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Voice Acting Unpacked: Agents, Adventures, & Allies
67 Plays1 year ago
Jump into this no-frills chat where we strip down the voice acting game to its core. We're talking the real deal on agents (spoiler: they're not fairy godparents), how to keep your gigs rolling even when you're chilling on a cruise, and the solid gold of networking. Ever wondered about the hustle behind the mic or how tossing a name in the hat can make someone's day? We've got stories, tips, and a bit of banter on everything from travel setups to dreaming big in casting or agency roles. Whether you're in the biz or just nosy about the voices behind the curtain, this episode's got the goods. Tune in, kick back, and get the lowdown on making waves in voiceover land.
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Transcript
Misconception: Does an agent make booking easier?
00:00:00
Speaker
Everybody's so eager to get an agent and I get it because the idea is like, oh, once I get an agent, everything becomes so much easier. Like they bring stuff to me. Like, well, yes, they do bring stuff to you, but you still have to book it.
Planning a cruise trip: Route and stops
00:00:20
Speaker
Hey, did I tell you I'm going on a cruise?
00:00:23
Speaker
You are. I am. I am. I am. Where are you going? Well, it's an exciting trip. You sound super excited about it. Yeah, yeah, it's my wife's birthday. And I asked her where she wanted to go because I'm not going to make that decision. Smart man. For my birthday, when I turned 60, she asked where I wanted to go and I wanted to go to Vegas. So we went to Vegas for X amount of days and lost X amount of money. It was a great trip.
00:00:52
Speaker
So it's her turn. So we're going on a cruise. So we're going to leave out of here on the 29th of February, a day that rarely exists. And we're going to drive to the cities, fly to North Carolina. Then we spend the night and then we fly to Puerto Rico, San Juan. And we cruise out of there and we're heading to Tobago. We're going to St. Lucia. We're going to there's other islands out there right here.
00:01:19
Speaker
But we're going to stay about one or two. About seven days. The Southern Caribbean tour sounds like. Maybe Jamaica? Maybe? Yes. Yes. Cool. Tobago, Tomato. Why North Carolina first? Because it's not a direct flight to San Juan from Minneapolis.
00:01:39
Speaker
And it's round trip to San Juan, like San Juan is the port you leave and return to? Yes. Yeah. I think there's some round trips. There's some direct flights. I don't believe there are at the time that I need to go. Oh, right. Yeah. Well, the last time we went to about five years ago, we had to fly to New York, New York to San Juan. See, that just seems out of the way. Oh, it is.
Life in the southern U.S.: Accents and family ties
00:02:06
Speaker
It's out of the way.
00:02:08
Speaker
up at JFK is a decent airport. If you don't have to go there. I might be a little biased. Just a little bit. You are a little biased. Just a little bit. So yeah, so we're going to spend about eight, 10 days. And then we come back through Dallas, I believe, and it's all good. All right. I will be going to Atlanta around that time. That's right. Right here to a conference.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yes. You know, I'm very excited about it. Well, wait till next year when we're doing our podcast from there. Yeah. All three of us are going to be there next year. See Victoria. Sure. It's going to happen. We'll see. Speak it. We'll see. All the time. We'll see. I have been able to manifest other things to come my way. So we'll see. We'll see.
00:02:56
Speaker
I don't know why you would resist. It's not like it's the biggest VO conference in the world. Y'all need to understand. I actually lived quite close to Atlanta for a long time. And it won't let you back? Pretty much. No, it's so yeah, stop. So my mom is a southern girl from North Carolina and any time I spent
00:03:25
Speaker
Not all in one stretch, but I've probably spent a good six, seven years living in what was called UCLA, the ugliest corner of lower Alabama. Wonderful. Yes, the Wiregrass region near the Circle City of Dothan and lived in the beautiful town of Enterprise, Alabama.
