Voice Over Script for Coldwell Banker
Filed under Voice Over Scripts
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“This is what your house feels like on the new Coldwell Banker’s Real Estate Web-Site. It attracts a lot of attention – so your home can be seen by thousands of buyers – everyday until it’s sold. On-line…on the phone…or in person. Coldwell Banker. Making real estate easy”.
Popularity: 12%
The Truth About Voice Over Demos
Filed under Blog
Demos! You’ve gotta have ‘em and they’ve gotta be awesome! So what does it take to get an awesome demo? First, understand what a demo is and what it isn’t. A demo is a critical tool, and without it, you’re not in business. It’s your calling card; it’s what gets you in the door! A demo is not just a bunch of spots thrown together and it’s definitely not something to skimp on or cut corners in producing. Your demo reflects your level of professionalism, your range, and the value you have to offer the client. It should provide just enough of a sampling to whet their appetite, draw them in, and leave them wanting for more, and should showcase your range and versatility.
All of this takes proper preparation and training. No amount of producing or background music will cover a talent’s inability to effectively deliver a variety of scripts. Get proper training and coaching before you cut your demo!
Every spot on your demo should be unique with the goal of highlighting your range and vocal abilities. Additionally, each spot should sound real, as if it were a paid gig. Pay attention to detail in your takes, the client most certainly will! The goal should be to make them want you!
Keep your demos clean and keep them up to date. Your demos need to be an accurate representation of you and your abilities. If your demos are outdated, the perception is that you are too! Be authentically you and be your best!
Invest in professionally produced demos! Work with a coach and director who is also a voice talent and producer, who understands the importance of a proper demo, someone who will be brutally honest with you, who is reputable, and knows how to produce awesome demos! You should be able to listen to samples of their previous demos. Is the music appropriate? Do the spots flow well? Does it sound clean or over-produced? Can you depict the versatility of the voice talent in the demo or is it just same voice, different background music? Be critical!
Demo production is definitely an investment and much of the expense is due to production costs. Licensed music can be very expensive. The time to properly edit and mix the audio tracks of the demo and add the music is also quite time consuming. Producers who are worth the price are also voice talents and coaches who have earned the ability to command a decent rate for their services, as the opportunity cost is that of paid gigs they could also be doing. This also accounts for the wide range of prices for demo production.
Look for the value not just the price! You get what you pay for and the most expensive is not always the best. This is an investment in your business that requires due diligence on your part. Your demo speaks for you. What is yours saying?
Popularity: 14%
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January 21,2010
Michael @ 6:29 pm
I don’t think a VO coach needs to be a successful VO talent in order to be an effective coach. One of my coaches is a former agent and casting director. I am pretty sure she would know what agents and CDs are looking for in a demo. BTW, what does my demo say to you?
http://www.michaelbrianmontgomery.com/files/Michael_Brian_Montgomery-Commercial_Demo.mp3
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January 22,2010
Terry Daniel @ 9:12 am
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your comments. Most coaches I know in the industry are also voice talents and I believe that it is essential for a coach to have this kind of background. All of us need to be accountable for what we say and it’s tough to tell our students what works and what doesn’t, if we haven’t experienced it ourselves.
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June 3,2010
J. Christopher Dunn @ 11:29 pm
Hey Terry-
It took me several weeks before I finalized which voice acting coach I was going to have help me firm up my existing skills. For several sessions we worked on a wide variety of scripts, ranging from tags to 15 minute narrations. She was, and still is, a great supporter and provided the right amount of encouragement. She was also not afraid to tell me that a particular read was less than stellar. The demo we created was outstanding and spoke volumes of her guidance and extensive voice acting experience that she passed onto me.
Thanks for the article, Terry!
-JCD
How To Audition On Voices.Com
Filed under Free Videos
Here are some tips on how to audition on Voices.com.
Popularity: 47%
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October 21,2009
Jeff Briggs @ 1:57 pm
Great stuff! This is the kind of ‘down to the nitty gritty’ content that we beginner/intermediate VOs are looking for. Thanks for this. It’s really no surprise how well the site works. I came across your podcast the other day and heard the one with David Ciccarelli. Now there’s a smart dude!
