J. Michael Collins

Video Game Trailers Are The New Movie Trailers – Are You Prepared To Compete?

As movie trailers go the way of more production and less voice, there’s a new trend in gaming that holds a lot of promise for voice over actors who love trailers. Gameplay and cinematic trailers – produced by video game developers and publishers in order to demonstrate an upcoming or recently released game – are a really hot and exciting part of the market that continues to grow. They are mostly created before a game release so potential players can whet their appetites before they can play the game for themselves. And if you’re prepared to compete, video game trailers are a genre you may want to sink your teeth into.

The video game industry has a steadily growing audience who believes they get more value for their money buying games compared to DVDs, movie tickets, and music. In fact, the gaming industry globally is estimated to be worth around $159.3 Billion as of 2020. A 9%+ increase from 2019. Over 4 Billion of that is in the US, while the largest growth is seen in Latin American and Asia-Pacific countries, adding opportunities for bilingual talent. Moreover, due to the pandemic, this sector is primed for even more exponential growth as younger consumers find themselves ever more attached to at-home entertainment….a trend that will likely continue even when things return to normal.

Traditionally, video game advertising has mostly focused on print, or in some cases digital displays. But within the past decade and certainly more within the past few years, video game creators have begun releasing both cinematic and gameplay trailers and expanding the scope of their marketing to include social media.

While it is sometimes true that actors who are cast in the game will voice the trailer, that isn’t always the case, and there is a real opportunity for VOs in this growing market. So you’ll want to be prepared. Although the primary purpose of video game trailers has been to build hype and drive sales, the trend is for them to be stand-alone short pieces of cinematic art. In fact, some game trailers can easily be mistaken for movie trailers for their scale and stunning visuals. This means the voice over needs to be part game actor, part promo actor, part trailer voice seasoned with perhaps a dash of old school announcer occasionally. It’s not an easy combo to perfect.

If you’re not a gamer, you’re going to want to spend some time on YouTube where video game trailers abound to get a feel for what is being produced.

Ultimately, game trailers may well be the new movie trailer in terms of prominence and high-profile production values. If you are a traditional trailer or promo player, or a newer talent who has an edgy voice that can cut through the mix, it’s an on-trend genre worth checking out!

The Importance of Having Outside Interests

by J. Michael Collins 5 Comments

We read a lot about, “How to make it in VO,” consuming content voraciously in an effort to get a foothold in the business. Eventually, however, many voice actors will put the pieces together and develop a thriving business. Success rarely comes without a good amount of sacrifice, hence the importance of having outside interests.

Unfortunately, sometimes being the dog that caught the car comes with challenges of its own. Once a VO talent experiences some steady success, it can be a struggle to look at the studio as anything other than a little ATM machine, and time away from it as lost opportunity.

Look, being an entrepreneur is no cake walk. And being an entrepreneur in an industry that is always changing and highly subjective is even tougher. Wearing every hat from talent to marketing to bookkeeping to HR can take up a lot of time, money, and mental space.

But if you haven’t seen the sun in weeks, and weekends are something you vaguely remember having once, but aren’t sure, OR you start every conversation with “I was just narrating a piece about…” OR your kids are starting to fear that “hunched over troll that used to be mom” who lives in the small room in the basement… you may need to take a break, because burnout is real.

We’ve heard a lot of messages in this past year about taking time for self-care, paying attention to your mental health, and slowing down to focus on what’s important. I would add, find outside interests that have nothing to do with voice over (and bonus points if that something is FUN.)

This career is a long game, full of rejection, trial and error, and jagged roads to success. Your primary workload involves putting yourself out there, handling no’s and coming back for more. You don’t do yourself (or the quality of your work) any favors if you don’t allow yourself some distractions and give your brain some time away from constantly obsessing over your next audition.

No one will be surprised that my own outside interests include finding incredible dining experiences and travel, (when the world is normal.) But what some of you may not know is that I’m a trained political scientist and a devoted student of history (World War II era especially.) Those interests led me to read every New York Times newspaper cover to cover starting from January 1, 1930. I’ve read every one through December 15th, 1934 so far and I have plans to read at least a decade more. Not only am I completely fascinated by what I’m reading, but it gives me a mental break from voice over work. It gives my brain something new to focus on and enjoy.

