Pacing, Authenticity, and Getting Out of Slumps with Gina Scarpa

Participant #1:
There are things that are totally within your control that could help you move yourself forward. Better audio quality, better editing, more attention to detail, better pacing. Those are all things that you can control. I cannot control if a client is going to choose me. Right. But have these other things that I see a lot of voice actors sometimes not giving enough credence to and it would really make a difference. So I would encourage you to think about that more, that you have a lot of control over how well you do. Sometimes you just can't control the final outcome.

Participant #1:
Welcome, everyone, to today's episode of Mission audition. I'm your host today, Kyle Flynn, platinum account manager here at Voices, joined also with Vanessa Buchi, community manager here at Voices. We are so excited to be speaking with Gina Scarpa, one of the amazing coaches that we have the privilege of working with today. Our topic of discussion is related to how to get out of a booking slub. Before we get started with the auditions, let me introduce you to our amazing guest. Gina has been providing professional voiceover services to clients across the country and around the world since 2014. Her happy clients include Xfinity, Burger King, Google, Investo L'Oreal, Ikea VSP. Cisco salesforce. Let me catch my breath many more. She was also recently nominated for the One voice award 2022 voiceover artist of the Year. And Gina is also an award winning teacher and director receiving the 2019 ace educator of the year award in Connecticut. Wow. What a resume. That makes me sound way fancier than I really am. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. I'm actually so excited for this episode. It's going to be a fantastic episode. Really excited to have you on board. And with that, let's get a little bit into what we're going to be talking about today. What does the job look like? And Vanessa is going to give us a little bit of details on today's project. For a review of today's job posting, here is the background information. The voice we are looking for should sound like both a trusted peer and a knowledgeable expert who is eager to announce this new software to the world because they themselves are all too familiar with the struggle of balancing work and leisure. That being said, we invite you to put your own spin on the creative direction. We're looking for someone who can bring their own distinct personality to the script read. I think that last line is important and definitely is going to lead us in the right direction when we start listening to these auditions. So with that said, let's waste no time. Let's hop right in and let's get started with the first audition. Work life balance impossible. Not anymore. Introducing we Collaborium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, so first things first. The biggest issue here is just how quiet it is. So I think some normalizing or just turning up your gain on your mic will make a big difference because as I was listening to it, I was thinking with some energy and fixing the sound issue, I think this read could be more competitive than it currently is. I don't know if either of you agree on that, but the first thing that caught me when listening to all the other auditions was just how quiet it was. And so right away, I'm noticing a sound quality issue and it almost doesn't matter what happens next from the client's perspective. And I'm not saying that in a way to be mean. It's an immediate red flag and I can't even listen to everything else before I get through that. So I would definitely address the sound quality issue first. I could not agree more when listening through the auditions. That was one where it made me feel like I had to try to listen because I'm like leaning and trying to hear the read. So just immediately, it gives kind of a noticeable difference in a way that, like you said, is a red flag comparative to the other auditions that we'll be hearing today. So definitely immediate red flag there that unfortunately is going to make a difference when looking at the cast ability of your audition there. Yeah, I mean, something that I say, I used to say this a lot when I was directing theater for many years, but I even say it when I'm coaching. Voice actors, too, is never give the client a reason to say no maybe or so right away if the sound quality makes them go like, I don't know, we're already at a disadvantage. It might even be issues with pacing, energy, mispronunciations, things like that. You've already given the client this kind of feeling like, I don't know about this, and so you're working against it. It's almost like trying to walk up an escalator that's going down. So don't give the client any reason to have that kind of doubt in their mind. Really try to give them what they're looking for in terms of your delivery and your sound quality. Completely agree. And I feel like he did bring personality to it. Yeah, and he did. Like you said, it could have been a lot more competitive with just a little bit of tuning on the sound quality and the sound engineering, whether it's a space microphone, whatever it might be that's causing that issue. Definitely something he should be looking to address because overall, it was a great read and unfortunately, he's just putting himself behind the eight ball right off the beginning, for sure. Hopefully that's encouraging, right? Because we don't have a problem, really with the read necessarily, I said with a little more energy, but otherwise, like I said, I think this read could be more competitive than it initially was. So something to consider? Definitely. All right, so great start here, and that's going to lead us into our next audition. Let's build off that and see if we can find any more good tips. So, audition number two work life balance. Impossible? Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. All right, Gina, what do you think about that one? Okay, so first of all, there was kind of a little bit of a lengthy pause before you started. I like to start in either right away or at literally like zero 5 seconds, because my first thought was, there's something wrong, where is the audio? So I would get into it pretty quickly. Overall, I felt like the pacing was way too slow, and that's something I'm going to talk a lot about today. That's what I took a lot of notes on was the pacing of these auditions. Sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow. Where's the sweet spot? It's really hard to say, but when it comes to being slow, what I think about is if you are listening back to it and you feel like you're waiting for it to continue, it's too slow. Right. And it kind of lacks that conversational style. I think just looking at the script, we want kind of an easy, sort of positive tone, and it felt kind of slow and almost like there was, like, a heaviness to it, whereas I want to think lighter in my tone, and this is like a problem solver, right. So that's a really positive thing. So that's something to consider, too. When you're looking at something like this, it might be corporate narration, video narration or explainer video. They follow almost the same kind of format. You have a problem, we have a solution. Here's how we're going to do it. And it's actually a lot easier than you even thought. And if you just apply that mentality to just about every explainer video you come across, I bet you're going to see an increase in the amount of short lists and things that you'll get. Yeah, so I agree with that. And what you said, too, is, like, when you're slow like that or at least a little bit slower than probably should be, it's not as authentic as it would be if you're to have a conversation with someone. Right. So it kind of lacks the authenticity with that as well, I feel. I think pacing is so important and I actually think that when I'm listening back to auditions of people that are struggling, because sometimes my students will come to me and say, what am I doing wrong? I'm not booking or I'm not getting shortlisted. That is so often the problem. And I mean, even very good voice actors, it's about their pacing. And so I really want to encourage people to think about it more? Are you rushing through your thoughts and not even giving people a minute to pause and think about it? Or on the contrary, is it so slow that we're like go, yeah, so just think about that as well. Especially this. It doesn't need to be so serious. That's what I would say, definitely. And when we see words like trusted peer and knowledgeable expert in that artistic direction, it shows that it needs to be confident. It needs to be almost assertive where, hey, like you said, we're giving you the solution. Look how easy this is going to be. I'm confident that this is your solution. And so having that leisurely tone that makes you feel like you're being soothed isn't going to connect with that style of solution centric messaging there. So with that said, pacing is an important thing. What is an exercise that you go through with your students when you're talking about pacing? So sometimes I'll just say to them, when you're listening back to your audio, first of all, just think to yourself, does this really sound like you talking about it in general? You know, I mean, that's just a tip for being conversational in general. But again, like I said, with pacing, when you're listening back to it, do you have time to process what is being said? Or are you just jumping from thought to thought without sort of changing your emotion? Because if you think about real life conversations, we change our pacing, our tone, our energy all the time. And that needs to be reflected in voiceover as well because I know so many people listening. You know, the style is real believable conversational. And you're looking at these specs and what are they saying? Right? Trusted peer knowledgeable expert. It's that person that you would go to at work. So if I came to your desk and said, hey, I'm having this problem, how could I fix it? I wouldn't say something like impossible, not anymore. You know what I mean? You see what I mean? If you think about it in terms of a real life conversation, me personally, I would say impossible, not anymore. Introducing equilibrium. A productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals. And I'm just talking like I'm talking right now. So do you sound like yourself? And when you relate it back to like if someone came to you in the office and talked to you about it, even if you got up in front of you're at a meeting and you're presenting, would you go like work life balance or would you go work life balance? Literally neither. It's somewhere in the middle. So think about real life. And that really helps because I think sometimes in the booth we just, we forget about the outside world and we just want it to feel like a real person talking about it. And it takes a while to feel maybe comfortable with that, but it is something that really holds people back, and it's something that I think more actors should try to focus on. Love that. Absolutely love that. And it's so true and can carry from one industry into the next all things voiceover. That's a tip that you can utilize. So love that. Thanks. All right, so moving on to audition number three work life balance. Impossible? Not anymore. Introducing the Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay. I don't know if it was just me, but I've listened to it now on two different computers and two different sets of headphones, and it only comes through my left side, so I feel like does it happen to you, too, or do you hear it in both of your ears? 100%? Yeah, just on the left side. Something I immediately noticed. Yes. Okay. So that threw me off right away. So if you're recording in mono, which you should, it should come through both sides. So I'm not sure what happened there, but there's that. Another issue in terms of sound quality is that it feels very echoey. So I'm not sure if it's more on a USB mic or a lower quality XLR mic or on top of that, in an open room that's not really treated. But I hear a lot of echo in the background. So definitely I would focus on treating your space, because, again, it's what I was saying about the first person we listened to right away. The clients. Like, this sound quality isn't matching what I'm hearing across the board, so probably not. The other thing I noticed is there was a little stumble around the line into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. And I think a lot of us preach speed when it comes to auditions, but I feel not to the point where if you make a little mistake, personally, I would go back and fix it and not leave it in there. And then the other thing is, I tend to manually pull down my breaths. Some people don't. So it's totally a matter of preference. But I feel like when it's mid sentence, I like to pull it down and then pull the sentence a little bit closer together so that it just flows better. So all of these things I'm talking about really have nothing to do with her read, because I think that there were good things in there, but until these things are solved, it's almost like I can't really address the other things, so I would totally focus on that first. Can you give an example of what you just said? Because I just want to understand. Like you said, you pull the end of the sentence closer to yeah. So here's what some people might do. They might go into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach, and you see how I took that breath there. But what it really should sound like is into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. So let's say I did breathe