You and the Director

The on going question: What kind of a director was he to work with?

The question I ask, not as a director, but as the educator would be: What would you do if there were no directors to work with?

“Most actors who have not studied the acting craft of voice over will go up in a puff of smoke.”

An actor without training won’t be able to get a handle on what the director is asking for. Inexperienced actors are caught up in the circumstance of not even understanding that the recording booth demands a certain degree of etiquette be practiced.

On the director’s side of the glass, we find that most directors have almost no training at all. By that I mean, formal training. That fact has always been difficult for me to comprehend. Why would anyone who desires to be able to compete and win at a casting assignment be guilty of placing a totally inexperienced person in the booth to do the directing?

So now you have the conundrum: Actors without training mixed with directors without training. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Yet it happens to be the case, more often than not.

***

I have often said that directing commercial voice over auditions is the singular most difficult assignment a director can have.

Examine the plight of the experienced director. Experienced, that is, in other forms of theatrical presentation. For the sake of conversation, I’ll use the theater as an example.

Our director, man or woman of today, usually enters the theater after graduating from a college or university having majored in theater, in one way or another. They have picked up a degree in some form of communication. They have learned all about the language of the theater; what you call things, and what things are called. They have developed study habits and methods for portrayal of a particular character or characters.

Now, as an actor, they find themselves looking at a script that doesn’t apparently have a beginning or an end.

The director having worked for an agent or an advertising agency is at an even greater loss concerning what to do, or what to tell the actor to do. They usually get started by the director just having the actor do the first take on their own without direction. From there, a great many of the auditions proceed downhill.

As a casting director, I’m rarely given the assignment of selecting the winning actor. Again, that is the job of the advertising agency producer, writer, and in most cases, both of them, along with the commercial sponsor.

As the director, I am in a comparable position to that of the actor, having to create something based on usually sketchy information. Many times, we receive a variety of directions from the ad agency. The writer sees it one way, the producer another, and often the sponsor (the guy who pays the bills) is diametrically in opposition to the both of them. So we have a great deal in common. Aside from wanting the best performance possible, the actor and the director attain the best results when they find a way to work as one. This, of course, is a lot easier said than done.

The director’s job is to ask the actor to do something that he knows the actor can do. It is of importance for the director to know what the actor is uncomfortable with. All of this is a moot point when neither of them (actor or director) has any idea of what the others' skills are.

Note: Self-direction is a topic to be discussed.

In the Los Angeles marketplace, unlike other parts of the country, most auditions are conducted in your agent’s office. Briefly, it’s a situation where the advertising agency sends their commercial scripts and character breakdown directly to the agents. They (the agents) do a casting call from their stable of players. This means that as an actor, you are subject to being called in for auditions based on how your agent sees (hears) you.

The word for you is “Signature.” If you’re a Mr. Macho, white collar or blue, don’t be surprised if that particular signature translates to beer or trucks where your agent is concerned. For women, a comparable call might be for a sexy feminine approach for the sale of perfume. This too could be referred to as your signature.

At Kalmenson & Kalmenson, we take great pride in our attention to talent detail. Thousands of data entries have been compiled as an in-depth reference for our casting team to draw on. In our classes, a major thrust of the curriculum is to assist in the uncovering of your signature. In a way, it’s just the same as your written signature. With the latter, people who correspond with you can immediately tell if the signature is authentically yours. With the voice we have the same awareness of signature recognition.

I think it’s important to separate style from signature. An actor may have a soft-spoken approach or a certain way that they phrase. That is what we refer to as "style." On the other hand, when we say "signature," we are referring to your individual truth.

Whether a particular director is classically trained, or a person who has managed to pick up some skills along the way, what matters to them, consciously or not, is the basic question: Has the actor grabbed them? Has some special interpretation been presented as just what they’re looking for?

Regardless of the breakdown. The printed, or verbalization of their direction.

Perhaps an example will help to clarify?

(This was an actual call.)

The call was being put out on behalf of a hospital specializing in the care of the terminally ill.

The advertising agency producer specified that they were looking for actors, men and women, well into middle age who could honestly convey the importance of a hospital of this nature.

We, in turn, relayed our choices to a vast group of agents, and after our careful consideration of each idea, we individually hand-picked a bracketed selection, representing a range of creative interpretations of the given creative spec. The auditions were well-directed and uploaded within a day. Some twenty-five men and woman came in to audition for this role.

Their voices and ethnicities were made up of a wide variety of choices. All of them were experienced voice over actors. All had outstanding skills.

The bottom line will help to prove my point. The essence of truth casting was accomplished. The signatures of each actor came across as clear as a bell. Warm, friendly, homespun, city dweller, and farm worker. Garage mechanic, schoolteacher, and just your neighbor next door. Our casting conveyed the message that terminal illness could be the concern of all people. In my estimation, they could have thrown a dart at our end result. The casting and direction was impeccably sound. We had nailed it. How would they ever decide who was going to get this job? Who would be the actor they would choose?

