The VO Meter… Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
So welcome to part 2 of our International Roundtable episode, and this time we’re featuring two special guests who due to scheduling had to join us at a different time, but also we want to give them enough time to talk about their experiences, and it just became so much content that we wanted to give it its own episode. So without further ado, here’s part 2 of our International Roundtable.
So got to admit, I’m a little intimidated to introduce our next two guests, because not only are they extremely talented and generous with their time and all of their experience and expertise, but one of them is actually my boss. Oh my God. That is the amazing and talented Cristina Milizia.
And then the other one has been just making incredible strides in the last couple of years in the voiceover industry in both the English and Spanish markets. He’s done animation, commercial, promo, in just all various forms and formats, the inimitable Christian Lanz. Hello, hello.
Cristina, thank you both for coming today.
You got it.
Delighted to be here. Thanks for having us.
Thank you. So for people who might not know who you guys are, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about yourselves, what kind of areas of voiceover you’re focusing on right now, and just where you’re at in your careers.
Hi, everyone. My name is Cristina Milizia, and I’ve been a voice actor since I was eight years old, so about 26 years now. Although most of that, it was more just a fun way to miss school.
So full time, more in the last six or seven years, and I specialize in animation, video games. I do commercial work as well, toys, and a lot of kids’ media. I do children’s voices quite a bit.
But yeah, I kind of dabble in pretty much everything, except for promo, so that is the one area that I… Perhaps someday I will pop up over there. But yeah, and I work here in Los Angeles.
Wonderful. And you, Christian?
Well, yeah, as you guys know, Christian Lanz. And I’ve been doing this since 2000… I’ve been doing this since 2005, but full time since 2007-ish, voiceover.
I mean, I started kind of on camera in 2005, and then I was doing a little of both, and then I just migrated into voiceover full time and decided that was what I really wanted to do. And it got to the point where voiceover got busy enough where I would actually lose money if I took on an on-camera gig, because for anybody who’s done on camera, you know how time-intensive that is, and you gotta go a full day for the auditions and the callbacks and then a full day for the fitting and then maybe two or three days for the shoot. And so, long story short, it might take a whole week to shoot, like for example, a commercial spot or an on-camera commercial.
And during that time, I’d have to turn down three, four, five VO jobs, and then suddenly it just dawned on me. I was like, I’m losing money. So, I went full-time VO, and I do miss the on-camera side of things, but I love VO, so you really can’t ask for a better career than VO.
Who doesn’t love VO? So yeah, and I specialize in commercials, promos, a lot of trailers, animation, video games, narration, and a fair amount of live announce, too. I’m actually getting ready this weekend.
Join the three-timer club for the live announcing the Daytime Emmy Awards and the Creative Arts Emmys. So that’s a little niche that’s not quite as well-known in the VO industry, but it’s a lot of fun. So yeah, so that’s a little bit of what I do.
Wonderful, that sounds so much fun. Well, thank you both for coming today. And Paul, would you like to start with our first question?
Sure, as you know, the focus of this episode is bilingual talent, although Sean is barely and I’m not at all. But the two of you, we’re wondering, which is your mother tongue and mother dialect?
Well, when I was growing up, it was Spanish. My father came to this country speaking no English whatsoever and so my earliest years, both my parents speak Spanish. My mother grew up in Mexico and so my dad, again, was from Peru.
So it was mostly Spanish when I was very young. However, once you start going to school and everything, English becomes a lot, being in this country, that’s the main language spoken in school. And so English quickly became a little bit more dominant for me.
However, the original language that I did speak growing up was more on the Spanish side.
For me, it was Spanish. I was born and raised in Mexico City. I lived in Mexico for about 16 years.
My father’s from Mexico, my mother’s from Chile. So, half Mexican, half South American Chilean. We moved to the US when I was a young kid.
I was about five, six years old when we moved here. And I actually learned to speak English by watching cartoons and watching TV and listening to the announcers and the voice actors. So, kind of, you know, I kind of hit the ground running in the sense that as I was learning to speak the language, I was also kind of training to be a voice actor, albeit unconsciously.
I didn’t know that that was kind of what was happening until later on in life when I realized that, you know, that I learned to speak the language kind of in the vein of what professional voiceover sort of sounded like. You know, so that was, I guess that kind of helped me. I don’t know.
