Join Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller as she introduces you to "Getting Started in Audiobook Narration". Bettye is a veteran audiobook narrator and coach who has been there, done that and got the t-shirt. Listen to this snippet from her audiobook about... audiobooks!

Download Podcast Episode 46 »

Tags:

Bettye Zoller, VoicesVoices.com, Audiobooks, Voice Acting, Narration, Narrators, Voices.com

Transcript of Getting Started in Audiobook Narration

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week, Voices.com is pleased to present Bettye Zoller.

Bettye Zoller: Hello. I'm Bettye Zoller and this audiobook is about audiobooks, more particularly, narrating them. In a recent study after the American Federation of TV Radio artists found that in the US, paying jobs in the voiceover area of audiobook narration is one of the fastest growing segments of the business today.

There are special voice techniques required to become a sought-after audio narrator and among these are certainly a heightened sense of text interpretation often facilitated by a background that includes some type of theatrical or dramatic training. You may not be equipped to narrate all genres of audio. What type of read are you best suited for, fiction, non-fiction, children's books, business or medical or self-help topics, the Boddess Rippers - those are the romance novels so many of us love. Can you voice characters or dialects well?

If you're not world-class, don't do it. It limits your narration scope to choose genres certainly but I believe you have to honestly ask yourself, "What do I want to put on my audio book demo?" And honestly, you should only put on any kind of any demo those things you do the very best. Voice talents must be aware that this field differs markedly from other voiceover job areas. There's no point in seeking work as a narrator and expecting to get paid for it in the audiobook field unless you are really skilled and really good at reading long texts.

When you feel ready to do so, consult with an audio producer who is skilled in audiobook production or narration, about creating your new audiobook narration demo. This demo will be much longer than any other type of voiceover demo, unless that's my belief. The demos that I produce for my clients are between 6 to 12 minutes long and show a wide variety of audiobook literature genres. Those who hire readers insist on hearing longer demos to determine if you can sustain a narration, if you can prolong a characterization, if you have the stamina and also, publishers and audio producers insist on finding out how good you are at reading various types of material. You're more likely to get work from a small publishing house when you're first starting out without credits, of course.

Seek out small niche publishers. A niche publisher is one who publishes only things in a small area of knowledge particularly if you know a lot about their subject. Be sure and tell them that when you submit your demo to them.

Keep your ears open for audiobook authors or wannabees who are considering creating an audio product of some kind and might use you to narrate it. Network of business and writer's groups and keep searching for publishers who welcome new people and hone your skills by reading every chance you get.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoicesVoices.com
Bettye Zoller Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Bettye Zoller

34 years as a respected university and private educator in voice, speech, theatre, radio-TV, and voiceover techniques along with her award-winning career in voiceovers and jingles has won Bettye Zoller an international reputation that brings clients and students to her workshops and to work in her Dallas recording studio (she's an accomplished audio engineer/producer) from all over the globe! She is educated through the doctorate (from Missouri University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas) with faculty positions in the past at Southern Methodist University, University of Texas at Arlington, Dallas County Colleges. She has also studied with famed NYC acting coach Uta Hagen, in Chicago at the "Second City School" and her career began long ago at Metro Goldwyn Mayer's Hollywood studio school (as a child performer signed to MGM).

Her voiceover credits number in the many hundreds (she's never counted!) and range from voiceovers and jingles for national TV commercials to audio books to cartoons, from toys to podcasts to anime. You've heard her for decades worldwide! Clients have included American Airlines,Pepsi, Visa, Lifetime TV Channel, The Weather Channel, Pace Picante Sauce, Lionel Trains, Texas Instruments Talking Toys, Seven Seas Dressings, Pedialyte Vitamins, promos for ABC, NBC, and BBC America. She is a Simon and Schuster audio book author, narrator, and producer. She has won ADDYS, CLIOS, GOLDEN RADIOS, and AUDIE awards over the years. She is the author of eleven audio titles sold worldwide and continues to produce new titles annually. She is known for teaching voiceover techniques including audio book narration and production, and her BUSINESS OF VOICEOVERS workshops are legendary with students who credit her with starting them in their lucrative voiceover careers!