there, because sometimes I literally hit record, and I suddenly forget how to breathe. It happens all the time. I don't know if this happens to anybody else. I can't breathe. I can't say five words without meaning to take a huge breath or, like, a drink of water. Why, I don't know. But sometimes I breathe in the middle of the sentence. So what I would do personally, I would highlight that breath. I would not generate silence because I'm not a fan of the audio suddenly dropping off into a black hole and then coming back in. So what I do is I highlight it. I go to amplify. It doesn't matter what program you're in, right? Everyone should have amplified, and I pull it down, like, minus ten DB. I just pull it down, and then I might pull that. That puts your dreams and reach a little bit closer so you almost don't hear the breath, and it just flows a lot better, because otherwise you hear into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach, and it's like, it breaks my focus and my concentration. And again, we're back talking about pacing again. And it's like that little thing. I actually just talk to someone about this. I was coaching someone who I encouraged to join Voices. He was having some trouble, and he sent me his auditions, and it was the first thing I noticed. I'm like, you're literally, like breathing in the middle of the sentence. You're going like and I'm like, Just hold down, and then take the two pieces of the sentence and pull them a little bit closer together so that it flows a little bit more naturally and conversationally and even that can make a big difference. You'd really be surprised how much these little things make the difference, because when you're getting down to the final three or five talent, like, everybody's good, and it's just a little something that pushes the client over the edge. And that little something literally may be the breath that you said in between schedule and the word that it sounds silly, but it might really be just that. Okay. Yeah, thanks for explaining it. That's great. That's news to me. So I just learned something as well. That's awesome. Thank you. And I love that advice because a lot of times people see it so black and white of, like, I either fully remove my breaths or my breaths are there. No, I love that practice of just toning it down. I think that's really cool and a great tip, because you want it to sound natural. We breathe that's okay. We're human. We breathe it's all right. You don't need to remove it completely. Like, it's there, but it's just quiet. It's like if I really listened, I might hear it. But I don't want to generate the silence because what happens is you're looking at the wave file or the MP3 file, and it's like sound, sound drop, sound drop. And that also doesn't feel natural. So it's really trying to find the right way. Sometimes I'll pull it down ten DB. Sometimes if it's a big breath, I'll go 20. I might even go more, but it's always there in the background. I love that. That's really cool. And again, just another example, which obviously we can't stress enough, is how this important audio quality is. So focus on that, guys. Make sure that's down to a T, and if you don't have that started, you could be the best voice actor and give the strongest leads in the world. And unfortunately, it's going to stand your way every time. So make sure you get that down and then we can move to next steps. One thing that I talked about, since you were saying sort of the theme this month is getting through a booking slump, is there are things that are totally within your control that could help you move yourself forward. Better audio quality, better editing, more attention to detail, better pacing. Those are all things that you can control. I cannot control if a client's going to choose me, right. But I have these other things that I see a lot of voice actors sometimes not giving enough credence to, and it would really make a difference. So I would encourage you to think about that more, that you have a lot of control over how well you do. Sometimes you just can't control the final outcome. But getting shortlisted, there are things that you can do to definitely boost those chances. Extremely true and really love that. So with that said, let's move into our next audition. There work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Wequilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamline schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, so one thing I want to talk about. Well, first of all, on the positive side, he sounds like the voice of experience, and I think that that can be a net positive. However, we have a little bit of a sound quality issue here. It feels a little hollow, a little echoey here. The pacing was pretty slow and all of the words had the same weight work life balance. And there's meaning behind each of those things. So I might say work life balance or work life balance, just something that's like, they mean different things. And I want to change my tone a little bit, so it's not just going work life balance. Right. The other thing I want to think about, or I want you to think about, is how you inflect to generate emotion or feeling. So I want you to think a lot about how the listener should feel when they're listening to this. And I said earlier, it should feel like we're solving their problem, and this is easy. So when we think about the sentence sentence is impossible. Not anymore. What I hear people doing a lot is impossible. Not anymore. That sounds like something bad is happening. Right. You know what I mean? Instead of going impossible, not anymore. Because I have the answer, right? So if you think about just how I thought not anymore or not anymore, it sounds totally different. Even if you think about it, when you're doing something like car commercials, you're saying something like, only 39 $995. Okay, $39,000 is a lot of money. So if I say only 39 995, the listener might be like, I cannot afford that. That's a lot of money. But if I say only 39 995, you can do that. Right? That's pretty easy. I mean, if we break it down into monthly payments, you can afford it. Right. So if we think about just the inflection and I don't always mean inflect up or down, but I'm just trying to show the difference of how that inflection makes the other person feel. Okay, so, like, remove the heaviness from it for equilibrium. Give it lightness positivity, and just make it seem easy. This is an easy solution, right? Because what would someone's response really be? In the office? I do not have time to learn another program. I can't download another app. And you're like, it's so easy. We'll take care of everything for you. And so when you think about it like that and how you want the other person to feel, that can also dramatically improve your reads. Yeah, it's like tone holds weight. Absolutely. I agree. And