Attend a Session
Book your spot for workouts, workshops, and other events
Many of these options are free or deeply discounted for TVD members. Join now!
VIDEO GAME GAUNTLET!
AAA video game Performance and Casting Directors Gillian Brashear and Randall Ryan from HamsterBall Studios will impart their innovative techniques to create characters that are believed and cared about, and more importantly, that book. Plus, we’ll put your character through the Gauntlet of a simulated video game recording session.
Video Game Mastery
This is a full-on intensive where you will work your acting craft in unimaginable ways. Be prepared to sweat, cry, and laugh, and have your game changed for good.
Pro Series - The Edge of Spec: Booking More Auditions
The audition comes to your inbox. It seems so obvious what they're looking for. How do you differentiate yourself? What's too safe and what's too far?
We're going to take you to boundary edges and explore the nuances that are the difference between a perfectly nice audition and something that makes casting directors sit up and say “that's our actor.” You must come prepared to work and to be pushed, as well as to offer thoughtful, constructive feedback as well as take it. Because the work you put in here when you have an audience will serve you well when you're alone in your booth.
This will be limited to 12 actors and will be two intensive, full days. If you're ready to go for the bigger projects, the more visible roles, and the memorable characters, come join me.
License to Create: Character Innovation Beyond the Script
You have license to be imaginative and create, with a bit of adherence to the guideposts along the way. Create characters you can believe in with risks and stakes YOU feel are worth fighting for. By emotionally committing, you will deliver something compelling and ultimately original. More often than not, originality gets the gig!
The Edge of Spec: Booking More Auditions
We’re going to take you to boundary edges and explore the nuances that are the difference between a perfectly nice audition and something that makes casting directors sit up and say “that’s our actor.” You must come prepared to work and to be pushed, as well as to offer thoughtful, constructive feedback as well as take it. Because the work you put in here when you have an audience will serve you well when you’re alone in your booth.
AUDIOTS: Auditions with re-directs
Actors will receive scripts the day before, and they will choose one and record an audition, just as they would an actual gig. In session, each audition will be analyzed and re-directed by a Director, with the actor reading live in front of the group.
Audiobook Clinic
Steve Marvel focuses on what it takes to give compelling performances in the “marathon, not a sprint” that is audiobooks. Participants will learn how to dig into a manuscript for acting clues, sustain the listener's interest, and minimize mistakes in order to maintain performance.
Gaming Simulation with Randall Ryan
This 2-part workshop prepares actors, from the audition process into those first few minutes of the actual session, to understand why it's important to create more than one persona, how to use backstories, know (or invent) nuances about the characters, and be prepared to go beyond the two-dimensional caricature. Not to mention being ready to have something completely different thrown at you by the director, writer, or others on the team.
At the Professional level, students are expected to perform with a high degree of competence, technique, acting skill, and a well-developed ability to take direction.
Date: Saturday March 23, 2024 10:00AM - Sunday March 24, 2024, 5:00PM
Location: Voice One San Francisco
Address: 414 Jackson Street, Suite 202, San Francisco, CA. 94111
Ticket Price: $625.00
https://reg.learningstream.com/reg/event_page.aspx?ek=0034-0030-aa3d0102aba947789b620e973ef771c7
License to Create: Character Innovation Beyond the Script
Actors often believe their job is to figure out what the client wants: in voice, in tone, in attitude, and then to deliver that. But guess what?In video games you are not bound by the words on the page.
You have license to be imaginative and create, with a bit of adherence to the guideposts along the way. Sure…say the script, understand the world…but you have a lot of leeway. Because the truth is the client doesn’t always really know what they want until they hear it, so why be generic?
Create characters you can believe in with risks and stakes YOU feel are worth fighting for. By emotionally committing, you will deliver something compelling and ultimately original. More often than not, originality gets the gig!
Led by Casting & Talent Director Randall Ryan and Voice Actor & Director Gillian Brashear
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2024 10:00AM - Sunday, March 17, 2024 6:00PM
Location: Voice Trax West - 12215 Ventura Blvd. #205 Studio City, CA 91604, USA
Price: $595.00
VO Atlanta Voiceover Conference
VO Atlanta Voiceover Conference is the largest and longest-running conference in the industry! With exponentially more content and presenters than any other voiceover conference, this is the go-to event for VO professionals to stay up-to-date with trends, performance skills, best practices for running solopreneur businesses and to get advice and insight from experts in the industry. It offers more opportunities to connect with agents, casting directors, managers, leading voice actors and celebrities, and network with your fellow talent than you'll find anywhere else.
General Admission Pass - $647.00 - Attendees have access to all General Sessions throughout the event.
X-Sessions - $247.00 per session and not included in the General Admission ticket:
March 7th: 12:00PM - 3:00PM ET - Voice Actor & Director Gillian Brashear - Impactful Performances Get the Gig, Are You Doing Enough?
March 8th: 9:00AM - 12:00PM ET - Casting & Talent Director Randall Ryan - Show Me What You Got!
March 10th 8:30AM - 11:30AM ET - Casting & Talent Director Randall Ryan - Heartbreak and Rage: Delivering Nuanced Emotional Performances
For more information and to register: https://www.voatlanta.me/voa2024/Home
Character Always Wins!
Why character is more important than voice.
Too often, actors fall in the trap of focusing on a style of reading when auditioning for roles, and continue this once they've been cast. After all, that's what got you the job, right? Unfortunately, this often glosses over what's really going on. The actor doesn't realize the work they're not getting by focusing on the vocal performance and not the character. That is what we are going to focus on. Not voices, not styles, not reads. Characters.
