My 2024 SOVAS Nomination! Pre-Awards Show
On October 26, 2024 (5 days before my FAVORITE holiday of the year), I found out that my Animation Demo was nominated for OUTSTANDING ANIMATION OR GAMING DEMO – BEST VOICEOVER 2024 by SOVAS ! I have been a voice actor full time for only FIVE years, participated in hundreds of hours of voiceover training, dedicated over the 10,000 hours of working mastery in my craft (paid clients and classes) and this was my first nomination for a prestigious award in my professional, full time field of work.
I was floored, beyond happy, beyond excited and so very humble to learn of my nomination! Not many people are nominated for many things, especially in your line of professional work. So when you find yourself on the list - and know that the judges making the choices have heard A LOT of great demos - you just have to bow your head in service and thanks. This is me, Melissa, very, very happy.
I bet the first question that came to your mind in seeing the graphic was "What the heck is SOVAS"? And how did you get nominated? Well, I'm glad you asked! Let me fill you in on a little tale of wild and wonderful things... a story about how a series of seeming impossibilities added up to a prestigious stamp of credibility.
At the end of 2023, I hired Voiceover Business Coach Marc Scott - creator of the awesome VOpreneur Podcast and FB Networking group, and asked him to review everything I was working on and my long range business goals. I was drowning in "to do's" and feeling like I wasn't moving as directly towards my goal of booking more work in Animated Cartoons and Films. This, in fact, was the reason I got into voiceover in the first place!
Analyzing all of the tasks I was doing from day to day, I made the difficult decision to end my production responsibilities on my long running science fiction, short story podcast The Untold Tales, which I co-created with Dr. Jeffrey A. Robinson. It was a difficult choice to make, as I had poured my heart, soul, and monthly time resources into planning, narrating, and producing the podcast - as well as all of its promotion on our socials. However, I had created hundreds of character voices for the podcast and felt like that body of work was complete for me. I had gained almost everything I had wanted out of it, and had given everything I had to those who enjoyed the tales. Marc held space for me to make some hard decisions - and to him I am eternally grateful.
But what about SOVAS? What's that all about? Yes. I'll get to that. Suffice to say, it is very important to me to approach everything I do with the highest level of professionalism, quality and heart as humanly possible. Therefore, I ran (not walked) to continue taking Animation Voiceover classes with the best working voice actors and voice directors around! I realized that if I wanted to get more Animation gigs, I'd need an Animation demo (an audio resume of marketable characters I can do) and the sharpest, most insightfullest acting skills on the market. So, I spend the last of my Christmas monies and enrolled in Paul Liberti's 5 - week Animation Intensive Character Voiceover Class through The Actors Connection . Even though I'd already taken soooo many Animation VO classes to date, I still felt I needed one last pass before making my Animation demo.
I turned 50 in January of 2024. Knowing that I could not afford a professional Animation Demo (yet), and knowing that's what I needed to take the next GIANT LEAP in my career (this is MY years!), I started a GoFundMe as my birthday gift that year and asked everyone I knew that if they wanted to contribute to helping me fund an Animation Demo for my birthday, that was the most meaningful gift I could ever ask for. That GoFundMe raised $1,200!!!! THANK YOU!!!!
When I completed Paul's class, I got to work preparing the material for the Animation Demo Scripts. Both of us scoured our resources to find the cleverest, funniest, most impactful and delightful characters that I could feature on my demo and book work. You demo needs to speak to the types of characters typically employed by the casting director listening to that demo. We built the demo for the ears of Disney Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, Fortiche (producers of Arcane), Dreamworks Animation, Cartoon Network,and Nickelodeon . We spent months working together, virtually - he in California and myself in Arizona. When we selected the scripts we loved, we had a very long recording session together, in which he directed me on all of the scripts, which I recorded in my home studio on my computer and then sent over to him via WeTransfer.