that's extremely interesting to think about, not only in the script, but any script. And it's something I think we've all probably been through and had, like a little kind of fun trivia puzzle about or something. You can say two of the exact same words, but if you say differently, they can mean completely different things. Right. And it's kind of that same thing, and it's just choosing, okay, what is my audience and how do they want to hear this? And how am I supposed to make them feel with it? And that's really going to dictate how you want to inflect your tone, how you want to portray this product or whatever it might be. So I love diving into how much you get to control as a voice actor and how you're making your audience feel. Yeah, and I think it's good to be able to take that script and be able to do it different ways while still fitting what the brand wants. Right. Because in directed sessions, we don't read things the same way every time they'll say, try it like this. Okay, now try it like that. And so you want to be adaptable and then understand how that tone shift really matters. So I just did a PSA the other day for an organization in New York, and the line was, you go the extra mile planning for others who goes the extra mile for you? And one take was positive. So I said, you go the extra mile planning for others who goes the extra mile for you? And the other one was more warm and caring. So it was, you go the extra mile planning for others who goes the extra mile for you? And it's like the same thing, but I'm reflecting different. I'm changing my tone, and it gives it a completely different meaning. One is like, yeah, who helps you? Or really, though, who helps you? So think about that when you're doing your reads as well. Because I was in the session, and I thought it was going to be one way, sort of the thing I book oftentimes, bright and positive. But we got in there and they wanted it, I mean, five, six different ways. And so I needed to be able to change my tone on the fly. No preparation. Okay, now try it like this. Then do high energy like a car commercial. Okay? They're like, now do low and slow. Now do high and bright. And I was like, oh, my gosh. So it was like a real exercise in acting on the spot. But just think about those things, like how the tone changes the entire feeling of the spot or the video. I know some coaches have kind of done the exercise of when you first see a script, do two reads and do them in polar opposites. Do it as high, as high as you can on one side and as low and as low as you can on the other side. Is that something that you practice with your students or have you ever ventured into I have heard that a lot of people do that. What I tend to do is I don't know if this is a good thing, but my face is like, turning red. What I tend to do is almost blind read it because I want to feel my initial reaction, and I want it to feel like my personality. And I worry that if I spend too much time reading it, then I come across ready. So I oftentimes in my auditions on voices, I just blind read it and hope for the best and then listen back to it. And there are times when I'm like, oh, my gosh, no. But I find more often. And I tell actors this, though, too. Trust your first instinct. Because what I see a lot is people seeing, okay, it's warm and caring and friendly. All right, let me try to be warm. Here I go. Work life. I'm like, no, if you're being warm and you're talking to someone you care about, what does that feel like? What does that sound like? And I don't need to think about that. But one thing I have been doing and coaching lately is just like I was talking about. Give someone a script and say, okay, let's do it this way. Okay, now I want to do the same script, but I want to do it another way, because that is some real world practice for directed sessions. You will find that there are a lot of people on the call. Sometimes there's just one director. I mean, sometimes there are five, six, seven people on the call. Everybody has different opinions. They want to try different things. They want to change the script. They want to try alternate lines. And so you need to be willing to adjust on the fly. That's amazing. I'm always so interested in some of the exercise that you guys do because they're so insightful, and they're also incredibly fun in bringing forward the skills that you truly are going to be using on a daily basis as a voice actor. Yeah, one thing that could be helpful as well, that I have people do is we take the script and we just forget what the words are, and we just talk about it. Like, sum it up for me in your own words. What are we talking about here? So then they say it in their own words, and I'm like, okay, great. Now let's bring that conversational style back into the script. Or if someone's having a hard time connecting to something, I'm like, okay, well, what's a time in your life that you could relate this to her? Who could you imagine talking to? Take that energy of talking to that person and now bring it back? So sometimes we kind of step away from the script and then come back to it because people get caught up in I wouldn't say it like this, or I'm having a hard time with an upbeat tone or something like that. So we just relate it back to their life and then come back to the words on the page. Awesome. All right, well, let's get into the next demo here. Work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, so one thing I said is that he actually has a nice voice, but I found it to be a very announcer read. Borderline sounding AI. I felt like we were right on the edge. Now, this could be a combination of the editing and the filters being used. I think there might be a little bit of over editing happening and also, like, a bit of a lack of emotion behind the read. And I wrote it's a nice voice. I'd actually love to hear it on a raw, unfiltered audition and with his personality behind the reads. Because one thing that I struggled with early on was sometimes people saying that I sounded like Siri or Alexa and. I remember telling my friend outside of Voiceover this one day, and she was like, oh, my God, that's so cool. And I was like, It's actually the worst thing you could say to me. Like, I'm like, no, because voiceover is real and conversational. I don't want to sound like Alexa. I want to sound like me. And the reason was, first of all, similarly, in pitch, maybe I kind of sound a bit like Siri Alexa, just sort of how my voice sits naturally. But what I realized about myself is not that I really sound like them. It's that when you remove the emotion from your voice, you sound like AI. Because that's not a human anymore. It's just a computer spitting out words. So I feel like this person has a lot of potential, and I would love to hear it just kind of unfiltered and just more relaxed. I think there's a very good read