Behind The Curtain With a Voice Over Casting Director

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else.
Now for our special guest.
Doriane Elliott: Hello. Doriane Elliott here talking to you from my home studio right here in the Big Apple. I am a New York City casting director for a little over a decade now specializing in voiceovers for national TV and radio commercials as well as promos, industrials and animation.
My passion is voices. I work at the fabulous state-of-the-art production facility called Phantom Audio and at Phantom, I cast for all the commercials that are produce there as well as hold classes for voiceovers and produce reels for my private students. I love casting and I love coaching and I love giving advice to smart actors who want to learn and today, I’m going to talk about something that really irks all of us over at Phantom and that is poor reel production.
We receive dozens of reels each week, most of which are not viable. It’s clear that the actor has either not had enough training but has a great voice or has had the wrong training and on top of that, the reel itself just does not sound professional. It’s clear that the spots are made up and the production is poor and well, that actor has now lost his or her money and worst yet, a chance to wow that particular casting director and or agent. You really get one chance, folks and your minute really has to sound like each spot that was recorded on it was an aired spot and I state on my own website which is www.DorianeElliott.com. Do your homework. Find out what the person and engineer have done as far as recording for commercials. Listen to the reels they produced and start comparing them with other.
At my site, if click on the reels and testimonials, you can listen to the reels that we’ve produced over at Phantom. The head engineer Conrad records, edits, produces spots for all kinds of advertising. Like I mentioned before, commercials, industrials promos, the whole gamut everyday. He knows how to listen to the reels of the pros, the working actors. Those reels are all comprised of either all actual spots that those actors have booked or some that are made up spots peppered in to each reel but it sounds so authentic that no one would ever know that they were created just for that actor’s reel.
Sometimes in my classes, I’ll play reels that have been sent to me at Phantom then I’ll play reels that were either produced by us at Phantom and or some random reels of some of my friends whose reels are over Voicebank.net. It’s kind of like listening to the bombers on American Idol versus the ones who make it to the top three and although it may sound funny, it’s really sad for the people who were tricked into some package deal by people who have no experience in cutting commercials or who have no direct contact in the field of advertising. You know, to them, it’s the means to an end and it irks me to no end.
So do your homework when it comes to who you’re studying with and who is producing your reel. Don’t just jump into anything. This is your career we’re talking about. Don’t blow your chances by getting sucked into being – put into the wrong hands, you know people who don’t know what they’re doing. Again, it’s your career and take the time. I can’t tell you enough to just really do your homework. Over and out, take care. Bye.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
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