The Sound Advice Voice-Over Podcast

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday. And the most enduring Thanksgiving Day memory I have began when I was fifteen, and, well…it’s a story that honestly may never end.

Regardless of whether you’re on-camera or off-, engaging your imagination is required of you as a talent. Discover a key element that will assist you with every take, regardless of your skill level, and allow you greater spontaneity, expression and subtle, yet discernable, variety.

Discover in this podcast:
• The impact on your audience when engaging your imagination
• How to offer effective options with each take while engaging your imagination
• And simple, but reliable technique that will have a direct impact upon your performance!

This is our final podcast offering in our month long homage to creepy storytelling and to Halloween. This is the remarkable result of gathering a few of my most talented friends a few years back after divvying up roles between the apple cider and donuts.

We hope you enjoyed these stories we’ve presented all month as much as we enjoyed doing them!

Enjoy the season and… Have a Happy Halloween!! ›

This is our third recorded offering in our month long homage to great storytelling and to Halloween. This podcast is the remarkable result of gathering a few of my most talented friends in our LA studio one crisp night a few years back after divvying up roles between the apple cider and donuts, which I adapted from Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as we enjoyed doing them!

Listen every Thursday throughout the month of October leading up to Halloween for another creepy-cool story such as this.

As a kid I fell in love with short stories in large part from hearing old radio theatre-style recordings that often played on the radio throughout October leading up to Halloween.  I especially loved Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”.  So much so, I adapted my own version of a few of his wonderful “Twilight Zone-ish” tales, of which he gave me his very gracious blessings on.  I gathered a few of my most talented friends in our studio one crisp night a few years back, supplied the apple cider and donuts and this is the result.

I hope you en...

Acting is very much like playing poker. If you intend to play, if you hope towin, you need to play your hand well, and, frankly, you need to risk.Yet, far too many talent kill a perfectly wonderful opportunities to createby second-guessing what little direction they are given. Perfectly capable,creative talent completely shutting down at the very moment when theyneed toact!So, what gives?

Listen to Actors’ SOUND ADVICE co-founders, coaches, and seasoned voiceover demo producers, Kate McClanaghan and Jeff Finney discuss one of the most elusive and sought-after performance styles in the voiceover business.

As actors we’re generally expected to be versatile enough to play everything. Or at least that’s the general consensus regarding acting as a profession, and not simply from actors and their coaches. Of course, precious few rise to the occasion for the simple reason none of this work is all that easy. Mastering the skills to effortlessly perform in every medium and genre appears be the generally accepted definition of what it means to be versatile. This is, at least in part, the degree of difficulty involved in being versatile.This is the case with every professional crea...

If you’ve been pursuing voiceover work on your own in America for the past decade or more, chances are you’ve been following a business model that concentrates almost strictly on securing work all by yourself, or DIY, by procuring jobs primarily through excessively low-paying sites like Fiverr, Upwork and a few Pay-to-Play (P2P) platforms. Nevertheless, voiceover as a career has chiefly been in the hands of actors since the onset of recorded audio, and anyone who hires you as a voiceover assumes you’re an actor, even if you don’t. Traditionally, professional actors enlist the services...

Summer is calling. We’re moments away from family reunions, vacations, and long weekends for the first time in a really long time for most of us! So, here’s a bit of advice that will keep you in good graces with your talent agents and potential clients: if you know the dates you won’t be available for auditions or jobs, be sure to book out!

Passion and instincts account for a great deal, but neither will get you anywhere unless you dedicate yourself to keeping your skills sharp, while relentlessly pursuing the work. It’s there to be had.

Let’s assume you have a work ethic that won’t quit, and everyone says you have a remarkable voice. Terrific. Question is: do you have talent? And how would you know?

Understanding who you’ve created your demos to service most is typically overlooked by both seasoned and novice talent alike. Yet, it’s the endgame, and why this should be your primary focus from the very start. Certainly there are no absolutes in voiceover but there are a number of elements you should consider when first pursuing voiceover as a profession.

