The Script is the Roadmap with Dan Friedman

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If I'm listening to this 10 minutes later, I'm still able to listen. I don't feel like it's overwhelming. And as the voice actor, it wouldn't be hard to keep up, right? Because if I gotta keep this up for 15 minutes, that's, that's also a lot.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome everyone to today's episode of Mission Audition. Thank you so much for joining us. Mission Audition is the voiceover podcast where we listen to real auditions from voice members and we get to hear feedback from world-class voiceover coaches. My name is Tara, senior Manager Brand Communications, and I am joined by my co-host of Vanessa Community Manager here at Voices.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hi everyone. Today's topic is Dan Analysis, surgical script breakdown. Before we get to the auditions, let me introduce our amazing guest, Dan Friedman. With over two decades in the voiceover industry and more than 25 years as a professional audio engineer, he has produced, directed, or provided his voice to thousands of audio productions. He is the founder of Sound four vo, providing training and resources for aspiring and professional voice actors. He is also a successful voiceover talent and has been heard on hundreds of local and regional TV and radio campaigns, as well as many corporate narration. Some examples are Mo Southwest Grill, crown Plaza Hotels, Hulu Plus, stride Gum, and more. We are so excited to have you Ard featured coach for April. Why don't you say hello to everyone. Dan,

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Hello to everyone. Thank you for having me. .
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's so great to have you on this show, Dan. Okay, Vanessa, are you ready to jump in?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You know it, let's get right into the artistic direction. So the artistic direction reads the voice should sound childlike how a seven year old would sound. The voice should be friendly and fun. Although the toy interacts like a smart device, it functions at an approximate age of seven. So there are questions the toy will not know how to answer. Alright, I'm excited to jump into audition number one. Dan, are you ready?

Speaker 1 (02:00): Yes, I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Okay, let's jump into audition number one.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Tid, do you say you need help with your math homework? Well, you're in luck cause I'm a math genius.
. Okay. So long division is it? Let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.
Okay. So I'll start it off here. So this audition's sound quality is actually really fantastic. Her delivery was also really good. Definitely friendly and fun. But Dan, what are your thoughts on this one?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I believe of the women that I heard, I believe that she was the best in this style of delivery. And one of the things that makes that actually critical is that I heard her pretty early on. So she set the bar for pretty much all the rest of the women and I don't really think that anybody matched up to that bar once I'd heard her. So they, they really did a very similar delivery throughout. And once I heard, and because I heard her first, the sound quality was the best, she was the most engaged. I felt it was the liveliest. Uh, so for me, that's, that's why she, uh, that's why I chose this as one of the ones to talk about.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I think this audition was so on the ball with character. I felt like it, I was talking to or hearing a seven year
old child talk about how much they love math. It was so believable for me.

Speaker 1 (03:36): Yeah, I liked it. I liked it.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Not everything's going to be perfect. Right. So if there's any, if there's one thing that you could say
about this audition to improve, what would it be?

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, well let's take a, can we listen to it again and kind of pull it apart a little bit? Yeah, for sure.
Awesome. So I'm gonna take it, uh, here. The first part, ti

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Do you say you need help with your math

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Homework? So first of all, the sounds like the beginning is cut off. Hmm. So I kind of miss whether that say you or, Hey, you need help, or, so that beginning it, it's really abrupt and I don't know if that's just happening on my end, but maybe leave half of half a second to, of silence beforehand to make sure that we get whatever that first part is.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Well, you're in luck cause I'm a math genius. . Okay. So long division is it.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
So that part right there, pretty nice stuff. Right? She seems very proud of herself. The laugh is cute to all of that. I would just be careful of constant upswings in, uh, in, in the melody of it. Because if you get into habits where you're constantly following the same melodies, it starts to sound red and the listener doesn't always pick up on it as to why that is. But that's often why it is.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
Let's start with an easy one, 10 divided by five.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
So here's one thing that I love. The tonal shift that she makes there, uh, really gets into the thought part, part of it. And of course, when we are in thinking mode, we just, right mm-hmm. , we slow down and we s uh, so she really captured the essence of that both in sound and technique. She adds a little bit of mystery to that, but she does say it's easy. That's obviously part of the script, but she makes me feel that it's gonna be easy. Mm-hmm. . So I, I like it.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
So giving that like emotional connection in,

