Yet another wonderful industry contact thanks to Facebook! Marty Siu is a casting director with loads of industry experience. Her focus is voiceovers!
Okay, I’m ADHD-EFG… so finding one point to focus on is going to be difficult. Keeping it less than 1000 words is going to be even more challenging. 🙂 Please try to bear with me.
Most of my casting work in NC has been for feature films, which I enjoy a great deal! However, in between features, I’m now doing quite a bit of casting for voiceover work — some commercial, some sports announcer work, but mostly animation. I have discovered this to be a very exciting field, both for me and for the actors!
Obviously the professional voiceover talent who are trained and seasoned in this specific arena are much more likely to book the role, because most of them are brilliantly capable of performing a wide variety of voices (from extreme age ranges to unique dialects and so on). They are talented, entertaining, and able to morph from a sophisticated American schoolteacher to a seductive Latin bull and then to a cartoony whining toddler in a matter of seconds. It’s quite impressive really.
I have also found however, that on-camera actors who are committed to their training/performing who have never auditioned for voiceover work before often do a terrific job in the studio as well! Once you get into character (many times something odd, like a surfing buffalo) and — although there is no reader, no one opposite you, and you’re suddenly in fairytale land, where fish talk, buffalo surf, domestic animals are superheroes, etc. — decide to bring your very best acting skills and have fun with it despite the solitary setting, it’s then that you’re a step closer to landing an animated voiceover role.
In one of my recent projects (which I was just told has been renewed! Yay!) the two people who got the greatest applause from the director were an actor-gone-agent who is also a voice dialect coach (enormously talented/perfect for this role/understandably so) and an on-camera actor who had never done voiceover work before. He brought so much energy to the role and had a blast with it, once he learned you don’t have to worry about camera angles or facial expressions, he let loose and added an incredible touch of fun to the video! He was so animated!
Now, yes, you can over-act and blow the audition, so do use a little discretion, but remember that animation is exactly that: You’ve got to be a bit more dramatic/more animated than you would for film acting where you don’t want to “look” like you’re acting. In a sound studio, looks don’t matter! Now I will say that your smile does make a difference! I can’t tell you how much better an audition goes when the actor says his/her lines with a smile. It’s friendlier/more engaging and draws the audience in to your performance that much more. Obviously there are exceptions when auditioning for the role of a villain or a dumb starfish, but generally speaking, smile when you audition for voiceover roles. Strive to be the kind of actor in the studio that brings something unique and fun — along with your talent and skill — that would cause us to anticipate booking you again and again, whether you’ve got previous voiceover experience or not! Oh, and drink water before your audition. It helps to eliminate mouth noise that the mic is often sensitive to. (It’s completely appropriate to bring a bottle of water with you.)
I’ve got to mention the strong sense of community here in NC within our film society (on-camera and voiceover)! I have lived in NY, FL, CA, HI, and NC and never have I seen a stronger bond between industry professionals. The talent agents, casting directors, writers, editors, they all work in harmony to help each other succeed. Where you’d think there is competition, instead you find an outstretched arm. Actors helping other actors find auditions, casting directors employing other CDs to assist them when they are out of work, people genuinely concerned about, supporting, and encouraging others to prosper time and time again. NC is an incredible place to live and work, if the entertainment industry is your cup of tea. Outside of California, NC has more production studios and sound stages than any state in the nation! Not to mention the talent here! We’ve filmed incredible feature films here, such as: Shallow Hal, Talladega Nights, The Perfect Game, The Green Mile, The Hunt for Red October, Forest Gump, The Fugitive, Last of the Mohicans, Dirty Dancing, Hannibal, 28 Days, Patch Adams, Nell, Bull Durham, Days of Thunder, The Color Purple, I could go on and on. I am so blessed to work here, with such amazing cast and crew!
Even aside from business, if an industry professional is hurting, the others in the industry here rally around to help. I was in a horrible car accident in December of 2006, and was flown by helicopter to the hospital’s trauma center where they were unsure of whether or not I’d make it. And just before Christmas, an actor whom I’d never met showed up with an envelope full of money that he and other actors, CDs, and agents had raised to help me and my three children through a very traumatic time. Another time, when my car broke down on set, actors helped me to get a working vehicle. And those aren’t the only times! I stay in prayer asking God to show me how I can help others, and not surprisingly, others bless me as well. And I just can’t overlook how many times those blessings come from the local acting community here in Charlotte. What a privilege it is for me to work in such a talented, yet humble community!
We have an actor’s board here that is an amazing resource to the actors and filmmakers as well, where cast and crew positions are listed, keeping everyone informed on movies, TV shows, commercials, industrials, indie films, voiceover jobs, theatre auditions, film festivals, contests, etc., when there are job openings to fill. I highly recommend getting active with your local community board or starting one if one does not already exist in your local region. These are some ways to stay employed and to develop a sense of family within your own local talent pool. What a nice benefit to the profession in which you have chosen to work! Exercise your ability to network and to grow!
Back to voiceover work. I look forward to more auditions and bookings in 2009! On camera and in the sound studios! If you are interested in voiceover work, practice bringing many different characters to life, start seeking out voiceover coaches and see how you do! If there aren’t any local voiceover coaches in your area, several do lessons over the phone from LA and other cities! It’s definitely a career choice worth looking into. As with anything worthwhile, it’s a lot of work, but you can also find much joy in the commitment!
Hopefully NC will raise our tax incentives for filmmakers to a tempting percentage once again, and we’ll have lots of features this year… in the meantime, I’ll be looking for you in the sound studios! 🙂
Thanks, Marty! I’m always fascinated by how much more diverse the career of a casting director in a minor market is, than that of a typical casting director in Los Angeles. We specialize here (we have to! Just like actors have to brand themselves and know their niche) and rarely will you find a CD who does commercials and voiceover and indie films and location and/or extras casting for studio films and plays and more! Sounds like the scene in North Carolina is growing and going strong! Congratulations and keep us posted on what’s next for you!
About Marty Siu
Marty Siu earned her degree in TV production in Honolulu, directed live shows on the island, moved to NC, and wore many hats: actor (since the age of 16), director, technical director, editor, talent agent (for five years), and casting director. She has worked on feature films, independent films, plays, musicals, as well as shooting and editing video with Final Cut. She now casts feature films and voiceovers, as well as Christian shorts. Film credits include: Hunger, April Fools Day, Talladega Nights, Me & You, Us Forever, Juwanna Man, Shallow Hal, and The Perfect Game. Voiceover credits include: Gigi: God’s Little Princess (four episodes, with new ones on the way), Bull, Sports Business Journal, Dental Works, NC Dept. of Heath and Human Services, and many on-camera commercials as well. Marty is the single mother of three children and is grateful for the support of her church family and local film community.
This contribution originally ran at Bonnie Gillespie’s online column on January 15, 2009.