Category: Blogs

What Should I Blog? / Audiobook Winners

1/5/2015

It's 2015, which means that it's a brand new year. And with a new year comes all sorts of reinvention. I'm planning to reboot my blog to contain more than acting advice this year. Before I do so, I'd love to hear from you on what you want to read most in the blog going forward. Help me out by filling out the survey below, so that I can bring you the types of content you're interested in. Thanks guys!

Submit

And the Winners of the Free Audiobooks are...

Death by Didgeridoo
Jesse K.
Brian B.
Sara S.

The Case of the Killer Divorce
Brandy C.
Dave E.
Heather B.

A Trip to the Hardware Store & Other Calamities
Nicole T.
Jen B.
John M.

Congratulations to all of you! You will be receiving your free codes by email this week.

photo credit: Leonard John Matthews via photopin cc

Guest: Author Barbara Venkataraman - Audiobooks 'R' Us!

12/7/2014

This is the last post of my Audiobook Blog Series. I launched the series by telling you about how I got my start in narrating audiobooks. Then I gave you practical advice and tips on how to begin your career as an audiobook narrator. Now here to conclude the series, and talk about her experiences of finding an audiobook narrator, is none other than the author of the books that I've been narrating. A huge warm welcome to my first Guest Blogger: Barbara Venkataraman!

Audiobooks 'R' Us!

Making an audiobook with a narrator is like marrying a total stranger and hoping it all works out. As in a marriage, the participants start out starry-eyed, but soon discover each other's idiosyncrasies and quirks, realizing with a sense of dread that they are now stuck with each other--at least until the project is finished. That's why it makes sense to choose a narrator with experience and a stellar reputation, one who has completed at least one project and done it well. Or you could fly by the seat of your pants like I did. Boy, did I get lucky! After hearing other authors' horror stories and seeing reviews of badly done audiobooks, I realize just how lucky I was/am.

Unlike many authors, I write in two unrelated genres, humor and mystery, specifically, cozy mystery. Ideally, I wanted to find a narrator with the talent and skill to handle both genres. It needed to be a woman (my mysteries are told in first person by a female protagonist) with a sense of humor, someone who "got" my jokes. She had to be able to do a range of voices to cover all the characters in my mysteries and, one more thing, she needed to work for free! Now, when I say free, I don't really mean free; I just mean that I couldn't afford to pay her anything. I figured I'd have to be the greatest saleswoman in the world to convince a total stranger to spend hundreds of hours recording my self-published, unproven books as unpaid labor, OR, I could find a narrator through ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) who was willing to royalty-share (spend hundreds of hours recording my self-published, unproven books as unpaid labor AND split any future profits, assuming there were any).

I started on my quest to find the perfect Jamie Quinn (the star of my Jamie Quinn mystery series). I stumbled through the labyrinth known as ACX and, throwing caution to the wind, posted two projects simultaneously: a book of humorous essays and my first Jamie Quinn mystery. I listed both as royalty-share projects and put them out for audition. I must add here that ACX allows you to choose the qualifications of your ideal narrator and it's enough to make your head explode! First, you chose the gender and the language. Easy enough. Then, you choose the accent, which can range from British to American to Boston, Irish, to Southern drawl to…well, you get the picture. Now come the hard choices. Do you want a voice that's warm? Scientific? Authoritative? Matter-of-fact? Sexy? And so on and so on…I hate to admit it, but I hadn't given any of that much thought, nor did I want to. I hoped I could pick the right one. But what if I couldn't?

