Voices Behind the Narrative | The Business | SAG-AFTRA Foundation

[music] These are voices that you've probably heard many times, but uh now you hear you get to see the see that person in the flesh. Okay. So, let's uh jump into some questions. So, what we'll do is I have some questions that I'm going to ask and then the last portion of the night will be your questions and answers. Okay. Okay. for the panel. With the exception of audiobooks, perhaps no other form of voiceover requires that you be a good storyteller above us above all else. Would you agree with that statement? And if so, would each of you please say why in your own words? Robert, I'd like to buy a vowel. Alex, [laughter] uh, you know, I was thinking about this. You know, I think first thing we need to do is define what a storyteller is. And part of what is critically important, first of all, you don't need to be a great actor to be a storyteller. I mean, a trained actor, but what you need to be is in touch with who you are, understand what the story is, who your audience is, and be able to connect personally with that story. So, in other words, you need to be a character within the story. And I think that's what elevates uh somebody from just speaking words to somebody have a vested interest in in the story. And I'll give you an example. When I did um the Star Wars documentary, I of course I look at the script ahead of time to see what what I'm going to be doing. And I see that I get to say a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. And I know that no one has ever been able to say that in a Star Wars film. No character has said it. And here I am doing it with the approval of George Lucas. And I was excited about doing it. And this is something that we have seen. Every time you've seen a Star Wars movie, you see that crawl and those are the first words that pop up on the screen. And I was excited about doing it. And I wanted to be I wanted to do it right. But what doing it right meant for me was I needed to be honest. And I said it as I had heard it in my mind when I read it when I'm watching the movie cuz we all think that we're all saying it out loud but to ourselves. So I allowed that fandom to come through that that that love that excitement to uh to be a part of it. And I also thought this is a thank I get to say thank you to George Lucas when I'm saying this because he's he's entrusting this to me. And that's the kind of personal connection I think we need to have as really good narrators. You need to be personally involved with what it is you're doing. Find that connection. That's critically important. - Very good. Lynn, - wow. I agree with everything you just said. - Okay, moving on. as I have for 30 years. Um, [laughter] yeah, I have the the same feeling like obviously I've done so many different kinds of things. You could hear that in Avatar versus Deadly Women. Uh, very different, right? And that middle one was Coca-Cola. It was like an industrial narration for Coca-Cola, which was all about happiness. Obviously, Deadly Women, not about happiness. Uh but um you know it was very easy for me to also connect with telling the story about Pandora and the Avatar you know universe and and be you know kind of that fan person and and just love that so much. Doing Deadly Women was a whole different story because um I I really was kind of taken aback by the material. I mean the material is really heinous and horrible. And so what I had to do was kind of um I found myself um saying what what is the character like you said what is the character um within that narration and what's the attitude that that narration has to be and as I did it I I remember doing it the very first time and kind of doing it almost like a newscaster and then I was like no I'm not connecting because I'm I'm removing myself and I went through the entire script and And the producer who was in Australia said to me, "Okay, we're done." That was great. And I said, "You know, I just had an idea. Could I just like do the first page again?" And what the idea was is that I wanted to I didn't want to accept what those women were doing. I wanted to judge what those women were doing. And it became a a whole thing in judgment. It's also It's almost like um in the Twilight Zone, right? Rod Serling is the observer and he's almost judging. And that's kind of where I went. And so that became my character within the series was I was going to judge those women so that I wasn't I was not going to accept what they were doing. And that's where I think, you know, we become a character within that narration. You know, we can be the attitude of happiness or we can be the app, you know, the storyteller that, you know, is like once upon a time like in the Disney, you know, the whole Disney world, but then there are these things and you've done it too for like investigation, discovery and those kinds of places where, you know, we're a character. We're we're judging or we're outside of it or we're we're the observer. And um and I think that's what's different about, you know, being all the different characters in an audio book, per se. I'll pass it on to you, Bill. - You can be an an observer. You could have been a participant in the story. Like when I mentioned John Glenn, you know, describing what he as a participant, Bill. Yeah. The narrator is absolutely a storyteller. Different from the promo announcer tonight, hat the horror, don't look in the mirror. I mean, that's a character [laughter] who's trying to just scare the hair off your head. uh or the movie trailer, you know, that's that's closer to storyteller. [clears throat] I've been at the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee, many times, once as a participant, other times just to to support friends and to see