Voice Over Body Shop
2014-04
Episodes
Friday Apr 25, 2014
EWABS Ep. 140 April 21, 2014 Third Anniversary
Friday Apr 25, 2014
Friday Apr 25, 2014
Episode 140, April 21, 2014Third Anniversary Show, together at the Ganguzza’s house in Irvine, Calif. 0:3:10 Guests: Many, including Dan’s mom.0:4:00 Dan tells about meeting a SoCal mouse at his mom’s.0:5:25 Dan tells some EWABS history, starting with a talk George gave at Voice2008. Then, at Voice 2010, it started to jell as Dan and George collaborated on solving a problem. They took inspiration from NPR’s “Car Talk”—hence the “body shop.” Now we’re at episode 140. 0:9:55 Dan admits to editing with a razor blade.0:10:05 George admits his age (40), and then Dan does, too. (+17)Some shoutouts:0:10:45 Bob Sauer0:11:04 Adam from SLC0:11:29 Andy at Top Voice-Over0:11:37 Andy Boyns and Memet Onur sing happy birthday in Turkish (and sing it well)0:12:12 Anthony Gettig from the U.P. Michigan0:13:00 Break0:14:25 Back at the party. 0:14:50 Dan prepares to roam the room. Dan talks with Johnny Cavetas and his camera. 0:15:34 He then moves over to see Larry Hudson and Sylvia McClure, the EWABS “bumper” folks. Is it “Dan and George” or “George and Dan”? Simon Vance is the cameraman.0:17:30 Katherine Curriden, the EWABS producer for the last two years. She’s the person who gets the great guests for the show. 0:19:08 Connie Terwilliger. She met Dan at Voice 2007 in Las Vegas. Unconscious incompetence is curable. Connie is a good source on forums for good information.0:21:17 Denise Chamberlain. She worked with Dan on Voice-Over Virtual last summer. Dan sent an ALL CAPS email. They originally met at Voice 2007.0:22:30 Karen O’Bryant, a frequenter of the EWABS Chat Room. She recalls her favorite “cluge” when George had to broadcast Dan’s image from an iPhone perched on his forehead (Episode 125, Dec. 30, 2013). Her other favorite moment was a long discussion by George with no audio—the Chat Room filled in with their own words.0:24:28 Alex Apostolides0:25:13 James Alburger and Penny Abshire came up from San Diego for the event. Voice 2014 will be at the Anaheim Hilton this year. The theme is “Better than Ever.” A Las Vegas headliner will do a show and a talk later about the show, “Creating a Million-Dollar Mouth.” Other presenters will be new, too. Lots of surprises. 0:27:45 Martha Kahn, who helped Dan with the Voice-Over Virtual conference last summer. More shoutouts: 0:28:44 Joe Cipriano, the view from the wiring tangle, behind and underneath it all.0:30:03 Cliff Zellman, from his studio0:30:20 Dave Courvoisier (CourVO) from his car0:30:49 Ed Waldorph with a distinguished shoutout0:31:35 Break0:32:50 They’re back. George has a new virtual audience toy. It has cheers, crickets…0:33:30 Dan wanders over to meet Simon Vance. Simon tells us about his current audiobook work. He recounts his 700 title-career. He explains why he worked under other names.0:36:55 Dan asks Simon how he’s seen the business change. MP3’s contributed to the change, and then Audible combined with Amazon which “democratized” audiobooks, but drew in a huge number of new actors and changed the standards. The industry has expanded hugely. 0:42:03 Ann Ganguzza, the party host. Ann talks about Voice-Over Peeps. She remembered the fun of Episode 103, last July 28, when Dan built a Studio Suit booth in Ann’s living room. More shoutouts0:45:42 Elaine Clark, from Voice One in San Francisco0:46:00 Jerry Pelletier, from Florida, and his Studio Bricks studio0:46:32 John Taylor, in his house0:46:57 Kevin Scheuller from his EWABS inspired cave, with his EWABS clicker!0:47:30 Source Elements (Robert Marshall and Rebekah Wilson) sends a shoutout0:47:57 Break0:49:18 They’re back with a dead mic and frozen video. (Apollo 13 continues.)0:49:54 A wave from Dan’s mom.0:50:06 Dan’s mic dies. Gear shift. Cover SFX.0:52:30Q Is Dan shaving off his mustache in honor of three years?A Detailed answer0:53:20Q What equipment are you using to do the show?A (George adds a mustache). 0:53:50 George gives an extended answer. Be ready to take notes on all the details!0:57:00 Prizes offered to the assembled fun-havers.And then it was time to “fork a poke,” … er…1:06:50Announcements: Next week: James and Penny talking about Voice 2014The week after: VO Marketing Roundtable (Ann Ganguzza and others)1:08:00We still have clickers. $5. Get them at EWABS.com.1:09:30Sponsors: Harlan Hogan has a supply of “personally vetted,” very dense foam at half the cost for studio monitors. He has a shotgun mic with “field replaceable o-rings.” Harlan will be on the show in May. He’ll talk about a new audio interface for iOS.1:11:59 Contributors: Eric Erigoni, who donates weekly. Thanks to the wives. 