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research

Look Beyond the VO Headlines

July 4, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

If You Jump to Conclusions You Jump to Conclusions

If you know me at all or follow me on social media, then you probably already know that my father recently had a Supreme Court for Mahonoy Area Schoollandmark case in the US Supreme Court: Mahanoy Area Schools Vs. B. L. In the case, as in all of his work, my dad represented the school district. My father has been a school law layer in the state of Pennsylvania since 1975, so whatever the issue, my dad is always counsel to the school, never to those suing the school. While over the years some of my dad’s cases have gotten publicity, like the Grade Gate scandal in Harrisburg sometime in the 1990s, and his more recent transgendered bathroom case where he won in the third circuit, protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community. This case, though, got international publicity. The fascinating thing was that the decisions was so complex that when it came out, I myself thought that my father lost. Instead, my father and his team of expert attorney’s were elated. Why? Put simply, the headlines were misleading, many in the media understood the issues being appealed, and the headlines that seemed clear did not paint an accurate picture of the implications of the ruling.

Read beyond the headlinesSo, how on earth does this relate to my professional voice over career? Well, recently, towards the end of a video demo production process, my demo client began to panic. After reading on social media about usage issues, he became concerned that using the content we were using was not permissible. Even though we spent a lot of time going over this early on, he had terrible anxiety. Why? The headlines were so misleading. The problem with jumping to conclusions is that it takes you away from the actual data and research, and down a rabbit hole of mis-information. So, as a voice talent, how do you sort out the “fake news” and build a solid foundation for your voice over business?

Building a Career Comes from Research

I spent months doing research before I ever started working with my first coach. I do research every single day. Just like in all academic realms, you have to be able to evaluate your sources. In addition to the numerous books on voice over written by long-time coaches, there are countless blogs just like this one written by voice actors who have been in the industry for years. Now, you can also go to places like VOBS, YouTube, PodCasts, and Clubhouse to hear about voiceover directly from industry experts. This was not the case when I was starting out, and that level of accessibility is fantastic.

Time in the Industry

It takes time in the voiceover industry to understand the voiceover industry. If you have industry friends, contacts, or coaches who have been in the industry longer than you have, it makes good sense to trust their guidance. Knowing who to take advice from is crucial. Someone who has been in the industry for ten plus years and does not book or have an impressive client list is not such a valuable resource. Someone who has been in the industry ten plus years and has your dream client list is exactly who you should be taking advice from.

Know What Questions to Ask

Perhaps instead of using social media to get thrown off course and begin to panic or at the very least become confused, perhaps use it to ask the right questions. Have a running list of questions for the next Clubhouse or session with your voice over coach is much more productive than going down that rabbit hole.

Don’t Be Swayed by Posts

So when I start working with a voice over student, we talk about all of the usage issues related to content in demos. My demo partners and I use content from libraries that we pay to belong to, so that our video demo clients are protected. There is a reason that when you go to the pages of DPN or Atlas Talent their talents’ demos refer to real brands and not fictitious brands. This is standard in our industry. So, when you go on social media and there is a group of newbies who have been in voice over for five minutes, use their concerns to ask questions, or to share what you have learned. Once you know better, you can help lead the voice over chatter in a better, more productive direction. And remember, if I could be so confused by my own father’s legislative triumph at the highest level, it is entirely possible that folks new to the industry talking in circles could be very confused by a bunch of well-intentioned but very mis-lead postings as well.

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: content library, copy write, demo client, demo process, demo usage, fake news, headlines, Mahanoy area school vs BL, professional voice over, research, video demo, voice over, voice over coach, voiceover

How I Use My Barnard Degree Every Single Day in Voice Over

January 19, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

The Comments…

A beautiful spot in the middle of Barnard’s campus that I loved so much.As a full-time voice over actor, I have the joy of working as a creative all day every day in an industry that I love. You have no idea how many times people have said to me, in my family and in passing, “It’s a shame you aren’t using your degrees.” This always leaves me scratching my head. I am so appreciative that I had the opportunity to go to attend Barnard College, the undergraduate women’s college at Columbia University if you don’t know it, and to go to graduate school at Columbia University. As a small business owner I use all that I learned in my years at Columbia throughout the day every single day. When something becomes part of the fiber of your soul, part of your identity, and shapes the way you approach all that you do, it’s sort of hard to think of how you could exist without it. But still, because this has come up A LOT, let me try to flesh this out a little more specifically.

