Happy Halloween! Kumoricon Voice Panel Recap

Happy Spoopy Day, everybody!

If you got such a gorgeous torrential downpour of rain like we did here in Portland, I hope you're enjoying it.  It's been like this most of the week and after the several months of bone dry weather we experienced it's giving a pluviophile (someone who loves rain and finds peace in rainy days) like me life.

Last weekend I hit Kumoricon, mostly for the voice panels.  In attendance were Monica Rial, Keith Silverstein, Justin Briner, Erica Mendez, Lucien Dodge, Jād (jade) Saxton, Lauren Landa, and most likely more I have forgotten -- but these were the voice actors, directors, and ADR scriptwriters in the panels I was able to attend. And I'm just going to talk about a few points from the most interesting ones -- the ADR Scriptwriting Panel, the From Fan to Professional panel, and Justin Briner's Q&A panel.

ADR, or Automated Dialog Replacement, is the process of taking a foreign language script, translating it, and rewriting it so that the English matches the mouth flaps of the animated characters on screen -- mostly used for anime shows. Monica Rial, Lucien Dodge, and Erica Mendez were there to give us a rundown on the process as well as answer some questions. One thing I hadn't considered about ADR was that they're not just doing a straight translation, or even trying to adhere 100% to what the literal translation from Japanese would be. They're sticking to the intent more than the actual words, because a straight translation into English doesn't often make a whole lot of sense. They're also adjusting it by characterization in order to translate a specific character's personality into English as well as the dialogue. An ADR script adapter has to deal with things like long pauses ("Shatnerisms"), lengthening or shortening a line to fit the time frame and mouth movements, the Japanese switchup with the letters "L" and "R" that sometimes happens, and especially any time there is a sign written in English or a person speaking English in the Japanese version which they'll either have to go with, adjust slightly, or ignore depending on how bad it looks or sounds.

The "From Fan to Professional" panel was interesting because Erica Mendez and Lucien Dodge were basically telling their own story about how they got into the industry. Erica especially was a fan first, no classic theater training, went to school for something else, but was able to get into it with sheer hard work and passion for the craft. It's honestly very inspiring because in a whole lot of those ways I'm in the same starting position, only she was able to figure it out when she was five or ten years younger than me. What it boils down to, basically, is be tenacious and driven but don't be a dick. The more friends you make, the more people have your back, the more people will see you helping yourself and want to help you. I like that. It's still really, really, really, really hard work but it's nice to have a hand to help pull you back up off the ground when you fail. You'll also burn fewer bridges if you're just a nice person. It seems very obvious, probably, but a lot of people conflate being driven with being ruthless in the entertainment industry. Don't.

Strangely enough, I got my most useful answer to a question from Justin Briner's open Question & Answer panel. As usual, I was the guy in the front row taking notes, probably making him wonder if I was part of the press or just an obsessed fan, but he answered my question about getting into the character's headspace on a short time frame really well. I'd love to have just let him talk about it for the entire hour and a half, but I wasn't the only one with a question, so I'm glad he went on about it for as long as he did. The question, basically, was "How do you find the character when you're given a script a day, or hours before having to audition?" Voice actors often don't get a lot of time to prepare, so I wanted to know what Justin's process was when he was handed a new character.

• Theater training really helps here -- helping you make a strong choice, especially in the audition; vocal control and technique; cold reading and quick decisions; physical movement and projection. 
• A healthy back and forth with the Director can help you tweak your performance to help you give them what they want. 
• A focus on what your character wants in that moment. What is the purpose of the scene? Keeping that always in the back of your mind in order to serve the flow of the story. 
• Experience and practice, practice, practice. Having read enough scripts and done enough acting that you can recognize the cues in what you read nearly instantly. The character is all there -- the delay comes in the speed at which you process it from the reading. 

Once again, I'm reminded that a lot of what getting better as an actor boils down to is just doing it. Act, read, go through the exercises you learned, practice your skills over and over again until you don't have to think about doing it.

First session with my voiceover coach!

I'll be quick today. [Editor's Note: It turns out I wasn't as quick as I thought when I first started to write.] I just wanted to report that I had my first session with a voiceover coach last weekend, and I'm incredibly happy because it went well. Leslie at Inside Voice brought me in, we got to know each other, she gave me a ton of new resources for recording spaces and acting/improv classes in town, and she put me in front of a microphone and had me cold-read one character side and a few commercial scripts.

I basically knew when it wasn't as good as it could have been, but she pretty much instantly was able to tell what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how to fix it so that the next take was better.  Leslie pointed out the specifics and went over the audio right after with me to figure out what worked and what didn't.  I did my best to just take direction well and learn everything I could while I was there.  (She also brought me cookies!  Best. day. ever.)