1:12:45 Our sponsors: Harlan Hogan (Voice Over Essentials), Edge Studio, VO Studiotech.com (Soon to be Edge Studios), Voice-Over Xtra. Voice-Over Xtra’s daily newsletter is worth a daily read. Edge Studio’s newsletter got a shoutout too.1:13:15 LIKE US on Facebook, LIKE our videos on YouTube, FOLLOW us on Twitter, SUBSCRIBE to YouTube.Thanks to show support staff, like Katherine Curriden; Ann & Jerry Ganguzza; Lee Pinney for the Podcast; Jack de Golia for the show notes.1:14:42 We wind up with “Happy Birthday”! (Actually sung pretty well!)Time to stick a fork in it.More shoutouts!1:16:19 Nathan Cundiff1:16:29 Lee Pinney from Voice Around Town1:17:09 Steve Tardio with Three Clicks!1:17:26 Andy Barnett from KC1:18:06 End of Show
Saturday Apr 12, 2014
Episode 139 April 7, 2014 Voice Acting Masters Round Table
Saturday Apr 12, 2014
Saturday Apr 12, 2014
Episode 139, April 7, 2014Voice Acting Masters RoundtableGuests: Elley-Ray, Marc Cashman, Randye Kaye and Elaine ClarkTo get into the chat room: at EWABS website click on “chat now.”0:03:30 Skype TX coming someday. 0:05:00 Guest introductions. 0:08:00 First topic: Voice Over Styles Elaine: Every city/ad agency has a different feel. Elley-Ray: Actors forget we’re in a dialogue and to naturally respond (not displaying, dictating or announcing).Randye is having bandwidth problems.0:11:20 Changing styles isn’t easy. It seems people who are “just me” do well.Elaine: the more real it is, the more you have to become part of it. For some it becomes more about them. The listener should feel and take action. Your delivery will depend on how close you are to the mic.Elley-Ray: we perform by ourselves, but really we’re part of a team. We forget it’s not a singular enterprise. We can’t just grab the ball for ourselves.Elaine: We have to know our job. Sometimes our character personifies the problem, not the solution. We have to understand our role.The “classic announcer” is now more of a caricature. Randye says the announcer still works but before a group. VO actors have to have a point of view, we’re not neutral newscasters. That’s new in the last few decades. We have to know what we feel and what we want the audience to feel. There’s still a place for the “engaged announcer read.”0:16:30 Dan asks how the number of VO actors these days affects what we do.Elley: adapt and change. For her, time in the biz gives her confidence. For newbees, don’t get locked into what you may think is your “safety net.” Things will come full circle. Bend with the times.Elaine: technologically things have changed, but our core is technically based. In the late 90s there was so much “attitude” and youth orientation, followed by 9/11 which led to heart-felt, deeper. Then with aging baby boomers, now we need 50+ VO. Attitudes and styles of writing change, but techniques stay the same.Elley: Women’s roles have changed from airheads to professions. We’re now more conscious about who and how we voice.0:20:30 Dan asks how do you do it differently?Elaine: there’s only one YOU, complete with opinions and visualizations. Bring your personality to it. Elley: we read left to right and get stuck on punctuation. She advocates dumping the punctuation. Change pitch speed and play with elongating prepositions. “Not read.” Discovery point in a sentence—how do you discover a response. When it’s written down, screw with pitch, speed, rhythm, volumes. Play with those things. Take risks, put your opinion and put in emotional truth.Elaine: coaches’ jobs is to put as much as we can in students’ bags of tricks. Change in reading copy (after 5 seconds of the same, the client is gone).0:26:20 Break0:28:49 They’re back.0:30:00 Marc Cashman joins via Skype and George sorts it out. 0:32:00 Dan talks about a script he got today with confusing direction. And then he got copy written for what they say they don’t want. How do you get through this?Dan reads the copy and asked the group to respond.Randye said it’s difficult to coach since Dan’s read in his “see what this is” mode.This doesn’t say if it’s for radio or TV. Elley: There’s a humility needed that if you know too much, you can sound slick.Elaine: read it again as a TV commercial.Take 2.Dan reads again. Loses the script. Take 3.Coaches reply.Elaine: you have to imagine when you see the word “imagine.” It