Another Brick in the wall

Posted March 2, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Audiobooks, Celebrity voices, Narration, Voice acting, Voiceover

For me, a highlight of this past weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco was meeting one of my VO idols: Scott Brick, perhaps the world’s most honored and respected audiobook narrator.

Scott had a booth at the con — how did I miss seeing that in the program? — promoting his self-published series of audiobooks. For the WonderCon audience, the draw was Scott’s recordings of Stephen R. Donaldson’s epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I enjoyed reading those books back when they were first published, so I’m looking forward to hearing what Scott does with them.

I’m always a bit nervous approaching people I admire — aw heck, let’s get real; I’m nervous approaching people in general — and my wandering by just as Scott was delving into his lunch didn’t help matters any. But I steeled my courage to walk up and introduce myself, telling Scott, “I want to be you when I grow up.”

Scott couldn’t have been more kind. When I told him that I’m a voice actor and that I’d love to get into audiobooks, he was interested to know where I was studying and with whom. I remembered to tell Scott that I’m taking a six-week intensive course in audiobook narration this spring… and promptly forgot the name of the instructor, even though I’ve taken a class from her before. (Please, everyone — let’s not tell Lisa Baney that I forgot her name. Or if we tell her, let’s be sure to mention that I forgot under the pressure of meeting Scott Brick. I think she’d be forgiving under the circumstances.)

Scott shared with me that he’s just begun a series of articles on his blog about getting started in audiobook narration. (Here’s a shock — I’ve already devoured Scott’s first installment, and am hungry for more!) He also handed me his card and offered to answer any specific questions I might have about the field via e-mail.

For my part, I smiled and nodded and tried not to sound like a blithering idiot.

It occurred to me as I was leaving Scott’s table — squeezing his card so tightly between my thumb and index finger that if it had been a lump of coal, I’d have created a diamond — that voice artists in the main are tremendously giving folk. Every working professional I’ve met or contacted has seemed genuinely eager to encourage and advise me in any way he or she can.

Given what one hears about the self-centered nature of actors and the highly competitive business we’ve chosen, this quality surprises me every time. And yet, the pattern continues to hold. Even the top players in the VO business — people at the level of Scott Brick or Pat Fraley — always take an interest in showing fledgling talent the ropes, and are astonishingly generous with their time and insights.

When I’m a big name in voiceover, I’ll promise to remember that.

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No Oscar love for “That Trailer Guy”

Posted February 25, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Celebrity voices, Voiceover

I’m a mite embarrassed that it took veteran animation writer/director/producer (among the scads of other things he does) Mark Evanier to point this out to me, but now that I’m thinking about it…

Isn’t it peculiar that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failed to include Don LaFontaine in the Oscarcast’s annual “In Memoriam” segment this year?

As Mark correctly observes, The Don not only announced the Oscar ceremonies on several occasions, but he probably was responsible for selling more movie tickets than all of the other departed noteworthies combined.

How quickly they forget.

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New lightbulbs for my chandelier

Posted February 24, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Reflection, Strategy, Voice acting, Voiceover

Now 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 about the sound of my voice. I need to feel free to project with full voice and plenty of forward resonance, even when I’m performing an intimate read.
  • By the same token, I need to stay tighter physically on the mic. (Note to self: Review notes from last fall’s mic technique class.)
  • It was interesting to hear that I have a unique sound. I’ve always thought of my voice as nondescript in a good way — I can make my voice sound a variety of different ways. But I’ve never considered my “natural” sound especially unique.
  • Also interesting to know that my “money voice” may be the deeper, chestier, “superheroic” end of my range. To my ear, my lower range sounds manufactured. Apparently, it doesn’t sound that way to other people. The director: “It’s bassy, but not too bassy. A lot of nice texture. That’s where I’m going to want to hear you.” Gravitas is good.
  • Along that thread of different ears hearing different qualities: On my one narrative read, last night’s director thought I sounded as cool, laid-back, and conversational as the copy called for. I’m certain that other directors I’ve had would have found the same read too bright or dramatic. (Note to self: It’s selection, not rejection.)
  • My greatest vocal asset — warmth and brightness — is also one of my greatest challenges. I first learned that in narration class, and the lesson was reinforced last night. How often that happens in life: Our blessings and burdens coincide.
  • Appreciating my gifts, part one: I do an effective job of sustaining a character — not only in vocal placement, but also in attitude and style — throughout a read, even through changes in range and emotion. Consistency, thou art a jewel.
  • Appreciating my gifts, part two: I take direction well. That’s a reputation I’d like to maintain.
  • The less I think, the better my acting. I really need to trust my instincts. They’re good. I’ve been told that frequently since my very first VO class. It’s time to start believing it.

