Dealing With Direction

Chapter 7 - Dealing With The Direction That You Are Asked To Perform -

“Good, bad, sad, glad, mad, happy, snappy, crappy, nappy, lappy, lippy, snippy, dippy, lead, plead, greed, bleed, smell, dwell, yell, kvell, heavy, light, mean, delight, please, thank you, I don’t care, neat, sloppy, well aware, I told you, scold you, hold you, revere, steer, hear, discover, like, dislike, stand close, lover, joy, annoy, wonderment, dismay, detached, ignore, attentive, pray, brag, gag, lag— olé!”   …and of course, “oy vey” (to be read with a deep sigh, close to a tear or cry), or a "not me" deny…        And now for the second question. Oh, the first question was, “Has da harv really lost it? Well, no. Ask yourself: Could I perform if these were the directions I was given? Let’s say you have before you possibly the most beautiful flower in the world. Would you need someone to explain what you should be feeling if you were asked to describe that flower? Or your child looks up at you as they take your hand to cross a busy street. What were you feeling at that moment of endearment?      Then a friend calls in need of your shoulder. Could you receive that call? Could you be the friend calling? Can you merely display joy over being quiet? These are questions actors must ask themselves. These are the questions human beings must deal with on a day-to-day basis. And these are situations appearing as the mainstay of commercial copy—our script. And all of these are situations and reactions to situations that a director will be asking you to portray. Sharing my own personal and secretive note: to always fall back to music and lyrics, ever reflective. “As Time Goes By” (by Dooley Wilson in the movie Casablanca 1942) …And it does so, faster and faster because I truly believe in the premise. “That’s Life” (by Frank Sinatra 1963) ...If only the littlest piece of pieces you beheld in reflection, your truth once more to behold.      Typically your audition will allow five, ten, twenty, thirty, or sixty seconds to tell any and all within the sound of your voice how you feel at any moment of life’s natural impact. The fact of the matter is that the true job of the director is to function as your audience—to listen with the intent of ascertaining whether or not you have painted with the kinds of strokes that will allow your audience to feel and understand with you. The director is not providing an acting workshop.      What does it mean when a director asks you to pull it back some or tone it down? Perhaps your strokes are too strong, heavy-handed. Your colors are too vivid. Your performance is just that—a performance. Perhaps all that the director should say to you is simple, “I don’t believe you.” Or maybe ask you the question, “Who the hell are you talking to?” Each year we find that our commercial listening audience requires more by accepting less. Less in the way of footwork. More in the way of truth. If our audience could totally have everything they want, have it all their own way, what would they ask us to do? They would ask that everything we say in our advertisements was totally the gospel. That all we said was the truth.      Isn’t it an interesting state of affairs when you consider that every citizen would like their political choice, their candidate, to be a completely honest individual? All of us seek the truth, whether it’s buying a new car or establishing a wonderful relationship, the truth wins out. Those of us who can convey our honest feelings and emotions will more than likely manage a great deal of success in our world of voiceovers. Where’s the Director?      Okay... What’s a Phone Patch? Answer: Who cares! The answer is simple because if you’ve ever used a telephone, you know what a phone patch is. Well, maybe not exactly. It may take ten seconds or so to explain it.      What used to be a special kind of recording session, was known as a “phone patch”. Today, many still refer to it as a phone patch. By the use of a phone line, it allowed an individual, usually a producer, writer, and director type, to communicate with the chosen actor from another location. Across the city, across the country, and sometimes from a different part of the world. Our telephone, simply stated, is the communication vehicle that makes it all possible.      In order to conduct a phone patch audition or an actual session, our recording studio must have a phone line that connects to the assigned recording booth and or stage facility. By use of an ordinary telephone, our caller makes contact with our studio. Our caller's voice is then connected, patched through to our engineer. It is the engineer who is in charge of controlling the sound transmission. The engineer has the ability to communicate with the incoming caller, the actor in the booth, and or all parties at the same time. The engineer is in total command of our outgoing or incoming sound mix. The booth actor is in contact with the caller by use of a headset. Headsets are also referred to as earphones or cans. The actor's voice is relayed to our caller by use of the same microphone the actor is being recorded with.        It’s become almost all old news. Our industry has without warning, once again completely changed its methods of voice and music delivery. Today, it is no longer the exception; most professional working voiceover actors have their own personal home studios. From voiceover auditions, all the way through to the actual session, performances can be accomplished within the actor's own home studio. Often directed via a cell phone call from the director to the actor's cell phone (aka phone patch). Or in the home studio via a connective phone technology such as ISDN or Source Connect, or via whatever else was invented today... such as Zoom! Whatever you choose to call it, our director most likely isn’t even in the same city as our working actor. The phone patch of the past has become a mere remembrance of the way we were.  “Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end.” - "Those Were the Days" (1968) - HK

