VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Frank F]

Azkope, why not post a little ditty of before and "now"? Let us help you by hearing where you are and where you were.

The printed word is nice, but there is nothing like hearing your presentation to help you succeed with your goal.

Since you are in the area, send me an email with your info and let's chat.

Frank F
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[SteVO]

I'll put something together and do that. Thanks.
_________________
"I'm thinking...and it hurts"

[SteVO]

I got so confused listening and looking for pointers I had to see my analyst! A whole lot of radio people out there doing voice over. With radio voices and radio personalities and radio pictures of themselves. OK Gotta figure it out. My next workshop in Wednesday. It's narration then. Ad the week drags on I'm going to throw something together and offer it up to Frank F in my neighborhood town of Park City and let him critique my amateurish style. He offered and he's gonna get it alright. Are you ready Frank? I wouldn't be so manic about learning and absorbing if I wasn't serious about getting better. Jeeeeesh what the hell did I get myself into?
_________________
"I'm thinking...and it hurts"

[Frank F]

As most people here will attest, "you're in trouble now" (the blind leading the blind as it were).

Please contact me offline or via PM.

Frank F
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Scott Pollak]

Mike Harrison made a bunch of great points on page 1 of this thread.

I began making the jump from 25 or so years of announcing to v/o about 10 years ago. I've made it successfully, but not without work.

I can't possibly agree more on losing the headphones. I NEVER wear 'em, unless I'm in a pro studio where they're a must to hear the producer/engineer, and then I only have them on one ear.

I can NOT emphasize strongly enough how essential acting skills are. Take acting classes, either via a community college or thru local community theatre. I've been on-stage since age 12 (I'm 55 now) and I think that's been a huge benefit. Especially look into taking Improv classes. It helps you to get 'outside' of yourself and to think on your feet.

In radio, when we talk, we don't really imagine our audience. Yeah, we know they're out there, but they're faceless. Our audience tends to be our microphone. In v/o we really DO have to put a face on our target. If we're talking about something that affects moms (let's say educating their kids who are struggling in school) we need to really know who it is we're talking to. We need to REALLY... and I do mean REALLY... SEE that woman in our heads. Find someone you know who fits that mold and plop her down in front of you. Then imagine you're sitting at the dining room table chatting with her.

We need to bring up REAL emotions.

I was coaching a newbie once who was reading a commercial for dog food in class, and she was pretty stiff. I asked her if she had pets. Yes, she had dogs. Did she have a picture of her dogs with her? No, she didn't, but my business card has a golden retriever on it. I gave her one of my cards, told her to look at the dog and think of her own, and then go for it. The change was remarkable because suddenly it became REAL to her.

Just a few thoughts... fer whatever it's worth.

Oh, and Steve? There's a Steve Mitchell here in Atlanta who recently left radio after about 30 years and is pursuing freelance v/o and production.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[SteVO]

Great ANOTHER Steve Mitchell that has a voice. I like the idea of putting a face on the audience. My coach is vigilant about that but the whole idea of an actual picture never occurred to me. The acting element? I have thought long and hard about that and it and that may be the one thing that stops me from going much further with VO. Acting, to me, is more of an inborn natural talent. This is another reason why the forum is so useful. I get to go to my workshop tonight and try some narration. I'll see how I feel after that. Right now I'm not having much luck with even my practicing.
_________________
"I'm thinking...and it hurts"

[verbcrunch]

I knew not to tell ad agencies i was in radio lest i'd be dismissed as a "radio guy". They had preconceived notions of what radio people sound like, and for the most part they were right. I continue to struggle mightily trying to coax my dear radio colleagues OUT of that read they know so well so they can land VO gigs - it's like teaching my mother how to use a computer..

Personally i think years of radio work was the best training i could ask for as a VO person. Radio taught me how to adroitly nail a difficult script, squeeze 45 seconds of copy into 30 seconds, emote details like store hours and event times.. it's like learning calligraphy by joining the military..

I also think the "announcer" DJ read is one of many reads we can invoke for VO - it's a shame when radio people only know how to do that one read.
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[TessTalks]

Hi, Azkope ~

I'm in the same boat you are...still in radio as a matter of fact (ohmygosh, please don't spread that around!!) I made the trip to Voice 2010 specifically to hear Beau Weaver talk about this very subject.