It came down to two of them winning instead of just the one they had originally consigned for us to find. One man and one woman who had both experienced a close family member being taken away after a long illness. Both of these actors weren’t acting at all. They were telling the truth. For sure you must convey your signature, if it is truly yours as the truth.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… what about you and the director?

Whether it’s at your agent’s office, or at a casting service, or even at the advertising agency, your assignment is to make the very best from the direction you’ve been given. Etiquette is extremely important. Please make it a point to look at your director when you speak to him (or her) and conversely, the same would apply when they’re speaking to you. At this point, an actor needs all the help available. A director’s facial appearance might even be an assist. In general, try not to be a pain in the ass. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why any actor chooses to be an annoyance to the one person in the best position to help them.

So there you are. You’ve arrived a full ten minutes before your call time. With script in hand, you find a place away from the rest of the actors. Now it's time to study the script, so you can go in there and ace it. But then you get your first look at the script direction. There it sits on top of the page. You’re not to be an announcer, though it clearly shows you reading the role of announcer. It says for you to be one-on-one, warm and friendly, and to be internalizing (stream of consciousness).

What you have is a common occurrence: Contradictory directions. I use this as an example in order to point out the importance of the director, if for no other reason than to function as the live and breathing human being right there in front of you. Use your first take as an opportunity to meld with your director. Make the director feel that you are being responsive to him or her.

Your job is to wait for the director to tell you what comes next.

And now it's experience time. The more experience you have the smoother your trip will become. Just as there are no two actors that share complete similarity, I feel the separation in director style is even greater. In my opinion, I think you’ll find the fewer the number of words a director uses, the better their direction becomes.

Why Do I Teach?

Teaching makes my learning endless!

Teacher and Student

“It so grieves me to lose good friends. Departure should not be reason enough for a relationship to end. When there is mutual respect, and those in a relationship thrive on helping and stimulating the other to grow to endless horizons, then why should we accept departure?

I have decided not to accept announcements of any of my treasury as being depleted. I will hoard the substance of what I was given or have gained by being in the presence of a valued nurturer. If a man allowed tenderness, stimulated my smile, or shared with me their discomfort over the human condition, then that man will forever remain as a mainstay of my life’s fortune.

Therefore, if my practice becomes yours, I shall live forever. I will never lose a friend. I will share what I was given, and nurture when it is allowed.

I will remain a teacher.”

da harv
November 6, 2002

“CLICHÉ TIME”

I have devoted most of my life in joyous pursuit of practical ways to convey verbal communication. Mine has been cultivation. I was not born with some form of God given directing skills. Seventy-five percent of my intellectual cultivation was stimulated in abundance, by an early environment, featuring the music, the food, the lore, the languages, the strengths, the weaknesses, and mostly the pride of accomplishment most eastern Europeans, brought with them as immigrants from the old world to the United States of America. Even the way they said it was an inspiration to this young and impressionable kid.

My grandmother on my father's side was multilingual. She helped to support her nine children by earning money as an interpreter and letter writer. On the days I would visit as a kid, skipping along at my dad's side, I was always curious about what language Grandma Ethel was speaking, or how she was able to read the funny looking writing. What stood out the most: She was in charge. She was the strongest woman I have ever met. Without ever raising her voice, each of her children, grandchildren, and later on, all of their wives became recipients of grandma’s communication skills. Whatever the language, the words were few; the meaning exact.

Note: Each of my father's brothers and sisters were multilingual, but in her home Grandma Ethel insisted they speak English. None of them had any hint of a dialect.

Teaching and being taught began early. Testing and being tested was a constant.

While I may not have been cognizant of it as a young child, I ultimately became aware, and have remained ever the inquisitor. Each and every day of my life has been, and will continue to be a vital part of my learning experience.

For me, learning is an entertainment! I’m not talking about studying for a test. I’m referring to the actual elation that comes over me when something new is added to my intellectual collection. At the top of my list is vocabulary. No matter how much I read, I’m always amazed over how much more there is to learn.

But it isn’t just the words.

I live with a constant flow of messages coming in from the looks, the smells, the sounds, the acknowledgements, and the supposed motivations behind them. All are part and parcel of my quest for continual learning (and entertainment).

If my words are sounding like they are driven spiritually, you’re on the right track. Not from my beginnings, but as a cultivation of my years spent in a total learning process. It appears my greatest discovery has been the growth that comes with an ability to feel. Feeling is part of the learning, providing an unequaled satisfaction. It’s hard to explain.

Knowing is magical. I never take it for granted. As if given a gift, I open the pages of a book and the spirituality begins to take hold.

When I was younger, I truly didn’t comprehend what was happening to me. As I grew older, I was not only cognizant of my transitions, but I sought them out on a continual and relentless quest. From others I discovered self. From my inner-self came my sensitivity as a director.

Certainly, listening is synonymous with learning. I didn’t invent the theory. In my work, I practice it with verve.

