Transcripts
1. Introduction: Happy Holidays. Welcome back. And if you are coming
to this later, I M M. J. Clark. We are currently in the holiday
season, December of 2021. So whatever point in time
you do get to this video, I hope you had a great holiday, a great end to your year. And now we're getting
into the new stuff. So at this point, I
would like to say if you have not yet seen my previous set of courses learning voice
impressions and voice acting. That for beginners, go
back and watch those. It's nine videos is 37
minutes or so long. Okay. Not too bad at all. I would advise you to go back, watch those, and then come
back and continue to hear. Considering that this
isn't going anywhere. Now, coming up in the
following lessons, we are going to be
going over accents, but in a bit more depth, we're going to be going over auditioning practices for voice acting somewhat in depth
and some good techniques, things that will
definitely give you the tools to further this skill. All right, because at
the end of the day, you're watching this to
learn something new, to be able to do something new. And in order to do that, this is going to
require practice. A lot of practice,
it really does. But that doesn't mean that, you know, that's impossible. Hard work pays off. And especially with
techniques like these where we're talking about
vocal manipulation, vocal control, the ability to learn new things
with your voice, things you probably didn't
even know you can do. That doesn't just
happen overnight. So please haven't yet go back to this previous videos and then come back with the
rest of the class here. So grateful that
everybody who made it through the previous
lessons is come back and for anybody who's
coming in now. Thank you guys. My name is Jay Clark, actor, voice actor, and former professional
wrestler as well. I didn't mentioned
that last time, but since I'm starting to get you guys in more and
more often and figure It's nice to let you know
a little bit more about me the more we go
forward. All right. Let's do it.
2. Equipment: All right, First things up in less than one guy's equipment. Now equipment is
important when you are learning a new
skill like this. Now, you don't need the
most expensive toys. It just starts off with two very simple things
that you will need. A camera and a microphone. Now, the camera is
so you can really see your work in your facial
expressions, voice acting. A big part of that is, even though your
physical presence is not on screen, are on camera, you are still emoting
in order for you to truly get in the head of your
characters and your voices, you need to feel like them. Here's an example. When I do mark Hamel's joke or whenever I pull that out
and do an impersonation, I go crazy with it. I feel in my head, I feel is methodical nature. Come on, Batman. And you can't stop me before the cookbook strikes midnight. I am going to plunge Gulf
immune to the spoon much debt that'll be begging
me to rob banks and other cities just
to pay the booms. Right there. You see how I
physically got into it. It's like a transformation. That is something
very important. But see, there's a difference. I can hear that voice, I can hear the change. I can hear my performance
coming through. But I need to see my performance as well
as it's going to really helped me not only feel the character
through the microphone, but it can help me visualize my own transformation
into the character. And that in turn, helps me
get deeper into the voice, deeper into the psychology
of my vocal manipulation. A camera is great for that. You can use your regular
smartphone camera or any other camera that you have the ability to
record and playback on. Completely fine. You don't need to spend money. Use the tools available. You can also use the
microphone that's already built in to your phone. Or you can go to your
nearest store of any kind that sells
anything like that, like maybe a super center or
something of that nature. They also have things
like lapel mics, lot of Lear's, things
of that nature. You can, if you have the
money or you want to try and work with more
advanced equipment, get yourself a
microphone like this. This is a condenser mike. That's a USB condenser
microphone that I use a C type adapter and I plug into my actual phone
for recording. Now because it is
plugged into my phone, I'm not getting the best results that I wrote on my laptop, but the camera on my
laptop is subpar. So because this is
so important to me, I made a point that
if I couldn't make the equipment work for me
with what I already had, I would go the extra step
and adapt it to work for me. Okay. And that's all that really is. Use what you have available. And if you are that person that does want to
do a little more than go get the equipment
you need for availability, but it doesn't have to be
something that breaks the bank. You are just getting started. You got to work your way
up to certain things, just all your voices, and that is okay. It's a big part of
lesson number 1. Your equipment is important, but it's not the most
important thing. You are the most
important thing to your performance or
with what you have. Tweak as you go and
you will be just fine. All right guys, that is the
end of this first lesson.
