 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop. How's everybody doing out there? Chris if you're watching live Why would you care if I said that our guest tonight is Elaine Clark? Hey Elaine? Hi We're gonna talk about the whole voiceover biz and all the stuff that she does Which we're gonna run out of time just talking about each one of them So our George is not here He's in Denver or at least outside of Denver a DOA at where you at? I'm at the podcast movement expo at the Gaylord Rock of the Rockies Convention Center a Marriott property cool. All right Well, if you have a question for Elaine or for us about about home voiceover studios But about the voiceover business Throw it in the chat room because Jeff Holman's in there taking all those questions down And we'll get those questions to Elaine right after our second break. So or after our first break Anyway, are we ready everybody ready? No earthquakes. It's not raining voiceover body shop right now Voiceover body shop is brought to you by voiceover essentials comm the home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements the folks who bring you source connect the oh heroes comm become a hero to your clients with award-winning voiceover training Voice actor comm your voice over website ready in minutes voiceover extra your daily resource for voice over success and by world voices the industry Association of freelance voice talent And now here's your hosts Dan and George Well, hello there, I'm Dan Leonard and sitting down is And you are you I'm George the tech there we go. All right, I'm at one minute. Let's go. Okay, and this is voiceover body shop or Vio be Righty Well, the big hashtag yesterday was Heracquake I Wrote that the first time I came up with it. Oh, you came up with that. Okay. Well, I did say it I'm sure 20 people thought of it at the same time But yeah, anyway, yes, we had her a quick. Yeah, I mean it was a tropical storm the problem with with with rain In in Los Angeles is you know, they made it sound like it was a snowstorm coming or something The most dangerous part is people driving because they don't know how to drive. Yeah stuff The thing that's Russian Mount Los Angeles is is a massive metropolitan area and of course all the media outlets cover the entire Metropolis from San Diego up almost to Santa Barbara, right? So they're reporting stuff and it only matters for this narrow band of people, right? Right, and it makes the rest of the whole 15 million people freak out. So yeah, it was a little bit of a freak out for nothing But I mean for those that had flooding. I hope you're doing okay. Yeah, well nothing here It was just just wet. Yeah, I mean LA the basin and the valley has the most incredible flood control ever You know so it's not really a problem for us directly, but the mountains and the areas and the deserts really that's where it gets scary So yeah, we hope everybody's safe Apparently it wasn't too bad But then and then in the middle of that and I kept thinking, you know, what good, you know What would be worse is having an earthquake in the middle of this? What happens? We get a 5.1 earthquake in the middle I was like, well, it can't I can't have a we can't have a fire So we pull that one out. So we'll have an earthquake instead. Somebody typed in the comments locusts No No ratings. We're safe. Yes. Alrighty. Anyway, we have a great guest tonight One of our favorite people Elaine Clark has spent over 40 years in the communication industry Almost as many as me as a coach director audio engineer producer casting director actor author app creator Podcaster curriculum developer and business owner and I did that in one breath from 1986 when Elaine founded the voice one in San Francisco She sold it the voice over and acting school in 2019 and Elaine has continued her quest for better speech communication and She's proud to have trained and launched the careers of over 5,000 voice actors. Oh, you're the one, huh? From her trademark making it mine Method quickly to incorporate subtext to specific use of body and gestures to achieve desired results Joining us from the big area the one and only Elaine Clark. Hi, Elaine. Hi How are you doing? I'm doing great. We didn't have earthquakes. We had 10 minutes of uh, light rain Oh, well, that's nothing new in san francisco is in this, you know, but here it's In the middle of august it seemed like January only warmer Just kind of weird Anyway, so welcome to the show once again, you haven't been with us for a while, but uh, we're glad to have you with us You know, I start with my standard question. How more importantly, why did you get into voice over? Well, I was a theater major in college and I also I got a degree in education And I was in plays and I was also a newlywed and we're still married after all these years And yay, um But we've uh, but he was like, uh, am I ever gonna see you because when you're in a play you're gone for like Three or four months in rehearsals and shows and then someone told me about voiceover. So I Studied it. This was in 1980 Um, and also and then I put together reel to reel when out there started getting work That didn't take and it didn't take long because as an established actor The transitioning to voiceover is actually a little easier Well, it was it was a bit of a challenge because I I uh moved from Louisiana. So I had a had a Louisiana accent Um, and my and I was younger. My voice was a little bit higher with the accent So I had to work on it a bit, but I had a lot of like teenage stuff that I would do You know for spots So I so how long did it take you started? Let's see if you started in 1980 You started a voiceover centered acting school in 1986. What prompted you to do that? You can only do so many lunches and coffees So at the time, uh, pick your brain. Yeah Exactly, so at the time there were only like 50 voice actors in san francisco And so, uh, how did you get in? What did you do? What's going on? And so I I just sort of naturally With my education background I thought well, you know, maybe I should start a school went into this Discussing director's office. They had an empty space in their office and I said, hey, do you want to rent that? And I went okay, and that's how I started the school There you go. How many students did you start with? Oh, I don't know. Um A dozen or so and then it kind of grew from there So that I would have You know around 250 students a year not all of them would go Some of were were ones that were taking multiple classes that had come in from the year before So it just kind of progressed Yeah So yeah now in 1995 we'll we'll go ahead of nine years. We'll jump ahead. Okay Uh, you wrote the first voiceover training book in 1995 There's money where your mouth is and it's now and it's fourth edition and it's got a different cover now Yeah, this one keeps changing covers. Yeah so Well, this one is uh, yes so I um I it was funny