Necessary, but not necessarily evil

Agents (Necessary, but not necessarily evil)

Commercial talent agents: you will, by necessity, have to be in a working relationship with them. I use the term necessity because, without an agent, the voice-over artist has far less chance of success. Let's begin by understanding what an agent actually is, and then examine the relationship between the actor and their agent. Here’s what Merriam Webster offers as a definition: One that acts or exerts power A means or instrument by which a guiding intelligence achieves a result One who is authorized to act for or in the place of another: (a) representative, emissary, or an official of a government (b) one engaged in undercover activities <espionage> spy A business representative As an aside: I know a few agents that fit the description for all of the above!      New York and Chicago have always been the advertising capitals of this country, and the world for that matter. The very first signs of real growth in advertising came back in the late 1930s and early 1940s when radio began to take hold. Before that, it was the print media that handled the advertisers' desires to get their respective products better known. With the 1950s and the advent of television came the need for more and more actors. Up until that time period, such a thing as a commercial talent agent was non-existent. Actors had theatrical agents representing them. These same theatrical agents displayed little or no interest in the commercial field of representation.      As a matter of fact, at the beginning (the early days of TV), most legitimate actors shared the universal feeling that doing a television commercial was beneath them, prestige-wise. All concerned, excluding the advertising agency producers, underestimated the enormity of an industry that was about to change the face of both the advertising business and the future of just about every kid who had the slightest inkling of becoming an actor. Along with the advent of color, larger screens, and better sound, we were on our way.      The early 1960s brought with it the blossoming of the commercial talent agent. All it took was the magic word: residuals. Seemingly from out of nowhere, agents began popping up all over the place. Many of them came into it because they were ex-actors who had failed. In the early 1960s, you could have staged a pretty good musical comedy with a cast made up of folks who had recently become agents. It was during these very early days that the field of voice-over was actually established.      In the beginning, the main reason for the voice-over was economics. It was easier to add an explanation tag or voice to the substance of the commercial body than to have the on-camera actors act out the motive, or sell. In very short order the production company along with the ad agency creative types latched on to the many benefits being enabled by the use of the human voice. Since the voice-over was part of the postproduction makeup, it enabled the production company to operate at the location of their choice in order to do the filming, while the necessary additional dialogue could be done at a later time.      Since the vast majority of location shots were staged outdoors, the California climate, especially Los Angeles, rapidly secured us as the geographical capital of the commercial production industry.  We had a climate that allowed for more days of outside location work. Coupled with the strength of our Hollywood community of viable talent, it insured an overabundance of actors for the newly formed talent agencies to draw from. The advertising industry had no choice: If they wanted to film commercials without worrying about inclement weather, Los Angeles was the right place for them to be.      And while all this commercial filming was going on, lo and behold, our population was increasing simultaneously. Doubling and then tripling the number of people in our country concurrently had the effect of pouring gasoline on a fire. The more it grew, the more growth potential was uncovered. As new industries were born, so, too, was the need to advertise them. At the same time television displayed its unbelievable prosperity, so did the forgotten giant: radio.      Drive-time radio became an advertisers' dreamland. With two working parents, as opposed to one single breadwinner, the number of automobiles at drive-time hours skyrocketed. Agents, across the board, all took on representing more actors to cover the demand. Many actors were now making a very handsome income by doing radio commercials. While radio rarely afforded the residual benefit of television, it consumed products at a never before experienced volume.      From the beginning, agents began by representing a mere handful of actors and there were just a few actual commercial talent agents in existence compared to today. In today’s marketplace, Los Angeles, alone, has commercial talent agents too numerous to count; the number of agents in Los Angeles has grown into an audacious figure of well over one-hundred companies. That means agents running offices. The number of sub-agents they employ today is incalculable. