J. Michael Collins

Jas Patrick, (jaspatrick.net,) is one of the hottest young talents in the voiceover marketplace today, with over a hundred jobs booked in the past year alone. It would be easy to call him a rising star, but the ‘rising’ bit seems unnecessary. With a voice that defines credibility, it’s not hard to see why Jas is in demand.

I recently had the pleasure of coaching Jas and completing his new suite of demos, which you can hear at the following links: goo.gl/EAwj5N, goo.gl/jZrcSs, goo.gl/UspL3p. Additionally, I’ve already hired Jas for a radio spot, and hope to have the chance to do so again.

Today, I chatted with Jas about his ascendance in the industry and his perspective on how to get traction in voiceover.

JMC

How did your interest in becoming a voice actor develop?

JAS

I’ve always done voices and accents and characters ever since I was a wee little kid.  I loved and still love cartoons and video games.  It’s just always something I’ve done and people would laugh when I did characters or accents so I got a lot of gratification from making people laugh or get excited to hear a funny or cool voice I could do.

JMC

Do you remember your first job?

 JAS

Absolutely!  There are really two “first jobs” that I will never forget.  I had done some acting and things for videos in music career throughout the years and what not, but my first job as a titled “legit” voice actor was for the Lane Motor Museum.  I did eight radio spots for them–two were a French accented character for their French exhibit and the other six were an Italian character for their Italian exhibit.  I was super nervous and tried really hard to get the spots as “perfect” as I was able!
The other “first job” was for Snickers and they wanted an Irish accent for an internal video over in Europe.  I’m particularly proud of that one, because I got it in my first week–I believe it was day 5–of going full time, full-on voice acting and I got it off one of the big p2p sites!  The other really cool thing was the Snickers gig was on the 4th of July, and so my wife and I call that our own personal independence day!

Previous to that week, I just studied the industry; listening to podcasts, reading blogs and learning about the industry and how to audition, set up profiles, etc.  There was this sort of unanimous theme in the interviews with the big voice actors that if you got a job in your first week, you were super lucky and definitely doing something right, so getting that gig in my first week really made me feel amazing and I’ll never forget it!

JMC

You’ve achieved a great deal of success very early in your career. Why do you think that is?

JAS

I think some of it is the fact that before I did even a single audition, I studied every podcast, blog, vlog, video and so on of anyone I could find that purported to know the tools, skills and steps to “making it” in the voice over industry.  I would walk my dog Seamus for a couple of hours every morning and listen to the learning resources online that are free to anyone willing to listen.  I highly recommend checking out the resources sections of numerous online repositories of “how-to” videos and blogs and things about the voice over and voice acting industry!  Don’t neglect searching on YouTube as well!  Some of those are all really great!  If you follow the logical steps for you from all those resources and make sure you have great gear and a quiet soundproofed place to record, you will do well also!

The other thing I  think helps me is that I really work hard.  Every day.  If I get an audition, I knock it out immediately.  I will come home from class late at night and always do any auditions I missed.  I’m really relentless with it.  Be a machine.  Great work ethic WILL help you, believe me.

I also train my tail off.  I’m in three classes I physically go to for various acting and techniques and things like that and I also do a skype session for accent training online–so, the more serious you are, the better you will become.  Of course, I also trained with a highly respected coach; BUT only after I had done a great deal of work and training on my own.

I most assuredly recommend getting yourself a great coach–but be disciplined and bring your A-game to said coach!  Get yourself in good shape before you try to run the marathon, in other words!

JMC 

What has been your biggest or most high-profile job to date?

JAS

I did several commercial spots for GORE-TEX which turned out really cool!  I did a video for the Jordan National tourism board that is a gorgeous video, and I really am proud of how it turned out!  A couple of my super favorites are for video games, including Clash Royale, and I did a really insane character for Heroes Of Newerth that I actually play from time to time–when I’m not slammed in the studio!

But if you just want some big names, I’ve done Coca-Cola, Ford, Deloitte, Sony, Marriott, Samsung and so on and so forth.  I’m still on the hunt for Blizzard and Nintendo and Sega, though! I’d love to do work for them!

JMC

What’s your dream VO job?