00:03:44
Speaker
which when I left was hit pretty hard with a hurricane that came through and actually did a lot of damage to the local school. So it was a whole thing. So you shouldn't have left. Shouldn't have left. No, it was a really, I had actually gotten a new job that moved me and my family up to Pennsylvania. It was a whole thing, but anytime I'm in that area, I can't help it.
00:04:08
Speaker
It's just the southern girl comes out and it's very natural. It's not something I have to think about. You never went to Florida as a young child, did you? Yeah, all the time.
00:04:22
Speaker
My dad loved St. Augustine, and he also worked for Anheuser-Busch, and we got free tickets to go to Busch Gardens. My dad didn't drink beer, actually, and I don't drink beer because it smells like my dad's sweat. Yeah, you're welcome for that. It's why I'm not a beer drinker. Do not. It's like, oh, that smells like that. And my dad didn't drink because he was diabetic.
00:04:52
Speaker
But he was pulled over for speeding, and this is when we lived in upstate New York. Of course, he'd roll down his window. He'd have to show his badge, like, I work for the brewery. It's like, sir, can you step out of the car, please? And he had to always do a sobriety test. So he started wearing a medical alert bracelet to be like, no, I'm diabetic. I can't drink. It's like, OK, we're just going to write you up for speeding then. But anyway.
00:05:20
Speaker
Anyway, going back to, yes, I spent time in Florida. My dad loved to drive, so we went everywhere by car. I didn't even know what an airplane was. I lived in Dothan. Well, I lived outside of what's now called, I think it's Fort Novicell? Novicell? It was Fort Rucker at the time I was there.
Recording on the go: Can you work while cruising?
00:05:42
Speaker
Fort Rucker was just a whole other thing.
00:05:46
Speaker
No. But yeah, I've lived in a lot of different places, and I think that's kind of what makes it cool in terms of doing voiceover, because those accents are just natural. I don't have to try. It's just there. See, I don't get accents. I just don't.
00:06:10
Speaker
I don't know why. My mom chastised me as a kid saying, don't you dare do that because people are going to think you're making fun of them. But it was just something that happened and I didn't mean to. I just I was playing with my cousins. You know, I was just I was a young girl and we spent pretty much every spring break. We'd go to North Carolina.
00:06:32
Speaker
And yeah, I don't know if my cousins listen to the podcast, but if they do, I was never trying to make fun of nobody who just spoke that way. And it just kind of came out like it does. So, and same thing, living in New York. And there's like an upstate New York accent too, as well as, you know. And you get that one. I do, I do. It's like a hard A. It's like,
00:06:58
Speaker
They like apples, apples. It's really weird, I don't know. But traveling, I think, is a challenge on a cruise ship, but it can be done. Are you going with any of your gear or no? You know. Are you actually taking a real vacation now? The plan is to take a real vacation. However,
00:07:23
Speaker
Gears not that doesn't take up that much space unless you're bringing a unless you're bringing a like a. Like a little tripod or or a PVC tent, right? Well, yeah, yeah, you can actually record so I have actually recorded I was on a cruise ship. In the Mediterranean, you need to Wi-Fi package for that, though. Go and do it when you're in port.
00:07:53
Speaker
Right? When you're in port and they usually will shut off the engines at some point too. So it depends on where if you're, you know, starboard or
00:08:08
Speaker
Sorry, I'm getting the whole ship thing mixed up, but... Port or forward, right? And then starboard or... Forward aft. Yeah, forward aft, starboard or what? Port? Yeah, port side. Port side isn't the best because you're going to hear all the traffic and all the... Right. The goings on. The goings on. Depends on the port. It does. Port side isn't always port. Hmm.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yes. I mean, it depends because you could be where they have to take the small boat. Tender. The tender. See, I haven't been on a cruise since 2019, you guys. Come on, be nice. Will knows some stuff. He knows some stuff. My last cruise was March of 2020. Oh, wow. Right on the cusp. I had COVID before it was cool. Wow. Good times. Yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
March of 2020. Yeah, we were early adopters. Nice. My kid had a fever when we got on the boat.
