Voice Over Coach Michael Minetree...
Learn the Voice Over Craft from One of the Best
When it comes to coaching voice over. I like to take a realistic approach, teaching in a fashion my students can understand. After all I'm working in voiceovers. I make no bones about sharing my experiences and mistakes with my students so they in turn don't make them. I'm on the phone daily with producers, listening to their concerns. I'm holding ISDN and phone patch sessions on a regular basis. Each day I'm sent copy from around the country and sometimes the world. I go through the same struggles all the time that my students will be facing. And I share those stories, along with tenured guidance, with my students. Real voiceover training, from a real voiceover guy. Someone who has not just been there - but is there. When it comes to coaching, These are the things I try my hardest to bring to the table.
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I take my students on a journey through the studios, agencies and unions. Through classes on digital audio editing and commercial production. I consult my students on each and every aspect of the business. I do this to prepare them for the reality of trying to work in voice over, rather than fill them with hopes and dreams about some mystical potential. Reason being, potential doesn't pay bills. Yes the potential to make a lot of money is there, and after lessons at MineWurx Studio, you will have a full understanding of what it takes to achieve it.
I started getting professional voice over work in 1994 with my first set of commercials for a doctor named Whitten who performed a then relatively unknown procedure known as Lasik. The doctor went on to bigger and better things, like performing his surgery on Tiger Woods, after which his career exploded, as did mine and Tiger's. I would like to accept responsibility for their success, but oddly enough, neither has called to thank me. I then went on into industrial narration, political and commercial work in both the New York and Washington Baltimore markets. While in New York I attended Broadcast School. Then I ended up back in Washington with my first radio job working for Metro Shadow Westwood One. A few years later I finished my recording studio, MineWurx, where I now teach new voice talent how to break into the market and properly say the word W.
I started my voice over training in late 1992, working one on one with a voice coach for several hours a week. I continued that training for close to two years. It was a rather conservative coaching style. After a while I wanted more, so I moved to New York to find out about the next level. During a brief relationship with William Morris, I learned more about the acting and the character work involved in voice over. While attending Broadcast School I learned more about the internal operations of the radio and television business, which led me to working in radio in the Washington market. I have since left commercial radio and now work full time in the studio.
After a decade working with studios, voice talent, producers, agents, audio engineers and radio people, I have been fortunate enough to gain quite a bit of experience. I have taken that experience along with my voiceover talent, and used it to make me a better talent in the studio as well as an all around production guy.
I thirst for this stuff. You have to love it or there is no sense in doing it. VO is a lifestyle, as well as a craft.
It's funny, but I was going through some old documents and I came across a letter I wrote in response to some one who asked a few questions about getting started in voice overs. For those of you who would like to get to know me better, I figured this served as a good demonstration of who I am and how I like to do things. Fact is I care. Maybe too much. It'l probably be the death of me. I just thought it was interesting because even I was surprised by how much time I took to write a complete stranger.
Here is the letter:
Rick, thanks for your interest, and you have some valid questions. I think when getting started in VO, the biggest thing is the training. All of the opportunities to do VO work will come later on once a person is well versed in the craft. This usually takes time. For some it takes years of practice, before they develop that "commercial sound". Some people are hired right away for their voice, while others have to fight a little harder to get into it. Yes, in the real world, most voice opportunities come in the middle of the work day.
Being a talent in the Washington/Baltimore market for years now, I see most jobs for "the Big Stuff" (local radio, television, narration) mostly come up during the business day. Don't let this turn you off to the idea, because right away, these are not going to be jobs you'll be competing for. It takes time to get to a caliber of performance before you would be out in that market, so don't worry about it right away.
The recommended path is start training (3 to 6 months), most of my students stay with me a minimum of 20 weeks. Then go into the demo phase of your plan. From conception, to recording, to post production (printing, labeling, duplication) the process usually takes 4 to 8 weeks. So when you lump all that together, most people who go through the process spend 3/4 of a year getting ready to market themselves. Even after all this, you would still be a little green in the studio, which only goes away with exposure and practice. All this being said, you would have some time to reflect on your career path, and if there is a possibility you may make some sort of life change in an effort to pursue the business.
This is the most traditional method of getting into voice work. There are, however, some new and ever increasing opportunities to do this work from home, as the internet and digital production are growing every day, and a new market place for voice work is emerging as I am writing this.
There are more jobs for voice work, offered to me daily via internet voice banks, than the have ever been by traditional means. I joined voice123.com a year ago, and have booked more jobs from it doing nothing, than running all over town trying to get in front of the producers here in D.C. Benefit: You can do the work from home, on your schedule, and don't have to modify your current career choice at all.
This is one of the cool things about the internet jobs that come up. Granted most of them are low paying, non-broadcast type jobs, there are some big national jobs that come out of it. I just finished a big narration project the other day, and all I had to do was pick up the phone.. I can explain that in depth at another time.
As far as my coaching style, no two people are the same, and each needs a different type of motivation to get with the program. I take a very slow, methodical approach to teaching the lessons of reading, interpretation, pacing, breathing, inflection. Each person gets training which is fit to their own needs. There is no "cookie cutter" approach. My lesson times are flexible. I hold most of my sessions at night, as many of my students work like yourself, I also set aside Thursdays, and start lessons at 9am and go to 9pm. Sometimes I fit them in on the weekend (Sat.) if that's what it takes. I have several different "packages" which are all paid in advance. If a student misses a lesson, the lesson is moved up to the next week, so there is no loss of session time. Every now and then, I have a gig, and I might have to bump a class in order to make it, so I ask for that flexibility in return...
Everything else about my lessons I tend to reserve for active students, so I hope I have given you some more info. I would like to schedule an evaluation session with you, at no cost, so I can get a better feel for your specific needs and talents, and so that you can get a better idea of the process and see if it is something you would like to pursue further. Once again, thanks for you interest, I look forward to hearing from you. Michael Minetree MineWurx Studio 703-293-6213
