Karen Commins

Has your ship come in?

11 October 2007

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Barry Manilow. You may have heard his name lately because he is promoting a marvelous new album. One reason behind his longevity in the music business and his millions of fans is that Barry is constantly involved in some new venture, and he isn’t afraid to let people know about it.

I was thrilled to speak with Barry over the phone

for a couple of minutes when he visited a local radio show as part of his continuing promotional efforts. While I could barely speak in my excitement, Barry’s words are true and clear. When the host told Barry “you don’t stop,” Barry replied with words to inspire any creative person and especially this voice talent.

Rodney Saulsberry, a voice talent known for his work in commercials and movie trailers, agrees with Manilow. Saulsberry wrote in his fantastic book You Can Bank on Your Voice: Your Guide to a Successful Career in Voice-Overs:

The voice-over business is a high-stakes, competitive industry,
and there is no time to be modest when it comes to letting
potential clients know you are the person for their next project.

Many people seem to be more passive about ensuring their career success. I have heard many voice actors and others using the expression “when my ship comes in”, meaning that your luck, opportunities and hopefully your fortune have just become more positive. I read a story once about the origin of that phrase.

In the time of world exploration hundreds of years ago, a ship coming in to the harbor was a big deal. The monarchs and wealthy patrons who financed the explorers did so with the knowledge that the ship might sail away and never return. If the ship did return, it might be damaged. At the very least, the explorer might return with nothing more than a bad case of sunburn and stinky clothes to show for the adventure. However, the financiers of these operations would continue to send out ships, hoping that one would return with the motherload of treasure.

The point of the story is applicable to voice-over talent or anyone in business for themselves:

If you want your ship to come in,
you have to keep sending the ships out.

Some of your ships will never return. Some will return carrying letters like the one I quoted in a previous entry. A glorious few will sail in with a new client on board!

Like Barry Manilow and Rodney Saulsberry, I send out as many query and promotional ships as possible in as many directions as possible. You can be sure that when my ships come in, I’m not at the airport, but sitting in my stunning soundproof studio and ready to get to work!

Your voice isn’t right for us

28 September 2007

After another summer of sweltering heat and daily smog alerts, I especially enjoyed the weather today here in Atlanta. It’s one of those glorious pre-fall days with postcard-blue skies. I say “pre-fall” because the temperatures are still in the 80s, but the late date on the calendar gives me hope that the crisp air of fall is soon on the way.

I was in the car earlier this afternoon when I heard a radio spot that sounded very familiar. I admit that I always feel a flush of pleasure when I unexpectedly hear my voice on the airwaves. Today, though, it was someone else’s voice presenting copy that I also had prepared in a recent audition. Since I obviously was not selected for that job, I listened closely to discern what the producer might have been thinking during the casting process.

A voice-over actor will audition far more than she will be hired. I don’t think about auditions unless I am selected for the job or have one of those lucky times like today when I hear the voice talent in the produced spot. In those cases, I like to analyze the coloration and stress on words and compare the broadcast spot with the audition that I submitted. One time, I heard a man’s voice on TV reading copy the same copy I had used. It’s easy to understand the differences between my read and a man’s version! It’s not so easy to distinguish between my performance and that of another female.

Today, I thought the reads between my audition and the produced spot were very similar. We were closely matched with our phrasing. She stressed one word that I didn’t stress in my audition. Maybe that stress was her idea, or maybe she did it due to direction. The last line was changed, so I don’t know whether the writer modified it or the talent perhaps ad-libbed it in her audition. In either case, I did think it was a better ending line.

The biggest difference I noticed was one I heard with her very first word — the difference of tonal quality. Her voice was a higher pitch than mine. C’est la vie. Another talent being chosen for that job or any job doesn’t take anything away from me or cause me any negative feelings.