There's always anxiety for me about taking a new class or taking the next career step.  My inner critic likes to whisper in my ear and tell me I'm not ready, or I should have studied harder, or people are going to laugh at me or tell me I suck, but the best part of my week is sprinting full speed into it anyway just to shut that little bastard up.  He always comes back, but each time the volume gets a little lower on his end.

The on-camera acting class that I'm taking just ended on Monday night as well, and I spoke with my teacher about very much the same thing.  It's not what I'd call stage fright, but I'm acutely aware when people are watching me or listening to me.  I'm working on not letting it make me tense up in this way it always does no matter what I do to prepare for it.  It might just be a matter of time and exposure, just getting used to it.  But it's not all bad, either, you know?  The idea that people might actually WANT to listen to me or watch me and actually be interested in what I had to say still surprises me.  I've always made a conscious effort not to talk or draw attention because for some reason I thought that it annoyed people.  That same inner voice would tell me that they were just barely tolerating my presence and I should just shut up.

It's only recently that I've found I have a voice, and I'm pretty good at using it.  When I speak, and sometimes when I write, people listen.  They don't always agree with me, but what I am and what I do has value.  I'm worth it.  I'm enough.  I know that might not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I'm still wrapping my head around it.

So!  What's next, you ask?  Well, the holidays are around the corner, but the auditions don't stop.  I'll be packing my mic and taking it with me so I can throw some blanket-fort recordings into the ether while my wife and I are visiting family.  If there's enough time between now and then, I'm looking into either the next course from the same acting studio where I've been taking these on-camera classes OR I think it might even be time to throw myself head first into some Improv classes.  Improv seems scarier at this point so that tells me maybe it's the best choice for now.  Of course I'm also going to go back for more sessions with Inside Voice.

Take care, anyone who might end up reading this.  Tell your inner critic "Bite me" today and go do something great.

Hi, I'm Kyle Stroud and I can't figure out how to embed a Soundcloud player on my blog, so click this link to get to it.

P.S. With permission, I'm posting a bit of what was recorded during my coaching session.  It's pretty great seeing these short reads change as I adjusted to Leslie's direction and in the case of the character just allowed myself to go full weirdo.

D&D is fantastic practice for voice acting!

So since it's Orctober, and friends of mine like Steven Pope are posting phenomenal articles like "Orcs and Queerness" I thought that this week I'd discuss what D&D means to me as a voice actor.  Before that, however, a small update on what I'm working on right now!

Starting off, coming this Saturday, I have my first voiceover specific coaching lesson with Inside Voice right here in Portland which I am excited beyond belief about.  I believe it's primarily focused on commercial voiceover, but that's something that I'm probably the weakest in at the moment so all the better.  Any time I can get in a professional booth with an experienced coach will benefit me enormously.  Secondly, I've been auditioning on places like BehindtheVoiceActors.com, CastingCall.club, and the Voice Acting Club on mostly amateur level fandubbing projects and machinima videos, etc. for several months now and I actually got cast in one of the first things I ever auditioned for!  The casting process isn't over yet, but I'll have more to report once things get going.  I'll be playing at least two supporting roles on that.  Third, I was also contacted out of the blue on Facebook by someone needing a voice actor for a YouTube project that I'm excited to contribute to, and two friends of mine from the Savannah College of Art and Design also made me aware of a couple more auditions I would never have known about otherwise.  (I might even get paid for one of these!) Will definitely post more when I know more!  But before I move on, I'd just like to take a moment and emphasize how awesome it is to have amazing and supportive friends on this weird and wonderful journey I'm on.  Even if I don't get cast after those auditions, I can't thank them enough for sending me the opportunities.  You guys are incredible.

Now, on to the nerdy shit!

(Picture sourced from Easy Roller Dice Company - Learn to Play D&D in 5 Easy Steps)

Now, linking D&D and voice acting is nothing new.  If you haven't seen Critical Role on Twitch, a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors have already made themselves even more famous by streaming what used to be their own personal home game online.  It's amassed a giant following, starting on Geek & Sundry and eventually moving to their own new Twitch channel, with new shows and new content just now starting to all really hit their stride.  I'd be lying if I said that Matthew Mercer and company weren't an influence on me climbing down the voice acting rabbit hole.

I've been the Dungeon Master/Game Master/running a Dungeons & Dragons game for a group of local friends for a while now.  It's probably the longest running single game with the same people I've ever had, and I've learned a lot about how to be a good DM in the process.  More than that, I've learned how fun it can be to have a captive audience on which I can practice a ton of different character voices!  Male, female, high, low, angry, pleasant, scared, evil, good, innocent, English accents, Irish accents, Scottish accents, American accents, Spanish accents, one voice pretty much directly copying Oded Fehr's character in "The Mummy".  I am not only allowed, but encouraged to do them all so that my players can feel immersed and so that they have a great time.

