Getting into Voiceover

I have a lot of people ask me if they can have their friend contact me to find out how to get into voiceover work.  


Here is one reply I gave to a friend:

If you have this young man send me a bunch of questions, I can read them over and then give him a call.  He can also learn sooo very much by going to Voices.com and checking out all of their resources.  I am on there as talent and pay $300 per year to be able to audition on there right from  my home.  I joined for 9.95 for a month, booked a job that paid for the yearly membership and kept booking jobs after that.    The expensive part is the home studio and microphone, preamp and computer, sound proofing, etc.    He will probably need some training or coaching at the very least.  He will need to be tech savvy and get good at doing his own editing, which takes practice.  All of the demos you hear on  my site  are self-produced.

 

Here is my page http://www.voices.com/people/HeidiEklund

So, The thing is that really, in order to begin this process, you have to invest, either in training, having a demo produced,  or in equipment and just practice or all of the above. Honestly,  you have to really know what you are doing with the computer and the sound to book jobs.  You can be the best voice for the job but if your sound isn't good, they won't want to use you.  

You can get an agent, sure, but to even be heard by them you must have a good demo and be really trained and up to date with the styles of vo acting today. You really need to know someone to get in to an agency.

I would say, the best thing to start would be to do a little reading on voices.com or voice123.com and then find a class you can take.  It would be good to listen to other artists too.  From there you can see if you want to have a demo made and pursue the work.  Then you might want to look into a home studio.

Here is how I busted in:

My partner went to see his agency, where he was already a talent for theater.  He met with the VO agent there, got sent out on one job, and he booked it right away.

He got coaching and a demo from Peter Raufe  (which cost a small fortune)

He got into the sound production side of things on his own and signed up for a website.  He booked jobs and got better and better and kept upgrading our equipment.

Then I started auditioning and I did a trial membership to voices.com.  I started booking stuff.  Before you know it I had a demo, then a character demo, etc.  Then I booked a long term gig with L'Oreal (doing their eLearning) and then another doing medical podcasts  and on and on...etc.

The One Minute Muffin Phenomenon

Now I did NOT invent this idea.  If you Google it there are many many variations on the theme.

But I take this idea and run with it!

Here are the basics:

1/4 cup of some kind of flour or meal
2 tablespoons of flax meal
1/2 tablespoon of oil or butter
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of starch

 The last two items make baking powder... I use potato starch to be gluten free.

Mix it all together in a coffee mug and toss it in the microwave for one minute. There is your muffin... YUM.

Things I like to mess with-

use honey or molasses or xylitol to make it sweet
put baking cocoa in there
make it completely savory and use garlic and onion powder...or finely dice some onions
put some nuts in
or craisins
or raisins
or almond bits
apples
apple sauce
or sneak some spinach and cheese in there... OH MY
or PUMPKINNNNNN... with nutmeg and clove and ginger and cinnamon'

You really can't mess this up... seriously.

If you want to avoid the microwave... then put your stuff in a bake proof pan and put it in the oven on 350 until a metal stick pulls out clean.

If you want to make a whole tin full you will have to use your math skills to increase the recipe... you can do it!


Would love to hear your variations...

Happy muffin-ing!

Night

LPR and a Picnic on the Deck

So,  we are trying out some reflux medication for our little one. His cough has not gone away for many months now and the asthma meds don't seem to be doing anything (I have never agreed that he had asthma.)  There is nothing in his lungs and they don't constrict.

His cough lives in his throat and it is a doozy.  Not Croup. Not Whooping. But a gagging cough that makes my heart ache.

I met a woman recently and she told me about LPR Laryngopharyngeal Reflux
http://heartburn.about.com/od/gastrictractdisorders/a/whatis_LPR.htm

I think this may be my son's trouble.  So we are on an adventure to find out how best to eat to help regulate this dis-ease in his body.  We have to balance the acid so there is just enough and find out how to keep in down in the belly.

Tonight we had a picnic on the deck with a homemade one minute muffin.  It had honey, rice flour, flax, ginger, apple sauce, and an egg. We put honey on it.  We also had apple sauce with prevacid on top, and some bread. (I didn't have the bread or prevacid  since I am gluten free. But I did share the muffin.) We also had some dried papaya.  He loved that!

W loved eating on the deck at his little tykes picnic table and it was his idea to have a muffin.  We sat there together in the warm summer breeze enjoying our treats and loving life.

The coughing never gets him down.  He is just as happy as can be.  The coughing worries his parents though.  And neither of his parents will stop until we find out how to heal it.

Tomorrow I will share the one minute muffin basics I follow to make an instant muffin. I will also share some of my favorite variations on the theme... stay tuned!

Dropping Daddy off for his Big SHOW!

