Newsletter

May 2008 · Newsletter Archive

“The enemy of art is ‘no limitations’. If you have limits—obstacles—you are then forced to make artistic choices as a solution.”-Orson Welles

Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced

As far as we’re concerned here at SOUND ADVICE, every talent is essentially on the same level playing field when it comes to landing the work, which is precisely why at SOUND ADVICE we don’t promote classes geared toward ‘beginning, intermediate and advanced’ levels. It doesn’t exist in the field so it doesn’t exist in our training as we are trying to recreate as close to an actual audition or session experience as possible. I consider everyone I work with a professional and expect them to act as such.

So, if it doesn’t exist in the field, we feel it has no place in our training. There’s no litmus test out in the field used to keep a newcomer over a career veteran from landing a principal role in a film, commercial or on television. In fact, you could very well be cast opposite a child who may have far more experience than YOU or an older talent who’s enjoying his first professional experience—and you’re the seasoned veteran by comparison.

If the talent is correct for the role and they make themselves available to the work and they’re cast—that’s the long and the short of it. No beginning, intermediate and advanced categories to go by. Think of if these classifications were in play when Laurence Olivier was working…he would have had no one to play off. It’s ridiculous.

That said, while the industry is always in the market for new voices, the goal is certainly to become known and one of the “tried-and-true”. No matter your ability, you’re either known or you’re not. Certainly producers and copywriters will stick with the talent they’ve had a fair amount of success with when they are in a pinch. Wouldn’t you if your career depended on it? Of course you would. THAT’S the talent we all aim to become, regardless of your experience level. And you can achieve this with dedication and persistence. If you make yourself accessible to the work continually...not just for three months or six months or eight, but rather if you dedicate yourself to this as a profession, then you will work.

You can’t compete if you don’t rise to the occasion on a professional scale. You must have the proper materials to represent you well when you’re not there. That means you must have a competitive demo, current headshots (if applicable) and a proper web page that will rise above the din!

On the session, we are all held to the very same professional standards regardless of experience level. So, in keeping in the spirit of professional standards this is precisely how we conduct our training, tracking and production. When you arrive for your sessions with us, consider it a booking, because we most certainly do!

The Top Five

Since spending the better part of the last few months out here in LA, I’ve been reminded of a few significant facts that offer a broader, more compelling view of our mass-media today and it’s ultimate social implications. Not the least of which is: there are basically only FIVE overall entities governing…pretty much everything that has anything to do with media. There are really only a handful of major film studios and they are:

Sony Pictures (governing Columbia, MGM, United Artists),
20th Century FOX (all things FOX, including FOX Searchlight),
Disney/Touchstone (Buena Vista, Miramax, Hollywood Pictures),
Warner Brothers/HBO (Castle Rock, New Line Cinema),
NBC/Universal (Focus)
and Paramount (DreamWorks, SKG).

(Okay, fine, so that’s six, not five. Whatev. Stop being so literal.) These studios are involved with the five television production companies or networks from which nearly ALL programming comes:

NBC (Universal),
CBS (Columbia),
ABC (Disney),
FOX
and, under Time Warner’s jurisdiction, you’ll find
Turner Broadcasting (CW, CNN, TCM, TNN, TNT, Cartoon Network and Court TV to name a few—owned by Rupert Murdock), which includes all the Tribune Entertainment subsidiaries, including HBO.

As the onion peels further we find five primary advertising agencies that act as an umbrella or governing entity from which a bulk of the ad agencies nationwide, if not globally, stem:

WPP Group (Young & Rubicam, A. Eicoff, J. Walter Thompson, Grey Wordwide, Ogilvy),
Omnicom Group (BBDO, DDB, Element 79, TBWA, Downtown Partners, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, GSD&M for example and are related to CBS/Columbia),
Publicis (Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Fallon, to name a few and related to ABC/Disney),
Interpublic Group of Companies (DraftFCB, Deutsch, Hill Holiday, The Martin Agency, Campbell-Ewald, and McCann-Erickson…NBC/Universal is the connection here as GE is the parent company governing the entire kingdom. This is one humongous octopus, my friend.)
Lastly, we have Havas (Euro RSCG, Arnold Worldwide, Herald Tribune…AOL/Time Warner is the broadcast connection here. Ever wonder why WGN can be found the world over? Here’s your answer. You could watch a Cubs Game in Iraq! That’s no accident.)

