Episodes
Sunday Oct 30, 2016
Sunday Oct 30, 2016
At long last, Chuck and Stacey sit down with bilingual VO superstar and
native Angeleno, Sylvia Villagran, known for her versatile work in
promos, commercials, trailers, live announce and radio imaging. You hear
Sylvia all over network TV and radio in both the General and Spanish
markets on The Doctors, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, the Mun2 Network,
and live announcing the Critics Choice Awards, the MTV VMA’s, the
Writers Guild Awards, the 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions
and the Latin American Music Awards.
Sylvia shares the story of
when her radio colleague, Bob Jeffries, told her about voiceover and
helped her get started in the right direction with constructive advice
and critiques. Being business savvy, Sylvia always knew that “you don’t
get a second chance to make a first impression” and reminds people to
not make a demo until you are really ready.
After being fired
from radio, Sylvia tells about her unlikely on-camera job at Telemundo
Channel 52 while working in the Spanish voiceover market, and eventually
going back to radio. In 1999, she talks about how everything changed
for her with respect to being embraced as a bilingual talent. She
describes some major differences between the General and Spanish markets
and why working in voiceover allows her to be authentic, be a part of
the team and help solve people’s problems.
She offers amazing
advice to fellow bilingual voice talent who want to crossover from
taking lots of different classes to knowing what you could offer to the
General market and continually being open to feedback from people you
respect. She gives props to demos produced by Chuck and Stacey at Demos
That Rock and explains why making her first English demo was very
challenging.
She shares her beliefs about pursuing voiceover as a
career versus a hobby, why bilingual talent has to work twice as hard
and the importance of being ready when the opportunities present
themselves. She credits her parents for teaching her about business and
what she learned from working in show business at her father’s Mexican
movie distribution company.
Sylvia reminds people to master what
you can like being skilled, easy to direct and collaborative and to not
obsess over the things you can’t control. She gives her three keys to
having success, which are to be nice, have a good work ethic and be
talented. She speaks to her success in the world of live announce and
tells the story of her first live announce gig at the MTV VMA’s Latin
America in Miami in 2002.
She discusses the differences between
radio, which is more forgiving of mistakes than live announce where you
have to be perfect and ready for anything. She tells what she loves
about live announce and shares her rituals which include a heating pad
and physical preparation to help minimize the stress. Constantly
striving to be her best, Sylvia shares why she always listens to her
work so she can critique what she likes and how she can improve her
performance.
Follow Chuck, Stacey and Sylvia on Twitter @sylviavillagran @vobuzzweekly @staceyjaswad @demosthatrock
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Sunday Oct 23, 2016
EP 218 Kathe Mazur: Celebrity Actor & Audiobook Narrator
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
Sunday Oct 23, 2016
Chuck and Stacey continue the fun and insightful conversation with Kathe
Mazur, TNT Major Crimes’ DDA Andrea Hobbs, and also award-winning
audiobook narrator. She gives sage advice to people wanting to do
narration which means discovering if you love reading out loud, are able
to do accents, have a good ear for tone, character and reading for
clues. She speaks to the challenge of finding subtle nuances of
characters of different genders, ages and ethnicities in order to move
the story forward.
Kathe credits narrator friend Scott Brick for
sound advice he gave her early on that she get a great engineer and
editor to do her books. She explains how her guest star role of DDA
Andrea Hobbs on the TV series The Closer led to a series regular spot on
the spinoff show Major Crimes on TNT, currently in its 5th season. She
shares more about the joy of working with the show’s cast and crew and
that it’s a dream job and character for her to play.
She loves
everything she gets to do for work and believes that your dream career
doesn’t happen until you show up, are of service and make it happen.
Kathe answers what she would do differently if she was starting her
career over now and shares some feedback she got from VO coach, Nancy
Wolfson about her voice.
Kathe expresses some lessons she has
learned over the years from, “Trying to make yourself more, makes you
become less” to “Knowing you are something, know what you want to say
and believe what you are saying.” She tells what happens when people
don’t know how to pronounce her name and gives a beautiful definition of
what success means to her. The final question reveals what Kathe has
lost that she would love to find that deals with the wonder and optimism
for the future. Follow everyone on Twitter @KatheMazur @staceyjaswad
@demosthatrock @vobuzzweekly
Watch more videos and get the latest voiceover news, advice and updates on contests and giveaways at http://vobuzzweekly.com
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VOBuzzWeekly
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/VOBuzzWeekly
Instagram: https://instagram.com/vobuzzweekly
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/vobuzzweekly/
VO BUZZ WEEKLY IS SPONSORED BY:
Demos That Rock
http://www.demosthatrock.com
Neumann Sennheiser Microphones USA http://www.neumannusa.com
http://en-us.sennheiser.com
Throat Coat Tea
http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com
Entertainer's Secret
http://www.entertainers-secret.com
Najla's Bodygood Bars
http://najlas.com/index.php/products/...
Stacey J. Aswad
http://www.staceyjaswad.com
Voiceover Essentials
http://voiceoveressentials.com
Voiceover T-Shirts, Hats, Jackets, and MORE!
http://www.vobuzzweekly.com/store.html
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
EP 217 Kathe Mazur: Celebrity Actor & Audiobook Narrator
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
Sunday Oct 16, 2016
Join Chuck and Stacey and their phenomenal guest, audiobook narrator and
actress, Kathe Mazur, also loved for her brilliant work in movies like
American Sniper and TV shows like TNT’s Major Crimes and The Closer.
Kathe recalls some childhood experiences that sparked her desire to be
an actor that included her love of reading aloud.
