Description
Finally! After all of the hard work honing your performance skills/techniques and effectively marketing yourself, you’ve started to send out auditions and have even booked a few jobs! Your clients start to schedule you to either come into a professional studio, or they are going to patch into your home studio for the record. The day arrives, but the producer and the engineering team keep giving you directions that you don’t understand; they may as well be speaking another language. You can’t seem to do anything right, and you can feel your clients getting more and more frustrated with you as you waste their time and money.
All too often new voice actors just don’t understand the basic etiquette or industry terminology used in a professional recording session. Nothing will turn a client off more than an amateurish voice talent during a record. When you show up to a session, you are expected to be a professional, so you had better know how to act like one.
This class will ensure that you don’t embarrass yourself. A complete recording session is reviewed from beginning to end; and the expectations of the producer, director, engineer and client are all clearly described.
Knowing what NOT to do is just as important. One unprofessional act or comment, even if the voice actor is unaware of the sin, can lead to not being invited back to audition or work for that studio or production team.
At the conclusion of this class, students will:
- Have knowledge of the entire studio process for both auditioning and actual recording sessions; including the names and roles of the players involved
- Understand the expectations the studio has of the actor; and know what the actor can expect from the studio
- Understand all of the necessary actions to take prior to a session to ensure they arrive fully prepared
- Be able to list inappropriate studio behaviors
- Know what to do after the session ends
I thought you’d like to know I got my ice-breaker, and what an ice-breaker it is! An 8 CD ROM instructional software course! The pay is not that great, but it’s something I can brag about to the agents and casting directors. Actually I did two other sessions for a couple of indie films a couple of months ago, but I don’t count them since they were freebies. I’ll be coming in for one of your monthly brush-ups soon.
I had no idea what to expect with the Don’t Embarrass Yourself class, but I loved what David delivered. His no-nonsense, practical and insightful tips really opened my eyes to how the actual process of auditioning and recording a voice over works. I know that by following his simple, but incredibly essential strategies, I will feel much more calm, confident, and prepared when I’m eventually hired as a voice talent. Thanks, David!
I just wanted to e-mail you and let you know that I got the job. I auditioned by phone, and from what I understand, against many others they were considering from the internet. It feels great. Thank you so much for your advice on $ to charge (wages) and how to present what I wanted, they accepted my first offer. Thanks for being there to answer my questions.
Thank you for the phenomenal and practical Don’t Embarrass Yourself class. Your real-life stories were great and illustrated perfectly the principles you were teaching us.
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been tapped to do up to 50 weekly commercials for Key Food to run on Channel 2. I’ve already done two and I’m told they’ve been airing during the station’s newscasts, although I haven’t heard one yet. Anyway, things are looking up!
I took the class, Don’t Embarrass Yourself, with David Guzzone yesterday and I just wanted to let you know that it was a great class—fast moving and filled with lots of reminders and tips. It reinforced procedures that have been covered in other classes (which was good because, since it was consistent, it tended to reinforce those behaviors) and it also added new tips that are sure to help in the audition process. So, thank you again Edge Studio, for another great, information-filled and useful class that I know will help in making participants successful in this field.
I wanted to extend my sincere gratitude for your instruction of Edge Studio’s “Don’t Embarrass Yourself” webinar on Tuesday night. Edge’s classes continue to impress me as the coaches teach with such candor about the industry. Thank you for continuing this trend! In addition to your answering my questions about starting out in the business, my favorite nugget of advice from the webinar was to remember that “Auditions are fun! They are a free coaching session, a chance to act, and a collaboration.” I can get so easily worked up about the idea of having to put myself out there and audition on a regular basis. Your words were a great reminder that I can see auditions not as something I have to do but a privilege I get to do. Thank you for pointing me to this truth!
David was fabulous – funny, informative and real! He really gave me good pointers and direction
The staff is extremely accommodating and knowledgeable in their craft. I felt myself grow as a voice over artist through the classes and coaching sessions. I am grateful for all their help, and I look forward to working with them in the future. The only suggestion I might have is letting students know when their program might be expiring. I had to get an extension for my training and demo program in part because I didn’t realize that the deadline to complete my program passed until I called to schedule one of my sessions. This might have changed since I completed my program, but I wanted to suggest this change if it hasn’t been implemented yet. I have been auditioning for projects, but have yet to book work. I feel like I can market myself better. I want to work on networking, as it is something I struggle with. I would appreciate any help or feedback. Thank you for your help.
The demo you just produced for me hit the bulls eye! One of the first places I sent it to, a production company in Maryland, just hired me to do a series of national voice-over TV and radio spots for York Heating & Air Conditioning. Thanks for your help in making this moment possible.