it. And the disproportionate number of the top professional storytellers in America who you really don't see on TV um are either Methodist ministers or country singers turned storytellers. And needless to say, the poor Methodist minister whose congregation's been dwindling for 60 years has got to tell it very well. The ancient stories. And the country singer, of course, is a storyteller. Um, and Len, what Len said uh reminded me I I did a show called I almost got away with it. These are the saddest stories in the world about some poor guy or some poor woman, you know, who robbed a bank or whatever and has been on the lamb and left their children or tried to take their children to Quavaka and it just didn't work out and they finally get nabbed after all these years. And I would sit there with the producer on the phone in my ear and I'm in the booth and I would This is sad. [laughter] Bill, you okay? Everything's fine. Yeah. [clears throat] No, I mean I'm serious. This stuff was the saddest stuff in the world. And I realized that I I felt it. - And in listening to the two of you guys is very interesting - because the text that we're given to narrate is not how an American human speaks. It's just not because it has to fit in with nine seconds with before the shark kills the guy or before, you know, the rockstar falls off the stage and nearly dies. [laughter] And and so it's it's really it's language that's that's hyped up. And what I heard in both of your marvelous reads was I I kept thinking, okay, I could I don't do that. I'm going to try that [laughter] next time. Next time, next audition. And and what they did was tell the story with an with an urgency that they would they would tell the greatest most dangerous gossip in the world. - And that's really is it a character who's telling this story? It's it is the storyteller - who has a big responsibility not to freak people out, not to turn them off, not to make them fall in love with you, to be not invisible because it's an important gig. But this but the storyteller particular, I remember listening to Bur Ives records when I was a kid and he I think he was a country singer. I think that was his thing. - And so so storyteller. - Yeah. How do you get there? That's the next big question. Yeah, there's that difference by making a personal choice. It's the difference between presenting material and representing the material with your own point of view, you know, and I think that's what you were getting at. You reached a spot where when you said I wanted to try something different, you know, you had kind something clicked in you that said, I got a point of view on this now. And that's where you went with it. Right, Lynette? In that regard. - Yes. - And this and the same thing with the Star Wars thing. You had a personal connection to it. And I think when you do that, when you have that, it brings all the extra colors out in your in your read. Mary Ellen, what do you feel about that? - Definitely storyteller and um it goes along with it, but I also think that all the genres of voiceover need to be storytellers. Um but this one is so important and you're so in front. you know, most of the other commercials are are um you're just selling something else and here it's the story that you are selling and um there's a passion that comes out in these stories. I think um I've told Robert this before that, you know, I go home and nine out of 10 times Dave's got ancient aliens on [laughter] or the curse of Oak Island and it's just soothes his soul, he says. [laughter] And um I think that people just really engage with the the storytellers, - especially if you have long form. It's not it's not a 30 second commercial. That's right. Or 10. - Yeah. not a 10. It's a long form. It's a journey that you're going on with this person. - Yeah. - All the more reason take people along for the ride. Yeah. - And you pointed out the urgency - that that you picked up in their work. And that urgency brings people along too because they want to know what what's coming next. - Absolutely. - You know, the suspense of it all. And that goes back to - cavemen talking about their hunt, you know. Oh, and then this happened and then this big rhinoceros came at me and all that stuff, you know, but it's all told with a sense of personal. It's a personal tale and if a narrator does that then and he can hook you with that then you're willing to go along for the ride - and you've got a good country song. - Yeah. Or [laughter] good country. - Yeah. Good country. Exactly. All right. Great. Let me go on here. Okay. So, narrations, we touched on this a little bit. They do take different forms. Mhm. - Could you discuss some of the different forms? - Doesn't have to be down the line. Whoever feels like jumping in. - You know, - go. - Mary Ellen is is one of the top agents in the world, but I have a B with most of the big Go. Thank you. Is this thing on? [laughter] - We give classes in mic technique. - Yeah. Really? Really? I'm a I'm a storyteller. [laughter] I'm I'm sorry. Um [laughter] most when you go on voiceover resourceguide.com and and click talent agencies or go on Sunbartan or Abrams or whoever and go to narration, uh you won't see it broken down between documentary and corporate. - I see documentary narration and corporate narration as different from each other as promo and commercial. And but yet most of the talent agencies don't do that. They'll they'll have you put up a a mix. But if I were an employer, I' I'd be furious. I want this is a documentary. This is about, you know, children dying in in Nigeria. This is this is not um selling to the sales department of Coca-Cola. I'll just tell her that I'm busy. [laughter] Um so so anyway that that yes corporate is a different world and there's documentary