PeanutButterStoryTime
Yuri and Tara are making use of their reading skills and hosting a fun weekly bedtime story show on Unlocked called PeanutButterStoryTime. Join them Tuesday nights 8p PST on Unlocked
Filtering by Category: Appearances & Cons
Jammin' July! Newsletter from Tara & Yuri
Check out our latest newsletter, below. There's a sign up button over on your right if you'd like to receive it!
Click here to read as a pdf: Jammin' July newsletter, with Tara and Yuri, July, 2014
We just returned from our Australian adventures and it is back to work and back to summer! Thankfully Yuri and I have been working like mad in VO, comics and videos, and we are deep in post on Topsy McGee. Yuri has been writing a bunch and we are enjoying the long days and the warm nights!
I hope July is jammed full of as much fun as you and your inner childlike-wonderment-filled self can make it!!
Tara :) (&Yuri)
Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!
Click here to read more: Newsletter: Jammin July with Tara & Yuri, July 2014
Megaton May with Tara & Yuri
Check out our latest newsletter, below. There's a sign up button over on your right if you'd like to receive it!
Click here to read as a pdf: Megaton May newsletter, with Tara and Yuri, May, 2014
We are well into spring with May in full bloom. I hope you are finding love (of yourself, of life, of others) and generally enjoying the beautiful weather. You can even use hypnosis to help move you toward a more happy life! I have been fortunate to book several commercials, so let me know if I appear on a screen near you. Yuri has had a wonderful run of some new VO projects and been hard at work writing (he even won a few awards) and is working on a couple of scripts and we are headed to OZ on a summer convention adventure! May your May be bountiful and fun!
Tara :) (&Yuri)
Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!
Click here to read more: Newsletter: MegatonMay with Tara & Yuri, May 2014
Voice Over in the Studio: The Proper Distance from the Mic
Microphone technique
VO actors: The Proper Distance from the Mic
The microphone is very sensitive, so where should you stand in relation to it? The engineer might ask you to get a little closer or stand a little farther back, but here's a good place to start: open up your hand, palm up. Now, close just your three middle fingers (the index, middle finger, and ring finger). You're left with only your pinky finger and thumb extended, much like the popular surfing Hang ten sign or, if you hold your hand up to your ear, the international Call me! sign. The distance from the tip of your pinky to the tip of your thumb is about the distance your mouth should be from the mic. You can also put two fists on top of each other to measure roughly the same distance.
An exception to this mic distance rule is when you're working with a loop group doing ADR and walla. In that case, you'll be working in a larger room, moving around a lot with a group of people, and your distance from the mic will be much farther.
Now, obviously, these rules may change depending on the type of sound you're trying to create. For example, if you're going for a whispered, or soft, sultry quality, you may wish to get a little closer in on the mic. For yelling and screaming you will probably want to back off so as not to blow out the engineer and whoever else may be in the studio.
When you speak, the sound comes out in a cone shape; so while a mic will generally pick you up no matter where you are in the booth, you'll always get your best sound if you're standing directly in front of it. And once you're in position, pay attention to where you are and how that feels. It'll be important for you to maintain a pretty consistent position throughout your session so that the recording quality matches from line to line and session to session.
How much freedom do you have to move around? The answer is … some. You shouldn’t be worried about keeping your head stock-still. You have some play: about 15-20° to the right and to the left. The same goes for up and down. There’s a stand in the booth to hold your script, so feel free to tilt your face down to read from it. The mic can take it, and so can the engineer.
You definitely don’t have to memorize each line and then look up to deliver it, although some people might do this, particularly if they’re looking up to sync with mouth movements on a screen. The trick is to do the looking with just your eyes, and not change the relationship of your mouth to the mic in the middle of a take. Moving your head will make a difference to how the recording sounds. So, before you say the line, decide how you want to place your face in relation to the mic.
Movement only begins to cause problems in two cases:
1. when the movement itself gets noisy, either due to your clothing/shoes or your flailing about and knocking into things
2. when your movement carries you too far from the mic or too close to the mic
Either of these cases can cause you to have to do another take of the line because there are limits to what even the engineer can compensate for.
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Check out our VoiceOverVoiceActor website for more tips and exercises. We post daily VO tips on Facebook and Twitter, and our book, Voice Over Voice Actor: What it’s like behind the mic includes a wealth of exercises to build your voice and keep it ready for a successful voice over career!
Spotlight on Voice Actors! CNN article
Some of you may have seen the article on CNN a month or so ago, but check it out if you haven't.
Respect for voice actors and our profession is increasing at a wonderful rate! From household names like Chris Rock, and Danny DeVito, to less known but extremely successful voice actors like Frank Welker, Peter Cullen, our industry is spotlighted in this article. Check it out: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/01/
“It's even gotten to the point where Chris Rock, star of the "Madagascar" franchise, took the opportunity of presenting an animation Oscar to quip about how "easy" it is to do voice work.
Rock joked that all he had to do was say the lines, "And then they give me a million dollars." (No less than Danny DeVito took issue with that characterization.)” READ MORE
Naturally November Newsletter!
Check out our latest newsletter, below. There's a sign up button over on your right if you'd like to receive it!