because I thought, you know, I know a lot of stuff. I was directing video games Um Narration I was I had worked in an advertising agency I had was a media buyer prior to this as I was getting my my voice over career going I thought, um, you know, I'm going to write a book on voiceover because there isn't a training book out there Um that I am going uh, and I that way people will leave me alone and I'll just be an actor So I uh, I was talking to to someone and said, hey, here's the the direct line on For the guy who's who's the publisher over at Random House Here's his direct phone number. So I called him up talk to him. He said, uh, write a proposal I wrote a proposal two weeks later. I had a contract and that's how I got the book Outstanding. Yeah, how did you structure this book and what makes it unique? I mean one of the things I about Books about voiceover is unless you hear it. It's you're just describing stuff How did you how did you format it to make that work? Well, this is um Well, it's it you can tell the difference in and size, you know from where it's where it started to the Uh to where it's become but it's I have a lot of techniques So that I've worked on over the years and the techniques are How to put it in your body how to move how to how to interpret the script Because you know learning the voiceover business people would go that's great But you had no idea what you did so I had to figure it out for myself So uh, so the first part is about technique The second part is about application to a whole series of different types of scripts And the third part is about marketing and then in the midst of it that I have people that I've interviewed Whether it's bob bergen or a dav finoy They're just a ton of people that that are out there Uh, uh in their different areas of expertise So that they would say what kind of microphone they use what their setup is here's some here's some Advice so it's really Very very thorough So I just wanted to Give what I had inside me and say here. This is it and people say I should create an audiobook of it No, it's too much. I did something else instead. I created a podcast Yeah, so early on in the podcasting days. How long have you been doing it? Well, I wouldn't say that was early on So the what happened then I changed publishers and I went To to the one that I currently have and And this is at all worth press and then they had a meeting and this is like a 2018 and said we uh, your name came up Um, and so we want you to write a book about called voiceovers for podcasting I said, okay And then I wrote a proposal they sent it to me They said, you know sit me in advance and then uh, that's when I I came up with the idea for this So what I did, this is so funny. I was holding it up with one of my one of my old cassettes cats. Yeah, look I forgot that I put that behind There yeah, that's that's where and I was at reel to reel prior to that So anyway, that's a a glimpse at a past thing. That's funny. Um That was unintentional the uh, so anyway So I thought well, let me take it from my advertising background and one of the things as a media buyer We had to work on uh horizontal versus vertical Formats and how do you do advertisements within that format? Like news talk is vertical because they're different people talking and it could have sports in there But uh, but uh music station is horizontal. It plays different music but within that same genre So I thought well, this is something that people should know when they're setting up their their podcast How to establish it and also I thought well, you know, if I was going to get into it I want to know What's easiest if it's from one person to a dozen people or a team? So I just went through the various styles Of podcasts and said here's the positive thing that you can get out of it And here's the negative that way people can then figure out what to do So but that was with like a 100 hours of research and stuff to go along with that Yeah, and and then there were those of us who were in broadcasting or public service directors who do those saturday morning and sunday morning shows That were on at 5 30, which was essentially podcasting. It's like intro body outro boom Absolutely, and that's why I was coming from the same background. I had my class three, you know Radio dj license back in college and would put on a long song if I saw saw my friends and You know that I wanted to hang out with for a few minutes And then come back, you know, and I got a divita was great Um, so If that's all came on you knew there was some something going on in the studio Yeah, but what we refer to as a crapper Okay, there you go So after I wrote the book people kept saying well, where's your podcast and that's why I thought well, I'll um Uh, I'll create real talking tips and that way people can see What I'm suggesting in both of the books Uh so that they can uh, and I use the educational background that I have to say here's the problem Here's how you solve the problem. Now. Here's your homework Now i'm not saying hard homework But just something as a takeaway and you can hear it, of course There's a regular format at audio but you can go to my website and and uh get the Get the whole visual of it or go to the youtube site to see it as well But it's like because I know that people learn Um, uh, auditorially visually and kinesthetically so I try to put all of those things together All right, once again, we're talking with elaine clark and we're talking about voiceover technique and podcasting technique and all the things that she teaches if you have a question for her about any of this stuff throw it in the chat room right now And jeff holman will get that question to us and we'll get to it in our next segment So I think that's a elaine is the one person you should really be asking all these questions to so Okay, so along with that you've created two Not one or two or three but two voice diction and speaking apps Activate your voice and adding melody to your voice Tell us about those and and how they benefit a voice actor. Well, everything I do is uh, I See a problem and I try to solve it as efficiently as possible and And the activate your voice is a 99 cent app. That's uh five minutes speech addiction because I realized that people had poor diction They needed and needed more residents Residents and they also needed to work on uh keeping their volume going all the way through to the end Uh of their phrase Right and then you have to fix it and their technical issues Which you two might know something about so, uh, anyway, so that's how I created that and then And I realized that my signature really as a coach is about how to embody things So it's like I try to take things out of people's heads You know, there's a basic amount of information that you have to know But it's really when you put it in your body that you understand it and we make movements all the time But