video games

Finding Voice Over Work on CastVoices

August 1, 2021 by Laura Schreiber

Clubhouse Round 2

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u39kitauzpzpzig/AADC1By9qOM1pBTJ6eJ-E6gRa?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR3sYhpM9uYnETOPUWcohM3HdIPwVYqMut_Ng8XcN3Z6AXpCOmvqZFXN_08

Put simply, our first Clubhouse with the Liz Atherton and Nick Krause of CastVoices left us wanting more! So many guests in our room “Ask the VO Coaches” had questions, that Diana Birdsall and I did not even get through half of ours. So we were lucky enough to have Liz and Nick back again. If you are not yet in the CastVoices user group, the timing could not have been more perfect. This week some paying members were getting a little antsy about when more bookings would roll out and the tone of the chatter was somewhat impolite, so having Liz available to answer questions meant a lot. The funny thing is that as some were raising questions, I myself booked two roles on a video game that I auditioned on only through the site. It will be an ongoing role with work that will likely last years. So, for these of you who are worried, I urge you to sit back and relax. The work is coming. Now, for my re-cap:

There Are Some Features Unique to Cast Voices

On this platform, if a casting director choses, they can give you feedback on your audition. This is not typical and is extremely valuable! There is a sound-byte feature in your profile. This is meant to give voice actors an opportunity to stand out regardless of your level of experience. This is where you can show the human side of you and reveal a glimpse of your personality. Nick is extremely proud of the code that he has built, he has worked hard to create a platform to highlight voice actor’s talents. I shared that I love the resume feature, and Liz commented that ultimately this will be interactive.

CastVoices has a Social Mission

Liz was thrilled to share that the entire CastVoices team is likeminded in their focus on service to others. When they did an Indiegogo campaign to launch CastVoices, they ended up donating 50% of what they brought in. Of those funds, 50% went to feeding America, and 50% went to Tim Friedlander and Jay Preston’s financial assistance program for all actors in need. This money was given not with the question of “should we” but a “how can we” from a place of “spirit and love.” This team is truly amazing.

A Lot of SEO has been Put into the Site

Nick explained that the goal is that if someone searches for your name, they want your CastVoices profile to pop up. If someone searches for a project you’ve done and it’s on your resume, your CastVoices profile should come up. Through dynamic site maps, you are indexed in google right away.

Differences in Membership Levels on CastVoices

Liz made it clear they are very transparent: the only way they make money on the site is through subscriptions, not through casting. The differences in membership levels include the amount of samples shown, logos posted, and booked work you can show. On all levels of membership, clients can reach you directly.

Getting Buyers to the Platform

Their entire team is working hard to create strategic partnerships every day. They are connecting with creative directors, advertising agencies, gaming companies, and more. They go at it as a project enhancement platform. Every single day they reach out to clients, just as we do as small business owners, and encourage them to use the platform. As of Friday they have 36 creative directors and 61 agents on CastVoices.

Some Questions That Came Up

Bev Standing asked for tips to set up her profile. Liz advised to look at the categories on her demos and to create a custom URL. Liz also offered that if people don’t have a website up yet they can use this custom URL. Liz also pointed out that we should specify the age ranges we can work in. Others asked if the CastVoices team will go over their profile and resume and Liz said she’ll do so as time permits. They also revealed that they have a huge client who needs translations, and already have business in 50 countries, so if you are able to provide translation please list that. Another topic that came up was etiquette. If you are contacted within the platform, it is appropriate to stay within the platform, not to track the casting director down outside of the platform. Another guest asked if they are looking for trends. Nick explained the ultimately they will, but at this juncture while they are doing certain analytics they do not have trends that will help voice actors yet. It was also asked if a profile can go stale. The answer is no. If you update it with new samples of booked work, so should be fine. If you are inactive, you can mark yourself inactive.

Conclusions

CastVoices is good for the voice over community. Their heart is in the right place and they have set us all up for success. How can we, as talent, help them take off? If you have clients who need to cast you can point them toward cast voices.