It's also an exercise in improvisation!  Anyone who has run a D&D game before knows that you can spend weeks planning an adventure, working out the storyline and minutae to the smallest detail, only to have all of your best laid plans torn asunder in the first five minutes of player decisions.  If you want the game to run smoothly, you have to be quick on your feet and adapt to the changing circumstances.  You can have the adventure path or the story you created laid out as a guideline but if you force them along the path you'll be accused of and actually be guilty of railroading them, which isn't really all that fun.  You know the whole story, but you have to parcel out the hints and details in a way that makes them interested in following the breadcrumbs.  And sometimes your players will just do pants-on-head crazy murder-hobo shit, too.  Like killing an important PC or missing all the [what you thought were] obvious clues to get to the bad guy in the basement... (I'm not bitter.)

I have to sometimes voice up to ten different NPCs, or "Non-Player Characters", sometimes in rapid succession changing accents and personalities with very little time to reset.  I've even had to have the NPCs all have a conversation with one another with my players just sitting there watching me going back and forth from one personality to the other.  It's exhausting, and I'm still pretty bad at it sometimes, but I'm getting better.  It's great practice for when I might have to pull a random voice out of my hat for a side character or background noise in a future recording session.  It also gives me a LOT of different potential details to put in my wheelhouse for auditions!  If I like a certain character voice, I take the time to play with it before and after the actual game, honing it into something I can use in my career.

Finally, Dungeons & Dragons is amazing for developing an active imagination and really letting yourself fall into that secondary reality.  It encourages you to think in a character's headspace, think about the where/how/why/when of a scene, and when everyone is buying in to that creativity it becomes a magical experience for everyone involved.  If you've never played, D&D's 5th Edition has a starter set that you buy and I would absolutely recommend it for anyone -- not just newbie voice actors.

Improv training and the importance of allowing yourself to look STUPID!

Think about that someone you know who is really great at improvising on the spot, whether due to natural ability, upbringing, or training.  They may not necessarily speak quickly, but they've trained themselves to think quickly and are ready with a comeback or a comment before you manage to even process what was just said.  They're on the spot with a joke, can handle awkward or tense moments very easily, they don't seem to have that same brain to mouth hesitation as everyone else does when it comes down to the moment.  (Sometimes it even gets them in trouble if they haven't learned to keep the filter on.)  I seethe with jealousy of those people who are able to just <BOOM> get it. 

Me?  I'm not always ready at a moment's notice, but sometimes I'm good with a quip.  It all depends on whether I catch my gut response in my web of overthinking and second-guessing.  Not just a filter, but a feedback loop of "what if's" and potential scenarios.  It's kept me out of trouble, certainly, but the rest of the time I just kick myself because I couldn't think of anything brilliant or funny to say.  It's not that I'm stupid, I'm just not quick enough to get there most of the time.  Too much time spent in my own brain.

The ability to react quickly and improvise is crucial to acting, and especially voice acting.  Time and time again, when famous actors are asked what they'd suggest to people trying to break into the industry is Improv Training.  It lends to that ability to be in the moment in order to make your performance authentic and real.  So it's something at the very top of the list of what I want to learn next.  Fortunately, I have help from fantastic acting coaches.  Brooke Totman's Intro to Comedy and Improv classes are on deck along with Ted Rooney's advanced On Camera Acting class, and I'm excited and intimidated in equal measure.  But in order to get better you have to throw yourself full bore into that uncomfortable sensation, embracing feeling unprepared and just focusing on getting incrementally better each time you try it.  Just like learning any other new skill.  I'm starting to learn to like that feeling.

I once described that anxiety before performing as this pressure or energy in the center of my chest that I was determined to have fuel me instead of hinder me.  It was like Tony Stark's Arc Reactor right there in my sternum just shooting power to every limb, making my fingers tingly and my breathing and heart rate pick up a bit.  Of course I had to learn after how to calm the hell down, but that energy is still there ready to use.  Pretending I'm Iron Man before I start performing also just gives me a little bit of childlike glee and sense of play that really helps me no matter what I'm working on anyway.  Because, coincidentally, Robert Downey Jr. is also one of those people who is just so quick and reactive and instantly ready for whatever comes his way as well.  I don't think I've ever personally seen him blindsided by a question in any interview or Q and A panel he's been on.

(Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man", 2008, Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment)

Improv training can help you make friends and network as well.  Being a good conversationalist, knowing when and how to keep a conversation going instead of letting an awkward silence develop as you search for something to say, makes you look and sound more confident and memorable in a good way. 

