0064: Make Your Equipment Come To You, Not You To Your Equipment

Raw transcript:

i’d like to ask you to do me a favor the
next time you sit down
to do any sort of recording work whether
it’s on camera
or on microphone before you even begin
i just want you to check one
thing i want you to check
how comfortable you are
and i’ll tell you why in just a moment
on this episode of the vo heroes podcast
[Music]
these days we’re being asked more than
ever
to do work
from home especially when it comes to
auditioning now for voice over people
this has been the norm for a couple of
decades now
the fact that we almost always audition
from home in fact i can’t remember
despite the pandemic i can’t remember
the last time i was actually at a studio
for a an audition for a commercial
audition or any other type of audition
i’ve always been asked
almost exclusively for the last
i don’t know five to ten years
and more and more before that
to do the audition from home it’s
standard order procedure when it comes
to voiceover for on camera people
it’s more and more
the norm and likely will remain the norm
or at least a much higher percentage
once we get through
uh the brunt of the the covid pandemic
and
to that end i want to make sure that you
have the best shot possible at doing
great work
either when you’re auditioning or when
you’re doing actual production work for
a client
and the one thing i want you to check
the next time
you sit down to do a self tape on camera
or to do an audition for voice over in
front of your microphone is to check how
comfortable you are
when you sit or stand or do whatever you
do
to do your work
and the reason i want you to check on
this is because i want you to not have
to worry to remove
from your performance equation the
notion of your equipment
so when i do my work here on camera if
you’re watching this uh a podcast
episode or if you ever hear me
uh when you’re listening to a podcast
episode i’m not at all
straining
to reach my microphone and i’ve had some
clients in the past who’ve set up their
microphone because they have a small
space or because their desk is too low
or too high or their chair is too low or
too high
and they haven’t had enough play in the
desk mic stand that they have or in the
tripod that they use for their camera
and they’ve had to kind of reach
for their equipment either they’ve had
to lean down or they’ve had to reach
forward or they’ve had to reach backward
or
they’ve had to reach up if their chair
is too low or the table is too high
because they can’t get their mic stand
down low enough
and i want you to make sure your
equipment comes to you
not you
going to your equipment
it changes everything about your
performance if you have to strain like
that to actually reach out to your
microphone you know we talk about
the microphones that we teach with the
at2020 usb plus you want to be about
three fingers away from the microphone
and your chin you want to play it nice
and close
and that means being in a position where
the microphone is near your face now if
you have to lean forward to get to the
microphone which a lot of people do
because
either they don’t have room on their
desk for a desk stand or they’ve set up
their mic stand in some way that they
have to sort of seek
that sweet spot go forward or backward
or up or down
i want you to set it up so that the mic
comes to you and mic stands in general
are fairly inexpensive you can get a
roadie mic stand for i don’t know 70 or
80 dollars that’s a boom mic stand that
you can move out of the way move toward
you
lower bring it up and down
the desktop mic stand that we provide to
our students works just fine in most
cases but in some cases it doesn’t
and i want you to have comfort i want
you to have one less thing to worry
about when you audition same thing with
your camera your video camera whether
it’s your webcam or a dslr like i use or
some other camera that you’re using make
sure it’s in a situation and in a
position
so that you don’t have to worry about
where you are in the process yes you
have to be picked up properly just like
you do with a microphone but give
yourself a break
give yourself the ability to be
comfortable with what you do not only do
you deserve it
not only
are you stressed enough having to do
these things at home
but your performance is going to be so
much better if you don’t have to worry
about reaching out towards your gear or
reaching up for your gear or stretching
your back or scrunching down or any of
these things that you need to do
when your microphone isn’t positioned
properly or your camera isn’t positioned
properly and we fly right by this stuff
you know we set up our gear to get
things done if we have to tear it down
because it’s a multi-use area like a
closet where other people use it or a
desk area where we have other things
going on
and we forget our own personal comfort
that comfort is much more important than
you think it is it affects your voice it
affects the way you look at things it
affects the way you’re seen on camera it
affects so many things so i want you to
just take a moment
the next time you
get in position to do any sort of work
whether it’s audition or production work
and just
check it check it before you wreck
record check to see that you’re
comfortable
that you don’t have problems breathing
or reaching or any of those things that
where your equipment is
is the best place for it to be and if it
isn’t
let me know in the comments below if you
need help but if it isn’t
make a change
give yourself a gift
make sure that your gear is where it
needs to be for you to be comfortable
when you’re doing your work
tell me what you think about this
i’ve had so many clients who’ve been
surprised when i’ve said you know it
sounds an awful lot like you’re you’re
reaching or you’re you’re too far away
or well i kind of am because of the way
i have things set up and then we work on
it right
i want you to have that gift okay
if you uh if you like what you’re
hearing here please consider subscribing
to the podcast
uh if you’re on a social media network
smash that like button as hard as you
possibly can because
really you don’t need to use it anymore
after that right uh if you know of an
actor or a voice talent that would
benefit from this please feel free to
forward it and i want to thank you i’m
david h lawrence the second the 17th
and i’d like to thank you for watching
and for listening and i will see you in
the next episode of the vo heroes
podcast
[Music]

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