Well, you hear that sort of innate talent for just that sort of vocal oral awareness for accents and articulation, like you said before. I know Carlos Elzraki has had a similar story as well. But it’s so great to hear the similar stories that you guys have.
And sort of moving on to the next question, and I can guess the answers for both of you, but how often are you guys asked when you perform jobs in English, to do accented English?
Quite a bit. And there’s something really wonderful to that, even though I don’t have a Hispanic accent. Having somebody do a character for animation or video games or even a commercial with who actually is Hispanic and who can actually pronounce words that do come up that are in Spanish authentically, there’s a really nice authenticity to that.
And also, the accents that we put on, I think for many of us, it’s one of our parents, probably, or your relatives, someone who was in your house, you grew up listening to. And so I think there’s a lot of culture and memories and history when you bring something like that to your work that’s special and unique, and hopefully that all kind of bleeds into the character as well. So yes, quite a bit for animation and video games and for commercial as well.
Yeah, I mean, I think my experience has been pretty similar. If you take a quick glance through my IMDB, you’ll see that pretty much, I’d say about 70% of what’s in there is probably accented English reads for animation, for video games. And I totally agree with Cristina.
I mean, when I… I lost my… I don’t speak with an accent in either language now at this point, but I did when I was little, and I lost it as I grew up, but my…
every male in my family still speaks with an accent, so when I put on a Hispanic accent, I’m, like she says, I’m basically… I’m doing my dad or I’m doing my uncle. So I can definitely fall into it in a place of authenticity, because it’s what I grew up with and it’s what I hear every day from my family, even though I speak Spanish with my family, when I hear them speak English, that’s how they speak.
So it’s just sort of a natural sound that we’re used to. And it’s funny because I’ve noticed that in the animation world, in acting in general, it’s beneficial sometimes for casting directors or for producers to hire somebody who has sort of that bicultural, bilingual background, because oftentimes if you hire actors who have, who naturally speak with an accent, even though the accent obviously sounds authentic and is dead on, especially for things like comedy. Comedy is all about rhythm, and it’s all about a certain melody and rhythm and flow.
And it’s very diff… Comedy for Anglos is very different from comedy for Hispanic speakers. There’s just a different rhythm to it.
So sometimes you’ll have an accent that’s authentic, but it won’t nail the rhythm. The rhythm of the jokes and the comedy. And sometimes it’s beneficial to get somebody who understands both languages so that they can deliver the appropriate accent, but also with the perfect rhythm for the jokes and to make the comedy land.
So that’s kind of a… That helps us. That helps me, at least.
I don’t know, some people might find it differently, but so it’s a good place to be in, to be able to kind of fall into either the accented, the non-accented and to understand the structure and the rhythm of both languages, so.
That’s a really good point. That’s a really good point. And vice versa, just to expand upon that, there are melodies in Spanish, there are melodies to English voiceover that don’t translate in Spanish.
Totally, totally.
And it was one of the interesting things when I began to work on improving my Spanish, because, obviously, I spoke conversationally growing up, but working to work more professionally in terms of commercial reads, and when I’m actually going up against native speakers, I discovered a lot of the melodies that were part of a normal English commercial read were totally different in Spanish. You can’t handle it the same way. And so even if your accent is perfect, it’s just not going to hit in the way that it needs to.
Yeah, and different vocal qualities also mean different things.
It’s like font. It’s like when we say, I wish we had sarcasm font, so I can tell when you’re being sarcastic. There’s a certain rhythm and a certain melody to languages where in English, for example, you can say a joke or you can be joking, even though it might be kind of deadpan what you’re saying, but there’s a certain lilt, a certain melody to what you’re saying that preps the listener to understand, oh, this is a joke.
What’s coming is supposed to be funny. And that’s what sometimes is necessary for a joke to land. And that’s very, very different in Spanish and in English.
And you kind of have to understand and know both, in addition to the accents, sometimes, to make those jokes land, to make it flow the way it needs to flow. So, yeah, I totally agree.
Getting that emotional message to come across the way you want it to, it’s varied. And including the vocal pitch you use, the vocal quality, and the rhythm, as he mentioned. Yeah, I’m really glad you brought that up, because it’s a subtlety that I think a lot of people don’t think about.
But if you’re in it, then you realize that these small things do make that difference.
