directing

Dream Counsel: How to Find a Mentor in the Entertainment Industry

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides — Credit: Travelled Earth

Breaking into the entertainment industry whether voiceover and acting or music and producing is not a clear-cut path. It’s not like medical school or studying for the bar. The road is circuitous and different for everyone. Like the traditional professions, it does take an investment of time and money and a coach or mentor that offers good advice. Good counsel.

When I was asked to be part of TheDreamCounsel.co I jumped at the chance. I’ve been in the entertainment industry and specifically as a voice actor for over thirty years. I’ve set and met goals and have carved out and kept a six-figure salary for over half that time doing what I love, watching the industry shift and flow, riding the waves and staying on top. And as I continue to create and take on exciting, challenging voice work for myself, more and more I find myself mentoring others who want to do the same.

Enter Dream Counsel Mentors

Darryl Duncan, a top-of-his-game composer and music producer of Game Beat Studios in Chicago, enlisted me and five others (an actress/model, a dancer/choreographer, a songwriter/poet, an entertainment lawyer & a business/deals maker) to become a team of personal consultants or mentors. Together, we help those new to this world get a leg up in the entertainment industry with one-to-one advice, guidance and direction.

How Does Dream Counsel Work?

The Dream Counsel Kim Handysides All you need to access the Dream Counsel is a phone and a way to pay. Sessions are broken into 15 minute “talk blocks.” You can schedule your mentor/advisor for 15, 30, or 45 minutes any time within the schedule they set up on the site. You prepare your questions and then ask the mentor what you need to know during your call. Simple as that.

The Dream Package

The deluxe version offered is the Dream Package and comes with as the name implies, a bunch of goodies. A 45-minute session, a 15-minute talent review or coaching session, where you can perform and get immediate feedback/direction on where you stand, and 15 minutes with an entertainment attorney (learn how to protect yourself and your creative efforts going in). You also get a number of lists and directories. They’re full of tips, advice, contacts, industry events, books, podcasts, apps and resources specific to the branch of the entertainment industry you want to be part of. On top of that, your mentor will offer a written critique of your talent (strengths/weakness/areas to polish your craft, etc.) demos and marketing material and you get to showcase your material on the Dream Counsel website. Lastly, it comes with a 10% discount on future Dream Package consultation.

The Cool Thing about Dream Counsel

Accessing thedreamcounsel.com brings the kind of advantage that separates the wannabes from the be’s. Entertainment is a tough industry to break into because there is no road map and the ground is always shifting. Getting advice from a respected professional will only help make your path more solid and sure, show you safe, time saving shortcuts and ensure the work you do brings value to your craft.

A heavy hitter voiceover artist and keen supporter of next Gen talent, Kim Handysides coaches, directs, mentors and leads workshops on voice acting in Canada, the USA and internationally on the Internet.

Voice Over Rates: How to Find the Razor Sharp Edge of Pricing your Professional

Voiceover Business

After sorting out how to find the right voice with top notch audio quality and a quick turnaround time, the big question for producers hiring voiceover professional is rates. How much does it cost to hire a voice actor to narrate your material?

The simple answer:

Voice over Rates — Credit: Election Academy

Union

First let’s sneak a peek at the Union vs non-Union rates. If it’s a Union (Sag-AFTRA-ACTRA) gig, the minimum or “scale” rates are set and negotiated between representatives on behalf of the actors and the producers who are signatory to the union. The actor then may agree to do the job for scale, or ask for “scale and a half,” “double scale,” etc. This is more common for experienced or in-demand actors.

Rates are a hot topic among artists who make their living with their vocal chords. Sometimes a contentious one. Whether those artists are union, non-union or both (i.e. Fi-core, for financial core – SAG AFTRA members who pay their union dues, but rescind voting rights to be able to work both sides of the lot).