Speaker 1 (05:35):
In that sense. Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I really enjoyed the pacing too at the very end because when she said, okay, 10 divided by five, it was slow enough that you could, the, the listener could really process it. Especially if you're thinking about a seven year old processing that, and it's math, you wanna speak a little bit slower. So I do like that she completely changed the,

Speaker 1 (05:58):
It it had to change, right? Because if you're doing that pace, the, the whole time, and it's like this, suddenly you don't know where the problem and the solution is. Mm-hmm. . So it has to change. And of course, when we're thinking and pondering through things, even in our own minds, is that we slow down and we analyze the problem. But when we're in a solution, we're confident we're louder, faster, all of those things. And we have to illustrate that in our performance. This

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Audition really set the bar high. I, I feel,

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah. For me, for me, uh, uh, it was the best female audition, uh, of the submissions that I had heard.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Okay, perfect. Okay, let's jump into our second audition.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, you are in luck because I'm a math genius.
. Okay. So long division is it, let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Okay. Dan, how about you kick us off with this one?

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Sure. So this is one of the ones I think that I, I I, I didn't care quite as much for, uh, the reason for that is that it largely stays in the same tone throughout. And I know somebody would think this, right? Well, that's kind of it. It's a little herky jerky. It's a little, it's not believable. It's more played with rather than delivered and communicated. The first audition really set the bar right? We were talking about that earlier, how that first audition really set the bar. So while this was the first male audition that I heard sound quality wise, it didn't match the quality of the first audition to begin with. So there's already that, that I would have a little bit of a question in my mind by comparison to the first. The second thing was, is this one really stayed one note pretty much throughout, even though there was melody to it and there was an enthusiasm for the topic. I never got a sense of like, I'm also here to help you with this. Hey. And that's an important part with a seven year old that's trying to learn math, you want to get a little bit of a sense of, uh, empathy or help support.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
What advice could you give a voice actor that maybe is struggling to get into character and they are
coming across a little monotone? How would you suggest they break free from that?
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Sure. Well, remember, you have a piano has 88 keys, and we don't just live in the middle if you're playing a piano, right? And the voice is really the same way, right? I have low notes and I have high notes, and I want to use those. The more that I use, the better off I I'm gonna be able to communicate with you. One of the biggest issues that I hear in auditions, and I, and, and this was a little bit of an issue in a lot of these too, is that you hear it one way, you read it out loud or you read the specs first. I first of all, never recommend reading the specs first. I think that's the worst thing that you could possibly do. The script is the roadmap. It tells you everything you need to know if you know how to read it correctly.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
And that's where coaches like myself come in. Mm-hmm. , I have to teach you how to read the roadmap. And if you can read the roadmap, then you don't need the specs. And then suddenly you're start to make, you start to make connections and you start to make connections emotionally. And then when you start to make those connections emotionally, you don't need to think about how it sounds so much because it's gonna be real. It's gonna be true to how you feel in that moment. Mm- hmm. , as I talk about this, you can probably hear, I'm getting more excited, more enthusiastic for the things that I'm saying, right? Well, if I were really excited about a car or something that I, and as the consumer, I'm in a commercial and I'm talking about my car, well, this is the state I wanna be in when I'm talking about that car, because that's why I'm here to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
It's all about emotional connection. And you have to understand your emotions and understand what it's like to be in that emotion. And what are you like physically? How are you ta, what is the melody in your voice? What is the volume in your voice? All of those things, understand those things. And then it becomes much easier to connect the dots as you go along. And you're going to get different reads, different deliveries. Yeah. And therefore you won't sound like everybody else. Now, as far as going from a child, I don't do child voices because I'm a 50 something year old man . Right? I'm not gonna audition for a child voice for a child voice. It would be ridiculous for me to even try. Yeah. So that's the first thing. If you have a child voice in your, in your repertoire, by all means use it.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
However, you have to understand that even seven year olds connect on an emotional level first before, as a matter of fact, more on an emotional level than a logic level. Mm-hmm. and all human beings connect emotionally first before they understand the logic. So if it, as a listener, the way sound goes through our ears and travels through our ears and into our brains is sound goes through our ears, goes through our amygdala, which is responsible for emotion, and then to our prefrontal cortex, which processes logic. So if the sound doesn't sound nice to us, if it doesn't sound, if it sounds monotone and like, you know, I, I feel like I've heard this before because I, there's been no change in the script. It just keeps going like this. Well then no, I'm gonna tune out. Yeah. The same thing if somebody's shouting at me like this the whole time, right. The pace doesn't change and I'm just this level of enthusiasm, it doesn't really matter. Right. If it doesn't change, if we don't have some dynamic to it mm- hmm. , then it's not interesting to listen to. Agreed. And that is so true in our auditions. So when we take a look at this audition two, he, which was so different from audition one is audition one had those volume changes, those pacing changes where audition two stayed largely in the same vein.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Right. Okay. Dan, let's move on to audition number three.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, here in luck, cuz I'm a math genius.
. Okay. So long division, it is, let's start with an easy one, 10 divided by five.