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Little victories

Posted February 23, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Jeopardy!, Reflection, Strategy, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

This evening, I had my first private coaching session with a new director. I’d heard from others that this director had a reputation for being difficult to please (I’d heard another student comment that he had “worked her over” in a recent session). All trepidation aside, I was looking forward to working with this individual, who has an insider’s perspective on the casting process.

My concerns — and my initial nervousness — proved to be for naught.

The session was fast-paced, exciting, and yes, even fun. And never once did I feel “worked over.” It was as successful an hour as I’ve spent since I began my voiceover journey.

Since we hadn’t worked together before, the director took a few moments at the beginning of the session to talk about my background and interests. Then, we were off to the races.

We worked through six pieces of copy during the hour, under conditions very much like a live audition. The director handed me a script, gave me a minute or so to read through the copy and make a choice about my read, then we slated and recorded. After the read, he’d offer brief comment about things he liked or didn’t like, gave me direction for the next take, and we’d dive in again. A little more direction, and a final take. A couple of times, we didn’t even need a third take to get to the read he wanted.

My customary tendency toward excessive analysis and self-critique evaporated in this environment. I simply didn’t have time. There wasn’t an opportunity for writing an extended breakdown of the scene, a character bio, or answers to my five key questions. I had just long enough to make a decision about what the copy was saying and what approach I wanted to bring to it, and the tape started rolling. (I know, everything’s digital now — no actual tape was involved. You know what I mean.)

I loved this.

For one thing, it felt much more “real world” than sessions where I have far more leisure to address the copy. I know that in most actual audition scenarios, I’ll have just enough time to make a swift, solid choice, and go big with it. So, it was excellent practice under lifelike conditions.

For another, I work better when forced to go with my first impulse. After all, that approach has served me quite effectively on my Jeopardy! appearances over the years. It’s also what I do several times a week in a speaking situation — rely on my preparation and instincts, and not sweat every turn of phrase.

And, to be honest, it’s the way I manage my daily workouts. I open a copy document, find a piece of script to read, look it over in short order, then start recording. Most of the time, I’m more than pleased by the second or third take. And I haven’t burned out my brain pan conducting in-depth analysis. It’s not that I don’t analyze. It’s just that I don’t let myself over-think.

For me, that’s what works.

I felt encouraged by the work I did this evening. I found myself relaxed, confident, and energized throughout the hour, once the initial jangle of nerves passed. I liked the choices I made, the voices I found, and the characters I created on the spot — at least a couple of which were entirely brand new to me, and you’d better believe I’m going to record them before I hit the sack tonight, so that I can firmly ingrain them and pull them out again sometime.

I’ll write more tomorrow about some of the other lessons I learned in tonight’s session.

But for right now, I’d just like to bask in a little momentary victory.

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Demon editor

Posted February 15, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Narration, Reflection, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

This afternoon, I was reviewing some detailed written feedback from my recent narration course (thanks a ton, Chuck!) when I had a bit of an epiphany.

I need to be more accepting of my gifts.

I’ve always been plagued by a tendency to be overly critical of my own work. (I’m sure there are reasons for this, and I can guess at some of them. But I’ll spare you the boring psychohistory.) It has affected my career as a writer, even though I’m an excellent writer. It affects me as a speaker, even though I’m as effective a speaker as anyone I could name.

A therapist might call it “paralysis by analysis.” (In fact, a therapist has.) I have a difficult time turning my internal “edit” function off.

When I step into the voiceover booth, this tendency affects me in a couple of ways.

One, I get focused on processing what I’m saying instead of immersing myself in the actual performance. Sirenetta described this disconnect brilliantly during my most recent private lesson. She could almost hear the synaptic delay caused by the spinning of my mental gears as I read my copy.

Two, I hear myself with negative ears. This results in my wrestling with my mistakes — genuine or merely prospective — rather than enhancing and maximizing the many things I do very well. (This gift also makes me the world’s greatest copy editor. That, however, isn’t helping me here.)

Today’s epiphanic revelation is that once I’ve gained some temporal distance between my work and the moment in which the work occurs, I’m generally pleased with the work itself. I’m amazed, for example, when I go back now and read reviews I wrote for DVD Verdict a few years ago, how impressive my writing was during that period. It never seemed so to me at the time.

What I need to do is eliminate the delay, and allow myself to appreciate my talents in the moment.

