Over the next three months, I'll be sharing material that was supplemental to my June keynote at Voice 2010 in Los Angeles. The presentation was divided into three important skill sets that envelop all professional voice talents: business skills, technical skills and session skills.
The session was very well-received and I've had several requests from non-attendees to publish the material.
Here's installment three of three.
*I wasn't trying to be cute in rhyming brevity and levity...just noticed this during the 11th reread. Don't feel like another re-write and besides, Forensic Files is starting on truTV!
Session Skills - I love Tom Cassidy as a voice actor. For those of you who don’t know about Tom, he’s the owner of SunSpots Productions in Asheville, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida and is one hell of a voice actor.
Aside from his voicing abilities…
Tom is one of the best at session etiquette I have ever encountered.
I’ve had talents who broke into some shrieking voice that pegged the meters on my ISDN box and console and riddled my sound booth (and my client’s ears) with a god-awful cacophony of unfunny babble.
Tom listens. Really listens.
When he does “free-from”, it’s brief, volume appropriate and more often than not, puts a smile on my client’s faces. If there’s anyone guilty of getting carried away when Tom’s in the house, it’s probably me; Tom’s always kind enough to indulge me with his spot-on Christopher Walken, when appropriate.
Bill Barrett is an equally brilliant talent from nearby Eugene, Oregon. His Bing Crosby floors me every time. On a whim, he did a throwaway take of a rather average piece of copy as Bing, knowing we had a few moments to spare and that…well…I was a sucker for it.
More importantly, he correctly sensed that my clients were impressed at the brevity of the session, his ability to nail the direction and that a moment of levity would be welcomed.*
When he finished the copy, everyone was laughing...truly laughing. In a bizarre shift of direction, the agency actually used the Bing take start to finish!
Recommendations:
If you need to be loud, please be loud two feet away from the microphone. Remember, the engineers have set your recording level based on you reading the script (for example) as a kindly grandfather selling health care, not as Marilyn Manson selling a monster truck show.
I understand that these little nuances are often critical to a performer feeling uninhibited during a session and that often the best takes during said session immediately follow a spontaneous moment of improvisation.
Of the three skill sets, I can be the most forgiving of shortcomings in this particular one. This is acting. This is you doing what you love and giving it your all. This is the one category where a little something unexpected, loud or goofy, can blossom into something truly magical!
My intent with both this article and my VOICE 2010 presentation is to help you avoid pitfalls like these and to make you aware of habits/traits you may not even realize you have.
If you're not getting hired as much as you think your talents merit, the answer could lie within your degree of professionalism rather than within the age of your demo reel.
I will not sugarcoat my opinions; though by the same token, will do my best to be constructive rather than nagging. It's my sincerest hope to give you something of value to learn from – ergo helping you with your business, your income potential and your career.
As I’ll mention in the opening of my VOICE 2010 presentation, ANY one of you could do a keynote on How to be a Go-To Engineer/Producer. We all have our stories, insights and professional opinions and by involving ourselves in information symposiums like VOICE 2010, can feed off the synergy created by the expertise of our combined disciplines - hopefully learning a thing or three along the way.
In the end, the most important achievement is creating for our clients, a product that lures more customers, sells more widgets and reinforces the demand for exceptional work from exceptional professionals.
Thank you for time and your talents!
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