that's that that I see as as a completely a different job. - Mhm. And then within each strata there's a different - there's good better best you know really - no when I say that I mean like you when I was saying participant versus observer within a certain you can go a different direction if it was a personal experience you might come from it a little more intimately for instance you know - well you know on my shows um like with ancient aliens part of my job is to kind of underline what's already been happening and also to kind of guide you a little it leads you as opposed to somebody who's telling you what hap what had happened. You know that's so if you understand the difference in your job as the narrator and what your job is as far as telling the story is concerned that helps you a lot - in terms of having your point of view. - Well, it's it's like on ancient aliens I need to I am the the guide. [clears throat] - I'm taking you on the journey. I'm introducing you to these people. I'm introducing you to these new new uh places. And so you're I'm asking you to come along with me on Curse of Oak Island. They're doing something and then I'm kind of underlining and reiterating and bracketing what it is that's already happened that I think you need to know that's important. So it's a slightly different perspective, - right? There's also voice over in film and we've all done it in the ADR world where we help move the plot along by a voiceover that's in a film - and that is basically narration within the framework of a film. Same thing. You're still helping the story move forward. So, you might be telling a a backstory or exposition, but you're still delivering information that moves the story along. - Yeah, the story is is king. That's paramount. - And you need to respect that and see what it is that you can do to help the story. Do you ever when uh he he talked about they tend to lump them together, Marielle Allen, do you ever when you're thinking of that, do you look at it, okay, this would be better for an industrial this this talent would be good for a talent. Yeah. For - I I think I would now um because he's right. They're all jumbled together. um similarly to um promos and then sports promos and that type of thing that they're just too similar but totally different and um I think that the there's so I I hear so many young people young people people come in um lately and really are interested in doing documentaries or narrations and um they ask all about that And for me, I'm I'm thinking, don't you want to go where the money is? - You know, so it's it's yes, that that we can do for you, but there's also other things we would like you to do, - right, - and be able to do, - right? - So, um, yeah, I think that's a great idea is to have them separate because they're so different. They're really different like promos and commercials. It's funny you say because in the sports world like Nike and Gatorade, even in some of their commercials, they've gotten into an almost narration-like style, - you know. So, it's not it's obviously a good skill to have, - you know. [snorts] Real quick, throw this out to you in their narrations. You all heard them, you heard all of them. Did you pick up a common thread in any of them? Go ahead. - Oh, yeah. Very clear. intimacy. - Intimacy. - Um like [snorts] very easy to listen to like - right - like you're like grounded tone. - Grounded. - Specific. - Yeah. That's getting closer to what I'm thinking. You notice how they break a sentence up into individual images and they really take the time to paint the picture for you, - you know, and there's all these little pauses at all the right spots. And that's all about making sure the visual is there, you know, for you. And that's a big difference between that, say, in a commercial read. That's - And I think that's bringing their honesty to it. - Yes. - You know, that's bringing Bill to it. That's bringing Lenan to it. That's great. - And their own individual rhythm. Yep. - That kind of thing. - Yeah. I think it's really important for us, - I know for me that I visualize what it is that's happening. If I can see it, then I can give you that information. And if I don't see it and I'm still saying the words, there's no way that you're going to see it. - Right. - So, it's incumbent upon me to make that effort. - Right. And it's incumbent upon you to know your own voice well enough to know how to bring that effort. - Yeah. - Bring it through. - Yeah. I just would like to just talk about the the rhythm, you know, the cadence kind of a thing. Um, in my show it started out where we I was just a normal narrator um, telling a story and then as it progressed they started to direct me to be almost this character of being a murderer. And um, so I did one whole season where it was all about being I was just the murderer. And then Discovery came back the next season and said we don't want that. Uh, we want we want more of a storyteller. Could Linan please tell the story in the beginning? Be nice. You know, on September 19th, 1933, this happened and then make a turn when it became deadly. Um, they started to direct me with this rhythm that was really slow and I I couldn't be too slow. So it was almost like this woman Linan Zagger put arsenic [laughter] in his tea and I would be like I'd start to like feel like oh my god what I have to move this along and they would say no just even slower [laughter] and so that became the rhythm of the show and I had to find a way to still tell the story using that rhythm and that cadence that came out of me, but it also was the how the the the network Discovery Investigation wanted that. It was really interesting. So, every if you listen to different seasons, there's 14 seasons. The voice is different, I think, in every