Bettye, with four top male announcers, has written and produced a wonderful CD program entitled "COMMERCIAL$PEAK" featuring interviews and sections announced by guests and male announcers of reputation. The foreword is by Dick Orkin of Hollywood Radio Ranch, a man who is well known in the U.S. as a commercial creator producer as well as Voice Over performer and teacher.

Did you enjoy Bettye's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert Mike Kirby as he shows you the ropes of "How to Be a Professional Announcer". Discover a portrait of what an announcer ought to be and hear samples of professional commercial voice over work from one of Canada's top male voice talents.

Download Podcast Episode 45 »

Tags:

Mike Kirby, Voice Coaching in Toronto, Voice Overs, Voice, Voice Acting, Announcer, Announcing

Transcript from How To Be a Professional Announcer

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

Now for our special guest.

Male: The professional announcer will walk into the session at exactly the appointed time, introduce himself to the people in the room and upon receipt of the copy, stride into the recording booth and begin to work. He will put on the headsets and read the copy out loud for the engineer to adjust the microphone and set levels and he will continue to prepare the script until he is ready to record. This will give the producers their first opportunity to hear the copy read out loud.

The announcer is a highly paid professional who makes more money in one short recording than most people make in a week. His behavior should reflect that privilege. Hi, I'm Mike Kirby. Listen to the following commercials demos. The first you will hear is my personal radio and television commercial voice over demo. This is what my agent and I send out to producers to showcase my voiceover range.

Later in the CD, you will hear examples of other performer's commercial demos plus my documentary and station promo demos. Each of these is aimed at a very specific target market. Let's listen to the commercial demos first.

Male: In Japan, the sound of the taiko drums says something very important is happening. Their sound is as distinct as their message.

The Olympics are heating up and when you buy an official Olympic cap at McDonald's for only $6.99, 50 cents goes to help our Canadian Olympic team. They're great-looking.

Alpha baker alpha, this is chopper one. Do you read? Alpha, our search for Waldo is negative. Waldo is negative.

The Vidal Sassoon line of protective conditioners inspired by the Vidal Sassoon Academy. Professional care in your hair.

Ultra Downy brings you our best fabric care ever. Downy Care, more than fluffy softness, it also helps keep clothes looking like new.

If something would have slashed a Group of Seven Painting, it would be called vandalism. The resource industry wants to mine and log the parks, the Group of Seven Painting. Someone called this progress. We don't.

For more than 30 years, we've been invited to boldly go where no one has gone before. Now, Star Trek enters a new frontier. Star Trek: The Exhibit.

Prepare yourself for international flamenco sensation Joaquin Cortez as he brings his newest sizzling production, Gypsy Passion to Toronto.

The Who's Tommy is a new kind of stage experience with (Tommy\ award-winning sets, lighting, direction, choreography and the unforgettable music Pete Townsend and the Who. Tommy is a triumph of imagination and theatrical brilliance. Get your tickets now.

Okie dokie, we'll continue, sir.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? For some of you, commercial voice work will come easily. For most, getting used to the intimacy of the studio microphone may take some time.

How do you see yourself with a voice career? Where do your vocal strengths lie? How would your parents and friends describe you? What would they say? Are you warm and playful? Mature? Sexy? Elegant? Can you be energetic and youthful, moving and inspirational, cultured and well-informed? Always remember, with voice work, your voice is unique to you.

Don't try to sound like somebody else. Somebody already sounds like that. Just try to be the best that you can be. Work truthfully from your feelings and you can't go wrong.

What is your dream? How far do you want to go? Commercial voice work is much sought after by all performers and can be very lucrative. Be vigilant, listen to the voices in the media. Identify what you could do and do better. Voice work must be treated as a discipline, a special skill. Just as an actor rehearses through a scene study, a musician through practice, so must a voice performer read out loud everyday to perfect his craft.

Take your favorite section of the newspaper and call a friend. Say, "Hey listen to this," and read it with energy and commitment to engage his interest and response. Read out loud everything you see in print. The secret to finding your personal vocal signature is in words and language. You must develop the habit of vocalizing every word you read. It will be difficult at first. Your mouth and your mind will mutiny. You'll hit the wall. Nothing will make sense but persist.