Through the years many of the actors have caught on to my methodology. On a regular basis a variety of trivia, stirred by the inquisitive minds of creative people, is presented to me. While my studio runs meticulously on time, we’ve been known to occasionally fall behind when, without warning, a new learning experience presents itself. Our conversations are rich and filled with intellect, temperament, and most of all, the magic of laughter.

Actors in general, contrary to the beliefs of the average man, are a special group of extremely bright people. Only when actors become mired in the dark areas of political venues, do they lose all of their charm. This journal, by design, intends to stay as far from politics as possible. I will not, however, stray from who I am, and who I have become because of what this great country has offered and afforded me.

Mine is not an uncommon story. From immigrant grandparents, and a mother and father who also entered this country following an arduous boat ride, I have been allowed what only the United States of America could provide.

Stop and think. I make a living in a creative world. I work almost entirely in the field of my choice. To say I feel blessed would not be putting into words the enormity of my appreciation for what life has allowed me to pursue.

But of all the blessings I have received, none can compare with the shear elation of knowing, what I have done, as part of my life’s work, has enabled and stimulated the growth of others.

What follows is "Emergence" by Harvey Kalmenson:

Biblical Terms for the Professional Actor

I’m so guilty of living in the past that there are times when even I can’t stand it. My love of the old movies, as I watched them as a kid, remains and will always live on in my mind's eye and in my heart's throbbing. I grew up believing almost everything I saw on the big silver screen. If they smoked, I smoked. If they fenced on a sailing vessel against whatever pirates had attacked, then I too established myself as a master of the saber. When Tyrone Power swung by one arm as he held Maureen O'Hara in the other, then I too longed to do the same. William Powell and Myrna Loy dressed in evening ware as they sipped incessantly on martinis, smoked cigarettes and stayed up until dawn everyday - that was the envy of my neighborhood. Whatever and whomever was on the screen was to be our portrayal of that day or week or month. We lived and became the stars. All of us knew every players name, and quite often were able to memorize all of their important speeches.

Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson; they were all bigger than life. They were life. What was then remains with me now. What has changed for me is simply stated: Nothing. I can vividly recall sitting there in a darkened theater with my dad alongside as we watched and listened to Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, in “Pride Of The Yankees,” proclaiming: "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth,” as we all, including my father, fought back the tears. I was Mickey Rooney in “Boys Town” being put in his place by Spencer Tracy. And the cowboys and their horses being able to gallop all the way from one town to another as Roy Rogers fired at the bad guys while facing backwards as he rode. But of all of the thousands of actors I watched and portrayed, none were able to sustain the mark left permanently and indelibly on me as did Peter Lorre. There was a short period of time when I became Peter Lorre. I studied his every move. He was my favorite sniveling bad guy. I loved when he got slapped around by Bogart, or in his hushed voice attempted to convince the world of how honest a man he was. None of my friends ever wanted to be Peter Lorre. I don’t know, he just really got to me.

And then each of my favorites took turns as leading men and women on all of my favorite radio shows. I was in heaven. I knew what they looked like, so it didn’t take much in the way of imagination for me to see them once again before me doing their thing.

From age eight to age thirteen, actors took charge of my most impressionistic period of life. I never dreamed I was ultimately going to meet them, let alone enjoy the thrill of directing them (not all but many). As a young kid, I wasn’t yet aware of the role the director played. The fact is, I wasn’t even aware there was such a thing as a director. In short order, I was about to find out. Between ages sixteen and eighteen many of these same actors began to once again enter my life. This time they were live people like me; laughing, joking, and breathing just as the normal folk do.

***

What follows comes as a result of many years of practical application. The academic being turned into the reality of life in a variety of venues, where having a director is essential to the success of the project.

If I were required to choose between a formal education (school) and a practical education (learning as you attempt to earn a living), my selection, unequivocally: The practical. Every venue is different. Every group of players is different. Every audience is different from night to night, even if it’s the same play being repeated. Trial and error must be gleaned during application under fire. There will never be a replacement for experience. Whether it is acting, directing, producing, writing, or choreography, the practical application of one's skills become finely honed during the game.

“Listen.” The word for every creative being, today, tomorrow, and forever; “Listen.” Hearing this word a thousand times will not be wasted on who you are today, and with the utmost certainty who you are destined to become in the creative world. Of the thousands and thousands of actors whom I have directed during the course of my latest thirty years on this planet, the most successful professionals have a marked similarity: they are the most ardent and attentive listeners to be found anywhere.