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October 22,2009
Christina Fadala @ 5:04 pm
Terry,
Thanks. I agree with what’s been said so far. It’s helpful to hear your comments about auditioning no matter how many others have already done so. I wasn’t bothering to reply if there were more than 50 people but you definitely changed my mind.
Chris
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October 29,2009
sandy hall @ 11:57 am
Never had good luck on voices.com. too many newbies undercutting their rates..too much time on auditions that 100’s are also auditioning for. More of a site for new people not vets..I get many auditions and gigs by simply marketing myself and have been quite successful. good luck with voices.com I have found it a waste of money and time.
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October 29,2009
Hi Sandy!
Thank you for your comments. Some have good luck on Voices.com and some don’t. The reason I did this video, is to show people what has worked for me. I never used to get anything until I tried this method of auditioning.
Best of luck!
Terry Daniel
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June 22,2010
Amy @ 5:54 pm
Hi Terry,
Thank you so much for all the wonderful info. I’ve found that there are two types of successful people in this business: those that have the “This is MY playground, and you don’t deserve to be here, newbie” attitude, and those like you who are very generous and informative. I am grateful to have found this site and people like you who are willing to share inspiration and tips for success.Thank you,
Amy
Getting it Right
Filed under Blog
Management guru Peter Drucker says, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” Efficiency and effectiveness are paramount to voice over talents and both are dependent upon daily habits. You know, those little things that can make us or break us?
Here are some success habits that I came up with that I work on daily that may be useful to you:
•The habit of practice, practice, practice! Even if you don’t hit perfect, you can’t grow without it! All successful voice over talent practice; it keeps a talent sharp and gives that competitive edge.
•The habit of going the extra mile. Giving more than is expected reaps really amazing results! Simply giving three slightly different reads of script to a client can set you apart from the rest, helping you to become a go to voice over talent.
•The habit of smiling. This is huge for voice talent! Smiling will come across in your read and will decrease plosives! Tip: practice in front of a mirror or on your web-cam.
•The habit of learning. Always be learning something new! No one is ever too good to get coaching or to learn new skills. Learning is part of being a successful voice over talent and it makes you more marketable!
•The habit of listening. Listening to what other voice over talent have recorded, listening to creative directors, listening to the client, listening to what you just read…it’s all important. Learn to listen and to implement!
•The habit of giving back. Blogging, posting valuable links and information on Facebook and Twitter, posting a voice over session on YouTube, volunteering your voice for a charity, these are all great ways to give back and to increase your value as a voice talent.
•The habit of being true to oneself. Be authentically you! Allow who you are to come through in everything you do. You are hired for more than your voice, let your personality come through. Sure, emulate and learn from other voice talents, but be you!
Doing what it takes to develop these habits is sometimes easier said than done, but easier said than done still needs to be done! Our daily habits become our character, our character becomes our reputation, and our reputation becomes our legacy. What will yours be?
Popularity: 7%
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December 18,2009
Cathy Sirvatka @ 12:04 pm
This is so helpful to me. I am just starting out and I just want to say I feel like I found a home here at VoiceOverClub! Very welcoming and enlightening! Really meaty, practical information. Thank you!
Voice Over Auditioning Techniques
Filed under Free Videos
Here are some auditioning tips. These will benefit you when auditioning on the pay to play sites.
Popularity: 40%
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The Value Of The Extra Mile
Filed under Blog
The extra mile is a mark of excellence! It discloses your level of dedication, your determination to earn repeat business, and your willingness to do whatever it takes to do it right. It’s a powerful habit and a point of competitive advantage. It’s the difference between waiting to hear back on the audition to see if you got the gig or receiving unsolicited referrals from people who believe so much in the quality and professionalism of your work that they will put their reputation on the line just to plug you!