Speaker 2 (13:05):
So the beginning fell a bit flat for me, but then I did feel like he picked up excitement halfway through.
How do you feel about it?

Speaker 1 (13:13):
So for me, if I were a seven year old kid, this is the one I wanna listen to, it's the most relatable. He kind of comes in with it both a sense of friendliness and a sense of empathy. Like, ah, math homework, we're gonna get through this together. The sound quality was excellent. I, I thought that this one, you know, really captured that essence. I thought that it was not overly intense. Like I felt like this is the voice that if I'm listening to this 10 minutes later, I'm still able to listen. I don't feel like it's overwhelming. It's not, it's, and as a and as the voice actor, it wouldn't be hard to keep up. Right? Because if I gotta keep this up for 15 minutes, that's, that's also a lot. Yep. This, this was just at ease, relaxed, comfortable, and still communicating effectively. I, I felt it had the right sense of, uh, empathy for a seven year old and it con connected with, uh, with me on that seven year old level

Speaker 3 (14:16):
. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Um, well, I guess I, I kind of had the same question as I asked before, but for this one specifically, I was gonna ask you, what tips would you give a beginner voice actor to help maintain their voice over a long period of time? Because I, I know it's not always easy cuz you have to, you know, really gear into the character that you're playing. Sure. And like I said, um, not everyone, you know, does these types of scripts, but if that's what you're auditioning for, that's what you're auditioning for.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Sure. Well, there are two, two questions there. The first was about maintaining your vocal performance throughout and all of that. So let's start with that. Yeah. Mostly vocal health is the biggest thing. And believe it or not, I'm going to talk about the most basic thing of all, which I really work with my students on. And that is breathing through your nose, you should be breath, you should be, you should be breathing through your mouth as often as you eat through your nose. I don't, I, it's not my, it's, it's not my quote, it's somebody else's quote. And I, I can't remember who said it, so I apologize for that . But the bottom line is, is that especially as voice actors, we wanna preserve our vocal chords and we want them to work the most efficiently that they can. So when we breathe through our nose, we have turbinates inside our nose that moisturize our vocal cords and warm our vocal cords so that they work there most efficiently.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
So if I'm breathing through my nose, down towards my diaphragm taking, well, some of my students call it lamaze breathing. The women usually call it that. The, the men just, we just diaphragmatic breathing, right? So we're breathing down with our diaphragm into our bellies and we're talking with, you know, a nice abundance of air that we've taken in through our nose. So it's nice and warm, but every time I breathe through my mouth, it dries out my vocal cords. Right? And it's hard to speak. So you can hear that in people's auditions. You can hear that in your own, takes these gasping breaths, right? You're drying out your vocal cords. They aren't working as well. So I work very, uh, carefully with my students on that one thing. Other things, of course, diet, hydration, it all begins with those things. No smoking, no drinking, anything you enjoy, don't do it because you, it'll dry your vocal chords.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
We just, uh, put a, a video on our Instagram actually talking about that. And it was basically saying just
the same thing that you said. And it's very important, right? So

