Sirenetta Leoni Inside Voiceover—Information + Insights On Voice Acting

We are fast-approaching that time of year when most of us start thinking about setting goals for next year. (Some of you are probably way ahead of the curve on this.) 

Here's an excellent, thoughtful and timely post written by actors' career coach and advocate, Dallas Travers, about the importance of not only setting goals, but of setting the right kinds of goals. The kind of goals that will help you get closer to your longer term or Big Picture objectives.

Setting the wrong kinds of goals---vague goals...unrealistic goals....things you only think you should include on your list of goals because you read it somewhere or it sounds like the right thing to say...goals that conflict with your core values---.is probably worse than setting no goals at all, because they can derrail and distract you from what you actually should be doing. 

Acting Career Coach, Gwyn Gilliss, provides an excellent and thorough explanation of what a talent agent's responsibilities are and aren't....and more important, what your obligations as a talent are once you get an agent. She does a great job of clearing up many misconceptions many actors have about agents, like, for example that you just can't expect to kick back and wait for the auditions to roll in once you have an agent. By the same token, you can't blame your agent for your lack of success, if you do little or nothing, to help them find you work. "Help me, help you" isn't just a famous line from a movie about an agent. It's actually what you agent expects and needs from you. 

By the way, though this article is primarily geared towards on-camera talent, 90% applies to voice talent as well. 

Interesting discussion with cast of Alexander Payne's newest film, "Nebraska" on the challenges and joy of auditioning with Will Forte, Bob Odenkirk, June Squibb and the director.

We love's Bob Odenkirk's take on it...don't worry about booking the role; just enjoy the audition and have a great time playing the part. 

BTW, congratulations to Will Forte. Being in an Alexander Payne film is definitely a step up from "MacGruber."

Overall, we generally agree with Sound Advice's assessment, and encourage students to do the same once they've achieved an intermediate-level of training,  P2P sites are a good place to cut your teeth, get a lot of auditioning and self-directing experience under your belt, earn some income and build your business.

It also gives you a chance to make mistakes---which are inevitable in any business, especially when you are starting out---in relative anonymity. This way, by the time you actually land an agent, you'll feel a lot more confident by having actual auditioned for and, (hopefully) booked jobs, and less like a nooB. By the way, if you're getting a respectable return for the time and money you've invested in P2P sites, we'd encourage you to continue auditioning for them, even after you have representation. 

One additional note, it's very difficult to find reliable numbers anywhere for audition-to-booking ratios. We don'tknow where the "1 in 200" number mentioned in the article comes from, but we assume that it's from some industry source, and pertains to non-Union work .

Years ago, the rule of thumb we heard quoted repeatedly for Union auditions to jobs was 25-to-1. Nowadays, due to increased competition for Union voiceover jobs, we don't doubt it's greater, maybe 30-t0-1 or even 40-t0-1, but 200-to-1 seems like a very high average number of auditions to get one job. In fact, many agencies who represent Union talent in LA and NYC still have talent come into their agencies daily to audition and it wouldn't make any financial sense for them to go to the considerable expense of keeping their booth agents on the payroll if the chances of their talent booking jobs were so few and far between. 

We strongly recommend that you try Jackie's simple, but but very effective, quick and confidence-boosting affirmation the next time you audition or are hired to perform. We promise that it will help calm your nerves and turn down the volume on the nagging little voice in the back of your head that keeps telling you that you are somehow "not good enough." Just remind yourself that you have as much right to be doing this work as anyone else does and OWN IT!.

Choosing to be an actor comes with a built-in set of sacrifices that anyone who is an actor or voice actor has to accept at the outset....uncertain schedules, uncertain income, and spending whatever disposable income you do have on career-advancing necessities like training, demos, reels, studio equipment and headshots. Regularly missing family or friend's events, because you are in a play; have to turn around an audition or are enrolled in a workshop with a casting director or agent from  ______ (LA, NY, London, Sydney, etc) that "only comes to your town once every 5 years," all come with the territory. 

Unfortunately, while you willingly accept these sacrifices and more, it inevitably affects other people that care about you, as well, so actor Sanna Haynes has written an apology from actors to everyone else in your lives . Feel free to share with those you love.