Voice over Rates How to Find — Credit: Nick Maillet

Union folk walk the tight line between anxiously guarding hard-fought for rates and keeping rates competitive in the rising tide of non-union work. Being organized, they are also the loudest complainant that rates for the most strenuous types of voice work are the often the lowest. And, it’s true. Genres, like gaming, audiobook work and dubbing are all low-men on the totem pole. Long-form audiobook narration is a rewarding, but slogging marathon and dubbing while exhilarating, requires tight precision in timing and delivery. Gaming demands intense energy and characterization of life and death situations, where the stakes are always high and the pace to perform is wickedly fast. (At a studio where I often direct commercials, narration & demos, I was invited to audition as a gaming director. I was told my direction was spot on, excellent even, but the time I took to get the actor to deliver the performance was just too long for the gaming world.)

Non-Union

If you have not signed an agreement with the actor’s union(s), or your project is being produced virtually (with input from various contributors around the globe), then your project is non-union. Rates for non-union jobs generally depend on two variables: the project and the actor. More specifically, the length, use and intended/projected audience of your project, and the quality of the voice actor (and occasionally both how busy that actor is and the depth of your relationship).

Professional voice actors who work non-union jobs most often charge prices in line with union gigs. Most producers who are not Union signatory, still want great talent, they just don’t want to either be locked in to residuals and buy-outs on every production or have the flexibility to pick up both union and nonunion work themselves.

Use, Population & Time

How a voice performance is used is the most important identifier in determining price. Commercial advertising (broadcast, theatrical, web, etc.) commands the highest fee structure and is also based on population. How many eyes/ears will see/hear it? The sliding scale works from local, regional to national ads. And there are differences in price for different countries. A national ad in the USA has 5 times the potential viewership of a national ad in the UK and 10 times that of Canada. The prices reflect that. When you take international ads and audiences into account, international economies also come into play. The average weekly salary in Jamaica is 1/3 of an average American weekly wage, and people in India make less than 1/10 of what those in the US make. Commercial rates may be negotiated as a lump sum or follow the Union model and be broken down into a rate for the session (the time during which the ad is recorded), the use (where it will be seen), population (by how many) and for how long (for 13 weeks, generally called “one cycle” or longer, up to a full buy-out – all uses for all perpetuity, in which case, you are looking at a big-ticket item).

There is also quite a difference between commercial and narration rates. Typically, we think of narration as corporate or business videos, and training or eLearning programs. Narration rates are often set in either 10 minute increments (which follows the format of the union rates) or by number of cents per word. For example, the lion’s share of voice artists will say any narration up to the first 10 minutes will be around $300 US (give or take $100) or approximately 0.20 per word (give or take 0.10). Rates for subsequent increments of 10 minutes are generally lower on a sliding scale to a fixed rate (eg. no lower than $100 per 10 mins).

Until you get the hang of it, it can be confusing. Whether you are a producer or a voice over artist. In fact, on our side of the negotiating table, the majority of vetted professional voice over artists discuss our rates amongst each other to keep our prices within what is fair to us, to producers and to respect what the market will bear.

The best way to sort out pricing is have an open discussion with the voice talent you want to hire. Just as you often have a budget range, in most cases, they will have a rate range. The ideal is when your budget range and their rate range find common ground.

If you’re looking for a female voice over artist and want to discuss rates for a project you’re casting, contact me. If I can be of any assistance, I’d love to help.

Voice Over Insider’s View: Pt 3 Direct Yourself Like an Expert

Voiceover Coach

21st Century voice over means knowing how direct yourself in your own booth. Expertly. If the task seems daunting and you’re a bit shaky on how to deftly turn the tables to be both actor and director, these tips may help steady you on.

When you get a piece of text…

Orient Yourself Grasshopper

Who – are you: The boss? A peer, a dad, an ice princess? Your read for Nok, the sewer troll will be very different from the BFF over coffee.

Who – are you talking to: Again, answering this anchors your character and helps you settle on a tone and delivery.

Why open your mouth? (also dovetails into ‘what’ – which is the actual message or script) – what do you want to get out of the interchange? Are you helping a loved one deal with cancer, or directing an auditorium full of IT peeps to their seats for an Awards ceremony? Why is what you have to say important? And why should your audience care?

Where – will this be heard? This helps determine the adjustment you need to make. A radio voiceover is different from a documentary read is different from a gaming character is different from an audiobook narration. Like the adjustments between theater and stand-up comedy or between television and film, being aware of where your job will be heard, helps you find the right delivery.