00:09:17
Speaker
And we just figured like, oh, it must be strep or something. And so, you know, we went and saw the doctor and she's like, well, it's just probably just a viral thing or whatever. And, and they were, you know, we basically had to cancel all of our excursions, which whatever, but he got better. It was like two days. He was kind of, and then he was fine the rest of the time. It still didn't have the name at that point, did it? Basically, not officially. I don't think it was Corona first. Yeah.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, SARS-CoV-2, Wuhan Wet Market, something or other. I don't know. No, it's Wutank. Whatever flavor of BS they were chugging at the time. That's true. You can still record on board. I would just recommend doing it when you're in a port, otherwise you're going to have all sorts of engine noise, depending on where you are, and people.
00:10:14
Speaker
What I'd like to do is, since we do have the balcony, record outside. Record outside. Hey, look at this. Look where I am. Well, you know, if you get, I think Adobe does it too, but the DaVinci Resolve has like a vocal cleaner tool built into it. It uses AI and like cleans out everything that's not voice.
00:10:40
Speaker
Ooh. And I've heard samples where, you know, like they shot the video on a beach and you can hear the wind and the waves rolling in and the seagulls and whatever. And they run it through this thing. It's like he's in a studio. Amazing. Just clear, clean voice. It's crazy. So try that, maybe. Be the guinea pig or the seagull, if you will. Oh, is it? Yeah, DaVinci Resolve is free. So there's two versions.
00:11:10
Speaker
There's the free version, which has almost every feature. And then there's the studio version, which is a one-time payment of 300 bucks, which is still a total steal. Yeah, if it works like you're saying it works, yeah. That's just one little piece of it. It's not even the main feature. It's not primarily an audio tool. Resolve started out as color grading software.
00:11:36
Speaker
that was basically hardware driven color grading software used on all the biggest budget films.
00:11:43
Speaker
And then Blackmagic bought it, and they've added a bunch of stuff. So there's a full-blown video editor now, and effects package, and coloring, and they acquired Fairlight, which you may remember that name from the 80s, really high-end audio, Fairlight. So Fairlight's baked into it now, too.
00:12:07
Speaker
Incredible. And it's free, which is insane. That's the tool that all the cool kids are using when they're creators these days. Very cool. Because you can't beat it. I think this gives us a good opportunity to talk about what sort of tools we can use when we're traveling. What sort of... Go ahead. You've got a mic dedicated for that.
00:12:35
Speaker
I do, although I've had... You don't take the 416? I don't. I don't. I've got a Tula mic and that actually has a nice little noise canceling button on it. And a built-in recorder. One of the things that I'd like to put as a disclaimer though, not every... Because you also have it, Will, and you're not a big fan. I do. And I think it's different for different voices. I'm not a big fan, although...
00:13:03
Speaker
That may be the same reason that I'm not a big fan of the little portable booth that I have too. It's just that because my voice is resonant, a lot of chest voice when I talk, it tends to be kind of echoey. So unless I'm fully enclosed in something that kills all the reverberation, it bounces around the room and gets back in and you know.
00:13:28
Speaker
Right? Whatever. So recording thus far in my voiceover career, recording away from home has not been a very successful endeavor. I for a while had mic issues where I thought it was just picking up noise from like the AC in the hotel room or whatever. No, it turned out the mic was just messed up.
00:13:54
Speaker
Why can't I dial this out when I turn on the noise? No, it's a cable or something. I turned off all the fans and all the everything and I'm sitting in the room just like drenched in sweat, just dying under a blanket. I'm doing all the right things and it's still like, what is going on? Well, that was a bad mic. It wasn't the cable. It wasn't. It was the mic, which thankfully was still under warranty. So I have a new one. Good.
00:14:22
Speaker
OK. Yeah. Did you have to send the other one back? No, they didn't want it back. Yeah. Oh, OK. That's a bad sign. So that well, keep it. We don't want to do any quality testing to figure out what that was. That was a deity, which is a wonderful mic that I use for filmmaking and is, I don't know, maybe a quarter of the cost of a four sixteen, but everybody's good.