behind all of this, but again, it's hard for me to know. I agree. And definitely when you mentioned the AI thing, I noticed the same thing. And I definitely think along the editing lines, it just sounded very grainy, which oftentimes means it's been over processed, whether it's compression or whatever it is there, that's the cause of it. But it just sounded very grainy. So it kind of comes back to that audio rule, especially in nowadays voiceover, more is less. And just allow your natural voice to come through because he does have an amazing voice. Yeah, it's a very interesting voice to listen to. And so definitely something to consider. And, I mean, people get all kinds of advice about what to do with their editing. And I just encourage you to just try to leave it as raw as you can, really, other than normalizing it and manually, literally manually pulling down my breath. I don't do anything else to it because it makes the job of the engineer way harder. If you've already put a million filters on it, they can't undo that after the fact. And the other thing is, it kind of sounds like I don't mean it to this person, but just in general, when you overprocess, over filter, like, you're hiding something. You're hiding, like, background noise. You're hiding a poor quality mic. Like, there's a reason why you're over processing. And I think that clients can kind of tell. So I would just consider leaving it raw. This is your studio sound. It is what it is. Good enough or not, they need to know what it sounds like because the last thing you want to do is get in a session, and then it's obviously raw because you're just recording it and they're like, this doesn't sound like your audition at all. So we kind of want to be upfront about what we really sound like in our booths. Could not agree more. And yeah, that less is more, right? All right, onto our next audition, work life balance impossible. Not anymore. Introducing We Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, so we have a little bit of sound quality going on here. I'll give him credit because he didn't try to cover it up but there's like sort of like white noise happening in the background. Not sure what it could be. Might be a fan running, it could be AC cause it's hot as heck right now. But there's something happening so it's echoey. It's got plosives as well, which is like when your P sound pops, it happens several times throughout. So there's a couple of things you can do. First of all, if you don't have a pop filter, I would definitely recommend getting one. And if you don't have one or some people just have a really strong plusive sound. My mom is a voice actor and I'm always telling her you're plosives, like, please, I beg you. Right? First things first. And she's like, I'm sorry. So the first thing is you can tilt your head down a bit and just talk sort of under the mic and that kind of directs the air with the P down below. The other thing you can do is you can take your pointer finger almost like you're saying like, right? And you put it in front of your mouth and you talk and you say whatever the P sound is and the air hits your finger and then disperses from there. So if you can't get a pop filter, you can just make one by putting your hand in front of your mouth. Like a librarian. He loves a good DIY. We love a good free solution. Right. So I would just definitely recommend that. I don't know, there's something about this person that I was like he sounds very wholesome. I kind of like his energy and I just wonder if the sound quality was fixed and we got a little bit more conversational if there's again a really good read here. So just some things to consider. Definitely. And I like that we looked at the script. Distinct personality was one of the things that was mentioned in it. And I feel like he actually did a great job at bringing that. He brought distinctly himself. And the nice part is, and I'm sure you can relate through the many, many jobs that you've booked is sometimes that's what gets you the gig being uniquely you. Because there's going to be 1000 people that are reading the exact same script. So what makes it different when it's your audition? How do you differ from others exactly? And I tell people, I know it's cheesy, but especially when you're auditioning maybe at the highest or higher levels of voiceover. Here's what we can assume. Everyone's good, everyone has a good voice, everyone has a great set up. Everyone went through coaching a lot of people have big agents, big managers behind them. So what's left? Literally, your personality. And that sounds cheesy, but it's like, if we don't have that, then what do we have? We just have a bunch of cookie cutter voice actors that all sound the same, and you might look at something and say, well, I don't know if my personality is really right for that. And I tell the story all the time of when I first joined Voices. Pretty early on one night, I saw an ad for L'Oreal. There were like, I don't even know, like, 80 people that had read, and I was a 60% voice match. And I was like, I mean, what are the chances? Never mind the fact that I told myself, I don't sound like L'Oreal. I don't think I have that sound. Well, I ended up booking it. It led to, I think, ten videos on their YouTube channel. It got me one of my agents, and I almost turned the whole thing down and just said, I forget it because there were too many people. I wasn't a high voice match, and I didn't feel like I fit it. But you don't know what someone's looking for. Like, you cannot decide how other people feel about you. Let them decide. Exactly. Real life example, right? There is realism in life, too. We decide all the time what people think of us. Right. How many of us go through the day? Like, I think they're mad at me, or maybe I was really annoying. Like, sorry, I don't mean to be annoying. It's a stop deciding what other people think of you. I have 40, and I was like, whatever, I don't care anymore. I am me. I'm me. Take it or leave it. I'm me when I'm coaching. I mean, when I'm doing voiceover, I'm me when I'm with my friends and my family. That's who I am. And it took me a long time to get there. And I feel like if you're not totally comfortable with yourself, a lot of times that comes through in your reads, whether or not you even realize it. So it's like something to consider. You are who you are, and you're unique, and that's a good thing. Let other people decide if that's the right voice for them. And even if you don't believe it, you have to fake it till you make it at that point. Right? Right. Exactly. Yeah. Love it. Oh, that's awesome. Great tips there not only for voiceover, but for life. Yes. Voiceover coach and life coach. Awesome. So let's move forward to our next audition. Work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. What do you think? Okay, so I liked this one. First of