Narration

Fiction Audiobook Narrator Award: Readers Favorite: We Won!!

November 25, 2024 by Laura Schreiber

Winning Silver

While I am still glowing from an incredible weekend at the Readers Favorite awards event celebrating our win of the Silver for the best Fiction Audiobook for the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper by Mary K. Savarese, I figured I would put pen to paper and try to capture the joy of the experience because it really was truly special! When Mary let me know that she had submitted our audiobook and that we won, I was simply elated. We work so hard on these books and put so much of ourselves into them. When you have a passion for what you do, there is simply no other way. Then, to have someone you work with submit is thrilling and to actually have your work recognized and honored amongst such other great talents is extremely meaningful and is not something I take lightly or for granted.

Sharing the Win with Mary

When Mary, the author, informed me that we won for our audiobook I was so excited! She actually lives in Florida and invited me to come down and stay with her to share the win at the Readers Favorite awards ceremony in Miami. I thought about it for about 30 seconds before logging into United Airlines and buying a ticket! As Mary put it, we could attend the weekend festivities together and celebrate as a team. What could be better?

Why it was Meaningful: A Great Collaboration

As I reflect on my experience not just this weekend but in working as the audiobook narrator on the Girl in the Toile Wallpaper in general, this acknowledgment was so meaningful because of the relationship that Mary and I built as professionals collaborating together. Each step of the way we listened to each other, made time for each other, and were responsive to the other’s meaningful feedback. It was the picture of what collaboration should be and the work that resulted was something that we are both so proud of!

The Riders Favorite Experience:

Upon my arrival in Florida, Mary drove us down to Miami for the Book Fair. Readers Favorite had their own tent where all the winning author’s books were for sale for ten dollars and the money was a contribution to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital! The tent also served as a central gathering place for the Readers Favorite community to stop by and get to know one another and see our books on display. It also happened to be a glorious, sunny day and we all enjoyed our time there.

Mary and I met many of the other authors both at the tent and at the evening “Meet and Greet.” Everyone was so lovely and down to earth. It was thrilling to hear people’s stories and learn about what motivated them to write their stories. Honestly, it was refreshing to not talk politics and that not a single person mentioned AI the entire time! I was thrilled.

A common theme that came up repeatedly over the weekend was not to wait to share or write. If you have something that you want to say or do, do it. It is amazing how many different people said this in different ways. I also was delighted to see how many working moms were inspired to make a difference and set an example for their children. One woman even had her medal put on her son’s neck and shared she would not have had the strength to write without him. It was one of the many touching and poignant moments of the weekend.

Gratitude

In life I always have an attitude of gratitude, but this whole weekend there were so many moments big and small that I appreciate! I was so thankful just to be there. I was so thankful that I recorded the book in the first place. I was so thankful for Mary and her husband Vinny’s hospitality and warmth. I was so thankful to meet so many kind and interesting people. I was so thankful I was able to arrange to go and that my husband could watch our dogs. I was so thankful that in a world with so many super talented narrators our audiobook won!!! I was so thankful that my flights were on time and there was no travel drama. The list goes on and on, but the sum total of all of these little moments is an overall experience that left me filled with joy and with memories to hold onto for years to come!

Next, Mary and I will be collaborating on the next booking her trilogy, the Starwriters Club, in the spring of 2025, so do look out for that!

Having VO Industry Friends Matters

November 16, 2022 by Laura Schreiber

Sometimes things Go Sideways

As a well-established professional voice actor I wish I could say that when I recorded my first audiobook everything went well, but that is not the case. I learned quickly that narrating audiobooks is vastly different than recording a 30 second spot. Actually, the recording was fine. I marked the manuscript on my iPad just like Sean Pratt taught me. I used iAnnotate and I was proud of how the audio and the editing when. The snag happened quite unexpectedly when I uploaded my audio to ACX.

Learning the Ins and Outs of ACX

If you have never used ACX, when you upload your audio it has a tool that immediately measures the quality of your audio. So my audio was immediately flagged as being insufficient for their needs. You get a little orange or red, depending on the screen settings of your monitor, triangle with an exclamation point in it. ACX is kind enough to tell you precisely what is wrong with your audio. In my case, my RMS, or Round Mean Sound, levels were not within the precise range of -18 to -23. Mine were between -25 and -27.

First I called an engineer I work with regularly and he had gone to both college and graduate school for audio production and he had no idea what an RMS was. I sent him a photo of my audio because I could see there was a meter for it in my DAW, which is Twisted Wave. His best guess was to play with how I normalized it. No dice, nothing made this better. And I had already applied my commercial effects stack to the ENTIRE recorded book. At this point the only thing I had going for me was that I had saved the RAW audio. Note, ALWAYS save your raw audio!!