00:14:50
Speaker
In fact, one of the things that made me buy it in the first place was I was watching a bunch of reviews about it and someone actually threw theirs into a pond and left it there for a few days and brought it back in the house and dried it off, plugged it in, it worked just fine.
00:15:10
Speaker
because it's all sold. I don't plan on dropping it in the water, but that's I mean, for onset use, you know, yeah, doing a film if it's raining or something. I don't have to worry about it shorting out. Absolutely. Good point. So yeah, good point for sure. And they've got and they've got like a three year warranty. So why not? All right.
00:15:34
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know how it, how it went bad. Just, uh, you know, something about like air pressure flying on an airplane or something. Maybe I don't know, but that was not, that was not fun. And then the Tula, I wanna like it, but.
00:15:51
Speaker
You know, like I said, my voice just like reverberates around the room a lot. I mean, I actually, I did book a gig. Yeah. Under like pillows. I did the whole pillow fort, use the comforter and did that. And it was kind of, it's very much a plug and play option. Prior to that, I used another, so I use USB mics when I'm on the road. See no interface. Right. Sweet.
00:16:21
Speaker
It's nice, but I like to let my, let them know, whomever you're auditioning for, whether it's a rep or you're doing for a client or whatever, let them know, hey, I'm out of my studio, this is my travel gear, so it's not as, you know, it doesn't sound as clean, it's not as rich, you know? Right, this isn't the regular product. Right. Yeah, see, I don't think I would want to do, I don't think I'd want to try and do a job.
00:16:50
Speaker
I had no choice. The one that I had on the cruise, I was gone for two weeks. I guess it depends on what it is, right? If it's, you know, if it's imaging or, you know, automotive or something that just has a fast turnaround and the budget is low, so it doesn't make sense to try and go book a studio. And I have, you know, a decent setup in place that I can get something usable.
00:17:15
Speaker
and or run some filters on it to make it sound good. Right. Then maybe. But generally speaking, when I when I go to conferences and stuff, I'll I'll tell my agents, like, look, I'm I'm booking out.
00:17:29
Speaker
unless something major comes in and we can get a studio in town. Right. Sure. Let's just book out.
Voiceover industry: Booking work and competition
00:17:36
Speaker
But, you know, I'll still try and get auditions done. I can't promise anything because it hasn't sounded good thus far. Right. A few times I've done it, but...
00:17:45
Speaker
But you want to be just transparent with your recordings. Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to tell them. I'm not going to just go out of town and not tell them and then have like some major booking for Pepsi come in and then try and hide under a blanket and do it with a USB mic. That would be so terrifying to me. Like, no, that's not going to fly. And you know, and something like that is probably going to want to have like a live session, which I can't imagine that Source Connect is going to work very well in a hotel room.
00:18:15
Speaker
No, it doesn't. It usually doesn't. With the port forwarding and stuff. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. And hotel Wi-Fi is crappy. And even if you can plug in directly, it's usually kind of slow. And for what it's worth, when you do have one of those bigger bookings, they are willing to put you in a studio.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah. But the other problem with voiceover conferences and this is all those hotels are right next to an airport. All the time, next to the airport. All the time. It's convenient, I suppose.
00:18:47
Speaker
But it's not convenient for recording. And can I just say, knowing that usually LA vocal booths or studio bricks, they're always there. Why are they not allowing voice actors to try out their stuff after hours? Or why are they not setting up a bank of them? Right? And then that's a great idea. You know, rent it out.