all, I liked the laugh. Not anymore. Right? That's conversational and I know we kind of use some of us, we use the laugh a lot, but in this case I really liked it. They may say in the final version of it, I don't need the laugh here, but I kind of like that it's there because it made it feel light and bright and positive. I would personally give a little more space in between work life balance and basically all the sentences because pacing wise it felt a little rushed. But overall I felt this person sounded friendly, knowledgeable, approachable, and it fit very well with what the client would be looking for. Amazing and really good audio, as I'm sure listeners can tell. Really strong audio read was great. Is there any tips at all that you would have for this audition besides pacing? Anything that stands out from you or would you give a one across the board? Honestly, I thought it was a very good read. If that's the only thing I have to say, that's something that can be fixed. That's something that if they book him on the job, they can say just give a little more space in between. The reason why I like to give just a little bit of breathing room is a so that the listener can process what's happening and it gives me a chance to maybe shift my energy and tone. And the other thing is to think about what it looks like from a video perspective. Because if it's a video narration, there's animations, there's text, and if we're just rushing into the next sentence, there's no time on the video side to be transitioning. So we don't want to leave a lot of space, but we don't want to leave too little space. And that's what I'm saying. It's a very fine line. It's something that I learned a lot in theater as well. Someone would go see maybe a community theater show. I remember someone went to go see a show and the show is typically very long. It's like 3 hours long, maybe even longer within permission, but it ended up being over four and they were like, the show was terrible. I'm like, I bet it wasn't that terrible. I bet their pacing was deadly slow. I bet their set changes took too long and now we've increased the show length by 30 to 45 minutes. And it feels bad when it wasn't really probably that bad at all. So pacing really matters and it's just like I don't know, it's like intuitive. It's something that you need to learn. However, in this case, I just felt like it was just slightly rushed and I'm being picky. But overall, very strong read and like you said, that's one of those things that are so easy within reason. As long as it's not wildly long pacing or wildly short pacing. It's something that can be completely overlooked by a casting director because it's something that's coachable and directable. I don't think that there was nothing about this. Like I said very early on in this podcast episode today, there's nothing about it that made me go, I don't know, I mean, if the best thing or the worst thing I can come up with is I wish he gave a little more space in between the sentences. Like, we're in a good spot. Yeah, for sure. Love that. Love that. Alright, well, let's get to number two. Work Life Balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Weak Relybrum, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, cool. So I really liked this one. Again, I felt Work Life Balance was a little fast, but she sounds experienced and knowledgeable. I liked the positive inflect up and download it for free. I liked that. As opposed to, like we said earlier, what if I went download it for free? It just sounds blah. Like it's free. Is it even good? Okay, download it for free. We're going to give it to you for free. You don't even have to pay for it. Right? That sounds great. So I like that. The only note I would say here is that it felt right on the edge of being like, presentational. If you're standing up in front of people presenting it, instead of sitting with a manager or somebody you have a good relationship with, or a coworker and talking about it. But overall, I really like to read. Great sound quality as well. So very strong. What kind of tips would you give for somebody, especially when we're looking at such small intricacies at this point, what type of tip would you give to this person to make them feel more relaxed and more conversational just because it is such a minor tweak? Is there anything that you would do in practice or coaching to help? So there's something that I've been doing and coaching lately that I think has been very effective, and it's visualizing yourself on a scale of one to ten. And so I always tell my students, I'm like, listen, I'm a loudmouthed, Italian, Dunkin Donuts drinking, anxiety ridden girl from New England. You know what I mean? So it's like I'm a solid eight all the time. Okay? So when I'm doing something like a hospital read, which is warm and friendly, I take myself at the eight and I move myself to a three or a four. And for me, that means slowing down my breathing, my energy, and really just saying, okay, let's take a breath. Now, if I'm a person that doesn't get very excited super easily and I need to do a high energy read, I need to think about pulling myself up. So it's always you. It's just you on a scale. And it's been super effective and coaching for me to say to somebody, listen, I like that read, but it's like an eight. And I needed to be a six, but you at a six. Let's dial it back a bit. The other thing. So there's the scale of just going up and down, one through ten, and then the other one is in relation to math, which I was not good at in high school. But if you think about an algebra, when you would plot points on a chart, you would do the equation, then you'd plot the point. Okay? When you think about the Y axis, which is up and down, I hope I'm right. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry. Okay, listen, people, I'm a voice actor, but I'm pretty sure, okay? But up and down, that is my pitch, and then the X axis is my energy. And so I want to go, like, up a bit in pitch for me and up a bit in energy. So if you think about it, if I'm starting at zero, I'm going up and then to the right, and that's the quadrant that I'm in. And that actually kind of helps. Like, I'm plotting my personality and my energy on a chart, or I'm moving it on a sliding scale, and it's still me. I think that it helps voice actors stay grounded and connected to who they are, because sometimes scripts just take you away or make you feel like you're moving away from your own personality, and you don't need to do that. So in this case, what I would say to her is, this feels a little too presentational for me, so let's slide the energy back a bit, but let's keep the enthusiasm and let's do it again. Very good read, though. Amazing. Really interesting. I haven't heard that. And that's really funny. Trademarked. Trademarked. Don't feel it. That's awesome. Well, everybody