Newsletter

June 2007 · Newsletter Archive

"If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning."
--Carl Rogers

"Knowing is not enough -- we must apply!"
--Goethe

The Difference Between the Audition and the Session

There's really very little difference between the audition and the job itself. You might even say there's virtually no difference when it comes to the actual performance. You're always expected to give your best.

Yet, being talent we tend to go about things a little backward sometimes--too often we give ourselves a rather long runway at the audition to get the delivery up and flying and a very short runway on the actual session. That is to say we often 'ramp up' into the performance at the audition, when in fact we are expected to deliver the goods with full performance energy and an honest joie de vivre. That's what will inevitably land you the job.

Take the risk to go just that much further! That's precisely what I mean when I say "stretch the canvas" because that's what's truly required of you both at the audition AND the booking.

On the job itself, we talent frequently, often hurriedly, dash off a delivery and what often follows is the impulse to get the heck out of there as soon as possible. It's ironic, really. Can't wait to get in front of the mic and then once you're there--you're hot to get out. What's required of us is the stamina to hang in there throughout the session, enough interest in what we're doing while we're doing it and the ability to delivery of a few good options within the parameters of the project. These are the primary elements that make you a valuable player--in any medium.

The fact is the only real difference between the job and the audition is the number of takes expected from you.

It's on the rarest occasion at an audition that you'd be given more than three attempts to deliver the take (or two) you intend to submit as your audition. You're expected to be very decisive and creative on the fly, which is why you should arrive no more than 15 minutes before your scheduled audition. Read through the script at LEAST five or six times out loud. Your performance sounds very different out loud than it does in your head, so be sure to do so as you get it up to speed.

On the actual session you're generally expected to deliver quite a few takes, often 50 or more, while remaining relaxed, creative and totally interested in what you're talking about. Certainly the number of takes varies wildly from job to job, but don't feel defeated or put-out if you are asked to give far more options than you may have ever thought possible or even necessary. You're expected to be the creative force on the project that can turn the entire thing on its axis! The producer and copywriter are doing their level best to make a bunch of people happy back at the agency and back at 'corporate.' Thankfully, you don't have to worry about that. You just have to make yourself and the writer/director happy! (Phew. That's the guy who ultimately chose you at the audition.)

Oh, if you were wondering how long it takes to hear whether you got the job after the audition, and if they'll call you to tell you 'didn't get it'...well, here's the skinny: you ONLY hear if you booked it. So, once you've auditioned for the gig--move on. So much of your job is auditioning. The average (if there is one) is said to be between 100-200 auditions for every booking. Staggering, eh? Not really. It's simply part of making yourself known. You'll never know how many near misses you may have gotten and how close to nailing the gig you are unless you stay the course. Just keep your sights on delivering the very best auditions you are capable of delivering. Make that your mission.

So, to wrap it up, you could say the audition demands on-the-spot decision-making regarding your performance (at least more than usual)--they expect an effective take off on a very short runway. And on the booking they expect stamina--and an effortless take off on what may inevitably seem like an incredibly long runway. Both demand time and attention to master. But then, that's what you have us for...to help you work that muscle.

But you can't win if you don't play. So, if you haven't been in on a workshop in a while, come in for some hardcore, purpose-driven coaching. JUST GET IN HERE! Give Priscilla a call and get scheduled.

Otherwise, keep listening to the coaching sessions you've done with us thus far on CD and tap into our workshop podcast--every Sound Advice client has access to it at www.soundadviceclients.com. It's almost as good as being there.

Use your resources. The goal is to make you a steady working pro! It's precisely why we're here.

A Noteworthy Article

We first ran the following article in our May 2005 Newsletter. I thought it still so in sync with what we impart to you in your training here at Sound Advice that I thought we'd run it again. It truly resonates with our own sentiments regarding voiceover in film.

A Defense--and History--of Voice-Over Narration
by Sarah Kozloff

In Spike Jonze's 2002 film Adaptation, the principal character, Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage), goes to a lecture on screenwriting given by popular authority and real-life figure Robert McKee, here impersonated by the actor Brian Cox. McKee delivers the standard diatribe against voice-over narration: "And God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character."

In the movie, no one has the guts to debate this sweeping denunciation--McKee is portrayed as a bully who brooks no questioning of his prescriptions--and yet the movie as a whole, which relies heavily on giving the viewer access to Charlie's thoughts, works as a slantwise rebuttal.

