Lauren Dawes : interview

#WritingWednesday - An Interview with Jeremy Cohen - Voice Over Extraordinaire ~ PART TWO

I knew you'd come back to read part two of my interview with Jeremy Cohen! I'm glad you did.

Things are coming to a close with the audio production of Dark Deceit. It's been such a fun process, and with any luck, I'll be able to work with Jeremy again on books two and three. But enough about me, here's part two of the interview with Jeremy Cohen...

1. Explain what a ‘typical’ recording day looks like for you?

As soon as I wake up, hydration begins; probably about 64 oz of water within the first 20 minutes to a half hour. The following hour is spent doing normal morning routine things: shower, shave, dog-walk and a light breakfast. I return, and continue to hydrate while starting my prep work. This prep work is the same for a 150k word book, or a 10 second read for a commercial. I re-read the chapter/chapters I plan on recording that day, noting which characters will be in each chapter and what their emotion level is at the beginning, middle, and end of each chapter. While reading, I will do a few facial and vocal exercises that if done in public, I would be locked in a padded room. I then traverse slowly from the living room to my studio, happily placed on the third floor. While walking slowly, I try to get through a few of my favourite tongue twisters as I can with a pen in my mouth. I make sure to fill up my water bottle to take sips from while recording, boot up the studio, and start rolling.

2. If someone wanted to get into doing narration work, how would they go about that? And do you have any advice to give about the industry?

Can I tell everyone to not do it so there is less competition and more work for me ;) If you want to join the ranks of working VOA’s, my suggestion is to just START. There is no ONE way to break in, you just have to start somewhere. There are countless resources online with some solid guidelines on what to do. First and foremost, get a mic. Any mic. It doesn’t have to be a $3,000 Sennheiser, but you are going to need something to speak into. Then it is important to know two things. It is acting, and it is sales. Most VO will be in your own speaking voice, and you will STILL BE ACTING. As if actors in general don’t experience enough rejection, the sales part is going to have you hearing no more often than not. You will now have a product, and that product is your voice. And you. Want. Customers. Sell it.

Make sure you can package your voice in the best way possible to show that it’s better than the other products for that particular client. 99% of my time is recording demos and sending them out and trying to find new clients, authors, agencies, anything. You get passed over all the time, sometimes, even invited to come back in for a call back, and still not getting the job. If anyone has any specific questions, they can contact my through my website http://www.jeremycohenvo.com. I'd be more than happy to answer a few more specific questions (within reason) and/or direct people to some online resources and perhaps even solid VOA’s or Coaches in their area.

3. Is this your full-time job, or more like just something you do as a hobby?

2 years ago, people would ask me what I do and my response was always they same. I am a production coordinator for national advertisements, and I also do Voice Over. I simply made way more money doing the former, even though my heart was in the latter. Then I made a decision to admit to myself this one thing: I was an actor, and I was going to have to deal with being a starving artist for a little while. Even though I was making little to no money in the beginning, I switched it around saying I AM a voice over artist, and I work production and other small things on the side.

Since that day, my bookings have increased every 3 months, and happily, for the past 6 months, I have paid all of my rent, utilities, and everything to spoil my dog with voice over. It’s currently feast, but the nature of the business is that there will be a time where I will have to go and do other work. And I have no shame in working in a warehouse during the day while still auditioning in the evening waiting for the next booking. Keep’s me grounded, and allows me to meet a variety of people that can actually help influence new characters.

4. Tell me about an awkward/funny/strange/weird moment you’ve had while recording someone’s novel (if any have been had).

I recently was recording a scene and received a phone call from my father, who happens to be a physician, while recording. I finished the scene and returned his call. This is the conversation near verbatim:

Dad: I called you earlier, you didn’t pick up, what’s up?

Me: I was recording, sorry.

Dad: Cool! What were you recording?

Me: A chapter in the book.

Dad: Oh what was going on in the chapter?

Me: (fearful of discussing the true context of the chapter) Just some exposition.

Dad: C’mon Jer, what happened?

Me: You know the characters, uh, were doing things.

Dad: (Pressing) What happened in the chapter Jeremy!?!

Me: I WAS PERFORMING CUNNILINGUS ON THE MICROPHONE DAD, OKAY?!?!?!

Dad: …

Dad: I was walking into a conference with a few other doctors. My phone is apparently louder than we both anticipated

(Side note, I nearly wet myself when I read this!)

5. What is the process for recording and how long does it take on average?

For character work, it’s all the same. Read the copy a few times, figure out: who the character is, who they are talking to, where they are physically, where they are mentally, what they are doing physically. The last part is important for mic placement, if stage directions or exposition state that a character is curled up in the fetal position…I get in the fetal position. If they are swinging a sledge hammer, I pantomime doing so. That can add a bit of time. Sometimes, it also depends on the copy. A page from Shakespeare would take me a little more time than say Nancy Drew. That being said, I think I am pretty slow. I stumble quite a bit. With your book, a pre-cut file is normally about twice as long as the finished cut with all the stumbling, and also a few bathroom breaks from all that hydrating.