I got exactly three auditions, all of them very nice women, none of them Jamie Quinn material. I felt so bad rejecting them. The only thing I'd gotten out of this project so far was a truckload of guilt. Then I realized that I didn't have to wait around, I could listen to the demo recordings posted on the site. There were only a bazillion of them, no problem at all. I realized that many of the demos were repeats as in the same narrator putting herself up for different projects: here's me narrating a romance, here's me narrating a thriller, etc. I listened to many women reading many different passages until I started questioning the whole project and wondering why I always had to do everything the hard way. Sigh. Finally, I heard a "maybe" voice which gave me a little hope, enough hope to keep trying. I kept slogging through until the heavens suddenly parted and I heard an angel sing, only she wasn't an angel, she was Carrie Lee Martz, an actress who did voiceover. Her demo wasn't of her reading a book; it was a voiceover demo in which she showed off her range of voices. She was perfect! Hallelujah! I made her an offer for both books and she accepted them both. Oh, happy day! Then, I had a sobering thought, what if she didn't like the books? I told her to look them over first and then decide. She decided yes. Then we had an e-mail exchange in which I confessed that I'd never done this before. She confessed that she hadn't either. We said we were both game and we jumped right in. We are now recording our fourth book together (when I say "we", I mean the "royal we"--Carrie is doing all of the recording) and I'm not going to say that it hasn't taken a lot of effort, or that we didn’t hit a few bumps along the way--like when I sent her the wrong version of the second Jamie Quinn mystery and she had to re-record the last 5 chapters! But I am thrilled to report that we are very happy with our arranged marriage and we've even started making some money! So, if you’re thinking of making an audiobook, I hope you find the right narrator and that it’s love at first listen.

Award-winning author, Barbara Venkataraman, is an attorney and mediator specializing in family law and debt collection.
She is the author of The Jamie Quinn mysteries; "The Fight for Magicallus," a children's fantasy; a humorous short story entitled, "If You'd Just Listened to Me in the First Place"; and two books of humorous essays: "I'm Not Talking about You, Of Course" and "A Trip to the Hardware Store & Other Calamities," which are part of the "Quirky Essays for Quirky People" series. Both books of humorous essays won the prestigious "Indie Book of the Day" award.
Coming soon, "Engaged in Danger"--the next Jamie Quinn mystery!

Barbara's Blog: www.barbaravenkataraman.blogspot.com

Barbara's Current Audiobook Selections
Click on the cover to Purchase

I hope you enjoyed hearing Barbara's perspective. If you'd like to leave a comment or question for her below, please do so.

I wish you all the best in your audiobook endeavors and remember to come back and re-read these blog posts anytime you're in need of a little guidance. If you find them to be a handy resource, please share them with others as well.

Next Week: Actors: Why You Need a Website

How I Started in Audiobooks & Voiceover

11/3/2014

I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions lately about how I got started in Audiobooks & Voiceover. Most often the question is “Where did you go to get started?” or “How do I get into that?” In fact, I owe several people an answer to these questions. So I figured what better way to answer them than to write a blog post about it. This way I can kill two birds with one stone. I can answer the people who have been asking me and I will have a place to direct anyone who asks in the future.

I have to be honest, I sort of just fell into voiceover, slowly. Disclaimer: This is not the way it usually happens for most people, I was incredibly lucky! I was taking an acting class one evening and a local VO Pro was sitting in with us. She told me that I had a great voice, that I should do voiceover, and that she wanted to work with me on it. I immediately loved this woman and was flattered, but hadn’t previously considered doing voiceover. I was still in the beginning stages of acting and was really focusing all of my time on learning the craft. I expressed my interest to her, but never followed up on it. I kept kicking myself over it, but the truth is, I’m glad I didn’t follow up back then – I had a lot to learn about acting in general before I could even think about doing voiceover. In my opinion, if you want to be a great Voice Actor, you’ve gotta be a great Actor first.

So a few years and one agent later, I finally thought, ya know I should see about that voiceover thing. So I contacted Amy Hartman, the VO Pro from my class and she agreed to take me on as a student and help me produce a demo. We spent a great deal of time together working on it. Then I got busy with some film and theatre stuff and again voiceover just kind of got pushed to the side. Several months later, Amy contacted me to let me know that she was doing drop-ins (this is where several VO actors get together and take turns honing their skills in the studio). I started going to these sessions and had a great time at them. After awhile I got busy again and dropped off the VO radar for many more months. Amy contacted me yet again to let me know that she was teaching a group class and that I should join them if I was interested. I had finished up several big projects and had a little extra time on my hands so I agreed. I took the class and had a blast – we all did. So much so that we decided to continue the class through another 6 weeks or so. In all this time, I had done one or two VO jobs when people had asked me to, but I hadn’t really pursued it in the same way I had my acting career. Towards the end of our second round of classes, Amy urged us all to sign up for some websites and create profiles to get our names out there. One of those sites was ACX – a site where you can narrate audiobooks to be sold on Audible. I was hesitant, (after all, I still didn’t have a studio and I knew nothing about editing and mastering audio – required skills if you plan to narrate through ACX), but I decided to give it a try.

