Gone are the days of social and human interaction, only to be replaced by bunny slippers, computers, internet casting sites, and Guitar Center padded closets.  And of this, I am torn.

In 1998, the voiceover world radically changed its standard of casting forever. Enter Voicebank.net, a master-crafted system that would put Voice Over Casting on-line, eventually linking more than 1600 Talent Agents, Ad Agencies, studios, independent producers and Casting Directors from around the world, to any and all voiceover talent who subscribed. I recall sitting with the brains behind the business at a luncheon and giving him a piece of my mind. He was very interested to hear. ‘You’ve just gone and created tons competition for me. I’ve worked tirelessly on marketing myself and now you’re putting scripts into the hands of thousands of other people who would have never been heard for this!!!’ I went on and on like a strong-willed child with toy on the brain. He listened intently. He was kind. I had just re-confirmed his exact intentions with this new system. I was angry, and although he stayed very poised, I’m sure he was dancing a little jig on the way back to his car followed by Mwahhhh haaaaaa haaaaa! I went home, tail between my legs, called up Voicebank.net and joined that very same day. I was disappointed, but certainly not dumb. I had just succumbed to the almighty marriage between technology and convenience, known as the first social media site for voiceover talent in history.

As much as I was steadfast on perpetuating my disdain for this new way of receiving and delivering audition copy, I quietly began loving it. At least, when I was still at the forefront of the change. My feelings today have petered out a bit.

The realization of not having to leave my home to send in an audition was like a new miner panning his first piece of gold. I could stay in my skivvies, record from home, edit my audition and send it to the supreme hub. It was fast, no long drives to the Westside (now in LA), and I could work on it for as long as I wanted. No more long waits at my agent’s office. This was the life and it was my little covert operation.

However, locking myself in my home studio often became isolating. I sometimes enjoyed getting dressed up and out of sweats. I missed going in and seeing my friends. I missed the booth director busting my chops and working me in an entirely different direction. And of course, there was always additional copy pouring into the agency during the afternoon that I was missing. This is still true today. It is so easy to sit at home and record, most of us do, but there is something to be said when there is a real human being directing.

So, if 1600 users of voice talent now had access to me, I certainly had access to them. As fast as another company would sign on to voicebank.net, I would get their information and make an introduction with my virtual demo in mp3 format. They loved the fact I was a trained and working talent from a big market. Hollywood still had appeal. Now, they could do their voice casting and session recording without bringing anyone into their studio. They would simply send copy via email, we would both flip on our once sophisticated Codec ISDN voice communication transponders and record the session live. This was the greatest thing ever to happen to my career and I built a strong voice over business on expanding my geographical horizons.

Although slightly ahead of the game, it only took a New York minute for the other voiceover die-hards to spring up. But the process was slow. Oddly enough, most were not so inclined to expand outside of their own markets. This was due largely in part to union membership, and to the expense associated with putting in home studios with ISDN lines. But those who were voice casting loved this idea of getting as many auditions as they could from talent from across the land. They had their choice of agencies to send to, some checked “All”. And soon every agent across the USA was sending in their top 50 talents to read on projects. One prospective radio commercial, 350 plus returned auditions, and now fewer chances to book jobs. This still holds true.

With the onslaught of social media, the idea of packing up your bag and heading to Hollywood Land has become more and more obsolete. Voicebank.net has proven its voice casting success, and new social media sites pop up on a minute-by minute basis. Dare I call them copycats? Some, yes, but others have their own whippersnapper systems in place. Social media sites like Voice 123 and Voices.com are brilliant enterprises that allow most anyone to sign up for a nominal fee, call themselves voice talent, and submit for auditions. The owners are getting pretty rich as more and more people who are told they have good voices decide that by filling out a form on line, they now are entitled to call themselves Professional Voiceover Talent. These sites often bury this criticism by pushing their knowledge and expertise through on-line seminars and podcasts.