implies a storyteller style. The copy divides into three parts. Boil it down to a simplistic style. Turn the paper over and tell her a story about the script is about, in your own words in whatever time you want.0:40:36 Dan does that and Elaine asks “why does that matter?” She talks about personalizing the message so that Dan can care about it. Elley: wrote down the word “imagine” – that’s the selling point while you’re selling transit. You have to be sure that when you get to that (transit) that we know it. Elley would have Dan do it in gibberish to express emotion of the words.0:43:45 Marc Cashman arrives. Elley has to leave and come back to reestablish hearing.0:45:00 Randye adds her thoughts—she heard Dan judging the copy as he read it. The copy didn’t suit his personality. He got more relaxed as he got further into it. He got a little Dr. Seuss when not connected to the copy. Each “imagine” is another chance to connect to the listener. Figure out whatever personal connection you can find and have a point of view either of you or the character you’ve playing. Take 4.0:48:10Responses at 0:49:24.Marc—initial take, Dan forgot to breathe. Breathe to the end of your phrases. He also thought it was a little too intimate. He thought Dan pulled back his personality too much. Ignore the direction and be yourself. Also, Marc didn’t hear a smile.Randye says Dan was reacting to coaching from take 1-on. She thinks there are moments in the script that need intimacy, but he didn’t change with the story. She liked that Dan took the risk. Elley urged Dan to change rhythm. He lost emotional truth while making a good change away from take 1 read.0:53:45 Dan said he chose this copy with four coaches because he knew what would happen. Elaine points out that there’s an arc to the story, from personal to global. Marc said that there needs to be a build. Marc asked him to go back to Take 1 more.Take 5.0:56:00.Marc reacts at 0:57:00 and says take the “sell” out and to emphasize “transit.” Elaine says there’s an “In a World” facet to this piece. Too stiff on the numbers. Marc suggests relaxing on the number to fourteen-forty, for example.0:59:00 Dan tries to corral the discussion. 0:59:37 Break1:01:00 They’re back. Time for questions from the chat room.1:01:51Q What’s the definition of conversational reads?A Elaine-having a dialogue with the listener, reacting with in-between-the-lines talk, movementElley—authentic responding with mental, physical, & spiritual action in the voice.Randye—to add on, conversational doesn’t always mean casual. It means “natural for the situation.” Figure out the situation and decide what suits the copy. A thought is a breath and a breath is a thought. We use sounds and tempo changes to emphasize as opposed to mechanical reading.Marc—the way we talk we sometimes stutter, stammer, we never talk in a rhythm, but do talk in a cadence. Depending on the copy you can enhance with “glue” phrases like “so,” “you know,” and so on, to enhance the “flavor.” Don’t read as if in stone. The actors who bring more to the table than just the copy are the best to work with. Sometimes you have to add a little bit to the copy; this isn’t suitable for every piece of copy. George added that the higher the pay, the less suitable it may be to add to the copy.1:07:30Q Are men still dominating the industry?A YesElley: Example, MacDonald’s ad to lipsynch a hen clucking—job went to a man. Randye--P.S. It depends on the field. Lifetime Network is nearly all female. Elaine: there are more women. VO reflects society. Thirty years ago only 10% female. Now 30%.1:10:40Q Do you feel union is overrated, should new actors stay non-union.A Sticky question. Elaine: we need the union to establish standards and rate of pay. It’s there when people are ready for it. Marc it’s nice for somebody to establish minimum scale. His concern is that union doesn’t go after companies for residuals. He hears about VO’s getting screwed. 1:13:45Q Is there an upsteak trend?A Use sparingly. Marc says uptalk is viral. It’s part of the venacular. You should control it and use it when you want, not let it control you. Marc said 30-40% of commercials have it.Elaine: Uptalk makes it hard to edit video. It sounds insecure. 1:17:45 Q My voice changes morning to evening. How should I deal with that?A Elaine pick a time and record consistently at that time. Record yourself throughout the day and listen to changes. Elley: warm up if you need to record first thing. Work at your optimum. Discussion about voice care follows. 