get your math books together. Oh, my God. Sorry if I mixed up the axes. Like, listen, I barely not under math. Math and science in high school. I was on the struggle bus in high school for math and science, but I feel like this little graph visualization is helpful. That's amazing. Love that. Okay, so let's go ahead and listen to the next audition work. Life balance impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Week Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, now, here's an example of pacing that I really liked. And I know I've been hard on pacing today, so for me personally, okay? And I think that this is a very subjective topic. I really liked it. What I would say is watch the up and down. Okay? So what I mean is going personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach, because the minute we start going up and down too much and I know why we do it. We do it to sound conversational, and we do it to change up our tone. But when it goes a little bit too much like that, we venture into announcer and get away from conversational. Right? So if someone came up to you and was asking you about something, like, I'm not making fun, but I'm saying, oh, what are you drinking? And I'm like, I'm drinking a coffee that has sugar and cream. And you're like, Whoa, okay. So I'm drinking a coffee that has sugar and cream and butter pecan flavor or whatever. So here I might say your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. It still has emphasis, but I like to call it in coaching, baby emphasis. It's just like a little like it's so slight, but it's just not too much. But I think that if he would pull back on that. This is an extremely competitive read. I really enjoyed this read. And if it gets too pattern like, I can completely see what you mean. It's almost predictable at that point, right? Less authentic. Again, if we're on a scale, I would say pull it back just one number, one number down, and that's it. But very competitive read here. Yes, definitely. And as you can tell, we're getting a little NIT picky, but that's the point, right? You know what? Let me tell you what one thing I would say. For a long time, in directing theater, I worked with kids, teens, and college students. And then in voiceover, I work with actors of all ages. And what I always say to them is, I know I'm picky sometimes, but when I'm being picky, we're in a good spot. If I'm talking about the big picture, your sound quality, this and that, it's like we're talking about a big issue. I'm getting down to, like, little tiny things I'm like, because sometimes it's a little tiny thing that pushes you over the edge into being booked for this. So that's why I'm picky about it. Not because I want to be hard on everybody, but because I'm like, there's just little things, and no one is perfect. I'm not perfect. There's always something we can do to improve. And I think that's something that's helped me, is I don't have an ego about it. I always know that even on things I booked, I listened back. I'm like, I could have done that better. There's always something to do to improve. And it's always good to get notes, right? Yeah, for sure. All right, well, let's go to the next demo here. Work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today.

Participant #1:
Okay. Well, first of all, I like her voice a lot. I think her energy could be picked up a little bit because I don't want it to sound too sad or slow. I think with the energy adjustment, again, this is extremely competitive. It sounds right on par with what the client is looking for because she sounds young. So looking back at their notes, let me just scroll up and look. A trusted peer and a knowledgeable expert. So peer, like someone similar in your age range. It's not like upper upper management that maybe has been there for 30 or 40 years. It's someone I work with. Maybe they're like a team lead or maybe they're giving a presentation at work. But it's like someone that I could trust and almost like, be friends with at work. And I felt that, like, I felt warmth here. What I think that some people lack sometimes in explainer video reads is they do informational knowledgeable and solve the problem. But I like to add in this, like and also I care about you and I want to help make your life easier. And I really felt that in this read, so I super enjoyed it with a little bit more energy. It's like, it's really good. Well, we were talking earlier one around the distinct personality part of the job specs, but in how that differs in bringing yourself and your distinct personality into a script. It can be totally different, but it can still be competitive, right? Like, this is very different from a lot of the other reads that we've heard, but yet we all still enjoyed it. Oh, absolutely. My ears perked up right away. The minute she said work life balance, I was like, OOH, really? I was like, okay. And, you know, that's something I liked, is she embraced her personality when reading this, and it was different, but in a good way. And I hope that encourages people more. You don't need to worry about again what you think they want you to sound like. I think this read is great, honestly. What a great voice. I love it. Amazing. So let's take a listen to our next audition. Keep in mind, folks, we are going to be picking a winner here at the end. So I know that as we go through, maybe some people are deciphering feedback trying to pick, maybe Gina's deciphering her own feedback, trying to pick, but we will be picking one. With that said, our next audition, two takes. Work life balance impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Weeklyum,

Participant #1:
a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay, great. Well, so far, he's the only one that did two takes today. I was wondering, Kyle and Vanessa, what do you think about saying in the beginning of the read, two takes and then going or should you just go? The one thing I will say is slating, in general, we typically advise against. Now, with that said, a lot of people, including myself, may not or I nearly didn't hear a second read there. Once I heard the first read, I was like, okay, perfect onto the next. Thankfully, I had heard him start his next word, which kept me on. But a lot of casting directors aren't going to give that time. A lot of casting directors might not even get through your entire audition. Exactly. So having that second read, well, I think can be good because what are your thoughts between the first two reads? Do you like the second over the first? I liked the second over the first and I would almost use the second take and that's it. I thought the pacing was a little bit too fast on the first take, but I really liked the energy and enthusiasm for the product overall. So I think it's a good read, but I think I would just use the second one and call it a day. And