If you continue to read out loud everyday, you'll find one morning that it will all start to make sense and you'll find yourself sailing on top of the material. Not only will you be able to read everything on the page with great facility but your reading enjoyment will increase a thousand fold and just wait until you see what it will do for your auditions. Total commitment is a guarantor of success. Begin to read out loud and never, never stop.

VoiceWorx.com is my home on the net. There you may sign up for voiceover workshops, for commercial voice, documentary narration, cartoons and animated voices and to buy the VoiceWorx Voiceover Workbook and session CDs, VoiceWorx and if you like me to coach you privately over the internet, you can call 416-944-0444 and we'll set you up with dates and times.

I'm Mike Kirby. Thank you for your time.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

Mike Kirby
Voiceworx

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Mike Kirby

Mike Kirby has won 12 CLIO Awards for advertising excellence in his 30 year career as Actor, Narrator, Broadcaster, Voice Specialist and Author.

* Mike is the Station Voice of HGTV Home and Garden Television Canada.
* Mike's commercial clients have included Hyundai, Suzuki, Nissan, Toyota, Chevy Trucks, Toronto Blue Jays, Stratford Festival, Cogeco, Rogers Cable, Mobil Oil
* Mike was Host/Announcer of the Special Olympics World Winter Games at Skydome in Toronto and Host/Announcer for the United Way Walk-A-Thon at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, Canada.
* Mike has been the voice of numerous documentaries for PBS as well as the award-winning CBC documentary series "Witness".
* Mike Kirby is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York City

Did you enjoy Mike's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert Phyllis K. Day as she takes you on a journey through "The Layers of Your Voice". There is more that goes into a performance than just a rehearsed and polished take. Find out how your life outside of the studio could be affecting your voice acting behind the mic.

Download Podcast Episode 44 »

Tags:

Phyllis K. Day, Voice Coaching, Voice Overs, Voice, Voice Acting, Visual Coaching

Transcript of The Layers of Your Voice

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

Now for our special guest.

Phyllis K. Day: Hello. My name is Phyllis K. Day. I coach the mechanics of your voice and I know where to put the X. I'll tell you a quick story. There was a company with a big problem. Their equipment didn't work and after months of troubleshooting, they called in a man who assured them that he would solve the problem. The man came in, poked around briefly and finally took a large marker and drew an X on the side of a piece of equipment. There's your problem right there. The company investigated and sure enough, there it was. The man gave him his bill and then the company was shocked.

"Buy all you did was walk around for a few minutes and put an X on one piece of equipment and you expect us to pay you?"

The man said, "Yes, because I knew where to put the X."

As a coach, I know where to put the X when it comes to your problem. For example, I get an e-mail from a guy in radio. He keeps hearing, "You sound too announcery. Don't do it that way."

Bu the guy, a real long-time seasoned pro can't figure out what they want him to do and how to stop doing it whatever it is he's doing. He comes to me. I listen to him and I tell him not only where the X is but how to get rid of it.

First, I listened to his demos then I asked him to send me an MP3 of his voice with no processing, talking about his past work, present situation, what hopes he has for the future, what makes him happy, sad, mad, et cetera. I listened very closely and this way, I can get another layer of information about his voice. Sound in general produces for me all the usual things hearing people enjoy but I also get a visual.

It's like sort of like being able to see through an onion and know what's inside under the layers. Then I can guide the client in the direction he or she needs to go to get rid of the layers that are covering up the voice. In general, I coach him or her to have the same body or face, neck and chest position as he or she had during a clip that was natural and clear. That's why I have you talk on this MP3 because somewhere in there, I'll be able to see where you sound best. Now, by natural, I don't mean that the acting was great but when a coaching client uses a range in delivery that is naturally his or hers and not contrived. Here is an example of before and after.

Male: You work hard for your money and it's important to you. Keep your money inside the house where it belongs for as long as you can.

Expecting mothers know that life's most precious gift is a little miracle, nine months in the making.

Phyllis K. Day: A big change, huh? Hard to tell it's the same person. Here's another fellow who had a similar problem.

Male: At our dealership, your job is done right the first time and better than anywhere else in the region.

And your son is off to college, right? Yes, that kid is seriously maintaining his hustle with med school and all. I'm really proud of him.

Yo, you really got quite a legacy for yourself.

