Conquering Red Light Fever with Jordan Hunter Jones

Jordan go. Come on, we're on. It's recording. Let's go. . Okay. I can do this. I can do this. I am so
Nervous. I can't do this. I quit . Hey,
How you doing? Sometimes the, uh, the old nerves get the best of you. Well, you are not alone. It's called Red Light Fever and we're gonna fix it. Let's go. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. What, what is that? There's no theme song on this. Alright. This [00:00:30] is, this is VO Experts. Let's just get started. Hi there. And welcome to Voiceover Experts, your monthly educational podcast, helping you bring your voice acting career to the next level with insightful lessons presented by voices, voiceover coaches. Oh, I hope they got somebody good this month. what? Oh, okay. Says here I'm supposed to, uh, talk about myself in 30 seconds. Oh, this is gonna be weird. All right, here we go. I've been sunny for puffs in Final Fantasy Battlefield 2042 Wizard 1 0 1, [00:01:00] the voice of the Texas Rangers worked with Dreamworks, Pixar. Nickelodeon been a rescue hero in the animated series.
Acted in film's opposite Ben Affleck, Thomas Hayden Church. Carrie Ann Moss worked with Director Robert Rodriguez. Voice toys like the Power Rangers, ninja Morph. Hurricane Thunder. Strike Thunder. Strike Thunder. Uh, yeah, right, that toy. Other toys such as Hot Wheels, narrated documentaries, promos, national ad campaigns, both voice and on camera, including Time Warner Spectrum, red Robin Gourmet Burgers Honda. I'm signed to multiple talent agents nationwide and continue to book many of today's biggest acting gigs. Okay, that wasn't awkward. All right, so if you'd like to learn more, just [00:01:30] Google Jordan Hunter Jones. Let's get into this now, this month we're diving into mastering red light fever. Okay, well, what does that mean? Red light fever is the feeling of nervousness whenever recording a track in a music booth. Well, in our case, a, you know, vocal booth. Alright, unless you do music, then I guess it applies there too.
Now, while there are many ways to tackle red light fever today, we're just gonna talk about for my favorite techniques and tips that help you kinda get right through it. Let's get started. Tip number one, embrace it. Yeah, that's right. Accept [00:02:00] the elephant in the room. Release the steam and the pressure cooker. Admitting that you're nervous is the first step to getting over it. All right, so, I mean, I just don't understand why so many people, so many Vos walk up to the mic, you could tell their hands are shaken, they're nervous, and they should be. Sometimes these are big deals. It's a very important audition, but they act like it's fine. Oh, it's, yeah, I got this. I've heard that. You know, act like you've been there before thing, but that's gonna cost a lot of us. So don't, don't act like you've been there.
Let the [00:02:30] nervousness out, embrace it, and I think you're gonna be a lot more comfortable, a lot more quickly. Here's a quick story to illustrate my point. I'm a huge fan of Jack Black, uh, voice acting. He's a musician and he's a, an actor. Um, his voice acting is outstanding. Of course, he's the voice of Kung Fu Panda, along with many other things. But I once saw like a little behind the scenes documentary kind of thing with him and his band, tenacious Deep. And they're following him at this big major concert event.
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It was like a Lollapalooza or a Bernie, I don't know what it was. [00:03:00] And they're following him around and he's being funny over in the concession stand and all this stuff backstage. And he's going through his routine. Everything was kind of predictable and understandable until he got really close to Showtime. His band, tenacious D was about to take the stage.
And he started getting super nervous. I did not expect that because I've always seen him very well in control as a very professional entertainer across a lot of different talents. So [00:03:30] this was surprising to me. But what he did next was really surprising to me, and it stood out. Now listen, it's not graphic, but I have to tell you what happened next to illustrate my point. So up to this point, he's walking around, he's tuning guitars. He's la la la, la, la, la, la, all that stuff. And then he is like, okay, it won't be long. Now, here we go. And so the camera's following him, and they're still about 15 minutes away from taking the stage. And the cameras follow him to the backstage porta-potties. [00:04:00] And he goes up to one of them, opens the door, and he turns around, looks right at the camera, and he says, Hey, this is part of my pre-stage ritual that I'm afraid you guys can't watch little something I do to get out the jitters.
I call it the nervous. Well, I'm not gonna tell you what he called it, but the point is, he revealed to everyone that he too, Jack Black, kung fu Panda, tenacious D, all these major motion pictures is super nervous. But he so embraces it. He doesn't hide it because he [00:04:30] knows that he's about to get on this major stage and there is a lot riding on him. So embrace it, don't act like it's not there. And I think you're gonna find that you're gonna be a lot more comfortable, a lot more quicker. And yes, I know that was a weird gross story, but I bet you don't forget it. Okay, so what's next in the battle against Red Light Fever? Ah, yes. This one is one of my favorites, and it's one of the only tips that I teach students that is completely optional. Now, I say it's optional, but there's some scripts, some [00:05:00] lines I could not imagine doing without this tip or this trick.
