Congaree National Park – Self Guided Tour
Voice Direction:
This simulated audition is to cast a voice actor for the Congaree National Park self-guided tour. We’re looking for a peaceful voice that will guide someone through the visitor center and the park preserves. The voice must also maintain interest for all ages. We’re open to casting all ages, accents, genders, styles,… what’s important to us is a voice that resonates with our listeners.
Script:
Congaree National Park, a place of constant change. Of wood and water, sunlight and shade.
This majestic wilderness of towering trees is a sanctuary. For wildlife…for champion trees…for visitors from around the world.
Day by day, season by season, a new place to explore…each time you return.
Congratulations to Tamara Linke, Michelle Weisbom, and Rita Pattni. In this simulated voice acting audition for a national park’s self-guided tour, their peaceful approaches to the script will make visitors feel at home. Here are some points of interest to help you feel more comfortable in future auditions.
For further perspective: Review the recording of Chief Edge Officer David Goldberg’s July 9, 2024, live session, where he – and a wide range of voice actors – review this contest’s entries. It gives insight into the casting review process – demonstrating how a casting person quickly moves through hundreds of submissions to create their shortlist. But unlike the Zoom session in previous contests, this time the team went through the entire list of entries, just as an actual casting screener would, in the same short amount of time. (More about this below.) Except that unlike real casting projects, David explains what casting teams listen for and how their decisions are made.
Watch David Goldberg review and explain why some entries wouldn’t make the cut, some get short-listed, and one gets cast.
EDGE STUDIO TIP 1: Understand the audition screening process. A casting professional likely listens to auditions all day long, and each job brings them hundreds of entries. (This contest brought us about 275.) The professional screener needs to go through them quickly, making quick decisions. With experience, they make those decisions well, based on many factors. Most submissions will be listened to for only a few seconds (perhaps averaging just 3 seconds each!) — because many actors make simple errors that are very typical. For example:
- Mispronouncing the client’s name (or in this case, the name “Congaree National Park”).
- Slurring or rushing the first words. Sounding artificial (unless so directed, which is rare).
- Or not having all the qualities specified in the Direction (for example, in this case, not sounding “peaceful”).
TO USE THIS AWARENESS: Nail the details (see below). Don’t make simple, avoidable mistakes. Don’t give any excuse for the screener to hit the “next” button.
EDGE STUDIO TIP 2: Understand the genre. For example, a Commercial has a time limit. A Commercial audition script might not be complete, or the Direction might not even tell you how long the full commercial is, but the audition screener will want to know that you can read at a suitable pace. Some commercials are rapid-paced, some are relaxed. But long gaps in your read, or time-wasting choppy pauses would likely be red flags. In contrast, this script is a self-guided tour. You shouldn’t sound lethargic or bored, and you need to have a certain level of energy and enthusiasm, but you don’t need to rush from one sentence right into the next. After all, the whole point of an audio tour is for the listener to look around, and to think. The user might even press PAUSE. (In fact, look — The script’s sentences are separate paragraphs, and the series of words is separated not by commas but by ellipses.) So don’t rush your read, and pause a bit between sentences. Through your performance, let the audition listener know that you understand the project. This also gives them a chance to think: “Hey, this actor gets it!”
EDGE STUDIO TIP 3: Nail the details. Make your audition recording 100% correct in every way you can. Use sound VO technique (e.g., don’t slur words or drop syllables, don’t be “choppy,” do sound/be real, have the correct audio level (and it should be mono, both speakers), don’t pop or distort, condition your space (no reverb) as best you can, etc. Edge Studio has classes on these concerns and techniques. If you don’t know them, you should learn. Also, practice what you’ve learned, for at least 15 minutes a day, and listen back with a critical ear. Being able to “hear” yourself dispassionately is yet another skill that a voice actor needs.
Here are some errors that many people made:
- Mispronounced “Congaree.”
- One second (or more) of silence before the audition began (a quarter-second is ideal).
- Rushed “a place of constant change.”
- Choppy; too many pauses, or paused in inappropriate places.
- Didn’t follow the punctuation marks. Nearly everyone paused after “wood” and “sunlight.” Note how the script is formatted. Clearly the client wanted “wood and water” said without a pause between them. Same with “sunlight and shade.”
- Mispronounced “National,” sounding like “nat-sh-na.” “Nash-nl” is also awkward.
- Lacked the requested quality that “resonates” with the listener, lacking warmth and smile. This was almost everyone.
- In this genre, not enough space between phrases to absorb the words, as described above.
With awareness and practice, and a bit of research, all the above errors are preventable.
EDGE STUDIO TIP 4: Keep the faith. As you’ll observe in the recording linked above (including the discussion at the end), the number of hurdles in an audition may seem endless. And some issues are judgment calls. But hang in there. A lot of these skills become automatic, second nature. And even longtime VO pros sometimes forget something. Ongoing practice and coaching help pros keep themselves sharp. When it comes to those “judgment calls,” simply reading and thinking about the direction can help you read the client’s mind. You won’t win every audition. But you can make a strong first impression, and that keeps you in the running.
1st place winner: Tamara Linke
Judge's Comments
1st place winner:
Judge’s Comments
Tamara Linke – 1st place.
Great! We love her warm smile!! Although she rushed (even cut off part of) “National” (the end is nearly nonexistent), and some spacing is not what the client requested, overall — wow — her smile wins us over! The recording’s technical quality is mostly great. A few breaths are too loud, there are some mouth clicks throughout the recording, and her recording even begins with a tiny breath. (It’s low and short, so not enough to prevent us from selecting her, but ideally she would have removed it). Lowering the bottom end (with a parametric EQ) would have been nice, too.
2nd place winner: Michelle Weisbom
Judge's Comments
2nd place winner:
Judge’s Comments
Michelle Weisbom
– 2nd place.
Great! We especially LOVE how she adhered to the intentional spacing by the client. In fact, of the hundreds of entries we received, only a small handful of voice actors did this. Most paused in places where the client most likely would not want pauses, including:
- between “place” and “of”
- between “wood” and “and”
- between “sunlight” and “and”
- between “trees” and “is”
Although she slurs “around the world” a teeny bit – and there are some clicks in that phrase. However, this is very, v e r y slight. Technically, this is a fabulous performance.. The recording’s technical quality is great.
3rd place winner: Rita Pattni
Judge's Comments
3rd place winner:
Judge’s Comments
Rita Pattni – 3rd place.
We LOVE her smile and pacing. However, she’s a bit too theatrical in the words “This majestic.” And we would have liked a bit more space between “world” and “Day”. However, these are minor requests. Overall, it’s a dynamite voice and read. The recording’s technical quality is great, except her recording is too clean. She’s cut out all breaths, sometimes abruptly. We’d prefer breaths left in, so it sounds human. Their volume should simply be adjusted if necessary, so that no breath is distractingly loud.