Phyllis K. Day: In both cases, they were altering their normal voices to produce something different that may have been in vogue at one time but was not a desired read now. Both had perfectly good, natural voices that they pretty much never used in front of a mic for some reason. I had to determine why they chose not to be themselves when recording or on the air which depending on the person could be that they were emulating someone they heard on the air years ago and they wanted to sound like them or they were under the impression that their natural voice wasn't good enough to use or was just plain unacceptable for some reason.

Next, I had to give them vocal exercises to physically find where they needed to put or actually keep their throats, faces and what not, to be in their most natural, in that most unnatural space, the studio which is really just a box with a grey thin in it. For some reason, they get in their booth, look at the copy and they'd unconsciously turn into someone else. So I had to teach them to physically find where they were when they were just talking naturally like on the phone or in person with someone and it's not just men who have these issues.

Another client of mine is an opera singer and former TV news anchor. Her issue was what I call trills. She'd hang on to a word and add a layer of almost a shaking or trilling sound. When she doesn't do the trilling in the second part of her before and after clip, which I'll play for you in just a second, you can hear her clean, clear voice. The trick is being able to perceive that there is a clear, clean voice under those trills and that's again, what I do. Here is her before and after.

Female: In order to give your more time to do the things you need to do, Beaverton Honda promises to give you the information you want when you want it.

Everyday, countless young women live with the pain and fear of an unplanned and worse, an unwanted pregnancy.

Phyllis K. Day: Again, it almost sounds like two different people. Sometimes, the issue is purely emotional. After years of being in the biz, some people are finding it harder and harder to enjoy voice work and it's showing up in their voice. They contact me because they aren't getting as much work as they used to or maybe they haven't had a VO gig in a year or maybe they got laid off at the radio station or maybe they're working the overnight shift when they used to do afternoons.

I'll say, "When I listen to your voice, I can see anxiety," or "Is something making you sad?" or "What's making you feel anxious?" Sometimes, it's not something that happened a week ago or a year ago or even a month ago. Often it happened a very long time ago, 20, 30, maybe even 40 years ago. The good news is once they do personalized exercises that I suggest to them, they free up their sound because they're no longer holding on to those feelings and it doesn't show up on their voice anymore. They still have the feelings but they're not bringing it into their throat and into their sound.

Rest assured I don't fool around if it looks like someone has a significant problem that really should be worked through with a therapist. I will suggest that they get a therapist but I've only had to do that once.

Here is a sample from the first MP3 chat I had with a fellow and a little sample from the second one, a little bit later. This guy had some emotional issues and he began to do his homework between the first one and the second one. In the second part, his voice is noticeably lighter, relieved even because his sadness is lifting. It's a process.

Male: I've been on the air since I was just before 14 years old. I got started in radio by absolute accident. A radio salesman came into my mom and dad's truck show. My mom was a secretary. My dad was a diesel mechanic and I was in line to become a diesel mechanic.

Phyllis, the last few weeks since I've talked to you have really opened my eyes. I have spent hours and hours and hours and hours just typing - finding my happy place. I ended up - me trying to explain why I'm not happy constantly and the more I went through the story, the more I realized, I have no reason to be unhappy.

Phyllis K. Day: As time goes on, he'll sound lighter and fresher. Would you like an evaluation of your voice? Send an MP3 to VoiceCoach@Phyllisk.com with no processing, just talking about your past work, your present situation, what you hope for the future, your feelings in general like what makes you happy, what do you do to make yourself happy, where do you go or who do you think about? What makes you sad? What are you angry about and just whatever you'd like then I'll try to use part of it in the next podcast that Stephanie allows me to produce and I'll probably use some of your - the work that you've done, some of the auditions perhaps that you've done or some of the live work that you have running.

Again, send it to me at VoiceCoach@Phyllisk.com Keep it under 10 megs and we're good to go. See you next time. I'm Phyllis K. Day.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

Phyllis K. Day
Phyllis K. Day on Voices.com
Email : voicecoach (at) phyllisk.com

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Phyllis K. Day

Phyllis is a freelance technical writer and voice professional with over thirty years experience. A Broadcast Journalism graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, Phyllis became an anchor a few months later on the North Carolina News Network. She has also anchored on Business Radio Network and American Forum Radio Network in Colorado. Her voice has been heard nation-wide and she was also the narrator for a show heard daily on NPR and Armed Forces Radio in the 1990s. Phyllis was part of a mentoring program for several years at North Carolina State University for the students in NC State's radio program. She currently runs personalized coaching workshops, in addition to narrations for e-learning and business presentations.

