6 Auditioning Tips for Voice Actors from a Casting POV with Aiden Dawn

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Hi there and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of voice over. I'm your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. If there were six things you could do better in an audition, would you want to know what they are? Joining us again in the Vox Talk studio is Aiden Dawn. Aiden will be sharing some insights she gleaned from a casting that she did for an indie video game. And truth be told, these auditioning takeaways can really be lied to almost any job you're submitting to. So welcome to the show, Aiden.

Aiden Dawn:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me back.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

So you have a lot of great tweets and this is yet another one of those

Aiden Dawn:

Thank you!

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

You're welcome. Honestly, you should do video of them. They're really great. But there were six things that I took away from your tweet. You had put them in subhead, so they were really easy to kind of dig into. But for for everybody at home who's kind of tuning in, you got a pen, paper, whatever you got. The six that we're going to go through today happen to be submissions, rates, takes, slates, mic placement and reads. So again, this is experience that Aiden has had a casting of her own that she was working on and just as she was casting the takeaways that she had for talent that she could then impart to you so you can do your auditions better. So I think we're going to start with submissions. So what was it that you took away from the submissions that you heard in this online casting?

Aiden Dawn:

So, one thing that I really appreciated was the different types of submissions that I got, but at the same time, it was the thing that I also appreciated the least. So let's take a step back from it for a second and think about like, submitting for an audition in general, how we would actually do the audition and the character work. We're going to go by the given circumstances right, when we're doing that character work. And we're not going to just add things that aren't there, right? So the facts of the audition and the facts of who can submit and what are being asked, those or what is being asked rather that's important. So if you do not fit, don't submit that's. That's my rule. So an agent would never submit you in a million years for something that you were wrong for. They might submit you for something that's slightly outside the box to get your foot in the door with a company they know that they would want to hear from you specifically with the type of projects that they would generally cast, but they would never submit you for something totally outside of your wheelhouse or that just wasn't a logistic fit. So don't do that to yourself. Only submit something that you are fit for. I had some people who reached out to me. The casting I did was for a child role, which is really hard to cast in general because oftentimes there aren't actors who are young enough and experienced enough, so we go for adults, but often adults don't sound as young, right? Yeah. It was already tough to cast, but having adult males that did not have young voices for a female child role, I was like, ‘don't do that to yourself.’ It just puts you on a no list, you know? And if you are someone who's like, ‘oh, I really would love to get in with this casting director, and I want to make sure that they know I exist,’ that's an option, but reach out separately from the submission and maybe give them your demo and let them know that you like their work, but don't submit. Trying to do the lines of a character that simply does not fit you, that's my recommendation.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

I love that so much. You have no idea. Because honestly, people need to think of the audition as like, this is the first impression I'm sending to a client of myself, not only of my voice and what I'm capable of, but also how well I follow instructions and how well I know myself, right? Yeah. So if you're not a fit, don't submit. That is amazing. And if you are a fit, then go on ahead, go and submit. Perfectly said; that is awesome. So I think everyone gets that. If you have any trouble knowing what your money voice is or what you're more suited to, then coaching can definitely help you to figure that out. So just a little plug there for our coaches at Voices if you want to go find them on voices.com/coaches, a whole bunch of them. All right, so now the next thing you were looking at, of course, because there's a lot of different components that go on in an online audition that aren't necessarily the case for an in person one, you have rates. Obviously the people are saying what they're quoting for this, so what was your experience with that?

Aiden Dawn:

So I'm of two minds about this and I want to talk about a side note quickly because I think it's important. I want to just say for the voice actors out there who are just starting out, don't let anyone make you feel bad about choosing to work on passion projects. And I want to say specifically passion projects, because there's a difference between the projects we're doing because they make us happy, and the projects that we're doing because they're work and because that's what's bringing us income. So setting that aside and knowing that sometimes we are going to do projects that just make us happy, because it's also what we love. When you're setting your rates for professional work, you've got to set them properly. So there are rates like the GVAA Rate Guide, there's the Indie Rate Guide, which kind of accounts for more of those, like indie games and shows you the smaller scale the medium scale, the industry standard scale, and just gives you a better idea for what you should quote there's the gravy for the Brain Edge Studio has one, there's a bunch. So underquoting yourself in this industry is a big problem. And something that I experienced was people were saying for this one game that would be on Steam, right? And it's a paid game. You have to pay to play this game. They would quote themselves, like, I don't know, I think one was $8. And I just was baffled because I understand that I had said that it was low budget, but this was my first time reaching out on Twitter, so I guess that was a learning experience for me too. But low budget to me did not mean like, pennies. So unfortunately, people really undervalue themselves, especially when they have these professional home setups and they have the training. It's just you've got to quote yourself what you're worth, and if we don't quote ourselves enough, it brings everybody down.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