00:19:11
Speaker
a half hour for 15 bucks or whatever. Anything because I was so tempted because they had the LA vocal booth in LA and I had something I really needed to get in and that I could not control no matter what I did. They had it so that guests couldn't turn off the AC or the heater. It was just going to be on. So I was like crap. So I had to like time it and wait. But had I been able to just like,
00:19:39
Speaker
can I come down here at night and just you know but they lock everything up so you can't but see they didn't when we were they didn't when we were in Burbank I don't think yeah the year the year before I think that was still open because I'm pretty sure there was at least one person who went and recorded something in the whatever was it LA but I don't know what it was like I have
00:20:03
Speaker
Is that what you have? Yeah. Amazing. She's the poster child. Yeah. I'm on the poster. On the poster. I'm on the poster. Yeah. Because it's awesome, I think. I don't know. But when I'm away from it, I know. It's like, crap. Right. I sound like I'm under a pillow. Because I am. And I'm also on a USB mic. And it's not as rich as a Sennheiser or the
00:20:32
Speaker
the Neumann, so what do you do? Sometimes we just have to make concessions and we let reps know, let clients know, hey, and it's funny because if you haven't done it yet, Al, I would recommend you send that email to your clients letting them know, hey, I'm going to be out enjoying my wife's birthday on a cruise if you have any.
00:20:55
Speaker
That's when they're coming in. If you do it the day before, you're going to have like 30 hours to get done in the 12 that you need before you got to leave. Yeah. But those are the perfect ways to book work. Let them know your availability is limited. They're like, oh no. I guess that's the scarcity mindset, right? Yeah.
00:21:20
Speaker
Or they also let you're in demand. And I think that's why we as voice actors, we share those bookings. Like, hey, I did this thing for, you know, this client. That's kind of cool when you share it. Like, oh, I booked that. Okay, I do stuff. You want to do stuff too? I can do stuff. It also, you know, feels nice to...
00:21:40
Speaker
Share like, hey, I did this cool thing. And people go, oh, that's so cool. That feels nice because it's a very, you know, we're on our own all the time. And some kind of feedback is nice. But the double-edged sword there is people think like, oh, you're working all the time. It's like, no, I haven't worked since October. It is weird though. It's been eight months. Everybody kept posting like, oh, I did this thing. Oh, happy new year. Happy new year. It's January. And oh, wow, it's the second day of January. And I've already done like three jobs.
00:22:10
Speaker
Okay. Good. Yay for you. Good for you, Marsha. Whatever. But yeah, we gotta take our wins when we get them, and I guess, you know, it's not all the time.
Voiceover community: Support and referrals
00:22:27
Speaker
Everybody has
00:22:29
Speaker
From from the outside looking in you can look at virtually any voicemail and be like oh you book all the time Mm-hmm and some people do you know some people are booking multiple times a day or several times a week or every couple weeks or whatever and then there's other people who Every few months Yeah, that's that's kind of where I'm at. It's usually every few months, but you know I'm also not
00:22:55
Speaker
I've said it before, I'm not doing pay to play anymore, so I'm not going after the $200 jobs. I'm not opposed to them. I'm not opposed to a job, $250 job or whatever, but I just don't have any love for those pay to plays because they're just... No, that's all about speed versus quality. A lot is all about that. I think it's a race to the bottom for most of them right now. It really feels that way.
00:23:25
Speaker
I need quick turnaround for a $15 job. Yeah. And if I'm paying $500 a year to have access to the stuff. Yeah. Paying an additional 20% on top of that for every job just really feels like a lot, especially when it's a small job. Yeah. You know, right. Cause 20% of two fifties, 50 bucks. Yeah. So 20% of a $25 job.
00:23:52
Speaker
on a paid apply. I wouldn't even look at those. No, but they're there. It's become very saturated with AI jobs now too, and this text-to-speech garbage is just non-stop. So I have the free profiles, I refuse to pay for them, for a couple of those that we're referring to. And I can just keep the free profile, because every once in a very long while, I'll get a
00:24:19
Speaker
Like, oh, you've been selected to audition for this, right? Or a message. I still have a free one on Voices. I do not on Voice123, because I specifically reached out to them and had them delete it. Like, I'm done. Yeah, I was done. And when I did, they're like, oh, well, you're still on a paid plan for another month.