Without the ability of being a good listener, one loses the ability of becoming a superior learner. Learning is synonymous with experience. I use the term “superior” because in order to make it within any subjective art form, a person must excel; be excellent, be outstanding, be skillful, be talented, be preeminent, reign supreme; stand out, be the best, be unparalleled, be unequaled, be second to none, be unsurpassed; call it superior, if you like. And with all your striving, and all your hard work in order to establish yourself with recognized preeminence, there will always be those out there ready willing and able to point out how lucky you are. To those out there, who have judged you as being lucky, I offer them my condolences over their obvious comatose existence. Those out there dependent on luck have an obvious inability to listen and learn. They will never lead as a director, create as an actor, nor lead their troop of dancers across a stage. They will never cause an audience to feel what they feel, or hear what they themselves listen to.

As a voice over artist you must recognize the fact, although your audience happens to be in their own home or car, they are still your audience. You must still cater to their needs and wants. In this case your forever word is “responsive.” The printed directions will help you to listen and cater to the obvious and not so declarative needs of those within the sound of your voice. But it isn’t a case of what you want to do or say. As an actor, you must be responsive to the needs of the listener.

A good director understands the foregoing. He or she has the valuable aptitude of being an exceptional listener. I, of course, mean as a director who listens to the actor, and not praying for what they are going to ask you to do next.

Following as precise a direction as my experience will allow, I switch from being the director, and tune into the actor, listening as closely as I can for their responsiveness to my needs as their audience. (The director becomes the audience.) They speak; I listen. I speak; they listen.

Here is a brief review of what I feel to be the most substantive notes coming from my foregoing eleven hundred words.

“Listen and then be responsive.”

Regardless of what you are preparing to creatively accomplish, take a moment to hesitate before diving in, and remind yourself of those important success ingredients: “Listen and then be responsive.”

On stage, or in the wings, listen and be responsive.

Preparing for an audition, listen and be responsive.

You come home to your wife and children, listen and be responsive.

… and for me and da harv; when God talks, I try to listen and be responsive!

2010

Not today

There’s no acting allowed

We need no others

We have our own crowd

From Kalmenson & Kalmenson

Casting voices

While delivering education

Sounding trumpets of joy

Sending greetings with elation

That wonderful time of the year

Has again come to help us

We’re not looking back

But forward to a new start

Sending our own brand of salutation

Straight from the heart

Christmas was the merriest,

We're looking forward without fear

To the happiest of times

2010 is here

The Voice Over Audition: History + Pursuing Excellence

Many of our younger thespians are unaware of what transpired prior to their entering the commercial voice over world. Others are in search of the most beneficial way of continuing their pursuits of excellence as a talent. When I’m asked what it was like a few years ago, almost all are surprised at my history lesson.

While these are two separate subjects, they never the less are of equal importance. The history lesson is presented as I lived and participated in as it was taking place. The help I will be offering is my own personal opinion.

Circa: 1974

Sponsors (the ones paying the bills) hired advertising agencies to publicize extol - the outright benefits of buying anything and everything. Print adds and radio were the two main vehicles for telling the sponsor's story. But television was moving quickly into the leading position. Both radio and television had the spoken word as a prime purveyor for what they had to say; albeit, much of the verbiage was considered to be “puff” verbiage, which was deemed to be less than accurate. A good example of puff was certainly the language used in all of the cigarette commercials. Can you imagine telling people about all the singers who smoke Lucky Strike cigarettes because they didn’t irritate singers' throats? They claimed the reason was the fact that “Luckies were toasted.” As they also pointed out, most doctors smoked Lucky Strike “two to one.” If you’re wondering what that really means, join the club.

Doing a network TV cigarette voice over commercial led the way to some enormous paydays for the actors.

In those days, the procedure for conducting an audition for a voice over commercial was quite simple.

1. The advertising agency contacted a commercial voice over agent by phone, or by posting a casting call breakdown through one of the published services.

2. They’d describe the type they were looking for and the agents would submit names to the advertising agency producer.

3. The producer would select by either voice recognition from a past experience with the actor, or by listening to the actors voice demo reel.

Early on, actors all had demo reels of their individual work. Most of these reels (or tapes) were about three minutes in duration.

4. The actors, who were selected by the advertising agency, were then given an appointment to come to the agency and be auditioned and directed by the producer of the spot.

5. The more well-known voice actors were oftentimes booked by the advertising agency without actually having to take an in-person audition.

In the beginning, the agents spent their days mostly on the telephone.

Agents worked at their desks. None of them conducted in-house auditions. It was a much simpler time. But all was about to change.

In my humble opinion, what transpired was a needless and detrimental acceptance of what many thought had to be. Our unions were void of cognitive perceptiveness. While many new venues were being developed, creating vast avenues for product, the union constituency were the last ones in the pecking order to garnish the full extent of the monetary rewards.

Circa: 1977

It was about thirty plus years ago, when one of our more famous agents (who will remain nameless) came up with the less-than-bright idea of bringing the actors he represented in-house to audition for voice over commercials. He pointed out to the advertising agencies how it would be free of charge. The audition would cost them nothing. What a concept. The advertising agency could actually send a script to this guy (agent) and, without charge, get back a (reel to reel 7.5") tape of the actors and actresses reading the exact script they would in turn use for their on-air commercial TV or radio advertisement. It also sounds simple, doesn’t it? The scripts were mailed to the agent, the agent brought in his talent, auditioned them, and sent a tape back to the advertising agency. Stay tuned.

