Episode 10: Eileen Descallar, Photographer, VO Talent

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, welcome to go to your room and make stuff, the podcast about making art, any kind of art, all by ourselves in a room or a studio, maybe outside. No one is telling us when, where, or how, or any combination of those things. This is a podcast for solo artistic adventurers. Those who are doing it and those who want to try it, support ideas and just plain fun. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Hi. [00:00:27] Speaker A: Welcome to the podcast. We are interviewing Eileen Descalar today, and I'm totally excited because I've known her and I've seen her at conferences and I've, you know, hung out, but I have never really dove into her work, and she's always got a camera in her hands. So I had a pretty good feeling that she was into photography. And today, when I was in her website, and everyone should check it out and it's in the links, uh, there's some beautiful stuff in there. And then I found out that she rock climbs. And not like I rock climb, which is, you know, I will occasionally rope up and. And be top rope with someone else and like, go up like 15ft and be like, yeah, I'm so cool. No, she really rock climbs. I could tell by the photos in there. And she also does voiceover, so welcome, and let's just talk about all the places where you do your art, which obviously is not always in a room. That was the big thing I noticed is that your room tends to also be outside. [00:01:25] Speaker B: True, true. [00:01:26] Speaker A: So welcome, welcome. [00:01:28] Speaker B: Thank you. Happy to be here. [00:01:30] Speaker A: So, before we dive into details, let us get to know you a little bit better. Is there something about yourself that is a fun or unique fact that listeners might not know about you? [00:01:41] Speaker B: You mentioned photography, you mentioned voice acting, but I was also Uskla's women's fencing team captain. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool. Do you still fence? [00:01:50] Speaker B: I do not. I do not. [00:01:53] Speaker A: That's amazing. Maybe I find fencing to be absolutely fascinating, and I've never gone anywhere near, but it is so much fun to watch and. Yeah. And you also. So you also scuba dive? Yes. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Haven't gone in a while, but I'm certified and, you know, again, would love to go back and. [00:02:13] Speaker A: And I was gonna ask, too, some of the anemone photographs I saw. Were those underwater photography? [00:02:19] Speaker B: No, that wasn't an aquarium. But it looked pretty good, didn't it? [00:02:23] Speaker A: It looked great. As someone who's done some long time ago, underwater photography, which is really challenging, they look great. No, you did a fantastic job. Mostly I took pictures of the backs of fishes tails. [00:02:34] Speaker B: Yes, I have some of those. If you saw those outside of the water. And I've done some underwater with my gopro, but, you know, it's not like a still. I looked in an underwater casing, but that's just a whole nother. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Oh, it's like buying a car. [00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:02:49] Speaker A: Buying a car. And we still have all of our underwater housings and lights and everything. But, man, the cameras have changed so much. And this is all from, like, 2003 4567. So, you know, we're going back at 15 years. I don't know. I'm still proud of the stuff we have hanging on the walls. [00:03:06] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I have to say it. [00:03:07] Speaker A: It's an expensive. It's a really expensive hobby. All right, so tell us about your art medium and or mediums. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Okay, so I sometimes explain that I am a visual and audio creative, so I definitely work in visual and audio visual photography, but also graphic design. And a lot of that is related to my day job. So I have a day job doing a lot of design work. And they actually tapped into my photography once they discovered I did that as well. And then I've always created visually, you know, starting from crayons. But along with that was, ooh, animation. You know, some of my first things I was drawing were flip books, because I was like, how do they do that? And then I don't know if I saw it on tv or something where they're like, this is how animation is done. And then my dad had tons of these cards that were kind of stiff. Later on, I learned they were from, like, computers, like, ancient days where they fed, like, computer cards. And so he had tons of them that were, I don't know, we took them home. Like, they. They were just. He didn't program computers, but he had them. And so I was like, these are great. And so I would just draw, like, on them and flip through them, but then the little holes would get in the way sometimes. So that was, like, one of my first. I'm going to do this. And I loved color, so, like, big box crayons was my thing. And this