Goals & Aspirations

Chapter 4 - Goals & Aspirations -      I’ve been privileged to work and be taught by some of our industry's most recognized dynamos. I consider myself a gleaner. If a guy or gal had even a modicum of success, the Kalmenson sponge (that’s me) was there to look and listen. Many of da harv’s tricks are nothing more than observances of some noteworthy professionals that I managed to be privy to.      That being the case, let’s try this one on for size. Relax—this may just hurt a little. You get your chance to get off the bench and get into the game. But because you didn’t believe in yourself or you were told you’d never get in the game—or you were just too damn lazy to get off that butt of yours and experience the pain of getting and staying ready—you marched up there not ready to sweat.      Not to worry though. You’re part of a great big club of humans just like yourself. Your behavior? You’re average and because you’re average you’ll never have to concern yourself with being recognized as a winner. That’s not to say coaches in management won’t be aware of your averageness. They know that you may be counted on to be a comfortable person. You’re satisfied with your lot in life. You’re on a level plain.      Why try harder? If you try harder you might perspire and that could cause an uncomfortable situation for what may or may not come next in your life. What comes next in your life is the only situation that places the average person on the same level as the above-average person or competitor. The reason is simple. None of us ever know what’s coming next in life.       The cards are constantly being shuffled and dealt out to us. Some of us manage to stay in the game. Others simply fold. They throw in their hand and look for another game. The average person feels that they have been dealt a series of lousy hands. The cards are always running against them. They never stop to think that maybe they happen to be lousy players. Luck just seems to be always going against them.        The fact is and always has been the same. Average people never win anything when the outcome is based on skill. Skills are always developed if they are nurtured. Nurture means practice and a player who practices finds themselves ready when they are called to get off the bench and get in the game.      In voiceover, your game is known as the audition. When you’re called upon to audition you’d better be ready. You can’t be average and expect to have even the slightest chance of becoming a winner in our world of voiceover. You must be able to read. I mean read without dropping words. Can you imagine an actor who comes into an audition for me and spends most of his time explaining the problems that this script represents? Sound familiar?      This actor wants me to deal them a new hand. The poor bastard can’t read! They're a lousy player! But they think, once again, they've been dealt a hand to play that’s bad. Guess what? I’m going to make their life a lot more comfortable. I’m never going to call them off the bench again. Not only that, I’m not going to provide that player with a bench to sit on. When that player’s agent offers us their name for another of our casting calls it will be explained to them in no uncertain terms that their player should not be recommended to us again. The reason is simple: your actor better learn how to read if you expect to play in our game.      Well, at this point if you think I’m a cruel guy, you, too, should find a different game to play in. Listen no further, it’s going to become more uncomfortable for you but while a higher degree of discomfort sets in to take pleasure in the fact that now you’re joining a more select club. You’re part of my favorite group of people: those who fall into the select crowd that has the above-average label.      