no don't really think about it because it's just part of who we are So I broke down all these movements And then I uh, so I have an interactive app that's uh adding melody to your voice so that you can play around with You know, what is a dot? What is an arrow up? What is a carrot up? What's a carrot down? What's a wiggle wobble? You know, what are the different? How do you stretch out a word? So then they're they can record themselves. Yes What is a wiggle wobble a wiggle wobble? It's like jazz hands Oh, yeah, it's like wow It's like wow, you know, so it just wiggles. I mean, that's a technical term wiggle wobble, but jazz hands is really more accepted That's just hunky dory. Um, is that a technical term too? The hunky dory. Absolutely Along with a number of other terms, um So yeah, give us give us another example of that. I mean because people are you know, they're always marking their scripts or at least they're supposed to And uh, what what are what are some of the tips you give people for you know making sure that they do those things? Well, it's about how to take direction quickly or how to make how to solve a problem quickly So, uh, and I would just see people write on a script going slow down on this word Well, by the time you read that, you know, you're past it. Yeah, you're way past it So and if uh, uh, if you're given direction and they say can you just make that real short or real long or make give it some emphasis Or whatever it is. They're just ways that you can just put a dot or wiggle or an arrow up Yeah, so if you're gonna I'm going to set something up so I can arrow it down to to finish that thought I'm going to stretch it out and then I'm going to speed up around it And then it's going to be smooth, but then that needs to be shaky So the thing is we don't want to be the same otherwise, that's boring so When we're reading most people get into what's called reading conditioning Which all sounds the same and it's very metered but we all talk Most sentences with three different tempos So it's also about how do you put it in your body using your right hand your left hand and two hands together Where do you put it in the power box? A lot of this is broken down in the real talking tips I have some in the app. So it's like every time I realize that people needed something else I just created it so, I mean the Adding the adding melody to your voice is just 999 and you know Apple and Google play take most of it, you know So, you know a little bit comes my way, but it's I didn't do it for the money I did it because people needed it and the app and real talking tips is So there's a lot of information a waste of practice at home So um, so that which is the most important thing is you can read all about this stuff But if you unless you practice it, it's just you're just reading it Yeah, but how see how how many different movements that you have right there I would then take those the shrug of the shoulder and the stretching out the hands and though There's I think that was a wiggle wobble. So anyway So how do you take that and just say it within you within in everyone's Way of performing how do you interpret those little markings? So that it has so that it has a smoothness and a variety to how you're reading something Right once again, we're talking with Elaine Clark If you've got a question for throw it in the chat room because I'm sure you all have questions after she's talking about all this stuff Now you we know you coach voice actors and we've been talking a little bit about podcasters But you also coach business professionals and teach them how to Speak better because I've seen some people get on some of those political talk shows or business talk shows and go why did they put this person on Mm-hmm that sort of thing How do you how do you teach them? Well, it's all about communication, but with different scripts That's really what it's about. So and different purposes and um, so with um, So what if I'm working with a business executive? They're usually have going to some sort of event or being interviewed or doing a presentation They want to make sure that x happens in a particular way. So then Uh, I watch usually watch them for uh, do their thing and then add Comments of how to correct it and then how to get feel comfortable when you're doing it Some people are getting ready for ted talk. Some people are Going on being interviewed for a product that they've That they've created or a service that they have that they're going to go on a junket So I help them with how to succinctly talk about what They're they're called to action is or what their main thought is because especially when someone's in business They have so much stuff that they know It's easy to go on a gazillion tangents and then people just know that you have a lot of stuff But they don't know why you're actually Talking so it's just so part of that is just shaving off what they're saying All right Notice how I just shaved off right there. Yeah, explain what you mean by shaved off. I'm like Yeah, well, it's not how do you stop stop talking and don't make it Constant so you have to make it. That's how the interaction happens I know a couple of people that could learn that Just take a breath Finish your thought stop. Let somebody else say something. Yeah, and when you start editing, that's when you realize man Oh, those little breaks are great They sure are Just like articulators are great for editing So the t's the d's the k's, you know, so if you leave them off, you don't have as easy an edit So that's why You know, I just There's some of the extra slides like exercises like ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta or in the the app All right, what's the name of the app again? They activate your voice and the other one is adding melody to your voice I recommend those to anybody who is learning how to do voiceover or has been doing it For 40 years like I have people that say they do they work on those right before any meeting before any recording So it becomes sort of like they're they're centering Now you're also a featured instructor in terry nicoll's voiceover e-learning accelerator course How did that come about? Hey, you're doing everything. Well, I get connected. Well, I was um Everett Oliver was was coaching terry and said, you know who you should go with you said because uh, he said go to go to elaine I'm I'm called the reprogrammer So I take people out of their head and put them in their body and figure out not that she was but it's just like Let's reprogram. We just hit it off because she came from an education background She got I think she got a mfa in it. So it's like, well, you're way ahead of me. You're using bigger words But uh, you know, I I just got a got an additional degree um So, uh, anyway, so we started talking and then she started talking about e-learning and I've I've worked on at least a thousand e-learnings over