Make no mistake, across the board, the experienced professional journeyman actors absolutely hated it. Voice actors were accustomed to reading for the man doing the hiring. Most of the agents' sound equipment, if you can call it that, was less than professional. The common statement heard around town from the actors' point of view was a total disdain for what their agents were up to. I heard many of the actors say how their agent had no idea about how to direct.

In the beginning, this in-house process was exclusively used in Los Angeles. The agent who was responsible for all this never reasoned out that he wasn’t going to be the only agent offering this economically illiterate format to the ad agencies. Think about it. If one of this agent's actors was chosen by the advertising agency to do their radio spot, the agent would earn, at 10% in those days, around twenty dollars. A trained monkey could do the math and discover auditioning folks for radio spots was a complete financial disaster. I mean… you can’t turn on a light bulb for twenty bucks, let alone pay a staff member to stand there and direct the talent.

And now here’s the real pretzel logic. The news of the in house auditions spread like wild fire. No one can surpass an actor’s ability to spread word of mouth information.

Overnight, every agent of near substance was in the game.

(As an aside, I was brought into Abrams Rubaloff & Associates, the then industry leader, to build perhaps the very first full service recording facility in Los Angeles. I experienced the actor’s comments first hand.)

The talent had zero reservations about what they felt about the new system. They pointed out to me: New York and Chicago weren't doing in-house auditions. In essence, we were removing the actors from a face-to-face audition with the man who could hire them. The whole idea was unsound. It was foreign territory for everyone involved.

What had begun as a single agent auditioning six, seven, and maybe ten actors for the commercial at hand quickly turned into total warfare between all of the Los Angeles agents submitting talent. Since the advertising agency no longer needed to spend their time setting up their own in-house auditions, they began indiscriminately sending their scripts out to every voice over agent in the city. The so-called initial brainstorm became a tornado of as many as one hundred and fifty or so actors reading for the same role.

The only thing that helped to keep the situation reasonably sane was the time frame. The commercial scripts we were receiving from the advertising people came to us through the mail. In most cases, we had around a week to get the finished audition back to them. It was a bad third-party process. Rarely did I have the opportunity to speak with the person who wrote the commercial we were auditioning.

I mentioned earlier how we recorded on a reel-to-reel setup, using what was known as tape. That’s correct, an actual box containing an audition tape was sent or hand delivered to the advertising agency or production company.

Enter our trained monkey to figure out:

A) The recording tape cost money

B) The box to package the audition in cost money

C) The delivery cost money

On one particular early morning, I was the designated tape box audition deliverer. The advertising agency was in a high-rise building on Wilshire Blvd., an area known as the miracle mile.

It was a common practice to get to an advertising agency office in the AM before they opened and leave our audition package in either their building mailroom or at their front door. In this instance, I chose the front door drop-off. At their door, I counted no less than fourteen jiffy bags, all containing the audition tapes of our competition.

That day served as a very enlightening experience for me.

Our Abrams Rubaloff audition consisted of eight actors. If each of the other fourteen offices had submitted the same number, it meant one hundred and twenty actors were vying for the same radio spot.

As a young and perhaps hopelessly naïve crusader, I attempted explaining the actors' position to AFTRA and also to the Screen Actors Guild; all to no avail. I actually felt I was working on behalf of the actors we represented. Frankly, I felt disheartened over the whole event. I wasn’t guessing. This was plain old-fashioned arithmetic. The handwriting was on the wall.

An actor knows what they’re getting into when they enlist in our subjective life form. But blatant disregard by the agents, who represent you, and the unions you belong to, is the same predicament we’re in with most of our politicians. Talking a good game and playing it are two entirely different things. My exact words to both guilds were the same: “It's not fair for an advertising agency to command subservience by the actor.”(I don’t think they understood what the word subservience means.) The fact is, one hundred and twenty actors got in their cars, and read for a commercial they had very little chance of winning. As I tried to explain to our guilds, “You’re looking at the tip of the iceberg.” Well … it is no longer the tip. Today’s iceberg is buoyed by just about every hamlet privy to electrical current.

The Wonders Of Science

The winds of change were upon us. It took about four years, when, without warning, little brainless electronic conveniences crept up on us. The romance was about to be removed from an entire industry.

The fax machine; we all celebrated.

(Wow, No more slow mail)

The cassette; Wow, we all celebrated. But wait a minute,

We still recorded on tape, but now we were required to transfer to cassette.

Da harv was a little annoyed.

They still sent us the scripts, but now they always seemed to get to us at the last minute.

Da harv was a little annoyed.

Every time I turned around, it seemed like we were all celebrating about one more magic gadget being added to our rapidly growing impersonal attitudes.

Da harv was a little annoyed.