was a crossing of streams, too. Okay, I'll introduce. The other thing I was doing, too, was writing. So in fourth grade, I won our little class talent show by writing a story and reading it out loud. And I won a big box of crayons. So I was like, yeah. So I was, like, writing audiobooks, kind of, right? I performed it. [00:04:59] Speaker A: It counts. [00:05:00] Speaker B: And then I won crayons. So I was like, this is wonderful. Yeah. So that's that side of thing. And then we'll go into the voice acting part. I realized after a while that I hadn't read anything for pleasure in a long time. I was an english major. So once you become an english major, you stopped reading anything but was required because you didn't have much time. At least I didn't. And then after graduating, I'm going, you know, when was the last time I just read something? You know, I'm not reading enough. So I know what, I will revisit some of these authors that maybe I didn't get a chance to study in depth for that I liked, and maybe I hadn't read all their work, and I'm going to find their works and I'm going to read them and create audiobooks and a podcast. Right? So I had a podcast. This was before I'm dating myself, before iTunes. So, you know, you just have these websites that would listen podcast. And so they're like, oh, it's really easy. And I have this pretty much of a geek background. So, you know, I was already doing things with, like, I think it was already doing Photoshop, you know, whatever I was doing. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:12] Speaker B: So, like, this can't be that hard. So I figure it out. I have a little, like, the usb mic that's like, the little neck things. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:06:20] Speaker B: And I just started recording and I picked works from the public domain. [00:06:25] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:06:26] Speaker B: And so there's a lot of them from, like, you know, Edgar Allan Poe. Like, just classic authors. So I'm like, I'm going to read things I haven't read before. And I think I researched. I even went to the library, like, how. How are audiobooks made? And they didn't, I didn't have much. You know, I couldn't find much. But I'm like, I think this is what you do. So I recorded them. I chopped them up, and then I did a little intro and then released them as episodes. [00:06:54] Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by the Seattle Voice Academy, and your host runs the podcast and the Seattle Voice Academy. This online voice school specializes in vocal health, singing, voiceover, and public speaking. Come check us out. Seattlevoiceacademy.com. before everyone was on YouTube doing it, I mean, wow. [00:07:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Right before there was, like, ways to. And then some people found me and I had, like, a website and, you know, they would comment and stuff. So that was kind of nice. And then eventually I put a little button, like, as people were doing for donations, and I got a little donation and someone gave me, I think it was $50. I'm like, I can upgrade my mic. [00:07:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:34] Speaker B: I went to Radio Shack. Oh. [00:07:37] Speaker A: Oh, hey, hey. At least it was in guitar center, so you're okay. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's Radio shack. But they told me to buy a dynamic mic. So it was like. It was a kind of mic you'd have on stage, right? [00:07:47] Speaker A: Oh, like a. Sure. 58 or, like, singing mics. Yeah, yeah, a directional mic. Yeah. [00:07:52] Speaker B: So I was saying, like, well, you know, I don't. It's kind of noisy. Cause they were asking me questions, but I had no clue about that. I only researched the part about, like, the technical stuff. Like, I was using audacity to cut up my, like, audiobook. [00:08:05] Speaker A: It's free. I mean, we broke up years ago. However, it's free, and it does work. And you weren't using garageband? You weren't using garageband? [00:08:13] Speaker B: No. Well, I couldn't afford a Mac, so I was. Even though I went to design school with a PC. That was a whole nother adventure, by the way. That was like, you know, 30% of us were using PCs, and the rest of them were using Macs. And they were, like, kind of looking down at us, you know? But by the end, when I graduated, it was like 50, 51 of my design jobs. They hired me partly because I knew how to design both Mac and PC. [00:08:37] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool. I should mention, by the way, she's talking on a 416 in studio bricks right now. For everyone who knows what I just said, she's a really nice setup. [00:08:46] Speaker B: Yes. I've had a glow up since then with the studio equipment. [00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm loving. I'm loving your studio. If you're not watching this later, you should go online and just take a look because it looks really, really good. So what mic did you buy at Radio Shack? [00:08:59] Speaker B: Oh, God, it was like, I don't even know the name of it. I still own it. It's somewhere in a closet. [00:09:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Sometimes I sell my mics, but they're kind of like children. Like, mostly there's at my feet down here. I have a great many mics at my feet. [00:09:12] Speaker B: I have another mic. I have a cinco d two at my feet, which is what I went through. So I went from the radio shack to the Cinco d two, which was great. And I used it for paid work and everything. And then I only found the 416 because it was a used sale from a fellow voice app. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Mine was also from a fellow voice actor. Most of my mics, this one I bought new. But no, a lot of my mics I get. [00:09:35] Speaker B: I've been looking at that. Yeah, I have this and I have an AKG C 214, which is. There's like a dual amount thing here. Yeah, I use that for video games or whatever requires kind of that character work. And then this, though, the booth, I also got it used. Yes. [00:09:54] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool. See, I am going to eventually own one. Right now I'm very happy in my little Harry Potter closet. But eventually, if I'm not in my perfectly built. It really is silent here. If I'm not in my perfectly built Harry Potter, it's going to be studio bricks. Triple walled. [00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:11] Speaker A: I don't know if I'll go with pink. I think I'll go with a different color. I have to ask, what color is your studio bricks? [00:10:16] Speaker B: It's just the white. [00:10:17] Speaker A: A lot of people have white. You know, you and I have a friend in common. Hers is bright pink, which is so cool. [00:10:22] Speaker B: It's so lovely. And it's big. And triple wall. See, I have double, which is great. It's great. [00:10:29] Speaker A: I think it's better than single, if anyone's listening. And for those of you who happen to be like, oh, my gosh. Talking about the weirdest stuff, it's noise cancellation for audiobook and voiceover work. And single wall. Just don't bother. Double and triple are fantastic. [00:10:42] Speaker B: I mean, that being said, I had, before this setup, I lived in a different location and the room I was in was quiet enough. So I had basically, you know, those easy up tents. [00:10:56] Speaker A: Yes. [00:10:56] Speaker B: So it was like that skeleton, which is metal. Right, that skeleton. But it was 4ft by 4ft. They called it a changing cabana. Right. So then I put moving blankets around it for the walls and went on top, and there was a carpeted floor. And so when it was quiet, know, relatively quiet, I could record. I recorded a lot. Like, I had sound engineers be like, your sound is great. You know, what are you in? You know, so that. That was great. [00:11:24] Speaker A: But there's no need to spend a lot of money if the environment you're in is conducive to moving blankets and pvc pipe. Yeah. So people should know that you don't have to buy a studio bricks until you're like, I really need a studio bricks. [00:11:39] Speaker B: And it just opens up the time. Yeah. You know, I feel so much better. Like, okay, I can record it this time if there's a live directed session, my neighbors can. [00:11:47] Speaker A: My neighbors can do. They can. They can mow the lawn. I'm okay. Dogs, however, come right in. I have a corgi and so the barking. So no, they get. They get crated. And of course, today, this morning they're not crated. So we'll see what happens. It's very exciting. But if it were set, if there's a session happening, those dogs are where they cannot make noise. [00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:12:05] Speaker A: Sweet. Okay. So I want to ask more about your voiceover and what kinds of stuff you really love. I heard you say animation. So what, in audiobooks? Both. So what is it you love to do? What is it you want to do more of that stuff? [00:12:19] Speaker B: I love to do all the things. This is kind of a theme of my, like, life. So I was a Girl Scout. I'm still answering your question, by the way. But they. Little badges. And one of my favorite badges to earn was called dabbler because it would take that section and you could, like, do different things from the other different badges and earn this one badge because I was like, I wouldn't earn that. I wouldn't earn that. And I'm kind of like that now, especially with voiceover because I just started discovering more genres and going, that sounds great. So what I'm doing more now, I suppose, is dubbing live action. I have done an animation one as well and then video games and I love that. I did not start with that. I started with audiobooks discussed and then corporate narration and then super local radio, you know. [00:13:15] Speaker A: And you're in La, the La area, correct? [00:13:17] Speaker B: Yes. I only moved to actual LA. People will understand if they live here. So my address is Los Angeles now, last September. So before that I was living in Ventura, which is a city in the county north of laden. [00:13:33] Speaker A: What's your commute if you're dubbing? If you're in Ventura. