Voiceover Artists and Animators: Future careers for young teens

I am a firm believer that to be successful in post-production, whether that’s audio, video or animation, you have to continue learning. You have to have the ability to adapt to the changes in technology, helping this form of art progress into the future. I found two interesting articles about post-production; voiceover work and animation.

The first is an after school program for teens launched by Voice Over There and Voicebank.net, encouraging careers in voiceover. They offer a 4 week course and at the end of the term, the students compete for the chane to record a commercial and comedy sketch for a trailer for the company. They currently have 20 schools involved in the program and hope to expand to 60 or more over the next 3 years.

The program not only helps develop public speaking skills but also teaches students about the recording process. I think this is a great way to further expand technology in schools and I can only hope that it would help contribute to music programs in schools. For additional information on the competition, click here

Voicebank.net collaborates with producers, directors, ad agencies, talent agencies, and actors providing a one-stop shop when it comes to voice over talent and booking.
Voice Over There is a mobile voice over booth. Having a mobile booth provides the ability to be on set, recording ADR when the conditions on location cannot capture a quality audio performance.


Continuing on the subject of education, Escape Studios is opening a campus in Los Angeles. They are currently developing their advisory board, which includes members of Pixar and Sony Imageworks.

It seems like more and more these days, college is never enough to actually pursue a career in film, television, audio or even animation. The hope that Escape seems to ignite is mentorship with the instructors and advisory board members, helping develop the future of the animation industry."We pride ourselves on having direct contact with the VFX industry and incorporating their insight and feedback into our training programs," said Dom Davenport, CEO and founder of Escape Studios. "I am delighted to welcome this caliber of industry talent and experience to our advisory board and look forward to working with them to make our US campus the best it can possibly be.

"It's an honor to be part of Escape Studio's advisory board and influence the academy's direction and training offerings, especially when it comes to new VFX and 3D technologies," said John Leonti, the co-head of 3D at The Mill's Los Angeles office. To read more about this, click here

I am excited to see how this campus is able to benefit the future of the animation industry. Maybe they can partner with the voiceover competition for an animated short.

Production Sound and a Greener Initiative.

As I continue into the world of audio post-production, I decided to take a look into the side that provides content to the studio and spend some time in production sound. At UCDenver, I had one class that had some production sound, post production I. I do not have much experience on set, but I think the best way to understand the filmmaking process is to understand what happens in both production and post. Communication is key in making sure projects are completed on time and understanding how your production sound mixer works and organizes tracks will make the post production workflow that much easier.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend a day on set with Paul Marshall, CAS. Paul has been working in production sound since the early 1990’s from documentaries, short films, and television; Paul’s experience expands from being a boom operator, production sound mixer, director and even producer. I had several questions about processes and how things worked from beginning to end or the production process. Paul was great, not only answering my questions but  also providing me with stories and situations explaining why certain measures are taken. Paul’s boom operator is also named Paul, and he gave me some tips on the importance of being detail oriented. Paul and Paul are also business partners who are developing greener solutions for production sets. 

As more and more studios and productions look for way to save on expenses, Paul and his team have developed a greener solution for keeping phones, laptops and other electronic devices charged throughout the shoot, without eating into other power devices, Solar on Set. Their ray catcher is able to catch sunrays and provide solar power to their charging station. They also have it equipped with 4G wifi to provide locations with Internet connectivity, giving even producers the ability to check their email on location. Their website is still in the development phases and will soon look a little different.

Overall, it was a great opportunity to see a production sound team at work and how they are trying to contribute to the greener campaigns many people and companies are now employing.