More scripts coming to us faster and faster; we celebrated. So did every agent in the city.

E-MAIL; we all (really) celebrated.

The biggest strike in our history; we commiserated.

No one celebrated.

The home studio; many of the agents no longer do in house auditions. They send the scripts, which are sent to them by e-mail to the actor's home. The agent doesn’t have to go through the audition rain dance.

The winner may be heard celebrating, while nine hundred and ninety nine wonder what the celebration is all about.

But here’s some good news. The economy has forced many of the advertising agencies to reduce their staff size. The number of actors auditioning is beginning to show signs of shrinking. The smaller staff size won’t allow enough time to do all that listening.

I believe we’re experiencing a gentle return to the work of the quality actor. Of course, that’s usually why we’re hired as casting directors. Since the advertising agency is paying us by the hour to cast their voices, it’s a rarity for the numbers of actors we bring in to become of gargantuan proportions. It goes without saying, the smaller the casting call, the higher the degree of talent. We’re hired to find quality acting skills. That is always our intention.

(And) So the universal question, as always; How to become a quality voice over actor? Please stay tuned. I might be able to help.

Workshops & Coaches

In general, actors have the very best handle on the good, the bad, and even the most ugly of what’s out there professing to be the actor’s helper. The larger the city, the more good and bad helpers you will find. I call them the in and outers. These are the folks in our business who find themselves in a struggle to make a living. They turn to coaching.

What I suggest first is the most tried and true method for finding help in a big city like Los Angeles. “Word of mouth.” Actors talk to one another. While advertising can be a marvelous signpost, that’s all it is. Read the sign, and then ask an actor or two if they have had experience with the people whose name appears on the signpost.

The really good workshops have a tendency to stay around for long periods of time. The bad ones disappear quickly. Word of mouth works both ways.

When an actor calls a workshop inquiring about what they have to offer, and his calls are consistently being answered by a machine, and no one gets back to him that very same day - well, for me that isn’t the kind of a place I would like to trust my career to. It may be a workshop that you’re calling about, but it must be run like a business.

For me personally, I wouldn’t think of signing on with a workshop, unless it was recommended by an actor or two whom I respected. Agents are also good authorities on where to go for education. Even if an agent does not represent you, they will usually be amenable when it comes to making workshop suggestions.

Before calling a workshop have your questions prepared in advance. Ask for printed informational material about the workshop you're inquiring about. It’s important to know how long they’ve been in business, as well as their qualifications. How many different kinds of classes do they offer? It’s important for you to be studying with a like group of people. By like, I mean at similar experience levels. What I’m getting at is that you obviously wouldn’t want to be in a beginners voice over workshop group if you happen to be an actor with twenty years of experience in the theater.

Note: In the above paragraph I have bolded the words voice over, because in a variety of theatrical classes, having a novice or two in the group may be a distinct advantage.

The workshop representative should be amenable to giving you a reasonable amount of telephone time. That representative must be knowledgeable. Too often a person who is acting as nothing more than a telephone receptionist will handle your call. When your career is at stake, you should expect a great degree of caring to be displayed by the people running the workshop in question. Never settle for second best. Los Angeles is the home to the finest acting coaches in the world. Just ask another actor. They’ll know where to find them.

TIPS

* Once you sign on and enter a voice over workshop environment, do so with a total commitment.

* Honor your choice of this particular workshop as the very best in the world.

* Consider your ultimate achievement as a process. You are a work in progress (forever).

* Do not expect an overnight epiphany of success.

Every professional musician practices with his or her instrument each and every day. As a voice over artist, your instrument is your voice. Being the best reader in the world will not diminish your chances of success.

Read out loud each and every day. Newspapers and magazines are a must. I’m referring to the articles they contain as opposed to the advertisements. A voice over actor must be comfortable with a cross section of verbiage. Whether you’re interested in an article's subject matter or not, you may one day be called upon to read for a commercial containing the same or similar content as the one you dislike. Your job is to be comfortable with whatever is thrown at you during an audition. The more you practice, the easier it will become. An actor doesn’t have to be a doctor to read medical terminology. Don’t limit yourself.

Good luck!

So, What’s New?

“So, what’s new?” Are you inquiring as to the welfare of my family, or are you asking me, da harv, the casting director, the freelance director, the guy running a school, an office, a recording studio, or just plain Harvey Kalmenson, a man who finds himself, constantly running, like many of his colleagues, trying to keep pace?

Thank you for asking!

The fact is… it doesn’t matter whom the question is being posed to. In my case, everything is tied together. Take my family (please). If you do, be prepared (we be a large one).

The Kalmensons have eleven teachers, and eight engineer / student coordinators, working regularly in our education program. Counting Cathy and myself we have a mission control staff of eight stalwart soldiers, whose responsibilities include everything short of feeding the cat.

Our colleagues come in a variety of shapes, colors and packages; all avowing to our company credo, inspiring folks to seek out excellence, twenty-four hours each and every day. We have twenty-seven members in our hand-picked and personally trained family. It’s nice to be able to choose one's family members, don’t you think?

