My Dreams Come True
Having studio dogs is a luxury. As a working mom, I have blogged about this before, but I never knew if I would be able to have children. When I was 22 and I got my first Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of blessed memory, I was not sure if this fur baby would be my only child. While I have been blessed with human children too, they never changed the status of my dogs, who have meant the world to me. My dogs have been there for me and by my side on my best and worst days. For my greatest celebrations and for my worst sorrow. I believe that Barclay, Violet, and Daisy understand and connect with me in a unique and special way, and having them in my life is as much a dream come true as my professional voice over career is. I very much view having these precious fur babies by my side in my home studio as a luxury. Everything about my career, from my studio set up to being able to be present for my children is icing on the cake to being able to live the dream of life as a full-time voiceover actor. If you are thinking of getting a studio dog, I urge you to move forward without hesitation. If you are thinking about it, let me share the traits that have made my dogs ideal to be in the studio daily and give you some ideas of what traits work, what does not, and what to look for when having a voice over studio dog.
Violet
Violet has always been a wonderful studio dog. Violet is a Blenheim cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Her temperament is calm, quiet, and she is eager to please. She rarely barks and sleeps a lot. Despite her angelic personality, there are several challenges to having this love muffing in the booth. When Violet sleeps, she often snores. Despite her tiny size of only 15 lbs, her snore sounds like a local train coming through town. The next challenge is that Violet, who was bred to be a lap dog, very much wants to sit on my lap. While she will sometimes settle down and snuggle with her sister, she will more often beg to be on my lap. Imagine that I am doing a long form narration or eLearning project and she is on my lab. If she exhales or shakes and her collar rattles, the mic will pic this up. While Violet is pretty close to being perfect, there are some hiccups sometimes and as human as she seems she still has no idea that I am doing actual work or that she can interrupt it.
Daisy
Daisy the Silver LabDaisy is a Labrador Retriever puppy. As a silver Lab, she is just precious. She is goofy and sweet and has a lot of energy. Let’s just say when she first came to the voice over booth, she had no idea it was a place of work. She literally tried to eat the aurelex acoustic foam off of the walls! Well, that could not go on. Outside the studio, Daisy had a number of behavior issues ranging from jumping to counter surfing to pulling while walking that also needed to be addressed. So, we sent her to the Monks of New Skete for some dog training. They taught Daisy to go to her place. It was amazing. After 17 days at the monastery, when she returned, she understood to lay by my feet quietly when given the command “place.” This was life changing and Daisy is now a wonderful and enjoyable companion in the studio.
When They are Not There
Regardless of how amazing Violet and Daisy are, I do not have the girls in the booth for live sessions. Whether I am doing a Source Connect of Zoom session, my feeling is that when clients are paying a premium for m services, the dos should not be there. Ever. I do a lot of commercial work and also have live sessions for video game work and sometimes even eLearning, and there is not a circumstance in which the dog’s behavior interfering with the audio would every be acceptable. In a business where there are a lot of people who do what we do, and we as talents are very replaceable, we need to be mindful of what is ideal for our clients and put their needs above all elese. Are there times I would prefer to have my pups in the booth? Of course there are, but it is more important to have clients return again and again.
So, if you are a voice actor and you are getting a pup, here are some things to keep in mind:
- You want a dog that is not a barker. They either are or they aren’t, and if they are that will never change.
- You want a dog who is not anxious. They need to be ok by themselves when you have live sessions. If you put them somewhere else in your house, whether it is a crate, a den, a gated kitchen, you need to be able to count on them to be quiet for the duration of your session.
- You want a dog who can stay calm and rest for upwards of an hour, even at a young age. As voice actors, it’s an endurance game. We are often in our studio for hours on end. You want a dog who can tolerate being indoors and does not demand walks or outdoor play on their schedule.
I am so thankful for my girls. I hope you find a studio dog to make your voiceover life complete!
From both sides of the mic, as both a professional voice over actor and a voice over coach, I can tell you that how the demo session goes effects how the demo turns out. You’re investing a lot into the demo: time, money, effort. The demo should be nothing short of amazing, and the key to having an amazing demo, is an amazing demo session.
It’s 2021. We’re still in a pandemic. We need what we need quickly. Laura gets it and she wants you to have perfect audio without a fuss at the click of your mouse. Let Laura know how she can help you!
My recent commercial booking for JP Morgan makes for a great case study in voice over bookings. As a professional voice actor, every booking makes us happy, but when the producer emailed me about these radio spots, his explanation was interesting. I was cast directly without auditioning. He did not mention my voice. Nor did he mention my demos. In this instance, it was a matter of scheduling and availability. As I work full-time, they needed someone who could accommodate a live session at a specific time, which turned out to be 11 a.m. on a Friday morning, and he needed to confirm that I was available. The timing, in this scenario, was the most important question I was asked. The producer got back to me and confirmed that I had indeed booked two spots and it was a go. I was delighted.