season. And in the beginning, it's very light and then it gets it gets like darker and darker and then I tried to meld it together so that I was I would be more of a storyteller. Um, and then also I would I would always have to go and like have a frozen yogurt when I was done. [laughter] You know, they would be like, "Do you want you're gonna go have a cocktail?" And I would go, "No, no, I just gonna have a frozen yogurt." [laughter] But every, you know, cuz I I was very affected by what was happening in the show. And like you said, you sometimes wanted to cry. I mean, I I finally started saying, "I don't want to do shows about children. - Please don't. I don't, you know," and they were like, "Yeah, we're gonna go away from that." So that was kind of interesting this whole, you know, the thing you're talking about with the cadence and the rhythm. - Yeah. That kind of leads into my next question maybe that when you walk in, they don't always know exactly what they want direction-wise. They may like your voice. Big fine. Now unlike David Atenboroough where they just sit back and shut up and let him do his thing, you know, because he is who he is. In your case, do you find that they will work with you out of the gate once they get you into the studio, or do you find them on the whole pretty set in their ways where they want to go direction-wise? - No, I you're absolutely right. They they may like the quality of your voice. They've heard this demo, - but they don't exactly know. They they're producers or directors or writers. They're not voiceover artists. They don't know how to do it. And so, so you're what what Paul just said is absolutely correct. They don't know exactly what they want until they hear it. And so we have to be willing to just do it. - The the [clears throat] first take is going to be a little dumb, a little dry, a little a little not there, and then let me do it again. And you want a little softer, a little something. And you can hear them shaping it. You can hear them uh coming up with what they want, which makes the job really interesting for us. Mhm. - Um the biggest question for me uh is is how how to get there, how to get to that voice in you. And my theory is no matter when you've been born, your mother was walking around uh TV and and film uh and the radio when you were in utero, we've heard it all. We have heard 10,000 voices, 10,000 Oscar-winning actors, the best narrators in the world from the time we're until we're seven years old. We've heard it all. So all those voices and that interp is there. The question is, how do you get it out of your mouth? And I have a dear friend who had a terrific uh television career, Jiuliard trained actor, and he said, "Am I Asian get into this voiceover thing?" And u came to my house. He was a friend and I put him in the booth, gave him some copy and he read it exactly like this, like the Titanic was sinking and it was 1918. And I said, "Do you know what you sound like, man? You sound like the Titanic is sinking and you're on it." And he said, "No, I don't." And I played it back for him and he was shocked. Somehow in his head as a trained actor, that was voice over. That's that's what he automatically that's what came out of his unconscious. And so for me, what comes out of my unconscious for every audition is a 1977 suburban uh FM music announcer, not because I want to be that guy, but that's kind of who is there. - Yeah. and and so the work is to find and when again when I listen to the these demos that was played of these guys they're they're they're reaching for the drama in a very interesting way that is not exactly how they would speak to me at a party but they've got just they're just dialing it in and why it's the ability to hear yourself sounds simple enough well I hear myself but I don't think we do. I think that's the hardest thing in the world is to listen to yourself. Oh, I can't stand my voice. You've heard everybody in the world say or the trained actor. Well, I hear my voice and I blah blah blah. Well, then why are you talking to because in the thinking the Titanic is sinking. So if you can learn, do it at home. Use your iPhone, be a geek, geek out on voiceovers and spend some time, come here to these fabulous lab courses and listen to yourself and go, "What the hell do I sound like? What do I want to sound like?" Probably these two guys demos. [laughter] [clears throat] Well, well, part of it is understanding who you are. And uh in voice over we have something we call vocal signatures. And I remember that a casting director gave me a great vocal signature. She said approachable intelligence. And it sound so I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I could be as dumb as a box of doornobs, but I sound like I know what I'm talking about. [clears throat] - And it's also not off-putting. It's engaging. I'm I'm drawing you in. So, if you want to understand who you are, what you sound like, ask the people that know you. If they were to describe you to somebody that had never met you, how would they describe you? Now, of course, with Paul, we'd say, "He's brilliant. He's your master." - Say, "Intelligent donuts." That's what I would say. - But that that kind of gives you a clue and I and I and I took that to heart and I went, "Okay." And I heard it here tonight. People were saying it was very soothing. It's very nice. It's pleasant to listen to. So, I I accept that. I've had people come up to me who uh listen to ancient Aliens and they say, "I fall asleep to you. You put me to sleep, but in a good way." - That's - And I say, "Thank you. That's nice." - As long as the check clears. - Yeah. Ex Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Stay up to cash the check. - That's good. - Coming. I worry about the people who fall asleep