The other day my son and I dropped Daddy off in Ellenville so he could rehearse the one man show, "Fully Committed," he is going to be performing shortly at the Shadowland Theater

http://www.shadowlandtheatre.org/perform/playb.htm

I am very proud of Wayne for being brave enough to do this.  I think it would be terrifying to do a one person show with no one but yourself up there in front of an entire audience of theater goers. (reminds me of skydiving...you can't call on anyone but yourself when you are in trouble)

 I suddenly became terrified for myself having to care for a 2-year-old for several weeks all by myself and work full-time and keep auditioning for voiceovers and keep the house clean and shop and keep working on feeding my crazy allergic body and take my son to six doctor appointments during the month of June, etc. and on and on and so forth like that.  I also need to find work while I am away from the college for the summer.

We are now into the fourth day of it and we are doing alright.  I managed to fill the car yesterday with baby stuff and take it to a friends to store it for another friend who is trying to conceive.

Tonight I picked up some play tunnels for my son from Freecycle, brought a few items to a consignment shop, a did a voiceover audition, cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, wrote this blog, wrapped a giant gift, and I think I am going to hang something up on the ceiling and then shower too.

I am managing all of it, somehow and Wayne on his adventure is managing it all too...40 different characters all played by him in one hour and fifteen minutes...

http://wpyle.blogspot.com/2012/06/day-two-rollercoasters-and-cash.html

We can do whatever we set our minds to.  It is so true!  Commit and take each thing as it comes toward you.  You will be amazed at what you can do.

Words of a 2 year old

My sons first word was 'stinky' and he was one.  He was born three months early so he was actually only 9 months when he started with those few words.

Now he is 28 months and the developmental doctor says he is communicating like a three-year-old.
Some of his more fun expressions:

I haven't been feeling well today and he asked  what was wrong with me.  I said that I had a belly ache.  He said, "My ache hurts too in my belly."

It missappeared.
It fell a piece (instead of it fell apart)
My all done (I'm all done)
Mommy, My Lonely
 My scared, Mommy Misappeared.
Daddy Misappeared.
What's Wrong, Mommy?
A row row (Yoyo)
foon (spoon)
poke (fork)  this one he now says correctly but at one point  he called it a poke
Yes Pwease
Fank youuuu
I want to get up.
He calls pajamas P- Jams

When we are going to our friends house he knows the house and names it when we get there.  He also expresses that he knows when we are close to home and arriving home. "There's my house."  He says.

He knows all the different kind of diggers and trucks and totally blows my mind when he knows it.
A ment truck
A flat bend
a digger
a frontend loader
a grater

 He calls his Uncle Scott- Uncle Sock

Because of the Thomas song  Their two, their four, their six, their eight... His counting was kind of like
two, four, five, etc.  Now it is getting to the correct order.

He is saying his pleases and thank yous.

Right around the age of two he started conjugating;  Daddy farted.  (fart happens) Daddy's farting.

If you ask him his name he will tell you the whole thing last too.
If you ask him how old he is, he will say that he is four.

He knows all the Thomas the tank Engine trains.

His lawn mower is a "clean up."  So is a vacuum a "clean up"
His pliers are cutters.

Each day it seems as though he can carry on more and more of a conversation.  We are so grateful and very proud of him.

How much can we do in one day?

Just a few days ago, I caught up on all of my laundry.  I had bags and bags of it all over the house that needed to be folded.  I finally set out to get it managed and put away.

I played with my son.
I fed my son.
I snuck in invoicing two clients while I was hanging outside with my son.
While he was asleep, I did some laundry, and put some gluten, dairy and yeast free bread in the oven, I recorded and edited a voiceover, I wrote a proposal for a voiceover and sent it out.
Then I paid some bills and all the while I kept an eye on Freecycle to see if there is anything we needed on there.  I actually got to take a nice long shower and shave and then he woke up.

I also helped a friend with her grant proposal, by editing and giving her some tips.  This I did twice during the day.
I played with my son some more and fed him some more.
All throughout the day I worked with my son on Potty Training and changed soiled diapers.
I also cleaned dishes, took care of the garden and cleaned up toys.  I also entered sweepstakes and tried to catch up with friends on facebook.

By the evening I was exhausted.  How much can we do in one day?

Water Pressure

Sometime in mid April, we had a sink clogged in our kitchen.  Wayne worked his tail off fixing it. We finally rented a drain auger and got it unplugged.  The next day it seemed as though our water pressure had been cut in half.  The shower wouldn't turn on if the toilet had just flushed.  We could barely wash our hands inside the house if we were watering the garden outside, and we had to put everything on a schedule for water use.

When I chose my house one of the main things was water pressure.  It must have good water pressure.  This house has always had good water pressure.   I could run the dishwasher and the washer at the same time and still flush the toilet and when I rented a pressure washer, it was just fine when doing the deck and driveway.

So for an entire month we suffered this low pressure.  Wayne called the town to see if it was something with them that might be causing it.  Nothing with the town. Wayne looked it up online to see if we could figure something out.  We just kept on with our measly drip.

One morning recently, the shower wouldn't turn on and I got cranky. I said, "I want my water pressure back."  So Wayne set out trying to figure it out again. Low and behold, in our utility room was a valve that had been bumped during our clean up with the sink.  The valve that was bumped was how the water entered the house.  Wayne opened it up and out came the deluge I had looked for when I was house shopping.

I am so grateful to have it back. It really is the little things that make life better.