So I signed up for ACX and created a profile, adding my demo and other info to the site. Just nine days after I created that profile, I was contacted by Barbara Venkataraman, who wanted me to narrate her books – WHAT?!?! I was flabbergasted and scared and excited and terrified and panicking – I didn’t even have a studio! To make a long story short, I built myself a really great quality studio as quickly as I could and painstakingly taught myself how to both edit and master audio. It was trial by fire. I’ve since narrated 3 books for Barbara and she is patiently waiting for me to get started on a few more. I’ve been contacted by several other authors to narrate for them and I’m branching out into doing promos and other types of voiceover now. Most of what I've learned about this business, aside from what Amy has taught me, has been through trial and error, research, hard work, and the help of some good friends (most notably Justin Fraction and Rebecca Keller). A huge thanks to all the people mentioned here, they have all been instrumental in my voiceover successes!

My VO career is still rather young compared to my Acting career (I’m still learning) and my journey has been anything but typical. So rather than give you a step by step guide on how to get started, I’m going to point you to some resources. You can explore them for yourself in order to determine whether voiceover is something you want to pursue.

In order to do voiceover, you need several things. You need to train your voice, learn how to interpret copy, where and how to breathe, and which words need to be emphasized. You also need to know how to market yourself, which includes having a great demo. Also having a home studio is almost a requirement these days if you even want to think about working in voiceover. And when you’re just starting out it behooves you to get a great DAW and teach yourself skills such as basic editing and mastering. Woo! I know it seems like a lot. It is. Don’t be fooled, just because voiceover can pay really well and it’s something you can do from the comfort of your own home, doesn’t mean it’s easy. It can be a tough business to break into.

The very first thing you need to do is get into a class and get some training. This will help you to ascertain whether voiceover is really for you, if your voice will help you earn money, and just exactly what your voice type is (Yep, just like in acting, you will have a type when it comes to voiceover). You need to take a class before you go out and spend money on putting together a demo and a studio, so that you aren’t wasting your hard-earned paychecks. These classes will teach you many of the things mentioned above – training your voice, breathing, and appropriate word emphasis. I suggest you sign up for one and take it from there.

Here’s a few places you can get VO training in Pittsburgh:
Nancy Mosser Casting – Amy Hartman & Jack Bailey
Market Street Sound – Amy Hartman
Corbriwood Studios – Jack Bailey
Find Your Voice – Jean Zarzour
I have only studied with Amy Hartman, so I can only personally recommend her.

Here’s two books you can read:
Voice Actor’s Guide to Recording at Home…And on the Road
Making Money in Voice-Overs

Here’s two websites that serve as invaluable resources:
Edge Studio
Voice Over Xtra

And here are some sites where you can find work:
ACX
Voice123
Voices.com

There are lots more resources out there, but these are some good starting points. Be sure to check them all out because there is a ton of info packed into each. Hopefully someday you'll be telling your own “How I Got Started” story.

Next Week: Audiobook Recipe - Serves 1 (Part I)

photo credit: zoomar via photopin cc /Added Border

Are You a "Real" Actor?

6/22/2014

What a question, huh? Well, I actually think it’s an important one. Please read “The Real Deal,” by Jamie Rose, before continuing on in this post. I don’t want to rehash it, but my post is essentially a reply, and I’m going to assume you’ve read it.

I want to start by saying that I think the OP had genuinely good intentions in writing her article and that she wanted to inspire people. I am not here to criticize her. I just don’t agree with what she’s ultimately saying. I’m all for encouraging and inspiring people, but we can inspire people without telling them, “This is what you want? Ok, it’s yours.” While she may not have intended it, the post suggests that all you need to consider yourself an Actor is the will and the heart. So basically just about anyone who has the slightest interest in acting, and does so on occasion, can consider themselves an Actor. Really? That’s quite unfortunate in my opinion. I believe that you have to earn the right to call yourself an Actor.

While I agree that it’s hard to come up with a definite list of requirements, and I don’t think whether or not you “make your medical” should be one of them, there does need to be a way to differentiate the “Real” Actors from the people who act as a hobby and the non-actors.