Planning blocks of time into your schedule for marketing, auditioning, and recording are all very important to maximize the efficiency of your work-time management. But don’t forget to schedule-in periods of time to step away and recharge. Pursue something other than voice over. Allow yourself to have fun.

Be interested in more than one thing. Your sanity will thank you.

How to Beat Imposter Syndrome

by J. Michael Collins 11 Comments

The Wikipedia definition of Imposter Syndrome reads as follows: “Imposter syndrome (also known as imposter phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the imposter experience) is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.”

At some point in every career, a VO talent is going to experience this, and not only at the beginning of the journey. Plenty of experienced voice actors will confess they’ve felt like this repeatedly. But less often does anyone offer up a suggestion for what to do to make it go away. I’d like to suggest a way to beat it, for good.

But to get there, we have to go back to elementary school for a minute. From childhood, what do we focus on in school? The stuff we don’t yet know and can’t yet do, right? And that works for a while to get the basics down, learn to read/write/add, learn history, and maybe some languages. But a great majority of the time, we’re taught to identify what we’re not good at and work hard to get good. Work harder, we’re told. Deficits are highlighted more often than talents.

But does this ultimately lead to success? Do truly successful adults spend all their time focused on the stuff they don’t do well? No, they don’t.

Take football. To be a great football player, you need a knowledge of the game and some general high-level skills (strength, speed, endurance, etc). But no one with the talent to be an NFL quarterback is focused on how he’s not such a great linebacker. If he did, he’d feel like an imposter. More specifically, if a player tried to be good at EVERY position, he’d never get to the NFL. To be truly great, no time is spent on any skills not related to the player’s best talents and one specific job.

So how does this relate to Imposter Syndrome in voice over? Many people decide to join the voice over industry with little to no real knowledge of what is required. So, a lot like schoolchildren, they need a basic education in voice over – how to record yourself, mic technique, what genres are available, how to set up a VO business, etc. At this point in their career, they’re not feeling Imposter Syndrome as much as feeling new, unsure, or just getting ready to start working.

But because this industry is so vast, with such varied opportunities to work, coupled with the need to have a demo for every specific genre you want to compete in, along the way many VO artists get bogged down trying to do it all. And that’s where our good friend Imposter Syndrome comes in.

It’s pretty common to have many interests in voice over (who doesn’t want to do it all, really?) so when pressed, voice over actors are likely to give you a laundry list of what they “do”… explainers, eLearning, commercials, audiobooks, animation, etc. Often they’ve spent time improving their skills in each of these different areas. Often they’ve spent a great deal of money and time focused on the areas where they are NOT booking in order to START booking. And often they suffer from doubting their skills, talents, or accomplishments and feel a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud” (basically lookup Imposter Syndrome in the dictionary, and you’ll find a picture of a voice over actor).

If you are one of these people, welcome to a large club – and now here’s how to beat it.

While you may be good at a lot of things, what are you REALLY good at doing? Are you capable of commercials, but medical narration lights you up? Do you have to resist adding your animation characters into every audition for e-learning? Are you really good at multiple characters and long form narration but spend all your time trying to get better at IVR? Where do you absolutely shine? It’s okay, this is a safe space, be honest about where you rock.

Once you’ve answered that question, to quote Steve Martin, be so good they can’t ignore you. If you are great at commercials, find the best commercial coaches, practice your commercial skills even more and work to be the best commercial actor the world has seen. If you are great at medical narration, find those coaches and get even better. If you live and breathe animation or audiobooks, spend all your time in improv and acting classes to get even more skills. Find what you are great at doing, and devote all your time to doing that thing. Practice it. Spend your marketing efforts focused on it, and seek out the auditions from agents and buyers in that space.

Because here’s the thing. When we know we are good at something, when we have our abilities solidly in hand, when we are in our zone, doing what we are best at, when our talent is out there on display to those we work with (and, importantly, to ourselves) when confidence fills us up, we won’t feel like an imposter, because we won’t be one.

