AMA #2, Episode #3

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and we’re in the midst of an AMA and ask
me anything where I basically say hey
what are your questions I do an awful
lot of talking to you with you for you
about you but I don’t necessarily hear
back other than in the comments which I
absolutely love and respond when needed
but I do love these opportunities to
take questions from you and get feedback
from you and this has been terrific
we’re in the third day I think this will
wrap it up but if we get any stragglers
maybe we’ll do one more episode but for
right now this will this will do it so
we asked you to ask questions about the
business about performing about
equipment about business you know
mindset about me personally and you guys
have come through so let’s get right
down to it
mark David says can you discuss a little
bit about trade or stage names I’ve
heard you should register a trade name
or stage name in the state city town
counties you plan on or are doing
business with what knowledge do you have
on this topic maybe include a link or
site with trustworthy info so no link or
site this is a very clear answer and
that is it depends and I say that
because it depends on where you live it
depends what the laws are and the
regulations are in your town when it
comes to business running a business I
can tell you here in Los Angeles there’s
been an ongoing sort of dispute among
performers about what’s required to
register with the city as a business do
you need a business license do you need
a DBA and then further whether or not
you’re using a loan-out company as your
method of doing business so in my case
nobody pays me directly they pay a
loan-out company that I have put
together that loans me out as a
performer and so my name isn’t
registered anywhere with
with the city the county the state
government you know the federal
government
it’s my loan out company so when you get
to the point in your career where you
could use a loan-out company the best
thing to do is to contact an attorney
who has entertainment experience so they
understand the different forms of
incorporating and what your city state
county etc requires in terms of doing
business legally in those times usually
and again this is not blanket it’s just
in the in the two jurisdictions that I
am familiar with New York and Los
Angeles usually you don’t have to get a
business license because you’re not
providing a product or service that is
taxable so and that may be different
where you are so you know just know that
that’s the case you really do need great
legal and CPA advice and make sure that
your attorney and your CPA are on the
same page make sure that they both have
entertainment experience and experience
with the laws in your marketplace
because you can go to an entertainment
attorney in New York or Los Angeles and
they may not be aware you know if you
live in Paducah Kentucky they don’t know
what padukas rules are what they’re you
know they’re laws and they could look
them up but you might want to contact an
attorney where you live that has some
experience with entertainment and in
terms of the other question that I think
you kind of asked in that you asked
about trademarking your name you can do
that if you’d like I don’t think there’s
any advantage to it but again I am NOT
an attorney I am al I am NOT an attorney
I’m not a lawyer you need to talk to an
attorney about whether or not you have
the requirement to trademark I don’t
think I do and neither does my IP
attorney intellectual property attorney
but that’s my case what I did need a
trademark on was one of the products
that I preferred that I created
rehearsal Pro that has a trademark that
we’ve actually had to defend several
times so yeah so it depends it depends
that’s the answer to your question thank
you for asking mark Bruce andice says I
recently heard you on George witam and
Dan Leonard’s voiceover body shop to
avoid the
over demo mils yes indeed I’ve heard
many other folks say the same thing so
many that I wonder if some of these very
demo mils say it to deflect suspicion so
I hope you’re not saying that that’s why
you think I’m saying it because I
produce demos I will tell you what I
think I am NOT a demo mill I am anything
but a demo mill I would rather have you
keep your money in your wallet
whereas demos that demo Mills that’s how
they make their money by getting as many
people to take money out of their wallet
and give it to them whether they’re
ready to make demos or not as they can
and you continue on you say the problem
is no one ever identifies the bad
players well we did on on that show we
said some very clear names can you give
us some tips on how to separate the
wheat from the chaff I have one very
hard and fast rule it’s a very quick
answer and it’s absolutely the way to
separate the wheat from the chaff if
anybody tries to sell you a package that
says we include demos you’ll have it
done within 30 days or you’ll have it
done within two weeks or you’ll do it
over the weekend or you’ll have it done
within a month or any time period run do
not stick around if they have set a day
stay away that’s my rule
if when they sell you their product or
service they say we will get you your
demo made quickly so you can jump into
the business look when I make demos the
first thing I make sure of is that my
client is ready to make a demo and I am
more than happy to say you know what I’m
not going to take your money today here
are some things that I think you need to
work on and if you want to work with me
we can do that or you can go work with
whoever you want but you’re not ready
and here’s why none of these demo mills
will do that I’ve actually had a woman
who had a neurological condition that
caused her to have a tremor in her voice
asked me if I could help her with her
demo and when I listened to the demo I
thought somebody was unfortunately I’m
not trying to make fun of this woman but
I thought somebody was playing a trick
on me because one of these demo mills I
I just I cannot imagine how that person
at that place slept that night when they
saw her PayPal payment come in did a
demo with her and she will not get work
her tremor is pronounced enough that it
is unfortunately going to remove her
from competition for mainstream work now
you know you can you can say well if
they ever need somebody with a tremor in
their voice yeah yeah it doesn’t usually
happen but that won’t stop a demo mill
from taking her money or your money and
when you think about the fact that many
people who want to make demos are under
the impression that they need to make
them right away or that they should make
them right away that’s one of the
requirements to be a voice over talent
not they should make them when they’re
ready when they’re ready to perform when