JAS

A Blizzard game for video games and pretty much any character for any of my beloved TV-MA cartoons like Archer or Bojack Horseman or South Park or something along those lines! That would be a bucket list sort of thing for me.

But as far as a more on-going deal..?  I’d honestly love to do more TV Narration stuff.  I’ve done a bit so far–small things, nothing major; but I really enjoy doing it, so I’d have to say TV Narration would be the dream career.

JMC

Did you make any mistakes when you first started out?

JAS

Sure! False contrasts, left breaths in, put inflection where none was needed, gave just plain old bad reads and so on and so forth!  But if you mean did I go down a “wrong road” before winding up on the “correct path”..?  I honestly don’t think I did–or at least not so much as it seems to have done any real harm or what not, you know?

I’ve worked hard to be friendly and pleasant to work with, turn around my jobs super fast and always over deliver–I don’t quibble over adding a line or something, you see what I mean?  So, I suppose I work hard every day to correct any mistakes before they can become blunders.  But, we’re all human and we make mistakes, just how it goes!

JMC

What is the one most critical piece of advice you would give to new talent?

JAS

Pretty much what I said above, really!  Work hard, be super nice, go out of your way to do a great job and don’t have a bad attitude!  Study hard, practice hard and learn whatever you can whenever you can!  This business is organic and you always need to learn and stay on your feet.  But also, enjoy it!  Have fun with it!  Let YOU come out in your auditions and your projects!  Make the words come to life and put your energy and character into what you read!  Even if you don’t get THIS job, you might get called for another one!  I guess I’d end with saying, don’t be too hard on yourself, though.  Work hard, yes!  But don’t beat yourself up or obsess over an audition.  Do the audition, then forget it.  There will be thousands more just like it.  Put everything you have into the five minutes or whatever it takes you to record it, then let it sail away.  No tears!  🙂  And best of luck to you!

It’s Friday, and here are my three thoughts for the week…

Gender Neutral Voiceover Castings

This week I’ve received no less than three castings looking for “gender-neutral” voices. I’ve heard some buzz about this for a few months but hadn’t yet encountered it myself. It’s an interesting trend that may presage yet another avenue for talent to pursue if it sticks. I wonder if perhaps it is a corollary of the Xanax read I talked about a few weeks ago, which seems designed to be as anodyne and broadly inoffensive as possible. What are your thoughts on this emerging trend? Is it a fad, or here to stay?

Building Connections at WoVOCon

If you are looking for a great experience getting together with your fellow voice actors for knowledge-building and relationship-building, look no further than WoVO Con, the World Voices Organization’s annual conference. (https://www.world-voices.org/WoVOCon-IV) Coming up in just two weeks in Las Vegas, this fourth edition of the conference promises to be the best yet, with talent flying in from around the globe to attend. If you’re there, make sure to say hi!

Voiceover Rates Value Add

This is a concept I frequently come back to with newer talent. While I’ll always defend the need for fair pay as a voice actor, in an expanding marketplace we often get bogged down by terminology that may be too broad to be of service when it comes to pricing. I’ve seen talent reject jobs that were described as regional or national broadcast for paying too little, when a cursory review of the product or service, (or a simple email exchange with the buyer,) would reveal that by, “national,” they mean three nights a week on a C-grade cable network at 2 AM for three months. One reason I never post a rate card is because every job is unique. If Dominos wants a New York/New Jersey/Connecticut regional TV spot for 13 weeks, that’s one price and a re-bill thereafter. If it’s Joe’s pizza with one location in each state, it’s reasonable that the price won’t be quite the same. Think about what the client’s overall budget for production and airtime is. If you get 2-5% of that, you are getting a fair shake.

Until next week, this is JMC.

It’s almost the weekend, so here are my three Friday things for the week.

Cost Cutting and Quality

As some of you know, I’ve been pretty loyal to British Airways over the years. Their fleet is modern, it’s easy to earn and use frequent flier miles with a little foresight, and they get me where I need to go in style without spending a fortune. Once upon a time they were pretty loyal to their customers too. When they made mistakes, they compensated you for it….sometimes more than necessary, (I remember getting 75,000 miles once for a complaint about catering.)