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Well, from Ventura, I cheated and I would like stay at a friend's house. [00:13:41] Speaker A: That's what I thought. I have family in orange, but that's a very long drive to studio City. [00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah, orange is still farther than I was from Ventura just because of traffic wise. But a drive would take. It'd be reasonable. It could be an hour and a half. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Each way. [00:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah, each way. It could be a lot longer. [00:14:01] Speaker A: Dubbing. Have you ever done dubbing in your studio, bricks, or are you going into the studio? [00:14:05] Speaker B: I've done both. Oh, wow. Yeah. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Which do you prefer? [00:14:10] Speaker B: Well, dubbing in my studio bricks is really nice because I can just walk in and do it. [00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:16] Speaker B: But in the studio it's really nice because you don't have to worry about the technical stuff or maybe something will come through. This is a double, not a triple. [00:14:24] Speaker A: But do you have any latency or timing issues? I've never done dubbing, so this is something I know, like, nothing about. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I not. I didn't experience that. But, you know, my directors were also remote, you know, so it's occasionally they'd be like, hold on. But it was usually something actual noise on their end. I remember one time was like, there's a storm out here. I was like, okay, all right, you know, we'll hold. [00:14:55] Speaker A: And let's talk a little bit about the photography, too. I mean, I got on and got to see it, and I'm going to be posting links to a lot of these photos so that you guys should all go in. You should take a look at the gallery on your website. So I guess. Tell us about your camera. I don't know. Let's talk about photography. [00:15:13] Speaker B: Sure, sure. So, photography. My dad had a camera, and he had, like, a makeshift darkroom, which was carved as part of, like, the kitchen area. And now I think about it, like, my mom must have hated that. But it was like, you walked into the area that was, like, the small galley kitchen and kind of like, where the dining room table was and sort of this extra space, which was like, I don't know what the people who made the house envisioned it to be because it wasn't big for. It wasn't big enough for really anything. Like, at one time, we had a small tv there and, like, a tiny couch because the living room, the actual living room was, like, got way too hot all the time. So he had this little darkroom, and I'd be like, wow, that's cool. You know, you go in there and you move the sheets, and it's all dark. And so, you know, I love. I was a bookworm, right? So fantasy Sci-Fi it'll be like, yeah. Like, it's like, it's gonna be like the wardrobe and Narnia, and I'm gonna transport. And so, like, I liked it because of that. But then later on, I was like, what does he actually do in there? You know? And then, what is his camera stuff? And eventually he gave me, like, a point and shoot camera, and I would just try and take things. And then much later on, much, much later on, I basically was going to take a camera class and use his camera, and I think I had not signed up, but I was going to. And then it was stolen out of my mom's car. So it's like. So then I delayed until digital cameras came out, and then I started with that. Okay. Yeah. [00:16:48] Speaker A: So did your dad shoot in black and white or color or both? [00:16:52] Speaker B: Oh, usually color. [00:16:54] Speaker A: I mean, my dad was a black and white photographer. That's why. That's why I ask. [00:16:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's cool. [00:16:58] Speaker A: And I love on your website how you talk about the magic of those curtains. I think that's really cool. [00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So that was definitely, like. But it was ironic, though, because he wants to take pictures of his family, obviously. But we were just so sick of, like, oh, my God, it's gonna take forever. We gotta have pictures. And it'd be a lot of the group pictures, which, you know, as you get older, you realize why, right? Like, it's your family and they're growing up, and this is an occasion, and when do all. You know, I have a lot of relatives. Like, all of us get together at the same time now. But, yeah, I was just like, oh, God, we want to play. We want to do this, we want to eat, or we want to open our Christmas presents. Right? So that kind of came back to me. It was like, whenever I have a client that's like, you know, maybe it's a kid and they're shy, I'm like, oh, no, you know, this is. This. I understand. Yeah. So we'll do that. And then when I went to Europe, I took the camera, my little point and