they are ready to understand how using a
demo can help them get auditions and
work if anybody says we’re gonna you’re
gonna take voiceover classes over the
weekend by the end of the weekend you’re
gonna have your demo already done that
is the prime definition of a demo mill
and there are some very very popular
casting people in New York and Los
Angeles who will do these sessions over
the weekend and tell you that you’ll
come away with your demo no the
exception is if they make you audition
and if they say ok yes we think you’re
ready but even then they may accept you
even though you have a tremor in your
voice now I’m sure you don’t have a
tremor in your voice Bruce you’ve been
watching my stuff for a long time now
and you’ve been working in the business
but that’s my rule if they’ve set a day
stay away if they give you a date
certain will get your demo done over the
weekend or in a couple of weeks or in a
month and I don’t mean from the time you
start the demo I mean they will do a
demo for you will give you training will
give you equipment will give you a demo
boom you’re done right you’ll be off and
running in a matter of no time that is a
demo mill I offer all of those services
but I make very sure that we don’t do
that work until you’re ready
and that could be a year or two and I’ve
had people who’ve said okay I guess and
been upset I try my best when I talk to
them about it I probably stop you know
20% of my sessions when I start usually
it’s with people that I have not worked
with as a coach and they claim they’re
ready to go but then they can’t really
take direction well or whatever the
point is you have to be willing I have
to be willing as a demo producer to say
look you’re not ready yet
and none of these demo mills are none of
them will say that they’ll go oh we’ve
got your $5,000 already and that
includes a demo let’s do it thank you
for the question Bruce I appreciate it
Mary again
is it Zajac is it zai AK z AJ AC she’s
one of my new pros on V o heroes comm
and I haven’t gotten a definitive
pronunciation of her name yet I’m sure I
should call her and find out hi I’m
responding to your requests for
questions for your AMA my question is
how do you mark your script if you’re
using a PDF scrolling behind your
audacity when recording thank you for
your help so you may not like my answer
my answer is you don’t now there are
people who will mark their script up all
day long and they will say oh yeah no
here’s what you use you can use preview
it’s got like you know boxes and text
boxes and you can put things in as we
teach in all of the courses that deal
with how to deal with scripts cold
reading script analysis of commercials
narration audio books all of the courses
within vo heroes that talk about scripts
we repeat this one mantra over and over
and over again don’t mark up your script
what I do is I keep separate track of
things like pronunciation things like
pickups and so on people who underline
and circle and star you have now doubled
your work this is in my opinion you’ve
now doubled your work when you go back
to narrate or to perform that script not
only do you have to deal with the words
and the story and the character and all
that but now you have to figure out what
you meant
by that circle or that underline or that
star or if you put a pronunciation
nearby you have to kind of Dodge your
eye up to that pronunciation and acquire
it and process it keep those separate
put them separately when I want when I
go in to do anything here in the studio
or when I go in to another studio like
penguin Random House I actually have a
physical piece of paper that I keep off
to the side because I I want my script
to be nice and clean all I want speaking
to me from the script is the story
that’s it and that’s what I recommend
now you can use things like i annotate
you can use things like preview you can
use I think in the in the in the comment
stream that you posted this question on
somebody jumped in and answered the
question that they think here’s what you
should use you can use any of those
things you want my my advice to you is
don’t use any of them you don’t need to
do that you don’t need to mark up your
script I’ve had people who’ve come up to
the mic at workouts and their script is
so heavily laden with stuff that you can
see the marking through the paper
physically through the paper
they’ve underlined it because they’ve
circled it first and then they’ve
underlined it because well what does
that mean they’re gonna emphasize it
does that mean they’re gonna raise their
pitch on it does that mean they have to
go look it up what does that mean I
don’t want to have to do that decoding
as I’m performing the script I just want
the story there and if I need to do
something in terms of pronunciation I’ll
put it on a separate sheet of paper I’ll
put it in a separate file I’ll do
anything I can to keep my script nice
and neat and clean it’s tough enough to
narrate from a script without all the
markup so that’s my advice to you I hope
that doesn’t disappoint you I did give
you a couple of options if you choose
not to take my advice but the idea that
you would mark up your script at all to
me is a mistake it’s a mistake for me I
think it might be a mistake for you you
might find it easier to do your work
without all that junk on your script
that’s that’s my story I thank you for
your question and I look forward you
telling me how to pronounce your last
name is it Zajac like Pat Sajak or is it
Zach that’s how it would be pronounced
in certain languages I don’t know I
can’t wait to find out that’s my
question for you in your ask me anything
Mary and this has been a lot of fun
there have been some questions that come
in that I didn’t get to just a couple
though I figured I don’t want to stretch
this out too far if more questions come
in because of these answers maybe I’ll
do another follow-up after the next
couple of videos that I’m gonna do in
the next day or two but for now I thank
you so much for this AMA it’s been great
great fun I love it and thank you for
not asking me how come you’re so fat how
come you’re so bald how come you’re so
old how come you’re such a blowhard that
happened earlier in the year somebody
sent all of those in one question I got
some questions for you
how come this you know and I you know
just just say to a troll thank you so
much buh-bye okay great so let me know
in your comments below if you have any
any comments on what I’ve been answering
any comments on the questions that have
been asked today if you’d like to be on
our list go down to the very bottom on
vo heroes comm on any page and fill out
the form that says get on the list and
we’d be happy to have you I’m David H
Lawrence the 17th I thank you so much
for asking these great questions and for
watching and I will talk to you tomorrow.