More specific to what this blog is about, however, a session in the booth recording for a voice role is often going to include having you make shit up on the spot!  They'll ask you to read the line several different ways, change things up, and sometimes even ad lib your own lines just to see what you might be able to come up with once you're inhabiting the character.  Maybe they just need some background chatter or a new minor character that needs to say a throwaway line that you're expected to just vomit forth with no preparation.  You'll also have to apply this trained quick thinking to scripts you will probably get handed freezing cold, and they expect you to turn out a quality performance the first or second time you've even read the new material.  They're on a schedule.  They're not going to sit there on the other side of the glass and give me three hours to prepare and rehearse.  They're just going to get someone who CAN toss things out there and make strong choices instead. 

This all comes back to something I struggle with a lot: Not being afraid to look or sound STUPID.  It's part of the job description.  Sometimes my stuff is going to fall flat.  Almost constantly I'm going to have to make ridiculous noises and funny faces and look like a total idiot, but man that's half the fun of this whole thing.  If it doesn't work, you just try something different.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  I'm a big overanalyzer.  I scrutinize the smallest details wondering if I said something wrong or came off the wrong way when in reality I'm probably going to be lucky if a person I hand my business card to even remembers the conversation.  I keep having to remind myself that I've got waaaaay more important (and more fun) things to do than worry.

So go ahead.  Get stupid today.

P.S. If you're a Portland, OR resident, go see Brooke and Ted's sketch comedy group Night Bus and their new show "Everything. Now." for the next two Friday and Saturday nights downtown at the Deep End Theater.  My wife and I went last weekend and it was hilarious!

Acoustic Panel Shenanigans and New Training Update!

"When you can hear your blood moving you've gone too far."

Very helpful advice on placing my new acoustic panels given to me by my old dorm neighbor, from back in college when I was racking up a bunch of debt getting an education that ultimately didn't go anywhere.  But really, isn't the real student debt the friends you make along the way?

Anyway, back on topic, I got some new acoustic panels!  For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, acoustic panels are basically foam squares with a kind of egg crate-esque texture on one side that's designed to diffuse echoes.  I'm still learning the technical side of it, but they keep a lot of the annoying reverb from getting picked up by my microphone when I'm screaming into the void at home.  That said, I severely underestimated how many I'd need for my messy, little recording nook.  I also realized that I'm going to need several different types to help me with different frequencies of sound, such as looking into getting bass traps for my corners.

Notice the duct tape?  Tip of the iceberg.  The glue I got, Liquid Nails, is supposed to be really good but I'm incompetent at simple things so all the panels kept falling off the wall.  The duct tape was supposed to just be there to hold it steady for half an hour while the glue dried, but I ended up using a combination of liberal amounts of both glue and tape to get them to stay.  Apparently you're supposed to put down lines of the adhesive across the surface instead of just dots.  At least next time when I go to add the roughly twenty or thirty more panels I'm going to need to cover more of the wall space I'll maybe sort of almost know what I'm doing.  And yes, I've come to terms with ruining the paint a bit.

Also, new training update!  I've scheduled by first initial lesson SPECIFICALLY for voiceover with actual booth time and focused instruction!  I don't live in LA where you can hit up a bevy of famous voice actors for classes -- I live in Portland, where there's maybe one voiceover studio searchable on Google.  So the only reason I even found out about Inside Voice here in town was through a classmate of mine in my on camera acting class.  (Thanks, Aaron!)  I'm scheduled for a few weeks from now and I'm trying to manage my excitement lest it get the better of me.  I may get there an hour early that day, but I'll try not to scream "HI!" in the teacher's face.  I'm an actor now, so I can at least pretend to not be a total overzealous geek for a couple hours.

Maybe.

We'll see.

For those of you seeking voiceover instruction like I am, here's what I've been told to watch out for:

1) Anyone who guarantees success is probably a scam.  This career doesn't really do guarantees as a rule.  It's a lot of hard, hard work and being trained and ready to jump on the right opportunity when it comes up.

2) Be seriously skeptical if they want you to produce a demo.  If you're still new to this, you're probably not ready to produce a quality, competitive demo yet.  A good teacher will only broach this subject if you're both absolutely sure you're ready to take that step.

3) Seriously consider your potential teacher's resume.  Best case scenario, you want someone who is currently working in the industry as either an actor, a director, or something like a dialect coach.  But like all learning, it's better to be empty than to be full of shit.  Having a bad teacher can hurt you more than no instruction at all.

Lastly, this isn't really specific to go on the above list, but just in general about this kind of thing: Look out for warning signs, trust your gut, and when in doubt get more general training.  You can never take enough acting classes or get enough experience.  Get into community theater, say yes to opportunities that even peripherally have to do with voiceover like checking out a puppetry group or singing class, research the recording and sound editing software you're using and especially what the pros are using, find excuses to get onto film or television sets, sign up to be an extra, see if you can shadow a casting director, etc.

At no point should you or I be wondering what to do next.  There is always something more to learn.  Keep your schedule full, see what else you can apply to your career, explore other creative outlets, and make lots of friends and acquaintances.  Surround yourself with other creatives and you'll always be inspired by them.