Your toughest VO assigment

Toughest Assignment?
Be Yourself

        The toughest assignment for an actor is to remain natural. As a young director, I was warned by my mentors to try to stay away from asking an actor to be themselves. I was told that many actors haven’t a clue as to who or what they really are. In fact, I was also told that many actors think they know but are under a misguided conception of what their truth really is.
        If you don’t want to discover and practice your own individual truth, your chances of becoming a successful and professional actor will never come to pass. As an aside, while it may not make you happy to discover your truth as a human being, it will definitely give you a tremendous leg up as an actor. Point of fact: Almost all the great actors I’ve met in my travels fall into the category of being human—beings, that is. Imagine that.

        In my travels, it always managed to blow me away when I’ve encountered an actor in an everyday situation. A chance meeting at some sort of function or whatever and I come away from the encounter with the feeling this talent came across as being on the shallow side. Some didn’t have the ability to share their true feelings with me.

        When meeting that same person, in an actor/director environment, I’m oftentimes elated as well as surprised by their total ability, to tell the truth through the eyes of another. That other person that I refer to is the character they happen to be portraying. What they don’t want to give into is the fact that whatever they may think of as playacting is still a way of telling the truth.

        Perhaps one of the greatest actors of all time said it as succinctly as any actor I’ve ever heard when he responded during an interview what his acting method was:

"...Look the other fella in the eye, and tell the truth."

James Cagney

        The truth was always evident in any role portrayed by that actor.

        Many actors who had the opportunity to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock usually were in for a big surprise when they discovered how little direction he offered in the way of acting. One day, when Cary Grant asked Hitchcock for some advice on how to interpret the meaning of a particular scene, Hitchcock responded with: “You’re here because you’re right for it”.

        In his own way, he was telling Cary Grant to be himself. That was the end of the acting direction. Hitchcock sought the truth and that’s what his actors gave him. During another incident involving Mr. Hitchcock, a visitor to the set had the guts or the stupidity to endanger their life when without warning he asked Hitchcock to explain why he wasn’t looking at his actors during a rehearsal of a scene. Mr. Hitchcock’s reply, “I can hear what they look like.”
        That response has become a major part of my professional career. For many years, I have earned my living while listening to actors. Being your audience, and trying to hear the truth with my ears. If you tell me the truth, I will buy from you and allow you to influence my life. Just as a reminder, the Kalmenson Method was derived by means of a close study of the most successful actors in our industry during the course of more years than I desire to call attention to.

        Many of the attributes that the foremost talent has in common became apparent to me. By and large, these weren’t the actors that the general public described or held in esteem as celebrities. These were and are the journeyman actors.
        John Houseman expounded on his credo for success. He advised us to be journeyman actors—to practice and study our craft, to search for a way to grow every day, to be an observer with your eyes and ears, and to find a way to tell someone—anyone—a story that they might believe.

        Nothing we do is in the category of winging it. There is a prescribed method. We practice our scales every day just the same way we’re asking you to practice your scales. Get the basics down. Get ‘em down so cold that ‘ya don’t have to worry about where your fingers are caressing those piano keys. Truth brings an allowance for your forthright entrance to the present, allowing you to become creatively responsive and receptive to the needs of the person (or persons) you’re attempting to influence; and again, it’s all based on the truth.

Harvey Kalmenson

Sound Design & Demo Production

Sound Design & Demo Production

Disclaimer: For professionals only. Should not be attempted at home. You may be in possession of great sound equipment, and have become a very astute self-director— WARNING…DON’T FALL INTO THE COMMON TRAP. Merely being able to control a soundboard doesn’t qualify a person as a VO demo producer. It’s almost the same as switching on a light switch and thinking it qualifies you as a union electrician. During the course of the last forty-five years, I’ve listened to a variety of well-intentioned self-inflicted disasters.

 
        Hopefully, you're hooked up with folks who have been doing sound editing and direction for enough years to have become proficient at their craft. Years and experience go hand in hand. During the course of my career as a sound editor, designer, and director, one word prevails as the single most important factor in producing anything of value: “preparation”.
        Your individual demo could turn out to be the single most important commercial project of your professional life. Your demo is your calling card. Who you are—your truth—is on display! Don’t become impatient. Don’t rush, take a class! We call our's DEMO PREP. Prep is short for preparation. Our goal at Kalmenson & Kalmenson is to prepare you as a professional actor in the highly competitive field of professional voice-over acting! Don’t do it yourself. Very few are occasionally successful as professional demo producers.

“Most self-indulgence smacks of amateurism”

Harvey Kalmenson

        Music and sound effects should never be the star of your demo presentation. The intent is to provide a showcase for your work, not entertainment provided by production values. Here’s where it often becomes confusing for the actor to understand.

        The purpose and importance of music and or sound effects, whether they're natural or manufactured, is for those enhancements to push your voice forward in order to sell the sponsors' product, or provide the salience and importance of our life’s narration. Music or effects must never detract from an actor’s message. The sound designer’s creative goals are established before the actual recording of your demo. Nothing should be taken for granted. While the sound designer must be free to create, they must also have a complete understanding of what you intend to accomplish. Silence can be a marvelous background for an important message. Where that message goes, in order of appearance, on your demo is of equal importance. So let’s etch this in stone.

Music Selection

        Music can help a mood, signal change, create a helpful regional quality, add suspense, while at the same time pushing the voice into a favorable and prominent position.

Sound Effects

        Whether mechanical or human, sound effects provide an assist in getting the message across and can provide a degree of humor without detracting from the actors’ intent. Every word, every sound, and every verbal innuendo is of great importance in order to add or when deleting from your demo.

Harvey Kalmenson

Los Angeles Recap

Los Angeles Today (Well, not anymore.) - Recap -

The year was 1970, and just about every commercial talent agency not only had a complete in-house recording facility, but many of the bigger agencies were able to boast having multiple recording booths to conduct auditions in. In retrospect, it is kind of fun to know that I was able to be a part of beginning something that remained and grew to such proportions.      Agents have come light-years in the way of growth; from nothing in the early 1960s to offices that sometimes represent a couple of thousand commercial actors. From the very first basic recording machine to full-scale digital recording, and cyberspace transmission in a fraction of what we would've never dreamed possible. The industry has changed, and right before our eyes, almost another complete change is upon us all again. I wondered, then, if the agents would become innovative enough to change along with the industry monster they created.       A new monster has arrived! Self-direction and in-home recording studios have become the norm. Talent agents still exist today, but rarely do they have a need to record their talent in-house. Systematically, commercial talent agents became dependent on their actors doing self-direction from their homes.  Personal note: At Kalmenson & Kalmenson, we still often direct the actors with our same hands-on approach, but the actor may be required to have professional equipment to even record their auditions. All of our teachers have been trained in self-direction as part of our educational curriculum for individual success.   Our Voice-Over Industry Today      March 2020: Our country together, en masse, entered the era of COVID-19—a worldwide affectation was with us all! COVID-19 has entered year three. All of our team members have been vaccinated and together, hand-in-hand, we’re proud to say Kalmenson & Kalmenson remains here to stay. “We’re Zoom-ing”. HK