This deserves a 3-shot Foe! And sorry, but even though you think you have the right to join any social media site there is, you don’t have the right to call yourselves Professional Voice Over Talent until you earn it. We have trained for years at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, we took voice over class after class, have gotten in front of casting directors, been turned down by agents, been let go from agencies, have been on countless in-person auditions, are dedicated to constantly perfecting our craft and updating our demos. We have spent exorbitant amounts of money on building beautiful studios with floating floors and we’ve taken more classes. We market ourselves and we work. You sign up for a service whose rule is to pay to play and the professionals are being suffocated by your schlocky auditions. Not to mention, because you really want to win the audition, you are willing to lower your price to $25. And anyone who likes a bargain is going to shop for the least amount. Quality talent, who have done the work and paid their dues, are being squeezed out by bottom feeders.  Mad, no. With all due respect, I’m pissed off. I’ve watched my friends and my community break apart because of this inundation and it will never sit well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve redone projects for companies because they made the mistake in taking the cheapest priced talent who could not deliver the goods.

The fact is, social media has become a household chore – wash dishes, check email for auditions, feed the dogs, check Facebook. I get it. I couldn’t live without it. I’ve accepted the change. I love the ease of receiving auditions and jobs via email and sending my clients back quality recordings at warp speed. I love that I have had long-term relationships with people I’ve never seen. The Internet has been a miracle at helping people make connections. The speed and convenience have been nothing short of amazing. But, it should never be used or abused to disregard the rules of a trade or art in an attempt to make profit. When this happens, as it has, it cheapens the voice over business, closes the doors of the great voice casting offices, and dims the light on real and deserving talent.

As the years went on, I perfected my impersonation craft without visits to the principal’s office. I could do a ton of voices. You might be thinking how might that get me a voice over job if the actors can do their own voices? Well, in 2004 the entire cast of the Simpsons went on strike. At that time, it was the most popular show on TV. This was going to hurt a lot of people. The advertisers relied on the popularity of these characters to tout products; radio stations needed the voices to continue with long time imaging campaigns. A solution was needed, and fast. As soon as people got wind of my Marge, my dance card began filling up with endless radio and TV commercials. I even joined a popular BBC morning zoo radio show as Marge. I wasn’t on strike and I seized this glorious opportunity.

Movie studios have often pulled old films or TV shows from their vaults. Awhile back, Miramax released over 11 films that needed a slew of the best voice matching talent in town. It was a great time in the industry because these studios had money to burn and they wanted to reap the benefits of making money again without having to put it into huge productions. But in order to meet today’s high industry standards, the post-production team had to update, and often recreate various components of the scenes. I was lucky enough to be given the role of voice casting these projects. I had to pull together a large stable of voice actors who were incredibly adept at manipulating their voices and, without fail, could match the original actor’s performance spot on. With the growth of these projects, so too did my popularity. Unlike dubbing where voice actors replace the entire line of an actor, voice matching usually requires only a few words to be replaced from the original. Sessions are a lot shorter and can often earn $800 for a few minutes.

Beyond the vaults, there are many other places where voice matching is used. During a scene in a popular new film, the main character has the Jetsons on in the background. The scene is clearly pointed on George’s faithful robotic servant Rosey. Good ol’ Jean Vander Pyl has been long gone, so I replaced the entire 2-minute scene doing my finest Rosey. It was the Rosey from earlier years because the later years were deeper and older. This week, I was asked to do the voice of Susan Sarandon for a movie trailer that was being mixed for TV. The sound quality on it was too low on one word and the dropout was significant enough to find a replacement. I listened to her saying the entire line, replicated it over and over until I got her character and voice down, recorded from my home studio, and sent it off.

By the time a movie hits post-production, the original actor may be onto their next project in a remote land. Getting them back to the studio could be deemed temporarily impossible, and it’s often cost prohibitive. When this happens, it’s up to the post team to find a voice match replacement. Sometimes we go in for an audition with a lot of other actors in hopes of landing the job on the spot. This is known as Work for Hire. Other times, we are simply sent an mp3 snippet of sound from the original performance and we send it back in hopes of them using it.

Many people have a general idea of what a voice sounds like, but there is a tremendous amount of skill and integrity involved with voice-matching an actor. Along with the sound of the actor’s voice, it’s our job to take on the nuances of the character they are portraying in their role. Sean Penn is a chameleon that adds regionalisms, dialects, underbites, stammers, and winces to both his body and voice. By watching the actor in character, we must capture these subtle choices so that we maintain the integrity of the project. Oddly enough, I find that the actors who can change themselves drastically are much easier for me to voice-match. Generic voices like Kevin Costner or Julia Roberts are often one note and very hard to replicate, even for the trained ear.