No, absolutely. I think there's a huge difference between why if you put it a passion project when you're getting your feet wet, you really love something. Maybe it's a cause that's near and dear to your heart and you're just trying to get some kind of a resume going on. But then if you're actually looking to do a job or they put money on the line and it's very clear that there is a budget and we are willing to pay, someone like you need to know, first of all what it is that you feel that you should be quoting. Because at Voices, we always say that regardless of what the budget is, if you feel that it actually should be a higher budget range than it's showing, then tell the client you have your rates for a reason. A lot of people devise their rates based on their needs for the day, like, how much money do I need to earn in a month or a week or whatever to pay my rent or buy my groceries? And yeah, you've just really got to be thinking about that. But some great resources you've mentioned there for someone looking to get rates. Just a thought here, but how do you feel about people who come in under what you have budgeted? Would that kind of send some little, I guess, caution lights off in your mind? Like, why are they under bidding? What's going on here?

Aiden Dawn:

I don't know. For me, especially with indie games, I didn't look at anyone who underquoted and go, ‘oh, no, I'm not going to work with this person.’ What my perspective was is, ‘okay, I'm going to go with what I think this person should at a minimum be making, which is obviously about what they're quoting.’ I had a minimum in my mind, but ultimately it's the client who's going to say, ‘okay, I'm approving this rate or whatever, but I had a minimum in my mind. I wasn't going to let anyone underquote themselves.’ It's not something, especially with indie work, that turns me off of it, but it lets me know that this person needs to know about rates and let me know that there was a definite problem with knowing how to quote yourself among the Twitterverse.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, well, and that's a whole other kettle of fish, right. Castings out on Twitter. I see them every now and then. I guess they want to make sure everyone knows it's a paid role. Voices everything's a paid role. But it's just kind of like there is a different kind of ecosystem, if you will, of these jobs that are done. Perhaps you could call them resume builders, portfolio builders, just fun things to do, perhaps? But all of that said, still respect yourself as an artist, have the same kind of standards that you would hold yourself to in any situation wherever you find that work. And, yeah, I think that it's important that we talk through the rates piece because it is something that a lot of people are confused by, frankly, and honestly, if someone just doesn't know what to do, then you as casting director did you actually to reach out to someone who had quoted lower and said, ‘Just so you know, I love your voice, love your work. If I worked with you, I'd pay you more. But just like next time, when you see a job like this, make sure you're quoting something else.’ Do you ever reach out to people and kind of give them a little nudge that way?

Aiden Dawn:

I didn't specifically for this one because there were a lot of submissions, so it would be tough to; there were quite a few people who underquoted themselves. But that's why I made the post about it. I made it right after we did the casting and I was like, this is a genuine issue, don't quote yourself this low. And I kind of tried to help make people aware of it more publicly so that no one felt singled out as well. Because I think sometimes people can go, ‘oh no, I'm not good at this’ if they are singled out. But that's the good thing about just posting something blanket on Twitter is that people are like, ‘oh, this is a helpful thing that I will use in future.’

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Absolutely. So we've got the first two down, we have submissions and rates, and now we've got Takes slates, mike placement and reads and then of course, some little parting wisdom to leave us all with. But let's move along now to takes. So this would be the number of times someone reads a script in the one file they're submitting to you? Correct?

Aiden Dawn:

So I really think it's the same as looking at the submission as a whole. If in the details it says, give me this many takes, you give them that many takes, never ever break that rule, period. If they're asking for a certain amount, you have to give that amount. But if they're not asking for that amount, if it's a very short role, I generally do a couple or three, right? You don't want to waste their time. You don't want to do, like, ten takes, but do a few. And if it's a long piece, if it's longer than, like, 30 seconds, don't give them more than one take if they're not asking for it because ultimately, all the auditions I received, the second take was virtually the same.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Oh, no.

Aiden Dawn:

There were a couple that were pretty good, but especially when these people were trying to do a child's voice and a lot of them were a little bit older, the way it sounded was the same. So some things you can do to differentiate those takes are really going into that character work and making them different characters, having their outlook on life be different. Maybe someone's going to approach something more fearfully, maybe someone's going to approach it with all the confidence in the world. But there just has to be a difference between your takes if you're going to do more than one. So, yeah, my two things were I asked for two takes because I wanted to see if there was versatility for these voice actors. And the other thing was that some people just they gave me the same take or they didn't give me a second take. And as someone who was asking for both of them, there's a reason. There's always a reason. So you got to follow it.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Wonderful. So I'm assuming that in between the takes, they don't say, take one, take two. How did you lay it out for them?