That’s not to say you should never coach on something new or never improve in other genres of voice over. But the surest road to confidence and success is the one paved by what you excel at doing. And trust me, the rest of the stuff that you’re not as good at will come with time and experience. Many VO skills (including marketing) are transferable between genres, so becoming excellent at one, and then adding a new one will be easier.

Embrace your talent, and acknowledge where you shine. Then be so good they can’t ignore you. Be so good Imposter Syndrome has no place in your studio.

The Formality Scale

by J. Michael Collins 6 Comments

If you’ve attended any of my classes or workshops, you may have heard me mention The Formality Scale. This is something that I use in any genre of voice over, in both auditions and bookings. I developed it as a scale of where I’m going to go with the read. What diction, enunciation, and clarity of speech I feel are appropriate. It affects my choices about speed, and in general what formality I’ll apply to reads. And I’m a numbers guy, so quantifying the range into a numeric scale makes my brain happy.

The Formality Scale numbers 1 to 10, with 1 being the least formal and 10 being the most. I imagine a 1 as a couple of buddies leaving the bar together in search of good tacos. They’ve probably had a little too much to drink, so their diction is a bit slurred, their speed erratic, the emphasis a little off perhaps, maybe they mumble. Basically, you’re lucky if you fully understand what each one is saying the whole time. This is the most conversational I can be without paying any attention to enunciation. This is 1. It is very rare a read will ever be a 1, but it’s good to know where the absolute limit is and work up from there.

A 5 on the scale is my Baseline read. If we were having a conversation about just about anything, this is where you’d hear me speak. Since you’re a reasonably intelligent person and I like to think I am as well, there’s more clarity to my delivery than there would be at level 1, and in this 5-ish area, sometimes I might be a bit more formal, maybe a bit less, but generally, a basic, normal conversation with family and friends would be a 5.

A 10 on the scale is Symphony Orchestras, 3-star Michelin dining, and the Ritz Carlton. This is where you bring out the big guns of enunciation and precise (and slightly affected tone). Think Thurston Howell III and you’re getting close. As with a 1, a read is unlikely to be a 10, but luxury reads often get close.

So any time I’m doing any kind of voice over read, be it corporate narration, e-learning, and even commercials, I’m trying to intuit from the script, the direction, and what I know of the client and the audience I think they’re trying to attract, what formality is called for in that moment. For example, Corporate reads will never be a 1 because they’re never that casual. They might be a bit informal, but more often than not, the floor to that informality is a 5 and the read formality only goes up from there. Explainers, on the other hand, are generally more casual, but they still have to be informative, so be careful not to drop much below a 4 unless the client is asking for that. Commercials can fall just about anywhere on the formality scale, so I really pay attention to the script, specs, product or service, and intended audience.

For me, wrapping choices like pacing, diction, intensity, and enunciation in a formality scale helps me dial in on appropriate reads and pivot quickly if the client wants a little more or a little less in the delivery. Analyze the information you have, and see if thinking of the Formality Scale helps you take the right approach on your next read.

The Responsibility Of A Recommendation

by J. Michael Collins 3 Comments

I’ve said it many times before, the voice over industry is a giving industry. For a competitive performing arts profession, it is rarely cut-throat (happily) and most colleagues are genuinely supportive of each other’s success. This support shows itself in Facebook groups where voice over actors respond to questions or posts and offer their experiences and expertise solely to help those who come up after them benefit from what they’ve learned. It shows itself in the outpouring of care when fellow actors are ill or hurting. And it shows itself in a way that few other industries do – in a voiceover recommendation.

Now, plenty of professionals make recommendations. For instance, doctors recommend other doctors when a specialty is needed. But generally, you don’t see people saying to their doctor “you are great and I want to keep using you, but for this checkup, I need a different doctor to do exactly what you do, know anyone?” Yet many voice over actors are willing and eager to recommend other voice actors to their clients for work that often they themselves would be an exact fit to do. Sometimes they post auditions or calls for demos for jobs that they then help their clients cast, and sometimes they just tell their clients about you without your immediate knowledge and then present you with an opportunity to work. I’ve both been recommended and have done a fair share of recommending others myself over the years.