1:20:30 Randye talks about singing exercises helping her. Warm up with easy vocal exercises, drink a lot of water. Your mouth gets tired. Take breaks, massage your jaw. Singing and tongue twister exercises are good. Elley talks about soft palate exercise where you yawn. She also puts ice packs on her throat to reduce swelling.1:23:19 Break1:24:15 They’re back. Time to talk about Harlan Hogan products. Voice Over Essentials!1:27:20Q What is the difference between “east flavor” of coaching and “west flavor” of coaching?A Elley-Ray each uses different language, but they all come from the same place. They know what truth and response is, that there are no monologues, just dialogues. Elaine: we all possess good ears so students can hear what needs to be fixed. Marc figures that because of the internet, there’s no north-south-east-west anymore. 1:31:30 Cumbayá breaks out.1:33:00 Announcements. Thanks to donors. Spread the word.Third Anniversary Show is on April 21. Next week: Dark. No show. Thanks to support staff and wives.This week, George will be at NAB in Las Vegas and at the Vegas Voicers workout on 4/10.1:36:49 End of show.
Wednesday Apr 02, 2014
EWABS Ep 138 March 31st 2014 with web designer Joe Davis
Wednesday Apr 02, 2014
Wednesday Apr 02, 2014
Episode 138, March 31, 2014Guest: Joe Davis from voiceactorwebsites.comGeorge on gear in or out of your boothDan’s Tip of the Week on VO Education0:03:30 Thanks to sponsors, Harlan Hogan, VO Xtra, and Edge Studio/VO Studio Tech0:04:00 “Shout-outs” needed for the Third Anniversary show on April 21. 0:04:58 George rolls his “Whittam’s World” (Episode 15) about equipment in or out of the booth. George gives details on where to keep your computer and other gear. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfMi8URfLg8&list=PLpWTD2BQBdrKqkKsnsWMWc4FYrh3mXBpH&index=16 to see it again.0:13:00 Discussion between Dan and George about what gear in the booth. 0:14:52 Break0:16:30 Dan’s rant on VO education. Everybody learns from somebody.Acting, technology, and business are the three phases of the VO biz. You never stop studying.Education for profit? Nothing wrong with that. There’s no certification for teaching VO acting. No one person can teach it all. Webinars? The question is what is the information being presented worth to you? Making you a better voice actor is in their interest. The all-in-one organizations offering guaranteed success—RUN! See WoVO’s best practices. http://www.worldvo.org//?s=Best+Practices&x=0&y=0But never stop learning!Dan and George discuss. Dan says his peers have taught him much, with the foundation coming in his school days. Next week’s roundtable will include some top coaches. Q: Does WoVO offer accreditation? A: No, though WoVO will soon offer home studio certification. Coming up: how to make your website better.0:25:57 Break0:27:30 They’re back with Joe Davis. Joe demonstrates branding by wearing a Dan mustache. Joe talks about how he came to the business. His friendship with Dan led him to learn about VO. He began thinking about making web design fast, affordable, and relevant for VO. Joe and Dan now have a business, http://www.voiceactorwebsites.com/Dan noticed websites can be a pain, with somebody else in charge.Joe thinks a website’s goal is either for branding (where you’ve had contact with the clients prior). For those sites, search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t as important. Example: McDonald’s—lots of graphics, nearly no text. Not good for SEO. http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.htmlThe other type that brings in new traffic. That type needs to have a lot of text. Example: Dan’s site. http://www.homevoiceoverstudio.com/ It’s got lots of text which is good for SEO. “Flash” can’t be read by SEO. Example is Dan’s VO site, which can’t be seen on an iPhone.So you need to decide your need before you start. 