Did you enjoy Phyllis' episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert David Bourgeois as he presents you with some guidance and marketing ideas in his lecture "Take Control : Marketing Your Voice". The president of Voice Coaches discusses the importance of marketing your voice over business and references leading industry professionals who can help you take the next steps in promoting your voice.

Download Podcast Episode 43 »

Tags:

David Bourgeois, Voice Coaches, Marketing, Voice Conference, Expo, Voice, Voice Overs, Schenectady, NY

Transcript of Take Control and Start Marketing Your Voice

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week Voices.com is pleased to present David Bourgeois.

David Bourgeois: Well, hello everyone. This is David Bourgeois from Voice Coaches and I am delighted to have an opportunity to be back on voiceover experts. If you've listen to in the past, you've probably notice that I tendency to talk about affective self-marketing and others subjects related to putting yourself in the best position to win the job.

Well, here we go again. Now, the motivation for this particular conversation I want to have, initial come about when I invited David and Stephanie from right here at Voices.com to join our team at Voice Coaches and some very specially guests at our advance marketing expo coming up on May 3rd. David and Stephanie are absolute experts in the field of effective self-marketing via the internet for voices. Well, about a week ago Stephanie contacted me and strongly suggested that we try to open our event up to the general public.

Now, this was not something I had ever considered but I have a great deal of respect for the network of professionals and friends that Voices.com has built. So, this week we decided for the first time ever to make our event generally intended specifically for clients of Voice Coaches open to the general public. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not going to use my time here today to directly promote the event that we're doing. If our event interests you, you can learn more on Stephanie's blog Vox Daily or www.voicecoaches.com/marketing.

What I do want to talk about however is the individuals that I've chosen to speak at this event and benefits that each individual specific experts might have an voice actor like you. That why even if you can't be there in person, I hope you'll gain a basic understanding of the types of individuals I've chosen to speak and I why I feel that learning from individuals like this throughout your career can benefit you.

First of, never hesitate to surround yourself with people who have build great success doing that thing that you want to do. Well, that's what prompted me to pick the phone and call fellow Voices.com voiceover expert Rodney Saulsberry.

This guy is a legend. Rodney had built a long history of success as a top voice actor, performing countless commercials, narrations, major television promos and movie trailers.

Rodney is also the author of two of my favorite books related to the voice industry. "You Can Bank on Your Voice" and "Step Up to the Mic". I am delighted to have Rodney join us from California for this event and what is my motivation of having him to speak to our clients? Is the motivation that he'll provide our clients and I strongly recommend you pick up his books. This is the guy who loves what he does and as a result he does as well as anyone.

Next, if your goals as a voice actor include moving on to regularly performing top commercial work. It will benefit you to understand how work is cast at the top level in our industry. That prompted my call to Billy Serow. Billy is the head of the commercial voiceover department for Abrams Artists Agency in New York, one of the most prestigious talent agencies in the world. Billy routinely plays voice actors and some top commercial jobs today and in additional he lecture on voice acting at Yield University. Throughout your career sees any opportunity. To understand the methods and perspective use by individuals who can put you in tremendous work situations.

Now, whether you're just beginning as voice actor or this is something you've done most of your life. It's always great to learn from someone who has built great success doing the thing that they wanted to do and even if you build success to yourself, you can always gain perspective from others. So, I call them a favor and call then Evan Farmer. Now, you may recognize Evan as the host of TLC's hit home improvement show while you are out but in addition to his on camera and voiceover duties with that television show, Evan is kept busy as the voice for one of the characters on MTV, Daria and the comedy Celebrity Deathmatch. Evan is a great example of someone who's willing to talk frankly about building success as a professional actor and voice actor.

Next, many individuals and organizations who hire voice actor still do so through conventional methods. In other words, they respond to demo that were specifically send to them, usually on audio CD. But today an increasing range of opportunity in our field can be gain through effective self-marketing via the internet and I am fortunate to have develop a friendship and professional work relationship with David and Stephanie at Voices.com and I am further delighted to have them.