Seventeen years ago, when we began our long walk, we had the two of us: Cathy in the casting office and da harv going up and back to Burbank, functioning as director and talent coordinator. At the time… I believe we were teaching a total of two classes per week. Our education department consisted of the two of us. The “Kalmenson Method ®,” which had been cultivated many years earlier, began its rebirth, being firmly reestablished throughout our acting community.

Yes, we were confident in our skills as teachers, but we realized a simple fact: without actors, we didn’t have a business. From actor to actor, the word spread.

So, the question was, “What’s new?" The answer? Like many Angelinos, the Kalmensons continue to spar with the same day-to-day economic problems confronting most small business owners. It used to be, as an owner became more experienced, his or her job became easier. Today, I find, I need every drop of experience in order to stay in business. The day-to-day business problems of past years have turned into confrontations for business survival.

But with it all, our ship's sails remain filled by the winds of the enormous creativity our acting community fosters. We have picked our neighborhood, as we have picked our trade, and our staff of players. The romance we enjoy; the creative implementation of vastness unequaled; enjoying verbiage, encountering the nature of what our life’s work presents, is reason enough to celebrate a style more than dreams are made of.

“Style and substance; substance and style.” I could easily explain to a child, we read out loud for a living. Depending on the age of the child would be the determining factor, as to whether or not my explanation would suffice. I might say to an adult, “We’re in the business of helping people.” In this case, the age of the adult I was explaining my vocation to would be of little consequence. “Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.”

For us, Cathy and da harv, what style and substance involve at our stage of the game may be summed up within the meaning of one single word: “integrity.” We are enablers. We develop excellence in others, and we get paid well to do it. We are teachers because people learn from us. If the people didn’t learn, we could not in good conscience be called teachers. And that is the credo shared by each and every one of our colleagues who will be joining us for our Christmas and Hanukkah dinner party.

“So, what’s new,” you ask?
I say, none of the most important things.
At this time of the year, our entire Kalmenson & Kalmenson team takes the opportunity to reunite, convening over a sumptuous repast,
And to toast to all who have added to our blessed welfare during the course of this year past.”

And of course… thank you for asking!
hk

What influenced me to get into this business?

If you hang out long enough, and enjoy even a modicum of success, someone is bound to ask you how you got into this business. “How’d you get your start?” is the usual way the question is posed. Others are perhaps more specific; they’ll ask, “How did you get into voice over?” If it happens to be an actor posing the question, almost without exception they’re asking about your origins, because they’re in search of some secret thing you might offer; a minor morsel of fact, which might serve them as an enabler on their individual road in search of success.

And what constitutes success is a whole other story.

But for now, as is my usual method… I’ll precede to the past in order to generate a reasonable truth about my own beginnings; you know, like reflect.

(If you’ve got a minute or two.)

In the beginning, God didn’t refer to it as “Voice Over.” Often, a community leader (organizer) handled communications; the people didn’t elect him; they were under the impression he had been anointed by God. No voting was allowed. The job required the communicator to do a great deal of shouting, and so it became the natural realm for the man with the most powerful voice. His messages to the villagers were written on huge granite slabs, which were held up by the communicator’s worshipers on each side of the hill he was standing on. In that way, the communicator was able to look like he really knew a great deal about his subject matter. These early prompters were known as “cue slabs.” On occasion, a slave was known to tire and drop one of the slabs. It required the communicator to improvise his speech until a new slave could be brought in as a replacement. This really raised hell for the communicator, as the Stanislavski Method was years away from being invented. In any event, this particular method for selecting a communicator lasted only until the days of radio came along. In actuality, it was only for about four years. Many of the “Village People” stopped paying attention to the communicator and began forming singing groups.

Since recording equipment had not yet been invented, communicators were able to say whatever they pleased. In other words… in the very early days, people accepted what the town communicator (organizer) had to say as the gospel, only to discover following the invention of new and better equipment, that the village communicator was indeed nothing more than a carbon copy of themselves.

Following the invention of the radio, and vast improvements in megaphones (now referred to as microphones), communicator’s voices began to change. In some societies even women became communicators. As a matter of fact, in 1920 women were even given an opportunity to vote. It was initially considered to be a “Noble Experiment.” There was, however, a big difference between the men and the women who ultimately got the jobs. Early newspaper reports one women claiming another women got her job as the village communicator because she became intimate with the mayor. This story was never proved, but the rumor still lingers. It was the era when the now famous colloquialism, “It’s all about who you know,” was established. Many believed women were given the right to vote as the effect of men no longer being permitted to legally drink alcohol for a full year prior to the female voting emancipation.

Did you know?
In the history of the United States, Prohibition, also known as "The Noble Experiment," is the period from 1919 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were banned nationally as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

When I was a kid, there was no such animal as a voice over. We had a thing we all called “acting.”