Well, that’s wonderful, because we talked about it a little bit in our discussions regarding international voiceover and stuff, but it’s almost like you’re creating this third form of communication, because you have this awareness of two different cultures, of two different languages, and you’re just kind of, like, you have to understand who your audience is and how you can approach it. Because we’ve talked about, when doing a character accent, the importance of authenticity over accuracy. Because like you were saying, if you did just 100% dialect, then there’s an exclusivity about that.
Like, you risk distancing or alienating your audience. Like, they might not understand you or the joke might not land. So you have to come up with this sort of evocative, like, this evokes the idea of an accent rather than being 100% accurate.
So that’s fascinating that you’re both able to articulate it so well.
Not to go crazy with this, but there’s even, like, I feel like there’s actually even a rhythm and a tonality and two people who speak both. Like, the people who are actually in the middle who do speak, like, but you’ll hear a lot on, there’s certain radio stations that are actually completely bilingual now. They’re like, the announcers speak half of the time in English, half of the time in Spanish.
It’ll go in and out between each phrase. And there is this growing population in the United States of people like Christian, people like me, people, there are so many people that come here from Latin America because it’s a neighboring, they’re in terms of proximity, especially Mexico, where it’s their own culture. It’s a different culture in and of itself of the people who do speak that are the second generation sons and daughters of immigrants and that bilingual language has its own slang and rhythm into it.
Yeah, that’s lovely.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
We’re getting so cerebral here. But now that that’s a problem, it’s a smart show. So kind of moving on, since you guys do such a variety of projects in a variety of markets, I’m curious if there are specific kinds or if you specialize in multiple accents of Spanish or in multiple languages.
Or dialects.
Or dialects, that would be the more appropriate term.
I, you know, as I mentioned, I mean, the Hispanic comes up the most because again, people are looking for that authenticity. And so there’s a lot of casting that we’ll say, you know, we’d like someone who is Hispanic or of Latin descent. So yes, that one is really common.
And they will ask for accents all within, you know, Latin America. If I get to do my dad Peru, then that’s awesome. A lot of times they ask for something kind of neutral or it’s not anything specific or Mexican.
You know, it really ranges. So, but yeah, a lot of that. I do other accents as well for my character work and definitely have occasion to use them.
You know, obviously British and Russian, New York. I mean, these things come up on a fair amount in character work, but yeah, Hispanic definitely prevails, I would say.
How about you, Christian?
Yeah, for me, it’s kind of the same thing. I mean, for my English work, I do a lot of different dialects in English for my video game and animation work. I’ll do, obviously I’ll do just standard American English or Southern or Boston or New York or British, Scottish, et cetera.
But also within the Spanish work that I do, because I’d say about half of the work that I do for Voice Over is in Spanish for the Hispanic market. But I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that when somebody says, you know, this is for the Hispanic market, it’s as rich and varied as it is in the general market English world. You know, a lot of people tell me, oh man, you work so often for the Hispanic market, I should brush up on my high school Spanish so I can do that too.
And it’s like, no, dude, like it’s not just a matter of being kind of fluent. It’s like, you know, when somebody comes to you and says, do you speak Spanish? And it’s like, yeah, but what Spanish do you want?
Do you want, you know, Mexican, Mexico City, you know, Chilean, Peruvian, Argentinian? It’s, they’re vastly different dialects. And even within like Mexico City Spanish, I mean, Mexico City’s a, you know, it’s a city of 25 million people.
It’s an enormous city. And there are different Mexico City dialects within the city itself. I mean, it’s like the same as like you would say, oh, well, you do, you know, you have a Valley Girl accent or, you know, this accent or that.
So even within Mexico City, there are probably eight, nine, 10 distinct dialects of Mexico City Spanish that you can use. And that I do bring out very often because once you’re in the session and the producers, you know, kind of are from Mexico or they, you know, they’ve lived there, they get that too. So it’s like, even within that, there are subcategories of dialects within the Spanish realm that are very useful to have.
Because depending on what dialect you use, you’re conveying different demographics. You know, you’re conveying the, you know, whatever the snooty rich kid or the, you know, the blue collar working guy or the, you know, whatnot. So this knowledge of those specific dialects are really what help those of us who work in the Hispanic market to really be, you know, to really book all these jobs because that’s kind of, that’s not something that anybody can do.
You know, especially not somebody who goes, oh yeah, I’m gonna brush up on my high school Spanish and I can, you know, do all these spots. You know, that’s really important to know is that a lot of people think that the Hispanic market is just sort of a, you know, a secondary sort of subcategory, but it’s not, it’s huge. It’s really the only commercial market in the US that is still experiencing growth.