Video Games and Gun Violence: You’re kidding Me

February 24, 2020 by Laura Schreiber

Tru TV: Caught My Attention

On Saturday Morning I came into the kitchen and Harlan had this on the tv:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzaI3IsCuko

Adam Ruins Everything – Behind the Myth that Video Games Cause Violence | truTV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzaI3IsCuko)

As a working mom, a full-time professional voice over actor, and a functioning human being, I was blown away. Like most of you, I never in my worst night mares thought I would have to talk about code yellows or drills with my kids where they practice being locked in closets by their teachers. So when those in charge of our policies choose not to create legislation that will protect those most precious to us, and instead publicly speak out again video games, I have a problem with that. Many in my industry will not ever speak of politics or publicly take a side, and I understand their valid concerns. In this moment, my hope is that whatever side of the political spectrum you are on, as artists and creatives we can stand together and say the gun control problem is out of hand. This is not on us as creatives fulfilling our life-ling dreams and providing for our families; instead, this is the government’s weak effort to punt and fail to come up with a reasonable solution to a problem that is growing disproportionately. And while I do not hide that I am liberal at present, I grew up in a conservative state and loved shooting rifles at camp, so I do not have a limited perspective. I will try, as both a mom and a working voice actor, and someone who enjoys and supports video games, to flesh this out a little more.

In the above TruTV clip, Adam and his team chronicles the history of violent games since before I was born! Adam mentions mortal combat. The funny thing is, I have really happy memories of this game. Long before my career in voiceovers, growing up in Philly, my friends and I used to hang out in an arcade and pool hall called Pete Fusco’s. I have no idea if it is still there. The boys in my peer group loved this game. I stood around and watched them play. How did I turn out? I’m super liberal, do not own a gun, and went to an ivy league school for college and graduate school. The countless hours I spent around the video games in no way corrupted me or anyone else in my social circle. My friends went on to become doctors, lawyers, and financial advisors. All of us are non-violent, and if we represent a microcosm of our generation, we were just normal kids, hanging out, playing games.

Jack and WWII

As a parent, my husband and I never thought our son would play with guns. Even though I enjoyed the sport of shooting them, the world has changed and I wanted something different for my own children. Well I will say there was a lot that I did not anticipate.

First, I did not anticipate that my son would love military History, especially that of World War II. Since he was quite young, he made set ups all over our playroom with army miniatures. Where the guns and weapons? Yes. Did he pretend they were firing and shooting? Yes. How else can you re-enact D-Day? Is Jack a violent person who has or wants a real gun now? No.

Next, he loves video games. He has a PS4 and he lays on the sofa under cozy blankets. He LOVES to play “Call of Duty.” There is a lot of shooting. When I am in my studio he has to put it on mute. But, the flip side is that as a mom who works from home, if he is playing games, he is about four feet from me while I work, and frankly I love that. So yes, he is playing a violent game, but he is right near me and he is relaxed and de-funking from his very over-scheduled life, so it is really quite pleasant. If you had asked me when he was a toddler if I would want him to play such a game I’m sure I would have been horrified, but in truth at almost 17 I don’t mind. And again, is Jack violent? No.

President Trump’s Remarks

Instead of leading our country towards legislative initiatives that would end gun violence, and speaking out against the sale of automatic and semi automatic weapons, President Trump made these remarks: “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now common place. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5-E-s9-4M

Trump blames weekend shootings on the "glorification of violence” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5-E-s9-4M)

This speech was made after the tragic shooting in El Paso. As a mother and a working creative, I strongly feel that this as a vast over-simplification of the present scenario. In lieu of taking responsibility for a failure to regulate guns, it is easier to blame the work of creatives. Are the games violent? Yes. Do they portray women in ways that I do not like? Yes. If we put the video games aside, I feel that politicians, the President included, are making a huge leap when they skip over all of the legislative and educational opportunities and focus on video games. It is an absurd travesty.

Let’s look at some hard facts to better understand what is going on:

According to game shift, there are 1181019 video games.
The top 50 selling games contain violence according to videogames.procon.com
According to the Pew Center, violent crime rates are falling
Even though over-all crime is down, mass shootings increase in last 20 years

US Mass Shootings, 1982–2021: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation

Conclusions:

As the amount of video games increase exponentially, and the industry as a whole booms, the overall crime rates has plummeted. In the United States, we have a specific problem with mass shootings that has gotten markedly worse.

