Posted by Libby Clearfield, Casting Director at Coupe Studios
I recently returned from VO Atlanta, the largest and longest-running voiceover conference that has been going on annually for over a decade, where voiceover talents and professionals from around the world gather for a weekend of breakout sessions, panels, small group workshops, and of course, networking.
I was honored to have been asked by VOA’s CEO J. Michael Collins to lead a breakout session on Commercial VO Casting, as that’s primarily what I’ve been doing here at Coupe for the past 9 years.
I got great feedback and response from my session, but the entire weekend was a tremendous experience for a multitude of reasons:
1) Putting a FACE with the VOICE
I got started in voiceover 11 years ago, after spending the 20 years prior working as an actor and director in theatre and film/TV, and while I built my direct VO talent roster up from approximately 5 to roughly 500, I can probably count on two hands the number of talents I’ve actually met in person over the years. Voiceover can be an isolating business, as most of the time we are alone in our booth talking into a microphone. Occasionally here at Coupe we will have a talent come into the studio to record with us, but since the pandemic, that has been few and far between. So it cannot be underplayed what a significant impact it had on me to be able to put a face and a personality to the people I’ve been listening to for all of these years. It already has helped me be a better casting director, as I can visualize who a person is when thinking of them in a particular role.
2) Meeting other VO professionals
While the large majority of attendees were voice actors, that was not the case for everyone. There were many talent agents, managers, producers, coaches, techies, production houses, studios, and other casting directors, all eager to mingle and impart their pearls of wisdom within this community of voiceover talents. Over the years I have also developed relationships with individuals and groups on this ‘other side of the mic’, and it was again so incredible to be able to meet them in person, as well as meet so many new people in the industry with whom I cannot wait to collaborate.
3) Sessions for everyone
There were sessions devoted to all genres of voiceover — commercials, audiobooks, eLearning, Spanish VO, narration, promo, political, video games, anime, animation, news, dubbing, trailers, automotive, etc. In addition, sessions discussed things like branding, script analysis, creating a demo, how to get an agent, how to have a full-time career in VO, websites, union vs. non-union work, healthcare, recording & editing, improv, and even how to be a parent of a voice actor. Naturally, one of the hot topics was about AI and how to best navigate that somewhat new and somewhat foreboding world. The short version? We’re not letting robots take our jobs! Well, at least not without proper compensation. 🙂
Whew. I’m exhausted just writing down all of the sessions and panels that occurred over the course of a few days. Suffice it to say, I love impressing our clients when I send them totally pro, easy to work with talents who do their homework and don’t cause headaches. My job is to submit only the best people and force our clients to make the difficult decision to only be able to choose one person for their job, and my participation at VO Atlanta left me feeling inspired, excited, and just the right amount of overwhelmed. I believe with the education and awareness that Coupe has of the goings-on within the VO profession, coupled with my personal drive to continue learning and expanding my knowledge and experience, that Coupe Studios is well positioned to continue being one of the most trusted sources for Union and non-union VO talent worldwide.