While I audition relentlessly for voice-over roles with the scripts from my agent and on-line casting services, much of my work is obtained through my own marketing efforts. Following an inquiry several months ago, I received an e-mail that stated the following:

We appreciate your interest in [this company].
However, at this time, the creative team did not feel that your voice was a fit for our voicing needs.

So what exactly does that kind of letter mean?

It means I need to make more inquiries with other organizations. I also could follow up with this company at a later time as their needs may change. It does not mean that I was rejected in any way.

I don’t accept every project offered to me. I may have a conflict, know the client to be a price-shopper or not feel comfortable with the words that would be coming out of my mouth. Yes, the scripts are all acting, but it’s still me who breathes life into the words and utters the sounds. I don’t want or need any job badly enough to compromise my own integrity.

By the same token, I know that my voice is not right for every project. My age and vocal tone passed the 20-year mark…well, let’s just say that birthday was a while back. The writer often has an idea of the pitch range for the words. The producer may have hired someone with a voice like mine in the past and wants something different. If a true 20-year-old voice is wanted, I won’t be the one who is hired.

It would be oh-so-easy to feel rejected when I don’t win the job. I don’t know why I am not selected for the jobs, but I don’t lose sleep over them. My job is to market my talents and audition to the best of my ability. Negative feelings about my performance or skills will only cause my performance and skills to degrade in reality. I choose to feel that I am selected for those parts and projects that are right for me.

The best explanation that I have heard about the selection versus rejection philosophy is in the Voices.com Voice Over Experts podcast with Joan Baker, in which Joan Baker and her guest Rudy Gaskins discuss the myth of rejection. Baker rightly describes the notion of

rejection as a self-imposed punishment that no actor has to take on!

The changing weather reminds me to be grateful that I can enjoy each new day. With each new day are new opportunities to market myself, audition and perform voice-over jobs. Believe me, those conditions create a forecast for a bright and sunny career!

Talk like a pirate

19 September 2007

Avast ye maties! I’m sure ye’d be knowin’ that this be a special day! Aaarrggh, it be Talk Like a Pirate Day, like it be every time the September sun rises on the nineteenth day.

Another lass and I were discussing this auspicious occasion yesterday, and we wondered why you never see any female pirates in the movies. She advised me that peg legs throw of your balance when you’re wearing stiletto heels. I added that stilettos wouldn’t be very safe when walking on wooden planks. Also, women tend to pursue more hygienic habits and environments than men. Of course, there’s that whole “women considered property through the ages” thing…but I digress.

I have a theory that one reason that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were so incredibly successful — besides the action-filled storylines, brilliant acting, magnificent scenery, compelling musical score and dentistry appropriate to the time period — is because of the perfect casting. Geoffrey Rush not only looked the part of the pirate, but you have to agree that his pirate talk made ye shiver in yer timbers! Johnny Depp, meanwhile, belied the pirate stereotype and spoke in a completely unexpected manner.

I think a lot of men enjoy creating pirate voices that sound like Geoffrey Rush. If the man is a voice-over actor, he might be tempted to put that pirate voice on his commercial demo. It’s the same for women imitating Margaret Hamilton as the infamous Wicked Witch of the West. We all want to show our range, and some part of us likes to play the villain.

It may be fun to talk like a pirate or a witch, but don’t put those voices on your commercial demo if you want to get booked.First of all, do you ever hear pirates and witches when you listen to TV and radio commercials? The only time witches and pirates seem to invade the airwaves is around Halloween. I wince to admit that my first commercial demo way back when included a witch voice that probably sounded very much like Hamilton. The copy was from a furniture chain’s ad that ran at — you guessed it — Halloween. I later learned that pirate and witch voices are overdone on demos to the point of being trite.

About this time last year, Mary Lynn Wissner of Voices Voicecasting critiqued demos for 19 members of Susan Berkley’s Inner Circle coaching program. I learned much from hearing her comments to other talent. She said you should have a separate animation track only if you can do a lot of voices and can nail the voices perfectly.

