Collaborative Brilliance with Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown has had a successful on-camera career, but he continues to put himself in rooms with people like me, so during Class 78 at Blumvox Studios I asked him a few questions about…
A.I. Can Kill Your Career!
If you know me at all, you know that I do my best to offer positive, useful information about the Voiceover Industry. Plain facts. No drama. But…
A Cautionary Note for Aspiring Voice Actors
We live in a time of increasingly predatory online practices, and the Voiceover Teaching world is no different. Please protect yourself and your investment, by making sure you do…
Tipping Over Into Voiceover with Anjali Bhimani
Anjali Bhimani is a true triple threat. She comes to us from the world of theater, film and TV and has taken the gaming world by storm.
Whose Role Is It Anyway?
It’s not your role unless you wrote it and/or own it. It’s a hard truth to swallow, especially if you’ve been playing a role for a while and even more so if fans love you doing it!
When Am I Going to Make a Living Doing Voiceover?
“When am I going to make a living doing Voiceover?” It’s a question I see and hear often! Most seasoned VA’s will tell you the same thing as I will here.
Vent Carefully
I’m often asked to record characters that scream, growl, roar, or simply speak very loudly. In this blog I’m going to discuss what the effects of that are on the body, and why it’s important to be careful and look after your instrument.
Tech and Tech #3
Recorded October 2021 during the live Bonus Class offered to Teaching Series Members. Agents: “Is it okay to have more than one? I would like to have a local Agent and then look for one that’s out of state in another market.”
Location Location Location!
One of the most common reasons people think they can’t succeed in Voiceover is: “Where I live”. I can’t express how many times I’ve heard “I wish I could get into Voiceover but I don’t live in the right place”,
Grey Matters
I was lucky enough to spend an evening with the gregariously delightful Grey DeLisle Griffin. Enjoy this excerpt from Class 55, where Grey shared her life, wisdom, and lots of laughs, so that others might learn and grow.
Hale and Hearty Wisdom with Jennifer Hale
The following is an excerpt from Class # 53 with the incomparable Jennifer Hale: On Change and Being Flexible- Steve: We often talk about the need to be flexible and to be able to constantly adapt in this business. How has work changed for you in a positive way during this time and do you think that that’s going to affect you moving forward?
Tech and Tech
There are a lot of different things you can do depending on how clever you are and how much room you have. You can build a little booth out of just PVC and moving blankets and that’s pretty effective if you don’t have too much ambient noise outside – like you don’t have a lot of people running around the house and dogs barking, things like that.
Matthew Mercer: Critical Role and Mental Health
My mom wrote for Burt Reynolds productions, which is why my family moved to California in the first place. That show didn’t last too long though, and there were a lot of challenges for her from that point forward – a lot of projects that fell through. My dad was a gig musician, but his real job was an audio engineer for various companies.What inspired me was their example of creativity as a passion. As something that you can’t…
50 Classes: Beyond the Vision
Hey fam. So… we just completed our 50th class. A few years ago, to me and my partner Trina, Blumvox Studios was nothing more than a dream. Trina saw the vision, but to me it was a seemingly insurmountable, nebulous, foray into the unknown. After the first three decades in the business and almost 6 decades on the planet…
Mastering the Story with LeVar Burton
Mastering the Story was the title of our 47th Class in my Teaching Series, and how appropriate it was to have a true Master of the Story – LeVar Burton – join us in class that night. Below is an excerpt from that well- spent time with a man who’s inspired me for decades – one filled with wonder, gratitude and insight from a Master Storyteller and a magnificent Human Being.
Recalibration
In past blogs, I embraced the change and just took it in stride, using my trusty tools to negotiate it all. I made it through without too many scars, but these last several months in quarantine, it’s gone to an entirely different level…
What’s in Your Voiceover Toolbox?
As with any gig, creative or otherwise, having the right tool for the job can save you incredible amounts of time, stress and money. The thing is, you have to assemble them, learn to use them, and take care of them!
When Reality Literally Bites!
A couple of weeks ago I was bitten on the toe by a black widow spider. I had to go to the emergency room. My foot swelled up with infection to the point that I couldn’t wear shoes. Three days later I was stung by a bee. My thumb swelled up so big it was hard to hold anything with my right hand. That same week my Pro Tools began to freeze, my email stopped working properly and the bluetooth powering…
Making a Demo That Rocks!
I consider Chuck Duran of Demos That Rock to be the greatest living demo producer out there, he’s literally the guy who makes it happen for many of us. I’ve been fortunate enough to have two of my demos done with Chuck, and I intend to do many more with him in the future. I always tell my students when it comes to …
My 10 tips for How to Become a Voice Actor
Many people have asked me simply, “How can I become a voice actor?” and there is no simple switch to make it happen. However, there are key tips and tricks that can help you be more successful in your endeavors.
The F Word Equation | Failure – Fear = Freedom|
Let’s talk about the F words which are too often shunned by society – Failure and Fear. These emotions are a natural part of daily life and are usually associated with negative connotations, though I promise you they are each powerful teachers that can allow you to be a stronger person. In fact, you can’t succeed …
Expansion
If you’re reading this in the spring of 2020, you’re also currently experiencing one of the most unique and trying times in our history. If you’re reading this in the future, a) I’m glad you survived and b) I sincerely hope you’re better for it and that you used this time to expand rather than to contract. As I write this, it’s about 5pm pst, Friday, March 27. We’ve officially been on lockdown in California for a . . .