the course of time Um, either either recording it performing it. Um, casting it Engineering it something, you know directing it. So the whole thing for for years since the beginning of dial-up, you know, we had to wait for it to come out Yeah, it took a while to get there, but we actually could hear it so she started talking about this um voiceover e-learning accelerator And then wanted me to provide some content and that's where I add Added the melody section to it and some other other parts to it. It's a really really good um, you know self-guided program that you can just you can get um that To to Anyway, she just did a fabulous job putting it together and I'm really pleased to be part of it Alrighty once again, we're talking with Elaine Clark got a question throw it in the chat room We will get to those in just a couple of minutes Now you also have a connection in Bristol, England teaching video game acting classes for brava uk, uh How did you get there? I mean you're you're working with everybody It's all about relationships You know, so I mean the one reason why george and I are friends is because we were the only ones left after a Via, Atlanta thing and then we just looked at each other and said our plane's not leaving for a long time Went to a restaurant and had some drinks and that's when we became friends It was really just because we looked at the whole hotel was empty So that's when it all happened. So that was so it's really about building relationships and um, so she was in san francisco And took some classes with me and then we started I thought well, she's like the british version of me in a way um So she went back to england and was uh used her demos that that I you know because I I produced demos I produced them for her and it was getting her tons of work Uh, but she was already uh had been in radio for a long time and had a lot of experience And she said I think about um starting going to start a voiceover school So just prepare yourself. You know, I had mine for 32 years It's going to be a lot of you got to set your set your time limits because it can be a lot so Anyway, so she she does everything really classy So I um, I'm not sure whether you know that I've you know, I've worked on like 85 video games either as a director casting producing engineering ads and I've And I directed the original American version of jojo's bizarre adventure and a few other anime and some some cartoons So I thought well, I'll just do the um character So I'm ahead of the character track. So I just wrote a script Uh, and then we go in and and we record it Over in their studio Uh and bristle, which is really fun. And then I of course do zoom classes, which which is fun Because it's uh morning in the u.s. And it's evening for them, which I like Yeah, it's always always fun doing stuff in Mumbai. Can you can you do it at you know at six in the morning? You like do you want me to be coherent? Of course And it's late at night for them and they've been doing it all day and they're like, you know, they're hardly coherent either Yeah, well one of the things about me not to cut you off, but um, sorry, um, but it was uh I I like to find patterns in what what is there? So I have I've been teaching character stuff and directing it for years and years for decades So what I do is and when I teach it is just I do you learn this and then with that and then with that And then you build it because also having an education degree a lot of people just do a dump of information And it's really hard for the actor to Filter through all of that it needs a needs a program in order to to get there And I think that most everyone when they start teaching they just say i'm so excited I have so much stuff and then it just is there And so over a course of time it just it just sort of changes Yeah, you got to chunk that stuff down. You can't yeah, you can't like aim a fire hose of information to people and expect them to know that All right. Now this is fascinating. I'm I'm going to list off a bunch of your skills And let me know if I left anything off. Let's see entrepreneur business owner educator coach actor author audio engineer app creator Podcaster who's worked in some capacity or another in commercials narrations e-learning museums museum tours video games anime cartoons toys film looping film acting And apps did I leave out anything? um Yeah, um audio books uh is one so I uh, I work with some of the the major um Publishing companies and record famous people in my studio and also sometimes I record myself I'm currently working on a really good reading. I'm narrating a really cool Book about art right now. So anyway, so uh, that's I'll give you a little little tidbit of information. Sure. So in the 1960s uh, well 1964 the um There uh, they had the new york world's fair and they wanted to bring in A huge statue that was at the vatican And so they put it on a us nuclear sub I remember seeing it was the pieta Yes, but can you believe that that is crazy. Anyway, so I'm just I I just love history and I love Hearing about all that stuff. So anyway, that's one on the other is I'm a playwright. I've written a few plays have been produced I'm working with a Really good producer right now. So we hope to get the get this comedy up and going next year We had some fits and starch. You might have heard of the pandemic That was kind of giving a camellia problems in the theater world But uh, anyway, so the goal is to try to get it out there for the world to see because it's really pretty funny All right Once again, we're talking with elaine clark got a question through it in the chat room We're gonna take a break right now and we're gonna get to your questions right after that So don't go away. We'll be right back on voiceover body shop This is the latin lover narrator from jane the virgin anthony mendez and you're enjoying dan and george on the voiceover body shop Setting up for voiceover recording on the road can be a real hassle You can't bring your boomstand with you the solution After six long months harlan hogan's voiceover essentials dot com Finally has their popular desktop stand back in stock the harlan hogan adjustable height desktop stand fits us And all international microphones with its thread adapter It features quick assembly and has a low center of gravity for great stability making it great for home and on the road The two-way adjustable desk stand gives you infinite height adjustment from five and a half to eight and three quarter inches And the rubber rings low profile base fits perfectly into the pre-cut desk stand slot of both the portabouth pro and plus They're back and they're keeping the pre shortage price Damn inflation has become their motto the harlan hogan adjustable height desktop mic stand just $39.95 And only at voiceover essentials dot com And now's the time on the show where I talk about our sponsor source elements the creators of source