Click Here To Read: Naturally November Newsletter Nov. 2012
So much happening as we near the end of this wonderful year. Personally, I have been pushing myself and my career as part of a 42 Day Book a Job Challenge and I am thrilled with my results! We've just completed filming some really exciting things for Shelf Life Season 4 (commercials, music videos and all new Season 4 eps, oh my!). The holidays are fast at hand and I'm in need of a new book or tasty treat, so let me know what I should add to my bookshelf or plate! Here is to soaring into the new year and a lovely, safe and joyful holiday for us all.
Tara :) (&Yuri)
Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!
Read More: Naturally November Newsletter Nov. 2012
Read More: Naturally November Newsletter Nov. 2012
Hum while chewing - it's a great exercise!
We hear good feedback from folks about this exercise, and we find it very helpful.
Give it a try!
1. With your lips closed, start to hum.
2. Then make chewing movements, as if you were eating, and keep humming the whole time.
3. Now use your hands to feel the vibration in the front of your face, your nose, your cheeks, and gently allow your hands to move to your neck and throat, and perhaps even onto your belly so that you can feel how your voice resonates in different areas of your body.
Using the chewing hum can warm up the different areas where your voice will resonate. Once again, when your voice resonates, it bounces around a certain area of your body, whether that’s up in your face, nose or head area, your throat, or your chest or belly.
Now to begin to identify where your voice is resonating, let’s concentrate on specific sounds that tend to resonate in different areas. Certain sounds we create generally vibrate more toward the head, while others, because we use different muscles to make them, may vibrate lower, toward the belly. If you can learn to control where you choose to place your voice, you can begin to use it in more powerful and interesting ways.
Wonderful May and lots going on! Check out our May newsletter!
Check out our latest newsletter, below. There's a sign up button over on your right if you'd like to receive it!
Click Here To Read: Wonderful May: Newsletter May 2012
VOVA on Lulu
The book is now available as an eBook for anyone who loves to read on the go! Simply visit Voice-Over Voice Actor on Lulu to buy your copy now. The eBook is the entire paperback version in a handy electronic delivery! Enjoy! But if you'd prefer to hold a book you can still pick up a copy at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Samuel French, Drama Book Shop and our website (where you can also get autographed copies).
BOOK TOUR: Dates & Places added
The international book tour is going gang-busters with great signings in the US and abroad. Next up, stops in:
New York City, NY Join us at The Drama Book Shop for a FREE voice-over workshop and talk as well as a book-signing this Friday, October 8th at 5pm. The Drama Book Shop is located at 250 W. 40th St., NYC, NY 10018.
More stops to be announced soon for California, and possibly Florida .
We're also in various local stores throughout the United States, so stop by Barnes & Noble or Borders to pick-up/request your copy today, order online via Amazon or our website as well as the new eBook on lulu!
We will add details and more cities as soon as they are confirmed, so check back to get more details!
Coming soon:
Los Angeles, CA. Stay tuned for more info!
In the meantime, need reviews on Amazon.com which YOU can help us with! So if you've read the book, we'd love for you to review it for us, CLICK HERE and write your VOVA Amazon review. Thank you :)
Below is a list of places we've visted and done book signings or voice-over talks! Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
MONTREAL, CANADA at Fantastic Film Festival, doing a VO talk and book signing, July 17 & 18
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA at ComicCon July 22-25, please check Comicon schedule.
LONDON, ENGLAND, c/o London Expo Saturday/Sunday May 29/30, at Excel London, E16 1XL
DUBLIN, IRELAND Saturday June 5th from 12 noon - 2:30 pm at at Forbidden Planet Dublin, 5-6 Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, Super Happy Tokyo Love, 8p-10p Sat March 8, Royal T, 8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA90232
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS, our apologies!!
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 10 & 11, RNA Showgrounds
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 17 & 18, Melbourne Showgrounds
SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Comic Outpost, 12:30-2:30, Sat. March 13th, 2381 Ocean Ave, SF, CA 94127
LAS VEGAS, NV Alternate Reality Comics, 3:00-5:00pm, Sat. February 20th, 4800 S. Maryland Pkwy, LV, NV 89119
Vegas, baby, Vegas
I can't believe it's been a week already since Yuri and I were in Las Vegas at Anime Vegas...we had a great time, and got to meet a bunch of fans as well as seeing some familiar faces in the crowd. We even had some help with the documentary that our friend/documentarian Boris Kievksy is filming of us going to conventions this whole year. At our panel on VO, the audience helped out by playing along and chiming in on some of Yuri's VO tales, and (hopefully) much fun was had by all. Vegas is also a special city for Yuri and I, since it's where we got married almost eight years ago. Being crazy as we are, we were driving cross country from NYC to LA and hit Vegas and eloped! For the Vegasites (Vegasans? Vegasians?) who may know, we were married (long before even becoming voice-actors) at the Wee Kirk of the Heather Chapel near Fremont Street and Old Vegas! For those of you not as familiar with LV, the Wee Kirk is known by the many famous marriages it's held (Madonna/Sean Penn; etc.)
But, mostly, we had fun, went to a great con, met a bunch of cool folks, signed a bunch of autographs, went to the pool (Wave Pool! Lazy River!), did some panels, ate tons of tasty food, celebrated Boris' birthday with his folks, saw the Lion King (!) and thoroughly enjoyed Sin City (which for us is more of Win City!) :)
Thanks to Rich Stott for another great Con, the guests and fans for making us feel so welcome, and to the city for treating us nicely while there!
t:)