I give a lot of examples from time to time from other career paths because I think they’re relevant. This time is no exception. First let me give you an example from my own life. I have a degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. And I used to work as a Research Scientist. Despite this fact, I no longer refer to myself as a Research Scientist – I’m not one anymore. Continuing to use the title, would be disrespectful to the active Research Scientists out there. You may do your own taxes, pay the bills, and take care of the budget – that doesn’t make you a Financial Analyst or an Accountant. You may have your own website and create all the graphics – that doesn’t make you an Internet Marketer or a Graphic Designer. You may take really good care of your friends, your spouse, and your kids when they are sick – that doesn’t make you a Doctor. That’s an extreme example, but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make. Just because you occasionally do or used to do something, doesn’t make it your profession, and it doesn’t give you the right to tell people that it is. In fact, if you go around telling people you’re a Doctor, when you’re not, you may end up getting arrested and will most certainly irritate the scores of Doctors out there who really are, in fact, Doctors. Those guys and gals worked HARD to earn the rights to the title of Doctor!

I think we can probably all agree that it’s offensive when someone goes around pretending to be something without putting all the work in. Why should it be any different when it comes to Actors? The term Actor gets thrown around all too often and it ends up diluting what it really means to BE an Actor. Like that guy down the street who once worked as an extra for the Big Hollywood Movie in town, and now tells everyone he meets that he’s an Actor. That guy isn’t an Actor. Or the girl who 20 years later still runs around bragging about the time she played Juliet in the High School Play – not an Actor.

I agree with Jamie when she says having the will and having heart are important – they most certainly are! You can’t be an Actor without them! But I also think it takes a little more than that. It takes talent. It takes training. It takes being able to handle loads of rejection and walking into the next audition with your head held high and a smile on your face. Most importantly it takes dedication! This is what separates the “Real” Actors from those who just like the idea of adding the title to their moniker. Actors are dedicated to the craft of Acting! We work hard every single day! We pound the pavement, we send resume, after resume, after resume, we spend countless hours and money honing our skills. We live, sleep, eat, and breathe acting, many of us holding day jobs (just to get by) until the day we make it.

So you see, in my opinion, there IS such a thing as a “Real” Actor. And the title should only be bestowed upon those who work hard enough to deserve it. The "Real" answer is in your Actions! It is not just will and heart, but the dedicated and continued pursuit of a career in Acting, above all else, that makes someone a “Real” Actor. If that’s you, then wear the title proudly! And don’t let anyone tell you different. If not, please show your respect for those who embody what it means to be an Actor, by refraining from loosely throwing the title around.

Next Week: Bookings - Should You Kiss & Tell?

photo credit: martymadrid via photopin cc /Added Border

A lovely lady @taralynz, whom I've shared the stage with, wrote a reply to my post with her thoughts.

Point me in the Right Education Direction. Pretty Please???

5/12/2014

There are many ways to educate yourself as an actor. Some of them include: reading books, checking out websites and blogs, watching films and plays, reading scripts, taking classes, and working gigs. In order to most effectively train yourself, you should be doing a combination of these things, if not all of them.

1. Books
There are many books available to actors about learning the craft. Who I am kidding – there are tons of books out there about acting! There are biographies and autobiographies written by actors who have come before, there are books that teach different methods of acting, and there are books full of exercises aimed at making you a better actor. All of these books are beneficial! Yes, I said ALL of them – you may have been told not to read this book or that book, but I disagree. While it’s true that some books do a far better job of helping and teaching an actor in some respects, any book you can get your hands on is going to teach you something, even if it’s “what not to do,” and sometimes these are the most valuable lessons of all.

“There is no book so bad, but something good may be found in it.” – from Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Acting is a very individually-based career. As I’ve said before, what works for one person may not work for another. This should always be foremost in your mind when educating yourself. Just because you read or learn about a particular way of doing something, doesn’t mean it’s the right way for you. You need to take everything you read with a grain of salt. I recommend trying everything, every method or tip, try them over and over, but when you find that something just isn’t working for you – move on! And if you’re only reading what everyone else is reading, how will you ever grow further and set yourself apart? There are no bad books, only bad advice and it’s up to you to determine which advice is bad for you.

