Newsletter

February 2009 · Newsletter Archive

“Perhaps the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.” --Anton Chekhov

The Most Sought-After Type

Type can be elusive in this business because reality is relative.
How you read as a talent and what you innately bring to the table can speak volumes before you even utter a sound. Your attitude, how you look (your face, your build) have an entire performance built right into them. Your presence, whether you realize it or not, says a great deal.

Hopefully, it’s saying what you intend it to say.

In advertising, we identify with a product or service by its brand identity. This identity is carefully sculpted and established through well-planned promotion and product placement. It often takes years just to come up with a name like Häagen-Dazs or Lunchables, and even longer to establish a reputation like McDonald’s or Bloomingdale’s. These things don’t come about on their own, although they’re certainly expected to appear that way.

Branding allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition and, in the process, to bond with your audience and create loyalty. Further, branding is the process of making something distinctive in the marketplace. To communicate effectively in a mass medium, you must be able to convey your point quickly, distinctly, and directly, otherwise your communication may overwhelm, confuse, or repel the viewer/listener.

The term ‘identity’ comes from marketing. The idea here is if you can easily identify with the product/subject in order to readily determine its value. (Hmm. Sounds more like casting at every turn.) If you find the subject is something you can identify with rather quickly, you are more likely to embrace it. It will somehow appear familiar, even if it may be something new. This is primarily why establishing type is important.

Okay, so identity and branding deal with making a product recognizable and representative of something specific. That’s what we do when producing your demo at SOUND ADVICE, right down to art-directing the graphics on your promotional materials.

Determining your type as a talent, for both on-camera and voiceover, utilizes many of the same features as developing a brand identity.

Everyone conveys a type of some sort. Question is: is there a single most desirable type over all others?

In a word, yes! And that would be you being you, naturally. You, honest. You, interested and playful. That’s appealing on a variety of levels, so building a true comfort zone can never be under estimated. You can change a whole lot of minds with a confident, personality driven performance. This is the case regardless of your gender, age, size or race. The fact remains the industry has a demand for all types, rather than a strict diet of nothing but ‘Young Perfect Blondes’, for example.

As actors when we first start out in the talent business, it’s comforting to learn no one does what you do.

“I’m me. I’m the only one of me. I don’t want to be compared with anyone else.”

To be honest, that’s not the issue.

While it’s true no one does what you do quite the way you do it, you are, certainly at first glance, perceived as a specific type, such as ‘the best friend’ or the ‘romantic lead’ or the ‘action hero’, for example. You will be remembered by association with something familiar, no matter how unique you truly may be.

This is true whether you embrace this concept or not, and whether you like it or not. So, you may as well like it at least a little bit, because without type no one will be able to identify with you or get a handle on you in order to establish your value to their future production—and that, my friend, is a cold, hard fact.

Hopefully it’s a notion you can warm up to sooner rather than later.

Blogs, Current Events and Podcasts

In our on-going mission here at SOUND ADVICE to keep you in the loop and assist in furthering your career, we’ve created a schedule so that you, our SA clients, will receive our blogs every Monday, our Newsletters or current professional news on Wednesdays and our In-Studio Workshop podcasts on Fridays. We’re confident you’ll find them remarkably informative and entertaining. In fact, to give you some idea of the folks who subscribe and listen to our blogs, podcasts and Newsletters, here’s one response worth mentioning to our blog entitled “Me No Feel So Good”:

“I would say, from an agency creative director's point of view, that if your voice is decidedly different due to your cold, flu etc. than it was on your audition, then you should contact your agent and have them contact the agency producer as early as you can. You may lose the gig this time, but really is it fair to be selected for one type of voice, and then be incapable of delivering that voice?”
Couldn’t agree more and certainly worth mentioning.

A Part Time Job...For Any Other Biz

You've heard us say repeatedly at SOUND ADVICE, "If you put a minimum of 20 hours a week into your career, you will stand a greater chance of working FULL time as a working talent. Twenty hours is part time for any other business. So, make it your aim to work 'part time'"

You may have wondered, "What exactly should I be doing 20 hours a week to make that happen?" Well, I'll tell ya--it varies slightly little based on whether:

  • a) you're just starting out and only just started coaching with us
  • b) you're mid-production on your demo
  • c) we've completed production of your demo and you're ready to roll
  • Or, Lastly...
  • d) maybe you've dropped the ball a bit, which we ALL do at some point, and you need to get back at it in order to move forward

Allow me to offer you a few weekly targets to aim for in order to help you accomplish your professional aims. This requires a consistent application of yourself to the task of becoming what we all want you to be: a steady working talent.

The FIRST 20 hour PART-TIME Checklist© (Prior to Recording Your Demo)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of one-on-one coaching
  • - 2 - 6 hours of Improvisation, group classes or our In-Studio Workshop at SOUND ADVICE (in LA only at the moment)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of listening to your one-on-one coaching and the Workshop podcasts. You can usually do this in the car or while commuting.
    (We send our workshop podcasts out every week via email, so be sure to check your spam blocker if you haven't been getting them.)
  • - At least 2 hours of research (reading the SA Encyclopedia, the Newsletter or past issues of the Newsletters, any number of recommended material listed in the back of the book.)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of 'studying the medium' (in other words, TiVO hit shows you should know about and commercials, and then playing them back to study the listed observable items outlined in the book. “Defining What You Do Best”)
  • - 5 - 7 and a half hours of vocal warm ups; 45 minutes to an hour of articulation exercises and a half hour of cold-reading three to five times a week for the first 4 -6 weeks that you are getting started.