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.          The union allows for each talent agency to have a company name and to hire sub-agents to work for them. They are all signatories of the Screen Actors Guild, SAG, and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, AFTRA. And accordingly are restricted from any work done for any production company and or advertising agency who is not a signatory of said guilds. The agents' contract with either of the guilds allows for a maximum of ten percent, as the factor to be used as the maximum percentage when calculating the agent’s remuneration. (It varies.) In other words, these agents are contractually bound to submit or solicit union jobs for their actors. Note: The ten percent figure that is understood and commonly used by most of the industry is also misconstrued as being a state regulation. Each state has its own rules and regulations as to the remuneration an agent or manager may charge as a percentage of the actors' gross. The 10% figure is what is currently the agreement between the guilds and its signatory members' agents. - A Little More History -      In the mid-1960s, one of the owners of a commercial talent agency decided that he was going to become an innovator. The agent purchased a small reel-to-reel tape recorder and a microphone. He then convinced an advertising agency producer that it would save them a great deal of money if they furnished the agent with a script of a current commercial that they were about to put out to audition. The agent explained to the producer that without cost to them, he would have some of his actors come in and read for the role in question and would then get it back to them. Within one year, that agent’s innovation became the standard practice for auditions conducted in Los Angeles. As time went by, the procedure became more and more sophisticated.      It was during the early 1970s that I, da harv, found myself between jobs. An actor had recommended me to a talent agency. The thought of becoming an agent was about as far removed from my life as any offer could be. The owner of the agency was Noel Rubaloff. He was one of the original commercial talent agents in the country. The name of the agency was “Abrams-Rubaloff & Associates”.      They had been formed in the 1960s when Universal Pictures was ordered to divest themselves of either their production company or their talent agency. When Universal opted in favor of remaining a production company, it meant that the actors they represented as agents had to be released. It also meant that their current agents were about to be out of work. One of them caught up in this debacle was Noel Rubaloff.      So there I was, sitting in front of what was then the most successful commercial talent agent in the business. He began by telling me how he had heard all about my skills as a production stage manager, as well as being aware of my teaching and directing credits. He went on to say how he couldn’t pay very much, but if I joined them I would be directing the biggest and most well-known names in the industry. In short, it was some of those well-known names that had complained about the lack of direction given to them when they came into the agency for an in-house audition. It was during my tenure at Abrams-Rubaloff that my innovative techniques as a director became an industry standard.    NOTE:      The Kalmenson Method© was born and developed during my seven years at Abrams-Rubaloff. It was also during this time period that I was on faculty at the University of Southern California, in their college of continuing education. Within three months of joining Noel and his gang, he called me into his office for a meeting. I remember his words: "I don’t know what the hell you're doing, but keep doing it!" He told me that he was planning to move to a larger facility and that if I was up for it; I could proceed to build a full-service recording facility to conduct auditions in.      At the time, that was unheard of. Most agents had a variety of inferior home recording equipment. None had anything resembling state-of-the-art. I was up for the challenge. Within a couple of months, we had moved to a full-blown mansion in the Los Feliz area. It was situated on three large lots. We were the talk of the industry. It was there, in that mansion, in what had been a large wine cellar, that yours truly was made a believer. Noel told me that he had the most impressive stable of actors in the industry, and he wasn’t kidding.      Through our doors marched most of the very same people that I had looked up to as the cream of our industry. I think I directed everybody but “King Kong”. And the way it was going, it wouldn’t have surprised me if one day Noel brought “Kong” in for an audition. Noel was a man of his word. I was told to build and not worry about the budget. That’s exactly what I did. And away we flew. Who knew! “The Shadow” does, or did, or do! - HK

