her plays in burbank sumer lino and of course lee penny for being lee penny Well, we've got next week. We've got tech talk number 35, which we're about to Get into and uh another great guest coming up. Uh, it's almost july holy crap all righty Anyway, uh It's we're gonna get into all sorts of cool stuff here in our next segment. So stay tuned for that. Uh I'm dan Leonard and you want to know something? If it sounds good, it is good and you are George widdum and this is voiceover body shop or vio Yes