She tells the
story of how she found her way from the stage to television to audiobook
narrating for Penguin Random House, formerly Books on Tape, by way of
doing volunteer work with narrator Karen White.
She explains
what she likes about working in both narration and on-camera worlds and
shares the questions she always asks herself about her performances.
Kathe talks about how narrating books is a great life lesson because it
requires you make to strong choices and to keep moving forward.
Kathe
offers some wisdom for narrators from owning your point of view to
making sure every sentence is interpreted in a way that is personal to
you. She recounts the experience she had narrating the Jonestown
survivor’s memoir, SEDUCTIVE POISON by Deborah Layton who wanted to be
with her in the studio during the recording. She tells what prompts her
to pass on a book in order to remain authentic, believing that “Saying
no as a strategy is different than saying no as a conviction."
With
regard to narration demos, she feels that you should lead with your
strengths and put things on it that you would most likely be hired to
read. Though she feels her wheelhouse is emotional, evocative literary
fiction, Kathe also love non-fiction as well. She gives another amazing
tip about this genre for narrators encouraging them to fall in love with
the conversation and play to the listener who is deeply interested in
the topic, don’t try to win over the one who is not.
Watch more videos and get the latest voiceover news, advice and updates on contests and giveaways at http://vobuzzweekly.com
CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VOBuzzWeekly
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/VOBuzzWeekly
Instagram: https://instagram.com/vobuzzweekly
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/vobuzzweekly/
VO BUZZ WEEKLY IS SPONSORED BY:
Demos That Rock
http://www.demosthatrock.com
Neumann Sennheiser Microphones USA http://www.neumannusa.com
http://en-us.sennheiser.com
Throat Coat Tea
http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com
Entertainer's Secret
http://www.entertainers-secret.com
Najla's Bodygood Bars
http://najlas.com/index.php/products/...
Stacey J. Aswad
http://www.staceyjaswad.com
Voiceover Essentials
http://voiceoveressentials.com
Voiceover T-Shirts, Hats, Jackets, and MORE!
http://www.vobuzzweekly.com/store.html
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
Sunday Oct 09, 2016
Chuck and Stacey conclude their interview with Casting Director, Ivy
Isenberg of Ivy Isenberg Casting who has more than fifteen years of
experience working in animation, video games, film and television like
TripTank, Robot Chicken, Jeff and Some Aliens, Call of Duty, Curse of
Chucky and YouTube hit, The High Fructose Adventures of the Annoying
Orange on Comedy Central.
Ivy explains some of the factors for
hiring actors which comes down to who completes the Producer’s vision
for the project and she talks about the importance of scratch
recordings. She did the TV casting for The High Fructose Adventures of
The Annoying Orange on Comedy Central and answers how much she considers
social media influencers and YouTube personalities when casting
projects.
She gives advice to people with a passion to pursue a
voiceover career starting with a willingness to work hard, take classes,
learn the craft and different genres and work the business side of the
industry too.
She talks about casting real kids for roles versus
adults who play kids and speaks to some of the key elements in
performance capture work like having an expressive face in addition to
strong acting chops.
Ivy reveals what she would do if she was not a
casting director that includes going into local politics to help Los
Angeles and opening up a sticker store. She tells the most gratifying
parts of her job from helping people achieve their goals and dreams to
making a meaningful contribution. She reflects on her personal
philosophy of the only important things in life are love and being happy
with yourself.
As the Casting Director of the movie
CURSE OF CHUCKY, Chuck and Stacey show pictures of their recent Chucky
inspired Halloween costume then Ivy talks about the kinds of projects
she likes to work on, in the realm of counter culture and what she
calls, “Comic Con cool.” The interview ends with a conversation about
something Ivy is working on to change about herself and her desire to
only work with people who are respectful. Ivy’s closing words … “Be good
to each other and try hard.” Follow us all on Twitter @IvyIsenberg,
@staceyjaswad, @demosthatrock, @vobuzzweekly
Watch more videos and get the latest voiceover news, advice and updates on contests and giveaways at http://vobuzzweekly.com
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Sunday Oct 02, 2016
Chuck and Stacey bring you the respected Casting Director of animation,
video games, film and television, Ivy Isenberg of Ivy Isenberg Casting.
She is a USC Film School graduate who went on to work at MGM Studios on
Stargate and Stargate Atlantis, the Species movies with Natasha
Henstridge and now on projects like Comedy Central’s Jeff and Some
Aliens, Trip Tank, Robot Chicken and Call of Duty.
Ivy discusses
her process for casting Performance Capture for video games and
animation and why she goes overboard with submissions to make sure there
are plenty of choices which includes giving deserving new talent an
opportunity. She answers what she needs to hear in voiceover auditions
to garner a callback and why she saves every audition for future
consideration. Ivy mentions the kinds of actors she won’t hire and
challenges actors to train and educate themselves, be dedicated and
proactive with their careers.
Striving to be the best at
everything she does, Ivy discusses the importance of why talent needs to
balance both art and commerce to be successful and that finding
talented actors who are reliable and deserving are actually in the
minority. She explains that she casts through agents and managers and
will consider people outside Los Angeles for projects if they are
actively working. While talent can’t do much to get on her bad side, she
has zero tolerance for actors who do boring auditions, have a bad work
ethic, lack commitment and are unprepared.
She attends
showcases and monologue festivals to scout new talent and listens to
demos when casting to find a person’s range, accents, tone, comedic
timing and cadence. Ivy offers insights on what “natural, not cartoony”
means in audition specs from interpreting it with engaging, emotional
connection based on what it’s for, the platform, network and time slot.
Follow on Twitter @IvyIsenberg
Watch more videos and get the latest voiceover news, advice and updates on contests and giveaways at http://vobuzzweekly.com