Being a good voice-match voice actor is about expanding your vocal impersonations and staying on top of your craft by knowing who is trending. Pulling a Rocky or Bullwinkle out of your hat isn’t going to get you very far in this day and age, but if you study the sound of Matthew McConaughey and other A-List actors in the business, your chances of voice matching increases significantly. Back in 2007 I was making a killing as a voice-matcher for Janeane Garafolo and she loved not having to go back into the studio to do more lines. She once told me that I sounded more like her than she sounded like herself. Today, I’m more apt to match Katherine Keener or Dame Judy Dench. How’s that for range!

In this first installment, Kate Higgins and Laura Gerow share their experiences. Kate likes the fast pace of the work and that she is able to keep her energy and focus. Then we meet with Laura who credits the whole team for being so friendly and making her feel comfortable through the whole process. Check out the videos and let us know what you think!

Taking care of your voice during cold and flu season really just involves paying extra special attention to the normal tricks and habits that most voice over professionals should already be considering. For instance, be sure to drink LOTS of water with a minimum eight glasses of water of day to ensure proper hydration. In the winter this is especially true because the air tends to be dryer than usual, therefore vocal cords tend to become stressed with the relatively low humidity. In addition, many of us often drink extra coffee or tea to warm ourselves up, however these things, in combination with the dry air, only serve to dehydrate the body even more and, as a result, strains the vocal cords.

The common cold and flu prevention techniques will also keep your voice humming true during the winter season. Make sure you stay away from others with colds, wash your hands frequently, maintain a nutritious diet, get adequate sleep, and exercise your body and voice properly. If you do happen to come down with a cold, be sure to cough softly or not at all. Coughing and clearing your throat can seriously strain the vocal cords, thereby extending the period of time in which your voice is not working properly. Try swallowing or drinking some water when you first feel that tickle, and, as a last resort, cough GENTLY. Remembering this trick can shave days off the devastation of losing your voice. Also, try to avoid eating chocolate or drinking milk before performing, as these will coat your throat your voice will not sound as clear thus causing your to clear your throat more frequently.

In addition to illness and disease, winter also brings with it some exciting events. But, when you randomly run into your best friend from a decade ago, don’t go running up and screaming and shouting! Football season is nearing the playoffs, basketball is kicking off, and sports fanatics are sure to be rooting for their home teams. By all means, demonstrate your enthusiasm, but try doing so by dressing in full gear or with a giant foam finger rather than losing your main commodity in a heated fit of excitement.. One of the worst ways to lose your voice during the winter is with excessive cheer. When you shout or even talk, the cold and dry winter air is inhaled in greater volumes and dries the vocal cords faster. So, if you’re not drinking enough water, the vocal cords become more brittle and strained.

So, what’s the best advice we can give you for maintaining your voice during the winter season? Always keep a personal water bottle handy, don’t share it with anyone else, and be sure to keep your hands sanitized. Enjoy your winter season, but with the contained enthusiasm that will also leave you with a working voice in the aftermath.

Do you have other special tips or tricks to keeping your voice through cold and flu season?

How simple can voice acting be? North compares it to a childhood game. “It’s really not as complicated as a lot of actors want to make it out to be. It’s pretty much the same thing that any 4 or 5-year-old child does. It’s just playing make believe. “ Nolan has gone above and beyond a childhood game and turned playing make believe into a living.

North is no stranger to both the voice over and on camera acting world. Most notably known for his portrayal of Drake in the recently released Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Nolan has an extensive resume to his name. Having worked on Batman: Arkham and Assassin’s Creed, to his on camera work for Pretty Little Liars & General Hospital, Nolan’s range of characters and abilities continue to take the acting world by storm.

Do you approach voice acting different from on camera acting? Share you thoughts below!

What?! I thought I was getting into a fun industry?!

If you have ventured into the world of animation and video games, you know exactly what I’m referring to. The wonderful thing about make believe, is that anything can happen. I’ll never forget my time on DragonBall – I played a character named ‘Mai’ and she died in what seemed like 50% of the episodes. You have to get very creative in your death scenes. You can only die so many times and in the world of video games, you can die over and over again. The interesting thing about a death scene is that this isnt’ something we can truly relate to ourselves. And the way we die in animations isn’t realistic to most deaths we know. So we have to become very creative and think outside the box.