00:24:43
Speaker
you dropped me into the bottom 10%. I see nothing ever. Why do I care? You know, the last time that I paid, I paid $660 for one quarter, Q1 of last year. And then like all my old stuff expired within a month and I went into the basement and you can never recover from that. Yeah, you can never recover from that. So as far as I'm concerned, they stole that money from me.
00:25:12
Speaker
period. Now, that said.
00:25:15
Speaker
That and every other dollar I've ever paid them, I've gotten back more than from one job, because I booked my very first SAG job there a couple of years ago, and that has renewed multiple times now. And so that, including the renewals, that one job is my highest paid job ever. That's awesome. I mean, it's not massive, it's a couple of grand, but my highest paid single job still is that one. And I imagine,
00:25:45
Speaker
It'll renew for several more years, which is cool. But yeah, I don't have that. I don't have that account at all anymore. It's gone. And I'm not upset about that. And I just thought about this just now. Interestingly, so I deleted that. It was a couple of weeks ago. I think that I deleted that. I forget when it was. But just last week,
00:26:09
Speaker
I got an email from somebody who I had auditioned for on that site last year, like January, I think, maybe February last year. And they loved what I did, but they picked somebody else. And he just emailed me and said, we're doing it again this year and we want you.
00:26:30
Speaker
That kind of comes back to what we're talking about, even with direct marketing, you can send out something, you can audition for something, just what they call like touch points, just checking in with somebody a year ago, and they're just now getting back to you. I had something similar that I auditioned in spring of last year, but I said I didn't want to do it because it was
00:26:58
Speaker
It was a student film and it wasn't SAG rates. It was really below budget. And I said, thank you so much for selecting me. And I understand it's a student film. I really do. And budgets are a thing. So, you know, making sure that my communication was professional, I wasn't like, I ain't doing it for that. No, it was, I really did appreciate knowing what the rate was and sorry, I can't do it, but thank you for including me on the casting.
00:27:25
Speaker
They came back to me in the end of the year. They had filed their SAG paperwork and they had done all the things, all with the bells and whistles and asked me, hey, it's still open if you'd like to do it. I was like, absolutely.
00:27:43
Speaker
But all that time that passed, I figured they moved on. That was done. Oh, yeah. Filmed it. And then here they come back. Same thing with you, Will. You thought, OK, well, I was lost. I didn't even think about it. I was like, sure. Great. Yeah, that's cool. Done. And it's kind of neat when that happens. Oh, absolutely. The reality is that more often than not, no isn't really no. It's just not now. Not right now. Now, whether or not they come back,
00:28:13
Speaker
oftentimes that depends on whether or not they remember who you are.
Working with agents: Finding the right fit
00:28:17
Speaker
You know, so in terms of marketing follow ups help, because if you never follow up, they'll forget who you are. I think too often because you're just gonna piss them off. And when you're reaching out to reps too, don't do it too frequently. I kind of have a, a personal, it's either once a year or once every six months, depending on like, I just don't want to be that. Like I have one agency that I actually refuse to submit to again.
00:28:43
Speaker
They know me. They know where I am. I've submitted. And I don't hear back. But I don't need them anymore. So if they want me, that's different. But they're going to have to come to me.
00:28:56
Speaker
And getting in that mindset is fun because there's times where it slips in like, well, maybe I should just like, no, no, you told yourself you're not going to do that. But knowing that frequency so that you're still professional, but you don't come across like, I really, really want to work with you. Ew. Yeah. Yeah. Ew. Yeah, no. There's a mindset harkening back to an earlier episode about this that I think is applicable
00:29:27
Speaker
that when I adopted this, when I was interviewing for jobs, it was like transformational. And that's, you know, most people go into an interview for a job and they go in with the attitude of, man, I really need this job. I need the money. I need the paycheck to pay this and that and whatever. And then you're coming in from a, you know, you're desperate and you're coming in from a scarcity mindset, right?