Those days are long gone. If you were paying attention to the news over the Memorial Day weekend, you surely saw the chaos at London’s Heathrow Airport due to a mysterious IT collapse on the part of BA. While it was a disaster for many (and one Anna and I barely avoided,) it was predictable considering the current management’s strategy of cutting every expense to the bone. From onboard amenities to cramming in as many seats with as little room as possible to nickel-and-dime customers for every possible cent, British Airways has become a shadow of its former self in the last couple of years. IT was no exception, having been heavily outsourced to India at the lowest possible price. The results were catastrophic.

There is, however, a silver lining to this story and something to think about for the voiceover industry. We live in an era where companies are cutting costs brutally, trying to maximize shareholder revenue and squeeze every penny of profit from their enterprises. This has trickled down into VO in the form of far more back-and-forth over rates than we used to deal with, as clients try to keep their production costs as low as possible on orders from above. Like BA’s IT, this can often lead to compromises in quality.

The blowback from the IT meltdown gives a glimmer of a better future. BA shareholders are demanding an investigation. The CEO is likely to lose his job. The delays and cancellations. along with compensation, will likely cost well over a hundred million dollars. British Airways is learning a hard lesson about the downside of considering cost over quality, and heads will roll. More importantly, the culture of the company is very likely to change.

For those of you lamenting the current state of play concerning voiceover rates, it is worth keeping in mind that the present circumstances have less to do with issues specific to our industry than with broader economic psychology. The world was staggered by the Great Recession, and corporate practices changed…..but those changes are cyclical. As the economy continues to accelerate, and companies recognize that cutting for the sake of cutting leads to poor results, in the end, the marketplace will likely shift once again. When that shift happens, those who have been holding out for professional rates, and not training their clients to see them as a cost-effective option first and foremost, are the ones who will benefit.

Creating Voice Over Personality

When you are directed to be warm, empathetic, and caring in a read, what is your first reaction? A lot of talent process direction technically, so a string of words such as those will immediately lead to a shift in tonality, a more intimate address of the microphone, perhaps a bit of a hush to the read. Intellectually, that all makes sense, but more and more I see talent who are thinking about their reads, not feeling them. Emotions don’t come from technical precision; they come from the heart. This is why one of my key principles as a VO is to always build a character for commercial reads……to never be JMC, but instead step into the psychology of an entirely different person who is living for a brief moment the content of the copy. To get warm, empathetic, and caring, you need to stir your soul, not just your brain.

Visiting Beaches

I’ll be visiting a few beaches over the next couple of weeks. Some for fun, and some for business. Follow along with me on Facebook as I drop clues relating to a MAJOR announcement in the month of June.

Until next time, this is JMC.

It’s Friday again, and time once more to scattershot about what is on my mind this week.

Energetic Reads

Throughout the webinars and coaching I’ve been involved in this week, one consistent theme has been a particular focus of mine: Energy! Are you bringing it to every read? Many talent are afraid of going too far with their delivery, when in fact buyers and casting directors are often looking for the read that jumps out and gets their attention. Moreover, we perceive our own energy level as higher than it registers with the average listener; it’s a phenomenon of the human ear that we think we are more energetic in our speech than we actually are. Top VO talent aren’t scared of making a jackass of themselves, and audition-weary buyers sometimes need to be startled awake by a talent who is totally committed, (or perhaps should be.) Don’t hold back!

Connecting at Conferences

This week I picked up a copy of the sponsorship prospectus for DevLearn, the nation’s largest conference dedicated only to eLearning developers. You know, the kind of people who hire voice actors for their modules. Moreover, those who attend this conference of over 3,000 eLearning industry professionals are ponying up almost $1,500 each for a ticket, plus hotel and travel, which means the companies they work for probably aren’t the type to skimp on talent quality to save a few bucks. I’m considering setting up a booth in the exhibit hall, either on my own or with a group of fellow voice actors. As I’ve often discussed, eLearning is one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative genres in voiceover. I want to be where the buyers are.

WoVO Con is Coming Soon

I’m looking forward to being in Sin City in just over a month for WoVO Con, where I’ll be joining Dave Courvoisier and David Rosenthal for a live Rates Roundtable and presenting on The Future of Voiceover. Will I see you there?

Enjoy your weekend!

JMC