to deadly women. [laughter] - I have friends who tell me they they said, "I just like to listen to you at night before I go to sleep." I'm like, "What? [laughter] I I recognize a few people. I teach a class here called finding your signature voice and I recognize a few. Uh any of this ringing coming ringing through? You know, - we talk about we spend five days getting to know each other. - Yeah. And the whole idea is that a house has a foundation, - you know, and and if that foundation is not you, you can take all the commercial technique classes in the world, all the promo technique classes, and you're going to end up trying to sound out like sound like somebody else. But if you can find out who you are and what you do best and be you, just be you. No matter what, once you're in that zone, not only will you not get thrown, people will have a much clearer idea of who you are. And that's where that's where the magic can happen. - So So what taking off what what Robert just said about that direction. I read today and I have it glued to my computer a guy named Joe Felhower uh who was a promo guy here and then he went to a Texas TV station and I was doing um narrations for a hospital and uh he here's the direction he gave me and I I literally I I read it every day. Um, close to the mic, dry, quiet. You hate the copy. You hate me. [laughter] And you're an - I That is word for word the best direction I've ever got in my life. - Yeah. - Can you give us an example? - What I What I couldn't - He's doing it now. - Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. - What I what I couldn't what I couldn't get in his copy was I was being a nice guy. My default read was I was this hospital da da da da. And he could hear [laughter] it. That's not what he wanted. - And I I thought, okay, okay, okay. Close to the mic dry. I hate the copy. And I literally I'm supposed to I'm an actor, right? Okay. I hate the copy. I hate you and I'm an And I ended up giving the best read that I've ever given in my life. - Yeah. Yeah. But that's that's how difficult it still is - to hear yourself and try to do whatever you can do to get the read that sounds right. It's a it's it's - to be you. - It's not a secret. It's just really weird work. Like the sketch artist, you know, who draws a thousand pictures of cigarette butts and beer cans and suddenly becomes David Hawkchney. Literally, - right? - Yeah. [snorts] Dairo said, "One of the hardest things you can do is nothing. Just be yourself." That's one of the hardest things to learn. And that applies to acting and and voiceovers in the same way. Um, I'm sure everybody here would like to know how you broke in into the narration biz and how you personally got your first break on it. Um, well, I was always interested in storytelling. One of the things that I would do as a kid was I would read stories out loud that I had never read before and try to have them make sense while I was reading it. So, in other words, one eye is looking at the word that I'm saying. The other eyes over here trying to find out where I'm going, whether it's an exclamation point or a question mark or whatever it might be. That was something that I did for fun. And I would challenge myself to see if I could have fun doing the story. And I did that a lot. So now that when I go into the studio, I don't need to see the script in advance. When I do Ancient Aliens, Curse Voke Island, I don't get the script in advance. I don't do any rehearsal at all because I know that I'm good about getting the words off of the page. And what I want to do is I want to be influenced by what it is I'm seeing. Something I I I'm about to read something and I think it's amazing. For example, on ancient aliens, they said that the great pyramid of Giza is actually the where it's located on the earth is the longitude in meters per second of the speed of light. It's like, what? How is that possible? That's crazy. And that amazed me. So, when I got to say it, that that emotion that I had was still there. So, I trust that I'm going to be bringing what I find interesting and I will convey that. and if I find it if I find it dull, it's going to I think it's dull. I'll be honest with it. So, that's kind of how I got into it. And then, of course, you know, the first major major job I got was uh working with George Lucas and Star Wars and he and Kevin Kevin Burns, the late Kevin Burns, heard something that they liked and I was just honest and I was present in the moment. And since then it's it's turned into hundreds if not thousands of hours of of narration on television. You know, uh when I listen to myself sometimes on the show, I think, God, that kind of sounds a little bit weird and it's kind of a little bit crazy. But I found that some of the things that I do have turned into catchphrase phrases. - I went to a to a convention and I said, you know, the show says, "Ancient astronaut theorists say yes." And I saw people wearing t-shirts that said that. And then all of a sudden I saw people that had t-shirts that said could it be because they like the way I said could it be or is it possible or what if it were true? And when I do that now when I said when I say ancient astronaut theorist say yes I know the audience is looking forward to hearing that there actually are drinking games - that people have. Right. - That's awesome. - And so I kind of like give a little wink to the audience when I'm doing that. I include I'm doing that for you. I'm having fun. Here's me having fun. I hope you enjoy it. So, it's uh yeah, - I don't know if that answers the question, but it's something I wanted to say. [laughter] - It was fun to listen. I - I want to see a t-shirt that says you're an [laughter] - Like to say, whatever works, you know, and Lanne, I can't wait to