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NOLA L. SARKISIAN

Staff Reporter

It was 5:30 p.m. in Burbank, and Guam was calling.

The call was from an ad agency producing a commercial for a political candidate on the island. The agency was looking for a strong male voice, with the kind of timbre that commands authority. After all, the voice would be used to narrate a commercial about a politician who was a former high military official. And the caller needed a selection of voices from which to choose that same night.

That kind of rush job is just one example of how the voiceover industry has changed in the past 20 years.

“We used to get transcripts mailed and had at least a week or two to assemble the voices,” said Cathy Kalmenson, co-founder of voiceover casting service Kalmenson & Kalmenson. “Now, with computers and faxes, you often have same-day deadlines for casting.”

Meeting those tight deadlines has become a specialty of Kalmenson & Kalmenson, which has created a database of voices to make the selection process easier.

The company, which typically charges $100 a hour for its services time and a half for quick-turnarounds expects to bring in $1 million in revenues this year.

“We give you the real McCoy. We won’t get someone who acts like a sex goddess. We’ll get the goddess,” said Kalmenson, 40. “It’s called truth-casting.”

That auditory acumen has won over such ad agencies as TBWA Chiat/Day Inc., whose well-known “Think Different” commercials for Apple Computers have involved voiceover talent supplied by Kalmenson & Kalmenson.

“We have to deliver consistently and live up to our reputation. You have to live up to your spot. And, in my position I need vendors to help me deliver, and Cathy can do that,” said Cheryllynn Carter, an assistant producer at the ad agency.

When Guam called, Kalmenson searched through her database, which contains the names of 9,039 voiceover professionals. She typed in the words “male” and “authority,” and it yielded 317 possibilities. Sifting through the list, she culled about 18 candidates to whom she delivered the script.

A dozen or so actors ended up calling Guam, and left recorded auditions on voicemail. Kalmenson’s efforts took about four hours. By the next day, the agency had faxed over the winner’s name and directions to the studio where the commercial would be recorded in Los Angeles. He would be directed via headset from Guam.

Kalmenson, 40, and her partner and husband Harvey Kalmenson, 64, are industry veterans. Her start was at Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago, and his was on the set of Alfred Hitchcock movies as an intern, where he learned to mentally storyboard every scene.

“When you’re doing a voiceover, you’re like an uninvited guest into a person’s home, and on top of that, you’re trying to sell something,” said Harvey Kalmenson. “You almost have to have the sound of an old friend coming to visit to be welcomed.”

In years past, advertisers demanded fairly bland voices, but today the No. 1 request is for actors who can convey a sarcastic attitude, according to Cathy Kalmenson.

“Humor sells. Sarcasm represents where the psyche is in the ’90s,” she said. “We’re savvy, jaded consumers who can see and hear through inaccuracies.”

Demand for voiceover talent has increased over the years, from just radio and TV commercials to CD-ROMS, books on tape, Web sites and cable TV. Opportunity abounds, but competition is still keen, especially because celebrities are far more willing to appear in commercials than in the old days.

“It’s hard to compete with Donald Sutherland. It’s an easy way for (celebrities) to make money. They can do one job in an hour and it doesn’t matter what they look like or what makeup they have on,” said Sandie Schnarr, owner of 13-year-old voiceover agency Sandie Schnarr Talent in West Hollywood. “And, there’s no huge auditioning process since they’re actors. They can do it better and faster since that’s what they do every day.”

Tustin resident Joe Montanari, 45, who recently got an agent, attends two to three auditions per week while teaching English and voice acting at a junior high school.

“I’ve been lucky to get an agent so quickly, and that’s often half the battle,” he said, after auditioning with Kalmenson & Kalmenson for a role in an upcoming campaign for Washington Mutual Bank.

Besides securing an agent, voiceover performers have to compile a demo tape, which is a two-minute montage of an actor’s style. These audio resumes are used as marketing tools for the agent and the performer to secure jobs.

“It’s a dream,” said Dave Linden, 29, who moved from Palm Springs to L.A. six months ago and has already spent thousands of dollars on workshops perfecting his delivery as a regular guy the husband, the boyfriend, the spokesman.

“The difficulty out here is that everybody and his brother is a voiceover person, so the trick is finding your niche,” said Linden, who by day works as public relations manager for the Petersen Automotive Museum. “In the meantime, I have a job and it keeps my mind off the competition.”

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