Participants will write and send two character descriptions to me a few days before the workshop begins. We will work with one character in the morning, and the other character in the afternoon.
Note that while we will be working with video game scripts, this is valuable for any genre of work. This is not just for actors who wish to voice video games. Also, we will be talking about higher-level concepts with a presumption of knowledge about acting, so this is not an introductory class.
Date: Saturday, January 20, 2024
Time: 10:00AM - 6:00PM Local time
Location: Jukebox Studios 124 Barlby Road, London England, W10 6BL, United Kingdom
Ticket Price: £350.00
Embrace, Inhabit, & Embody Waitlist Sign-up
Embrace, Inhabit, and Embody is Sold Out!. Sign-up here to get your name on the waitlist.
A 2-day intensive workshop led by UK Casting Director Kirsty Gillmore and US Casting Director Randall Ryan. Participants will:
EMBRACE a deeper understanding of how to find truthful, emotional depth with video game characters.
Discover the flexibility to EMBODY different characters.
Create new parameters within the same character so you can INHABIT them in any situation.
Master the skills that will help you consistently book video game roles and enrich your work for other voice acting mediums.
For experienced professional actors who already work or wish to work in games.
Saturday January 13th - Sunday January 14th
10:00AM - 6:00PM Local Time
OMUK Studios, 22 Pakenham St., Unit 2, London, England, WC1X 0LB, United Kingdom
Ticket price: £495
Once More...But Different!
You hear about the need for versatility all the time with video game roles. That’s partly because more than any other genre, versatility is paramount in video game castings. You must have the ability to shift the various parameters of your voice, often to bring more than one role to life. But there are deeper reasons that have as as much to do with getting into the details and nuances of the roles as they do with honing your ability to change registers, accents, vocal placement, and melodies. In this class participants will select a single character from a collection of curated scripts that we will provide. From there they will prepare two separate interpretations that are distinct from one another, and will work with the director to hone the read. Developing the habit to find and exploit the nuances and holes that weren’t in the character description is how a role shifts into something memorable, and the actor irreplaceable.
Tickets: $180/person
Date: Saturday, December 9, 2023
Time: 10:00AM - 1:00PM PST
Location: The Halp Network 1042 Princeton Drive Suite B, Marina del Rey, CA 90292
https://www.halpacademy.com/live-event-classes
Get Your Game On Los Angeles
Get Your Game On is an in-person VO conference hosted by The Voiceover Network, and is the ONLY event that is dedicated to voice acting in video games. This event is designed for voiceover artists of all levels of experience as well as for producers, agents, casting directors and developers.
GYGO is a fantastic networking opportunity with some of the top video game industry professionals including casting directors, producers, agents, actors and game developers; bringing the brightest and best of Voice Acting in Video Games together. You’ll get advice as well as networking opportunities with some of the top video game industry professionals.
Friday, November 3, 2023
8:00AM - 7:00PM Pacific Time
Hotel Burbank 150 E. Angeleno Avenue, Burbank, CA 91502
General Ticket: $359
It's All About Character(s)
Great voice acting is about the embodiment of a role. Even if you’re voicing “yourself” you are playing a character. It’s not about vocal placement, accents, or timing; those are skills and details. The focus should always be on becoming the character.
So that’s what we’re going to do: assign scripts cold and invent characters! We’ll dig deeper into backstory, intentions, situations, and all of the things that the client may never know but they will absolutely hear. We’ll work with video game scripts because those are the deepest and most varied of all genres, but it doesn’t matter if your primary genre is commercial, narration, audiobooks, or animation, the principle is the same. It’s not about your voice, it’s all about character(s)!
Date: Saturday, August 12, 2023
Time: 8:30AM - 11:30AM CT
Location: Hyatt Regency DFW Airport
Dallas, TX
Presenter: Randall Ryan
https://www.onevoiceconference.com/one-voice-conference-usa-2023/
Embrace, Inhabit, and Embody - 2-Day In-Person Workshop, Brighton
A 2-day intensive workshop led by UK Casting Director Kirsty Gillmore and US Casting Director Randall Ryan. Participants will take 2 separate characters and work with Kirsty and Randall to unlock the nuances and the details that elevate them to where the listener forgets that there is an actor, and simply accepts that this is a person that they are invested in and care about their outcome.
Saturday, July 8 and Sunday, July 9, 2023
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Local Time (UK)
ALT Recording Studio - 35 Church Rd, Hove, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 2BE, UK
Limited Seats
All attendees: £495
Creating Characters Beyond AI's Grasp
True acting and storytelling cannot be credibly delivered by AI. This is a full day of honing your ability to tap into and improve your ability to always find that emotional connection. You'll leave with more knowledge on auditioning, voicing, and performing in a manner that will be so far above that it quells the AI conversation. Armor up, and consistently create characters that AI can't grasp.
Sunday, July 2, 2023
10:AM - 6:00PM Local Time (UK)
Jukebox Studios - Unit 24, Pall Mall Deposit, 124 Barlby Rd, London W10 6BL, UK
Limited Seats
All attendees £295
One-On-One Consultation With Randall
Spend 30 minutes in a Zoom with Randall to discuss anything you wish: career, technique, networking/sales, demos, studios, and so on.
“I auditioned for a role in a video game the day after we got back. I looked over the notes from your class before I recorded to get in the right frame of mind. AND I GOT THE ROLE! My FIRST audition after your class!!! Thank you so much! If that isn't proof for your pudding, I don't know what else you need!”
- Tyler