I am proud to thrive in a creative industry, and I celebrate every single booking. The amazing talents who act in our video games are doing an incredible job. To place the blame of this huge problem on the creatives who work in the gaming industry is lunacy.

Let’s take this a step further. When I think about this as a mom in the entertainment industry and I consider who hard I work to help support my family and set a good example for my kids, it would be like saying that for every role I voice I am limiting what other women, including my daughter, can be instead of raising their potential. If I voice a mermaid, am I telling my daughter this is the height of what she can be or am I fulfilling my creative ambitions as a working artist? I believe it is the latter and I am extremely proud of the roles I have booked. I very much resent the President’s

over-simplifications so he doesn’t have to deal with the real issues that are extremely dangerous for all of us today.

Insights Into the Video Game World

July 21, 2019 by Laura Schreiber

https://youtu.be/XrDc8H8Is_4

A Rare Glimpse

Emma and her roommate in their classroom on presentation day!

On Friday morning I went to Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey to pick my almost 16 year old daughter Emma up from her two week program in video game design. As a mom, I was so proud of her to have done this program and spent time in the summer exploring an interest and working hard. As a full-time, professional voice over actor, I was even more delighted that she chose to pursue a course of study that could ultimately give us an opportunity to work together. In total honesty, I was completely elated and hoping that she loved every minute and found her calling.

But back to the point of the blog, my inside scoop into the video game world. So the professor that Emma had for her weeks at Stevens was Professor O’Brien, a brilliant creative whose personal focus is gaming with a social message to create change. I did not anticipate that he would be speaking, but this dynamic man spent a lot of the morning not just explaining what our kids had been doing, but sharing what a course of study in video game design might look like and what their career path after completing said course of study might look like. I was excited and enthralled.

The Team

I learned that like real world game design, Emma participated in a team during her program. They each assumed a role, as in actual video game design. There are coders, programmers, floaters, narraters, artists/creators, team leaders, and this was just in the student lab setting. All members of the team were essential to building and creating the game. Even though Stevens is an engineering school and the kids there take the same classes as the computer science students in the Engineering college, the professor explained that in gaming the team needs both the essential computer skills and the creative and artistic skills and has to comfortably float between these worlds. I was particularly pleased that my child had this experience, because as a small business owner, I have to do this every single day. I have to pour all of my creative energy into my voiceover projects, and then put on my business cap and do invoicing and market myself. Here is my child, a rising sophomore in high school, already learning to think this way.

Roles in Their Organization

From listening to Professor O’Brien speak, I learned about the various roles in a gaming company as well. While I have had a few roles on Indie video games, and there are typically several people in on the live sessions, I have never thought too much about the different opportunities available in the company. Apparently, after graduating from a university with a BA and a BS with a concentration in Video Game Design, these kids are prepared to be any part of the team, including project managers, creative directors, programmers, coders, writers, artists, floaters… the list goes on and on. It is clear that they need team players who understand both the technical and artistic components of the game creation.

Places to meet Gamers

I was fascinated by this part of that Professor O’Brien mentioned. As someone who spends so much time marketing and reaching out to new and potential clients, I was fascinated to learn that folks in video game design like twitter. Here are other useful resources I learned about:

Playcrafting: https://playcrafting.com/
Games for Change http://www.gamesforchange.org/
GDC Vault https://www.gdcvault.com/
itch.io
The Sheeps Meow: https://www.thesheepsmeow.com/

What Surprised Me?

As a voice over actor, I was first surprised that none of these games have a voiceover component! The student projects did all have music, which my daughter told me was all free and public domain. When I asked the professor, he told me that even at the university level, the skill of casting voice talent adds a layer of challenge that they are not typically prepared for and that students don’t usually have voiceover in their projects. Next, I was surprised that so many gamers are on twitter. For years I tried to persistently market on twitter, posting about three times a day. I got no results from this. Perhaps I had the wrong target audience? Next, I was delighted to learn about the team aspect to the creation and about the team/community aspect to the testing and trial phase. I was delighted by this. Lastly, I was surprised by the technological rigors of the program. My daughter has an updated Mac that is several years old. Her rather expensive computer was insufficient to meet the needs of the high-tech software used for this course! She had to use a university provided loaner.

I am so thankful that my child had this opportunity! I am so thankful that I had the flexibility as a working creative to come and see hew finished project. I am one proud Mama!