So it’s super rich and varied, and it demands, you know, an authenticity, and it demands perfection just like the English market. So that’s really important to know. You know, it really kind of deserves its place in the VO market as something that, you know, requires authenticity.
Wonderful. Certainly not for the faint of heart. Wow.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And actually the rest of the panel mentioned that specific to e-learning and narration, that when someone sees a spec for an audition that says they want a native dialect, that that’s the only one that is really worth doing. So I’m curious, and Christian, you sort of covered it, but I’m curious if you think it translates to other genres of VO out of animation and commercial.
If, when you see something that’s not your native dialect, if it’s always a good idea to try and pull it off, if you know that accent or dialect, or is it something you should leave to someone who is native of that specific dialect?
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I like to leave certain dialects. For example, sometimes what we’ll see a lot in the Hispanic market, because we’re divided sort of in West Coast and East Coast. West Coast tends to be very Mexico-heavy.
Mexican, Colombian, et cetera, which tend to be sort of what we would call a neutral Spanish dialect. Whereas if you go East Coast, especially Florida, Miami, et cetera, that’s more of the Caribbean Spanish. So we’re talking Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican.
And these are vastly different dialects in Spanish. I mean, they sound as different as what Scottish English sounds to an American.
That is exactly how Humberto described it. And he said…
Oh, totally, yeah.
Because no one from Scotland would not necessarily understand someone from America and vice versa. It’s the same comparison he made.
Completely, yeah, it’s totally different. So I know that if I get an audition for, let’s say, a commercial campaign that’s airing just in the Miami market or on the East Coast market, and they’re asking for a Caribbean Spanish dialect, I can do it. I can do a fairly decent imitation of it.
But to be honest, it’s like there are voice actors who are native to that, who are going to be much more effortless in doing this dialect. And to be honest, I prefer to leave that to the experts, to the native speakers. Because like I said, this is a growing market, and I don’t say this to be braggy, but I have more work than I can take on within my genre of West Coast, Mexico City slash neutral Spanish.
So I think it’s great that we can leave that to people who are very good at what they do, and everybody gets to work in this industry. So yeah, I see stuff come in, and I go, you know what, I’m handing this off to somebody who’s gonna do it better than I can.
That’s how I feel about when I’m sent something with Castilian Spanish that’s been requested. I’m like, that’s so different, so different. And people don’t realize how different Spain, Spanish is from over here, you know what I mean?
Just as Christian mentioned, there’s enough variation even just within the West Coast and in Mexico and all of the above. And then when you throw in from Spain, that’s just a whole other thing. Yeah, I totally echo Christian’s feelings on all of that.
If my agent sends me something and they want me to read on it, I’m gonna do what my agent asks me to do.
But, you know, I definitely… And I’m very… I’m always very conscious of doing my very best to get as close to authentic as I possibly can.
I usually do dialect coaching before every single job that I do with the dialect. And if I have to do an accent, if I have time to get coaching before an audition, I will often do that as well. Because, you know, I just, I feel like, you know, even if I listen and mimic, there are going to be things that I miss.
And it’s always very important to me to try to, you know, just try to do honor to the cultures as closely as I possibly can. You know, I think that. So I try to make that effort.
But, you know, again, there are always going to be those times when you get an audition and you have, you know, 12 hours to turn it around. And how well can you do that, really, in that time frame? So, you know, you do your best, but there are definitely things that it’s, you know, that are closer to home that are going to be more authentic and ones that are going to be more of a stretch, so.
Yeah, agreed.
I mean, that’s huge, because it’s like, you both have such a unique skill set, and you already have a facility, like you’re both incredibly talented with years of experience, and you have a facility with accents, but even then, you have an awareness of your limitations, and you don’t put yourself out there on a project that you feel someone else might be better for. And that’s a huge thing to consider.
What would you say are some of the benefits of being a bilingual talent, as well as some of the challenges?
Well, as we mentioned before, I think the benefit is, I mean, you can add authenticity to an accented read, and if there happens to be words in both languages, you’re going to be able to pronounce both languages in a way that’s authentic and more native. You can add lib, potentially, in that language, which can add a lot, for sure, in animation and video games as well. I think one of the biggest benefits is that you could potentially voice the same product in two different languages.