Sift through your Script (Analyze This)

Commercial copy is different from a script for a game or an explainer. Each of these comes with its own standards of nuance. Let’s take ads for instance. People listening are only half listening at best. The ad is in between them and the content they want. So, make it content they DO want to hear. What in the copy is going to make a difference for them? Can you help them save money? Stay safe? Get ahead? Have more time with their family? The product is the conduit for them to do this. You help them realize this. If you do your best work, they will come away with a couple words and a feeling. i.e. McDonalds + lovin’. Apple + different.

A longer text is more of the same, but less urgent. And with more words. So, if you’re reading an eLearning text about compliance, in each line and paragraph look for the goodie. The key phrase that will make a difference for the sender and receiver of your message.

I hesitate to give a recipe on how to break-down your script. That’d be like cake. (chocolate, vanilla, pineapple upside down) Your read recipe is going to be different from mine. I tend to send more love to my verbs. Other people like to polish up the adjectives. More critical is to make sure you understand what is important to get across and then, keep it real, in an entertaining way.

Unleash the Creative – Dismiss the Judge.

Ever worked in a studio on a commercial? The client, the account exec and a minion or two are never (or extremely rarely) in the studio at the same time the talent is. The director does this on purpose. Too many cooks. Plus they don’t know how to ask for what they want. And actors are delicate creatures.

Same here. In your solitary two-hatted state, you need to separate your creative from your inner critic.

I don’t know about you, but my creative inner feels like a red licorice-loving five-year-old, who cartwheels over to the mic mugging, “Let me at the script!!”

To keep her from diving off the deep end without checking whether there’s water in the pool, (a.k.a. spend too much time on takes or go too far in freeing that freaky self) approach “takes” with the wisdom of Pat Fraley’s Series of Three. Let your first take be your primary interpretation of the script. For your second take, go in a different direction. Do a third take as a mix of two.

What I really like about this, other than it came from the GREAT PF (whom I love) is the #2. Going in that different direction is a licence for you to get out of your comfort zone. Ham or cheese it up. Go dark. Thay it with a lithp. Go out on a limb and then, come part way back.

Where should you go for read number two?

Again, I lean on my studio experience. I channel my inner Martin, Andrew or Kate. All great ad directors I’ve worked with in the past, who know how to nudge me where I need to go. Who are some of your fav directors? What would they say to get you to try it differently?

Another fav of mine is Mary Lynn Wissner and her amazing voiceover app. A wonderful LA casting director, Mary Lynn devised an app you can take in your booth to help you make strong choices. Her approach is broken down in 5 different kinds of reads and then she has a survey of emotions and triggers you select from to layer or flavor your performance with. This is especially good for auditioning. Using her app has helped me become a better self-director.

After you’ve got a few takes laid down, cage your creative creature and it’s bruisable ego and listen with your director’s ears.

Cosset the Critic

Once you’ve done all you can creatively, bring that inner judge back in your court. Separate yourself from what you’ve done. If you were a writer this would be the time you’d refer to Stephen King’s quote, “kill your darlings.” Listen with the ears of your client. Or better, your client’s audience.

And never with a capital N, ever go for “good enough.” Good enough doesn’t get you re-hired. Or hired in the first place.

This post is the third in a three part series on directing voice actors. The first reveals the different hats the voice director must wear in the sound studio. The second outlines what directors need to know to get the best performances from their talent. I’ve been doing VO and coaching since Blockbuster was still relevant. Contact me if you’d like to work together.

Insider View Pt 2: 7 Secrets to Directing Your Voice Actors

Voiceover Coach, Voiceover Coaching

My Insider View Pt 2: Directing Voice Actors – 7 Freebie Secrets — Source: Deviant Art

You’ve been tasked with directing the audio on a commercial, a corporate video or gaming session. You know how you want it to sound, but are you certain you’ll be able to get that from your voice actor?

Actors are a touchy-feely, capricious lot. They are trained to observe and catalogue the behavior of others, be open to the moment, sound and appear truthful or believable and simultaneously tap into their rainbowed fount of expressive creativity.