The extra mile is revealed through our everyday actions and requires a defined purpose. Is your purpose to increase the amount of job leads coming in, to land more gigs, to establish yourself as an expert in the industry, or to gain unsolicited referrals? Whatever it may be, exploring ways in which you can implement going the extra mile is a critical element to your success in achieving your objective.
How much time and effort do you dedicate to marketing yourself? Are you networking with other voice over talents, creative directors, and influential people in the industry? Do you refer others? Do you give others a reason to refer you? When you audition or record the job, do you often give the client a variety in the takes to choose from? What is your reputation in the industry? Do you have a voice over coach? Are you staying abreast of the latest trends in the industry? Have you taken an improv class lately? Do you contribute articles, share tips, or videos on other voice over sites? These are just a sampling of questions that may help reveal areas in which you may decide to apply the principle of going the extra mile.
Albert Gray, the author of The Common Denominator of Success, states it well, “The secret of success of every man who has ever been successful, lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” Going the extra mile will take a bit of extra effort; however, even picking just one area to apply the extra mile will help to set you apart from the rest. It is a daily habit that leads to success!
Popularity: 8%
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Directed Voice Over Session featuring Terry Daniel
Filed under Blog
This is a directed voice over session that I recorded recently. The client was directing from New York and I was recording in my home studio in Minneapolis. If you’re new to the voice over industry, you should find this entertaining and educational.
Popularity: 22%
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October 4,2009
Mia @ 7:05 am
I love hearing your sessions. Very cool insight into your day. Thanks for sharing.
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October 7,2009
Anthony Piselli @ 1:31 pm
Terry–what an excellent session! That was cool to hear how you work that magic of yours!
Thanks for sharing it! I learned a lot!!Anthony Piselli
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October 7,2009
Thanks for sharing this session with everyone. Having done hour long ISDN sessions myself it helps to hear someone else doing a long session. It definitely requires mental, pnysical and vocal stamina. Ideally it would be nice to take a short break about half way through but “Time is money” as the saying goes.
Chris Fadala
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October 8,2009
Greg Downey @ 12:33 pm
Hey Terry, thanks for the insight! It is so gracious of you to share this with aspiring, new VO talent like me. It helps us appreciate the value of having ISDN capability in the home studio. More importantly, it displays your sense of customer focus and the great attitude you maintain throughout the session. Thanks for being a great example and role model for all of us!
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October 9,2009
Rachel Resnick @ 5:48 pm
Awesome session, Terry. The session took a little over an hour; I was just wondering how long the audio clean-up took you, to get an idea of the total amount of time you spent on this project. Also, what’s the nature of this job? I’m picturing animation, but where and when will it be broadcast?
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October 17,2009
Paul Hernandez @ 5:00 pm
Hey Terry,
Loved how you took direction, interpreted what the cliend was saying, made the client feel at ease giving direction and then giving your own creative suggestions all while making it a fun session for you both. It was also fun to listen to.I wish I could afford ISDN. Do you have any thoughts on usiing SKYPE as a low budget solution to ISDN?
Great work amigo!
Paul Hernandez
paulhernandezvoiceman@gmail.com
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Soundproofing A Voice Over Home Studio On A Budget
Filed under Free Videos
Trish Basanyi was kind enough to provide us a video on how she put together her home studio on a budget.
Popularity: 51%
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October 1,2009
Dan @ 11:15 am
Great vid! However, don’t waste your money with Auralex – go to any retail store and buy a queen or king-size mattress pad for $9.99. Six times the square footage for 1/2 the price and they work just as well. I covered my entire 12×14 studio for less than $80 – and it looks great!
Peace.
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October 1,2009
Jonny Beatz @ 11:53 am
I dont want to be the one to start a tiff but, unfortunately this is not “soundproofing”. This is what would be refferred to as “isolation.”
