Green Apple Day

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

You ever have one of those days where you show up for work and you just can’t seem to get it together? It was one of those days for me.

I showed up to record a video game today all excited and dressed up a little (I had planned lunch with the boyfriend after). As soon as I showed up, the issues began. First, my cute shirt made too much noise. Now, I am no voice over rookie. I’m always aware of the sounds my clothing makes, and I make sure to wear clothing that allows me to move without making noise. But today, my shirt was not behaving. Also, I normally carry “just in case” comfy clothes in my car, but I had taken my bag of clothes out of my car this weekend so I could fit in my memorial day shopping. Do you think I remembered to throw it back in my car before work this morning? No, of course I didn’t. Luckily, one of the guys in the fancy side of the studio had an extra t-shirt, so I changed into that. THEN, I had “smacking” issues. Smacking issues are when the saliva smacks around in your mouth too much and the mic picks it up as an irritating “pop.” This is rarely a problem for me, but I had some allergy issues today, so that was just one more thing that was not going my way. The cure for smacking sounds is a green apple. Sucks up that saliva pronto. So I had to chew bits of that all morning too until my allergies cleared up a little.I have lived in LA all my life and usually have very mild allergies, if I even have any at all. Today they decided to show up in full force.

I have been a voice over artist for 23 years, but sometimes, even the most experienced of us have one of those days where a set of circumstances (not in our favor) just occurs and causes us problems. All we can do is just laugh at ourselves, give an amazing acting performance, move on, and remember that it happens to everyone!!

Radio spot for AT&T-always ask before you post!

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

One thing that has changed radically in the entertainment industry is the rules for sharing your work. We live in a facebook/twitter/blogging world where anyone can post anything. However, companies are VERY PROTECTIVE of their products and ideas, so you must ALWAYS ask before you post something you’ve worked on. Remember, if you are working for someone else, you do not own the project you work on.

I am posting a radio spot for AT&T I worked on a few weeks ago, and I made sure to tell the producers, when I asked for a copy of the spot, that I would be posting it on my blog. If you’re not sure if it’s ok to post, DON’T. If you’re not sure if it’s ok to share specific details about a project you’ve worked on, including the name of the project, DON’T. It’s much better to err on the side of being professional and discrete than it is to have an angry client who doesn’t want to work with you again! Check out my picture of me working on the sot too!! I have to give a shout out to my pal Andy at Buzzy’s Recording Studio in Hollywood for being the super cool engineer on this spot! I always enjoy working with him! Click on the link below the picture to hear the spot.

AT&T radio spot

Hope you’re all having a great week!

Soup’s On Friday at 10pm on E!

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

Here’s a pic of me recording The Soup this week! I watch the show every week to make sure my sound is where it should be. It’s my job to make sure I know what’s going on with the show so that I’m always matching the energy and feel of it.

Voice Over Exercise

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

Sometimes we are spoiled by our engineers. They soften our Ps when we pop them, they compress our take to get our read within a certain time, or they perform many other little technical tricks they have up their sleeves that help make our jobs easier. But sometimes, an engineer can’t help us out, so we always have to make sure we are practicing our basic skills.

This is exactly what I had to do this week. I’ve been working on a campaign for a very well known acne fighting system, and part of this campaign comprises of reading a list of 1-800 numbers which must be completed in exactly 5.7 seconds. Additionally, they have required TWO clean reads. So here is an exercise for you I have put together (There’s never a dull moment as a VO artist, and there’s always the possibility for a new challenge! You’ll see why in the next sentence):

Read the following script of 1-800 numbers clearly, with each number enunciated (no forty nine, or twenty two, you must say four nine, and two two), all 0s read as “zero” (with the exception of 1-800), without shouting, but also like it’s the most amazing number you’ve ever read (but friendly, and not over-the-top), and get two reads at exactly 5.7 seconds (not a tenth over, not a tenth under).

Call 1-800-254-6007…that’s 1-800-254-6007

Call 1-800-233-3431…that’s 1-800-233-3431

Call 1-800-766-9817…that’s 1-800-766-9817

Call 1-800-694-7009…that’s 1-800-694-7009

Call 1-800-207-7070…that’s 1-800-207-7070

Call 1-800-832-2383…that’s 1-800-832-2383

Call 1-800-944-4746…that’s 1-800-944-4746

That’s just a short list for you to practice with. How’d you do?