And that’s a huge advantage for the client as well, because it saves them time with casting. They find one person and they’re like, oh, I really love their voice, and now, oh, we can use this for the Latin American market as well, or for Mexico. I mean, that’s a huge time saver for them.
It creates consistency for the product in terms of the tone they want. Now, again, it may not be ideal for all products. Maybe you don’t want the same sound, depending on what the localization is.
That’s possible, too. But having that option, I think, is a huge advantage for them. So I think those are potentially some of the benefits, especially in commercials and things like where you have words in both languages that go in and out.
I think that’s something… Because clients want the name of their product pronounced correctly. And sometimes the product name is in English if they’re in a Spanish spot.
If they have a talent who actually can say it in English properly, that’s a plus. So I think that’s a huge benefit.
Benefits… I mean, I think the benefits are pretty clear. The benefits of being bilingual is you get twice as many opportunities.
Especially in the US and with the Hispanic market burgeoning and growing at such a huge rate and especially because Hispanics tend to consume media more actively than the general market Anglo population, especially movies. That’s why we do so many trailer campaigns in Spanish because Spanish-speaking residents of the US are the number one movie-going demographic. So now movie studios are realizing, oh, this is the demographic that we need to market our movies to because they’re the ones that are actually going out and watching these movies more than any other demographic that’s in the US.
So, yeah, benefits, you get twice as many opportunities. And I’d say drawbacks. It’s hard to think of a drawback, really.
I don’t know that there is a huge drawback. If anything, maybe a possible drawback is that once somebody… The industry is very much about labeling people and kind of pigeon-holing people.
Because that’s what works. That’s what makes the casting process efficient, is to label somebody and go, oh, this is my Spanish guy. This is my accent guy.
This is my… So sometimes you do run into some situations where if people know that you do a lot of Spanish work, you get pigeon-holed as, oh, this is my Spanish guy. And then you come to the session and people hear you speak English and they go, wait a minute, you don’t have an accent at all when you speak English.
Why aren’t you doing the English side of this campaign? And you’re like, I don’t know. And then they’re like, ah, we should have hired you to do both.
And it’s because once you get kind of labeled as the Spanish guy, sometimes, occasionally, you can get pigeon-holed and maybe not considered or not… People might not realize that, you know, guys, I speak English too. I can do the general market side of it too.
So it is a constant sort of… You got to remind people, hey, by the way, you know that Spanish audition I sent? Just so you know, I speak English as well.
And so I do run into that situation where you kind of have to gently remind people pretty often that you can do both. And that’s where, you know, that’s where opportunities are. And as long as you remind people, then the work opportunities are always there, and it becomes a benefit again.
Well, Christian, I think there was another podcast you were on, not to promote our competition, but didn’t you mention that you initially picked up a lot of Spanish-language work in reverse, where you showed up for the English session, and they said, hey, you can speak Spanish.
Oh, totally. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
I mean, that’s, you know, I would show up to, and vice versa. I would show up to a session, and I’d be recording the session, and they’d hear, you know, me speak the other language, whatever, if I was at a Spanish session, they’d hear me speak English to a producer, to somebody, or vice versa. And that’s when they would realize, they go, wait a minute, you can do both?
And that’s how I started picking up a lot of this dual market, like Cristina says, all these dual market campaigns. And there was something that she said that was also really important, where it’s brands like for their brand names to be pronounced properly, correctly in whatever language it is that their brand name originates. You know, I was the voice of Verizon for many years, a long time ago.
And one of the biggest, I think, one of the biggest selling points, one of the biggest reasons why I think I might have gotten the job is because Verizon is a name that in Spanish isn’t necessarily naturally pronounced properly because there is no V sound in Spanish. It just doesn’t exist. And that’s true.
I never even thought about that until right now.
In Spanish, the letter V exists and the letter B exists, but they both sound the same. They both sound like a B. So in Spanish, Verizon is actually pronounced Beraison with a B.
And I remember that for the clients, the people at Verizon, this was very annoying because they were like, no, it’s not Beraison, it’s Verizon with a V. And so because I came in with that knowledge of both languages and understanding that there’s a difference between the B and the V sound, that was really attractive to them because they were like, oh, this guy speaks perfect Spanish, but he pronounces our brand name correctly. You know, correctly in quotation marks, obviously, but not because the Spanish pronunciation of V is incorrect.