Once again, make the trip or our event to speak with our clients about getting the most our of web base marketing. All of you listening to this are fortunate, you have access to David and Stephanie experts on a daily basis and I feel strongly that Voices.com is the best combined of market of place and community resource for professional voice actor today. But effectively using a website like Voices.com, in most cases is going to require you to do something that some people find it a little frightening, home recording.

Now, as a producer and a studio owner, I've done a lot of business when it come purchasing, recording equipment. My retailer of choice is Sweetwater in Fort Wayne Indiana, why? I'll tell you their prices are always competitive but their technical support and customer is absolutely second to none. Assuming that most of you aren't full time audio engineers, it is a wonderfully reassuring feeling to have someone on the end of that phone who can help you make your equipment work when you're auditioning for that big job. That's why I'm flying in Mark Magdich from Sweetwater in Fort Wayne. Mark is a recoding studio and home recording equipment expert and I strongly suggest, regardless of your ability to attend our even, try to learn from individuals who can make today's technology work for in away that's understandable to you. Remember your first goal is to be a voice actor not an audio genius.

Now, to finish things up because I see computer gaming as a tremendous growth area in our field, I'm welcoming Evan Skolnick to our event, who is a producer for games including Spider Man 3 and Guitar Hero. Also the nuts and volts of basic marketing concepts remind important throughout your career, studio I've asked marketing and entrepreneurial experts Jay Silverman to talk about foundation in marketing concepts.

In addition, I'll have experts in graphic design, home recording equipment, developing and maintaining vocal health and effective self-marketing on hand throughout the event to answer questions though I hope to meet many of you on May 3rd. You can also seek our individuals like those I've chosen to appear at this event and learn from them on our own. I look forward to sharing any information I can about the event on our blog at Voicecoaches.com and I am sure Stephanie's at Voices.com will beat me to it on box daily. I secretly suspect she's a much faster typer than I am.

Again, for information about our event visit www.voicecoaches.com/marketing or give our offices a call, toll free 866-887-2834. Again, 866-887-2834 extension 100. Thank you so much for listening and I will leave you with comments from some of folks who attended and spoke at last year's event. I wish you the best.

Male: Very helpful, It will you a lot of insight into the industry and the way approach people in ways that I really never thought about before.

Male: It's just so cool that you actually are being paid for doing this.

Male: I was pointed in the right direction. I was told the resources that were out there, the things that I could do.

Male: I don't think without the formal marketing training, I would be able to nowhere to go or what to do.

Male: I've been to Broadcasting School, I've been to other companies and this company by far the Voice Coaches is the number one best.

Female: Very helpful. The guidance and the knowledge that they contain and the experience that they had, this was fantastic. This is my first experience and I just loved it.

Female: First of it was fun. I really love this program because it was an opportunity to really explore something that I wanted to do for a long. It was fun, I mean the best word to describe is, fun.

Male: Could I say one more thing? One more thing, I'm sorry. The reason why I'm here is because of this organization being one of the few organizations that I've come across that understands and there are so many repose out there, I've been actually appeared on television and been interviewed several times about this and it's really to the organization credit, David. Thank you so much for inviting me and you can all feel really secure that you're not wasting your time and your money.

Female: I mean this isn't recording, right?

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast visit the voiceover expects show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExpects. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

VoiceCoaches.com
Information about the Advanced Marketing Expo and Conference, May 3rd, 2008

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert David Bourgeois
President and Creative Director

David Bourgeois has worked in professional music and audio production for more than 25 years. Compositions and audio post-production for film, television, advertising and multi-media are all part of David's resume. As the CEO of White Lake Music & Post, David produces music, audio and voice over content for clients including Discovery Networks, TLC, HGTV and the WE Network as well as numerous other regional and local clients. David recently completed the original music score for The Last Round, an independent feature starring former X Files Smoking Man William B. Davis.

Since 1990, David has been active in developing training methods in effective communication through conversational reading. His effort was initially aimed at helping clients get better performances from their Voice Actors in the studio. David's methods soon became the model for Voice Coaches' individualized training process.

Today, David and his team provide training to aspiring Voice Actors and communication professionals across the country.