Speaker 2 (16:46):
It is. And there's, like you said, Dan, there's a lot of basics that voice actors can implement today that are just easy to implement. Now, can I ask you if someone is, I, I'm a tea lover, but if someone is a huge coffee lover and they have to have their coffee every morning, how long do you suggest they space out from when they drink their coffee to when they're starting their auditions? So it doesn't really affect their vocals that much?

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Oh, for God's sakes. If you like your coffee drink your coffee , you know, I'm sorry, I, I get it right. Like, I'm supposed to be a big advocate and, and I am a big advocate for vocal health, but I'm also a big advocate for a living. Life is about balance. And if coffee makes you happy, it makes me happy. I drink coffee every day, sometimes more than one cup.
Speaker 3 (17:37): Preach it. What

Speaker 1 (17:39):
I know. So, look, I, I mean, life is about balance. And y and I look at it this way. My performance is not gonna suffer so much because I had one cup of coffee this morning. Now that's my body. But your body may be different, right? So you do have to be reasonable about all of this. Enjoy your life. But if there are certain things that truly will affect your performance, then be aware of those things. Whether that's co hey, if you wanna drink scotch and smoke cigarettes on, you know, every night of the week and that helps your performance in any way and that makes you happy in life, by all means, who am I to tell people how to live their lives? I'm nobody for that. Right? I want everybody to do what makes them happy and get 'em through the day.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Life is hard enough. So do what gets you through the day. But at the same time, just know your body, know what you can handle. And by all means, try and breathe correctly. At least that's one good thing you can do. It's so good for you to breathe through your nose for so many reasons. Not just the moisture, but it, it, it, it helps your performance. It, it helps mental health. It's, it's really good for many reasons. So if you can make that one change, cuz you gotta breathe anyway. Exactly. Might as well do it. Might as well do it in a way that's, is most beneficial.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah. And I, I find that over time you, they probably like voice actors, just learn what's best for them, right? Like, and like you said, in moderation, you have to enjoy life. So for those listening, enjoy your life as well. But also , take care of those. Take care of voice.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
It, it's all about balance, right? I, i acoustics in a room are important, but so is being comfortable in the space. Yep. So y yes, I want to have good acoustics, but I also want them to be decorative or something to make it a pleasant space to be in. Right. Just cuz it just makes your work better. So it's like anything else, right? Everything, everything in balance and well zen-like,

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yes. Mm-hmm. . Yes. That's amazing. We're all about the zen. Yes. All about the zen. All
right, good. That's

Speaker 1 (19:48):
The title of my new book.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
. . Okay. Let's move on to audition number four.

Speaker 7 (19:55):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, you are in luck cause I'm a math genius.
. Okay. So long division is it, let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Personally, I really like this audition. Um, sounds like a seven year old to me and very friendly. But what
are your thoughts, Dan?

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, clearly this is probably the only actual child that auditioned. I, I I believe she is a child. Uh, maybe not seven, but no,

Speaker 3 (20:28):
No. Um, the platform is 18 plus.

Speaker 1 (20:30): Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah. So there you go. Well that's actually a very good point. Let's dive deep into it.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
. Well, well that's completely fooled me then. Uh, because I actually believe that, that, I believe that that was a child for sure. Uh, very believable performance for that. Then obviously, uh, yeah. What do you say, right, ?

Speaker 2 (20:52):
I felt the same. Listen, I thought it was a seven year old. Yep.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Well, let's listen back so you see what we can see. Okay. Yeah, I hear what we can hear. I, I I mixed my
things there. We got

Speaker 3 (21:02): It.

