Without giving away the ending, I’ll send you into casting director Doriane Elliott’s POV by saying she’s got both great auditioning advice and the hyphenate lifestyle down!
Flat, Fluid, and Small
Hello. Doriane Elliott here. I’m a New York casting director for about a decade now, specializing in voiceovers for national TV and radio commercials, as well as promos, industrials, and animation. I do cast for on-camera, but honestly, my passion is voices. I work out of an incredible state-of-the-art production facility called Phantom Audio. At Phantom, I cast for all of the commercials that are produced there, as well as hold classes for voiceovers and produce reels for my private students.
Let me let you in on a little secret. I LOVE CASTING. I LOVE COACHING. I love giving advice to the smart and eager actors who want to learn. So, in this article, I’m going to tell you what I expect from all of the actors who walk into my studio. And what I’m going to teach you WORKS. It’s tried and true. So, read on, and at the end of this, I’ll let you in on another little secret.
When an actor walks into the booth — whether it’s for an on-camera or for a voiceover — I expect that person to be technically perfect. WHAT?!? Yup, you got it. TECHNICALLY. PERFECT. I mean, after all, he/she has been sitting out in the waiting room for upwards of a half hour — sometimes more, right? And the copy — 99% of the time — should never be more than 60 seconds, right? So, make it perfect. I’m about to give you two stages of how to go over a piece copy, what to do while you’re in the waiting room, and how to make your audition an awesome one.
When you first walk in to your audition, size up the waiting room. Look on the sign-in sheet and see how many people are waiting. Look at the copy. Is it long? Wordy? Or is it just a couple of lines? Then, depending on how many people you see and what the text is, either sign in or just take the copy for a bit, and then sign in. THIS IS YOUR TIME TO MAKE IT PERFECT. Don’t rush it. Don’t blab to the other actors and waste YOUR precious time.
Before embarking on your mission of making it technically perfect, break it down: Is it fast food — therefore fast paced, high energy? Is it for a car ad — a one-day sale, big and selly, or a car ad that’s smart, intelligent and/or sexy? Is it a testimonial — where you’d make the words sound like they’re coming to your head and you actually hem and haw? (i.e.: “Look. When I have a headache, it’s like, well, like I have a jackhammer between my eyes.”) Is it for the announcer for a drug ad — where you have to be friendly, approachable, but with a sense of authority? What do you think the SFX and music would be like, based on the tone of the spot? WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS SPOT?
Okay. So you’ve just “put” yourself in the spot, you know who you are, you can imagine the SFX and/or music. Now, how to make it technically perfect and without becoming “married” to the copy. How do you make it technically perfect and have the ability to be completely malleable and changeable on a dime? (Because you’re only going to get anywhere between one and three takes, right?) How do you go over it and over it, and accomplish all of that: Deliver those words to the casting director on a silver platter? A-HA! Easy. I swear!
Take that copy or those sides — whatever the call is for — and go over it FLAT, FLUID, and SMALL. FLAT: without ANY inflection whatsoever. FLUID: let the words connect, so you’re not choppy like a robot. And SMALL: just enough voice so you’re making sound, but not enough that you’re driving the rest of the actors nuts in the waiting room — in other words, use your voice, just don’t whisper.
Now, start going over the copy — FLAT, FLUID, and SMALL — at a pace where you think you can speak without fumbling. If you do find that you’re making mistakes, STOP, go back to the top, and start over again SLOWER. If you make a mistake, STOP, go back to the top, and keep repeating this until you’ve found the pace where you can make it through the copy perfectly. When you’ve accomplished this, do it again to “seal the deal.” Then go back to the top and pick up your pace. If you screw up, then you’ve picked it up too fast. Get the idea? Keep doing this, and you’ll have that copy running smoothly at a pace that sounds more like a legal — ya know, those extremely fast tags at the end of car ads — instead of tripping over your words when it’s your turn to prove yourself to a casting director.
And by the time you get behind the mic or in front of the camera, you WILL be delivering those words to me on a silver platter! You’re doing this exercise to train your brain to say the words correctly. You’re training your mouth to wrap itself around the words so it’s like second nature, and you’re getting so used to the pattern of the words that your eyes are about a sentence ahead of your mouth. For real. You can go from stumbling to sounding like a professional legal reader in a very short amount of time.
So, you step behind the mic or in front of the camera, and you deliver the copy according the specs that they’ve given you and what you’ve determined to be the nature of the spot by all the elements you put together to initially break it down. Whew!
Now you’re a clean slate! You went in with your gut, and no matter what choice you’ve made, you’ve at least delivered the copy flawlessly. You’re not “working it out” in front of the casting director, and you’re confident. You’re not filling up your head with comments like, “Oh, God! I messed up three times!” or, “Why did I stumble over the product name?!” or, “I was so in my head, I know he/she knew I was thinking rather than being in the moment,” etc.
No, you’re calm, cool, and collected. Between your ears is open space to LISTEN to any adjustments to either speed it up, slow it down, give a less “selly” read, add some wryness. Whatever! You can now change that read on a dime. I promise, this will totally be a different kind of auditioning experience.
Now, for that other secret: This method has worked with ALL of my students. And ya know who I tested it out on first? Yours truly. I am horrifyingly dyslexic. And I also do voiceovers. In fact, I am currently the voice of AmEx.
Over an’ out!
Everyone knows what a fan of the hyphenate lifestyle I am. It’s not easy in every market, and there are some variations of the lifestyle that are more acceptable than others, as the industry goes. But this is absolutely one of those examples where Doriane’s work in casting and coaching certainly has informed her auditioning experience as well. And of course, her time “in the booth” as an actor leads her to better choices in casting and coaching. Love it when it all comes together!
About Doriane Elliott
Doriane Elliott started in the business of casting and coaching for voiceovers by way of the jingle industry. She has sung on national commercials since the age of six. For over a decade now, she has been the casting director at Phantom Audio, an audio production facility in New York City that produces thousands of commercials, promos, and industrials each year. Doriane also freelances with for other casting companies, where she casts for voiceovers as well as on-camera. She has been coaching both privately and holding classes at Phantom for about four years. She also produces reels for her students at Phantom. Doriane does voiceovers and can currently be heard on TV as the voice of Amex. For more information, visit her website at DorianeElliott.com.
This contribution originally ran at Bonnie Gillespie’s online column on October 1, 2008.