Soundproofing is the prevention of sound from one space to another. Clearly the sound can travel up and over the baffling. Blankets, Auralex, foam, etc these only treat the acoustics of the space, deadening the sound by preventing the reflection of sound off surfaces. -
October 1,2009
I am a relatively new student in the VO arena and am wondering if what Trish has done would meet the requirements of SAVOA as summarized below:
• Noise level (absence of ambient noise. During recorded “silence,” a cumulative noise floor of -40 dBFS or less is deemed sufficient for broadcast standards. See T2)
• Room decay (reverberation, echo or ring should be below .07 sec with a decay of 85% from first test impact to a sound level at .07 sec. seeT3)T2 Ambient noise and noise floor: This cumulative sound, ideally at or under -40dBFS, will be measured against ITU-R 468-weighting noise curve. SaVoa is using this international curve as opposed to “A” weighted for two reasons: (1) We are an organization that serves voice over artists delivering to the international market; (2) the 468 curve is widely considered to be more accurate when measuring noise that it perceivable by humans.
T3 Reverberation, ring or echo are the secondary sound waves that are recorded because of insufficient absorption or diffusion in a recording environment. The lingering presence of these decaying sounds can cause problems in post production. One problem is when two sources, for example, two voice actors in different locations, are edited into one commercial. The difference in reverberation can cause stark contrast in the spacial quality of the two voices. This may hurt the perception of reality when the two voices are supposedly in the same place.
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October 1,2009
Silvana Lombardini @ 12:53 pm
Hello Trish!
Thank you very much for this great information.
It is very useful and I think you are very generous for sharing your secrets.I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I’m a Spanish native speaker and I’m a professional voice over since 1990.
As I recorded mostly in my own country for different Production Companies or Radio & TV during the mayor part of my career, I never needed to create a home studio.Four years ago I moved from my country – Uruguay – to live in Buenos Aires and tryin to re-build my way in a new place being independent, I discovered how things are working nowadays on the universal voice over market.
Now I have my home studio and I’m enjoying the benefits of working at home with my voice which multiplies the job opportunities around the world.It took me some time to learn how to manage in this new mood in which we need not also our voice but some important technical knowledge.
I was able to do it with the help of people like you, who so kindly share valuable experiences on the web and who show us that things may be easier than we think.Thank you very much, kind regards,
silvana -
October 1,2009
Trish Basanyi @ 7:53 pm
Thanks for the feedback guys!
Dan- Like Terry said, the mattress foam does work but there’s a reason Auralex is expensive, it does work the best. Plus you get the bonus of fashion color choices! ; )
Johnny- You are correct, sir. My bad for using the wrong terminology.
Greg- too many numbers in your post for me to keep up with. lol All I know is that I’ve been doing this longer than SAVOA has been in existence. I do mostly commercials (broadcast level stuff) both here in the US and I do a good amount of overseas projects too, and have not had any complaints. That said, I do remove the computer hum after I record using the noise removal option in Cool Edit Pro (now known as Adobe Audition).
Silvana- You’re welcome! Maybe you can join us in LA for VOICE 2010 along with many other voice talent from around the world!
Christina- The studio is also my guest room, it’s about 10 x 13. It has a bed and the usual furniture a bedroom has, in addition to my studio setup. The great thing about this method is that it will work in any size room, you’re just making the space around the mic smaller.
Hope this helps! –Trish
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October 2,2009
valentino @ 9:03 am
Hi Guys,
What if your room has a glass window to the back of you -how do you sound proof the room esp. with noisy kids in the next room or the lawnmower or neighbour’s dog. I use the wor’lds quietest Condenser mic and it picks up everything. -
October 17,2009
Mike Sommer @ 8:29 am
This has got to be a joke right??
Listen to all the ambient room noise in the audio of this video. On top of the echo and ringing. Yeesh.
@Jonny Beatz Isolation and sound proofing are the same, the removing of echo, ringing, comb filter echo, reflection and a host of other problems that come with home recording is called “treatment.” Preferably through absorption the OC 703 fiberglass panels or a heck of a lot more Auralex foam than what’s being used here.
If you rally want to know what your recording space sounds like clap your hands sharply. This will expose all the echos. (Hand claps do not contain low frequencies)
Every room needs broadband absorption and bass trapping, especially in smaller rooms.