No matter how a voiceover recommendation comes about when you are endorsed by your colleagues, you have a responsibility. How you handle the responsibility can be the difference between being regularly recommended and never being recommended again.

First, be a good human. This should go without saying, but it’s always a nice reminder. Be honest, be humble, be kind.

Then, recognize that a colleague directly recommending you to a client is a huge shortcut over a substantial amount of hurdles. You didn’t have to market to that client, you didn’t have to beat out hundreds on a pay to play site for the opportunity, and you benefit substantially from the endorsement you’re receiving from your colleague. Even if you’re one of a small number of options being presented, this is a massive jump to the front of the line and should be considered as such.

So if you’re responding to an audition post, pay close attention to what you’re being asked to submit back to your colleague – file names, what your email subject should say, where you should send your information. Read it twice. Then read it again. Do not make your colleague do extra work to help you get the job.

Once you’ve booked the job, be an extreme professional. Go above and beyond. Pay close attention to client requests, communicate clearly, be prepared, show up on time ready to work, be responsive and helpful, follow through on deadlines and deliverables. Make sure that the client, the one you didn’t have to work hard (or at all) to get hired by, comes away from the experience happy.

This will not only reflect well on you, it will reflect well on the colleague who recommended you and make THEM look good to their client. After all, it isn’t just your reputation on the line in these settings, it’s theirs as well. You have to live up to the trust the client placed in your colleague’s ability to discern talent AND professionalism. They endorsed you with a voiceover recommendation, don’t make them look dumb for doing so. And when the job is done, don’t forget to thank them for recommending you and your business.

This prescription for professional behavior may seem obvious – but you’d be surprised how many voice actors fail to do many (or even most) of these actions. Whether they realize it or not, they’ve immediately lost the opportunity to be recommended in the future. Don’t be like them.

Coping with Loss as a Community

by J. Michael Collins 3 Comments

We’ve been through a lot in the last year. The voiceover community is one that thrives on close connections, which until 2020 had always included a regular in-person element. The loss of that alone, however temporary, was a shock. Like much of society, our rituals were disrupted. Our traditions were put on hold.

Unlike so many other sectors, however, while we felt this new normal acutely, we found ways to hold on to our togetherness….through social media, Zoom calls, online conferences, and personal chats in private. We made do.

And now, just days into this new year that holds so much hope, we’re grieving in a new way.

Brad Venable was a colleague and a friend. I wasn’t nearly as close with him as many of his nearby LA friends, but our encounters over the years left me glad to know him. At conferences, industry events, and just casual social gatherings, he was always the same guy. Quick with a smile, a friendly word, an arm around your back. And it was genuine. No eyes darting across the room looking for the next person to network with. Brad was always focused on the person right there in front of him, and when you had his attention, you had his full attention.

Maybe my favorite personal story about Brad is from the Voice Arts Awards a couple of years ago in LA. I had expended quite a bit of effort making sure my tux looked just right, free of any dust or wrinkles, shoes polished, lucky cuff-links meticulously fastened. Anna and I ran into Brad on our way to get pictures taken on the red carpet. Brad didn’t have a tux. He rocked up to the industry’s marquee event in a stylish t-shirt, chill as could be. And the thing was…..he pulled it off. Because he was Brad. No pretension. No airs. And completely comfortable that he would be accepted for who he was, the way he accepted others for who they were.

How do we deal with losing someone like Brad? How do we deal with everything that we have lost in this last awful year?

That answer is probably different for each of us on an individual level. As a voiceover community, we remember, we celebrate life……the good moments….the great memories. And we hurt….there’s no shame in taking time to process the pain and mourn. We support each other. And we appreciate the preciousness of each moment….of the small things we so often overlook.

Me? I’ll take inspiration from Brad Venable. If there’s one thing the outpouring of love for him in the wake of his passing makes abundantly clear, I think it is that each and every one of us should look at ourselves, and our own lives, and ask what we can do, what things we should maybe change, so that we may too leave such a profound mark on the people we have touched.

Rest in peace, Brad. The voiceover community is poorer without you.

J. Michael Collins

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