But even before I uttered the words "act," or "to act," or "be in an act," or "I’m an actor," my environment pushed me in a direction.

Excuse me, but I’m about to be guilty of personal nostalgia sharing. You might agree, personal nostalgia sharing sounds so much more genteel, than me saying how I intend talking about myself.

My aunts and uncles were constantly accusing my mother and father of being overly boastful about what a great child I was. One of my uncles told my father, right in front of me, I might add, “You think your kid is so smart, polite and perfect; he never causes any trouble. He’s a regular angel”. My Dad looked my uncle straight in the eye, and said, right in front of me, I might add, “You finally got something right,” as he began laughing at the poor guy. The descriptive "precocious" was not yet in vogue.

There I was, in the second grade; not yet known as da harv, but never the less, firmly established as our neighborhood communicator. Nobody voted for me, it just happened. Telling people what to do came with my territory. The descriptive, director was not yet in vogue.

One day, my second grade teacher was about to go into shock when she discovered I had disappeared from class. She became aware of my absence because the schoolroom was far quieter than usual.

I wasn’t kidnapped, and I wasn’t playing hooky. I was merely engaged in my earliest presentment. They found me on the ground level of P.S. 233 in a kindergarten class, doing an audiovisual about school safety.

Being in front of those kids, and commanding their attention was an overpowering event for an eight year old. The strange part about the incident, was the fact, I wasn’t going for it. Although it was early in my life, intellectually I was having a blast. Honestly, my memory really won’t serve any further narrative. I know for sure I wasn’t punished. And although I can’t be certain, there’s a good chance, that incident may have stimulated my beginnings.

Acting, teaching and helping people develop within the confines of the subjective art form of their choice, began for me as an eight year old; maybe earlier than that.

Adding to what influenced me, or pushed me towards the voice over world will require some historical notes about my grandma, (my father's mother). While it wasn’t her intent, she contributed to my development without knowing it.

Some kids remember the smells of the wonderful delights being cooked and baked by their grandmas. It was different for me. I vividly remember the sounds. Each of my dad's brothers and sisters (all nine of them) played musical instruments. Oddly enough, there wasn’t any sheet music to sing or play along with. Much of the music was derived from ancient Hebrew chants. The musical notes were passed on from one shtetl (village) to another. The modern music of the day was learned by ear while listening to the radio. A family member would learn a new tune and then pass it on to a brother or sister by playing it for them.

Shtetl rhymes with “kettle.” The German translation: a little town.

My Grandma Ethel was treated as a true matriarch. She was in total control of the family until the day she died. She rarely did any cooking or house cleaning. Her job was to provide the sustenance for her families survival.

Anyone who may have seen “Fiddler on the Roof”, will have an idea of my grandmother's roots. Her father was a village leader. He owned a factory which manufactured saddles for members of the czar’s Cossack cavalry. All went well during her young life until just before the Russian Revolution began, and the ouster of the czar, and an end to her father's saddle business.

Grandma Ethel saw the handwriting on the wall. So in 1903 she packed her belongings and somehow managed for her husband and two children to make it to (as she would say, with her hand over her heart) “The United States of America.” Within the first few years after their arrival to Brooklyn, New York, Grandma found herself in the unlikely position, due to her young husband's death, of being a single parent and responsible for her family's sole support.

(Here’s where the fanfare would be inserted.)

Enter the eight-year-old Harvey Kalmenson. Please don’t get the idea I enjoyed visiting Grandma Ethel. That wasn’t the case at all. In actuality, I was probably afraid of her. That’s not to say I wasn’t learning, by soaking up the environment surrounding this lady of unbelievable strength. Once each week my Dad would say we were going over to visit his mother. It never entered my mind to say no to my father. If I did say no, I probably wouldn’t be here telling you about what influenced me creatively.

There was always someone playing the piano or violin when we arrived. With a mandate set down, each of my nine aunts and uncles were bound to show up. While all this transpired, grandma was usually conducting her business as a translator. She was busily continuing her business of reading and writing letters for many of the neighbors to their relatives in the old country. It was the sounds of all those different languages that got me going. Yes… I really didn’t care about going to see Grandma Ethel, but to this day, she remains one of the most adept linguists I’ve ever come in contact with. I can’t imagine how valuable she would be working at the United Nations. But the most amazing part of relating this story is it’s unlikely reoccurrence.

Each time I’m asked the question about what influenced me, in my mind's eye a picture of the house in Brooklyn, the music playing, the rhythmic chanting, and all those people of foreign extraction coming in and out of the very small apartment grandma lived in during her entire life in the United States. Long after each and every one of her children became prosperous, and she no longer needed to work, she never moved and never stopped doing for others. She had long since stopped charging for her services.

I do believe she had something to do with my life’s direction. I can still hear the sounds. I can still hear her saying to anyone and everyone, “Speak English. We’re in America.” And, oh yes… she had her hand over her heart when she said it.