It’s just that’s the way it’s pronounced in Spanish. It’s a different language. So what she was saying, it’s really important to know those differences and to know what the client wants.
And so whether you’re voicing a spot in English or in Spanish, just be respectful of what the pronunciation of the client’s main brand is. I mean, that’s really what’s most important. That’s what you’re there for, is to be the spokesman of a brand.
So, you know, you got to be mindful of that kind of stuff. And that’s where it helps us to be, bilingual and bicultural especially.
Yeah. Amen. That’s so funny.
I never thought about that with Verizon in particular, but that’s true. That would be a major issue. I think, for me, in terms of…
I agree with Cristina. I don’t think there are any drawbacks at all to being bilingual. I think there are zero drawbacks.
I mean, you really have to nitpick. I really had to nitpick.
I do think there are challenges though, depending on what kind of bilingual you are. And what I mean by that is, in what country did your parents teach you? I mean, for example, if I was here, but my parents were Cuban or Puerto Rican, that would be much harder for me to be in the market here because it’s a little bit more honestly Mexican-based here on the West Coast.
So I think a lot of it depends on where your Spanish is from. Some accents are a little cleaner or more proper than others. Some are much more laid back and a little messier in terms of their enunciation.
So I think those can potentially be challenges depending on what sort of Spanish market you are attempting to enter into and work in. That’s something I’ve encountered since my father, again, is Peruvian, so my accent is more South American. And so being here on the West Coast in California, they really want more Mexican, Spanish, most of the time.
And so that’s a challenge for me to try to, you know, kind of go more in the Mexican direction. However, I tend to book more work in like Florida for Spanish because the accent, for whatever reason, it’s a little bit more. And again, also, I have an accent where my mom was from, you know, grew up in Mexico, but she also spoke perfect English.
My father was Peruvian. I grew up here, which is a huge melting pot. So my accent is much more…
It’s a little… It’s kind of a mix of many things. And so for me to work in Spanish, you know, I just…
That’s one of the challenges that I have, because my accent is a little bit different than one, you know, one particular thing, especially being here. And then, you know, again, for me, another challenge… You know, Christian, maybe you have your family around you more.
I don’t as much here anymore. So a lot of the people that I spoke Spanish with on a regular basis are now no longer in my life. So I have to put a lot more effort, not no longer in my life, but no longer like in my every day, like I speak to them every day kind of thing life.
So, you know, I have to work a lot. I have to work regularly in terms of practicing my Spanish, because otherwise, you know, I’m just not speaking it on a daily basis aside from when I work. So I have to listen to radio constantly.
I have to keep it in my mouth and, you know, because it’s different muscles as well. So that’s one of the challenges for me is that in a primarily, you know, English speaking life that I live, you know, maintaining the Spanish where it needs to be at the level that it needs to be to compete here in Los Angeles. That’s, you know, again, one of my challenges.
So my, I guess my point is I think the challenges of being bilingual really depend on who you are as a bilingual talent, where you’re from, at what point you came in. And some people like, you know, like Christian, they maybe came here later or maybe they never lost their English accent. It’s they’re just a little bit, you know, that might be a challenge for them trying to enter into that English, stronger English side of the bilingual market.
So that’s my point is I just, I think it would really vary depending on your personal history and where your biculturalism and bilingualism originates.
It’s gold. Sweet, sweet gold. That’s, I really can’t thank you guys enough.
I mean, there’s just so many, like you’re both so knowledgeable and articulate about this and sort of kind of bringing everything together because you’ve touched on it throughout the discussion on considerations you need to make in order to be successful in both of these areas. So say you recognize that you’re bilingual. You might be a talent, you might not be, but you want to start marketing yourself as a bilingual talent.
Where do you start?
Make a demo.
I really like… there’s so many people like, oh, you know, I’m bilingual too. How do I start working?
And make a demo. You can’t… you cannot market yourself as a bilingual talent without a demo.
But it’s on my resume.
You need a demo in a specific language too, correct?
That’s what I mean.
Yeah, yeah.
No, no, that’s what I mean. I mean, you need a… in that other language that you say that you speak.
Okay, great. You have to show that.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, totally. I mean, it’s like, you know, it’s the whole don’t tell me, show me, you know, sort of thing. It’s like, for me specifically, like, I have…
just my English commercial demo, my regular English commercial demo, I think it’s the second spot. I want to say it’s like the second or third spot in is like a Taco Bell spot where I’m speaking Spanglish. So I bounce back and forth between perfect English and perfect Spanish in that one spot.