Here’s a few books to get you started:
Breaking Into Acting for Dummies
Audition
Sanford Meisner on Acting
An Actor’s Work
Respect for Acting
The Actor and the Target
How to Sell Yourself as an Actor
Voice Actor’s Guide to Recording at Home…And on the Road
Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus
I consider most of these books to be essential reading for an actor. The last book is a handy reference you'll use often throughout your career.

2. Websites & Blogs
The same rules apply here as for books. Everything has something to teach you. Read it all, but keep your wits about you!

Here’s a few websites & blogs:
Backstage
SagAftra
Actors' Equity
Dragonuk Connects
Casting Call Pro
NY Castings
Acting Up Blog
I highly recommend Backstage first as an excellent resource for the beginning actor. Some of these sites are provided as actor listing services, but they all contain content to guide actors in their careers.

3. Watch Movies & Plays – Read Scripts
This seems obvious and self-explanatory. Watching other actors work can be a very powerful tool in your education. And the more scripts you read, the more you get a feel for the industry and what to expect on the page.

Here’s a few script resources:
Dramatists Play Service
The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)
There are a ton of resources for scripts – search the web and you’ll find them.

4. Taking Classes
Taking classes is extremely important because it allows you to apply what you’ve learned. There are lots of classes out there and just like books and websites, they are all going to offer you something. Again this is something you just have to try out and see if it works for you. Different teachers use different methods and motivate their students differently, so again what works for one person may not work for another. As I’m based in Pittsburgh, I’m going to share with you some classes that you can take in the Pittsburgh area. There are classes available all over though, so if you’re not in Pittsburgh, do a web search, join actor groups, ask friends, but find a class and get started!

Here’s a few Pittsburgh classes:
On Camera:
Nancy Mosser Casting – Randy Kovitz
Pittsburgh Filmmakers – Jeff Monahan
Acting Skills:
Donna Belajac Casting – Jill Wadsworth
CCAC – Donna Perkins
Voiceover:
Market Street Sound – Amy Hartman
Improvisation:
Steel City Improv – Justin Zell, Kasey Daley, Greg Gillotti
Movement:
Point Park University – Ben Blazer & Carin Bendas
I have personally taken all but one of these classes at some point and I’ve learned valuable lessons from each. I have not taken the movement class, but it's taught by a friend and colleague, Ben Blazer (who I've worked with on more than one occassion), so I feel confident about recommending it to you. There are other classes available in the Pittsburgh area, but I am only including those that I have experienced.

I encourage anyone to comment to this post with any other books, websites, blogs, script resources, and classes (in and out of Pittsburgh) that you can personally recommend.

Next week… The Age Old Question and What to do About it!

photo credit: Stitch via photopin cc /Added Border

<<Previous

What Should I Blog? / Audiobook Winners

How do you want to Act Up?

And the Winners of the Free Audiobooks are...

Guest: Author Barbara Venkataraman - Audiobooks 'R' Us!

Audiobooks 'R' Us!

Barbara's Current Audiobook Selections
Click on the cover to Purchase

How I Started in Audiobooks & Voiceover

Are You a "Real" Actor?

Point me in the Right Education Direction. Pretty Please???

Acting Up Blog

Get Email Updates

Blogger
Carrie Lee Martz

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What Should I Blog? / Audiobook Winners

﻿﻿How do you want to Act Up?﻿﻿

﻿And the Winners of the Free Audiobooks are...﻿

Guest: Author Barbara Venkataraman - Audiobooks 'R' Us!

﻿Audiobooks 'R' Us!﻿

﻿Barbara's Current Audiobook SelectionsClick on the cover to Purchase﻿

How I Started in Audiobooks & Voiceover

Are You a "Real" Actor?

Point me in the Right Education Direction. Pretty Please???

Acting Up Blog

Get Email Updates

﻿﻿BloggerCarrie Lee Martz﻿﻿

﻿﻿Archives﻿﻿

﻿﻿Categories﻿﻿

Website Policies

How do you want to Act Up?

And the Winners of the Free Audiobooks are...

Audiobooks 'R' Us!

Barbara's Current Audiobook Selections
Click on the cover to Purchase

Blogger
Carrie Lee Martz

Archives

Categories