connect And i've seen a new version It's less and less vaporware all the time. There's a source connect four on the horizon The alpha tested version is starting to get out into the testing community And I got to give it a run through on friday and it's a really nice design and more importantly it's More actor friendly, which is what I think a lot of us are waiting for something. It's a little more Just actor Friendly more easy to use. Hey, what's up roland? Roland wants to sit here where i'm doing my spot. So i'm going to be moving here in a second um And uh, so they're uh got an incredible product coming on the horizon but in the meantime Source connect 3.9 is your friend get set up start learning how to use it And get familiar with it because it's a tool that's going to make your go to the next level in your business Anyway, thanks again source elements. Let's get on to the next spot so we can get to those questions right after this And to do oh, hey, uh, I am about to shoot uh the fourth Of five lessons in this year's big ol course that i'm giving away for free called getting started in vo Thriving in the ai world where we meet What it takes to get into the world of voiceover what it takes to be better at voiceover With the incursion of artificial intelligence Maybe some things that you can take advantage of in terms of artificial intelligence as well So uh, we're in the midst of it's been a banger. We're in the midst of five lessons all free If you go to vo heroes dot com slash go you'll get those lessons And it will culminate with the opportunity to join as a vo heroes pro at a very special price with some very special bonuses But first take the free class. Just go to vo heroes dot com slash go That's vo heroes dot com slash go and i'll see you for all five lessons And let's see what happens with your vo career This is bill radner, and you're enjoying voiceover body shop with dan lennard and george widham vobs.tv And we're back george is moving his location because they're kicking him out of it the booth he was He'll return shortly. Anyway, let's get into some of the audience questions of which we have a large amount of Starting with terry brisco Elaine, what is the most common mistake you see with new voice actors? thinking thinking it's all about the voice And not about the message So really it's out. We are a vehicle for presenting our clients information to them and also Using the rhetorical triangle Properly, which is ethos logos and pathos so that you have you have your authority your logic and your emotion That's equally balanced and a lot of people that are starting will do too much of one It'll be you know, you're talking happy about something that is just logical And there's another one that's you know that will just say logic logic logic logic Because you don't feel anything and then with the authority I mean one of the things I struggled with at first with the word authority I kept thinking of my high school principal Bounding down the hallway when someone had done something bad. So when I heard I saw the word authority I would just think I had to kind of bristle But an authority is someone who who knows it so well that it looks like it's nothing and so That's a really hard thing. That's that most people overlook And there are a lot of tells When I hear someone that they are not the authority and therefore not bookable Excellent now part two of that What techniques or skills did you learn or develop that you've moved on from over the years? What what what is you know, were you working on and doing and they're like Eh, maybe this doesn't work anymore or never really worked But there's some things that that you've you've you've too moved on from Well, I think it's the biggest one for the first Uh, I think eight or nine years that I was teaching I gave a lot of intellectual Direction, how do you do things? This is how you break down the script. This is what you want to do Here's the stuff. Let's go ahead and study and people became really book smart But I realized that it got locked in their head and that's why my biggest change happened when I said, okay How can we do less with the book smarts and more with the body? so I started using the body first and how to How to how to feel and and commit and get that, you know Get the authority stand a different way use use that away and that's um And also I developed a program called making it mine that I trademarked That's a different way of looking at motivation the moment before Intentions that are actions the need that's the through line and e that stands for our emotions so by integrating the techniques And they're in the book There's money where your mouth is and also in the podcast and also the subtext Working on that Then if you have that, you know a lot of the script stuff The script analysis It's useful But it's really only about 10 of the job. The rest of it is what do you do with it? And I think that it was flipped at first when I was teaching Yeah, make you make in other words you became more organic with with how you got people to do stuff What works what works within you know your particular parameters and your voice and how you talk You know I I find that a lot of people who get into coaching You know after you know doing voiceover for a year or two Or have been doing it for centuries They tend to try and create people in their own image and that's That's not the the idea you've got to you've got to find what is individual what is unique about that individual And how does that work for them? Well, it's interesting also I think I used to have things really planned out what I was going to do and how I was going to teach it But then I realized when I had my general idea of what I was going to do but gave it some freedom That that was a better way of teaching So I often just listen to what someone's doing. I try to find and see if if uh, if they have a pattern That is causing the problem and then identify it and work on waste it to To break it open. I we have song in the background now. This is getting so Fun, George. We can we can hear you. He's having a great time. I have to gain at minimum on my mic, by the way No, it's okay. I was just enjoying it. I just sort of went off on a tangent there just listening Like of all the locations there's a stage right over here. There's sound checking You know, we don't get ad dollars on youtube. We don't have to worry about copyright strikes, you know Sorry about that Well, and I think one of the other things is you know, I produce all out of demos and then and uh being a writer I also um I I always work with someone to come up with original scripts And I would just I give them an assignment We write something together and so that everything is new and it's really funny because sometimes people will look Uh, and then they'll uh, I know some some radio stations would call me up and said I didn't know this particular company