Comments

• 

  Alexis Serrano March 9, 2010 at 12:56pm

  That's very helpful thank you Mr. Halfyard.
  
  Alexis
• 

  Brent Halfyard March 9, 2010 at 12:46pm

  I have been working on my 'interactive' gaming demo for some time. At first it was full of crazy characters, which I later discovered from the wise Pat Fraley, that is not what the industry wants. Two words: Bone real. Real performances with good scripts and believable scenes created in which your character might find himself. Voice with age and emotion as opposed to characters. I would throw in one or maybe two character style voices, but for the rest stick to real people, its all about acting, not how many voices you can do. This is the advice i got from Pat and I am still working on this demo! 8-10 sec max for each character, 60 sec total, and not too many SFX- keep the voice prominent.
• 

  Ken Maxon March 9, 2010 at 12:39pm

  Al, thank you. That was just the laugh I needed today and laughter is the best medicine, even when you are already feeling good. To me, marketing is about socialization. It's not as much what you know as it is who you know. I read back through the recent posts and I see a lot of marketing going on. We learned that one of our own made the big time. Sure, it may have been a small part, but she will be forever on people's video shelves achieving immortality. There are no small parts, only small actors I believe is how it's said. She went into detail about her resume a bit more, which hopefully taught some of us about people skils. It was a consise explaination that also dealt with some personal interjections about why she took the role. I personally learned something about marketing myself from that. From Al's comment (the 1st one), I saw an uplifting statement that quantified the previous ones. But that's just me, what do I know? :)
• 

  AL B Conahan March 9, 2010 at 12:27pm

  Ignore that man behind the curtain.
• 

  AL B Conahan March 9, 2010 at 12:04pm

  Yes, the great thing about productions is...you have a lot of fun, meet interesting people, get to work with real pros, get a free haircut, they feed you well and then wowsers, they pay you. Is this as a good as it gets? Well Yeh!!!
• 

  Ken Maxon March 9, 2010 at 12:03pm

  That was nice of you to do it for your dad. I would hope my daughter would do that for me as I'm a ST fan myself, lol. I don't know the names of the companies, but there are 3 major video game producers in the Raleigh, NC area. I would hope that in this day and age, they do at least some of the work via the internet. hopefully it helps you on your journey! I haven't been seking the video game market because I was raised on Atari...
• 

  Alexis Serrano March 9, 2010 at 11:45am

  I was cast originally cast as an extra Vulcan student in the last ST film. I really did not want to do it because I had to cut my hair and shave my eyebrows but my dad likes Star Trek so I did it for him. When they did my hair and cast my ears I was sitting next to the green girl, with red hair she was really nice.
  
  A few of the kids were given lines for the scene in the Vulcan school where little Spock gets picked on. I did the scene in the bowl shaped classroom and some background shots when Spock is getting picked on.
  
  For the class room bowl scene they used the executive producer's daughter in the close up but its my voice. If you look at that shot you can see the words don't even match what she is saying. I'm prob. in the movie for 6 seconds but have the contract so I'm claiming it. :)
  
  I was a disappointed that I got so little time on screen and I did not get in the credits (I was officially Vuclan Student #3) but I got a SAG Taft Harltey waiver that made me SAG eligible and two days at the SAG daily rate plus the brownies at the craft table were soo good! And I got to go to the cast / crew Christmas party at Paramount.
  
  If you ever see the behind the scenes part of the DVD I am the girl getting the ears put on in the Vulcan make up segment.
  
  Your the first person to ask about that thanks, and Its nice of you to share your experience with VO contacts.
  Alexis
• 

  Alexis Serrano March 9, 2010 at 12:37am

  Thanks for the tips I appreciate it.
  
  Alexis
• 

  Alexis Serrano March 9, 2010 at 12:01am

  Mr. Simmons,
  What sort of demo do you need for going after gaming markets? Is it similar to an animation demo or is it different?
  
  Also how do you establish game developer and casting director contacts when your new?
  
  Thank you,
  Alexis
• 

  Mike Forrester March 8, 2010 at 9:44pm

  I hear you guys on SPEC spots and "possible future work". Just finished a couple of auditions for stuff on Voice123 or was it Voices? anyway my success rate with those sites is low-low-low. It's not the websites fault, but someone must be getting those gigs for $50 bucks or some-such.
  
  Gotta keep up the cold calls and the call-backs....it's a tough world. Speaking of marketing anyone know a good agent?