Here’s irony for you: I’m a voice actor who was just assigned to help coach visual presentation. In my case, that’s not really so peculiar. I’ve been a public speaker and stage performer for decades longer than I’ve been a voice actor. By conservative estimate, I’ve delivered in the neighborhood of 5,000 presentations before audiences [...]
Archive for the ‘Reflection’ category
Tell the story!
May 5, 2009Actor, direct thyself
April 30, 2009A thought-provoking insight in tonight’s first session of a four-week course in self-directing skills… Approach every script as though you were going to direct another actor’s performance of it. That makes so darned much sense I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself. After all, how many times have I, as a presenter, reiterated [...]
The song is ended, but the melody lingers on
April 17, 2009Sad but true… I now have Friday afternoons free. As I was preparing this morning for the final session of this six-week workshop, it struck me suddenly how much I was going to miss this weekly gathering, and the people with whom I’ve shared the experience. The baker’s dozen of us — plus Samantha, of [...]
You do me, and I’ll do you
April 13, 2009We did an interesting exercise last week in my Friday afternoon workshop. During our first meeting five weeks ago, we were each secretly assigned another participant to “shadow.” For our fifth session, we were to bring a script perfectly suited to the person we have been observing, and perform that script in the booth as [...]
Private dancer
April 10, 2009Today’s private coaching session with Sirenetta touched off several new flashes in the old chandelier. We began the hour talking about some of my recent challenges. As Sirenetta rightly pointed out, confidence is the key. Once I trust myself enough not to overthink and overwork every word of copy, I’ll be better off. Toward that [...]
New morning, new day
April 3, 2009I had an infinitely better Friday this week than last. Today’s VO workshop was busy, busy, busy. I had six — count ‘em, six — opportunities in the booth today, and while I don’t know that any of the six displayed my finest work, all of them flowed more easily and less painfully than anything [...]
13 again
March 28, 2009In the third week of a six-week Friday afternoon VO workshop, I hit the wall. Whenever I have a weekly class, there’s always one week where my frustration with my progress — or, more accurately, my self-perceived lack of progress — escalates to the point that I drive home quivering on the precipice of surrender. [...]
Pat-urday in San Francisco
March 9, 2009Now that I’ve had a moment to rest and recover, here’s the lowdown on last Saturday’s workshop. Pat Fraley titled the event Audition Technique Masters, which probably described everyone in the room other than me. Pat invited agent John Erlendson, principal of San Francisco’s JE Talent, to direct one of the two sessions. Sydney Rainin, [...]
Thinking ahead
March 6, 2009Tomorrow, I’m participating in Pat Fraley‘s Audition Technique Masters workshop in San Francisco. Given that I’ve never worked with Pat, or either of the other directors, I suppose this is something of an audition in itself. As I recall, I was always a dreadful first date. This workshop begins an intensive four months of VO [...]
New lightbulbs for my chandelier
February 24, 2009Now that I’ve had a night to sleep on it, here’s a summary of the lessons learned in yesterday’s coaching session. I have a tendency to cut my projection too much when reading at low-to-medium volume. I’m not sure whether I’m subconsciously being protective of the microphone (afraid of overamping it) or simply feel awkward [...]
