"Welcome to our company," Anthony Gettig intones. "These are the rules. If you break them, we'll kill you. Click next."
When you think of voice acting, do you picture a studio in Hollywood? How about a closet in Portage? Southwest Michigan has a community of voiceover professionals who get together periodically to talk about the business and polish their skills. Gettig, an established voiceover artist from Lawrence, led one of those sessions this summer.
The group does meet in person, but this gathering was digital. Getting joined the video conference from his home studio, speaking at what was clearly a quality mic.
Gettig’s done voiceovers for companies that sell everything from cars to bottled water to electronics. These days he also does lots of training videos for - yes - new employees. It's called “e-learning,” and Getting says it’s growing fast.
“There is so much e-learning work out there, it’s crazy. I mean seriously, I don’t view anyone a competitor,” he says.
For this meetup, a handful of people have called in from Southwest Michigan. There’s also one in Ann Arbor and a couple from the Detroit area. They’re beginners and veterans, full and part time. And they don’t all do the same work. Josh Gordy specializes in character voicing for web series.
“I was recently cast as the narrator for My Little Pony Abridged,” he says.
Voice actor Scott Melvin says right now he’s mostly working part time, “doing some golf course description videos.”
And Hugh and Francesca Holstine are breaking into the business. They have Marketing Monday, “Training Tuesday and follow-up Fridays,” Francesca says.
Besides e-learning, Gettig says the video game sector is growing, at least modestly. That’s one specialty that might call you to a big city, at least for well-known games.
“Because you’re in a studio with the director and they want to be able to direct you.”
But Gettig says in general, TV narration and commercials are a voice actor’s bread and butter. And for that you can work from home, wherever you live.
“I can tell you for a fact that there are national TV commercials voiced in ppl’s closets,” he adds.
Of course, local companies don’t always use local talent, Scott Melvin says, even when they’re asking you to shop locally.
“’Please come downtown, please come see us,’ and then you hear their commercial: ‘we are on South West Nedge.’”
Of course, to get work, you have to be able to deliver. So after they talk business, the group settles down to practice scripts. Tyler Gotch reads some copy for a product aimed at lawyers.
“If you do patent prosecution, you’ve probably analyzed hundreds of office action rejections,” he reads.
The text is pretty dry, but it’s not as though it can be changed. So Gettig suggests that Gotch picture himself in a conference room talking to “Joe Attorney,” whose life will be helped by this product.
“In fact,” Gettig says, “Give me a little preamble, would you?”
That is, make up some conversation before the script. Gotch begins again.
“We’ve got something that I think is really going to help you out because I know you’ve been having tons of problems in your firms lately,” he tells the imaginary lawyer.
That seems to help with the next read.
“Did anybody else here a difference?” Gettig asks.
“Yes!”
Then there’s a car commercial. Josh Gordy reads:
“Sale priced at nineteen- wow- I was not expecting the number to be that big.”
The figures get just about everyone. But again, the biggest challenge is reading like you mean it. Here’s Gettig directing Francesca Holstine.
Gettig: How do you feel about Toyotas, Francesca?
Holstine: I’m good with Toyota. I prefer Honda, but I’m good with –
Gettig: Toyota’s going to pay you a whole bunch of money to read this, so how much do you love Toyota?
Holstine: Oh, I really love Toyota.
Even for e-learning, Gettig says, companies want relatable narrators.
After two and a half hours together, the group adjourns until next time. Though it’s 9:30 pm, “There’s still work to do,” Gettig says.