Keep in mind: it generally takes TWO weeks to create a habit—at anything. We’re trying to establish very good performance/acting business habits. This is the fastest way to develop your ‘product’: YOU!

The SECOND 20 hour PART-TIME Checklist© (Mid-Demo Production)
  • - 5 - 7 and a half hours of vocal warm ups; 45 minutes to an hour of articulation exercises and a half hour of cold-reading three to five times a week. (This is vital regardless of your skill level if you expect to deliver from the top of your game!)
  • - 2 - 3 hours a week applying "The Ten Principles of Performance"© to your demo copy, playing 'vocal solitaire'© with your copy and making yourself familiar with the text without memorizing or getting stuck in a 'muscle memory delivery'©.
  • - 2 - 3 hours of tracking (recording the demo tracks)
  • - 1 - 2 hours prepping the graphics, ordering the C-Shells and so forth.
  • - 2 - 3 hours of Improvisation and/or our In-Studio Workshop at SOUND ADVICE (in LA only at the moment)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of listening to your one-on-one coaching and the Workshop podcasts.
  • - 2 hours of research (reading the SA Encyclopedia, the Newsletter or past issues of the Newsletters, recommended material listed in the back of the book.)
The THIRD 20 hour PART-TIME Checklist© (Post-Demo Production)
  • - 4 - 5 hours of vocal warm ups: 30 minutes of articulation exercises and a half hour of cold-reading four to five times a week. (This NEVER goes away. Make it your constant.)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of 'studying the medium' (in other words, TiVOing shows you watch routinely as well as those that are well-known, but not your target market, commercials and all. Play them back to study the listed observable items detailed in the book.)
  • - 5 hours compiling and getting your promo out (to both AD AGENCIES and TALENT AGENTS) (This is on-going and never goes away. It takes persistence and due diligence on your part.)
  • - 2 - 3 hours of brush up coaching sessions a week.
  • - 2 hours of In-Studio Workshop at SOUND ADVICE (in LA only at the moment) or listen to the weekly podcasts
  • - 5 hours of:
    • a) listening to past coaching sessions in their actual chronology,
    • b) re-reading the 'Encyclopedia' in it’s actual chronology (rather than jumping around) and,
    • c) reading the Newsletters, the last six months through to the most current.
  • - A minimum of 2 hours of auditioning (equivalent to an average of 5 – 8 auditions a week)

Please note: if you've dropped the ball and need to get back at it, just apply the FIRST 20 hour Part Time Checklist©. That ought to get your game back up to par. Give yourself 4-8 weeks to build your stamina back and sharpen your agility.

Now you have a game plan, regardless of where you are and you know what you have to do to move from being 'unknown' to 'KNOWN and working steady'! Go get ‘em!

The SUPER BOWL of Super Bowl Ads

It’s that time again! During February we always have something of a perfect storm: The Super Bowl, sweeps and the Oscars.

“Sweeps” are a quarterly occurrence when stations and networks flood us with programming we’re actually interested in watching. Why? Ratings! Sweeps determine how much the stations should charge advertisers for their air time; the more money based on the most watched programs and times. Sweeps occur four times a year: February, May, July and November.

As for the Super Bowl, let’s face it, we typically gather in a nearby living room with a handful of pals, crack a beer, stuff our faces and scream at the TV with a bunch of people we may or may not know personally. The Super Bowl remains a group activity, whether you’re watching because you’re truly interested in the teams playing or simply watching the celebrated commercials.

So, whether you’d been waiting your entire life to hear Arizona mentioned in the same breath as the term ‘Super Bowl’ or maybe you’re more traditional like our very own LA Studio Manager, Camilla Bassaly, who hails from Pittsburgh and who’s made a steady diet of seeing the Steelers’ clobber some unsuspecting team on the gridiron almost every January—no matter how you slice it the Super Bowl is a grand opportunity to observe advertising and mass consumption in it’s purest state.

So, even though GM and FED EX opted out of this year’s Super Bowl ads, there are still many powerful contenders that actually delivered the goods. Here’s ten of, albeit arguably, the best.
http://www.film.com/features/story/top-ten-super-bowl-ads/25806243

Career Builder and Monster, two Super Bowl alum that happen to specialize in job placement, rose to new levels this year. How ironic.

But I have to say this year was the most entertaining Super Bowl, ads and all, in years!! Maybe it was Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem (very moving), maybe it was Springsteen’s Half Time show—he even slid into the camera on his knees. (Hilarious!! The Boss even cracked himself up!)

Anyway if you missed it or want a replay… check them out for yourself at the link above. In the meantime, we’ll hold tight till the Oscars on February 22nd.

Enjoy sweeps week until then! Outta be tasty!

Love You Madly

I realize that little heading reads like a small candy heart, but that’s fine with me. Our clients mean so much to us. Both studios, Chicago and LA alike, have this same, unified view of the folks we bring on at SOUND ADVICE. In fact, our vendors consistently tell us how remarkable, smart and interesting all of our clients seem to be. You’re a handsome bunch, too, I might add. Yep. Good looking—all of you. (Not that that’s a pre-req or anything. It’s just a fun fact.)

So, consider this as all of our continued promotion to you as a Valentine. We think the world of you and look forward to being there for you as you continue in your career.

Until next month... keep warm.
Keep happy. Keep on keepin’-on!
With all our hearts...
Kate & crew ooooxxxx