And, as it happens there are five nationally notable talent agencies best suited to handle voiceover and another five, more or less, for theatrical (film and television). But I’ll save that for another Newsletter as it bares a great deal more inspection.
Knowing this speaks directly to how and what we receive as mass communication. Suffice it to say under each of these great trees nearly all fruit falls.
In some respects this simplifies things dramatically for us as talent. It should also give you some insight into the aims and motives of each studio, network or ad agency.
The collective American mindset shaped with broader strokes by a very definite, pointed hand. That said, there’s no reason to assume all the motives of mass media are completely negative. But it does give you some idea there may be something to the whole ‘Big Brother’ notion. Can’t get much bigger than this!

Who’s the AMPTP and Why You Should Know Them

Don’t kill the messenger, but come June 30th we may find ourselves up against it once again, because currently the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (also known as the AMPTP), which represents over 350 production companies and studios, is in negotiations with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). The AMPTP only just concluded their separate talks with the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) who is, at the moment, leaning very heavily toward a Theatrical (contract) strike as of June 30th when this contract expires. So, to be clear well in advance of the next scheduled bloodletting, the AMPTP is essentially who we would be on strike with. To further clarify, all TV and film production would cease—putting a great many people, not just talent, out of work for a period of time.

That said, Commercial production, Industrials, and Promo voiceovers would NOT be affected by this strike, should it actually come to pass. The strike would ONLY impact work under the Theatrical (film and TV) contract.

So, let that light a fire under your fannie to PROMOTE yourself immediately. The SOUND ADVICE process for promotion is: once every other week for five weeks straight, repeatedly to the same professional contact. This is referred to as ‘direct mailing’ and MUST be done repeatedly to each region (east coast, mid-west, the south and the west coast) and each contact, again and again (and again) in order to establish yourself as a viable, accessible brand. If you start now, and we end up on strike for film and television, you’ll certainly have a leg-up, as it’s likely to take about a month or so before most actors come to the realization they’ll need to pull their materials together to pursue other avenues of revenue (besides film and TV) such as voiceover, commercial work, narration, animation and promo.

Don’t miss a step. Keep yourself open to every possible stream of revenue you can! PROMOTE.

Film vs. Games

If you had any doubt whether games weren’t a HUGELY profitable aspect of our industry, consider this: in its first week “Grand Theft Auto IV” sold more than $500,000,000.

Ironically, (if you’ll pardon the pun) the number one film that premiered in the very same week was Ironman, which raked in more than $201,000,000—beating the opening week record held by Spiderman 3 by more than $50,000,000. Yowsah! Considering 80% of all movies earn maximum box-office revenue in the first week after release this is very telling. Now, if we could just score residuals for the voice actors in those fat-income games!! Given these numbers they’re certainly not short on funds. I’ll bet you more than twice what the top grosser of all time at the box-office made: they have it to spare.

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 with any regularity. 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 again: 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 ½ hour, 4-5 times a week, doing your vocal warm-ups to keep your articulation on-point. Then spend another ½ 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 halfway 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 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, please, try not to lose them in the couch.

In conclusion

I hope you’ve found this month’s Newsletter to be fun & informative. It’s been four months in the making, and I certainly appreciate your patience. That’s the longest hiatus I’ve taken from our Newsletters since we started them in 2001. But it takes a great deal of concentration and effort to create and compile these things. Instead I’ve been putting all that energy into maintaining our standards in Chicago while developing our LA studio. Without Colleen, Jolene, Greg and Jeff in Chicago or Camilla, David and Rishabh in Los Angeles—SOUND ADVICE never would have survived. But here we are and we’re thriving like never before, I’m happy to report!! At present, the book is going through a thorough another UPGRADE and a second tome, The SOUND ADVICE Approach to Acting & Voiceover, is about to follow. So, stay connected, stay tuned and stick with it…this is just the beginning!!! Love you like crazy and wish you the very best…always! –Kate & crew