The Power of Improv

Give your actor licence to play. Get a good take and a safety in the (sound) bank, then invite the actor to improvise. Ad-libbing around the script can unearth sparkling performances. Encourage them to roll into the script with lead-ins, toss in extra words and extros. These can all be edited out. But sometimes enhance the original script. A fellow actor I often work with in commercials is extremely proficient at this. He peppers his performance with Bruce-isms, often cranking up the funny, relevance and sheer entertainment value.

Grunts, Groans & Growls

Ask for non-verbal sounds. Sighs, moans, giggles, yips. These utterances are paralinguistics and add flavor and punch. Think of them as audible emojis. Welcome them. 7 % of human communication is in the form of words. 38% of our communication expressed through sound is non-verbal. Your voiceover actor’s sound scape will sound more realistic adorned with a few choice non-verbal sounds. Ask for lots, then use your judgement on what to keep and what to toss.

Actor W’s: Who, Who, Why and sometimes Where

Every actor needs to know three things going into a commercial, cartoon or any session. Who am I? Am I a businessman boarding a plane? A mom shuttling kids to soccer practice? A peer revealing the latest time saving technology at work? Who am I speaking to? My best friend? A colleague? And why? As in why is it important that I tell them this message of your project now? These are things that we all know in real life. Your actor needs that info, too. Some actors may make those choices themselves, but it is better for the director to understand and communicate that out of the gate. Where will it be shown/heard can also guide the actor. The delivery for a cartoon channel delivery will sound different from a self-help audiobook or a conference hall seating 2000. The “what” is the unfolding performance itself.

Cracking the Code

Your script is your brush and paint. Your marble and chisel. The tool you and the actor (and sound engineer) will use to create your audio end-product. You can help the actor interpret the script by pointing out certain words or phrases. Point out triplets and make sure the emphasis is not on the repeated words. Verbs are great places to lay emphasis, especially in a list. The creativity of both you and the actor may be taxed if the client weighs in and insists certain prominence be placed on words that are important to them. Sometimes the thrown away words are the ones that sell the most. What is not said in the script but could be implied in the scene is another layer of nuance and can often be as important as what is said.

Evil Line Reads

The worst thing a director can do is give an actor a line read. Meaning, tell the actor, ”Say it like this, Charlie:” and then attempt to deliver the line yourself. This is the mark of either a green or a shoddy director. At best, when you line read, you are doing the actor’s job for them. So, then why are directing? Why aren’t you acting? At worst, you are muddling through your own probably poor rendition of what you want, which does not inspire, may irritate and will probably confuse the actor. Your job is to motivate, guide or propel the actor toward a certain delivery. To do this, you need to a) understand what is important in each line and the narrative in the whole and b) sort out how to encourage the actor to find that on her own.

Rhythm and Muse (ic)

There is one exception to the line-read rule as colleague voice coach Martha Kahn points out: kids. Child actors are incredible aural mimics and hone in on the music of your phrase. Your tone, rhythm, accent. Everything. Under 12 years old, they are still incredibly skilled at distinguishing subtle differences in sounds. I talk about the music of a sentence when directing actors. It’s another aspect of observation they will incorporate into performance and it’s another tool for you to helping them create the right sound. Descriptors you can use are giving a line a close (effectively ending the line on a lower note) – this makes a statement sound definitive. It’s opposite, uptalking, is generally a tendency to avoid, unless you’re helping the actor define a less credible character. Too much music, a roller coaster sound sounds fake and “announcery” and too little music or inflection sounds robotic.

Vocabulary (Words, words, words)

Good directors speak actor. They understand that to arrive at a certain performance, an actor uses substitutions. For example, your actor may need to be enthusiastic about a casino, but in real life come from a background where gambling strained or destroyed their childhood. The actor will substitute something they can get excited about instead. It may be puppy adoption, Steve Madden shoes on sale or baseball season. You don’t need to know what the actor is using to find that enthusiasm, but reminding them about finding a substitution is important. Another great actor-word is intention. Which means more than objective or target. To the actor, it means how do I get what I want? Another element actors use to help them create is subtext. Smart communication is layered with choice. Often what we say is counter to what we mean. Actors use this to layer in authenticity to the characters they create.

Directing takes skills. This blog is Part 2 of a three-part series on directing voice talent and can be applied to most audio or video projects. The first instalment looked at the three positions the voice director navigates in a session. The third focuses on tips on self-direction for working remotely from your own home sound studio, as more and more voice actors are doing nowadays.