These are the actors that we rely on to make us look good as casting directors. We call them into audition knowing that we will always get an above-average performance from them regardless of what the script portends to be. These are the big city pros. They come to play every day. They practice their craft each and every day. They’re constantly seeking a new and magical approach that will give them that necessary winning edge. I’ve even heard some of them use the term “winning edge” in conversation.        In truth, what has happened for them is that remarkable acting phenomenon called the "breakthrough". That moment when true actors find themselves able to convey totally honest emotions. They no longer worry about words. They no longer concentrate on what they might happen to sound like. In our world, they no longer concern themselves with selling the product. They seek out a variety of stimuli that might enable them to convey as the vendor of truth a reason for their listener to become influenced by their message. So the question remains the same: How did they get or become that way?        What I want to strenuously emphasize is a couple of simple points that might help you with your goals and aspirations. That is, provided you make them a part of your life’s work. To begin with: don’t change—modify. You’re already perfect, so why try to change— besides, you shouldn’t screw with Mother Nature. Also, consider yourself as chosen. Let’s try on a sample session experience.        You auditioned and you won. They picked you because you have the perfect attitude, temperament, approach, and perhaps even hat size. To make things even better when you show up at the session you discover that the producer even dresses the same way you do. It appears that this will be the perfect gig. But after you do the first take exactly the way you did it at the audition, the producer says, “I’d like you to be a touch more forceful on the next take.” This is the end of the sample session. Stop now. Go no further.        Here’s what you absolutely must remember as a must for every audition, session, and even when you’re alone at work practicing your craft. The producer did not ask you to change who you really are. He asked you to modify your approach. We’re talking about behavior modification, not changing who you are as a person. You know and understand your “signature”. You’ve got it down cold. That’s not to say that as time goes by an actor’s signature won’t vary. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. What we’re saying is that an actor should make his performance corrections by a modification process within the structure of his individual truth.         When you work out at home. Make it a point to modify the direction you’re attempting. In other words, don’t read the same script the same way thirty times in a row, exactly, exactly, exactly. Modify the script as a whole and modify your transitions. An attitude change on a single word or phrase can often make the difference that the producer is looking for. Make your goals with regard to working out a procedure that requires you to modify scripts as you rehearse them. Try on for size the "getting ready" process. Know that you will be the one they will call to come out and save the day. Never be satisfied with what you have accomplished as an actor. It’s always yesterday’s news. If you treat your acting goals as a passion and not as your work, the modification that is necessary for your success will be within reach. As bona fide educators, we must allow for a simple fact of life: The men and women who place their dreams with us deserve hearing our truth as well! - HK -