Listed below are 7 of Mary Lynn’s tips from that critique session for creating your commercial demo:

Get a great director for the commercials demo. Narration demos are easier to produce on your own.
Make sure the first spot is your voice, and it jumps out. If the first spot doesn’t grab her attention, she would delete the file. She can hear right away whether you can act, if a voice is interesting or the read is compelling.
People get bored within 10 seconds, so a trained ear gets the voice print in 10 seconds.
The demo should be no longer than 60 seconds.
The 5 foundations of commercial voice-over direction are Warm/Friendly, Wry/Dry, Cosmetic, Authoritative and Real Person.
Make the segments short and have variety between each spot so that the voice quality sounds different. Her frequent comment was that the demo contained too much of the same sounding voice.
If you’re trying to obtain work in a particular niche, only send the demo appropriate for that niche. In other words, don’t send the commercial demo to the audiobook publishers and training departments.

I do have facility with character voices. I can talk like a pirate or just about anything else you can imagine. I have learned to let those character voices come out to play when it’s time for an audiobook.

In fact, my commercial demo contained a few character voices. Mary Lynn liked a couple of them but then said they sounded like people she knows in Los Angeles. If you use real copy on your demo (which may be another topic for another day), be careful that you don’t use something that people in the business will know is voiced by someone else. She repeated that comment to another group member who had used the “Mastercard…priceless” copy on his demo.

You will notice that I currently am not promoting my commercial demo. I switched to my current coach Nancy Wolfson in large part because I knew that my commercial demo was overdue for an overhaul. With her keen ear and branding expertise, Nancy listened to my demo. Like the barmaid said to the drunken pirate, Nancy said my demo was not serving me. I made that demo walk the plank, and I won’t raise the flag for it until a new one comes aboard.

Two of Nancy’s observations about my last commercial demo may help you:

She said my authentic voice was hidden for almost 40 seconds. Busy casting directors won’t listen that long to hear your money voice.
Just because you were paid for a spot doesn’t mean it has any place on your commercial demo. Outdated styles of copy and/or production issues like improper volume or musical choices can easily send your demo to Davy Jones’ Locker.

Me hearties, I be supposin’ that this be enough talk about demos and marketing for one day. In the words of me favorite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow: Now bring on that horizon.

Being true to the writer’s words

10 September 2007

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say,
but what we are unable to say.
— Anais Nin
I have taken numerous voice-over classes in my career. In almost all of them, the teacher has encouraged me and other students to improvise with commercial copy. A common thought is that an ad-lib enhances one’s ability to stand out in an audition because you gave a read that was not expected.

On the flip side, I would never ad-lib when performing an audiobook. The narrator must serve the author’s purpose and point of view, reading every word exactly as it is written.

I have recently changed my views on ad-libs in commercial auditions. I am now studying with my awesome coach Nancy Wolfson. In doing a copy read with her the other day, Nancy stopped me immediately when I changed the copy on a TV spot. She explained that thinking of the other line was fine because it gave me the right mindset for the copy. However, I should never say the ad-lib.

On the same day or one close to it, I read the Doll Cannot Fly blog entry on the same topic. The blog is written by Tara Zucker, co-owner of Post Haste Media; her husband Rick Sanchez is one of my new connections made through networking. Tara implores voice talent to perform the words AS THEY ARE WRITTEN.

When I stop and think about it, I wonder why one niche in voice-over would demand such accuracy with the words, while another market would be lax and encourage you to change the writer’s words. Once you read Tara’s compelling entry, you may think twice before you change a word of commercial copy in an audition.

Once you have the job, changes to copy may be appropriate if you have a good relationship with the client. My clients appreciate my collaboration, and I have suggested word changes to commercial and narration scripts. In the case of commercials, I have helped rewrite scripts for better timing. In both commercial and narrative scripts, I have proposed changes to clarify meaning.