00:29:52
Speaker
But the reality is, most of the time with a job, you don't need them as much as they need you. And if you keep that in your head when you go into an interview, suddenly the whole experience is completely different. It's much more relaxing. You're not just like, oh, they're going to ask me all these questions I have to come up with perfect answers for. No, no, you're kind of driving the boat. You interview them. You ask the questions. You determine whether they're worth your time.
00:30:22
Speaker
A hundred percent. You know, that's maybe not fully applicable to an agent, but at the same time, it kind of is. Absolutely. It kind of is because it's a working relationship. Right. So if. Oh, it should be. Oh, it is. Well, I mean, a lot of times it is, but it's not always treated that way by the agent. You don't want to be with. Right. They mean they've got people
00:30:52
Speaker
approaching them. So you're right. They don't create the relationship that it needs to be. Yeah. Reality is it's a partnership, right? You don't work for them. They don't work for you. They're finding opportunities. You're doing your best to book the work.
00:31:13
Speaker
And if you book the work, then they get rewarded for doing the legwork to find it for you. And they've probably sent it to a few other people too. That's why they get the 10% to 20% depending on. Right. Sure. And if you're not paying them, if you don't book anything.
00:31:31
Speaker
It's a great partnership if you can find the right one. It's more than just the personality and the relationship you have together. It's whether they've got access to the things that fit you and so forth. You do want to make sure you're with an agent that gets you.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, everybody's so eager to get an agent and I get it because the idea is like, oh, once I get an agent, everything becomes so much easier. Like they bring stuff to me. Like, well, yes, they do bring stuff to you, but you still have to book it. And now suddenly you're playing at a higher level and it's harder to book. So there's that. And, you know, oh, it's hard to get an agent. Well, maybe because you're just not ready, you're not good enough.
00:32:15
Speaker
or they already have five people that sound exactly like you. There's any number of reasons and it's usually not personal. Maybe it's SpongeBob. Maybe it's personal if you're a dank and they just don't know what he likes you.
00:32:35
Speaker
Usually it's not personal. Usually it's not. It's not a smart business move for them for whatever reason. And that makes sense because until you book something, they are working on your behalf for free.
00:32:48
Speaker
And you do have to kind of vet those sources yourself, right? I mean, I know that we tend to talk about who we're working with and maybe some of the things that we like, maybe some of the things that don't work for us, but works better for other people.
00:33:08
Speaker
They have one agency. They're communicating all the time with everybody, like the entire roster. And we're on Slack as a team, the whole roster. And they do film projects together. And they did the 24-hour film fest sort of thing. And they're trying to get people off the roster.
00:33:29
Speaker
Fortunately, I didn't live nearby, so I couldn't participate. But it's a very collaborative space. Then I have my first agent who I've had forever and a day. We catch up on things every once in a while, but I try not to overload
Networking in voiceover: How important are referrals?
00:33:46
Speaker
any inbox. It's like when I hear from her, great. Then I have some, they just send me stuff. But if I don't,
00:33:56
Speaker
respond to the audition, they don't care. Like, OK. I've never had this come up. If they give you something and you don't think it's right for you, are they open for you to do a referral? Depends. Like sometimes it'll say we're open to referrals in the breakdown. They'll say, hey, this particular agency is open to it. Or I'll write back to
00:34:19
Speaker
I know I had something specific that I know Will could do in his sleep. Please send it to him. So I reached out to them and asked them. Which happened and then I didn't book it. I was like, but I can do it in his sleep, seriously. But it is interesting how sometimes they'll ask for those things and yes. But most of the time, I know Will, you have someone that if you don't,
00:34:47
Speaker
send in an audition, you kind of get that little nudge like, hey, are you sending this in because we're coming up on a timeline. And I do have one agent that does that as well. Like, hey, let me know if you're not submitting because they're doing it with a curated list versus, hey, I've got everybody 30 to 40.
00:35:04
Speaker
Female sends 500 people. They're not counting who's auditioning. My agent, it's all curated, which is fabulous because if I get something, it's because they think that I can book it.
