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AMA (Ask Me Anything): Here Are The Answers (Part 3)

Hey there!

As a part of these One A Day videos that I’ve challenged myself with this year, I asked viewers to submit questions for a virtual AMA.

Because I got so many questions, I couldn’t answer them all in one. So this is the third AMA video in the series. In this video, I’m going to answer questions about my hiring practices, what differences I see in on-camera versus voice over performance work, and what kind of mic I use when doing these videos to minimize room noise.

And the answers are…

(link to the shotgun mic I use: https://vo2gogo.com/get-shotgun)


(Click/tap ↑↑↑↑↑↑ that red YouTube button to subscribe to my channel. You’ll get notified when I release new videos.)

Hope this helps!

David

All Episodes

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Raw YouTube Captioning

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
the AMAs keep rolling on I asked you to
ask me anything you want and the
questions just came rolling in so let’s
take a look at a few more answers today
David I was wondering how you found and
chosen the teachers that are a part of
your roster and when you decided to
expand VO to go go to include more than
yourself as a teacher I actually didn’t
go looking for them
I have found that my business has grown
very organically I ran into a situation
within first few years or so where my
production schedule being on shows doing
voiceover and stuff started to pick up
and I wasn’t able to do weekly classes
so I moved them to monthly classes where
I would teach a few at a time in a sort
of all-day thing rather than two hours a
week and then the number of people that
were taking my classes increased to the
point where I couldn’t fit them into the
one room that I was in over on Magnolia
in Burbank I think it’s a Zumba class
now so and and I had known of Trevor he
was my first coach higher he was
excellent in terms of production in
terms of he had assisted me for a while
to begin with and then took over his own
classes and then it was an gang goose’
who has now moved on to do her own stuff
she was awesome
it’s kind of like these people fell into
my life at around the right time I’ve
never actually opened up a position and
asked people to apply or anything like
that
Karen Eileen Gordon is just a rock star
J Rodney Turner Max and Victoria they
just they each bring their own really
special something to the table and it’s
different for every one of them so it’s
interesting because my clients get their
choice of coaching with me coaching with
them and you know some people have their
favorites and they go to them some
people kind of want to go round-robin
and see all the different coaches
picking a new one each month but what I
did look at was their dedication to the
success of my students and clients and
their ownership of that and every single
one of them has made it through a
probationary period they may not know
they had a probationary period but you
know I observe what they do as they
start to coach and what kind of results
they get and what kind of reactions they
get and I’ve been extraordinarily
fortunate that those those choices have
worked out ok so that’s it another
question what do you like best about
on-camera acting that you can’t get in
voiceover and what do you like best
about voiceover that you can’t get on
camera
I’d really don’t see a difference in
fact I teach an entire class on this
called mutual muscles I think that
saying that voice over is different from
on-camera is like saying stage comedy is
different from stage tragedy or that
sitcoms are different from procedurals
or commercials I feel like it’s one huge
ball of performance skills and that when
you get good at one area it’s going to
help you get better at all of the other
areas that you engage in I guess the
only big difference is what I wear to
the to the actual gig and if I have to
shave that’s that’s another part that I
that I worry about but I treat them all
the same in almost every respect I mean
clearly voiceover the difference is as I
say in the class the difference is the
collector device so it’s the microphone
versus the camera and you
learn how to let the camera or let the
microphone or let the live audience if
it’s stage acquire the performance that
tells the story best and I love using my
voice when I’m on camera and I love
using body motions when I’m on mic so I
guess I I don’t see much of a difference
I love both and I hope you don’t look at
that as a cop-out answer that really
that really isn’t my intent I just
that’s how I feel all right another
question in the ask me anything
hit parade what kind of recording
equipment and room processing do you use
for your daily videos in particular how
can you record yourself in a room
without it sounding tinny and echoey
and the truth is is that this room is
treated so it’s more like a studio and
less like just a plain room but I do use
an 8080 65-58 er 6550 it’s a shotgun
microphone and I also use the 88 75 R
which is also an audio technica I love
audio technica microphones I just do I
think they’re really inexpensive for how
good they are and the I think right now
I’m using the 88 75 R it’s just off
camera so it’s right here so there you
go and the room noise isn’t that much to
begin with if there’s anything that I
use a little bit of noise reduction on
it’s the buzz that my older lights have
created I have some lights that are
still incandescent and they have
ballasts or transformers or something
electrical but that’s about the only
thing that I do in terms of leveling you
know when I do my post work I’ve got
another question coming up where people
asked you know what equipment do you use
what processes to use and I’m gonna go
through the whole thing for that but
that’s the only thing that I do i I do a
little tiny bit of noise reduction in
that very limited range of the buzzing
that’s occurring because of the lights
and that’s it I mean I love the 88 75 r
in the 8th
6550 they’re wonderful shotgun
microphones they’re perfect for this
kind of work so yeah there you go um all
right so I think that’s a good amount I
still have a bunch more question so
we’ll do another AMA answers here
tomorrow if you’d like to subscribe to
my channel on YouTube just click on my
head there if there’s no head there then
look for a subscribe button somewhere
below this video I want to see the
latest video episode I’ve done click on
that frame YouTube will play it for you
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and I will talk
to you tomorrow.

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