Did you enjoy David's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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Join Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger as she discusses "Three Script Pointers". Learn how to see the big picture and then break it down into separate individual parts, phrases, sentences and words to unlock the writer's direction between the lines. It's your job to figure the script out and follow those bread crumbs to the right interpretation!

Download Podcast Episode 42 »

Tags:

Connie Terwilliger, Voiceover talent, Coach, Script Pointers, Interpretation, Reading, Scripts, Voice Overs, Voice Acting

Transcript of 3 Voice Over Script Pointers

[Opening Music]

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.

This week Voices.com is pleased to present Connie Terwilliger.

Connie Terwilliger: Hi, Connie Terwilliger and this is another in a series of short presentations about the basics of voiceover. What are the key things that you need to do know how to do as a voiceover person is to understand what the writer of the copy intended when they wrote it. They only have the script to communicate with you in most cases.

So, you have to be adopt at digging at underneath the words, around the words, through the words to figure out what was in the head of the writer as they wrote it and writers are human, they make mistakes. They don't say what they mean to say all of the time and in many cases sometimes they don't have a read it aloud, so they don't know how the words are jocks oppose and how they really going to come out when face with eyeballs, a brain and a tongue. So, you have to be able to look at the script from their mind set in order to understand the basic message and then any other of the verbal tricks that they maybe using to communicate with you and let's face it, we're in a self-directed world. You need to know that you can do this kind of analysis on your own. That's one of the things that's going to set you apart a voiceover person.

I'm going to make this case using three points for the purposes of this podcast. The first is, ask yourself if the copy sounds right. Read the copy carefully. Writers are human beings and they may have made a mistake on the script when they were typing the copy. If something doesn't seem right to you, you're going to need to ask, this maybe over the phone, this maybe in person, this maybe over e-mail. If the script is right maybe they can explain it so that it makes sense to you. It maybe wrong though and then corrections can be made so that it make sense to everybody when it's finally verbalize.

Sometimes you maybe attempted to embellish the copy by adding a word or two or more. If the spot is very conversational this maybe okay, in fact they may have hired you because of your acting skills and your ability to embellish the copy and make it more real. Remember though that in many cases the copy has been approved by a dozen people or more before you ever see it. It's been stamped and stamped, approved, approved, approved.

So, in those cases you have to read it pretty much as it was written but you check with the producer to see if it's okay before you start to adlib completely around the script. The bottom line here is that is maybe wrong. A word may have been left out. A word may have been misspelled. A word may have flip-lap or transposed. If it doesn't sound right, it maybe wrong. Writers are human. So, you have to step back and look beyond the words to the meaning of the words in order to figure out if it was a typo or if it was intentional.

The second illustration I'm going to use to make this case about really digging under the words and into the word is that writers love to play with words. That shouldn't be surprising to any of you, they're word myths. They love to put the words together and make something pop-off the page. One specific example that writers do frequently is to repeat a series of words or themes to drive their point home. You need to look for this and try to figure out how the words work and why they should be said slightly differently each time. Always listening for the delivery that's going to get the writers intended point across to the audience. If you understand what's going on, you have a better chance that the audience will understand it. So, if you see a series of repeated words, recognize that they're doing something with that word and they want you to do something with that word in order to communicate the basic message.

Let's say the writer use the word somebody in the script, they repeated a couple of times and then they added a third time in a slightly different way and you need to be able to communicate the saddle differences between those three words. So, let's say here's the script, "Somebody gets promoted. Someday moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department", somebody, somebody, somebody. "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department". "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department". "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department".

That was three slightly different ways of saying all those somebody's and some of them were more meaningful than others. This example may seem pretty obvious especially since I verbalized it but this is the kind of thing that is up to you in own self-directed environment. You have to be able to figure out what he writer intended just by reading the script. So, look for those kinds of repeated words, other words that are repeated a lot in script particularly price and items scripts are percentages and numbers prices. If you find a repeated price, 10 percent off, 20 percent off, 60 percent off. The important thing there of course is to make any percent off sound wonderful.