But then there's other ones I couldn't imagine using it. So what is it? Developing your lead in skills. All right, so what's a lead in skill? Well, pretty much every single script is a snapshot in time. I mean, just think about it. Yes, there is a very first word on every script, but that doesn't mean that that was the beginning of all time as man knows it. No, that just means that that's where the part you're supposed to be recording [00:05:30] starts. But that doesn't mean that's where you have to start. Think of it like an on-ramp to a highway. If the speed limit is 65 and you're at a stop, you gotta hustle and that's cold and not welcoming. So you wanna use an entrance ramp to slowly build up speed. So by the time you're onto the road, you're already doing the speed limit.
Scripts are the same way. Just because the first line in the script starts here doesn't mean that's where you have to start. Look, days recording is free. It's not like the old days [00:06:00] when they'd hit record and then they'd get that expensive tape going and going and going, and every second was racking up some expenses. No, it's free. It's all digital. You can hit record whenever you want. So hit it and then take a second to back up before the script has happened and go ahead and spend one, two minutes before the script, whatever's going on in each script and get into that moment. Flex your muscles in that arena a little bit. Get comfortable there because that way by the time
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you fly into that first line, [00:06:30] you're already in stride. You're going, it's great. You've led yourself in. And if you're caught up thinking about this and really focused on getting into this pre lead in moment on the script, then you're not gonna be worried about red light fever.
You're not gonna be worried about the recording light coming on because like I said, recording is free. You can start whenever you want. Here, I'll give you an example. Let's say there's a quick script and it's really nothing more than right now. Get screen doors 10% off all this month at the Home Depot. [00:07:00] Okay, well that, that's not where you have to start. So put yourself in a moment before the script. Lead yourself in. What would somebody be telling somebody this for a conversation they're having about how it's getting nice out maybe? And they had a screen door as a kid and they really wish they had one. And the other person, which is you might say something like, oh, that would be nice. Yeah, I could see that. You know, I looked at the forecast and it's actually supposed to be great all month long.
You know what? [00:07:30] You should get a screen door. And they're like, oh, I don't know, they're so expensive. Really. Well, right now I get screen doors for 10% off at the Home Depot. Yeah, all this month. Oh, that was so much more relaxing, wasn't it? Because I was in that moment. Lead yourself in, develop your lead in skills and put your mind on those moments. And not so much the red light fever itself. Okay, what other nice little tips and tricks kinda help us defeat this evil red light fever concern? Um, I tell you one of my [00:08:00] favorite ones is, well, it's kind of like flipping to the back of the book for the answers. And how do we do that in voiceover? Okay, I'll tell you, just go look at the most recent stuff this client's already released. Go to YouTube and type in recent projects by this client and make sure it's recent.
'cause if you type in Wendy's commercial, you're gonna get this hilarious commercial with this nice little old lady in it from the eighties. And she's like, where's the beef? And it was great, don't get me wrong, but it's not really their current marketing objective. So go to YouTube [00:08:30] and type in recent commercials or search the client, see what stuff they're putting out right now. Go to their website. Oh my gosh, definitely go to their website because that's gonna give you their flavor right there. Are they frugal, casual, funny, bright colors, dark colors? My favorite two examples are Merrill Lynch. You go over there and it's, they're not kidding around. It's all business Green colors, of course for money, green and black, very serious font, suits, handshakes all business. It's not a joke. [00:09:00] They want you to give them your nest egg. Now, on the exact same note, go over to Jack in the boxes website.
, it is not serious. Their font is using like nacho cheese, slung on the walls. It's just anarchy over there. But it's kind of funny. I mean, their spokesperson is a clown in a suit. Come on. Point being each one of these websites is gonna give you a little bit more of that client's flavor, their flair, their style, their feel. The YouTube stuff is gonna show you what that casting director is looking for now, not [00:09:30] in the eighties, nineties, or earlier, what he or she is looking for now. And then of course, social media. Come on. This is where businesses go to quote unquote brag. They spend a lot of money on this stuff that they're paying voice actors for. The last thing they want to do is keep it to
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their self. No, nine outta 10 times. As soon as a business releases some kind of new
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content, the first thing they do is throw it up on their social media.