So because I always want people to know, even if they’re listed, like I said, you know, that it doubles your opportunities if people know that you can do both languages and they can hire you, especially for commercials where here in the US commercials are generally shot twice. They’re shot for the general market and they’re shot for the huge, massive, you know, Hispanic networks that are growing and growing. So, you know, you got to…
people need to know that. So even within… it’s not that I specifically have…
obviously I have Spanish demos and English demos, but even within my English demo, I’ve got some Spanish thrown in there so that people right off the bat hear it and go, oh, oh, this guy’s bilingual. Aren’t we shooting this thing in Spanish too? Oh, let’s mark this guy.
You mark this guy because, you know, he might work for both. So yeah, you got to, you know, you got to always put it out there. But then the other thing is too, is what I would tell somebody who wants to market themselves as a bilingual talent or as a Hispanic market talent is be honest with yourself.
You know, it touches on a little of what I was saying before. If you just, if you took a few years of high school Spanish, it’s not going to cut it. You know, it’s the, you know, the quality control aspect of it in the Hispanic market is just as stringent as it is in the general market.
It’s not just people who kind of speak Spanish. You got to be as flawless and as fluid and as perfect in that language as you would be if you were auditioning for a major national spot in the general market. It’s got to be that good.
So just be honest with yourself. If you are truly and honestly bilingual, go for it. You know, it’s a huge market.
And if you’re not, you know, maybe it’s just not your niche, you know, in this industry. But either way, yeah, make a demo. Let people know, you know, let people hear it and judge for themselves, obviously.
Yeah. Amen. On my Spanish demo, I have an English Spanish spot as well.
No, because you do. And that was the same thing. You want to be able to show.
And then on my Spanish, I also have Spanish words.
Totally, totally.
And I put a kid’s voice in my commercial demo as well, because I got to like make sure I do that one too. So no, it’s important in terms of the marketing, show everything you can do in a shorter period of time without making people go, what the heck is going on?
And the commercial demo might be the only one they listen to. Exactly. They might be looking specifically for Spanish or kids.
Oh, that’s amazing. That’s wonderful.
One more question about the demo for either of you. Do you think it’s important to have a demo producer who speaks the language in which you’re recording, or can anybody produce the demo, who normally would produce your demo, if they had the skills? But do you think it’s important to have that person speak the same language that you’re recording?
I mean, I think it depends on your… I think it depends on your experience level as a voice actor. I mean, it basically comes down to, do you need to be directed, or do you not?
And if you’re kind of at the beginning of your career, you’re probably going to benefit from having a demo producer who can direct you through the session, and if you’re doing a Hispanic demo or a bilingual demo, then yeah, I would recommend that you get a demo producer who understands the nuances and the rhythm and the delivery that sells, that works for the Hispanic market as well as for the English market. Now, if you’re a little bit more of an established talent and you’re used to self-directing and you do a lot of self-directed sessions and that’s just how you work, then just have somebody produce your demo who can handle all the production and technical aspects of making a great demo, but then you can obviously self-direct yourself in whatever language you’re doing if you’ve got that skill set, if you’re at that point in your career.
I don’t really have much more to say than that.
Can’t you guys be more argumentative?
I think there’s benefits to, again, just as you mentioned, if somebody speaks that language, especially in terms of branding, marketing, making sure it hits in the way that you want it to. Because again, especially when it comes to commercial, because this is advertising, which is very specific in terms of a specific market that you are trying to reach and sell to, and it needs to be communicated in a very specific way. But yeah, again, if you work day in and day out in Spanish, and you know what you’re doing, you don’t need somebody to hold your hand through that or to guide you.
Not hold your hand, but to guide you. But if you’re not constantly working and booking in Spanish, then I think it’s a good idea.
And again, it comes down to being honest with yourself as far as if you feel like you absolutely need somebody who speaks Spanish to direct you because otherwise you have no idea how to give a convincing performance in Spanish, then maybe that’s not your niche. Maybe you’re not ready for that. So yeah, it all comes down to being honest with yourself and understanding what point you are, at what point you are in your career, and taking it from there.