While you start practicing and developing your characters – add another layer to them that you may not have thought through – how many ways can your character die? What would it sound like if you are falling out of an airplane as opposed to falling from the top of the building? What does it sound like when you get stabbed to death? When you are being slain by a demon? When you catch on fire? Falling into a dark hole? Melting? …..there is no end to the options of a dying character.

Something I suppose you didn’t give much thought to….. until now. Why don’t you YouTube animated death scenes or Google and rent some animations with characters that are similar to your range and see what other greats before you have done. Record your findings in the studio so you will be able to mimic them again in the future. Just listen and watch the animation or create your own death scene in your head. See it all happening and try and feel and physically act out the scene with as many human sfx as you can add to it. Don’t forget your sound of struggle (if there is one) before and after the death. Add the proximity affect (for example are you falling; change your vocal sounds to give the sound of distance – and don’t forget to land with impact.)

The point is, our vocal instruments guide the scene and it’s our job to vocally assist it along and create the scene using only our imaginations and our human sounds and words.

The true key to this technique, is that your character gets brought back to life….that’s the true art to dying. Coming back for another episode or season, until next time everyone.

Most of the producer’s responsibilities occur before and after the actual recording session. It is in the hiring or overseeing of the director, actors, engineers, music etc. where the producer shines. Once the principal jobs have been filled, the voice over session (complete with all the top-notch players doing the jobs they’ve been hired to do) should unfold organically.

Once the producer has chosen a voice over director to bring the project to life, s/he will let the director do what they do best. Prior to the actual recording session, the producer will have discussed at length, with the voice director what the objectives and goals they intend to achieve.

Throughout the voice over recording, the producer may have opinions on how various lines are written and read. Keep in mind that any notes from the producer are meant to enhance the ultimate vision of the project. These notes are not meant to be taken personally. The producer is the one with weight of the project on his/her shoulders and is ultimately responsible for its success.

The actual voice over recording session is but one piece of a much larger puzzle, a crucial piece to be sure, but a singular piece nonetheless. The producer is also responsible for the artwork, the production timeline, the music, the marketing etc.

At the end of the day, The producer job is to over see the entire project from inception to execution and s/he often does it from behind the giant curtain.

Do you have producer experience? Share your experience below!

Prior to the voice over recording session, the director will have met with the producers and writers to fine-tune the tone of the project as well as the personalities and attitudes of each of the characters. In short, the director is, ostensibly, the ‘brains’ behind the voice over recording session.

The voice over director must have a strong, personal relationship with each of the actors and s/he must use that connection to help pull a perfect performance from them.

When an actor is being asked to repeat the same line for the eighty-fifth time, they need to trust the director. The actor needs to be reassured that the reason they are all on this journey is that the director will lead them to that perfect scene no matter how many times it’s performed.

The director must dance that fine line between repeatedly working an actor to the point where the words lose meaning and getting that exact inflection, that perfect line read that makes the scene sing off the page. The director does this by making sure the actors feel safe by assuring them that they are all on the same side.

The voice over director has the most hands on creative role during the voice record session. S/he is responsible for ensuring that the voice over recording goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible. We love you most of all Scarecrow.

We hope you have been enjoying the videos and let us know what other topics you would like to see! We will be covering topics like voice matching, the voice over recording process, handling multiple characters, voice over directing and much more.

In this installment Paula Rhodes and Haviland Stillwell share how they first got into voice acting. First, Paula shares how a local voice acting class lead to connections and auditions for voice acting gigs. Haviland then shares how her traditional acting led her to voice over acting when she was heard by an agent.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

We hope you have been enjoying the videos and let us know if there are other topics you would like to see! We’ll be covering topics like voice matching, the voice over recording process, handling multiple characters, voice over directing and much more.

This video features Charlie Bodin giving his audition advice for aspiring voice actors. His tip: take risks. He stresses the importance of reach above and beyond your comfort zones and not going with the most obvious choice.

Let us know in the comments what you think of these videos, thank you!