Veteran's Day 2021

- November 11, here in Los Angeles -

One day  A lifetime A veteran is a veteran Is a veteran  Is a veteran...   One alone Or all for one And one for all...   They stood They walked the walk... Many still with a vaunted stride

For me and my buddies, we were all in the service of our country. We were not yet veterans... life appeared, and there was a word for another time period used to describe much older men and women than us. I was, in fact, a very young lad of nineteen years of age at the time my career in the army began.      In that time of life, a veteran was a person looked at by many as one who had marched in step to the beat of an uncommon drummer; a man or woman who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My life's participants today have little first-hand knowledge of veterans or even what entitles them to use the word "veteran". For those who have served or are close relatives or friends of past or present vets, this holiday is of much greater significance than banks and post offices being closed.      All around our world, wherever young men and women have served us, it's a day when veterans are honored for their past service to our country. Please join in with your own personal thoughts and prayers for all those who have earned the righteous honor of being recognized today as a veteran who has served us all in the service of the United States of America. From the heart and mind of this veteran to all of my comrades at large. On this day I pray along with them all, and will one day be proud to welcome them as fellows beneath our skin.

And you "Can't Take That Away From Me". - HK -

The Tag

The Tag

Lo and Behold      Now we come to the topic that helped me to know there might be a chance for me in this business. It was the very first time I saw a commercial voice over script. My reaction was severe; the semi-nausea was instantly created by the lack of Shakespearean substance. After all... there were only a few words on the page. To add insult to injury, none of it made sense to me. I remember it as if it were yesterday. The head of our voice over department had informed me in his raspy tones, today, I was to direct some tags. I had no idea of what a tag was. Guess what— my boss, the guy who had given me the assignment, really didn’t know what the technical definition of a tag was.       Simply stated a tag is a word or line that usually appears at the end of a commercial script, and the particular line does not change the meaning of a previous script that also contained, or was void of a tag. In other words, when an Actor does (record) a tag they receive payment of the then established tag rate. An actor may be hired expressly for the sole and singular purpose of doing the tags on a series of commercials. The sponsor may tag as many commercials as they choose to, without having to pay for an additional full session fee per tag, providing the tag does not change the meaning of any individual commercial. The VO actor is paid the minimum of a full session fee, and then each tag thereafter is paid at the tag scale rate— which is less than a full session fee. If the meaning is changed, they, the sponsor, must pay you for an additional commercial. Now if none of this makes any sense to you it doesn’t really matter. Your agent is the one who is required to know about all this crap.

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good!” “Miller Light. Everything you’ve always wanted in a beer and less!” Chevy: “Like a rock!” Ford: “No boundaries!” “Butter”  And of course the question: “Do you... Yahoo?”        Those are just seven of the many tags that I could have mentioned. Each of them accomplished exactly what the sponsor’s ad agency was attempting to do. That is, become a household saying. Each of these tags comes from a different time period, yet all of them are remembered.      The average actor might say how lucky these people were to get a tag like that to perform. Certainly, I would have to agree that a great deal of luck was involved. In many cases, we may audition hundreds of actors for one single tag. We at Kalmenson & Kalmenson might not be the only casting people in the country that are conducting a search for just that one individual who happens to be letter-perfect. That one voice who could be the “Bud”, the “Wise”, or the “Err” that came out of the three most famous frogs in the world.       As an aside, and as a point of interest, we were assigned the west coast VO search for the Budweiser Frogs. But during the course of the last twenty-five years, we’ve been able to find many different voices and sounds that have become easily identified in households all over the country. While we did mention luck on the part of the winning actors, there is, nevertheless, a great deal of skill and confidence that was also part of their winning formula. Ok... here’s their magic. Two basics.      Let's talk entitlement. da harv has had numerous professional experiences with the actors who were the chosen ones for all of the previously mentioned tags. They all have that belonging thing in common. They are all comfortable with themselves as people. They have all settled in. We can’t teach that. All I can do is point it out to all of you. These actors all believe that their individual truth gives them the right to influence our lives. That’s their breakthrough as actors. They are able to look the other person right in the eye and tell them the Truth.

The Kalmenson Method      It was much more than a single thought, or a single time sit-down-and-write-it kind of a thing. My "Method" was, and remains today, an evolution; words that have evolved as have the time and presence we live with by making use of our God-given skills, and the ability to use every texture that our memory can and will provide when stimulated.       I’ve often talked about my amusement over what I found when I first entered the world of commercial voice over. I refer to it as the “what is it” syndrome. Like so many classically trained people before me, I had never even seen a commercial script, let alone attempted to direct anyone on how or why to read it. My break came because of my colleagues, the actors that were constantly there helping me. Admittedly, I’m only referring to a small and confined group. The fact is the actors I chose as my role models also happened to be the top money earners in our industry. Each of them had scored in just about every area of the performing arts. Film, stage, radio, and in no uncertain terms, voice over.      And now we come to what started all of this for da harv. "The Method". Maybe I should be calling it "da Method". Then we could call it “da tag.” Use "the Method" when you’re in to do a tag. Lead in by getting the machine moving forward before you utter a word. Develop an attitude for each and every tag you audition for. Use attitudes that are part and parcel of who you have already become as a human being. Each of our successful actors who were able to win our big-time tags are people who were being themselves. So that’s where it is, my children. Be yourself and use our Method.  And oh yeah... "ya hooooo, today". - HK -