The other repeated word is in prices. Let's say for example you have men's socks at 66.99 a pair that means that everything in that store is going to be something 99. Well, we know it's going to be 99. That's not important. What's important is the first part of that word. So, if you have a series of prices 2.99. 3.99, 4.99 and 5.99, the emphasis is on the first part of that. You wouldn't want to say, "2.99, 3.99, 4.99 and 5.99 because the 99 is basically a throw away at this point. The more important part is the first part of that, you have to understand that on your own. If you're doing it on your own and you send it in that way, they're going to ask you to redo it. If you're in a session and you do it that way, they're just going to think that you have no experience.

The third example using to make this point is something I call, Look for the Clues. Writers always have something in mind when they create the spot but since they're usually not at the recording session, they only have the words and the way that they are written on the page to communicate with you. That means you as the talent have to interpret the copy as close as possible to the way that they writer and or the producer or the director are hearing it. So, that means you need to look for the clues in the way the spot is written.

Now, sometimes their clues may actually end up distracting you from the ultimate interpretation but use their clues initially to help you figure out what is it they intended and then you kind throw all of that stuff away and put the markings in on your own to help you read at the way you want to read it base on the way that you understand that they think it should be read. I'm going to give you an example of that to help clarify what I just said. Writers will underline, they'll italize. They'll make things bold. They'll put things in quotes. They'll start a new paragraph to indicate a new thought perhaps. They'll often use ellipsis and maybe not in a grammatically correct way of using ellipsis but they're using the ellipsis to try to communicate something with you. They're hearing it in their head. You need to be able to hear it in your head as you're reading the breadcrumbs that they have left for you in the script.

So, you need to know if you can actually read these hidden signals. They're trying to help you understand what they're hearing. If a writer underlines a word, they want you to do something with it. It may be that what you do with that underline word is stress it more than other word but the underline word or bolded word or the italized word does communicate that there is something important about that word. You as the talent have to figure out how to approach that word in order for it to be as important as the writer thinks that it should be. Very often they will underline the word "you" and in most cases "you" is not a word that you really do want to stress, unless of course it's appropriate for the context of the script with of course as the talent you're suppose to be able to interpret and figure out if the emphasis should be on the "you" or should be on other word in the sentence, look for those clues.

Using ellipsis usually incorrectly is another way that a writer communicates with you. If a writer uses an ellipsis and just suddenly stops the sentence, you need to know that in most cases they're expecting you to basically interrupt yourself. They don't want you to just stop. They want to be searching for words perhaps. If it's a conversational script, you can almost be guaranteed that, that is what writer intended if they put an ellipsis and don't finish a sentence. You as the talent are suppose to have the rest of the sentence in your mind or perhaps you've run out of breath or perhaps you've just run out of things to say and you just can't continue, so there an ellipsis right there. If you see an ellipsis or you see a paragraph draft or you see underline or italized words, you as the talent have to analyze the big picture and understand what's going on in the script, so that you can figure out how to inflect those words.

These are just three examples of the kind of things a voiceover talent faces when they're staring at a script for the first time. You need to see the big picture and then break it down into separate individual parts, phrases, sentences, words, so that you can figure out if a word is missing, if there's something special that a writer wants you to do with the series of words or if there are certain words that need to be stress more than other words. This is your job as a voiceover person, to figure the script out and follow those breadcrumbs to the right interpretation.

Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.

If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.

[Closing Music]

Links from today's show:

Connie Terwilliger
Connie Terwilliger Voices.com Website

Your Instructor this week:

Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger

Connie Terwilliger is one of the most well known names on the Internet when it comes to female voice talent. She's been online with an Internet presence since 1996. Connie did her first official voiceover work on air at KCOE-FM while in college in Cedar Rapids Iowa in 1972. After getting her Masters in Radio and TV at Indiana University, she started a long career juggling many hats - Producer, Writer, On and Off-camera talent. Over the past several years Connie has been able to "retire" as a Producer and Writer and concentrate on full-time voice work for clients around the world out of her home studio and the studios in San Diego and Orange County. She teaches one class a semester - Acting for Radio/Voiceovers - at San Diego City College.

Her session on Self-Evaluation presented at VOICE 2007 was well received and has led to invitations to speak at media performance schools across the country. She has made the 3-hour live recording available on a 2 CD set, packaged with a 14-page workbook. Visit her website for information on how to buy the set. She is also the immediate past President of Media Communications Association-International - MCA-I, a networking and professional development group for media communicators that she joined when she was producing.

Did you enjoy Connie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

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