VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[bobbinbeamo]

It was fun to watch their process, hear some of those pearls and reflections about the biz we love. Enjoyable, especially Beau. He's so real.
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Bobbin Beam
www.bobbinbeam.com
blog.bobbinbeam.com

[Philip Banks]

I've enjoyed reading all the comments. It was great to see that no one was dismissed as negative because they didn't particularly enjoy the documentary and no one was condemned as a Cheerleader for enjoying it far too much!

If we focus on acting here, as we should, for the most part ...tumble weed. I'm not a trained actor which is probably why it interests me. I'm not particularly interested in what I'm able to do, I'm interested in what I'm learning new stuff ...A whole bunch of it. ....AND raising $250,000 to buy Mrs Banks a house of her own. In a moment we're gonna pass among you. Please give what you can. If you need to write a check (cheque) .......

[Bob Bergen]

Hey there, Philip!

I believe you are born an actor. I believe you are born a writer. A dancer, painter, sculptor, etc. Talent is a part of a person's DNA. Technique is the tool an artist draws upon so they can reproduce their talent at will. It's a rare breed to be able to do this without training and technique. But it's not unheard of. There are several famous Oscar winners who never set foot in an acting class. Over the past 27 years of teaching, every once in a while I'll see a student who from that first moment at the mic just had that "it" factor. Talent, instinct, originality, perfect mic technique, and took direction like a dream. I think I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened, but that is also relative to how many out there are really, truly brilliant.

When I took my first vo class I was a dreadful actor. I knew I had talent. But my acting skills were raw and unfocused. Now, I was 14 and my voice hadn't completely changed yet. So add awkward teenager to the mix, and I was a mess. A couple years into studying vo and I got better, but not great. Then I studied acting at a conservatory for 2 years, as well as 3 years of improv. THEN I went back to study vo again. Once I was able to bring acting skills to the mic it all fit together. I realized that a trained actor makes a choice, a non trained actor makes a guess. I needed the skills to make solid choices at the mic.

You may not be a trained actor, Philip, but you are indeed a good one. And after several years of doing this, your track record speaks for itself. You would not get the work you get without being an actor. You can call yourself anything you want. Acting is being truthful under imaginary circumstances. Trust me, you are an actor, my friend.

As for that documentary, I checked in with Bill and Beau. The actors had nothing to do with the producing of this film. The three producers sought out the voice actors to be subjects. But the actors themselves did not have anything to do with the production other than being shadowed. B

[Scott Pollak]

I finally got around to watching this and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Not being part of the 'big' L.A. crowd, it's kind of cool to see that those folks really aren't much different from us 'smaller' folks.

Some observations:

- Like others, it was interesting to see Beau recording in his car. I noticed while he was recording his middle finger kept tapping the Sennheiser. Wouldn't that have caused some noise while recording?

- Loved Beau's comment: "It's not about your voice. It's what you DO with it."

- And Bill's observation: "There are basically 2 kinds of voiceovers, Actors, and Announcers."

- And wasn't it interesting that in a short about voiceovers, Ben's interview audio was so bad? Why didn't they mike him? They obviously used the camera mike. Just found that interesting in light of all the good audio elsewhere.

I don't have the pleasure of knowing these people, but they seem very down-to-earth, very real and grounded. Especially Beau.

Oh yeah, and Melissa Disney is cuter than heck.

Thanks so much for sharing this, Bruce.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Fran McClellan]

Not much more to add here, other than I really, really enjoyed it! Thanks for posting it here!
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Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
--
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

[georgethetech]

As I was involved on a small part in the production of this doc, I can tell you it was really on the heels of the launch of the DLF VO Lab that it was created, in memorial of Don. All of the folks in this film contributed to building the Lab, including myself (who was cut from the film for being too technical and not actory enough). While everyone hopefully got some little teeny-weeny bump from the appearance, it certainly wasn't about the exposure (except for me, who really needed it).
I wasn't involved with the production's audio, but BPJ's place is very echoey so their choice to use a boom mic may not have been the best, but they used what they had on a shoe-string budget.
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If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder

[Dayo]

Thoroughly enjoyed it!
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Colin Day - UK Voiceover
www.thurstonday.co.uk

[vkuehn]

I feel like my post may border of "thread-jacking" since almost all the conversation has focused on the theme of the sound and the personalities and the techniques....

but here goes:

We have GEAR threads where we talk about how we build out booths, our studios, and string our electronics together. I enjoyed the video for the feel the theme, etc, but there were at least two very, very, very short clips that revealed an interesting studio design in the Bill Ratner segments.

at about 8:50 and 10:30 into the video, you can see that he has a "pretend" booth in his overall studio. He sits at the control desk, starts the recorder, and then wanders through a "maze" and reaches the space where he actually performs. No doors. Just a maze of space. And this little "billboard" of an acoustic panel behind him, and another in front of him.

I would love to see a more revealing graphic of his layout. But maybe it is best if we can only see the layout in abstract and build our own dreams.

Which reminds me, I must do a pictorial of my recording space. It has been my laboratory for experimenting with audio.... and some days it looks like a high school chemistry demonstration gone bad.

In full daylight it reveals itself as a trade-school carpentry project gone bad.

[yarg28]

[yarg28]

[Bob Bergen]

[jsgilbert]

My comment wasn't intended to be any kind of dig or critique. I didn't choose to state a personal opinion as to "liking" or "not liking" it. I think from a marketing standpoint it is brilliant. As for the "how's and why's" regarding the making of this film, I suppose I'll just have to believe that this wasn't a blatant attempt to develop a marketing vehicle, just as you'll have to believe I had no idea I was putting Rohypnol into that woman's, er, um, never mind.

I don't think that anybody will argue that "Unknown" has helped, at least to some extent, in getting these people a little less "unknown".

Funny thing is how many 6 figure earners in voice over really are unknown. Many not even known to the people who frequent this site. I think that as many of these people start to see the aspects of the VO 2.0 world invading their income earning abilities, we can expect to see a lot more films like this.

As far as the "acting" is concerned, you'll get a lot more v.o. work if you open up a top end ad agency and hire yourself to do the voice over, or marry the head of one of those agencies, or maybe just make a really good marketing v.o. with you in front of a microphone.
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j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com

"today is the first day of the rest of the week"

[Philip Banks]

If a VO is a somebody on an internet it does not necessarily follow that in the business they are a somewhere-somebody.

My former VO agent in London chose to shut up shop after a dozen or more years so I had to find someone else. My new agent is probably the No2 VO agent in the UK.

Our initial conversation went something like

"Well who were you with, darling?"

I named my former London agent.

"Mmmmmmmmm, no, never heard of them"

She was being serious.

I'm am never amazed at the amount of Movie Trailer Voices who don't do movie trailers. Pay no attention to me, us Pole Dancers know nothing about Voice Over work.

[heyguido]

That last mental image is giving me nightmares.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"