I had a wonderful day yesterday. I got up early and drove into the city to attend a fine commercial audition workshop in Hollywood at the office of casting director Elaine Craig.
The intensive workshop had only 10 participants, all working pros.
We all read a number of radio and TV spots. We also got to see/hear the final reads that got booked.
Elaine was an agent at one time with the William Morris Agency, and also at Special Artists, which was where she decided her calling was being a “director”.
Everyone had the chance to work out with plenty of mic time, and ask and share questions about the business.
Elaine shared some excellent tips about commercial voiceover auditions and how to connect with the copy for today’s reads.
Now most voice talent who don’t audition at their agent’s office need to rely on our instincts at self-directing our auditions. We discussed techniques and choices to consider to set us apart from “the crowd”.
The coolest exercise we did was one in which we connected with our core values and did some commercial reads to accompany to written part of the exercise.
The before and after reads were dramatically interesting, different, and textured.
I thoroughly enjoyed the workout and came home with a handful of golden nuggets to boot!
I can’t wait to get my recordings with before/after reads.
Wish I had been able to attend this voice over workshop. Would love to be able to glean from talented people like her if the opportunity opens up again. I’ll definitely be watching for when the next workshop comes up.
Hi Tim,
The first commercial workshop that I attended sold out its 10 spaces, but I believe there’s another commercial VO workshop scheduled for Feb. 25th, plus there’s a promo workshop happening on Feb. 18th.
There’s more info here.