What are your pet peeves & what do you think makes a great voice director?

My Insider’s View: How to Direct Voice Actors – Pt 1

Voiceover Coach, Voiceover Coaching

Voice Actor Directing Pt 1 — Syllabes Studio

With more years as a voice actor than a millennial can claim to be alive, I am often called upon to direct voice over sessions. What is the view from this particular vantage point? Join me for part 1 of a 3 part Insider Series with lessons from both sides of the glass.

This morning I directed a voice actor, female, 30ish, to do a narration for a corporate video. Completely bilingual, (French and English) but with more experience working in French than English, she had a light, genuine vocal imprint which appealed very much to the client, for its contrast with the subject matter: a French manufacturer of airplane parts.

Working with Karin, who ended up being very happy with her performance and our interaction, collaborating with one of my favorite sound engineers to work with (yes Violaine, I’m talking about you) and speaking to the clients via Skype from their offices in Lyons, the project unfolded in the best way, organically.

A good voice actor director has three facilitating positions to play in any given project. Here they are:

Between Actor and Words

I wish I could remember which Hollywood director I heard this from so I could throw the spotlight on a quote jewel here, While the name escapes me, the essence of this is what I remember when directing others: I’m there to help them achieve their best performance. This means stepping back, calling on your inner observer/listener and then finding the right words to send them in the direction they need to go to take their performance to the next level. To reiterate, listen to what needs improvement, use the actor/theatrical vocabulary to help them achieve it and make sure to deliver the message in a way that encourages, yet drives them toward your mutual goal.

Between Script and Tech

Every script is a story delivered with constraints. Personally, I love constraints. They are the borders within which we must work. For a corporate narration your script constraints are the words themselves, the tone, and how they are delivered. The technical constraints (from a director’s point of view) include timing and the energy of the delivery, which you can literally monitor by looking at the wave form on the sound engineer’s board, if you want to verify what you’ve heard. Apart from certain builds and falls and transitions – which are achieved more with intention, than a vocal shift, the energy should generally be consistent throughout the piece. Timing is twofold. This includes how long you’ve booked the studio, then simply making sure the product (your vocal track) fits within the desired timeframe. If the sound is being recorded before video, you have room to play. Most often though your client or producer has an exact idea of the time and you must make certain the tracks fit the time. This morning’s aviation corporate video was longer than the client hoped. An unanticipated surprise. English is traditionally 20% shorter than French. (We use fewer words to say the same thing.) But I’d been aware of it after the first 30 seconds were laid down. Our track did not even match the time of the French guide track. This discrepancy leads me to the third role the director must play.

Between Finished Product and Client

My View as an Insider: How to Direct Voice Actors - Pt 1 — (shutterstock)

Directing calls for knowing when to collaborate and when to take control of the project. Actor, sound engineer, producer, writer, client, we all bring our expertise. We collaborate. I find it’s important to let the client have their say about their vision for the sound of the project (because it is theirs) at the beginning. After a few test lines, I get their approval. I also check in with them a couple times throughout the project to again, secure their approval. So, they are part of the collaboration and sign off on parts of the product as it’s being created. This helps when I’ve brought up timing or tone throughout the recording and at the end you may hear. “Wow. This is 20% longer than we thought it would be.”

So, as I suggested, we listened back from the top. And you know what? The pace was near perfect. We made two small adjustments, because could. We still had studio time, the adjustments improved the pace while respecting the flow. The narration was beautiful. As director, I stepped in to again speak to the client. They had options. They could cut copy or adjust the video. Either way, they had the fresh, genuine, feminine element they wanted from Karin to offset the masculinity and weight of their aerospace content. Firmly, but respectfully, I led them to giving their final stamp of approval on the project.

Directing takes a certain skill set. This blog is Part 1 of a three-part series on directing voice talent and can be applied to most audio or video projects. The second instalment looks more specifically at working with the voice actor. The third focuses on tips on self-direction for working remotely form your own home sound studio, as more and more of us are doing nowadays.

Which side of the glass have you sat on? And what has your experience been?

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kim@kimhandysidesvoiceover.com