3. Understanding & Approaching Accents: Hey guys. Next lesson is understanding
and approaching accents. Now with approaching accents, the important thing to
understand as everything is region specific, okay? And America, we've got
how many regions and how many different
sounding people you go to Philly,
they sound different. You go to Boston,
they sound different. You go to New York,
completely different. You go to the Midwest,
completely different. You go deep south,
completely different. You go to the complete opposite
coast on the west end. Completely different. Now it's the same
thing in just about every country in
the world, okay? You can go to
England and you have regular prim posh
English accents. Then you've got your cock knee, your looser job,
Liverpool accents. You've got your Northerners. You've got all those
different things. It's, it's the same almost
everywhere that you go. The important thing to realize when you're trying to approach or learning accent is one. You need to be ready to try and immerse yourself
in that dialect. And that axon is much
as you possibly can. I mean, watches
many interviews of the same one actor or actress with an accent
that you enjoy. Maybe pick Benedict
Cumberbatch or Tom Holland, and then maybe switch over to an older school English
accent like an act like Michael Caine or
somebody like that. Okay. To understand, not
only do dialects change of as time goes on. And I mean, talking. As far as generational
gaps, Michael Caines, old school English versus some like Tom Holland's English. We're talking a 50
to 60 year gap. Okay. As far as the dialects that
could have changed and adapted throughout that entire
period of open time, okay, which means vowels can change words, can change, inflections, can change, regions can
completely change and 180 their dialects in
that amount of time. So if you're trying
to stay modern, you're trying to stay much more current than follow
a much younger. Let's just use the England
or British as an example. Use a younger English or
British actor as a template. And consistently give yourself
a considerable amount of time to constantly subject yourself to this
person's interviews, their movies, the
way they speak, the way that air seems to
escape their mouth when they make words with
a purse, their lips. The way that they hang
on the end of words, the way they inflect. That is the best
way to complete. Copy somebody's accent or voice. Tom Edelstein, who plays Loki. And the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, is a great example. Rightfully ask God, and I
think that's a great example. I spent forever. Now maybe that voice
isn't perfect. But understand that when
you heard me speak, I spoke with a
conviction and with a confidence that when I
was saying those words, I wasn't hesitating
on any consonant, a vowel anyway it sounded. I've listened to Tom had
Allston speak for years. I have watched loci on repeat. I have seen every movie
Tom adults than has been in whether he's in an
American speaking accent, a Southern speaking accent, or in his regular native tongue, subjected myself to him
time and time again. I also understand that the
way that vowels a, e, I, o, u, and sometimes y, because that's the rule. I understand that an English
and American English, that's going to sound
completely different versus the way that maybe for him back home,
a vowel sounds. So let's say, if I
said in my English, hey, I gotta go to the bathroom. Now let's see. I'm terribly sorry. I've got to go to the bathroom. Notice how I said bathroom. Act through. He said fall through
the bathroom. That's the vowels for a correct. But regionally, that sound
changes based on the dialect. Okay? You got to understand the
region in which you are trying to practice and
practice, practice, practice, while also maintaining the
rules of that dialects, vowels and consonants, as well as how tight is their
jaw when they're speaking? How loose is their jaw
when they're speaking? If I was going to top like
I was from school and Scottish people have very loose Joel's when they speak
very, very loose. But if people from
Ireland tighter, I'm from Maryland
or from bowman. Much tighter, tighter,
tighter, jolt. The way that we
speak everywhere. Everything is tolerate her. Need to understand that based on where you are in a country, in a state, in a region,
everything is different. So don't try to put it in generalization of an accent
on an entire region. Just because, you know, that guy sounds British, he's not, his voice
doesn't speak for all British people's voices. His voice speaks on his region. Where is he from? The house I grew up in. What did his vocal
cords copy from talking to his parents,
listening to them. Because a lot of times
the way you speak is completely dependent upon the environment
which you raised him. I talk like this because I'm adopted and my mother
is from a very, very, you know, business class. Work from nothing to
something type of background. I'm a dot. My mother is a Caucasian lady who used to do nothing
but management. Her father worked to the Space
Center when she was a kid. So needless to say, she was highly educated. So when I learned to speak, the way that I speak, copied the way that she spoke. I learn to speak highly educated
or at least very clean, without any type of a
bottleneck or any break in any kind of my
speech patterns. You know, I'm not yo yo yo
was going on it was donate. It was I don't want to
hear what noise, bro. I don't have that. You know, I'm very, very
straightforward. Okay? But the guy next to
me might not be. Focus on your vowels, focus on your consonants. Immerse yourself obsessively in the ACS and to really get it and practice,
practice, practice. Guys, that's accents.