was doing ads How did you how did you do that and I go? Oh, I I just They used that product and I just made it up. So they were like, oh dang. I thought I had a sale there So but that's good. I think I want it to be original I want it to be interesting and I want it to reflect the person's personality and that goes back to I don't want them to be me now. I want them to be them And that's and I think that's a hard thing for for a lot of coaches because you hear your voice Rattling around in your head and sometimes I have to hear myself directing that way And I have to take a step back and go, whoa, hold on it's better their way Because I couldn't do it that way and get away with it, but it really works for them Alrighty, we're answering questions from our humongous worldwide audience, uh George Ramos or Justin Ramos has a question George. Why don't you take that one? That's a two-part right now that it's quiet I can do that. Um, Justin Ramos from uh, youtube chime in and saying there's a two-parter For Elaine. Do you have a recommendation for vo schools in the bay? Obviously voice tracks sf or voice one There's some obvious choices, but uh, what do you recommend? Well, I don't think that you have to limit yourself to the city that you're in I mean, I don't have any connection with the school that I started right now anymore And so it's uh, and I don't have a connection really with with voice tracks um, because so I don't um I I'm not paying attention to really what they're doing at this moment. So I I mean, I coach people Uh there I send them to other people Who are you know, uh that they can work with on zoom. So but if they want that, you know They want to go there to either though that those that's fine Yeah, and the second part of it is uh, do you recommend any coaches for video game voice acting? Um when she is just so booked for example, so if you're too busy Like I'm too busy. Yeah, like who else to go to for voice for video game voice coaching Um, I think that uh ever dot ever at all of all of her is really good and also Dave finnoy, but some of them will uh I think that you need to do your research get your foundation what I find is that Well, you know, if you if you have the right Director you have the right coach. It won't take long if it's A not not a good fit You're gonna feel it and it just takes too long and it doesn't matter who it is I mean, that's that's the thing and you have to figure out what's What's working for you? So I have a you know, I have a system That I work through and it just because I have everything listed doesn't mean I do that every single day I don't go let me start at the top and work through everything and I'm gonna write six plays today It's like it's this combination. I've been in the business for 40 years. It's just it just You know happens so and I tried to uh, that was one of the reasons why I sold the school because I was I was directing and producing and acting during the day And then I had classes on the on the evenings and weekends. I said if I keep doing this, it's gonna kill me So I I thought well, what do I want? I want the day work So that doesn't mean I don't work sometimes on the weekend But they're usually my projects or something like that But I limit my evenings and weekends now and my family loves that They actually are seeing me sometimes Which is nice Sort of a follow-up to that What's the difference between coaching somebody for video games as opposed to just doing Commercials or e-learning or something or even that or like even animation which may seem related to video games But it's quite different. Yeah. Well, I think that you have a basic foundation of technique So uh, and then when you have the technique down Then it's about styles, but you got to then know how to twist those styles When uh, what was really nice about living in the Bay Area is that we started out with a small commercial business and then Silicon Valley came in and then the corporate stuff took off and then the the video game business came in and We worked on the video games and I worked on a lot of toys and the toy business was going really big And so I was able to grow When when the business was growing So now when people come in they're just, you know thrown into it So I think you have to figure out whether or not you are You can learn a whole bunch of things or you just get muddy because I remember You know when I was just going from a commercial to to a video game I would be too big for the commercial and I wasn't big enough For um for the video game because I would get it got it all muddy in my head What do I need to do stylistically? Technically it was correct So that's that's the big difference. So you have to figure out what you can handle and that's an individual answer Right because because sometimes the video games can be you know, lots of guttural stuff lots of And and stuff that wears people's voices out and stuff and And right, you know, and sometimes I'll ask you to be several different characters and I'll come back and say Well, it sort of sounds like you how do you differentiate characters and stuff? What's what some of the techniques you use? You know, one of the things is Everyone has a different vocabulary And knowing what the specs mean means something slightly different to everybody And so after a while you got to figure out what is that what does that mean? Is is introspective just going hmm. I wonder what's going on or is it? I wonder what's going on. You know, what does that mean? You know and that then becomes the the choice Of uh of the team that's working on that project so, um I don't know if I answered that but I think you have to then figure out what is too big or too small But this is where I have something. It's in my real talking tips podcast about how to How to use the power box So if I have the the power box being If I have something very small and I have to talk about it very small I'm going to have small movements that are right here But now if I want to get bigger my movement's going to be bigger and it must be bigger My body's going to get bigger So I don't have to think about that at all My body's telling me what to do if I get closer to the microphone or if I get further away It kind of knows what to do because it's an ear Right physicality. Yep. I think some people forget that physicality is an important part of voiceover You you've got to be able to gesticulate and have room and not bang into your Microphone stand and stuff like that and ergonomics is super important in your studio and your booth because you need to be able to do that And have your script at the right place So many times people have the script and oh, I just read it from my phone or I hold it on a piece of paper It's like no you there's like everything the script is everything It's got to be like right where you can see it and So physicality is a big deal Yes, because that's how you