I suspect that when I stop editing myself on the fly, I’ll like the results much better.

I just need to go there.

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Rainy days and Wednesdays

Posted February 11, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Narration, Reflection, Strategy, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

If I have to trek 40 miles through the rain, Sausalito isn’t a bad place to wind up.

Before my private coaching session this afternoon, I sat in my car atop the hill behind the Sausalito Public Library and looked out over Richardson Bay. The sky was glowering gray, the air clean and clear, and the view magnificent.

My narration work felt more comfortable today. (Blue merging into green helped.) Despite my recent struggles, my directors seem to believe that narration will develop into a good niche for me. Whether that’s true or not remains to be proven. At any rate, I’m enjoying it more now that I have something of a handle on working into the appropriate tone.

I had one narrative read that sounded reasonably tasty the first time through. By the time Sirenetta coached me through a couple of takes, I was actually pleased with the final result. Two factors helped: (1) it was copy from a medical documentary, so I called upon my dozen years in the healthcare industry to find the comfort zone; and (2) it was a cold open, allowing me to lean into more of a promo voice, which lands more centrally in my wheelhouse than straight narration.

I continue to find myself challenged in my commercial reads, balancing conversationality with my demon perfectionism. Once I get over my “terror of error,” as I like to refer to it, I’ll be in good shape. I didn’t feel I was fighting my copy quite so tenaciously today, so that’s a positive sign.

Still a road to travel.

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I’m back, and I’m blue

Posted February 9, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Narration, Reflection, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

Saturday’s second two-thirds of my “Colors of Your Voice” class rocked. We explored…

  • Cool, centered blue.
  • Joyful, childlike yellow.
  • Seductive violet, whereby I channel my inner Barry White (oddly enough, white is not a color in the Thom Pinto vocal spectrum).
  • Stark, forceful gray (or grey, if fancy is how you roll).
  • Ominous, emotionless black.
  • Silver, a formal crispness used to upscale certain of the other colors.

My revelation of the weekend was that blue affords my most natural shading for narrative reads. For many voice actors, green — off-the-cuff and spontaneous — is the appropriate narrative coloration. For me, though, “thinking blue” gives me that extra level of understatement and subtlety that I need to dial in for narration. If only I’d known that before my January narration class, I’ve have avoided a truckload of frustration.

Next time I’m faced with a narrative read, I’ll slam that sucker out of the park. Thank you, blue!

This weekend reminded me once again why the class/workshop environment at Voicetrax is such a kick. It was fun to reconnect with some of my fellow students from previous classes — including two of my favorites, whom I’ll now forever nickname Ms. Yellow and Mr. Black — and hear how their skills have progressed since last we worked together. I made some new friends whom I’ll look forward to seeing in other classes — or, better still for all of us, at auditions — in the future. Most invaluably, I benefited from hearing other actors’ reads (and yes, their struggles also) and the counsel they received.

That’s blue personified.

For the remainder of this month, I have a couple of private lessons lined up, the first of which is my third session with Sirenetta this Wednesday. In March, my class schedule cranks into full-bore mode through June.

I’m so ready.

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Looking for fun, and feeling orange

Posted February 6, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

I just got home from the first portion of a two-day course at Voicetrax entitled “The Colors of Your Voice.”

It’s a system of vocal technique developed by voice artist Thom Pinto (announcer for The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and promo voice of San Francisco’s KRON-TV), designed to help the voice actor find a quick, easily identifiable path into a read. I had the privilege of working with Thom one day last summer, and even though he’s not teaching this session personally, I’ve been looking forward to delving into his approach.

Thom’s system categorizes the voice’s various emotional tones into colors. (You can hear Thom demonstrate the concept via a series of demos on his site — demos that I’ve been reviewing in heavy rotation over the past several days.) In tonight’s class, we covered five elements of the vocal spectrum:

  • Green, a natural, breezy conversational tone.
  • Red, the voice of robust enthusiasm.
  • Brown, which –as one might guess — is earthy.
  • Pink, an airy and dreamlike quality.
  • Orange, the sound of warmth and encouragement.

Not surprisingly, my grasp of red, brown, and orange felt pretty solid from the get-go. (In my head, my brown sounds like Billy Vera. I modeled my orange on a slightly understated John Leader, the familiar friendly voice of Disney animation trailers.) Also not surprisingly, my green needs a little work — my instincts are good, but I have to be wary of that strained edge that haunts my upper register. My pink actually wasn’t bad… but then, I’m comfortably in touch with my feminine side.