The Meltdown

So at this point, dinner was not being cooked. The audio couldn’t be uploaded. I was in my booth in tears. For someone who has been in VO for years, I was loosing it completely. Just then, I happened to have been, over several days emailing back and forth with Jack de Golia. I had questions for him about some programs I could use for audiobooks, and I had the luck of getting an email from a friend at that moment.

I told Jack I was having a meltdown. Jack phoned. He asked what was going on. He talked me off a cliff. He also showed me how to use the analyze function on Twisted Wave which I never knew was there. Jack actually showed me quite a few thinks that night.

He told me I needed to call George Whittam and that I needed a stack specifically for audiobooks. The only way to meet the A CX specs is with such a stack. I had no idea. The thing is, you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in the trenches. I did in fact reach out to George. I paid extra for the stack, and I was very quickly back in business.

When I had my Meltdown, I had people to call

I was lucky, the right guy happened to reach out precisely at the moment I needed him. If you don’t know Jack de Golia, his is a brilliant voice talent best known for his work in eLearning and Audiobooks although he excels in other genres too. He is a coach as well and is based in Las Vegas Nevada.

So let’s dissect why I had a friend like Jack in the first place? Jack happens to be a really nice guy, and exceptionally good at what he does, so he’s easy to be friends with in the first place. But how did I maintain the friendship on my end? Well, I have made the effort to go to voice over conferences for years. I had attended Jack’s sessions at past conferences like WoVoCon. When I would go to other conferences like DevLearn in Las Vegas, I kept in touch with Jack and we had lunch. Over the years I also sent correspondence emails because his friendship and the friendship of my industry friends is extremely important to me. I did not have a crystal ball and I had no idea that Jack would one day come to my rescue, but I did know he was a good guy and I valued having him, like so many others I have been blessed to meed in my life.

The Take-Aways

I can tell you that while we all work alone in padded foam booths, we are stronger together than we are apart. Whether we are two months in are ten years in we always need good, smart folks who have our backs. It is worth making the effort to spend time with people on your visit. It is work keeping in touch with people beyond the reach of social media. Make actual friends. It is so important and it is what will make all the difference.

Right This Way: VO for Tours

October 29, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

When the Body of Work Precedes the Demo

Screen Shot of New Tours Page When I was in college, I used to joke that I would love to give tours but I couldn’t as I cannot walk backwards. Well, in the world of voice over, my ability to walk in any direction does not matter and I can guide and welcome people whether they are on site or doing a virtual visit. In the voice over industry, the path that we take typically follows a specific order, and that path often begins with a demo. For me, I have been booking work for tours for years, from city tours to museum tours, and somehow I’ve been doing it without a tour specific demo. I have now amassed quite a volume of this work, so now that I am clearly on this path, I have decided to do a tour specific demo. Perhaps its because I love the versatility of emotion and roles that one can play when giving tours, and the idea that you can be on-site, have a pre- visit, or a virtual visit, that makes professional voice over for tours so appealing.

City Tours

City Tours from Rover.com Now, in the click of our mouse, we can visit anywhere in the world! When planning a trip, these city tours are particularly valuable. Last year, I had an opportunity to work on one of the most valuable tour projects of my career! I booked a project with rover.com to do city tours for cities across the United States for dogs and their humans. For a mom of two fur babies, this was lots of fun. Each city tour gave specific hotspots that were dog friendly, and included activities, restaurants, stores, and not to be missed unique local favorites. As a female narrator, the city tours were warm, upbeat, inviting, gracious, and fun. The scripts were so well written that they made me want to go to visit many of these cities, but it was my job to bring them to life, and I had a great time doing it.

Museums Tours

Museum projects have been a lot of fun for me over the years as well. As a working mom and former History teacher, I love museums. Museum work gives a unique opportunity for different roles, including testimonials, characters, knowledgable friends, and, of course, the trusted expert. As a professional voice over actor, I love the nuance between giving a children’s tour and one for adults. There is so much room for creativity in this genre. Again, just like with cities, some tours are for in-person visits and others are for on-line visits. This also lends itself to creative freedom and a way to be welcoming and insightful with the script.

Other Tours

In recent years, I have also had a chance to do many other types of tours, including Universities, schools, Real Estate, Hospitals, Offices, Factories, Rehabilitation Centers, Residential Life Centers, and more. The list is long because so many business want people to be able to tour their facility and feel welcome as a pre-visit before coming in person.For example, according to Inside HigherEd, in March 2019 at Fordham University only 700 students took virtual tours but in March 2020 there were 2,200 virtual visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to DigitalInTheRound, there are five million visits on virtual tours every day! As with anywhere in life, we only have one chance to make a fist impression, and more and more often that first impression is happening on-line with a virtual tour. I think about that when I step up to the microphone. The voiceover that I provide shapes the relationship that the viewer or listener has with the space, so I work hard to establish the tone for the tour that I am supposed to maintain for the role that I am playing.