if you're going to do two takes, I would do it almost completely different. And it's like what I was saying earlier about that example I gave with the PSA I did, where the line was you go the extra mile for others, who goes the extra mile for you, completely different feelings. If it's not that different, I don't feel like it's worth the time to do two because like Kyle saying, are they even going to listen to two? Are they even listening to one? Because they have a lot of auditions to get through. And I try to say to my students a lot, it is important to grab their attention in the first 10 seconds. If you don't have them on work life balance, we're done. Exactly. You got to grab them on work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. If they're still listening beyond that, consider it a gift, right? Because right away if someone goes work life balance me, I'd go, that's not it. Next. It doesn't matter what happens beyond that. I've got 80 auditions to get through in a deadline, I've got clients breathing down my neck and we've got to get this thing online. So it is important to really deliver right up front. So very good read. Just keep the second one and you're good. Very good read. Could not agree more. I loved that second read and that's where a lot of times, unfortunately, that's going to get skipped past. So just like you said, skip the first read, submit the second. I know that's hard to subjectively listen to yourself and decide and I think that's a lot of times where actors get into the second read. But yeah, on our side, it just would be a shame for us not to heard that second read because I think it was amazing. It was a stronger read of the two. And honestly, I tend to not do two takes on last time, specifically asked to do it because we just have a lot of auditions to get through and I don't want to waste my time or theirs when they're probably not going to listen to it and that's okay. Maybe if it's a really big job and it's short, I might throw two takes on there, but it's pretty rare. Whereas some people would tell you that two takes is the norm, and that's what you should do. Again, it's just me, and that's how I feel about it. But the second take very good. All right, let's get into the last demo here. Work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Okay. Great read. I like the way that she put her own spin on it and kind of did the sigh at the end of work. I mean, who can't relate to that? What I tell people a lot when I first started in Voiceover, because sometimes people say, I have a fulltime job, I've got kids. How am I supposed to do this? I'm like, listen, when I started, I was raising my son myself, went back to school, got my degree, worked in a family business, worked multiple jobs. You can do it. But when you think about work life balance, that size sums up literally pretty much how I feel every day, but definitely how I felt when I was trying to raise my son, be part of my family business, and pursue my passion. So I really liked it. Really good energy. It's my favorite pacing of the day. Personally, I would lower the breadth a bit, but again, it's my personal preference, and everybody is different. This is something I've learned a lot about clients, agents, and casting directors over the years. Everyone has a different opinion. For example, some casting directors really like when you improvise in animation and video games, and some don't want you to do it at all. And how could you know that unless you maybe took a workshop with them and figured it out? So some clients may not be bothered by having a breath in the middle. Me, personally, if I'm casting and I do help on castings, I like when it's clean and it just kind of sounds like your final delivery take. That's just me. Very good read. I felt like she really captured kind of how it feels to have a lot of things going on. Yeah, you related to her. That's awesome. Yeah. And I think that's so important when we hear word like trusted, in order to be trusted, you have to be relatable. You have to be that friend. And as you've continually alluded to that kind of friend in the workplace, this or that, so if you're not relating with your audience, then how do you expect to connect with them? So I love that she did an amazing job of really bringing that emotion and relatability forward. Definitely. So we heard some fantastic auditions. We've heard some auditions that have some kind of little pointers to take away, and hopefully. The pointers that Jean has put forward here really help you take things to the next level. But that brings us to the part of the episode where we are going to go ahead and put Gina in the power seat here to book a winning audition. Editor, can we get a drum roll, please?

Participant #1:
Work life balance. Impossible. Not anymore. Introducing Equilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for [email protected] today. Yay. And you know what got me was the relatability. And I also liked the way she said not anymore because people were going, not anymore or not anymore. And she went like, not anymore. Like, it's not a problem, okay. I don't know this person, but I feel like I got her personality and that is it, right? Like, when I help people with demos or auditions or whatever, I'm always saying when I'm done listening to it, I should get an idea of who you are. Phenomenal job. I get nervous being like I was like, oh, my gosh, picking a winner is so tough. But, yeah, she got me with the relatability. That was it. That's what pushed it over the edge for me. Oh, favorite pacing of the day, I said, right? Yes. Yeah. Phenomenal job. I'm so happy she won. That is amazing. And I hope everybody listening enjoyed it as much as we did. What an amazing episode here today. Gina, thank you so much for joining us here today. And just for Gina, if somebody wants to reach out, get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do so? Yes, I just relaunched my website this month, so it's Ginoscarpa.com, my old URL, which was Voiceoversbygina.com just forwards over. So if you ever had it, you can still get to my site. I am also the owner and creative director of Positive Voices studio here in Connecticut, and the website is Positive voices. ct.com. And if you want to follow me on social media, I'm pretty much at Gina Scarpa everywhere and I'd love to connect with you and meet you. That is so awesome. All right, thank you so much, Gina. Well, please subscribe to the podcast. If you're looking to find today's script or any others, check out our blog on voices com blog. And for any additional resources from Gina, feel free to check out her socials. Thank you so much. And that brings our episode to a close today from Voices here and from Gina. Thank you, everyone, for listening. We hope you have a great day. Happy auditioning. Happy auditioning. Here we go, Gina. That's the end.