So it has been throughout the history of filmmaking. Many have issued pronouncements against voice-over, and few have murmured in its defense. Yet voice-over narration remains an integral part of moviemaking--so common that we often overlook its contribution and ignore its development.

From the beginning, film aficionados have felt the need to defend cinema as an art and to do so by setting it apart from other media, especially theater and literature. What makes film distinct and special, these theorists argue, is its capacity to convey information nonverbally--through mise-en-scene, editing, camera movement, POV (point of view), facial expression or pantomime. As is well known, many intellectuals and filmmakers, including Rudolf Arnheim, Charlie Chaplin, Sergei Eisenstein, and Rene Clair, argued against the use of synchronous sound when it emerged in the 1920s, seeing in speech the death of film art. Even today, reference books and textbooks repeat ad infinitum that because film is a visual art, speech should never have a leading role; dialogue must always be minimized--kept in its place.

A fallback charge against voice-over narration is that using it is insulting to the audience. Voice-over narration is suspect because it is a means of "telling" rather than "showing." "Telling" is judged as a mark of laziness and/or condescension. Both of these subtexts are apparent in this quote from Robert McKee's popular screenwriting manual, Story (italics his):

"[T]he trend toward using telling narration throughout a film threatens the future of our art. More and more films by some of the finest directors from Hollywood and Europe indulge in this indolent practice. They saturate the screen with lush photography and lavish production values, then tie images together with a voice droning on the soundtrack, turning the cinema into what was once known as Classic Comic Books...That's fine for children, but it's not cinema."

Voice-over narration is no more or less inherently valuable or cinematic then any other element of film. And when this device is well-executed, it opens up inimitable avenues for filmmakers. Voice-over is notoriously useful for efficiently conveying expositional or historical information, for instance. The David McCullough-narrated sequences of Gary Ross' Seabiscuit (2003) set the horse race in context, explaining its significance to the country as a whole. And filmmakers often use voice-over for important character revelations--to give us direct access to a character's thoughts, emotions, and consciousness.

Indeed, narration is such a powerful device for deepening characterizations and leading viewers to share a character's perspective that some film theorists see "the voice" as a counterpoint to "the gaze."

Certainly, narration can be a tool for granting those who historically have been objectified by the camera---e.g., women or minorities--the chance to speak for themselves.

Voice-over narration can also add a level of poetry to a movie. Michael Herr's phrasing in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) is inherently poetic, and Martin Sheen's soft, bitter delivery makes lines such as, "Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one," memorable and evocative.

Because voice-over narration automatically creates a double layering of commentary over visual track, it is unparalleled as a mechanism for creating distance and irony. In films such as Badlands (1973) and Raising Arizona (1987), filmmakers use the characters' benighted comments about their situations to point up their blindness and limitations. Or a third person voice-over can speak with ironic authority about tribal blind spots, as in The Age of Innocence (1993), when the narrator remarks: "It was widely known in New York, but never acknowledged, that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly that they want to get to it." Voice-over has the potential to instill a Brechtian self-reflexivity, as when Jean-Luc Godard offers a few clues for late-comers to the movie theater in Band of Outsiders (1964) or when Dede Truitt (Christine Ricci) in Don RoosÕ The Opposite of Sex (1998) dismissively talks back to the camera.

And, fundamentally, because voice-over refers to the most traditional of storytelling forms--that of oral storytelling--it reaches out to the audience in a singular way, making the film-going experience feel more "natural," more intimate. Like "dear reader" references in a novel, or dramatic actors making eye contact with a theater audience, using voice-over narration implies an implicit recognition of the spectator; the device flatters us with its confiding tones or challenges us with its direct appeal.

In Adaptation, the fictional Charlie Kaufman is cowed by Robert McKee's diatribe, and from that point on in the film, the voice is silent. Fortunately, however, throughout the history of film real-life screenwriters and directors have blithely ignored the many dire, limiting strictures against voice-over narration, and proceeded to make the most of these invisible storytellers.

Sarah Kozloff is the Chair of Film at Vassar College and the author of Invisible Storytellers: Voice-Over Narration in American Fiction Film and Overhearing Film Dialogue. Her article in its entirety can be found on-line at www.criterioncollection.com.

"What is this in reference to...exactly?"