0:37:00 Branding discussion. For Dan, his site is like a business card.0:38:40 Joe asks what is a brand? A brand on livestock was a way of know whoowned which cow. Ultimately, it’s something people think of someone or something.Example: Pepsi logo. Sometimes a brand gives you an insight into a company or it cangive a feeling.For the website Joe runs, he spent hours building a logo with a headset and a mic. And that turned out not to work since VO’s don’t use headsets so much.It might be best to bring a brand or logo to your website development, rather than have the web designer do it. 0:43:20 Dealing with SEO and keywords. What is all that?When you go to a search engine and type in words, the search engine gives different weight to different terms. SEO includes on-page and off-page factors. If you don’t have the words “voice-over” on your page, you won’t get found. Most webpage viewers don’t go beyond the first page of a search result. Something 60-85% click on the first three choices brought up by a search engine. Pay-per-click: Google makes its money by selling advertisers who appear above the search results. The client sets the amount per click up to a ceiling amount. This is why most of us won’t make money via our websites since there are deep pockets getting the most out of their SEO.Google has 10 spaces for the 1.3 million looking for voice work everyday. So if you can identify your niche visually and in text at your site.0:51:15 Harlan Hogan spot. Harlan is having an April Fools Sale, one day only on April 1. 0:53:59 Audience questions.Q I just bought a domain and I’m trying to “host” it via WordPress. If this OK?A Yes. This is a good way to manage your site yourself. Joe tells the history of site management. You can “host” your site through BlueHost. You can have more power and flexibility by hosting yourself. Hostgater is another ($10 a month). George uses SquareSpace. His site includes an embedded element (SourceConnect Now). Joe said you do need to be careful that your embedded content is a trusted source. The other caution: the more you put on your site the slower it loads. It should load within 7 seconds.1:01:10Q: How do you handle multiple websites?A: Depends on what you want to do with each site. You probably need a very different brand for each function if you have a different site for each. If all your sites talk about the same thing, keep the branding the same. 1:04:08 Often there’s a bar across the top. Then a call to action and services in the upper right.English speakers read in an F pattern, looking top left first, then across, back, down, and across: define the brand first, then call to action, down the side your menu, and a way to contact on the right. Sidebars are moving to the right to enhance SEO.1:06:20 Q How much change control do I have?A Depends on the web design system you’re using. 1:08:25Q What about mobile sites?A More than 1 billion use mobile devices to access the internet. Having a site that works is important. You can build a site specific to mobile devices or a responsive design. In those, the site changes as it shrinks.Responsive design is better for SEO. Duplicate content gets punished by Google. You can also get reported by a competitor.1:12:19 Q How important is it to have a blog on the website?A With WordPress you can have both managed on the same system. Google loves fresh content and old content and domain names. If update regularly, that’s good. If you’re not doing it at least once a week, you might want to remove your dates so Google doesn’t think you have an abandoned blog.1:14:48Q What about registering a domain with wix.com?A Joe doesn’t have experience with Wix. The more you use a template service, you’re limited, but it can be easy to use. If you want more flexibility, then hosting yourself is just as expensive.1:16:52Q Single page website vs multi-tab site?A It depends on the goal of the site. The more pages the better if you want to bring in natural traffic. Long single pages could get hit by Google if they’re too long. Google likes organized content with “bread crumbs.” George asks Joe about podcasts. Joe says it requires an audience with specific interests. Now days we can build websites quickly and inexpensively. 1:24:04 Joe’s final advice: buy domains associated with your domain name and then a Break.1:25:38 They’re back. Email your questions to Joe.Announcements:Clickers! Donors thank yous. Subscription donations possible!The YouTube Channel includes EWABS Essentials, with the “best of.”Next week: Voice Over Coaches Roundtable.April 14: DARK. A break.April 21: Third Anniversary with Voice Peeps. Send a video shout out and put up atDropbox.May 5: Marketing Roundtable1:31:30 George tests two mics.1:33:19 End of show
Monday Mar 31, 2014
EWABS Ep137 March 24 2014 with Dr. Joel Bernstein Otorhinolaryngologist
Monday Mar 31, 2014
Monday Mar 31, 2014
Published on Mar 24, 2014Sinusitus and all things sinuses the topic on this thrilling episode of EWABS. Dan shares a TOTW on audio processing, and George shows off and demos his Kaotica Eyeball, picked up while presenting at VO 2014 Atlanta.