hear your story. [laughter] - Well, I think my my story actually also started as a child. I loved telling stories and I used to my father gave me a realtoreal tape recorder. Yeah. First he gave me a dictaphone which he had because he was a lawyer and he would interview us like starting when I was about 5 years old he would actually interview us. So I learned to try to to be an interviewer of my brothers and stuff like that. But um my father loved good narration and he introduced me to Alexander Scorby - who um was one of the first people that I mean he was like in the 30s right but he was he did the Bible I think he was one of the first people who actually narrated the Bible before James Earl Jones did it and uh and I would listen to Burgess Meredith that was one of the people that I really loved and Lloyd Bridges and I don't know why as a child like I was fascinated by them and I would be like well where are the You know, there were no women narrators when I was growing up. There was nothing. Um, I think where I started, my voiceover narration was in ADR. I I started out really young in the world of ADR and they would have me narrate within the movie. So, I would be doing like a narration at a museum. So, you'd hear me at the museum welcoming people or doing, you know, telling the story of the brown bear or something at the natural history museum. and um and I love doing those kinds of things. Newscasters, computers, all of that came out of ADR. So um that took me, you know, into this direction. And um and also Mark Elliott, if you remember, who is a a really wonderful promo announcer, but he was the voice of Disney. He did every Disney promo and he would do all those things where he'd introduce the books of, you know, and the and I he was an idol of mine. So him and Dawn and uh all of those those those those men coming up, you know, George Aoyo and stuff, I just loved listening to them and I thought I'm going to be a woman doing what they do. And where I lost myself in a little bit was I thought, oh, they I'm going to be the I'm going to be the female Don La Fontaine. And so I do auditions. I don't know if you remember this where I would be like I would actually say in a world, you know, and they go, "We Lan, we don't want that from you." And then I I got auditions for the WWE like narration for W. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, the WWE that's for me." And um they would be like, "No, but we want sex. We don't want that thing that the men do. We want what a woman would do." So I started to soften my voice and and to be connected more with myself, my own signature. I do believe also that we all have a voiceover signature and it's based in for me, it's based in who I am. um and connecting with the material. I can only be truthful as an actor. I I do believe that you need to be a good actor to be a good voiceover actor that you have to be a good actor. - And I'm sorry. There are certain people walk in and I think you have people that come to you and are interested in narration for the same love that they have - for words. - It's a passion. [clears throat] It definitely needs to be a passion. I was thinking when you said you need to be an actor. We find that musicians can really tell a story and I think because they're singing a story. - Well, I think voiceover actors in a way are musicians just with words. - Absolutely. - You know, so - Led Zeppelin. - Yeah. - In that regard, you know. [laughter] Yeah. That's, you know, that's a really good point. I liken what we do, whether it's narration or promo or commercials, the closest thing career-wise is the studio musician, - you know, the Jimmy Kimmel band or the, you know, because within five minutes they're said, "No, no, it's not Portuguese, it's Brazilian. It's a whole different thing." Oh, but I was looking at the chart and they've got to do it. They've got to come up with the the voice that's that's Portuguese that's not Brazilian. And uh they've got to do it fast. have got to do it right. They've got to do it uh you know in with their own specific you know if they're the read section or string section and and that's what we do. - Yeah. I mean anybody with enough training can learn to play a piano or a guitar by wrote but they count on the studio musician to bring it to life. And that's the difference, you know, not just being able to play it, but be able to ingest something to it, which is when you go into a session. In fact, let's go to that now. Let's say you get a gig brand new. - Describe a day of a job for you from beginning to end from the moment you walk in, what goes on during the day, how you feel it ends up, where where the collaborative process comes into play and all that. So, this is after uh I've had my team of lawyers go over the contract and made sure that my advanced team make gets rid of all the brown M&M's. - Right. Right. Okay. Right. Yeah. And and after the limo's dropped you off and they'll come [laughter] - um you know, it depends on on the on the client. If it's a new client, obviously, uh I I like to do my research ahead of time to know who who it is I'm working for, uh what other projects they've done to kind of get a sense of what they have done in the past, so I get a clue as to what the tonality might be or the uh the type of piece that it's that it's going to be. With um the shows that I narrate currently, it's certainly much more of a collaborative process. I um you know I call myself the last line of defense because if I say it, it's going to be on the air essentially, right? - So if I don't understand something, I have them explain it to me. If I I think something is factually wrong, I'll question that. I'll make sure that the pronunciation is correct. Um all all that come comes into play - or read doesn't