I think Cristina made a really good point that I just want to repeat again because I don’t think people realize how hard it is to be that flawless, perfect level in both languages. People don’t realize, even if you’re a bilingual, again, like me or Cristina, you grew up speaking two languages in the home, achieving that high level of performance in two different languages is very difficult. So even if you already are a fluent speaker and you can go to another country and have a wonderful time and get around and have conversations, professional voice over as a skill set is not the same thing.
It’s a whole new level of communication, because you’re not just communicating in small groups and the standards are higher. It’s for an entire country.
This is professional. So just know that even if you are bilingual and you speak fluently and you have no problem speaking in that other language, know that it is going to take a lot of extra work to actually book on a national level those kinds of jobs, because you are competing with native speakers who have studied many, many years and are true professional voice over talents in that language.
Yeah, I mean, if you compare it to just the general market, there are a handful of us who are working, who are actually making a living in the US as professional voice over artists. And if you think about it, there are 300 million people in this country who can speak and sound like flawless native speakers. And if that were the only thing that mattered, we would be out of a job because all those 300 million people would be happy to take our jobs.
And the fact is, they’re not. They’re not because in addition to sounding natural and flawless in their language, there’s also a skill set which is the acting part. So again, it’s not just, but my Spanish is really good.
Well, yeah, but can you be flawless? And in addition to being flawless, can you act in that language and bring that sensibility and bring that native, you know, cultural fluidity to it? And that’s where it’s…
that’s where you gotta be honest with yourself. It’s like, can I do that, you know, realistically?
Amazing points, you two. And again, I just keep returning to this idea of awareness because even like the bare minimum is that flawless fluency in both languages and the level of acting talent that is required to be successful in any area of voiceover. But like that being said, that’s just the beginning.
You have to consider, like we said before, where you fit in the US market, where you potentially fit in your native language market. And like you’re essentially doubling your opportunities, but you’re also doubling at least the amount of work you have to do in order to take advantage of them.
Oh my god, yes, exactly. That’s exactly the point. I sometimes, for once in a while, I used to get overwhelmed, because I do have to work on my Spanish all the time.
I’d be like, oh, if I had to practice my Spanish, I could practice all these other things, you know. Then I was like, Cristina, you’re ridiculous. It’s a privilege to have this other thing that I can continue to…
It’s such a huge benefit. But again, yes, that benefit has a tremendous amount of responsibility attached to it, if you really do want to succeed with it.
You’re saying with great power, there is great responsibility.
It’s true.
Yep.
It’s true.
Well, guys, Cristina, Christian, thank you so much for joining us. We’ve come to the end of our time together, sadly. But before we go, even though Christian told everybody he’s too busy to take on more work, tell us where people can find you if they want to hire you.
Well, I’m at SBV Talent, Sutton Barth and Vinari, here in LA. It’s my primary agency. I’m also with Jason Marks Talent Management.
And yeah, anything you need, commercial, trailer, promo, animation, video games, narration, live announce, you can find me there.
I’m with AVO Talent, AVO Talent, here in Los Angeles. And yeah, you can find me there. My animation agents are Sandy Schnar, who is absolutely incredible, George Carmona, that does my video game work, and Peter, Verona and Rebecca do my commercial.
And yes, I’m there, primarily do animation, video games, but I also do commercial as well, narration. Just did my first audio book, which was a really fun thing the other day. And yeah, that’s about it.
Thanks so much for having us.
You’re welcome. And I just wanted to extend my thanks to Paul’s. I’m just so happy to have you both on here.
Like, I mean, Cristina, we work together, and I’ve been trying to get you on the podcast for a year now.
I know. I’m so sorry.
It was. No, and I’m so glad you could join, because like we said, we know that it’s a topic that you’re passionate about and you’ve worked with Christian before. And I’m just so glad to have you both, because you’re both sort of like paragons of the VO community.
You may not realize it, but you’re both just so… I mean, you both come from a place of gratitude. You’re both incredibly intelligent and articulate, more so.
And you’re just so generous with that knowledge. Like, I have never seen you get irritated by a silly question or… And if you’ve ever seen…
I mean, they have to have an award for Novella Facebook responses, because Cristina is just a literal encyclopedia of voice over knowledge. And she is always happy to give it. So thank you both for being on here and just encouraging this spirit of generosity in the VO community.
Thank you. I’m blushing. Thank you.
We got her on video. She’s not lying.
Well, thank you guys. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege. Thanks so much for having me.
Awesome.
Thank you both. Thanks for listening to The VO Meter, Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. To follow along, please visit www.vometer.com.