This picture is of me reading my list of 1-800 numbers.

VO classes

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

A lot people ask me to recommend VO classes or coaches. The truth is, I have never taken any, so I can’t personally speak to any classes or coaches. But in my opinion, the best thing you can do for yourself if you’re trying to break in to the industry, or you’re still feeling your way around, is to take classes with companies who cast. Commercial casting offices are great places to get a feel for the audition process and are taught by people who call in actors with whom they have had some relationship. If they know your read, they are more likely to call you in for an audition, and that is definitely a good use of your time and money! With animation, I recommend working with an animation director. Again, who better to teach you the ins and outs of the industry than someone who hires actors AND works with the producers wishes for what they need for their project? Once you get a feel for the voice over world, you can ask whomever you are working with to refer you to someone who works more one-on-one at refining those skills.

The Soup is on tonight!!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

Catch me as the VO announcer for The Soup at 10pm on E! Entertainment.

I can’t tell you how much I LOVE working on this show. I record Wednesday evenings, and they play my voice live during the taping on Thursday. We record me saying every possible show they think they will talk about, multiple bumpers, openings, and pretty much anything they can think of that might make it into the show. Then they edit everything together right before they record live, when they have a better sense of what will make it into the show. The show required a high energy read, so I always have to conserve my energy for the end of the day. I think my read for The Soup is the most like me. I just get to have fun and play around, and that is how I am when I’m not at work.

I have been to tapings of The Soup, and YES, there is a live audience. It’s so much fun (except when Joel makes fun of me!! hahaha). The writers and crew are so nice and fun, and Joel McHale is hilarious (and my favorite host!). I am lucky they hired me to be a part of their amazing show.

Auditions!

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Anndi McAfee

I get a lot of questions about what it’s like to be a voice over artist. I hope I can answer a lot of them as I go through the process of blogging, but today I want to answer the following FAQ: How does one get a voice over job?

The answer to that is simple: auditions, auditions, and more auditions!!

Most voice over artists I know probably spend more time going through the audition process than they do actually getting paid to work (and for those who have the opposite experience, I WANT YOUR LIFE!! hahahahaha). It is a reality of the industry that once you have the building blocks of what it takes to be a VO artist (talent, ability to take direction, etc etc, that is for another post!!), booking a job is a numbers game; the more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you create, and the better the chance is that one of them will stick.

Most of my auditions are done at my agency’s office. Most of the time, I drive to the office in Beverly Hills, and wait in the lobby with many of my other colleagues until my agents hand each of us our “copy.” Copy is the industry jargon for “script.” I’ll take whatever time I need to create the sound I think works best for each piece of copy, and then it’s into the booth to record my audition! After the audition is over, my agents send out all the reads to the client. After I finish an audition, I completely forget about it. I have that once chance to make my audition the best that I can, and then I just let it go, and hope I stand out among all the other very talented voice over artists, and the client chooses to hire me. But once I’m done with the audition, it’s out of my hands, and I just need to move on to the next opportunity. If you put any energy into thinking about somethign you have already done, that is no longer in your control, you will drive yourself crazy, and that kind of energy is destructive to your next audition.

Sometimes I record my auditions myself in my home studio. This is my favorite way to record animation auditions myself because I can take as much time as I want to play with different characters. There are no other voice over artists waiting for their time in the booth. so I can go nuts with different reads and really let myself experiment. I do wonder what the neighbors think about what I’m doing over here though! One negative aspect to recording yourself at home is the objectivity needed to judge a read. I am my own worst critic, and sometimes I can get so carried away with making something sound “perfect” that I lose all sense of my personality in the read. I believe there is a “sweet spot” for myself where I feel like my personality is really coming through and my read feels genuine. Each voice is unique, and when that uniqueness is really shining through, that’s exactly the spot I want to be when I aim my voice towards that microphone! The trick is learning to recognize how that feels in your body, and that just takes experience.

So that is a little bit about the audition process. I hope there was some interesting information and advice in here.