Improvisational training affords you some of the greatest skills a talent can possess because it:

a) allows you to think on your feet
b) fleshes out your imagination
c) develops your ability to collaborate with others--and
d) hones your prowess to play.

And, as the late, great Martin de Maat, of The Second City Training Center used to say, "It's called a 'play.' Isn't that ironic?"

All performance--all of it--whether it be film, television, stage, voiceover or commercial work requires a firm base in 'play.'

What 'Working Your Chops' Really Means

If you haven't already, make it your edict this year to work part-time as a professional talent. It's still early in the game yet. The year is young.

If you consider part-time for any line of work is 18-20 hours then it stands to reason pursuing work as a talent should require you eventually commit 18-20 hours a week keeping your skills sharp and thoroughly promoting yourself if you expect to work.

This is a gradual thing but you do have to put the time in. No one expects you to drop whatever it is you're doing and run away to join the circus. We want you to be realistic about this.

So, it doesn't hurt to mention starting any small business requires, at the very least, 20 hours a week to initially get off the ground.

That may be a given and could be considered the absolute bare minimum of effort you need to put in at the start of any new endeavor.

Additionally, it's important you set targets if you hope to accomplish anything.

To begin, make it your goal to spend at least 20 minutes to a half an hour, 4-5 times a week, doing your vocal warm-ups to keep your articulation on-point. Then spend another half hour, 4-5 times a week, working your cold-reading skills. (Ideally this should be done in front of a mirror where you can focus your delivery. In other words, get the read off the page and into the mirror. Off the page and into the mirror.)

Okay, you're half way to fulfilling your part-time commitment--just keep going! It only takes 2 weeks to create a habit out of anything.

Now you need to spend another 8-10 hours a week promoting yourself.

Promotion is a two-fold process: first, you have to promote yourself through repeated mailings to the talent agents until you're truly satisfied with the representation you have and, secondly, by promoting yourself with multiple mailings to producers and casting sources to make yourself known and available to those most likely to hire you.

If you don't have a competitive demo and postcards or proper headshots and a resume to promote just yet, then the time allotted to promotion can be concentrated into coaching and in-studio workshops while you're in the process of creating those all-important promotional tools. You can't work without headshots (if you intend to pursue on-camera work) or a truly competitive voiceover demo.

Make it your aim to gradually build up to 18-20 hours a week sharpening your performance skills and promoting yourself. Beyond that the goal is to maintain a constant and steady diet of it. If you do, I'm confident you will experience some real progress within six months to a year. That's a rather rapid return on any start-up business.

On the other hand, if you don't put in that kind of time, it will take you considerably longer to establish yourself.

Additionally, if the only time you work your skills is when you are here at Sound Advice then your career will most certainly begin and end at our front door. That will only result in frustration on both our parts, which is counter-productive.

So, be sure to do your job. It's not impossible. Just take a few baby steps to begin.

Do your homework, continue to keep your skills agile. That's precisely what I mean when I say, "Work your chops!" This is why performance is considered a discipline.

It's important to understand that this business may not appear all that random or subjective if you know what is needed and wanted of you and you're committed to doing your job to the best of your abilities. There's always something you can be doing to forward your career.

Here at Sound Advice, we're happy to give you the keys to the kingdom--just try not to lose them in the couch.

Putting You on the Map

In last month's Newsletter, we shared a special treat: our exclusive maps of casting agencies, recording studios and ad agencies in Chicago! These maps are intended to help you--the commercial talent--know your way around when you're going on auditions and bookings in our fair city. We're now hard at work creating similar maps for New York and Los Angeles. Look for those maps in July's Newsletter, or just stay tuned to www.soundadviceclients.com/maps. If these maps are helpful to you, be sure to let us know!

David Mamet directs TV spots for Ford Edge

Speaking of Chicago, our very own playwright/screenwriter/director David Mamet was recently tapped by J. Walter Thompson in Detroit to direct two deliciously gritty TV spots for the Ford Edge.
Watch them for free on YouTube:
View Spot 1
View Spot 2

Ah, Summer...bring it on!

Time to fire up the grill, roast a few Vienna Beef, sip some lemonade and "play ball!" But, between days at the beach--be sure to get a few mailings out, sign up for some brush-up coaching or get into a workshop.

We want you working. And that requires you continually make yourself ready to deliver the goods. So, have fun...and we hope to see and play with you soon! -Kate & crew