V.O. audition talk and book recs wanted

[stoney321]

Yesterday afternoon was my audition for a new anime show, and I overestimated traffic. As such, I got there a whole hour early. Um, whoops? More time to go over sides [script] then. A group that had auditioned/were auditioning were hanging out in the lobby chatting it up. I didn't know any of them so I sat quietly and pretended to re-read the script while listening to their voices. All of them were in t-shirts and flip flops, no make up [ladies] unshaved [ladies] haha, the guys, but their VOICES! One of the men had that deep, gravelly, bad-guy voice. Awesome. The other guy had a more high-pitched, slightly effeminate tenor. And he was this tall athletic guy, too.

The lady? Man. Rode hard and put away wet, but she had that Kathleen Turner rasp. And I totally don't. Guess what one of the character voices was modeled after? Oh, well, the other one was fun - street-wise, tough-talking, sassy gun for hire. Yay! They told me I "nailed" her personality, so hopefully someone doesn't come in after me and really knock it out of the park.

Normally an audition works like this: you show up, hang in a lobby with the other actors, they call you in, and the director, casting person, and a camera man (producers might be there too if it's a big enough project.) They all smile at you and tell you a little something about the character, get you positioned for the camera, have you slate [your name, who you're with, what you're auditioning for] and then boom, say your lines. Sometimes they'll let you do it again. Sometimes not. They tell you thank you, and you leave straight away. And then you wait to hear if you got it.

This was different - I went into a recording booth with headphones, and the script was on a screen. The directors were in the mixing booth watching the storyboards and listening to my voice piped in. We talked a little about the project, what they liked and were looking for, then had me slate and go. Then we talked about each line (I had 10 for each character I read for) and what they liked, what they wanted different. Freaking AWESOME. Me? I'm all over the concrit. Bring it.

After I finished the reads, they both shook my hands and talked to me a little about my resume, what projects I had fun on, and that sort of thing. I don't know if that's normal or unusual for them; this was my first VO audition.

But it felt pretty cool. And I liked that all the VO actors that auditioned were friendly with each other, wishing each other luck, that sort of thing. No competitiveness or bitchy backhanded compliments, which is nice.

And this studio? They do the BIG anime shows. CRAZY. I'm not really into anime much, but holy crap my son and brother are. They kind of freaked out a bit. Like, Full Metal Alchemist. Dragon Ball Z. Afro Samurai. That's so cool. :)

I've been reading some heavy non-fiction lately (like, heavy stuff) and need some fun escapist books to read. Since I missed out on going away for vacation, I want my brain to take one. Any ideas, suggestions? I've got the Kindle charged up and a new chaise lounger cushion with my name on it.