• Short, but sweet: LISTEN to some of best advice in the business
• Your audition begins with your ‘SLATE’
• Your slate allows you the opportunity to establish your level (your volume)
• How a poor slate can ‘sandbag’ the rest of your audition if it’s not done well
• Your slate has a domino-effect on the rest of your performance

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Listen to Actors’ SOUND ADVICE co-founders, coaches, and seasoned voiceover demo producers, Kate McClanaghan and Jeff Finney discuss the industry, how they trained and first came to voiceover.

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Listen to Actors’ SOUND ADVICE founder, coach, and demo producer, Kate McClanaghan discuss his roles in Games, Commercials and Comic-Con International with established voice actor extraordinaire, BRUCE THOMAS, in this week’s podcast.

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Listen to SOUND ADVICE founder & author of The SOUND ADVICE Encyclopedia of Voice-over, Kate McClanaghan, define the importance of:

• Self-Direction
• Your POV, Interest & Effortlessness
• Why what YOU think matters most
• Getting (and staying) grounded and ‘being’ what you say
• And a great deal more!

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Philip is a respected acting and singing coach in NYC. He is also the only actor in Broadway history to have played both Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in Les Miserables. He made his Broadway debut in the Original Cast of the Tony Award-winning Kander and Ebb musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Harold Prince. In Kiss, he created the role of Esteban and went on to play the impassioned revolutionary, Valentin in London’s West End and on Broadway.

His television credits include roles on Blue Bloods, Gotham, Nurse Jackie, Person of Interest, Elementary, Hostages, The Mysteries of Laura, Damages, Ugly Betty, Made in Jersey, Law & Order, and the daytime dramas All My Children, One Life To Live, Loving and Another World.

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In voiceover, and acting in general, you give yourself cues and commands with every take and every performance whether you realize it or not. However, you can’t tell yourself what ‘not to do’ if you hope to have an easy, conversational, realistic delivery. Tension can creep into each additional take. So, what do you do?

Discover:

• The first thing you need to know in order to effectively self-direct
• What you need to remind yourself with each take
• The audience can’t read your mind, but they can tell whether your imagination is engaged or not

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Pat’s credits include:

• The first recipient of the Vanguard Award for Excellence in Voice Over Education
• Among the top 10 performers of all time for being cast in TV animated shows
• Recently voiced characters in The Boxtrolls, contender for the Oscar for Best Animated Film
• VO Credits include: Krang in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (series), The LEGO Movie, Monsters Inc, Tangled, Happy Feet Two, The Mask, Batman (The animated series), and many, many more!

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In voiceover, and acting in general, you’ll have a tougher time playing if you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.

So, how do you study commercial, narrative and animation styles? How do you determine the frame of reference, feed your imagination and emotional tone of the production?

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Seasoned voice talent and World-Voices.org (WoVO.org) founder, Dave Courvoisier, joins SOUND ADVICE founder, Kate McClanaghan and producer, Jeff Finney to discuss:

• Insights into your career as a voice actor regardless of where you live
• How to make yourself more accessible to the work
• Whether social media is relevant to your voiceover career
• And, just what is WoVO.org?

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Meet actress, Kassie DePaiva. Look familiar? You’ve probably you’ve seen her:

• As Eve Donavan Larson on Days Of Our Lives
• As Blair Cramer on One Life To Live and on General Hospital
• As Chelsea Reardon on Guiding Light
• And as Bobby Joe in Evil Dead II …just to name a few!

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Hear SOUND ADVICE producers Kate McClanaghan and Jeff Finney dish with our very special guests, Stephanie Ciccarelli and Jennifer Smith from VOICES.com.

Discover:

• The extraordinary benefits of using Voices.com besides offering direct access to literally thousands of voiceover jobs from all over the world, their exclusive Voice Match and SurePay features
• How VOICES.com differs from the various pay-to-play site options
• How to get the most for your subscription buck with VOICES.com
• PLUS, a great deal more!

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• Meet seasoned graphic artist, Erica Wernick, author of LA Bound (a must-read for anyone considering a move to Los Angeles)
• Discover why it’s more important for your audience to imagine what you look like as a voice over with a great logo before ever hearing your demo!
• Identify who your graphics should appeal to most
• Learn why you should trust a professional rather than hire a friend
• How to look as good as you sound

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 * THREE cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, our founder, Kate
McClanaghan, from our Chicago studio, Jeff Finney, and from
Orlando, radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER, Skip Mahaffey
 * Discussing the most-likely ISDN replacement options
 * Discover what THREE studios patched through SOURCE-CONNECT Now
sounds like
 * The future of booking jobs from remote locations

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Meet actor, Andy McPhee. Look familiar? You’ve probably you’ve seen (and/or heard) him:

• As Ron Pearlman’s Northern Irish counterpart in Sons of Anarchy
• As Belhatchett (the banker) in Saving Mr. Banks
• As Colonel Hardy in the popular video game, Dead Island Riptide
• As the voice of Hank in the animated feature, Maya the Bee
• As Lewis Walton in the memorable Australian TV series, Neighbours

…just to name a few!

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Meet actor, Bruce Thomas. I know, he looks remarkably familiar… probably because you’ve seen (and/or heard) him:

• As Master Chief in HALO, the most-popular video game ever!
• As Peter Hickey on Desperate Housewives
• As JP Gratton on Bones
• As Jennifer Coolidge’s love interest in Legally Blonde
• And in scores of games and TV shows, such as Beware the Batman, Turbo Fast, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Gears of War: Judgment, and Green Lantern: Emerald Knights …just to name a few!