I prepare for every single session, whether I am self-directing or in a live session. Part of my prep is administrative. I take some time to log the job in my CRM and create the invoice. I then print a large print version of the script using my preferred font. Then, prior to marking up the script, I spend a bit of time researching the brand and their other ads. Interestingly, JP Morgan and Chase are linked. As a client, when I log in for my JP morgan account I also log into my chase account. Well, at the moment, the below Chase spot is the most sought after read in a long time. Clients often request this as the benchmark for tone, style, and pacing, so I had this in mind going into my session for sure.
I think the start of a live session is really important. There happened to be a lot of people on this call. In addition to the producer, there were several people from the Spotify team and several people from the JP Morgan Team, including the scrip writer. In my mind looking back here were at least eight people on the session. It is my job to make them happy and to make them comfortable. I try to use the time at the start of the session to let them know that my feelings are not a factor, and that the only thing that would upset me would be for them to know have exactly what they need at the end of the call. I try to have friendly banter, but I want them to know and to be comfortable that I will give them whatever they need, and that it is not about me, it is about them. I think there are a few precious moments to establish this rapport and set the tone.
With so many on the call, there can be a lot of side chats during a directed session to make sure everybody has the takes that they want. This team was fantastic. They gave very clear direction and it was easy to take their feedback and run with it. They also all remembered to mute themselves while I was recording, which makes everything seamless. In this session, I read the first script all the way through three times. They gave me feedback. I again did three takes, and then we did some variations of the lines. Then, after the line reads, we did the whole script again. It really came together nicely. It was also super exciting to use Zoom’s audio share feature to play back the audio for the clients during the session so that they could mark the takes that they liked and we could also check the timing of the spots. Then we moved on to the next script, and worked through it the same way. The second one went a little faster as I understood what they were looking for from the first spot. All in all, the group was great to work with. For me, because JP Morgan is my bank and I use the app, it was easy to see the product and be enthusiastic about it because I actually enjoy the very features I was describing.
I am often asked whether I prefer live sessions or self directing. The answer is really that it depends. I love self directing because it gives me a chance to be creative and a freedom to interpret the texts in front of me. I can explore my imagination and see where it goes. The downside, of course, is that there is always a chance of missing the mark and not giving the client what they need. With live sessions, I love the creative collaboration. I love working with other people. When I have the opportunity to work with the people who created the product or the people who wrote the script, I get a higher level of understanding and can often bring more nuance to the read. So, the answer is still: I depends.
So on Wednesday a client emailed asking if I had availability for a live session for 4 spots, to 30 second spots and 2 60 second spots. Time was not the issue, I was happy to make time. Before even scheduling the session, which we planned to do via zoom, I had two hiccups. First, I had learned the day before that my son has to have emergency surgery tomorrow (not the day after the session, the day after I am writing the blog.) Jack has a rare problem called an intussusception which basically means his intestines are looped and it is quite dangerous, so that was weighing on me. Next, we were hit very hard by Tropical Storm Issias and still running on generator power. When I turned by iMac on in the booth it flickered constantly and I had a legitimate concern it would cut out during the session. I did not mention Jack to my client but I did tell her about our power issues. She told me she was having internet issues, but we decided to give it ago as she had a time crunch.
At the start of the session the client could not connect via zoom. It just would not go through. We decided to connect via mobile phone. On a normal day, my mobile phone is not great in my booth because of all the insulation, so on this day it kept cutting out. I have had sessions where for no apparent reason we are cut off. On Wednesday we were cut off FOUR times. Yes, that’s right, FOUR TIMES. I kept clicking save, in fear that I would also lose my computer, which thankfully didn’t happen.
I was terribly emotionally distracted. I should have meditated and prepared before going into the session. As a working mom, I always want to work because I have financial goals that I need to meet to help provide for my family. The thing is, I don’t have a shut off switch. I did not leave my feelings outside my booth. I have always felt that bringing all of them with me into the booth has helped with my reads, but in this case I needed to cope better. I needed to be honest about my ability to function and I needed to prepare differently. I also needed to realize sooner how frazzled I was and get it under control. I was having a real time melt down and just needed to stop and re-set.
When the client emailed me with the booking, in truth it did not even cross my mind not to take the gig. I always think of how I can best meet a client’s needs. In retrospect, I am positive that I would have deeply regretted not trying. I would have seen it as a missed opportunity. That would have been so upsetting too. My hope is that they see me as someone willing to work hard even with this going on and that they do not write me off. I am well aware that this is a competitive industry, so it is possible I won’t hear from them again, but I sure hope not. The other take away is that I have not been spending a lot of time practicing my craft and working on my read rate. This was a great reminder that those skills always need work. My hope as I reflect on this session is that I am defined from my ability to work through this and not by the worse session I have ever had.