Basic Training Is Over

- 10 - Basic Training Is Over

Okay, it’s completed. What’s completed? What do I do now? Who do I do it with? Who do I do it to? When I do it, how do I know what I should be doing? How come I’m so confused?      Those questions are similar to the questions that many of the troops ask upon completion of basic training; four of the most intensive months of your life. You’re supposed to be a soldier. Anyway, that’s what they told you. The problem was, is, and will always remain: until they shoot at you with live ammunition, you haven’t really been tested. There weren’t any penalties. During basic training, if you fail, all you have to do is get up and walk away.       Ah, but now what’s happened is that you find yourself trying to be part of and a participant in the real game; the fabulous and competitive world of voice acting. Voiceovers. Sure, you’ve learned what they are. You’ve learned how the game is played. And you’ve also learned that your success is measured by how much money you might earn. Well... maybe yes, and maybe no.      Here is a quick word of advice—the words of the late and great John Houseman: “Don’t measure your success! Don’t allow others to measure your success. Don’t strive for stardom. Be a journeyman actor. Your job is to work at your craft each and every day of your life.” Mr. Houseman's words have, by now, been echoed all over the world. Echoed is not synonymous with success. Practice is!      Get the audition. Get as many as possible. Read, read, and read, damn it. If it’s printed, then you read it. Out loud and with honesty. Honesty and verve. Complete passion, and a total lack thereof. It’s the same old story. If you can deliver either with conviction, you’re on the way. If you care, feel and show it.       And now for a simple drill. I’d like each of you to spend the next moment or two searching your memory bank for a reflection of one of the following: a place in time when you were either totally comfortable in a situation, or totally at peace, emotionally. Or a time when you were completely uncomfortable and ill at ease with yourself. When you have this moment clearly in your mind’s eye, share that moment in a one-minute capsulation. Tell it as a story worth telling. Your goal.... total honesty. The payoff? You’re one step closer to success, whatever that looks like.

"I don't mind helping people as long as they don't get in my way while I'm doing it." - HK

The Adlib

Chapter 9 The Adlib

In the world of voiceover, adlib is considered to be anything that wasn’t previously prepared and not included in the original script; many refer to it, incorrectly, as an improvisation. Improvisation is when the words, notes, or meter, are not scripted at all, whether they be words, music, or both. IMPORTANT NOTES      Make no mistake…the very best ad-libbers and improvisation actors in all of our voiceover world are good readers. In any given language, the correct pronunciation is an absolute must. What your voice sounds like is usually not the determining factor in selecting which actor gets the job, unless a particular timber is specified on the casting call, whether it be words, song, age, or dialect. In other words, practice your scales. Be a comfortable reader before you think you're proficient enough to venture forth as a professional ad-libber.      There are so many actors that are nothing more than laughable because they think all that is required in order to adlib is to say something that hasn’t been scripted. The more experience an actor has, the better they will become at the art of improvisation as well. It all boils down to the same thing: If you don’t practice your craft, you’re just kidding yourself. Practice won’t ever make you perfect. What it will help you to become is a working actor. Blemishes are in. They make you human. Human and real is what sells products.      So here’s the bottom line: Improvisation is great, but it absolutely must be part and parcel of your honest to God, drop-dead signature. If you’re to be a clown… ask yourself what kind of a clown am I? Adlibs can be upscale, or blue-collar. They can be sarcastically off the cuff. The key, again, is your personal signature. - HK -

No names necessary. Disclaimer: Many, by the nature of what da harv has spent the better part of his life participating in as his life’s profession, have indiscriminately made note of a most glaring fact, he, da harv, happens to be a world-class name-dropper. To all those out there who have portrayed me as such, I take this opportunity to drink a hefty toast to your envy.

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 -

It's Nice Work If You Can Get It

Chapter Three It's "Nice Work If You Can Get It"

While I try never to dodge a question, this is the kind of inquiry that demands an insertion of my personal disclaimer: I have been around this business for enough years to provide me with substantial knowledge of what I don’t know to be a certainty. It helps me to acknowledge when asked for my opinion, most of the time, the person asking the question has as much chance of being accurate with their answer as I might be with mine.         I choose to deal with the question: “How will I continue with voiceover?” as opposed to “How do I get started?” You’re in a beginning state, true. But your fire has already been ignited. You are started. Reading this offering will hopefully be of help with most of what your voiceover intentions happen to be.         In my opinion, voiceover is not a business but another in a long line of subjective art forms. I refer to it as a condition of the heart. We always ask our students the same question that most coaches ask their athletes: “How badly do you want it”? That’s what it all boils down to. Don’t waste your time trying to figure it out.         Like I said, it isn’t a business. It isn’t a friendly nurturing relationship shared by two lovers. You may love it, but if you expend too much of your energies trying to figure out why it doesn’t return your love, then you're fostering the same form of deceit rendered to all who have devoted their lives fighting an endless uphill battle.          From the least of paydays (radio) to the best (TV) voiceover has to offer… it really doesn’t matter. Each and every time an actor works or takes an audition, I advise the actor to think of it as an opportunity that may provide a life-changing adventure.         Appreciate the fact: It's not just another audition. Think for a moment about how many people will be listening to what you do during “just an audition.” I could easily cite many cases where an actor was requested by an advertising agency because they had experienced that actor’s work while listening to a totally unrelated audition that might have been conducted months earlier.  - HK -