It is obvious to me now that the only time to make suggestions is after you have the job and not when you are auditioning for it.

Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds teach voice-over actors

8 August 2007

Henry Aaron is a class act.

I don’t make that comment because he is one of the most beloved sports figures of all time or because he is a fellow Atlantan. I just saw the news replay of his speech last night as he congratulated Barry Bonds for surpassing him as the all-time baseball homerun champion. I’m reprinting it below in case you haven’t seen or heard it.

I would like to offer my congratulations to Barry Bonds on
becoming baseball’s career home run leader. It is a great accomplishment which required skill, longevity and determination.
Throughout the past century, the home run has held a special place in baseball,
and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of those years.
I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement.

My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record
will inspire others to chase their own dreams.

You might think that Barry Bonds’s tremendous accomplishment or Hank Aaron’s scoreboard address would have nothing to do with voice-over. However, I see a parallel between these sports heroes and my voice-over career.

First, I liked Aaron’s line that achieving the homerun crown required skill, longevity and determination.

Those three attributes are required to be a leader in any field, including voice-over!

Aaron’s short message also points out that no matter what Bonds or anyone else accomplishes, no one can ever take away Aaron’s own achievements. This fact is true for those of us in voice-over as well. If we strive to be the best in our niche, we wouldn’t have the time or inclination to be jealous of others because of jobs they have booked or fortunes they have made. Each person’s diligent practice and hard work will reap rewards that will always stay with us.

The last sentence about inspiring other to chase their own dreams is a call to action. If one person has done what you want to do, you know it’s possible for you, too. Whatever you envision as success is possible for you if you are willing to focus your attention on it and take the necessary, persistent series of actions.

Barry Bonds is unequivocally one of the greatest players in the history of baseball. (BTW, I found a nice comparison of Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron. The overall stats are very close between Aaron and Bonds except when you factor in Bonds’s speed.) He can field his position (8 Gold Gloves), he can run (over 500 stolen bases), and obviously, the man can hit.

A while back, I read that despite all of his stellar achievements on the baseball diamond, he found that fans in opposing ballparks booed him endlessly. He said that the tremendous stress from the negativity constantly directed at him was giving him migraine headaches. He finally decided that he had to ignore those fans and concentrate on his game. He would not let booing fans stop him from achieving his dreams.

I also read once that Barry Bonds played baseball for the love of playing the game. I suspect that he might have played even if he wasn’t paid.

This intrinsic love for one’s career is bound to lead to great success. I see so many people wanting to develop a career in voice-over because they perceive it as an easy way to make money. I encourage people to examine their hearts and determine what they really love and not make choices just because of the money.

Henry Aaron encouraged people to dream. I say

Dream BIG!

Barry Bonds is proof that you can achieve your dreams. Bonds has practiced his skills throughout his illustrious baseball career. Even when he was in a slump, he still showed up for batting and fielding practice. As a voice talent, I also continue to practice my skills, both in performance and production. To truly be a master in your vocation, practice and education are lifelong habits. If you visualize and practice enough, real situations will seem like deja vu. In fact, they will usually be better than you ever dreamed possible!

Barry Bonds didn’t get discouraged when he was ill or injured. He didn’t quit when his batting average slumped. In voice-over, I know that I will experience times where my career seems in a slump. Visualization and written goals keep me motivated.

Barry Bonds never doubted that his dream was attainable. From my reading about the Law of Attraction, I know that constant thoughts of doubt, discouragement, disappointment, fear, worry, anxiety, etc. will impede or stop the flow of blessings coming to me.

Read the biographies of any person you admire, and I’d bet you find commonalities between that person and these legendary sports figures. Successful people in any field create blueprints that others can emulate, adapt and exceed.

Barry Bonds admired Henry Aaron. I admire both of them. I may never play baseball, but through observing and applying the success principles of Henry Aaron and Barry Bonds, I know how to hit homeruns in my voice-over career.