6. How many projects do you do throughout a year?

3 years ago. Maybe a dozen. Now, with all the small jobs included, 30-50.

7. Are there any well-known books you’ve narrated and want to brag about?

Dark Deceit, by Lauren Dawes (aww, shucks!)

Well, that's it folks! I hope you enjoyed the interview. I want to thank Jeremy for taking the time to answer my questions, and for putting up with all the other questions I ask him on a daily basis as I go through the recorded files and shoot notes off to him.

Normally, this is where I'd add all the social media links to get in touch with him, but like Batman, his is mysterious and hard to get a hold of. Perhaps you could just shine the Bat Signal up into the sky at night?

~~~~~

Dark Deceit has a tentative release date of November 1st.

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In Audiobooks, Dark Deceit

#WritingWednesday - An Interview with Jeremy Cohen - Voice Over Extraordinaire ~ PART ONE

For those of you who are unaware, I'm currently getting one of my books, Dark Deceit, being made into an audiobook. This has always been a dream of mine, so when the opportunity arose, I jumped on the bastard and held on for dear life!

Fast-forward about two months, and I'm almost nearing the end of the actual narration stage. I've been working closely with my narrator, Jeremy Cohen, and feel like a real working relationship has formed. If this is, in fact one-sided, I feel a little awkward right now. (Jeremy, if you're reading this, say it isn't so!)

As we've chatted, I started to get curious about his work and the whole industry. After much deliberation, I worked up the courage to ask if I could interview him. To my shock, he said yes. To my delight, I found out I was the first person to interview him.

Interview. Cherry. Popped.

I decided to split the interview into two parts, so sit back and enjoy part one of my interview with Jeremy Cohen...

1. Can you tell me a little about how you got into the industry? Was it something you’d always wanted to do, or did you ‘fall into it’?

I started doing accents at a young age. My mother and I could never agree on what to listen to on the radio during long road trips, so to break up the monotony of brake lights and telephone poles, my mother and I would improvise conversations happening between the drivers around us. Fast forward to my years in college. I was getting my degree in Electronic Media, and taking a class called sound for picture, taught by an adjunct professor, whose day job was an engineer at a local recording studio. One project required a us to learn the hardware of a sound board and to record other students doing some VO for a fake commercial. I ended up voicing 4 of the 8 characters in that spot, and the teacher invited me to his studio to record a demo. A week later, I played an excited sports fan waiting to get tickets from a genie….AND, they gave me money for it. I spent the next five years attempting to get into a career more suited to my degree, I wasn’t happy, dropped everything, and did everything I could to do Voice Over.

2. I feel like I know your voice so well, but I have no idea what you look like. Do you enjoy the anonymity that comes along with narration work?

I don’t see my success in the industry to amount to me being able to enjoy the anonymity. However, my experience working in advertising and television in Los Angeles for 6 years does allow me to look forward to the anonymity if I am lucky enough to work on the level of those with celebrity. There is a great documentary available on Netflix called, “I Know That Voice”, which is interviews with some of the juggernauts of animation voice over artists. I cant remember who exactly stated it, during an interview, someone mentioned that they have friends from on-camera-television fame that have become reclusive because every time they leave their house, they are swarmed by fans and paparazzi. But some of these VOA’s that have voice some of the most recognizable cartoons EVER, are able to walk freely with their family around Disney land, sometimes even next to those in costumes of the characters they voice, and everyone is none the wiser, and they are able to lead normal lives. (Mark Hamill is excluded because he made the mistake of being a young Jedi as well as the most iconic animated Joker in Batman the Animated Series).

3. What has been your favorite project to work on to date? Can you tell me why you enjoyed it so much?

This may seem like a cop-out, but my favourite project is always the one I am currently working on because A) it means I am working, and work means I can put food in my dogs bowl, and B) I just enjoy the work, there is a freedom/release that I get from performing and being on the Mic that I can’t get anywhere else. Your book is also so very fun to work on because of the vast array of characters, in both genders, inside a captivating story.

Outside of your book. I was recently hired on by a sketch comedy/variety show in Los Angeles called “Jake and Daryl’s One Woman Show: LIVE”. They had a formidable social media following for a few videos they made for Funny-or-die. They had pitched a few show ideas around town to the networks, getting close but not getting picked up. They took a few of those ideas and made a great live show, a few with introduction videos, which they invited me to voice. One of them being a sketch about what happens after an accidental apocalypse, and another introducing a terrible magician who works at a Casino and Discount Jerkey outlet. First and foremost, they were hilarious scripts, and it was very cool to see or more over, hear my voice being used in a live setting.

4. Do you prefer voicing male or female characters, and why?

I can’t say that I have a preference. It is VERY difficult for any male to voice a convincing female character. That being said, narration does afford me the chance to do female characters, which is fun. Alas, my anatomy does make it so I can make more distinctly unique male voices.

~ ~ ~

Check in next week for part two of my interview with Jeremy Cohen! What's it going to entail? My lips are sealed, but if they were to slip open, I would tell you he'll cover how to get into the industry, what his process is and also about a very funny and slightly embarrassing phone call with his dad. I do believe my book was the culprit for this too.