Speaker 7 (21:04):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, you are in luck.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
So, you know, that beginning part really, uh, the fact that she kinda swings that you're in luck r Right. That's a weird thing that, uh, very believable. A seven year old would easily do something like that. So yeah, that was pretty well played. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
And like right off the bat too. So now it's like, let's keep listening

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Mm-hmm. . Yeah, absolutely. It and it's a difference like that that makes me want to hear
more, even though it was weird and it's not something I would choose as an actual take in the, in, in the, in, in the job cuz it's just sounds a little too different for what I think would end up on the final version as we often see or hear. But, uh, it was certainly nice for the audition. It caught my ear

Speaker 7 (21:53):
Because I'm a math genius. .

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Okay. Now the laugh, I struggled with the laugh, but also I know what it's like to put a seven year old in the booth and to have them try and laugh it, it's very difficult to get them to, to laugh believably. So again, really good job there. If she's aware that I remember having to go into the booth and a a and tickle my son one time, you know, to go in there and just say, dude, come on, gimme something believable. Right? . So anyway, uh, all right, moving on.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
Okay, so long division is it. Let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
So that's, that's good right there. The only thing I'd say, again, it starts pretty much there ends and starts pretty much the same voicing and all of that, but sh if I, if she were seven, I would believe that. So it's, it's reasonable.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Sounds all good to me right now.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, this voice reminded me a little bit. I grew up in the Rugrats era, so this very much reminded me of it. It could be a Rugrats character. Felt very, very juvenile to me, which is what we wanted. We wanted a seven year old voice. Um, but it was almost, it was almost like the laugh I felt was a little cly and that kind of threw me off.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yes. However, I will say having, like I said, worked with seven year olds in the booth and trying to get them to laugh. That is how it comes out oftentimes. So I get the struggle there on what that would be like cuz I've heard that laugh that contrived, he , you know, a million times. So I totally get that. What I loved is that she definitely slurred and had that kind of, the, the, the toothless kind of sound to it, which was very nice. Uh, a nice add to that.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I think that's so valuable as well, Dan, because coming, uh, as a vocal coach yourself, that's why it's so great for voice actors to have a vocal coach because, you know, to me who's not, doesn't have a trained ear like you do, that laugh threw me off. But actually it was right on point from what you're saying. So if the client wants that seven year old laugh, that's what you're going to produce in a session. So I think it's so valuable to hear you say, yeah, I've had my seven year old in the booth and that's exactly how it sounds. So to me it's a cackle, but it actually is very realistic.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes. Well, let me, and let me uh, just clarify that just a little bit, right, because that's not the laugh that's gonna end up on the air. In other words, the client probably doesn't want that laugh, but I know as an engineer, having heard that many times before, what that sounds like, I get that that is exactly how they behave in the booth most of the time. Not all, but a lot of the time. And that you ask 'em to laugh and that's what you get, Hey, right. But when we, we definitely know we want , you know, something a lot more genuine. So it takes a while to get them to warm up to that. And I just recognize that for what it is. But I also know that if the client were sitting behind me and I'm in the engineer's chair, I'm saying, w do don't worry. We'll, we'll we'll get the laugh you want.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Interesting. So out of the, the three that we've heard so far, sorry, the four, well I guess the other three,
is this like a, a top pick for you? This audition? I,

Speaker 1 (25:41):
I believe I put this third. So this was, this was the, this was third for me. Although I have to say I am pretty, if this is truly somebody 18 plus, then I'm, it would maybe bump it up a bit because that, that was, uh, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, it is pretty impressive. They,

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Um, so just one more question before we move on to the next audition. If a voice actor gets an audition, and it might not be in their skillset, do you recommend that they maybe branch out and expand their comfort zone a little bit? Or do you recommend that, you know, you kind of stay in your lane where you're comfortable and do the auditions that, that your voice allows?