About half of my classmates this weekend are familiar faces. It’s always a kick to work with people I’ve been in classes with before, and hear how far they’ve progressed since I last saw them.

More color tomorrow.

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“Less is more”

Posted February 3, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Narration, Reflection, Strategy, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax

That’s the mantra that was drummed into my skull over the past four Thursday evenings in my Voicetrax narration workshop.

The problem, of course, is that I am by nature a “more is more” kind of guy.

I’m working on that, though, at least in terms of my narrative reads. I spent a couple of hours this morning focusing on documentary copy, and as I play back the recordings, I feel good about the work I did. I’m hearing more conversational flow, more consistency, and best of all, less internal struggling to maintain the appropriate pacing and inflection. My narrative acting is improving daily. And I’m happy about that.

Before class last Thursday, I had an excellent private lesson with Sirenetta. What I appreciate most about working with her is that she really challenges me, and I need that.

We worked through four scripts, the first two of which were industrial narrations — one in a more straightforward style, the other with a lighter tone that was closer to character work. I tried to apply everything I’d been learning in narration class, perhaps even going a bit too far in measuring my tone and pacing. Sirenetta had to keep pulling me back in a warmer, freer direction.

Man, this is hard work sometimes.

The third script was a commercial spot that I felt was right in my wheelhouse, with a character in whose skin I felt right at home — a neurotic dad. The description called for a Greg Kinnear type, so I tried to hear Little Miss Sunshine in my head as we worked the copy. I felt good about my read from the start, but it really opened up when Sirenetta suggested an alternative approach that brought more life to the piece.

That’s something I need to work on, because being literal-minded me, I too often go for the obvious interpretation. I have to practice thinking, “What would be a completely outside-the-box way of viewing this scenario?” And then, have the guts to go in that direction. That’s the added zing that will make my reads stand out from the masses.

The fourth script was a comic read that Sirenetta thought would be fun for me. In fact, it proved difficult for me to get my mind around. The description called for a character tone that I don’t feel that I do very well. Chuck, listening in the office, thought my take captured the essence, though.

I was feeling a bit frustrated at the end of the evening class. The center point of the evening was to rerecord the first piece of narration copy we had performed on the first night, and compare the quality of the two reads. In listening to my playbacks, I could hear how much progress I’d made in my narrative acting since week one, but I was also disappointed that I could still sense an undercurrent of lacking confidence and control. I muttered to myself, “I feel as if I understand this narration stuff less now than when I started.”

Clearly, narration is a genre that will continue to daunt me until I find my own circuitous pathway into it. I’m certain that time will come. When I spoke with Chuck on the phone Friday — I was booking my next private coaching session with Sirenetta — he assured me that I’m farther along the road than I think I am. That was comforting to hear.

“Less is more,” kid.

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As others hear us

Posted January 28, 2009 by themicguy
Categories: Reflection, Voice acting, Voiceover

Quoth the legendary Scottish poet Robbie Burns:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion…

To which I can only add: Word.

In the midst of delving into business and marketing planning today, I took a couple of hours to listen to a slew of demos on Voicebank. I pull up one or two random demos almost every day, just to learn from what the “big boys” (and “big girls,” too… though I’ve noticed that some of them don’t care to be called such) are doing. But today I had a specific aim.

I have an opportunity to be coached by someone from a big-time talent agency next month. (Sweet!) So, I wanted to check out some of that agency’s clients, to see how my sound and style compare to the talent already on their roster.

Now, I have a discerning ear. I can listen to other voice actors and note qualities that I like, and things I don’t enjoy as much. I can identify types: “He’s a good announcer type”; “she’s an authoritative narrator”; “he’s got a nice real-guy character.” I can even pick up things where I think, “I’d make a different acting choice there… perhaps even a better choice.”

But I totally suck at trying to hear myself the way other people do.

I know the kind of character I believe that my voice has. I know the kind of material at which I believe I’m strongest, as well as the sorts of reads that I don’t believe I deliver as strongly.

Those, however, are only my perceptions. I know they differ from those of others. It happens all the time in classes and coaching sessions — a director hears things, both positive and negative, in my performance, that I can’t hear. I’ll ask myself, Why did they like that read better than I did? Or, conversely, Why didn’t they think that rocked as much as I did?

I can hear and internalize their commentary, of course. But I sure wish that I could step entirely outside myself, and hear myself with their ears, completely divorced from my own processing.

As Burns noted, it would take a Power beyond myself to grant such an ability.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if it did?

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