come off the tongue smoothly. - Yeah. you know, just and and we do it we do it rather rather quickly when I go in, you know, I'll read it once out loud just to make sure I got all the all the words right, make sure the pronunciation is correct. - And um then we do it like two or three times. That's that's about it. And they're uh they're pretty happy with what what we've got. And then we - And you have some lunch, - huh? - And you have some lunch. - Oh, yeah. Oh, heck yeah. That's critically important. I I the studio that I work at for Ancient Aliens in the Cursed Oak Island, I'm so blessed. They actually have a chef that comes in that cooks everybody lunch at the studio. And so I kind of coordinate my session so that I can either go in there before lunch, finish up, and then have lunch or after lunch. So I can go there early and have lunch and then do my thing. So it's, you know, we we go in, we we smoo for a little bit. uh we we try to keep things light and when I go in, you know, we don't take it too seriously. We we're doing the work, but at the same time, we're having fun doing what we're doing. - And that's critically important. I remember early on in my career, an agent told me when I wasn't working, went through a period of time where I wasn't working so much. He said, "Robert, you're not having any fun." - And I realized, you know, you're right. You know, too many times actors, we uh we put the pressure of the world on our shoulders. We think that everything we're doing is so critically important and we we're all replaceable. So you have to have a certain amount of humility. Um you know and be thankful uh that you're have the opportunity to do what it is you are doing because a lot of people don't have that opportunity. So I'm thankful each and every day. So I go in I don't do anything crazy the night before. I'm prepared. I'm ready to to do it and yeah we work together and get it done. Yeah, - Brian Cranston used to say he used to go into audition in rooms and he's trying to figure out who everybody is in the room and it would make him crazy. He finally decided I'm doing this because I love it. I'm going to go in and please myself first and everything changed for him. - Yeah. - At that point. - Yeah. He looked at it as an opportunity to perform instead of audition. - Exactly. Exactly. - He supplemented his income with commercial work. - Right. There you go. There you go. How are we doing on time to u what is it 7-Eleven? That means seven minutes left. That's it. Oh, we better get to questions then. [laughter] I'm sorry. Okay. Where's Wendy? Wendy. There. Wendy. - Seven. - As AI voices become increasingly convincing, what do you believe human narrators can do uniquely well that clients and audiences will continue to value? And how should emerging narrations or narrators rather develop those qualities? I I'd like to answer that. Um, I I played Flint on on 52 episodes of G.I. Joe All-American Hero and we still go to ComicCons and so on and there's a huge fan base and they're now making fan videos and with great panic my my onscreen love interest Mary McDonald Lewis Lady Jay sent this 12minute GI Joe and there's you know there there's a lot of there's not so much traditional narration but there's acting characters talking and exposition and I listened to me and she was in a panic look happened. We sent it to our agents. What do we do? And I sounded exactly the same age I was at the time that I recorded. I don't know, 36 years old. But I sounded like I couldn't read very well. - Mhm. - And I thought, you know what? AI robots, are they really going to do it? I ain't worried about it. I mean, can they do tonight at 5? Yes. And can they do Coca-Cola tastes great? Yeah. I mean there probably will be less work but in terms of narration no the New York Times and the and the Washington Post apps started using AI voices you know this this will take 12 minutes to read this article and click here for audio and they went back to live narrators because so many uh subscribers said we're cancelling we don't want robots and um I'm sure they're probably they've sneaking in a robots these days, but especially narration, they just a robot just can't do it. They can they can get the voice. - They're distracting. - Yes. And they can get - for our ears. - Yeah. - They can get the quality of the voice down, but in terms of interp, this is not just like, oh, I wish this were true. Damn it, those little Use a voice. That's not it. I just could listen to it and I could hear what they do. It just ain't that great. Is it going to get better? I've had techies say, "Well, it's going to get a lot better." Yeah. So, yeah. So is my government. So is my [laughter] so is traffic. Yeah. Let's see. Uh let's see. Mark Makoa. Did I pronounce that right? Mark. Okay. Mark says, "What separates actors or voiceover performers who consistently get work from those who struggle to find work?" Performers who build big successful careers? What do they do well? performance, professionalism, relationships, and approach. I think we kind of covered that is knowing yourself well and - and keep taking classes. - Yeah. - Absolutely. Never stop taking classes. - Just keep going. - Yeah. You have to be a good actor. That's critically important. I mean, we've seen that on the ADR stage. People that are doing simple stuff, just efforts have I worked with a guy, he was nominated for an Olivia award and he's going, "Oh, come on. the level of people that are out there are making it a living in voice over. I would say every one of them - is a very very talented actor. You can get away with not, you know, with with great looks and do well on camera. I mean, you did that with uh Saturday Night Live. [laughter] - We're all set. - Remember it well. [laughter] But yeah, it's