4. Approaching Auditions: So welcome back to the next lesson. This is approaching auditions. Now approaching auditions can
be a bit of a menial task, but at the same time, there is still a practice
on how you would want to go about this or
approached this. And when I say approach it, I'm talking about the process in which you're going
to actually submit your audition itself
so that you'll be doing voice acting or
a voice recording. This won't be a camera audition, but this will be a recorded
audition that you will then send to the audition
knees are auditioning. There's now the first thing is the specific ways
that most voice over or most voice acting auditions
are done as far as creating it your audition
and then thus sending it out is the conversion
of your file. Once you've begun, are already finished your actual audition, you're going to send it
to the appropriate source that will be provided to
you for that audition. But it needs to be an either
a wav or an MP3 format. These are the traditional
ways that auditions are actually saved
and sent so they can be filed and thus
read or listened to by the actual auditioning
staff and the casting staff. And that's important. You don't just record
it on your phone, on a on a camera and
then e-mail the file? No, it needs to be specifically
in WA for MP3 format. That is standard practice, at least at this
time of recording. Second thing is, and
a lot of auditions, usually live auditions, There's
a process called sliding. Sliding is, Hi, I'm
John Doe reading for the part of John Van Dam. And this is whatever that's sliding when you are
introducing yourself. And then the part that you
are actually here for. You don't really need
to do that with voice acting or voice-over auditions. They are listening
to your voice on a recording for that audition when you send it in, initially, you don't need to sleep for that because they're
already going to have the files in which you
have sent it to them and properly labeled for
them, for your file. They're already going
to know that character based on the way that you have properly labeled in
your actual file. Because you do need
to do that and they will tell you specifically, this is what it needs to say in the format when you e-mail it. And they're going to have
the information in front of them based on the character you're, you're auditioning for. They already know, so they
don't need you to sleep. So don't mean to
recording going. Hi, I'm Tyler
Steven's reading for the part of Sally Jane
Bob, don't do that. They already know
you want it to be. Point B is somewhat straightforward as you can
on the actual audition. Read the section that you're
auditioning for that they want you to recite and
then send off to them. Try not to over AD. Don't put any music
in the background. Don't have someone else
reading off for you and don't read for the other
character that you're, might be speaking you're
interacting with in the script. Stick to your lines. And your lines only
don't do extra. They want it to be
quick and to the point, they don't want
it to be overdone and an overblown and audition or they're going to go, okay. Next, we don't like
that there's too much going on for me to focus on the actual file in which I'm listening to and you're
going to get passed up on. So remember that, pay attention to the original
audition sheets. Pay attention to how
they want the format converted and sent, whether it be MP3 or Wab. Make sure you're paying attention to them
when they are saying, this is what it needs
to be labeled as in the audition file when
you send it to us, make sure you do all of
that and no slaving, guys. Thank you very much. You enjoy the rest of your day. What you're going to see in
the next lesson, Bye bye.
5. Creating A Good Demo: So next lesson, everybody, creating a good demo. Now, creating a good demo can
take a little bit of time. And the reason that is is because in order to
have a good demo, you need to actually
have material you've already done and
recorded material that you can actually
pull from and then edit together and create
this amazing demo. Now, with an amazing demo, you want to have one
consistent factor and that is going
to be clean audio. Do not want popping and fizzing and crackling and all of that. And I'm sure that
there are probably times during these lessons, even in my own
condenser microphone, you can probably hear my chair or maybe my dog because he winds a lot or maybe the
outside street. That is not anything that you
want to have in your demo. You want a crisp, clean, straight through from character to character to character. That is what you need
for a clean, good audio. If you do not want popping, fizzing music in the background, you don't want other people
talking in the background. You don't want to hear the outside world around
you in your demos. Your demo is supposed
to be professional. It is something that
you need to have. So when you send it
off to someone going, Hey, this is what
I am capable of. They're gonna go, Wow,
this is professional. I want to bring this guy in
or this girl and I want to hear this person on a
microphone in front of me. Let's see what they can do. And that's not going to happen. If in the background
they're hearing birds and the motorcycles
and someone's dog running around the house
and kids screaming, it's not going to
be good for them. They're gonna go blue. This person can't even
get me clean audio. They couldn't even be
bothered to do that. Next, clean audio is a must-have for any audition for
vocal or voice-over. It's not traditionally the same. If you're going to a
place to audition, they're already going to have a soundproof booth or they're already if your voice acting
or not even voice acting, if you're recording
for a live role, you're not going to need
to worry about that. They're going to
have all of that taken care of on their side. This all comes down to you. If you are the ones
sending your audition out, then it becomes 100% dependent
upon your ability to create a clean audio in a clean atmosphere
for your audio, we record it and that is
a must, an absolute must. Thank you guys. We will
see you next time.
