One of the best ways to improve your skills and get ahead in any field, is to find a mentor - somebody who can help show you the ropes. We have secured the services of several voice actors who have proven themselves, not only in various productions, but also in reaching the final ten in a season of Act It! Each is now willing to serve as a mentor for some time to one or two aspiring voice actors.
If you are interested, please post in this thread, explaining something of your own experiences and goals. A demo reel or monologue or other example of your voice work would be helpful in matching you with a mentor. You can also specify a preference for one of more of our mentors, although we do not guarantee that you will be matched with your choice.
Note: if you would prefer not to post in the thread, you can also email your application to vhmentors@radioplaycentral.com
Our mentors are:
Actorman
Experience:
-1.5 years voice acting
-8 years of stage experience, four of which was pre-professional training at a performing arts school.
-3 years directing experience, both for AVA and stage.
-10 years singing experience in various capacities.
Expertise: Radioplays, Fandubs, General Acting; proficient in numerous dialects and accents
My background lies in stage, and I feel that's a blessing; stage work has given me incredibly supplementary skills to voice acting. These include creating strong, committed characterizations, analyzing beats and narrative flow to create multi-dimensional and dynamic characters, and a confident sense of self-direction. My training in voice also gives me a strong knowledge of voice placement, breath support, diction, and, perhaps most importantly, vocal health.
As such, my approach to voice acting is both academic and practical, combining a knowledge of theory and your own self with a strong regiment of practice and application. I give detailed and admittedly harsh critiques, but it is to help move actors in the right way and give the best end result possible.
Regardless of whether you have professional aspirations or not, if you're committed and open to new ideas and outside opinions, I'd be happy to help. I'm in many ways still learning myself, but I feel I have a lot of valuable insight to provide for anyone who wants to learn.
Merodi
Experience:
- 2 years online voice acting
- 1 year professional voice acting
- 7 years stage fighting
- certified Recording Engineer
Expertise: Radioplays, general acting, audio production
Do I have years of formal acting experience? No. Do I enjoy playing pretend? Yes.
While I've developed most of my performance knowledge as an instrumentalist, most of my acting ability stems from training as a stage fighter. My approach to improving your skills is to understand yourself and human nature at a deeper level to increase both your vocal and acting range. Knowing how your body and mind works will help you find/develop the voice you want more quickly, as well as create more believable emotion. It is probably not the most common way of learning, but if you do well with visualizing things and thinking both in and outside the box, you may respond well to this format.
That said, my strengths lie in developing emotional delivery and expanding your vocal range, regardless of age or gender. I am a proponent of detailed and constructive criticism - I expect you to be able to receive both without sugar-coating. I am happy to teach any and all experience levels as long as you have a desire and commitment to improving your skills.
As far as production, I am a Recording Engineer specializing in Audio Mixing/Post Production. If you want any pointers in the audio creation process (radioplays, commercials, etc.) feel free to ask - just be sure to come with specific questions.
Motly Fool
Experience: Over a year and a half of online voice acting.
Expertise: Fandubs, radioplays, vocal range.
The majority of my spare time is devoted to developing my skills as a voice actor, with an aim to make it a career.
My strength as a voice actor is in manipulating my voice to create a character, or make something fit coming out of a character design, and I am pursuing acting courses and other training to build up my acting skills. I believe in strong direction, and work well both as an actor being directed and directing other voice actors in my own productions. I will work with you on each line and try to really help you out on individual deliveries as well as voice.
I will help you improve your range and your acting techniques, whether you wish to focus on fandubs, radioplays, flash or machinima. I just expect you to do your part by practicing.
Russ
Experience: 3 years of online voice acting; more than a dozen years stage acting, two years of radioplay producing, two years of stage directing.
Expertise: radioplays, general acting.
I am a strong believer in the idea that acting is a collaborative effort between actors, and also between an actor and a director. I expect actors, including voice actors, to take some chances to find their characters, but also to learn to take direction, and then build their characters in the ways appropriate to the script, and consistent with the interpretation specified by the director / producer.
I am much less interested in impressions or voice selection than basic acting.
Sam Haft
EXPERIENCE: 3 years professional voice acting, 1 year online voice acting, many years stage/screen acting, many years professional singing, 1 year teaching stage presence and rock vocals at the New York School of Rock.
EXPERTISE: Wide-range male voiceovers, accurate impersonations, voice acting as a fulltime career
First of all, I'll make it clear what it is I will teach you; If you're an intermediate level voiceover amateur, I can teach you how to extend your vocal range, be able to hilariously deliver comedic text, and many many international accents if you possess the ability. If I find that you're beyond a sufficient level of skill, I may teach you the actual business of voice acting - though, again, that's only if I'm sure you've got the talent to make it, and I'm fairly judgmental as far as that is concerned.
If you come to me as a teacher, I'll be expecting certain things from you as a student: Know your voice, know your voicebox. When I tell you things to fix, I expect you to be in-touch with your vocal abilities enough to have some idea as to how to fix them. Though I may conduct myself in a colloquial manner, I'm a working professional in my field, and I take voice acting very seriously. You don't have to be a serious person to be serious about this profession (in fact, it often helps to not be), but I certainly expect the latter.
Also, I'm not quite as frightening as this makes me sound.
Sasuya
Experience: Roughly 4 years of ameteur voice acting. A couple years stage acting experience. Skilled in producing and mixing projects such as radioplays, fandubs, and animations.
Expertise: Character voices, commercial voices, voices for radioplays and animation.
I'm not saying that I'm the best, but I do have some experience under my belt. I will do my best to teach you everything I know by giving you useful tips and direction. As well as building on your acting and characterizations.
If you're hoping to find someone to reassure you that you're an amazing voice actor and feed you sugar coated opinions, please find someone else. My motto is that without critiques and feedback you will never learn or better yourself. My critiques and opinions tend to be raw and straight to the point.
If anyone has tough skin and a passion for voice acting, I would be happy to teach you everything I know =)
sonicmega
Experience: 3 years of voice acting; approx. 2-3 years of stage acting (spaced between many years)
Expertise: Fandubs, radioplays, animation and "anime"
Animation can be exceptionally beautiful, powerful, and memorable even without the use of sound or dialogue. However, there comes a limit after which characters and stories need to have a personality, a life, an ability to be related and connected to the audience that sees them. This is where Voice Actors come in, to provide a seamless and believable voice that gives life to these characters and situations. With them, we are able to further immerse ourselves in an environment outside our own.
Voice Acting should never be the saving grace for a production - it should be the icing on the cake that makes the final product all that much sweeter to present. It is with that mentality that I take on the projects and roles that I do, to seek not only to expand my own capabilities, but to illicit happiness from those who care to share in the experience, whether as directors, viewers, or even fellow actors. On a literal plane, it is how I give back to the community, but on an emotional (or even spiritual) one, it is how I intend to achieve my immortality - for even if I am gone, one need only play a project I have been a part of in order for me to be right there to entertain them once again.
Taking direction and challenging what you already know always remain important concepts to consider if you want to seriously improve and perform well in this craft, but above all else, love what you do. Only then can you truly shine in your output and show the world that this is what you want to bring to the table.
2 Sep 2010 - 20:11