Why Do the Demo Now

Often if other genres are bringing the work in, then a demo this specific is not necessary- so we do it? The simple answer is marketing. By producing samples for the genre that are ideal and showcase my abilities and understanding of the field, I will now target direct marketing for tours. Could I have continued to book as I’ve been without it? Sure. But why not go after an entire category that I am passionate about where there is an abundance of work. I also feel that as new content emerges, the virtual tours become more essential by the day. When the Covid-19 Pandemic has put a damper on so many things, this is one are that we can look to with glee. We can virtually go anywhere in the world, and I want to be a part of that joyous positivity at this moment.

Super Bowl Video Narrations: Casting Outside The Box

January 27, 2019 by Laura Schreiber

Just a Philly Girl…

Everyone knows there is only one type of Eagles fan. Growing up in Philadelphia, I remember dreading the ride home from Sunday school every week. It did not matter whose dad was driving carpool, we would be listening to the Buddy Ryan Show the entire ride which was upwards of 30 minutes. My friend Candace can tell you those rides felt like an eternity. Football was a major part of my childhood, but I do not recall in those years ever hearing women voices as part of the dialogue. I also was not taken to games or included in the pre-or post-game banter. It all kind of happened around me. Still, I felt and continue to feel tremendous pride and spirit for our teams. How can you not when there are so many game day rituals?

Now, years later, I am married to a New Yorker (gasp) who is such a sports aficionado that he will have sports on the computer while he has sports on tv on mute while listening to sports on the radio. Harlan seems to love to watch videos on youtube and ESPN footage of old great plays talking about why they were amazing. Again, All. Male. Voices. So…. Let’s spice things up and try this…

https://youtu.be/S1QyjwHrBBI

Dramatic Female Announcer For Super Bowl II (https://youtu.be/S1QyjwHrBBI)

Connected Female Narrator

The music is the same. The footage is the same. The content remains EXACTLY the same. The vocal quality is attached, connected, emotive, strong, confident, proud. But there is one major contrast. The voice of the professional voiceover is now a conversational, millennial narrator. Tradition aside, with more women who audition, the more women are likely to get these roles. But it is not just about numbers. When voiceover jobs are posted, often male narrators are sought for specific roles. Or, when both male and female voices are considered, if there is one female voice and ten male voices, the odds still favor a male narrator. As Britni de la Critiz from the Ringer explains, “women need to have champions in order to succeed in these roles.” With women like Randy Thomas announcing ABC news Nightline for the first time, hope for professional voiceover actors is on the horizon. For the first time ever, Amazon rolled out some all-female football casters. This is certainly a step in the right direction.

The Winds of Change

Still, it is clear that multiple changes need to happen for women to be considered for these typically male dominated roles. First, those doing casting need to be willing to cast a broad net and listen to auditions from a wider range. Next, voiceover talents have to be bold and be willing to shake things up when submitting their reads. We cannot be afraid to standout, we must be eager to shine and be heard so that our addition stands apart from the others. Our vocal quality can be nothing short of outstanding so that those castings are just choosing the best read. Perhaps if the casting agent hears 100 reads one way and you zag you get cast.

The Main Event: Super Bowl Sunday

As a professional voiceover actor, some of us are lucky enough to have a super bowl spot air. There are also related spots on the radio, as YouTube bumpers, and in the days following the big game. But, we all know that across America, come came day, in homes across the country family not only watch the came with eager anticipation, they watch the much anticipated Super Bowl commercials! What is the viewing audience looking for? Often we want a pang of emotion. A shocking plot twist. A good laugh. A thrill. Is this beginning to make you think of what we go after in our voiceover demos? Hmmm… See, for a professional voiceover actor, every single day we try to bring out the best in the scripts that we are given, but on this day, the day of all days, these commercial spots are truly incredible. And for the voiceover talents who have been smiled upon by the casting gods and are lucky enough to have some part in the quintessential American holiday we all love, their creativity can flourish.

I don’t know where you will be this Super Bowl Sunday, but I will be in my house surrounded by my family and wonderful neighbors. Even though my beloved birds did not make it this year, every year we host a great party. We have lots of delicious food, a lot of our friends, and our family. And as a girl whose Sundays have revolved around football for more winter’s than I’d like to admit, I can say with certainty that as much attention will be paid to the commercial viewing as to the game next Sunday.

It is my hope that if I revisit this topic in a few years there are a lot more women involved in all levels of sports casting and narrating such videos on a regular basis! If the Eagles can make it to the Super Bowl, it doesn’t seem like such a long shot…