Writing the Business Plan and Analyzing the Data

Here I am in my suite over Ollie’s on 116th street my junior year. The one thing not part of the Barnard curriculum was how to keep a clean room!

From the moment I thought I decided to pursue voice over, the research skills that I crafted at Barnard were used. Before I began actually working in voice over, and well before I began working with coaches and studying the craft of voice over, I spent months researching other industry talents. I was listening to demos and making spreadsheets. I was curious who was booking what. I listened to see where others with voices like mine were booking work-wise. I tracked where certain demos lead certain talents. I had spreadsheet upon spread sheet. This was research that I generated for what I needed to know to ensure that this was a business that would make sense for my family. Where did I learn this creative approach to research? Barnard. Where did I learn how to analyze data? Barnard. And where did I learn how to use the data that I collected in Excel to make a compelling argument in one way or another? You guessed it, Barnard.

But just gathering and analyzing data was only the beginning. I was setting out not to just be a voice over actor, but to be a solopreneur. In order run my own business I needed a working business plan. I remember thinking all those years ago that the business plan would be fluid and would change, but that I needed it to guide the choices I made early on and to make projections about my income. I used a strategy that I learned in graduate school called “Planning Backwards.” Anyone who has ever taught is probably very familiar with this, but I set short term and long term goals for myself and then I wrote a business plan around them. Again, everything that I did in terms of my business was all based on the way I was trained to do in my years at Columbia.

Researching Brands

I loved meeting friends at the steps in between classes. I had so much fun setting here and socializing. This was quite a hot spot!

Brand research is necessary when auditioning, when booking work, and when determining which companies to reach out to when direct marketing. When auditioning, it is important to understand the brand that I am reading for. I research their current add campaigns and try to understand the overall gestalt of what they are trying to put out. If whatever I have been sent is a departure from previous work, I try to figure out how that fits in too. When I book work, again, I strive to understand where it fits into the big picture of the brand. I immediately go to the brand’s website and social media pages. When I direct market to companies, I spend a lot of time getting to know a brand so that I can individualize my outreach. Again, all of this thorough research and these strong investigative skills come from my years at Columbia.

Understanding the Jargon

I loved my time in the Theta Psi chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. The women in our sorority were campus leaders. My AXO sisters are brilliant and incredible and I am lucky to call them sisters, including my actual sister Julie! Here we are at the Revlon Run Walk for Women in Times Square in 1999.

In addition to my commercial work, I do a lot of eLearning. There is a lot of complicated jargon in these training modules.Sometimes I feel like a kids back in school, because for me understanding the text is very important to my delivery. Because I read so much in school and spent so much time in academia, I am thrilled by this part of the job. In addition, I have also taken professional voiceover training to improve my read rate and this has helped with some of the complicated reading. The amazing Kim Handysides has created a curriculum for this, as I confess that in all my years at Columbia we did not do much reading aloud. In fact I can only recall one History seminar taught by the great, late Professor Yerushalmi where he had us read primary source documents aloud in class. Typically, we read on our own and analyzed together, so I find that on-going professional development is still essential in this area.

Running a Business

Here I am In Low Library for the Senior Awards ceremony in 1999 at at Commencement. On the top I’m with my sister Julie. In the bottom I’m with my husband Harlan (GS 96′). On the left I am with Professor Peter Juviler of blessed memory who was my thesis advisor. I am so grateful to have worked with him.

As a full-time working mom, I think credit my years at Barnard and Columbia with my ability to run my own business. In school we had a very challenging course load every semester, were involved in on-campus activities, and had off campus internships. I was juggling a lot of balls at a young age and I was not alone, I was surrounded by a campus of high-achievers and this was the norm. Those years of scheduling not just my classes, but carefully planning when I would write my papers, study for exams, work, volunteer, etc, well-prepared me for life as a working mom. I did not expect to sit on the steps eating burgers from the law school barbecues without a care in the world forever, I had a sense of urgency that I always had to be somewhere and that my time was limited. I feel that sense of urgency every day now and I am so thankful for the years I had inside the gates on 116th street. They are a part of who I am and I know that I am better for it.

Filed Under: Voiceover Tagged With: auditioning, Barnard, booking, Columbia, direct marketing, entrepreneur, Planning Backwards, research, small business owner, solopreneur, VO, voice over, voiceover

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