6. Working With Your Space: If you're working with your space. Now what I mean by
working with your space specifically means the
place in which you typically set up
your equipment or you plan on setting
up your equipment to record your
specific auditions, practicing for your
voices as well. Because you want to
have clean feedback when you're practicing. And it's important from
the previous lesson, you want a quiet space
for all vocal recording. But in particular with
working with your spaces, quiet spaces, that's the
most important part. It can be very hard if
you live in a house with dogs, animals, children, other people to find quiet spaces that are just
yours, that are enclose, that do not give off a large
amount of reverberation, that don't give off a lot of bounced back or gain
in your microphones. I run into that problem myself
because in my home office, my floors or Sub floors, they need to be re carpeted or I need to add more
carpet in here or add more soundproof
catchers on the walls. Because I do have stone walls and here I do have
stone Florida here. And it echoes and my
microphone gets a lot of gain. And I'm sure there
are a lot of you were very well versed in technology and
probably microphones who probably noticed
that about my mike. Now, like I said, this
is a USB condenser mike. Not the best if you're trying to record professional
audio on an audition. I'm not doing this as a
professional auditions. So this is just my
regular office microphone and that works just for me for what I'm currently
doing right now. My voice is still coming
across clear, clean. You can hear me. I'm not directly in front of
the mic due to the amount of gain that this microphone
does in fact grab. And the pop filter is catching some excess
off the wall behind me and the window in front of me and the floors even
now when I speak, I can feel the vibration coming from the ground
back into my chest. That's not a quiet space. It is a quieter space, but it is not the best for
what I'm probably need. If I wanted true clean
and quiet audio, I would probably go into one of my side hall clauses
here, stuff, towels under the cracks, the doors, and make sure
everybody was out of the house. And then I would record
audio for an audition. And they're incredibly
quiet, enclosed space. That oral chemo,
any outside volume, mostly out stuffing something under the door is going
to make sure that no outside sound or any of
my inside the sound escapes. Which also works better for the acoustics that I may want. Better for hitting a
much better go that I want in my recording
for something like lists. So you have much deeper
voice that would work very well in a tight enclosed space
like a side hole clause. Now, the next point is, you kinda gotta do
whatever suits your needs, whatever fits your needs. If you don't have a quiet space
to record your auditions, you might want to create one. There are many things you
can find online or even build yourself as DIY to create your own soundproof
spaces or your own sound negating spaces. You might be able
to find something like in a bathroom, your, your tiny as bathroom
in your house or clause and the smallest
room you can think of, put up pillows, hang up
or pin this and curtains, or maybe pillows or possibly
blankets, commerce the wall. Sounds a little gorilla, right? But it works. And you'd be very
surprised to find out just how many
professional voice actors and voice-over workers did this at the very beginning, and might even still do
with their own homes if they're sitting out recordings, if they don't have their own genome studio
or somewhere to work, or maybe it's last minute. A lot of voice actors
have actually send in auditions from their homes. And I have actually subsequently
recorded their lines for the animated
features or characters they played in film from their own houses without even
having it in home studio, just by making a major shift
in home studio or an in home sound proof area or sound enclosed area that fits
or suited their needs. Thank you guys very much. Enjoy the rest of your
night or your day. I will see you in
the next lesson.
7. Be Open To Gigs: So be open to gigs. Now what that essentially
means is I want you to be open to any kind of gig that
may be convenient for you, even if it doesn't
pay any effect. Now I know what you're
thinking. Well, hold on. I'm getting into this for a
career or a job or side job, and that's completely fine. But what you need to
understand is you gotta do your due diligence. You need to essentially get experience under
your belt by taking gigs or jobs that may be
uncredited for maybe non-paid. Because someone
might be doing this for a college project. They might be doing
it for a fan film or a passion project. They've always
wanted to get done. Take those. I implore you to take those. The reason why is
doing an unpaid gig. You don't need money from a gig in order for it to be
profitable to you. Profit comes in
more than one form. And that's not, that's
just the truth. It money is not
the whole shebang. Getting into voice
acting and voice over. It is a byproduct of it. If you get into this, get into
this because you love it, because it's the thing
that you wanna do, the thing that you truly see
yourself making the most of. And that's the biggest thing. Only do this and only get
into voice acting, voiceover, or any kind of performance
if it is something you truly feel in your heart of
hearts and in your bones, that this is what I should
be doing with my life. This entire industry will chew anybody up
and spit them out. If they can sense you
are not passionate. If you're only in it for
the money and the payout, you will never get
anything out of it. You will never be successful
if that is your only goal. Taking unpaid gigs,
taking freelance work, taking any kind of
pro Bono on this is the best way to get started because it's going to be
let you see what works, what doesn't work, gets you
out there meeting people, networking, learning
from other people who've been doing it longer, gaming experience and knowledge. That is going to be your biggest help you
most positive factor. All of this is taking
those kinds of gigs. Those gigs can
lead to paid gigs, but also those gigs can
help you build life long lasting relationships
in this industry. And help you bungee across
and over and up and anywhere you want to go
help you leap off of whatever alleged that
you are standing on in, dropping into something
amazing, okay? And, you know, weird
metaphor side. This is essentially what you
should really be doing at the very beginning of voice
acting and voice over work. You do not have the experience, nor do you have really the
weight to be pushy or picky. Beggars cannot be choosers when he worked, just
getting started, you've gotta get down
there and the dirt and the trenches with
everybody else and see you what you can get out of all of those fresh,
new experiences. Guys, it's an important,
important lesson, probably one of the
most important, if this is truly
what you wanna do. It starts with
understanding this lesson, probably above all else. Thank you guys very much. I will see you in
the next lesson.
MJ Christensen, Actor/ Voice Actor
