I was thinking today how I respond to a video VO audition. How can I make my audition stand above the rest.

If your potential client gives you a scratch track of their audio with video and the VO is recorded by someone in their office, try this. I most always play their audio soundtrack onto my editor, so I can see, hear and display their timing.

If they have asked you to “sound like their example” you are simply listening for their natural emphasis, tone and timing. They do NOT want you to emulate their VO example. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need you in the first place. Bring your “A” Game to the audition. Let them hear how YOU would perform for their project.

First, once you understand their “taste”, lay down your track with your interpretation of their script. Once completed and you’re pleased with your performance, you now need YOUR audio to fit THEIR graphics and timing on the screen.

Then, cut up your voice to allow you to slide your sentences to meet their pace. Put theirs on Track 1 and yours on Track 2. Line them up. So, when played back, your audio now syncs with their project.

Now, mute their audio and finish producing your MP3 or requested format. Then send them your audition. Mention in your email, if you can, that you have timed your audio to their video. This will allow them to hear exactly how YOU sound in their work. That will go far in showing them you care and want to earn their business.  Plus, it saves them a lot of time.

I always try to do this for all accepted projects like this. It furthers your professional standards. And causes your work to always be above those that don’t take the time to work hard for the client.

The year 2020 was supposed to be a real eye-opener. Well, it certainly has, but not as expected. Amazingly, a pandemic crippled the world more than any other in history by closing down economies, shifting our health priorities with masks, gloves, shield, disinfectants, “social distancing” and more.

I don’t know about you, but my voiceover business tanked in the beginning through June. Then sometime around July, my base clients began to re-emerge and as of this October day, I was slammed all day. Several new VO clients have come to roost and roost well indeed.

I’ve always been an eternal optimist. Sometimes blind faith, sometimes through devoted prayer. I consider myself very blessed in my life. Family, friends, career, business…it’s hard to complain. Because anytime you get so far down – you KNOW it’s got to get better. So have some faith in yourself and the world around you. Twisted as it may even seem.

I’ve had some tough breaks. But who hasn’t? I remember a teacher in my growing years conducted a simple experiment. He asked each student to write down what was the one thing SO BAD that they were currently dealing with. No paragraph, just a simple, one-sentence phrase. We each did it and folded our note as instructed and placed it in his hat as he passed it up one row and down the other. After which, he shook the hat vigorously and then proceeded to march up and down each aisle as each student pulled out a folded note. No one could tell who’s note was who’s. But one look around the room showed on each one’s face, how they did NOT want what they had picked out of that hat. Without fail and without anyone speaking up, the teacher said…”So you thought YOU had it rough?”

The diminished stature of each one of us told the tale. Someone had just lost a parent, another had lost a sibling to cancer or a traffic accident, or a parent had lost their job or a sister just found they had an unplanned pregnancy…. the list could go on and on. No one knew who had put what into the hat. But we all knew we preferred to have our issue we had put into the hat, then someone else’s. It was a very quiet end to that class period that day.

In our industry, there is always something that becomes today’s headline of “OH NO!” …but there always seems to be a better day ahead if you just look for it and make everything you can out of it. I know I try. I may even try a little harder.

We know it’s a new year and a new decade. So, is it time to re-evaluate and plot a new course as our industry evolves? In a word, YES, if you don’t want to get passed by.

Our VO industry is changing. Clients are finding voice “talents” that are willing to work with Fiverr standards. Well, ya get what you pay for. Right? I’ve heard from a variety of clients who say, out of the 100 auditions for a job, from one of the Pay-2-Play sites, 80% of the quality of the audio was frightfully bad. Out of the remaining 20%….10% had quality sound, but talent was below par and the last 10% were decent. However, when you’re going through 100 auditions and the quality is so shaky, you begin to lose the will to live. Aaaaggghh!

Over my adult career, commercial broadcast work was my bread and butter up until the late 90’s. Along came narrative projects, eLearning, movie trailers, video games, voices for toys, telephony, (IVR), etc. So many more items have needed our voiceover skills as each day passes. Many voice actors are now adding Audiobook work as part of their repertoire. Add in Messages-On-Hold, In-Store TV Networks, Training videos, cable TV programs, retail check-out scanning prompts, corporate training… the list goes on and on.

Seems like every day there is a new voice item being added to our ever-growing list of potential voice work. I am still supporting my regular clients that send me commercial broadcast and MOH projects, but I’m finding eLearning and Explainer videos have become my favorite forms of voice expression.

Our jobs, as the mouthpiece representing various clients with their variety of products, is an exciting and creative avenue to our ever-changing world, where a human voice is needed to communicate. True, artificial intelligence (AI) has raised its ugly head as an alternative to a live human voice, but a real human voice is still the de-facto majority.

What form of voiceover do you do best? What category excites you? Do your homework and find out who these clients are. LinkedIn is a great place to run category searches. (Thank you Tracy Lindley) Find out all you can about them. Their website, their latest news, their latest products that have gotten press. So many things you can learn about a potential client. Appeal to their love of their company and show genuine interest. That goes a long way if you are as excited about their news as they are.

As one of my favorite motivational people says, “GO GET IT!” _{(Thank you Corey Dissin)}

     2019?  Really?  Sheesh…seems life is moving so fast, the older you get, doesn’t it?  You wake up Monday morning and stretch and then look around and it seems its already Friday!   Good Lord, what’s going on here?  I’m hoping that means that I’m enjoying life so much, that I need to stop and take a breath and “smell the roses“.  Well, I’m going to be my usual self and be the eternal optimist as my norm.  You?  Does it feel that it too is moving fast for you also?

     We’ve been doing some things a bit differently as I prepared for this new year at home, “Paradise Found“, as I call it.  I have a budget!  So that means in order to live like I have become accustomed to, I need to bring in some more dough or trim my expenditures.  I’m also on a new diet. (lifestyle eating change) so far, so good.  We’ll get back to that at a later time to bring you up to date.

     Regarding voice work…I’m re-focusing on doing more e-Learning projects, Narrative jobs and Explainer Video’s.  I like long form that you can get “into” without doing any audiobooks.  That’s just not my gig.  Been scouring the Net to find the right people behind this new avenue of interest to me.  I’ve done a lot of narrative voiceover projects during my career and as you grow, your direction can seem to want to explore some of the areas you’ve touched on before.  And this seems to be my new interest. And my studio today is more suited to it also, with equipment and acoustics with room to spread my arms out without hitting a Auralex wall.

     And may I say that I truly appreciate what the good people at GVAA, The Global Voice Acting Academy, have done over this past year.  They have documented and refined a living and breathing document called, The GVAA Rate Guide.  They have taken feedback, input of all kinds, from all avenues of voice talents and blended it into a working Rate Guide that makes sense, reflects today’s voice workplace and is fair to clients. When negotiating working rates, I simply send them to the guide and say, I fall in line with those prices and support them.  About 95% of my clients have not balked at all.  If everyone is on the same page, the only difference is the quality and style of the chosen voice artist.  Ya gotta love it.

     What are you doing differently?  I hope you too have challenged your “typical normalcy“, otherwise, it’s like they say, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is the definition of Insanity.”  Hey, I didn’t come up with that…But it’s true.