because there's nothing to hide behind when it's a microphone. It's it's either the truth or it's not. The microphone is a detector. It knows whether you're lying or not. - Great. I want to get try to get everybody in so I want to rush through this. Uh David, is it Freighting or can you pronounce it? David, sorry. - Fing. Okay. I apologize. Okay. In a firsterson narrative, should we avoid or suppress the character's emotions? No. Well, no. Never. I would never suppress the emotion, but you're going to do what your producers want you to do, you know, but if they're hiring you um for who you are, then they they hear something in your voice and what you did in the audition that that obviously moved them and they feel will be really good to tell the story. So, but I would say lean into the emotion. um you know because you want people who are listening to you to be moved and to want to listen to you and they don't like I mean obviously we can that would the AI thing came up but even like I do computer voices and if I had to do a whole narration for two hours in a computer voice you know you wouldn't after five you know five seconds you wouldn't want to listen to me so you need to have that to you know the story the up and down the flow all of that so I encourage you to do that - Katie there's Katie Mary Ellen, let me direct this one to you. What are all the ways of finding or auditioning for narrative voiceover work? And what sticks out to you about a person when they come in? Let me just add that in there, too, that you go, "Oh, they could they could do that. They could do that kind of work." - Well, usually when they come into us, we've already vetted them as far as their demos and um the classes that they've taken and um and any kind of work that they have done. um because of where we are, it's usually people who have done work in the their field. Um the believability is a big one and which is I think what we're all talking about as far as um knowing who you are and um and having that come through, having your truth come through even though you don't believe in it sometimes. What Was that what it was? - I'm an - You're an You're not an Um, yeah. - Because Bill has cornered that market. [laughter] - Can I train with you to be an [laughter] - I'm I'm in. - So, um, Sir John Oh, John Preston, how you doing, man? Um, good. Good. Um, I think this could be go out to anybody and maybe Bill, I'll direct this to you. Um, because it was it led into one of the questions I didn't get to ask. You're a veteran of many years, many different forms of voiceover, right? What has changed when it comes to doing this kind of narration work from say 15 to 20 years ago? And John and John's question was, please describe how things have changed on your approach and delivery since you first started up. Well, you know, the the big boys announcer, the male uh reigned supreme from 1921, the first radio until, you know, maybe the 60s. And then everyone said, you know, we are sick of this guy. We don't know what he thinks or feels. He's selling everything from stoves to candy. Uh we want actors. And that that was the direction on every piece of copy that I got for years. We want actors. And then a couple of decades later into the 90s and early 21st century, we want real people. - And what Paul just said, the hardest thing in the world for an actor to do is to do nothing. Is to not act, - not [clears throat] pretend, not not think that the Titanic is is sinking. And so styles do change. But again, I listening to these guys demos, um there was a very they didn't sound like announcers to me. They didn't sound like uh they were uh experiencing or trying to communicate deep emotion per your question. Um they sounded like robot. No, no, no. I'm sorry. [laughter] I didn't I didn't slipped out. - Mine was completely AI, just so you know. [laughter] Um, so, so they they they sounded contemporary and so there is and then and then there's something about that there's a trick to that I would say and really answer to to your question to listen that's what they tell writers if you're a poet read poets read read if you're a voice actor listen to the people who are working and what you're going to hear is the style of now that what Are they what are they buying? It's a commercial market. These are commercial enterprises. We are we don't we are not quote creative artists. I consider myself an artist, but I'm a commercial artist, which and I'm and I'm proud of it. I'm not creating the copy. I'm not creating the show. I'm interpret I'm an interpretive artist. And what are they buying? So listen to us. Listen to our demos. Listen to all the demos that are on every agency that you've ever heard of. and you go, "Ah, this why is she working? Why is he working? He's terrible. Oh, I really love this. This is something I can't do. I want to do that. I'm going to listen." Just like the rock and roller I, you know, I listen to and I play every lick that Chuck Barry ever until I could do it myself. Keith Richards. - So, we unfortunately we could probably go on for another hour. We're we're out of time. That went pretty quick. But uh one thing I I'll leave you with is something that Don taught me well. And he said, and I think it especially applies to narrators. And he said, "To be a good voiceover artist, you have to have a love affair with words. - You have to have a love affair with words." Every single word has a different meaning. Take a sentence, stretch it out. Every word has something. When you run them on, sometimes you miss what they mean. And I think these folks are brilliant at breaking that down into the individual nuances that each word uh means. So I want to thank them for coming and joining us tonight. Thank you for being here. - Thank you. [applause]