00:35:22
Speaker
Sure. Whether I agree or not is a different story. I was thinking about someone who does accents, and it's a project for that accent you do, but you say, this would be so much better for someone who actually speaks that language. I know someone.
00:35:44
Speaker
I mean, because it's a fairly friendly community. I think it's probably, I would say it's probably acceptable to just send that to your agent and just say, you know, I appreciate this and, you know, I'll certainly give it a shot. But I think this person is a fabulous fit. You might consider reaching out. Because I keep a list.
00:36:08
Speaker
of anything that I don't do. And I use that. Oh, same. So the other thing, when I Google's forum group, I don't even know what it's called, but they'll post on there and then it'll go to everybody. Then they'll say, we're working on this thing. Here's what we need. We need like a
00:36:31
Speaker
17-year-old girl who speaks Russian or something. That's not me, but obviously that's the reason they post theirs. They're looking for something they don't have. And oftentimes when that's happened, I'll go reach out to people in my network and go, hey, who do you know? Who do you know? Who do you know?
00:36:50
Speaker
and then I'll send a list. I think the last time I sent like five names. Last year they were looking for a southern voice, an older male southern voice, or kind of a middle-aged southern, I don't remember the exact specs, but I recommended Troy Holden, who I don't know if either of you know, and he booked it. It was his first SAG gig. He booked it. Sweet.
00:37:16
Speaker
I had someone who they needed to speak Spanish, but a specific, they were looking for South American Spanish. And the one person that I sent it to, she booked it, and it was for a major grocery chain. So it was really kind of, it's cool when that happens, it doesn't happen frequently, but it seems like when they're looking for something really specific, they're like, we need somebody from Argentina, Colombia. Right.
00:37:43
Speaker
I know somebody. And I think that's what's really cool about, you know, when we talk about a community is kind of reaching out. And Will, you knew somebody who had an Australian accent and I've since connected with her because I do see that and I cannot do an Australian accent. I've tried. It's not good. Sure.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, my biggest job that I had was with a production house in Oklahoma, and it was for IFSTA's firefighter training manual. It's huge.
00:38:15
Speaker
300,000 words of training manual. Yeah. Yeah. This was a project and they wanted a male female alternating voice. Well, I did it and Lori did the female voice. So that was our biggest project. It was, I mean, yes, Lori, my wife. And so it, it paid for a lot of things. Um, well then they came back and said, Hey, we're doing it in Spanish.
00:38:43
Speaker
We need, can you book or get male, female? Got the list, yes I did. They went in, they booked the job. So yeah, it worked really well for everybody. That's nice. Cool.
00:38:58
Speaker
Definitely like referring people. Definitely like doing that. Especially when they win. I mean, that's... Right? It feels good. It feels almost as good as booking it yourself. Yes. And the only reason it's not as good is because you're not getting paid. But you didn't have to do the work. I would love to be a casting director. You know that? I would love to do that at some point. I would. I wouldn't want to do that. That sounds like a lot
Final reflections: Travel, work, and representation
00:39:25
Speaker
of work.
00:39:25
Speaker
I feel like I'd rather be an agent, not to say that being an agent is less work, but it's a different kind of work. It is, but I think you have to go through licensure and all that fun stuff. Yeah. I guess I would have to be a manager. And you can't. That's what I was going to ask, an agent or a manager. You're not allowed in SAG to also work, whereas when you're working in casting, you can still work as a voice actor. That's why. That's my personal reason.
00:39:55
Speaker
Do we have a last call? I mean, we've talked about a whole bunch of different things. I know. What was it? We talked about travel. We talked about travel. We did. We talked about agents, representation. Agents and referrals. Well, maybe you can split this up into a couple of podcasts, maybe? It's not long enough for that. That's what she said. It is long for one. Boom. It's not long enough for two. Good times. Yeah, whatever. We'll see you next time. OK. All right. Bye. OK, bye.