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So you’ve booked the session…now what? Let SOUND ADVICE demystify it for you! Kate
goes into logistics and tips for understanding what is expected of you and what you can
expect from producers and engineers when you get in the booth:
 How long will the session last?
 Getting Comfortable with the Script
 Stretching the Canvas
 Confidence is Always King

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• Last year’s Virtual Voice-over Convention
• THIS year’s VOICE 2014 Convention (to be held in August)
• ipDTL VS. SourceConnect NOW, and other industry advances
• The state of voice over and running your small business as a professional

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• TWO cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, SOUND ADVICE founder, Kate McClanaghan and guest artist, voice talent, Timmy Morgan and, from Chicago, our head of production, Jeff Finney
• The value of the various Pay-to-Play (P2P) sites
• Who benefits most from these sites
• Most common questions & (finally) answers
• How to get paid from bookings on these sites

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• Meet actor, Kodi Smit-McPhee, star of ten major feature films in the last year in a half… Including:
• Opposite Gary Oldman in the soon-to-be-released, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Opposite Ben Kingsley in the soon-to-be-released, A Birder’s Guide to Everything
• Opposite Michael Fassbender in the soon-to-be-released, Slow West
• As well as playing Norman in last years’ animated blockbuster, ParaNorman

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• This week Avid SOUND ADVICER, Pro-VO, Skip Mahaffey chats with our Head of Production, Jeff Finney
• What you’re really trying to achieve with your home recording studio
• How to avoid “geeking out on the gear” & find balance
• Discover our newest service: HOME RECORDING HELP  delivered over Skype

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• Why IMPROV matters!
• A brief recent history of IMPROV & it’s impact on Pop-Culture
• The 3 Tenets of Improvisation
• How to advance your career by mastering IMPROV

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• SOUND ADVICE founder, Kate McClanaghan and client, Bridgette Campbell comparison shop for voice over coaching and demo production
• What to Look for in a Voice Over Coach
• What Are Your Demo Production Options
• How to Choose Widely to get the Most Bang for Your Buck

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• THREE cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, our founder, Kate McClanaghan, from Chicago, our Head of Production, Jeff Finney, and from Orlando, radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER, Skip Mahaffey
• Home Recording Options Made…Even Easier
• How to Offer the Most Dynamic Choices
• Tales from Voice Overs Frontlines

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Here’s our final offering in our homage to Halloween and great storytelling. Adapted from Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles”, we present our spin on this Twilight Zone-inspired tale, performed by a few of my most talented friends in our studio one crisp night a few years back. We supplied the apple cider and donuts, and this is the result.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed doing them.

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• What is “Muscle Memory Delivery”
• Why we hang on to this impulse
• How SOUND ADVICE can help you build your ability & give you more freedom to create

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• The Key Liaison Between YOU & the Work
• Where to Learn How To Get a Talent Agent
• What a Talent Agent Does
• How a Talent Agent Legitimizes Your Work
• The Primary Reason You Need an Agent

August 27th 2013

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• TWO cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, our founder, Kate McClanaghan and from Orlando, radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER,  Skip Mahaffey
• Taking the Guess-work Out of the Recording Session
• How To Offer the Most Dynamic Choices
• What Can You Count On from Every Session

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• Discover the greatest misconception when it comes to creating your voice-over demo
• At what point are you considered a professional
• Why doing a demo on the cheap can be very expensive

Find answers to these questions with our most current

SOUND ADVICE PODCAST!

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• Three cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, our founder, Kate McClanaghan; from Chicago, our Head of Production, Jeff Finney; from Orlando, radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER, Skip Mahaffey
• The Techno Novice Vs. “Geeking Out on the Gear”
• What sort of mic you should (and shouldn’t) get
• Your small business as a professional voice-over
• Be the voice talent, not the studio or recording engineer

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• Three cities, ONE podcast: from Los Angeles, our founder, Kate McClanaghan; from Chicago, our Head of Production, Jeff Finney; from Orlando, radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER, Skip Mahaffey
• How to offer the most creative options
• The SOUND ADVICE approach
• The mechanics of performance

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• Meet our Head of Production, Jeff Finney, through radio personality and avid SOUND ADVICER, Skip Mahaffey
• The benefits of an artistic background
• Making a connection through your voice-over
• Finding the balance between overthinking your takes and letting the read “play”

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“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot

At SOUND ADVICE, we refer to a very specific performance technique we employ as ‘stretching the canvas’.  This reference is based on the notion that much like the artist, Jackson Pollock, you need to risk.  Spread out your performance canvas, so to speak, broad and wide, and don’t be afraid to make a mess.  Great masterpieces will ultimately come from it if you do.  So, rather than holding back, allow yourself the freedom to go further than you might initially think is necessary and simply ‘stretch the canvas’… great things are bound to come from it.

Here’s a brief podcast explaining this technique from SOUND ADVICE founder, Kate McClanaghan.

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Most voice-over and acting training involves random “suggestions” from the coach, rather than offering you a reliable process you can easily apply for nearly every performance circumstance.

Discover the virtues of self-direction from coaching with SOUND ADVICE–and from this week’s podcast!

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• What you must do with every take
• Why you should never wait for direction or “permission” on how to deliver the read
• Why we’re expected to continually offer options rather than one “perfect” read

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If you find yourself waiting for someone else to tell you what to do you will likely find yourself unemployed. Therefore, it’s imperative you learn to self-direct in order to make yourself valuable to any producer, talent roster or project.

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• What’s the very first thing you need to do when approaching a script?
• How to give yourself enough room to simply PLAY?
• What being versatile really means ?
• Character actors Vs. Everybody else?

Discover answers to these questions with our most current SOUND ADVICE PODCAST!

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