The only reason Trish, is getting away with this is because she is using a RE20 mic, a dynamic mic with a rather narrow off axis pickup. I bet she has to get right on top of it to sound good.
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October 17,2009
Hi Mike,
We appreciate your comments and your expertise in the area of audio.
Trish was recording this video from the flip cam mic, not her studio mic. I’ve used her for many projects and the audio she sends me is very good. With many software’s, you can actually eliminate any extra room noise. Before I built my studio, I always used the “adapted noise reduction” plug-in in Adobe Audition 3.0 and it worked like a charm.
We can all improve our sound. It’s always a work in progress and although Trish may not have the perfect sound, the point of the video was to show how you can create a good recording space at a low budget and I believe she succeeded.
Have a good weekend!
Terry Daniel
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October 17,2009
Mike,
Of COURSE there’s ambient noise, that’s the whole point of setting up the “booth”. The video camera was out in the open. If I had recorded the video from INSIDE the booth the sound would have been MUCH quieter, as is the audio for the 3-6 projects (mostly broadcast) I record there per day.
I imagine my RE-20 DOES help, I travel quite a bit and record in hotel rooms with it, and my regular clients have not even noticed a difference between that and my home setup.
Terry’s right, it’s not the BEST setup ever, but it works for me.
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November 17,2009
Meg @ 2:41 pm
I found help with my home recording studio at http://audimutesoundproofing.com it was really simple and affordable! I would suggest them to anyone!
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November 23,2009
Frank Po @ 10:48 am
One might think someone working 3-6 jobs per day would grow weary of being in such an ugly and unprofessional environment. And – um – Smack -um – um – smack where did you train? Pray that potential clients do not judge the quality of your work based upon how you relate in this video or based on your lack of professional environment.
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November 23,2009
Frank,
Thank you for your comments but I highly doubt that any of Trish’s regular clients care about what her studio looks like. She does pretty well for herself. It’s all about the quality of the recording and how you read the script. Clients don’t hire voice talents based on whether or not they have blankets draped over a room divider or not. Two years ago, I did a ton of voice over work in hotel rooms when I was on the road.
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November 23,2009
Karl @ 1:03 pm
I’m NOT in the VO business yet; have been following both Trish and Terry for quite some time as they have been a great inspiration to me while I’m learning this business on my own. I’m fascinated by the number of negative comments about Trish’s studio. The fact is both she and Terry probably have more clients than anyone working from ‘home.’
I have listened to their work and I assure you these two are PROS! (No, this is NOT a solicitation!) I guess if their ideas work for them, who’s to question it? Obviously their clients are happy -
November 23,2009
Jack Josey @ 2:47 pm
Trish,
I like your idea of the room divider covered with blankets. I spend some time on the road and often set up a three-sided pillow tent (4-sided when I lay a pillow across the top of the three sides). Your idea of the room divider is great for folks on a budget (and who isn’t these days?).
Regards,
Jack Josey -
December 4,2009
Dan Brantley @ 1:27 pm
Here is a source for Auralex or Sonex type accustical foam, at about 1/4 the price.
http://www.foamforyou.com/Noise%20Control%20Products.htm -
December 14,2009
Mike Carta @ 1:19 pm
Whoa folks! Before you plunk down your hard earned $$’s for foam from those well known foam companies, or scoot out to Walmart to grab a couple of foam mattress pads check-out http://www.foambymail.com.
Great prices on large sheets of foam as well as smaller foam squares shipped direct to your humble abode’s studio. Oh, and don’t forget that you’re only conditioning your room not sound proofing it. And Trish, you go girl! -
May 26,2010
George Whittam @ 2:47 am
Despite some harsh criticism from the faceless masses, Trish does give some sound advice. Yes, soundproofing is an oft misplaced term, acoustic treatment would be more accurate. Perhaps an accompanying recording of Trish actually working her mic will give viewers a better impression of what her setup is actually capable of. The sound of the end product is all that matters, period.
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