Speaker 1 (26:27):
I think that at some point everybody needs to explore. This again, goes back to kind of zen and balance and knowing yourself and all of this stuff. I know at this point in my life, I am not auditioning for seven year old boy roles. Right. Uh, I mean, I'm gonna branch out to something like that because it's, it's absurd in my mind. So I think that everybody should try to push themselves and constantly learn and get better at your craft. And, and that is not always necessarily about expanding your genres of voiceover. It's also about maybe I'm gonna learn how to add music and make it sound good, or maybe I'm going to learn a little bit more production and sound design. Or maybe I'm going to go into live, uh, live sound, uh, uh, live announce. Maybe I want to try something like that.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
So I say, you should always be pushing yourselves in new directions, trying different things. And you might just find out that you love it and you might just find out that you hate it. Either way you learned and then you know which direction to go or not to go. But you should always be trying and that's why you c and and that's also why you come to a coach like myself or, or any great coach out there because I know that, at least for me, I want you to be the best you that you can be. I don't care whether you wanna do commercial animation or corporate narration or telephony. I want you to be the best communicator that you can be as you, that's my job is to make you the best that you can be as you not to turn you into Don LaFontaine or Mel Blanc or any of those famous voices. It's not, that's not our job.
Our job is to just make you the best that you can be so that when you look at the copy and interpret it, you can bring you to it and, and confidently.

Speaker 2 (28:28): That's great. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (28:29): You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Okay, let's move on to audition number five. Last audition.

Speaker 8 (28:35):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, you're in luck because I'm a math genius.
. Okay. So long division is it, let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Um, okay. I was a bit confused about this one personally. Um, she just sounds like an adult to me, or, I mean, I, I guess a teenager. Um, I personally think she could have done better in relating to the artistic direction here, but I do like her pace. Um, what advice would you give to a read like this?

Speaker 1 (29:09):
Sure. So for me, there's several issues here that should be worked out. First of all, the sound quality was the lowest quality of the other auditions. So that was certainly an issue right off the bat, I'm hearing several things. First of all, I'm hearing kind of eor everything is kind of going down, right? And not only that, her breathing is definitely off and sounding tired because, which is not gonna be helpful to seven year olds cuz everything's kinda like, uh, ending with this, you know, vocal fry thing happening. It's too monotone, too mature, poor sound quality. It might be appropriate for something else, uh, n but it's definitely not this.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Um, is this something that you would listen to for a few seconds and then move on? Or how would you
go about that?

Speaker 1 (30:06):
I, I really know from line one and two o obviously I, for this circumstance, I gave everything the benefit and listened to all the way through. Uh, but yeah, right from the start, I, I I just know because first of all, that's, it's very careful, right? Method did mm-hmm. you say you need help with, right? It that pacing is, I am reading this off of the page. I am playing with the words, right? That pacing, uh, also, uh, again, I the sound quality is, is poor. I feel like I'm kind of, uh, in a bedroom at three in the afternoon dreading my homework. Just listening to this right now, it it sounds like that remind that was being grade four. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:52):

Dreading my math homework.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
. Yeah, exactly. Um, let's see. Did

Speaker 8 (30:57):
You say you need help with your math homework? Well, you're

Speaker 1 (31:01):
In luck missing consonants. There's no K on there. You're in law. It, there's no, there's no K on that
consonant. I don't know what a la is. So, uh, that, that, that's a little troublesome because

Speaker 8 (31:14):
I'm a math genius. , okay?

Speaker 1 (31:17):
There's also no, uh, c really in because, right, because I'm, it is really rolled over. I don't necessarily mind that, but for a seven year old audience, we need to be a little bit more articulate. Let's help them out as best as we can right now, because that's a teenager voice, right? We are, are by teenagers. We're already getting lazy on our, on our speech, which is a shame, but cuz it starts too early. So now, and then of course you heard that vocal fry at the end of there, right? Because I'm a math genius , right? Like, here's the thing, oh

Speaker 3 (31:57):
My gosh, that was so good. , that was great vocal fry.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
That was, that was cool a while ago, right? Or you know, well maybe it, maybe it wasn't. It's a matter of opinion, but it's one of those things where, first of all ladies in particular that is gonna make you sound old fast, right? Because again, it's a, it's a restriction of air and you're pushing a, forcing a lot of air through your vocal chord,

