Every job we do, every audition, it can be easy to become emotionally attached to the work. But, in reality, you have to let it go. You'll thank me later.
You can't get attached, you just can't. Here's why. - 5:22
Hey guys, thanks for joining me for another edition of The Gift of Gab today. Let's talk about voice over work and emotional attachments. Don't do it. Just don't. Don't get attached, okay? I know you want to. I know, I know that you really, really do. But trust me.
Okay, what am I talking about? It is an inevitable part of what we do. We are emotional creatures. Actors are emotional creatures. We get emotionally invested in what we are doing. The problem is we can't. Let's take it way back. Does anybody remember this video, the video that was pretty infamous from a long time ago? Yeah, it kind of has to do with that. You have to separate yourself from the work that we do because, guess what? It's not yours. It's not you. You don't own it. It's not your intellectual property. You didn't create it. You didn't write it. You didn't make it. Yes, you were a part of it, but 90% of the stuff that we do as voice actors, we are not that intrinsically tied to. There's a 10% where, yes, I think the actors become more pivotal. And these are your animations and your long-form, long-term projects that you really become an intense part of the character development. But those are few and far between. Most of what we do is short-term, it's quick, it's fast. We're in and we're out, right? Within a couple of weeks, you even sort of forget the job details. Hell, for me, it's within a couple of days, sometimes within a few hours because I've trained myself that way. You don't get emotionally attached to the thing that you're doing. And here's why.
Most of the time, the choices that you make, the things that you do to book the job, the decisions you make in the audition that actually get the client's interest in you and get you booked, they completely obliterate inside of the actual session. They change their mind. They loved what you did, but then they go, "No, no, no, no, no. We want to do it this way." And unfortunately, in a lot of sessions, it gets taken up to committee. You have anywhere from three to ten people all throwing directions at you, all giving you instructions, all telling you different things to do, all at the same time. And inevitably, they start telling you really dumb contradictory things where you don't agree with the choices that they're now making and the stylistic and creative decisions that they want to make. But guess what? It's not your decision. It wasn't your decision from the beginning. It's their decision. It always has been. So you suck it up and you do what they want. And it hurts a little bit. It can be kind of painful, for lack of a better way to put it. We get a little butt hurt because we want it to go a certain way. We want to feel like we had that input or we had that creative input into the material. But we really don't. We don't. It's not ours. So separate yourself from it a bit emotionally. Know that what you're going to do in that audition, to show what you can do as an actor, to show how much you bring to the table and what you can bring to the project, might be completely disregarded inside of the session. And ultimately, that's okay. It's the client's job. It's their money. It's their baby. And whatever decisions they make, they make. And that end product is not up to you. It's up to them. And if they are happy with it and you are getting paid for it, then by proxy, you should be happy too. That's all that really matters. And you move on. And you move on to the next project. And you hope that it goes a little bit differently. But don't be surprised if it doesn't, okay?
More often than not, clients make some weird choices that contradict and counter a lot of what we as voice actors, and even voice actors and coaches talk about as the artistry of voiceover. Okay? Don't let that get you down. Don't let it defeat you. Don't let it impact what you're doing. I want you to keep your heart in it, but know when it should be in it and when to kind of let it go and emotionally separate yourself from what you're doing. Okay? Thanks so much for watching, guys. If you want more tips like this, if you need some help with what you're doing in the booth, with your booking ratio, with the kinds of decisions that you're making in session, and how to improve in the booth, let me know. Reach out. Let's get together. Let's do a class. Let's see if we can't get you in better shape. Thanks so much for watching. Bye.
704-674-8294 / GabrielleNistico.com / gabby@voiceovervixen.com
Gabrielle Nistico, Gabby Nistico, The Voiceover Vixen, The Business First VO Coach, #VoiceoverVixen #VoiceOnFire #BusinessFirstVOCoach Voiceover, Charlotte, North Carolina, Voiceover Demo, Voiceover Coaching Advice, Working Actors, Los Angeles, New York, audio, coaching