Celebration
Celebration isn’t something we normally associate with learning how to be a voice actor, but a year ago I dedicated an entire class to it. It’s something that’s easily passed over when you’re working hard to build a career, and sometimes it’s even completely forgotten! Here at Blumvox Studios, we have a lot to celebrate. Our original goal was …
Charlie Adler- Acting, Failing, and Overcoming Fear
Charley Adler: I didn’t start out as a voice actor, I started as an actor in the theater in New York. I would wake up in the morning, do 2 radio spots, shoot a commercial, make it to the theatre and then go sing in a club that night, then be flown out to LA to screen test for something. There was no label, I was just an actor. Then, around 1983, when I started coming out to LA …
How Do I Get An Agent?
As part of our new Special Guest Voiceover Teaching Series, we brought in Larry Reiss, from my Agent’s Office – Arlene Thornton & Associates. Arlene has been my Agent for the better part of 15 years and Larry has vast experience in casting, engineering and directing. Larry has been a …
Integrity and Taking Responsibility
There’s one thing you’ll figure out quickly when you decide to learn Voiceover. The voiceover business and the entertainment business in general can be wildly unpredictable. At times it seems like an endless marathon of hoops you have to keep jumping through, just to get noticed, let alone to thrive. This may seem counter-intuitive, but …
Marketing and Voiceover Jobs
Long before we had the internet, if we wanted to get a job in voiceover we had to market ourselves the “old-fashioned” way. At the time I got in it was all about submitting cassette tapes. Not long after that, it went to CDs, which you did if you wanted to get noticed. We paid A LOT in postage for mass mailings …
Confidence and Self Care in Your Voiceover Career
Your health – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually – can affect your ability to perform. In life, relationships, work and yes, even in your voiceover career. Simply put, when you feel good, you’re better able to express yourself. When I suggest to my students to let go of the fear and judgment they’ve been carrying around . . .
Voiceover and the Importance of Trust
We’re called upon to trust often in the voiceover business. Trust the process, trust that our teachers aren’t full of crap, trust that if we do the work, something will come of it. We need to Trust that we’ll be remembered when we’re great and not forgotten when …
Karabast Star Wars! It’s Over!
So I recently wrapped one my favorite shows ever, Star Wars Rebels. This year marked the 4th and final season of an incredible odyssey, and the opportunity for me to play in a universe I loved as a kid, though I couldn’t possibly have imagined “growing up” to become a …
The Many Lives of A Voiceover Artist
Steve recently sat down with the amazing folks over at Sideshow Collectibles, the dream team that bring your favorite characters to life in real, 3D form. Sideshow…
Holistic Care of Your Instrument
You have to understand the importance of taking care of your instrument. There are some great products that I recommend that can help you maintain the health of your voice. For those of you not in class with me we have a list of product recommendations on the website. I talk alot in Class about the importance of diet, exercise, rest, rejuvenation. You might think …
Making Friends With Your Voice
When it comes to Voice Acting, making friends with your own voice is an extension of self-love. It’s one of the reasons I chose that topic as a Blumvox Studios Community Facebook challenge back in March 2018! By the way, thank you to all who participated. It ain’t easy, so pat yourselves on the back for your bravery!
The 20th Anniversary of Cowboy Bebop
In the beginning, Bebop was the scariest thing I’d ever done. I was certain they’d cast the wrong guy and I had a ton of personal stuff to work through including feeling like I was gonna throw up or worse the first day of recording. I talk a lot about this with the students in my VoiceOver class because I didn’t feel worthy of the part. That happens to a lot of new Voice Actors, and …
Meditation
There are a lot of ways we can learn to relax more. It doesn’t have to be a Mai Tai on the Beach (though there’s nothing wrong with that!). You can find ways to relax in traffic, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, while being buffeted around by the world. Honestly, I think that’s integral to surviving this thing called life…
Me and My Friend Logic
I got into voiceover cause I loved doing voices. I’ve done them my whole life and especially when my kids were little. If you’d told me back then that I’d not only be doing this for a living one day but that this career would lead me into inspirational speaking, teaching voiceover classes, and talking to thousands of people about things other than cartoons and comic book characters, I would have thought you were crazy!
Before Voice Over Classes – Get Confident!
Before you ever even get into any of the technique or the performance aspect of voice acting, building your confidence is a critical thing you really need to be able to do. At the very least you need to have a game plan for how to manage yourself if that confidence is lacking and you have to perform anyway. When you’re learning how to become a voiceover artist, confidence is one of the fundamental things that can make or break you.
Take a Risk! – A Voiceover Must!
My risk-taking journey began when I was a starving musician during the ‘80s, playing in an R&B band opening for heavy metal acts. As you might imagine that wasn’t going well, but I thought that’s what I really wanted to do. I wanted something different and exciting, and to me that was both of those things. I had to support myself, so …
When it comes to Voiceover, Sometimes Failure Is Success!
If you ask any successful person in voiceover, they’ll tell you that they’ve failed way more than they’ve succeeded. In fact, if you don’t fail how are you going to succeed? One cannot happen without the other, it’s like the dark side and the light side. They go hand-in-hand. I failed many times to get to this point. I’m probably going to fail again many times before …
Blum Room Excerpt – Questions from the audience on Steve Blum’s Voiceover Career and Life!
So I know a lot of you don’t have a chance to go to conventions or aren’t in my voiceover classes and I also know that a lot of you have questions for me. You often ask me on Twitter or email about my voiceover career and I just don’t have time to answer everything, so I thought this might be a nice format and allow me to give you guys a little shout out
The Vowel Movement Challenge – Vocal Warm-Up Exercises you can do Anywhere!
So we’re going to have some fun today! The whole idea of these vocal warm-up exercises is for us to get out of our box, to let go of the stuff that holds us back, to go back to the sandbox when we were little kids and nothing really phased us, back when we could be stupid and make goofy faces and we weren’t really judged, or at least we …