So go find them, go look 'em up, see what they like. Listen to the voice actors they've already hired. See what you [00:10:00] can do to emulate that. You don't wanna match it. You wanna be yourself, but see what you can do. See what they like. See what their hot buttons are. See if there's any trends across YouTube, their website, and social media. You're gonna find these things and you're gonna use that to kind of put on like a jacket or a suit, if that makes sense, to put on that flavor when you go to step up to the mic. And that's gonna be something that if you're thinking about that, you're very much more vested in that than you are about nervousness or tension. This is a live directed session or an audition. [00:10:30] You're thinking about these things, you're in the zone. Okay, what is the next item up for bid?
Well, um, this one is called marking the beats of your script. Now, again, we talked about this earlier, a script more often than not as a little story. And as is the case, most of the time, each story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. So we want to mark those in each script. And why on earth would we wanna do that? I'll tell you why. And man, you better [00:11:00] turn this thing up loud and listen to this. The reason that we mark the beginning, the middle, and the end, here it comes is because you better perform each one of them differently. Oh gosh, I tell you, that is one of the greatest little, all right, we'll call it a cheat code, but really it's just good technique. I've heard scripts and performances that were just monotone or clearly somebody was untrained [00:11:30] and nine outta 10 times.
If you're listening to it, they're just performing all three parts the exact same. You can't do that. Let me give you an example. Here's a very simple basic script. I'm just gonna read through the lines real quick. We're not performing it, just so you know the script. Uh, do you sometimes feel like you'll never get ahead of your finances? We can help at Solution Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a place. Don't wait, call us today. Okay, so there's our lines, there's our script. Let's mark the beats. [00:12:00] What's the beginning? Do you sometimes feel like you'll never get ahead of your finances? Okay, that's a pretty simple beginning, right there, beat. Here's the middle. We can help at Solution Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a better place beat. So there's your middle.
Now here's your end. Don't wait, call us today. Okay, so now we have our three individual parts. Here's what it sounds like. If we perform all three of those parts, the exact same, do you sometimes feel like you'll never get ahead of your finances? We can help at Solution [00:12:30] Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a better place. Don't wait, call us today. I know it's kinda weird, but that's what happens when we read the entire thing just as we read the beginning. So don't do that. Now that we have the beats marked beginning, middle, and end, let's perform all three parts completely differently, appropriate to each of the individual parts. I like to actually assign like a adjective or a feeling to each part. So in this beginning, I'm gonna go with empathetic, because if [00:13:00] you look at this line, we're trying to relate to the person we're talking to now in the middle.
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This one is optimistic. We're letting 'em know there's a solution. Hey, chin up, you know, we're gonna get through this. And then the last line, I'm almost gonna put happy on it because it's contagious. And I'm gonna let them know, here's all you have to do and, and we're good. We're gonna get through this. So happy. So I'm gonna go empathetic, optimistic, and happy. Maybe even a little bit of confidence. So that sounds like this. Do you always [00:13:30] sometimes feel like you'll just never get ahead of your finances? Well, listen, we could help at Solution Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a better place. Don't wait, call us today. It might be a bit much, but you know, I'm trying to illustrate a point here. . So here are those two reads, back to back. One is flavorless and monotone, followed by one that the beats are marked and performed differently.
See what you think. Do you sometimes feel like you'll never get ahead of your finances? We [00:14:00] can help at Solution Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a better place. Don't wait, call us today. Do you always sometimes feel like you'll just never get ahead of your finances? Well, listen, we can help at Solution Advisors. We specialize in studying your situation and helping you navigate to a better place. Don't wait, call us today. There you go. So look, admittedly that was a little bit overly animated, especially for like a financial read. Those tend to be a little [00:14:30] bit more conservative. But I'm just trying to illustrate a point here. If you're suffering from red light fever, getting the jitters and you're antsy, another thing you can do is instead of focusing on that, mark your beats and focus more on performing the beginning, the middle, and the end differently.
It's certainly not gonna hurt. Well, we did it , we laughed, we cried. We, we touched on just a few of my favorite tips and tricks for better mastering red light fever. And with a little practice, you should have a whole new confidence when you step [00:15:00] up to the mic as well. Now, again, my name is Jordan Hunter Jones, and if you're interested in any coaching with me, just go to Jordan Hunter jones.com and you can reach out to me there now to hear more about these tips and others like them, subscribe to voiceover experts for free wherever you listen to podcasts and grow your career today. And thanks for listening. Hey, speaking of thanks, I want to take a second to thank my producers, my directors voices for giving me the opportunity to share these things with each of you. And of course, my talent agents, my coaches, Sennheiser Neuman, uh, universal [00:15:30] Audio Lewit. Uh, my parents, thank you for always encouraging me. . Wait, are they, are they playing me off the stage? Oh, uh oh, okay. Okay. My, uh, my son, uh, I do this for you buddy. My dog, Mr. Smoy pants for picking me up when I'm down my goldfish. Captain Bubbles, of course, he's not a real captain, but you just never know. And I want to thank my sidekick, lady Freedom.