Some people might "poo-poo" this whole topic and what he has to say, and fluff it off as some kind of nonsense - but I respectfully disagree. It is a very different skill-set, and depending on the circumstances can be very hard to shake off.

Moe said earlier in the thread: (re: voice acting) "We are a conduit for the information. We are not the star just the delivery system." That's a great point and echo's what Beau and his panel spoke to. And as some people here have said, they also suggested working w/o headphones (or covering only one ear), taking improv and acting classes.

A few of my notes from the presentation:

1) Learn to work while standing. Get away from the technology.


2) "Just be the guy". Hear what it is to be human.


3) Respect the word. The words are enough.


4) Get coaching. You can't coach yourself. Surrender to the coaching.


They made a point of saying that we really have to let go of a lot to become a voice actor. They compared a radio guy to being a weight lifter at muscle beach and a voice actor to the male partner of an ice dancing team. Think of how a weight lifter groans and struggles and hoists weight over their head. Now compared to the male ice dancing partner. There he is lifting another person over his head with one hand, but he makes it seem effortless and the focus is on what they lift and not that they are lifting. (does that make sense to you? the image in my head made sense to me)

Anyway - hope that helps!

Good luck!

Also on the panel: Howard Hoffman, Keri Tombazian, and Tommy Kramer

[Moe Egan]

Hey Jeff! Nice to see you here!

[verbcrunch]

Hi Moe! Nice to be here!

I was thinking about your quote while reading some horrific copy yesterday.. the producer was apologizing for the copy. Awkward, run on sentences, convoluted flow...

Our job is to bring those words to life, and get around those obstacles from a writer who writes for the eye and not for the ear. That's where a radio background can really help - horrible scripts are the norm for radio. I'd submit that radio people can more readily nail really difficult scripts on a technical level - the challenge is to let that ability transcend the performance limitations a radio background can impose.
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[Moe Egan]

Well put Jeff.

Puts me in mind of what the Beatles said about their time in Germany- when they were young and just starting out they played in a loud, nasty night club- night after night after night for almost a year as I recall- they really pushed their talents to the limit- almost abused their voices - but that pressure cooker of an experience turned them into musical machines- It's kind of similar to the "stack o'copy" a jock gets after their shift to bang out before they go home- poorly written, overly written, many times "blah" copy day after day after day- You do give your talker a work out, and you become very good friends with the mic and (a part many forget) your editing software- I think that's another area that former radio folks have a leg up on other VO Noobs.

But the skill of taking your brand off commercial copy is something jocks must unlearn...and unlearning something is harder than learning something new.
_________________
Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~

[SteVO]

Ahhhh so there is a purpose deep with in for "radio guy". I know all about bad copy. My task has gotten a little easier and I like what Moe says about taking the brand off. The reference to The Beatles ALWAYS gets my attention. I'm self proclaimed Beatle freak from the beginning.
_________________
"I'm thinking...and it hurts"

[Lee Gordon]

[Dan-O]

Over the years, I have noticed that human nature has a part in the perception of a talent's background. People love/need to have someone to look down upon and compare themselves in order to make themselves feel better. As it stands now, actors and those who hire actors look down on radio folk. As Jeff mentioned above, a lot of radio people hide their background and let the work speak for itself. (wink)

Radio people have an up or two on actors: they aren't afraid of the mic and find comfort in the structure of a script. Almost all of the trailer, promo and especially imaging talent have radio backgrounds. It seems they have an easier time or it's simply natural to fall into the flow and style of those types of scripts. Once you get your foot in the door, IMO, it's easier to carve out a more stable career in those fields than it is in commercial and animation. (Let's face it, on the national level the commercial world is like waiting to win the lotto.)

The trick is to know what are your strengths and to concentrate on those abilities, first. Then practice on your weak points until they are at a competitive level...or be honest with yourself and give them up entirely.

[asnively]

I think that one problem is that some people lump all Radio People together unfairly. There are the pukey, in-love-with-their-voice guys who tend to shout at the populace, and there are the ones who know how to genuinely communicate with that lone person sitting with their hands at 10 and 2.

The former struggle and might not ever have what it takes. The latter may have to make some adjustments, but they can usually get here from there.

People like to put people into boxes, and those of us who don't fit in neatly have to tuck in the parts that stick out sometimes. It is what it is.
_________________
the Amy Snively family of brands for all your branded thing needs.
Amy Snively
Faff Camp
FaffCon
TalkerTees