Sample reel advice

[gentle fiber]

So i recently made my first sample reel ever and so i was wondering if theres anything that i might have missed adding or any crituqes on the audio or editing of the audio

[north ocean]

Well, because it's a sample, no one really expects much from it. It really is just a taste of what you've got right now. Is there anything in particular that you're worried about?

[gentle fiber]

I think initially when I posted this i was worried about not knowing how to do something like this in terms of making the audio sound good and giving a good first impression of things when sending to someone, more so now knowing that I’ve listened back to it plenty of times I think im worried more about not showing enough emotion throughout what I initially did

[north ocean]

Ooh, it's good that you've reflected on it on your own time. Don't stop doing that.

I can see that. What's your performance background? Any acting training/experience at all, or are you relatively new to all of this?

[north ocean]

Without any info, I'd agree that this comes across as if you don't care about any of the segments. Or, more specifically, like your care is misplaced. Based in delivering things you like/would want to be cast in, the way you like them, rather than serving the specific people and contexts in these scenes. Problem with that is (and I'm about to sound like a broken record lol), trying to sound a certain way, pretty much never works, because acting is fundamentally about truth, in order to convey things effectively, it really comes down to being able to genuinely access them for yourself. And that has to come from the inside out. That's why some of the first things most (good) acting training covers are ways to first know and be yourself freely, and then methods for creating clear characters and scenes to stick to, rather than chasing a solid external delivery. Just trying to sound like something will usually have the opposite effect, because it feels so disingenuous. "Sound" is a byproduct of "performance", not a goal in and of itself. If you chase it directly, it rings false. It's the same reason why people who try to be funny aren't.

You've clearly put thought into your delivery. You know the intention behind your choices—That’s important, but as the audience, we don’t have access to that same context to guide how we perceive these. We only hear the final product. We can only engage with what you give us. If the focus is primarily on sound and technique without personal investment in the material, the emotional depth gets lost.

Ask yourself: Do I actually care about what I’m saying/doing for its own sake? Or am I trying to leave an impression on someone? Because if you don’t care beyond a sound, the audience won’t either.

[gentle fiber]

I was in one play in high school, and I was in opera choir all my life I’ve only gotten in to voice acting fairly recently but I’ve read through this twice now because I truly do understand what your saying , this is in fact something I’ve wanted, I’ve only been at it a few months and I think I was just trying to recreate a certain sound , and of course I care about how im saying it instead of caring about what I am saying if that makes sense

[solid meadow]

Oh lawdy! Umm... @gentle fiber.... are you aware that you are now level 2? You're getting closer to... um.....
.................

[north ocean]

I hope it's cool if I use this as a reference, I'll delete it if not, but in this clip, I see someone who cares a lot. Even if the delivery itself is monotone, because even though other people are technically watching. It feels like you're letting yourself do it for yourself. It feels like you're allowing yourself to just be in the moment. https://www.tiktok.com/@wavestorm20/video/7271426022761975082

[solid meadow]

Oh lawdy! Umm... @north ocean.... are you aware that you are now level 9? You're getting closer to... um.....
.................

[north ocean]

I keep forgetting to reply, but here, too.

https://www.tiktok.com/@wavestorm20/video/7170092733804154154

It says it's 'not allowed', but I don't think I'm ever gonna stop.

[gentle fiber]

I also kinda think I have just a monotone voice 😅, but it’s no worries and your honestly really goated for that because I see what your saying, because I did have fun when I was doing all that instead of treating it like a job , which is what I feel I’ve been doing with VO because I want to truly make a career out of it so I’ve been putting a kind of pressure on myself over it

[north ocean]

Been there man. And to be clear, I mentioned the monotone delivery on that one specifically just to show that it was more engaging than the scenes themselves, regardless, because it felt like you were just being yourself. And yeah, it's just the sucky part of the journey most of us have to go through at some point. And it's so easy to do! You don't even realize just how much you're putting on yourself until someone else mentions it.

[gentle fiber]

I see what your saying, and I appreciate your feed back man i was just gonna forget i even posted this but I think you’ve really opened my eyes to something’s so thank you

But then this might be to broad of a question how would I going forward put myself into the character more if casting director is looking for a certain thing or is that more so something I’ll learn more as I go

[north ocean]

Yeah, as you spend time with it, you're gonna discover what really works and doesn't for you, but what I always recommend is asking/answering questions like:

Who am I/What is my relationship to___

Where am I?

What do I want/need?

How will I try to get it?

What will happen if I don't get it?

What is it specifically that I feel about who I am, where I am, and/or what I'm doing? What specifically do I feel about whoever else is in the scene? Where they are? What they're doing?

Reason being:
Specificity breeds details – when you know what you’re feeling and what you’re feeling about/reacting to, then your creative mind has a clear direction to explore.

You can also try Active Endowments. If I say, “I love cats,” I’m just emoting in a conversation. If I say, “I love this cat,” I’m emotionally reacting. If we make the object of our emotion active in the scene – actually tangible/observable/repeatable in our heads – then we have something to react to instead of just talk about. Also, active elements keep us physically active – it’s much harder to sit still when you love this cat than to sit in a chair and talk about loving cats. The same is true for your characters.

It might also help to consider situational effects – The impact that success or failure of a particular circumstance’s efforts portend to have on characters’ feelings. “We have five minutes to defuse this bomb or we’re dead.”/ “I don’t want to die!”

And the biggest thing, usually, casting personnel have an idea they want to explore, but almost none of them really know what they want until they have it. Almost all of us have at least one story of a read that we personally hated being what got chosen. Your job isn't to read their minds, but just to make strong choices, to show them what makes sense to you, how you go about things, how you make decisions, all that.