When we were ready to assemble the demo, we pulled in John Robnett (and AWESOME Audio Engineer) from NYC and worked together as a team to get the best timing and spots. My Animation Demo was DONE!! I was sooo happy with our work together, so grateful for the time Paul took to make sure the characters were believable, real, and marketable - not just sustained funny voices. The biggest takeaway I gained from the whole process was about CHARACTER and not SOUND. Many people will demonstrate the funny voices and the voice impersonations, but studios and casting directors are seeking memorable CHARACTERS for their stories, video games and films. What a joy to study this with many of the best and brightest working Voice Actors in world!
When the time came that SOVAS was accepting entries for consideration in this year's That's Voiceover Awards Gala, I was so moved by the love of my friends, family, coach and engineer, that I felt we ALL deserved recognition for a year of advocating for each other - kind words, bringing out the best in one another. Celebrating life! I entered my Animation Demo and that was it... it was in the hands of the very capable judges of the competition entries to decide who was elevated to the top this year. Keep in mind, there are SCORES of BRILLIANT voice actors out there. All of the entertainment you ever consume is touched by a voice actor within seconds or minutes of your interaction with your television, smartphone, devices, phone calls, toys, video games, podcasts, etc. Even the "fake" voices you are now hearing with A.I. were derived from human voices and voice actors. We are literally everywhere.
OK... So, SOVAS is " The Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS™) . It was established on August 26, 2013, under the New York State Department of State Division of Corporations, pursuant to the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. The founding members, Rudy Gaskins and Joan Baker created the SOVAS™ in direct response to the growing need to provide education, training, scholarships, job creation, and award acknowledgment in support of working voice actors and those people seeking to establish rewarding careers as voice actors. Paramount in this effort is to always ensure diversity, equality, and inclusion, at all levels of its founding. The seed of what eventually, became SOVAS™ was first planted in the year 2005 as a book written by Joan Baker, called Secrets of Voice-over Success. This was the first book ever to chronicle the career journeys of America’s top voice actors, unveiling practical career guidance as to the primary theme. Traditional book signings followed and gradually grew into ticketed community events and workshops for the public. These events evolved into the annual career expo that eventually came to be known as That’s Voiceover!™ Career Expo and the Voice Arts® Awards. The two events, together with the SOVAS Scholarships and financial relief programs, are four primary pillars of the organization.
Mission Statement:
The mission of the Society Of Voice Arts And Sciences™ (SOVAS™ ) is to galvanize the global voice acting community: connecting job seekers to the consummate sources of training, education, mentoring, and employment opportunities required to create and sustain a successful career in the voiceover industry. Our mission is accomplished by putting diversity, equality, and inclusion first. Through the ongoing development and administration of programs featuring educational events, financial scholarships, job placement, meaningful networking opportunities, and awards recognition through the Voice Arts® Award program, we intend to elevate the value of the art and craft of voice acting, such that it is fully respected as a vital element of media communications, art, and humanitarianism."
Some past winners of SOVAS Awards include James Earl Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Viola Davis, Rosario Dawson and a whole host of Voice Actors, whose fine voices you hear everyday in commercials, audiobooks, video games, cartoons, movie trailers, podcasts and more.
Take a listen to mydemo and you'll hear the FIVE main archetypes every great demo should have...
- The Hero
- The Villain
- The Sidekick
- The Love Interest
- The Mentor
The first spot/character is the one most casting directors will hear, and only 3 seconds of it on average. If they LOVE those first 3 seconds, they'll move on to the next character, and so on and so forth until they hit the end of the demo or they shut it off. We are always hoping you find a place to laugh in the demo, find a place that you feel palpable emotion, and feel like you want to hear more. It's NEVER about the sound of the voice for many casting directors, but about the character you build with your voice - their personality, attitude, burdens and elations. That's a lot to pack into 90 seconds (the longest acceptable animation demo in the marketplace!).
I hope you learned a little something and will celebrate this nomination with me! I am traveling to Burbank, California in December 2024 to learn which of those awesome nominees gets to take home the win!
- Melissa