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Right? So it's not, it's not helpful and that's gonna make you sound older faster. So it's, it, it's definitely an air thing. And also we wanna hear the ends of the stuff that we say, especially when in the context of other sound effects music that, right? We need those end consonants. We need to hear those things and we also need to hear that math homework in this case is gonna be okay. And I'm not getting that from this fried right now. It's like, eh, yeah, she, we'll get through it, right? Eh, it's, it, it's just not registering as something like, dude, I'm gonna help you and it's gonna be okay. And that's really what I think it was Reed three or that we heard that was, you know, that whichever one I said that I liked and totally spilled the beans on. Yes.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Um, if you were this individual's coach personally, what would, what would be like the, the number one
thing to help them improve on this overall
Speaker 1 (33:30): Breathing?
Speaker 3 (33:31): Breathing.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
We're gonna start there. We gotta start foundationally with breathing the, it's going to be a problem for this person if they continue that, right, it's gonna, it's gonna affect them long term. That's the first thing. And then the second thing is understanding who they are in this and their responsibility. That's really what I teach people first is knowing what is your role? Who are you in this script?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah. So breathing and then character essentially.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah. And I, and believe me, I don't get, when I'm teaching people through my program, basically, I don't teach breathing right away really, but for this person, assuming that maybe they knew some of those things and we needed an immediate fix to help them fix this read, I would say, let's start by breathing through your nose and try again. And I bet they would sound, and I bet they would sound better, but really if you go through my, if you go through my course and we go through everything, then it's very clear cut as to the things that you should know as a voice actor every time you approach a script. In my mind, all of this, I, we talked about, you know, joked about my book earlier, but it's true. I have a book coming out Zen and the Art of Voiceover, it just is available for pre-sale as of yesterday on Amazon.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
And so it, it really lays out all these things in my process and it really does ha it has breathing in there. It talks about knowing who you are, your role, knowing who you're talking to, because that's the other side of the communication, right? A communication is always two ways. It doesn't happen with just, I don't just talk something ha somebody has to listen. And then again, we get to the whole emotion thing and the amygdala and right. And all that stuff we talked about earlier. So I have to understand first what my role is. And for this person, they didn't understand that their role is to communicate to seven year old kids and relate to them.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah. Okay. So Dan, we've listened to all five auditions. Everyone was so unique in their own way. Dan, we're gonna pass it over to you. You have the floor, we're gonna give you a little drum roll. Who is your winner for this?

Speaker 1 (35:52):
And the winner is congratulations to audition number three.

Speaker 6 (35:57):
Did you say you need help with your math homework? Well, here in luck cuz I'm a math genius. . Okay, so long division. It is, let's start with an easy one. 10 divided by five.

Speaker 3 (36:10): Awesome. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Thank you so much, Dan, for all of your great expertise. I knew we threw a lot of questions at you, so it's
very valuable, ah, for all the voice actors listening.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
More, more than more than happy to do it. Uh, if you feel free, if you have more questions, reach out. Uh, my website sound the number four vo.com, [email protected] is my email. Find me on all the social medias. I'm, I'm out there. Oh yeah, .

Speaker 3 (36:43):
Wow. What a fantastic choice for the winner. Dan, thank you all so much for tuning into mission
audition. We hope this episode has helped you learn more on Dan analysis, surgical script breakdown.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
So Dan has already shared how you can get in touch with him. Thank you so much for sharing all of that, Dan. And as listeners, if you wanna practice any scripts, including today's head over to voices.com/blog. And Dan, one more time, can you just tell everyone where they can find you?

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Sure. My website sound, the number four vo like voiceover.com, my email address, Dan sound, the number four vo.com. Like I said, I'm on Facebook, Dan, the number four vo all, all that stuff. And, uh, Josh, thank you so much for having me. I, I, I've really enjoyed it. It's been fun.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
It has been a lot of fun. And thank you all for tuning into this episode of Mission Audition. My name is
Tara and my amazing co-host is Vanessa. We're signing off.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
See you next time. And happy auditioning.

Speaker 9 (37:46): Perfect.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Thanks so much, Dan. Woo. That was amazing. That was really fun.