From Then to Now

From Then to Now

In the earliest days of radio, a big basso voice would come on the air telling you where he was emanating from. That was common fare in the early forties when this young man was introduced to the true marvel of conviction that could be sent over the airwaves by the human voice. Those experiences were in truth, the beginning of this book.         Commercials, as we know them today, didn’t really take hold until the late fifties. As an aside… the very first dedicated commercial talent agencies didn’t open offices until the early 1960s. Before the sixties, actors didn’t have a need for a commercial talent agent to represent them. Today, of course almost all the union casting goes through an agent.         Agents and casting companies are two completely different entities. The agent is the employee of the actor. Agents earn their income on a commission basis, determined by the relationship that exists between the agent and the actor. The agent, dependent on the state labor boards, may charge various commissions. As an example, the state of California allows an agent to charge up to an amount not to exceed twenty-five percent of the actors' gross from any one job. If said agent operates under the auspices of a guild (or union) affiliation, then said commissions may not exceed the parameters of the guild or union contract. As an example, the Screen Actors Guild permits a commission to be paid by the actor to the agent, not to exceed ten percent. Most of the time, a check for the actor’s services comes directly to that actor’s agent’s office. The agent, who has the actor's “power of attorney”, deposits the check into their own trust account and then issues a check to the actor in an amount that is compiled by subtracting ten percent from the actors' gross and forwarding the balance (90%) to the actor.          In actuality, the situation that exists between the actor, the union, and the advertising agencies is unique in that they all are supposedly tied together by the Screen Actors Guild (in one way or another). The actor as a member of the guild; the producer as a signatory of the guild. These participants have agreed, in theory, to only perform services that are governed by the ruling guild. A similar situation applies under the guidelines of the American Federation of Television, and Radio Artists (AFTRA).    Note: At the time of this writing, the two aforementioned unions had not yet joined forces.           On our side of the fence as a casting company, there is the buyer who elects to use our paid services. And the actors we choose to call in, to either audition or perform as a talent on the commercial we happen to be contracted to provide talent for. We are recognized as an independent entity. We are not governed by any union or guild affiliation.         Simply stated, an advertising agency hires us for a pre-established fee to bring actors into our studios and lay down (record) a voice track of the actors reading the sponsor's commercial script. This of course is called an audition. We cast union and non-union jobs, and are not under contract to any entity other than the company that hires us to perform our casting service.         So, with all that said, here I sit, the co-owner of Kalmenson & Kalmenson, arguably the most prominent voice casting service in the country, most likely the world. Couple that assertion with our unchallenged leadership in the field of Voice Over education and your sharing with an author rendering from close to fifty years of working experience in every venue known under the guise of voice-over.         Try this on for size, our company has done just about everything having to do with selling product, vocally that is. Additionally, in just about every foreign language our planet communicates in. From beer-selling talking frogs to singing and dancing germs being readied for a toxic spray killer. If it speaks, sings, belches, or makes any form of sound, no matter what the requested language may be, there’s a good chance Kalmenson & Kalmenson has cast the voices for it through the years.         What follows will be my compilation of gatherings referencing just about every aspect the professional voice actor may face. In the event that a human being portending to be an actor happens on, or into the pages of this documentary, and that person doesn’t know what the term “voice over” means, then hear this: If you are able to hear the voice, regardless from whence it may come; radio, TV, curbside announcements at the airport, voices in animation, or whatever you can name. If you can hear it, just refer to it as a voice-over. No one out there is going to correct you. - HK -