Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 18:37 (GMT) Post subject: Looking for demo input.
Long time lurker, first time poster...love you, love your message board.
I think I'm ready for it. Long time radio guy, fired over the Holidays (over the phone) and now looking to find some side work and use this as a jumping point to get voice work and imaging jobs.
This is my 1st demo, it a commercial demo, not a "radio station voice guy" demo, that will be obvious. I'm just trying to snag a read or two if I can.
Scott Pollak Talent and/or Voice Producer - Voice Seeker
Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 3828
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 19:20 (GMT) Post subject:
Brady.... I'm so confused here. You state, "It's a commercial demo, not a radio station voice guy demo". No, it's not a commercial demo it IS a radio station voice guy demo. As far as an imaging demo, it's pretty cool, although I'm not into that myself. I HAVE mentioned in previous critiques of imaging type of demos, though, that they're all starting to sound an awful lot alike. For the very few imaging leads that come thru here you could compete.
If you're looking to get any of the MANY 'non-radio, non-announcer' leads that come thru here, you have tons of work to do. I have no idea if you can lose all the bad habits radio has instilled in you, but you have an ANNOUNCERS VOICE AND DELIVERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, loud, proud and in-yer-face.
Unfortunately almost no one wants that any more. And when they do, they can get it from any radio station fer free.
I have 30+ years of radio background and it took me several YEARS to finally lose that announcer shtick. You may want to start by giving a LOT of listening time to top voices here and especially at voicebank.net. If you can ever become a normal, regular-sounding guy, then great. But maybe that's just not what, or who, you are. If so, then perhaps think about starting your own business producing imaging and hard-sell stuff for stations and clients. It sounds like you could do a good job of it. _________________ Scott R. Pollak Warm. Real. Natural. www.voicebyscott.com
SaVoa 07003
Dave DeAndrea Talent and/or Voice Producer - Voice Seeker
Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 554
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 19:29 (GMT) Post subject:
Brady,
I listened through your demo a couple of times and as far as radio promos and imaging.. sounds good. I almost felt like I was listening to an air check. Good energy, good voice... I think you'll be able to "snag a read or two", but it's going to need to be from a seeker who's looking very specifically for what you're offering... and that doesn't happen all that often from what I can tell. If you're pursuing radio station related jobs, you might benefit more by just sending demos straight to the stations.
As far as voice acting goes and getting a bigger piece of the pie, I would suggest a heapin' helpin' of more variety... different pacing... different deliveries, etc., because this demo is very... well, radio. It only shows us one facet. I'd love to hear what else you can do.
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 19:30 (GMT) Post subject: Thanks
Scott/Dave,
Thanks for the input. I guess I was saying that I would like to do radio ads, narration and the like and I guess I'm hearing I have some habits to break. I went to your site, you are the real deal and I'm going to take your advice to heart. I'm going to keep listening to demos and try to get some new reads in my mix. Am I going to have to break down and get voice lessons? SHOULD I?
Scott Pollak Talent and/or Voice Producer - Voice Seeker
Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 3828
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 19:47 (GMT) Post subject: Re: Thanks
Brady Goodman wrote:
Scott/Dave,
Thanks for the input. I guess I was saying that I would like to do radio ads, narration and the like and I guess I'm hearing I have some habits to break. I went to your site, you are the real deal and I'm going to take your advice to heart. I'm going to keep listening to demos and try to get some new reads in my mix. Am I going to have to break down and get voice lessons? SHOULD I?
Thanks again.
Brady,
If you're looking to do radio ads, then odds are you'll need to get hired on by another radio station. To my knowledge there just aren't many independents making it doing freelance 'radio ads' in the genre that you're talking about. As far as NARRATION, and other types of v/o work (which are generally about as similar to radio ads as brie is to velveeta), you've got a lot of work to do to even begin to sound natural, real, believable, warm, and non-salesy. You don't need voice LESSONS, you need help in getting away from a radio delivery and learning how to just be Brady, and not an announcer. A voiceover coach may help. Acting lessons or voice acting lessons may help, too.
Again, start by doing a lot of listening. Remember the old adage: We can NEVER learn when we're talking. Like you've already done on Dave's and my pages, listen to a lot of the folks here (and elsewhere) who are actually making a living in this business doing narratives, e-learning, e-books, documentary reads, etc. Practice, forget everything you ever did in radio (I'm really serious), seek feedback and critiques, look into coaching and acting classes.
Best of luck! _________________ Scott R. Pollak Warm. Real. Natural. www.voicebyscott.com
SaVoa 07003
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008, 22:07 (GMT) Post subject: Re: Looking for demo input.
Brady Goodman wrote:
Long time lurker, first time poster...love you, love your message board.
I think I'm ready for it. Long time radio guy, fired over the Holidays (over the phone) and now looking to find some side work and use this as a jumping point to get voice work and imaging jobs.
This is my 1st demo, it a commercial demo, not a "radio station voice guy" demo, that will be obvious. I'm just trying to snag a read or two if I can.
But this is more of a radio demo. And again, you do it well.
Do you need voice lessons? I don't know. I've not yet heard you do a conversational read that is required for a solid commercial VO career.
But the bottom line is, most people need acting, improv, and VO workshops before they are ready to pursue. In 21 years of teaching I've rarely seen anyone who just hit the mic working without years of training.
In the meantime, I see no reason why you don't hit the imaging buyers. You have a very nice, interesting and original delivery.
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008, 21:27 (GMT) Post subject:
Brady,
Like Todd Etheridge said, I found the production and editing on your demo to be quite good. At least for the short term, perhaps you should consider staying with your strengths of production, concept and editing rather than different types of deliveries.
By the way, that was a lousy way to be let go (by phone) and over the holidays no less.
Maybe that's the best way to go for right now, and perhaps you can learn to master other types of deliveries in the future. (Have you thought about which you like better to do, production or voicing. Not that you have to make a choice, but concider which one you like to do and follow that)
I have been with Voice123 for close to 4 months and learned quite a bit by participating in these forums, submitting demos and auditions for critique as you have.
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