Aiden Dawn:

Well, because I asked for two takes, I'm going to know you're submitting two takes. So you don't need to say it in your slate. You don't need to say it between. Just give a little space with anything. It's about making it not alarming for our ears. So between each line, I like to give just a little bit of space. Let it be smooth, but I don't like to leave anyone waiting. And then in between takes, I just give a little bigger of a pause.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Right, and I like that continuity aspect because, as you say, you're listening to what you hope will be different renditions of the same script from everybody, right? And so anything that breaks that kind of the way that that's being read aloud is a distraction. It might not be enough to throw you in the circular file, your audition I should say, but it's going to be something that is distracting nonetheless. All right, so let's move along to Slates. Now, slates, slating is something we've talked about in the past, and we had David Goldberg on from Edge Studio, and he was discussing slating and our kind of varying opinions on that topic together. He and I, we have a couple of different ways of looking at that, but certainly I know it's definitely relevant in various parts of industry, but what I did notice when we were talking beforehand, Aiden, is that you actually were using slates even though your casting was an online casting, now, was this on a platform or did you all of these emails were just they were sent you by email, they DM'd you like, how did you get these auditions and why was a slate important?

Aiden Dawn:

I did by direct message and then had everyone email me and fill out a form and gave them the information and a little clip of the game so they could kind of see what they were going to be doing. And with this one, the slates were important to me because this was one of my first times casting for well, it was my first time casting for a game, so I've cast a bit for theater before, but this was like the first video game casting. So I didn't know any of these people, and I wanted to hear what their normal voice sounded like, especially because I was asking for a kid voice. I wanted just to hear and see if they were going to say hello. I know, I've heard that a lot. When someone asks for a slate, I always say, “Hi, this is Aiden Dawn.” Like, I give them a hello because I think that that's important and it gives something a little bit more human to it. If they say specifically name only, I'll just say, “Aiden Dawn” you follow the instructions, let that be important. But I wanted to get to know these people a little bit because it was for a short role and all I was asking for was, I think it was something like twelve lines, like that was the whole character. So it was small, it was condensed, and I just wanted to get a better feel for who they were. Now, slates in general, in Canada, they're still asked for a lot, but in the US, I know a lot of people ask for no slates. So it's really important just overall to know if they want a slate or not. If they want it at the beginning, if they want it at the end, just listen to what's being asked for. And oftentimes if I'm submitting on a casting website, like Voices, for example, I won't slate because it's generally not asked for. So, yeah, it's ultimately what you see.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Exactly, it's like follow the instructions sometimes. And I think I don't know if some clients do this on purpose, but they might put something in there just to see if you can follow the instruction. And if you can't, it's a really easy way to weed you out. It could be a great audition, but if you're not able to do what they've asked, then it's kind of like, well, what will they be like to work with long term? If we were in the studio? Will they behave in the same way, they'll be kind of all over the place, not listening to us or whatnot. Hopefully they bring you bring cookies, but that's a whole other thing. But all of this aside, slates are important and I will go back and say that David Goldberg and I have I think I respect completely the ways that slating is used in different worlds as he and it's always exciting to see those worlds collide and then talk about how it would work in that situation or not. But yeah, if anyone is curious about slating, we do go into that in great detail in a past episode. And there's also I wanted to ask you on the topic of slating. One of the great teachers who does a lot of character work some years ago had said, oh, well, you could try slating in character. So I don't know, is that something that you would encourage or do you think people should just play it, just say it as they would normally say their name for, say, a commercial?

Aiden Dawn:

I have had differing opinions on this myself and I've learned different things along the way. Generally, I do my slate for a commercial. I do it along the same energy and do it in my normal voice. If I'm doing it for an animated piece, again along the same energy, I might keep the voice similar to what they're going to see. But I don't do anything wild or crazy. I don't go for something that's super charactery that's going to make them go, ‘Ah, that's not part of the script.’ I give them my name. I keep it very simple. I say my hello and then I go into my work. It's not on either extreme. It's kind of in the middle for me.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, like Goldilocks. Not too hot, not too high. Just right. Exactly. Oh, perfect. So let's move on to mic placement and then we have reads and of course, our little takeaway. So now, mic placement, what were you hearing and how could people have done it better?

Aiden Dawn:

There were a lot of people that were way too close. Yeah, I heard a lot of mouth noises. I heard a lot of plosives and fricatives that were a little aggressive. So one thing that I've learned, and I've asked a lot of people along the way because it's important to me to always get information from other professionals that are working in this business. And I have found that the best way and the way that most people agree with is if you're someone who has a lot of plosives, like for me, I'm someone who speaks with a lot of plosives and sometimes my s's are a little sharper. I have more sibilance, so I tend to speak across the mic and not directly into it, and I keep it angled just a little bit back and a few inches from my face. I try not to be too up in the mic. I know, a lot of people who are just starting out might have a space that's not fully sound insulated, or sound treated, rather, and it might be a little harder to have the gain on their mic high enough to back up on it a little bit. But it's really important that we aren't just eating our microphone because it can completely just ruin the quality of our recordings and that's not something that you can take back afterwards.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Absolutely. And so you had mentioned plosives, which we know are the big popping sounds, and fricatives, which not a lot of people are familiar, but fricatives. Are you like, can you explain? I kind of try to do some of them here for everybody's benefit, but if you would just explain what a fricative is and then people can go back and listen to themselves and see if they've got them.