A Voiceover Pro Talks About Connections for Live Sessions

December 30, 2018 by Laura Schreiber

from ipDTL to Source Connect and Everything in Between, Laura Schreiber Talks about her preferences

So You Want to Direct Me…

The answer always is, and should always be, great! I always want to make my clients very happy, and this is just another opportunity to do so! As a full-time, professional voiceover actor, I have been set up to provide my clients with live/guided/directed sessions since I opened shop. One of my coaches used ipDTL for every session, so I felt very comfortable on that platform from the very start. I remember my first directed session like it was yesterday! It was a video game session with a German director. He wanted to use skype and their were 3 others on the other end giving me feedback. I loved working with them because I was able to give them specifically what they needed and wanted from the character that I was playing, a teenage badass called Jes, in the moment they needed it! There was no need for revisions because when the live session ended they had every line just as the wanted it. I put so much energy into each take and gave them multiple options. Having feedback as I recorded was so valuable. I was not nervous, I loved every minute. Another advantage of live sessions is that it is much easier to get to know your clients and build relationships with them when you actually work directly with their team. I learned that early on too. While you can certainly get to know clients from back and forth emails, there is nothing like actually speaking to them and working with them to make them happy. Guided sessions are fantastic and that is why I offer so many options to accommodate my clients!

ipDTL and the ISDN Bridge

I love using ipDTL. As I mentioned earlier, I started using it during my coaching many years ago and loved the clear connection and the ease of use. As I try to be a client centered service provider who makes everything as easy as possible for the folks I work with, I like that this as a service that I provide my clients free of charge for them. I simply send them a link and we are ready to go. I have never had issues with my ipDTL connection and my clients always comment on what a clear connection it is. Here is a brief video where I show how user friendly it is:

https://youtu.be/eSn2y2utYJk

Laura Schreiber and Guided Sessions (https://youtu.be/eSn2y2utYJk)

I also have a direct ISDN line with my own Los Angeles phone number through an ipDTL bridge. Several of my agents said they would not sign me without an ISDN line, so this was the easiest way to solve that challenge as Verizon stopped installing new ISDN lines in the winter of 2015. I have been pleased with this as well although I have had some hiccups with the ISDN service. The owner/founder of ipDTL looked into it and found no problems with my line, so I was left befuddled.

I do also like the ipDTL facebook group. It has helped answer a lot of questions over the years! It is free and a great asset for those of us who use ipDTL often.

Source Connect

To be totally transparent, I actually signed up for Source Connect in a state of total hysteria when my ISDN would not work and I needed to connect with a studio in LA for a big commercial at that moment! Thank goodness it was up and running quickly and Source Connect saved the day. I did not initially find it as user friendly as ipDTL and needed a lot of directions and help from others. Since installing Source Connect, quite a few producers have wanted to use it which is great. The connection is extremely clear and it is also easy to use, once you know what to look for!

Skype

It seems that a lot of my overseas clients still want to use Skype. Skype is fine. It is not great, it is fine. There can be a frustrating latency issue, or lag. I also find that there can be a lot of hiccups when there are software updates. It makes me nervous to use Skype in lieu of ipDTL of Source Connect, but when a client strongly prefers this I will always accommodate. Perhaps when they are comfortable with the format this drives their preference.

Speaker Phone

I have had a handful of clients demand to use the speaker phone in my booth! My mobile phone does not work in my studio as it is so sound proof it blocks the signal. I do have a land line there instead and I can use this upon request. This is the worst option as it does not go through my pre-amp and microphone, so clients cannot hear the actual audio quality and sound. There are nuances to the recording that they will totally miss. Again, if the client is most comfortable like this I will oblige.

Sum Up

Over the years I have had a chance to do countless guided sessions. Across genres, for all sorts of projects, I have had clients direct me for everything. While most commonly they are used for commercial sessions, I had one helluva narration session where the client was paying for an hour and she intended to use every minute of it! Boy did she have me jump through hoops, it was somewhat shocking! Whether it is for commercials, narration, IVR, video games, or promos, there is one thing in common: every session should end with a very happy client!

Video Games and Gun Violence: You’re kidding Me

Insights Into the Video Game World

A Voiceover Pro Talks About Connections for Live Sessions

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