No one can promote my business better than me

6 August 2007

Over the past several years, I have checked with several local colleges — especially those with pro audio curriculums — to see if I could take a course in audio engineering as a non-degree student. I have a Masters degree in computer information systems, so I’m really don’t want to spend a lot of time and money to pursue another degree! I therefore was quite excited to discover a 4-week course in Pro Tools offered this month by the Art Institute of Atlanta.

This class couldn’t occur at a better time for me. I recently switched my voice-over studio configuration from a PC with Cool Edit software to a Macbook Pro with Pro Tools LE. Earlier this year, I hired a recording engineer to help me streamline my processes. After I bought this computer, he gave me a crash course in using Pro Tools, but I have much to learn about the program.

The first class was held this past Saturday. I am the only voice talent in the group. Most of the students are singer/songwriters, which is understandable when you consider that Atlanta is a thriving music city and home to a Grammy chapter and numerous Grammy winners.

One of my fellow students said he was in a band that had been signed by a minor label. He was wearing the t-shirt for a very famous band. I asked him why he wasn’t wearing a shirt to promote his own band. His answer surprised me.

He told me that it’s an unwritten rule that you don’t wear the shirt to promote your own band.

I told him when you get to be my age (not that I’m that old!), you don’t worry about so-called rules that are based on what other people think about you. I continued, saying that t-shirts are great advertising as you become a walking billboard. People who don’t read anything else will read the words on a t-shirt. I have t-shirts promoting my voice-over business. I usually make a point to wear one when I’m walking some place with a lot of people, like through the Atlanta airport!

As we had this discussion, I was holding a pen imprinted with my name, logo and phone number. My business cards were in my purse, ready to hand out at a moment’s notice. Before leaving home, I thought about wearing my digital ID badge to the class but decided against it since I did not expect a large group. I wasn’t taking enough stuff to warrant use of my imprinted duffle bag.

Marketing books and advisors will tell you that it takes an average of 5-7 contacts with a prospect before they recognize your name and business. Living in the information age means that we are all bombarded with messages from every corner. Creativity and persistence are required in order to get your message across to your intended audience.

Effective branding occurs in part because the prospect receives the same message and graphics in a variety of formats. Part of your branding efforts illustrate characteristics that distinguish you from competitors. Since people make purchasing/hiring decisions based on emotions, you can highlight certain attributes to enhance your brand and appeal to your target market. Terrific voice talent and super nice guy Bob Souer alerted me to an excellent article from Grokdotcom that illustrates this point.

I vividly remember the design of my classmate’s t-shirt. The name of the band is emblazoned in my mind. However, I couldn’t tell you the name of my classmate’s band. He said it once, and like anyone else, I have other things to think about and remember.

Any person in business — particularly in a creative industry like voice-over — should not be afraid to promote themselves. If other people make negative remarks about my efforts, I consider the source. Is the speaker someone I know and respect? Has that person built a business, particularly one in voice-over? Does that person actively promote themselves, or do they sit and wait for somebody else to do the job for them?

In the end, one of the best parts about owning my business is that I only have to please ME!

No one can promote me and my business better than me.

I have reaped the rewards from being a non-conformist with my promotion and publicity efforts.

Speaking of self-promotion, I am excited to announce that I was selected as a finalist in the Voices.com 60-Second Pitch contest! I posted

my recording

on my web site.. Like commercials in different media, you will note the consistency of message between the words I say when meeting someone and those appearing on the home page of my web site.

I created the pitch using my PC, but I am now creating my recordings on my Mac. Pro Tools is a challenge to learn, but it’s yet another distinguishing trait that I can use in my branding. It is the industry standard software for a reason, and using it means that I will have the capability to transfer session files with my clients. I’m looking forward to gaining in proficiency over the next several weeks while I’m in the class.

By the way, I have already planned my wardrobe for the class this Saturday. Can you guess what I’ll wear? 🙂