Tahoe workshops by Pat Fraley & Julie Williams

[VoiceHaven]

In late June I attended Julie Williams’ Voice-over Whirlwind Weekend which consisted of two separate day-long workshops. The setting was at a studio near the shore of Lake Tahoe (more on the studio later). The Saturday workshop was Pat Fraley’s Cartoon Voice! On Sunday Julie taught her Proven Voice-Over Techniques workshop. Some of the attendees stayed over on Monday to have Julie direct and produce new demo’s at the studio.

The materials for both workshops were nicely put together. Pat Fraley had a detailed booklet for his Cartoon Voice workshop that is 78 pages long. Julie Williams’ written material is easy to follow and read in outline format and jam-packed with information of her Proven Voice-Over Techniques workshop. Her written materials tied in perfectly with the scripts she handed out for the VO exercises (the scripts had to go back to her though). Julie provided each attendee with a nicely bound notepad and a sturdy handbag with both Pat’s and her workshop materials inside. I thought everything was well organized for both workshops.

For Pat’s workshop… oh my….. where do I start? Let me start off by saying… it was just plain FUN! But it was informative too. Hearing his stories of his experience with cartoon / character VO was amazing. He did a great job at describing his techniques (which are all documented in his booklet). And during the small group exercises he took the time to come to each individual group to see how we were doing and give us brief pointers for improvement. The Character Voice Archetypes section was so valuable and worth the price of his workshop alone. There are only so many hours in a day, so I’m not really complaining here, but for some of the small group exercises I wish we had a little more time to complete them. But, hey, what THAT should be telling you is Pat is giving you a LOT for a 1 day workshop.
Julie’s workshop is very “hands-on” which I like a lot!!! By hands-on I mean she has several exercises where you spend time in front of a mic… and you’re being recorded for playback and evaluation, instruction, praise and constructive criticism. It was obvious from the beginning that Julie has a passion of excellence for each student. She really cares!!! In general she followed the outline of her materials. But because she has so many years of VO experience, she was able to expand on her topic of discussion with “real world” situations. These sidebars of information were great to hear for the beginner, such as myself, and for more experienced VO talent. The way she taught her techniques were done really well; coloring words, inflection, pausing, half voice, pacing, etc… Each new technique was built upon the previously taught technique…. A WONDERFUL way to learn!!! And they were fun to do. Everyone enjoyed her workshop.

In summary, both Pat and Julie’s workshops were well worth the money. Extremely informative, fun, and both of them created a positive environment to learn, just with their demeanor alone… let alone their excellent teaching styles and talent. I highly recommend both of these workshops!!!

Speaking of environments… The workshops were held at Damon Gold’s Big Water Studios near the shore of Lake Tahoe outside of Tahoe City, California. Everyone knows how beautiful Lake Tahoe is. Let me sing some praises about this studio. It is so close to the shore we had lunch by the lake during Pat Fraley’s workshop. It was a little bit windy but that did not diminish the experience of hearing Pat teach us while we were gazing across one of God’s most amazing creations. Gorgeous! Damon’s studio is top notch. Very state of the art. And he is a very experienced and talented audio engineer. Trust me, I know this to be true. I am an audio engineer as well. I have been doing it for the past 7 years. Damon’s experience goes far beyond mine. On Monday, during the Demo sessions, I had a couple hours to chat with him about various audio engineering topics… his knowledge is amazing. He is the “real deal” and so is his studio.

[Coppeyadam]

I went to Julie's Voice-Over weekend in Tahoe and it was so much FUN!! More importantly, it was a day-long, hands-on (or voice-on!) workshop. The group of students was not too big, not too small. I felt that I received the individual attention I needed. Plus, it was great to hear different voices and styles and learn from everyone's critiques. It was great, too, when everyone approved of my attempts at the new techniques I was learning. Very encouraging! I went expecting to learn a little more on voice-overs and get better at what I do. I came out of the experience with so much more!! Great tips on growing as a voice-over talent and getting my business started!