create your 3d world that you're speaking in So you got to know where everything's located. You need to know what your perspective is in it And that's where you know There's just And it's and it it incrementally gets in the body. You can't just say tomorrow. I'm going to be great We say that it doesn't always happen, but yeah It has its own it has its own schedule Well, lots of praise from our viewers here a jb voice actor says hey elaine. I just bought your book from google books Yay, thank you. It doesn't say which book maybe all of them, but the whole just all of them. Yeah, there you go On tracy rahl says I took a couple of workshops from elaine at her studios about 2001 or so her teaching helped me gain agency representation. Nice to see her here They used to say yeah, like congratulations anyway fiber jazz says, uh I don't even have a mic yet and i'm already I already want to hire. I don't know if they mean they want to get hired Or hire. I think they they want to hire elaine. They're so excited. They didn't uh, yeah I'm nervous with all the emphasis that I hear about conversational style My normal speech is quite animated. Am I in trouble? Ah So it's a matter of of your range that goes back to the power box So if you're very animated and they want it very condensed You have to bring it down. So it's like if if you take If you take your hands and you put tension on it as you making it smaller You're actually engaging more of the muscles in the core So that's how you can bring it down and then when you're going You're making it really big you're a lot of times it's you know looser muscles Then you know kind of like whoo like doing the way whoo. I didn't use really use any muscles Unless you're playing a character that's got some grit You know, so it's really what I always do when I'm finding a character Is what's the core location of the character? And how can I build from there? so that's Anyway, it's it's just how to how to how to do that um Well, he's saying, you know, he's he says I'm nervous with all the emphasis that I hear about conversational style You know, there there are some people that just You know, they'll send me a demo or so I can hear their audio and I'm like, oh my god, they're just Over the top trying to be an announcer Thinking that that's what voiceover is and they're you know, probably, you know 50 years behind the times there How do you get people someone to get out of that that announcer sort of uh You know mode mindset. It's the imagination You have to imagine where you are what you're doing Why you're talking what's your purpose? So we all have walked into a room and been either been too loud and realized it was inappropriate You know, it doesn't mean that you were not genuine to yourself But it just meant that it was inappropriate. So you got to figure out the application I think that that's why Doing some research and knowing what the styles are and how they're going to be used and how you're solving someone else's problem And then you're just offering the suggestion That's what you're doing rather than trying to get the next voiceover job and making your voice sound lovely Yeah, that's not that's not conversational Now exactly but a lot of people keep doing that which is why Most people are trying to be in voiceover and some people are actually doing it swing and miss swing and miss Alrighty great question. Yeah, great question here says voiceover requires constantly altering Slash manipulating emotional state to effectively emote That's quite a sentence right there. Uh I don't know I understand that. Okay. Okay. Well, can this impact one's emotional mental health stability in life? Okay, well now that's that's like a major acting question Right for some people. Yes. I think what if you're in commercials Um We are happy and that's I think one reason why the voiceover people Community are very happy people because you have to You have to you go like, oh no, I have an awy, but it's fixed It's really it's very if you get into video games that can be more intense So if there's a mental health issue dealing with a certain kind of game and a certain kind of character say no You know, but if but for commercials and narrations typically You don't really have A lot of those a lot of those issues Um, you know just because it's just you have an awy. You fix it Everything it's all better. It's all about the simplicity. You always have to show the pain point Just like with any business going back to the question about how do business execs I have to recognize what their pain point is and then Work on get I'm getting rid of that pain Identifying it getting rid of it and then having a solution at the end That's everything that we pick up So even george was talking earlier the pain point was with actors with source connect going How do I use it and you're going like some of the pain points about to go away? Yeah, so that it becomes more actor friendly friendly and then we go whoa Yeah, that's what we're looking for friendliness and I think I think people I think he's wondering if he's going to become like nicolas cage because I think everybody thinks of nicolas cage As being the character nicolas cage In real life because all they ever see of nicolas cage is on movies, right? Even did that film where he plays himself In real life as an actor, which is hilarious. It's so great. I like that You know, so I think that there's some concern of that happening. I but certainly being an act I mean, I'm not an actor at all like I have no training and I don't act but Doing the show hosting this Being on having to sound Articulate string some words together improvise a spot for source connect for six years All that kind of stuff that's all skill that's built over time And it does bleed into real life because then when you're in it, I feel that I find personally That it's easier for me now to be in a mixed situation Sitting down for dinner or lunch with people. I don't really know and I can Maybe sometimes I have to dial it back and not be on and feel like I'm hosting But I feel more comfortable and it's because of doing this Year after year after year So hopefully whatever you get out of this training and practice of and craft of acting and voiceover Oh, well always end up being a net Positive to you in your personal life. Not a not a negative at all That's why it all comes down to communication I don't really call myself a voiceover coach as much as a communication coach because it it goes through the whole You know your whole life. So I would tell people like as you learn voiceovers How you relate to people is very very similar because it's not The art of advertising is never to demand but to suggest And so when you suggest change to someone, they're more likely to take it to make that change than when you demand it And so all of a sudden you start doing enough of this and your regular day job It starts seeping into