The truth is, nearly every client in the States, not just talent agents, require a Commercial demo first and foremost.

If the adage, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” holds up, then it stands to reason the habits we practice, whether by design or default, ultimately determines our strengths. 

With that, I give you five habits to strengthen your performance abilities. 

Here are a few key industry insights to improve your bottom line, elevate your brand, instill confidence, and expand your small business as an actor, on- or off-camera!

You might be relieved to discover the best advertising… isn’t advertising at all. By that I mean the adage, “less is more” applies when it comes to art directing your graphics that will allow you to make your name known and associated with being a professional voice talent with taste and an elevated aesthetic. 

Here are five key elements to consider when offering insight to your graphic artist as to what you’re after when creating your brand logo and identity.

Typically training for the average actor and voice-over are categorizes into one of three camps: beginner, intermediate or advanced. Problem is: nothing in this business is lumped into those categories; you’re either a professional or you’re not, right out of the gate.

You build your professional reputation as a voice talent and as an actor by consistently delivering exceptional auditions. Lots and lots and lots of them. Which is why persistence and tenacity serve you so well to succeed in this, or frankly, any business.  

So, how many auditions do you imagine it takes to land a single voiceover job? Five? Ten? Twenty? What’s the average?

Voiceover demos, by definition, are a professional demonstration of what you do best and what you want more of. Yet many well-meaning, even experienced talent fall prey to many of the following misconceptions regarding what should and shouldn’t be included on your voiceover demos.

Let’s assume you have a work ethic that won’t quit, and everyone says you have a remarkable voice. You can have all the talent in the world, but it’ll die on the vine without drive and momentum. Your passion and instincts account for a great deal, but neither will get you anywhere unless you dedicate yourself to continually sharpening your skills while you pursue the work.  

You practiced, practiced, practiced… but still, no Carnegie Hall! So, what happened? Well, a number of things could be in play, or entirely absent from your auditions, as the case may be. Here are 5 reasons you probably didn’t book that last audition…

As an actor, you’re most often asked to just be yourself. Come to think of it, this could be said of all manner of business, just maybe more so as an actor. Those casting are most interested in you being you. In fact, you’re expected to be the most dynamic, comfortable, spontaneous “YOU” you can be. (This can come as something of a contradiction, especially after training for 4 to 6 years to become ‘someone else’. I mean, be your self? Who the heck is that?)

There’s a common misconception in our culture that states if a road proves too difficult then maybe “it wasn’t meant to be.” Instead, I happen to think the opposite might actually be true. If you are on the right path, then you’re likely to face far more opposition than you ever may have imagined. I don’t wish this for you it’s simply an observation.

It may come as a surprise to most people as to what a casting director actually does, even if you’ve considered yourself a professional talent for a number of years. Casting agencies select talent they feel are most suitable for the specific job at hand from talent agencies based on the individual talent’s professional promotional materials.  

Suffice it to say, casting agents don’t solely conduct auditions to casting talent; they offer industry insights to both the production.

“Ambition is the first step to success. The second is action.”

There are a few key basics voice talent should know about this industry from the onset that’s either required of you or you can expect as industry standards. Hopefully, understanding them from the start will improve your ability to create, secure work and navigate your voiceover career.

Here’s a brief, but important list… 

Listen to SOUND ADVICE founder & author of The SOUND ADVICE Encyclopedia of Voiceover, Kate McClanaghan, defines:

For decades now, legions of actors have emerged from assorted acting schools across the country harboring a deep aversion to pursuing and accepting commercial work. Yet, if you scratch the surface a bit, you’ll probably find this unfounded antagonism typically stems from the misguided notion you’d become “a sellout” if you perused commercial opportunities. It’s especially unfortunate and shortsighted when you consider mastering commercial voiceover and on-camera work offers you the greatest opportunities to effectively subsidize your acting career.

