G U I L D – Usergroup meeting, January 20th , 2007

It’s 2007, and Guild held our first meeting jointly with A Bunch of Short Guys to kick it off!  Our special guest for today is John William Galt.

Marshall Pittman, President of A Bunch of Short Guys, opened the meeting. Already this year Marshall has attended several conferences and seminars. During his recent trip to the Autodesk User Group meeting in Atlanta, one of the largest in the country, he met and hung out with some of the Adult Swim folks. He also attended a meeting of the Institute for Innovative Entrepreneurs, at the UTD campus, where the discussion was about, among other things, military applications for training demos involving character development and animation, simulated situations, intense culture immersions; the very things many of you are already doing. Marshall also reminded us that there is always a need for volunteers with various facets of our websites, and event planning and preparation.

J Schuh talked about a collaborative effort between GUILD and A Bunch of Short Guys to develop a Community Calendar for all the industry-related organizational meetings in the DFW area. Look for that in the coming months.

Brian Brewer, with 3dRealms, spoke of job opportunities at 3dRealms. They need talented people with skills in specific areas. Please check out the job posting on our website by clicking here for more information.

Shelly Briggs has started the local group “Women in Animation” which is a network and mentoring group. Look for more information soon about scheduled meetings and events. Until then you can contact Shelly at either: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it   or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

TXMPA – Texas Motion Picture Alliance – J Schuh is an advocate for this organization, as all of us should be. The TXMPA is a statewide group dedicated to bringing in work and money to the state. They are working with the Texas legislation and film commission but need all of our help and support to show that Texas is the state to bring the work to. They wish to create a *statewide* reel! The most immediate way is to spread the word about the TXMPA to area companies, especially the game industry, which is very strong in the DFW area.

Now for our guest speaker… Ladies and Gentlemen: Mister…. JOHN GALT!!!!

John Galt, actor, voice actor, and writer, among other talents is a personable and funny man, who has lived in Dallas, and Texas most of his life. He said he always wanted to be an animator. Even though that wasn’t in the cards, he does get to work with animators, and in the world of animation has done everything but. He has done voices for Lo Wang, Minion, Daikatana, Urban Chaos, and Terminal Reality among many others.

Traveling and being away from home was not for John. He missed his family and Texas, so eventually he came back to Dallas, and what has been his bread and butter - his prolific voice career. With thousands (we’re not exaggerating) of commercials and movie trailers to his credit, his voice has never let him down.

John talked about a number of four-minute scripts, he originally wrote for the Deep Ellum Film Festival, that in the end were not used. He has generously agreed to share them with us. These scripts are complete and full of content, many of which would be easy to adapt to animation. Hmmm, sounds like a good project.

We listened to a couple of John’s voiceover demos. The first demo was movie trailers, some of which were: Dark Descent, Lord of the Rings, Shark Hunter, Nobody’s Baby, Harvard Man, and Strange Relations. The second demo was commercials. Hearing his demos, you realized how many times you have probably heard John’s voice over the years without knowing it was him. He also did some on-the-fly voices of personalities and characters we know and love.

General advice from John

• To get work, you need to show up and just do it.
• Whatever you do, have fun with it.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously and always learn from other people.
• When dealing with others, stand up for what is yours. It is ‘your’ art. Remember though not to be arrogant about it.
• Do your best, even small jobs give you important experience, but don’t let them put out your creative fire.
• Focus on what you want.
• You have to put your stuff at risk to sell it. You can’t lock it up.
• Voice actors can stimulate ideas with their various voice abilities. Got a character whose personality is eluding you? Have a voice actor give it some life and it may open creative doors for you.
• With difficult clients – Stand your ground. Do what you know is right. You may lose a client or two, but you will feel better. After all, you have to live with yourself.

Voice specific advice from John:

• For those wanting to become a voice actor, learn to read aloud.
• Record your voice and listen to how you sound.
• Practice with a microphone. Practice, practice, practice.
• A voice demo reel can be created on your own with minimal equipment and expense.
  • Start strong.
  • Have a variety of voices, highs and lows, varied emotions.
  • No name products, keep it generic.
  • Two minute maximum in length.
• When working with an agent, you are the majority, they are the minority factor. You are the 90%, they are the 10%”.
• Learn from an audition whether you get the job or not.
• Find a way to stand out from the pack during an interview. Make them remember you.
• Finally… Practice, practice, practice and practice some more.

The best sayings of the day from John:

“The world belongs to those who are shameless self-promoters.”

“The world belongs to those who show up.” – We’re not sure who originally said this, but we love it.

Marshall closed the meeting by promoting the next meeting of A Bunch of Short Guys on February 24th. Digital Tutors will be on hand to showcase the new software “Mudbox”, and the upcoming (June) Industry Giants event will be discussed!

THANKS ONCE AGAIN TO JOHN GALT FOR BEING OUR GUEST SPEAKER!

Editor - D Weitz