your your personal life So I think that's a positive. Yeah. Well, Lane, thanks so much for joining us tonight We really appreciate it But I almost forgot you also have an informative newsletter That george and I were actually featured in this month and we're seeing that and going Oh, there's my name somewhere other than you know, I'm in my mailbox How can people sign up for it? Yeah, they can just go to this right there. Well, that's the newsletter one the other one that they just put contact Uh, but if you can just go to the lane Clark video.com. There you go. Um website I have a lot of information and it tells a lot about my background, you know, uh, um about, uh, You know, I just uh has the podcast it has the newsletters it has Uh events all sorts of things. I'll even might even put this on my website too You're gonna be all over the place Well, you've just made an appearance so that belongs in your media and appearances Absolutely All right, you need some sleep Elaine. It's clear that you're just you're doing this 24 hours a day Thanks so much for being with us. It's always a pleasure to see you no matter where but it's great having you on our show tonight You too. We could just talk forever We can wonderful and thank you so much for inviting me to on your show Alrighty All right. Well george and I'll be right back to wrap things up and get ready for tech talk Right after these important messages. So don't go away. Just You're still watching vlbs Your dynamic voiceover career requires extra resources to keep moving ahead 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 audio booths auditioning 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. It's all here at voiceover extra dot com. That's voiceover Xtra dot com Well, guess what? It's time to talk about voice actor dot com. Yeah, it's a pretty simple website name But what they do is websites for voice actors make sense And it's real real easy to be a voice actor dot com All you have to do is go over there and you'll get your website set up Like that because that's the whole idea It shouldn't be a pain in the butt to get your your website together If you are a voice actor, you absolutely positively Have to have a website and if you go over to voice actor dot com All you have to do is go in there pick a template You can change the colors add pictures do all this stuff It's incredibly user-friendly And you'll be able to get your website up and running In no time and you can start off for free And actually have your website on on the internet, which is where websites are supposed to go Uh, and then it's 20 a month you get Even more features with that But if you have to have a website what you absolutely have to do is a voice actor go over to voiceactor dot com and that'll make things a lot easier for you for getting online. Thanks voice actor dot com We'll be right back after this important message We are the world voices organization Also known as wovo. We're the not-for-profit industry association of freelance voice talent Voice over is a complex entrepreneurial business Wovo is there to promote the professional nature of voice work to the public to those already established in their voice over practice And to those who want to pursue voice over as a career Membership benefits include a supportive and creative community a profile and demos on voiceover.biz Our searchable directory of vetted professional voice talent our exclusive demo player for your personal website our mentoring program Business resources and our video library our annual wovo con conference a fun and Educational weekend with other members with the chance to learn at network webinars and great speakers and weekly social chats with other members around the world If your world is voice over make wovo part of it world voices organization. We speak for those who speak for a living Yeah, hi, this is carlo zellers rocky the voice of rocko and you're watching voiceover body shop Yeah, you are and george and i are still here and thanks again to elaine clark one question there Is her app available? Uh for android? Yeah, we she says it hasn't shown up, but she says that it is we got the thumbs up on that so I don't know why somebody couldn't find it, but Look on the google play store for that. All right. Well, thanks again to elaine for joining us She's always a delight to talk to and has a lot to talk about which is pretty amazing Next week on this very show or if you're hanging out with us live right now And I see a pile of you out there watching the show live Stay with us. We're going to do tech talk live in just a couple of minutes and You know it's for next week, but you get to watch it live and you get to ask your question So that's very important being here live as it's privileges. That's right. 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We didn't put it in this one Oh, there it is. You want to find our our man jeff holman in the chat room go to imdb.com Slash jeff holman go hire the man. He seems to know what he's doing on camera Yeah, just a great character. He is a pro. He is We need to thank our donors of the week because they have helped us can maintain this technical amazingness Like greg cooper Oh, thanks, greg grace newton christopher epperson robert ledum stave and chandler crazy clock crazy clock crazy clock crazy cracker Casey clock that is joneson grant thomas pinto greg thomas a dr. Voice antland productions martha con 949 designs sarah borges philips appear brian page rob rider shawna pennington baird don griffith tremosly diana birdsall and maria macchis And sandra mantler. I just wanted to get that last and if you want to get the end in there, okay You can join our mailing list by the way and uh, just go to our web page v obs dot tv And there's a little thing there's a sign up for our mailing list and you'll get to know what's going on We need to thank our sponsors as well harlan hogan's voiceover essentials Oh, we also have har uh, voiceover extra good saras elements vio heroes dot com voice actor dot com and world voices dot org the industry association of freelance voice talent Yes, we also need to thank jeff holman throw the imdb thing up there again and uh, so we could Because jeff runs our chat room and and he's doing a great job with that Uh Sumer lino for being an amazing director and making sure that everything is there when it needs to be there And lee penny just because he's he's lee penny Uh, well, it's stay tuned for tech talk right now. You know, this is not an easy business You've got so many things you've got to learn and you can listen to people like Elaine clark and some of the other great people we have on this show telling you what this business is all about But when it comes to your audio We've just come to the conclusion if it sounds good It is good I'm dan lennard and i'm george widdon and this is voiceover body shop or vio b s Stay tuned for tech talk