Avoid one of the greatest mistakes budding voice talent make and why to give your voiceover career the best opportunity to achieve the greatest results. Here are a few key industry insights to improve your bottom line, elevate your brand, instill confidence, and expand your small business as a voice actor.

Listen to Actors’ SOUND ADVICE seasoned voiceover demo producer/ career coach, Kate McClanaghan offers expert guidance and insight into how to navigating your career as a voiceover. Regardless of your experience level, those auditioning, or most likely to hire you, will assume you’re a professional actor and expect you to know your job both in and out of the booth.

There was atimenot too long ago when it was commonplace to audition for voiceoversin frontof producers at ad agencies, in various recording studios, in front of castingdirectors, or at your local talent agencies where you’d be offered direction in real time.Obviously times have changed.Since the pandemic it’s safe to say pretty mucheveryaudition, on or off-camera, is nowdone remotely from your home studio, however humble

The quality of your auditions when recording from home is as important as your performance. In fact, it’s never mattered more than it does today.

Since COVID, production demands now require every voice talent to not only be well-trained and prepared to deliver their best at a moment’s notice, but we’re also assuming the quality of your auditions (recorded from home) will inevitably be the quality of the audio of the final recording, should we hire you.

Other than that there are a few common mistakes to avoid to improve and increase your boo...

You may have asked for feedback in the past simply for a lack of anything else to say, and you hadn’t thought it through beyond this point. Or maybe you wanted praise for your remarkable vocal prowess. (It’s only human to require some form of acknowledgement that you’re on the right track.)

Yet, if you’re a pro, and you are if you’re presenting yourself as such with your demos to talent agents and producers, then you’re expected to stand behind your promotional materials and proceed with confidence. This is the case regardless o...

Let’s say, hypothetically, you come from a business background and always wanted to transition to voiceover. Let’s say you’ve been doing a bit of “fact finding” and finding a lot of contradictory information about this business. Not the least of which, will any one tell you honestly if you can cut it as a voiceover?

Careful what you wish for. There are plenty of people of varying degrees of expertise who are more than happy to quickly tell you “you can’t”—sight unseen, without ever testing your mettle.

Acting is empathy.The best performances are achieved by having a deepacceptance and understanding of the unique realities of the individual role,character, story, personae, or voice.This is precisely why the individual artist is so critical to the success ofevery production.

There is no success without failure. Its only accomplished after overcoming obstacles, both perceived and unexpected, that demand we experience both to even conceive the difference.

Here’s a question you need to honestly ask yourself: How coachable are you?

It’s fair to assume you’re about as coachable as you are ‘direct-able’. If you can’t be directed, it unlikely you’ll play well with others either. And acting, even voice acting, is often a team sport. You want to please yourself, but only after you’ve checked off quite a few other boxes that positions you in the room with the best caliber of work, and with some consistency.

How much time does it take to establish your voiceover career? How much time and attention does it take to establish and maintain any small business?

Here at Actors’ SOUND ADVICE, we coach all our voiceover clients to establish and expand their performance, promotion, and production routine to develop the most agile, creative, and effective abilities in order to advance their careers as working talent. Which initially begs the question: What does it take to go the distance in this business? Here are a few key industry insights to elevate your brand, instill confidence, and encourage you to… procrastinate tomorrow!

To earn a living as a working talent, there’s no question of the value and importance of expanding your professional skills beyond a single medium, such as strictly stage, or solely on-camera—especially today!

One of the best ways to diversify your skills is by committing yourself to mastering voiceover. In fact, you may be surprised to discover how much voiceover typically improves your overall acting ability.

We’re moments away from family reunions, vacations, long weekends, and some well-deserved time off. So, here’s a bit of advice that will keep you in your talent agent’s good graces well beyond the holidays…

Your type can and will eventually change. Type can be especially elusive in voiceover for a number of reasons, besides the obvious: we can only hear you. Therefore the audience must imagine what you look like; how you feel, what you think, how you approach the world, or at least the world your voiceover immediately exists in.