Aiden Dawn:

Yeah. So fricatives are your Fs and Z sounds. You have your voiced and your unvoiced. That's all your F, S and Zs. They're the fricatives, the sharper noises where the air is coming through. And especially for Canadians, I've learned that we tend to, I guess, close the space where the air is coming through tighter than Americans tend to. So sometimes our Zs and our Ss are a little bit sharper because the air is moving faster, because that gap is smaller.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Right, so a word like pizza. Trying to think of what else would be anyway, pizza is a good one because it's a double Z. Yeah, interesting. And I imagine were there any people who were too quiet, probably a little too far from the mic, or they were really loud, even though they were further back?

Aiden Dawn:

Yeah, there were some people who were too quiet and I don't know if it's that they were too far from the mic. I think it ultimately it's just having the gain turned down so much because they don't want their room tone to be too loud and it just often affects the overall product in the end. Or maybe they don't know how to use compression yet, if they have to have their mic turned down a little bit. So there's tools in the post production, if you do have your gain turned down a little more, that can help a little bit that I think some people could benefit from doing a little bit of research about. There's a lot of help on YouTube, just about how to add plugins for your DAW. When I first started with Logic Pro, I looked up one and it was, I think, 30 minutes long, and I found it so helpful. And I learned more along the way, of course, but that was a good place to start.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Yeah, well, great advice. So we've got Reads left and then our ‘taking us home’ part. I know that we're in the very tail end of this episode. I wish it could go on a bit longer, but this is what we have. So Aiden quickly, Reads and then some final thoughts.

Aiden Dawn:

I touched on this a little bit, but it's important that your reads have some thought put into them and that they are following exactly what is given to you in the submission. I think sometimes we get a little in our head about this if we're too analytical, and I have definitely done that where I'm like, ‘oh, well, they asked for it just this way,’ or ‘they gave me this adjective and I think I really need to stick to that.’ As long as you think you are doing what you can to match it, your authenticity is still just as important. So if you have followed every direction you've been given, knowing that who you are and your read is all that casting is asking for, is kind of the most important part. Do what's asked, but know that they want you to succeed and they want to know how you would deliver it. They don't want it to be anybody else, and I will die on this hill. There is no other person they're looking to hear, they just want your read.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

What a reassuring thing to hear, right? Just be yourself. I know that that's sometimes tricky because everybody comes from a different way of how they learn voiceover. Maybe they emulated someone that they thought was amazing on radio or TV or a character voice, that they an actor in that way. But be yourself because there's really only one you and no one can replicate that so wonderful. Are there any last parting thoughts that you have on this topic, Aiden?

Aiden Dawn:

Yeah, I would reiterate casting wants you to succeed and they're just human. I am a voice actor too. That's what I do for the most part. This was something fun that I got to do, but it's not something I do all the time. And coming from the side of voice acting and stepping into casting for a video game role, I still came from the perspective of I want to hear some great work and I want to hear people who are enjoying what they're doing and giving just as much as I would give to it, right. Like, you want to hear someone who's passionate about the work and you want to hear someone who's put some thought into what this character might sound like. So if you're doing that, you're doing your job. That's all we can ask.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Super. Well, thank you so much, Aiden. Now, would anyone like to get a hold of Aiden? I'm sure they would. This is the part where I'm going to ask you just how can we find you online, Aiden, and what is the best way to reach you?

Aiden Dawn:

So you can find me at Aiden underscore Dawn on Twitter, you can email me at AidenDawn (at) AboutTheVoice.Biz and you can find me on my website at aboutthevoice.biz for coaching or for voiceover work.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

Wonderful. And she's got some great tips there, so I'm sure coaching would be a great avenue for some of you who really like Aiden's style. So thank you again for coming on Aiden, and we look forward to talking to you again sometime soon.

Aiden Dawn:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me back.

Stephanie Ciccarelli:

And that's the way we saw the world through the lens of voice over this week. Thank you so much for tuning in to Vox Talk. This is such an amazing conversation. There are those six great tips that you should be applying and re-listening to this episode if you need to, to do even better in your auditions and put your best voice or your best foot forward, as the saying goes. So for Vox Talk, I'm Stephanie Ciccarelli, your host. Geoff Bremner is the producer of this fine show. We will see you next week.