We are always in awe of the amazing talent on display  in "Pinky and the Brain. The writing and acting were impeccable and here, the brilliant Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, demonstrate why they were one of the greatest cartoon duos of all time....

The spript for this episode, "You Said a Mouseful," can be found here: http://hvrd.me/9xvHWb

Yes,  it's that Harvard University and we double dog dare you to try it! 

Extra credit to anyone who guesses the actor who played Hackensack Socko Kicky-Sack Sack Kicker Factory Senior Supervisor, Kurt Sackett. (Hint: An actor best known for starring in an iconic 1980's ad campaign.)

"Demand for (audiobook) narrators is on the rise," according to this Bloomberg news video. Audiobook book production increased almost 300% from 2011 to 2012 and that impressive growth trend is expected to continue.

With the spate of recent articles on this topic, including this one, the recent Wall Street Journal  http://on.wsj.com/15FNtp8 ; and the New York Times http://nyti.ms/12wfs8N features, expect more narrators, both good and bad, to enter the fray, and the competition for audiobook narration jobs, especially the better-paying ones,  to become much more intense.

If you're an excellent voice actor who keeps his or her chops up, we don't think that you have much to worry about. There will be plenty of audiobook projects to go around for well-trained actors for years to come, due to the huge backlog of books that still need to be reorded.

What do we mean by "well-trained"? We mean that you have the background, training and acting chops to compete head-to-head against the Julliard and Yale Drama School-trained actors mentioned in the video. If you're training is lacking, all is not lost. You can still seek out  excellent training, but you need to get started immediately. 

You'll also find out the answer to the burning question "Whatever happened to Balki Bartokomous?" Turns out that he's alive and well and one of the most in-demand audiobook narrators in the business! 

This question comes up all the time and the answer with regards to voiceover is the same---yes and no. Interestingly, in voiceover you are not limited by your actual chronological age, but rather by the age you sound like. We know a few women in their 60's who genuinely sound like 30-something moms, and there are a few young men in their 20's who easily sound 20 years older.

If you're younger sounding, you may see more commercials and video game scripts coming your way, and more mature-sounding actors will probably audition more for narrative gigs, but there are lots of other factors involved, such as whether you have a smooth announcer sound or more charactery sound, how versatile you are, etc.

Bottom line is this: Don't use your age as an excuse. The types of jobs that you get to audition for may change over time, but the hustle required to get any of them does not. If you've "outgrown" your demo, get an updated, age-appropriate demo. If you haven't been trained in the genre of voiceover in which you might be most competitive at this point in your life go get yourself some training NOW. 

Good article on dealing with rejection. It's important to understand that sometimes it really is out of your hands: that you can do everything perfectly and still not get the role. When working on the casting side of things, we witnessed first-hand that it's absolutely true that it's not always the best performer or person most suited for the role that books the part. However, we should also note, that far more often than not, it is.

So how can you tell when a job is not "meant" to be yours? The short answer is you can't, so your only choice is to always do your best with every audition. Never, ever "phone it in," because you've decided in advance that you aren't right for the role. Alway act confidently and professionally, give your best performance  and above all, have fun. Embrace each and every audition as an opportunity to act and demonstrate what you would do with the role. You'll never book every role...no one can...but if you are consistently excellent and make a good impression in your auditions, the jobs will come. 

This advice is GOLDEN! Nothing is as soul-crushing and self-defeating to actors as constantly measuring yourself against others' successes. Without a doubt this is the single most common reason people give up on pursuing their own acting careers.

We constantly hear actors lamenting about things like, "John started at the same time I did and is booking constantly!" or "I've been working at this 3 years and don't have an agent, yet Jane showed up just 6 months ago and is already represented!" 

As the author points out, everyone has different circumstances and life experiences. It may turn out that the  "nooB" in your scene study class that you've been comparing yourself to has been acting professionally since age 3, an advanced degree from Julliard and Broadway acting experience. You just don't know everything in people's backgrounds, even if you think you do. The only person you should ever be comparing yourself against is you.

Great post from self-described "audio craftsman," Randy Coppinger with several suggestions for minimizing plosives while recording. 

We're particularly intrigued by the double pop screen idea, but of course, it makes sense to first make sure that our first pop stopper is positioned properly. 

Many thanks to Randy and UK-based voice actor & coach, Gary Terza, for these valuable time- and take-saving tips!