shoot, and that's when I really was, like, trying to document, you know, like, photojournalistic and capture my memories, but also get some artistic ones. Now, the problem was, I didn't know this, but I put a roll back in the camera so I have double exposures. [00:18:12] Speaker A: You might have had some cool experiments. [00:18:14] Speaker B: I did. I have, like, a dove from Notre Dame. Stained glass in the underground. [00:18:23] Speaker A: That's cool. Accidental cool. That's accidentally really cool. [00:18:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I was like, this is cool. But then also, obviously, I messed up. Like, oh, great. So the pictures from France and England are mashed up, and, you know, anyway. [00:18:36] Speaker A: It remembers me, how much we used to have to wait. I mean, now I'm going back 25 years to where we used to take the pictures. And then I had a boyfriend whose family used to develop film. So it was that whole developing process. And then you found out if you did a good job or not. [00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:55] Speaker A: And then digital altered all that. [00:18:58] Speaker B: Yep. [00:18:59] Speaker A: And so, wow. So tell me more about, like, when you started to get into the digital photography and how that affected you and your cameras and art. [00:19:08] Speaker B: So I got a digital one. I can't even remember what it was now. I think it was, like, some plastic thing that wasn't even a brand name, but it was digital. And then it was kind of like, oh, I could just take a bunch of pictures and see how they look like. But then there was a whole process getting on your computer. But again, the tech part of me saved me, so I can do this. But then I started to be like, hey, this Europe picture, one of the ones I took was a Windsor castle, and I turned it black and white. I remember I photoshopped out, like an electric line or something that was on it. And I found a stock photography site, and I put some photos on there, and someone bought the photo, and I was like, someone bought my photo. I wasn't even really trying. What if I actually tried? So I think that's when I went out and got, and it wasn't like, you know, the next year when I came back from Europe, it was like years later. That's when I got my first digital camera that was like prosumer ish approaching prosumer, which was a rebel, canon rebel. [00:20:23] Speaker A: Okay. [00:20:24] Speaker B: And then I shot some stuff with that. I sold another, you know, stock photography shot. I'd already been doing a little graphic design as part of my job, but it wasn't my main job. So I had like, a kind of an eye for, like, oh, if I was going to put this on layout, I would want a lot of white space. You know, I wouldn't want room for copy. I would want this. I want it to be more versatile. Like, maybe they'll put it here, maybe they'll put it there. So that helped. And then I was outside, and all of that was just, that was the artistic part, you know, it was kind of like, I'm going to take. This is so beautiful. You can't capture it. Exactly the experience, but I can try, you know, so I learned a lot. And then once HDR technique came out, which is, gosh, high dynamic range. [00:21:17] Speaker A: Okay, I was gonna ask what it stands for. [00:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah, you take multiple exposures, and then it will, like, blend them so that it can be closer to what the eye sees, because we can see a lot more change in exposure, like the darkness brightness than the camera can see. And so some people, when it first was discovered, they used it to make, like, really super saturated photos, and it kind of blew people away at first. They're like, oh, my God, look at that. That's so magical. But it wasn't realistic. Right. You know, but that's part of the charm of it was like, that's magical. But for me, I was trying to more look like, this is what I see, it's already magical. It doesn't need to look. Some of them I would, you know, kind of say looked a little cartoony in a way, you know, so which has its place, but I was like, let's see what happens. So I remember I treated one of my photos, kind of the trend at the time, and then one where I felt like it was more realistic. And I think it wasn't a good experiment because I think I only sold one print of that. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:20] Speaker B: Which was the realistic one. But, um. But that was like a trend that happened. Yeah. And then I just upgraded my camera again. I love shopping used. So I ended up eventually with a ii, which I got used. I have the workhorse 24 70 l canon lens, which is like, okay, yeah, which is really great. And then I started getting into more professional work. And after I worked at a magazine for a little while and they were telling us for the longest time, like, you know, you guys are going to get laid off, essentially. I had a very interesting boss. He was not filtered at all, okay? So he would just be like, you guys, you're all going to get fired. I was like, what? And then. But really the thing was, we could either go to work in the downtown LA office, mind you, this is when I was living in Ventura. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's brutal. [00:23:23] Speaker B: You can go and you'll have your job or you're just gonna be gone. And at the time, I was already doing some graphic design work on the side. I had all these websites up to sell like t shirts and mugs and stuff for my niche interests. Like, so I have a store that has like fencing. It's called fencingware. And it's like, you know, clothing for fencers. Yeah. And then I like. [00:23:47] Speaker A: You do? Yeah, I love it, by the way. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah, like you do. And then I went for rock climbing, which actually became more of a full blown website. Okay, so that's more of like a community and then happens to have a store. Right. So these were going on and I remember thinking like, you know, I'm, my income on that is starting to go up. Like, the little chart of income is not where I quite where I want it to be, but eventually when it gets to a certain point, I'm going to quit this job. So I was going like, well, I guess I'll just quit a little earlier. And then it was nice because they gave us a separation package. Not a separate package, but a separation. I was like, this is better than me quitting, you know? So I was able to do that. And then at that point, I was full time graphic design photography, and then I became a sponsored rock climber for a year during that time period. [00:24:38] Speaker A: That's really badass, by the way. So you actually go high. Okay. [00:24:42] Speaker B: All right. [00:24:43] Speaker A: What's. Okay? I don't speak rock climber very well. Have you done things harder than a 5.9? [00:24:49] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:24:50] Speaker A: So I figured, okay, what's the hardest thing you've done? And then you have to explain what you're saying, because I barely understood what I just said. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Okay, so there's a rating system, and it's a little bit like, if you're familiar with earthquake and magnitude, it's not like, you know, 12345. It's like, the difference between a five. Okay, well, the difference between four and a five is, like, vastly different. It's so different. They start saying, like, climbing starts at five point something, and that's when you have. You have to use your hands. Like, you know, there's no. Four is, like, one through four. Like, one is walking on smooth pavement, you know? You know, and then there's various stages, and then there's kind of, like, hiking in this terrain, that terrain. And four is sort of, like, occasionally you might lose your hands occasionally. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:39] Speaker B: Five is, like, you have to use your hands to make any progress, and then. So, because, like, it's that system. Everything in rock climbing is five point something. Except the highest rating used to be five point ten. Like, you know. [00:25:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I knew. I was guessing something high. [00:25:56] Speaker B: Go by six, like, the next, you know. But then it was like. But this was invented a long time ago, before, like, modern stuff happened. Like sticky rubber on your shoes that made you go up, stuff that looks incredibly blank. So they couldn't say, like, oh, this is now six. You know, like, because what are we gonna do? So they started going, like, five, you know, 1011 ABCD. And then they went to eleven. [00:26:24] Speaker A: I should mention one of the pictures of Ellen. She's wedged in a crevice. I'll put it on so people can see it. She's wedged in a crevice. And I'm just like, oh, she really climbs. [00:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So the jokes of my name, Eileen. There's two. Like, either they start breaking out, singing, come on, Eileen. Right? Or occasionally they'll do the knock knock joke with Eileen Dover and fell down, you know, depending on what rating you want to do that joke on. And then. But the rock climbing ones are like, I leaned over and fell off a cliff. Uh huh. [00:27:00] Speaker A: So you were a professional rock climber for a year. [00:27:03] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Okay. [00:27:05] Speaker A: And I'm assuming the camera was not around your neck, obviously, for obvious reasons. Although cameras started getting smaller. [00:27:12] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it was. [00:27:13] Speaker A: Did you. [00:27:13] Speaker B: I brought a regular SLR up a couple of climbs. Excuse me, I'm gonna take a step. [00:27:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, some water. [00:27:21] Speaker B: So I brought a professional camera up a couple of climbs and I would have them in a pack or I had a special sling. Other times I would go there and be the photographer. So I'd have a separate robe and like go up that rope and take pictures of someone else climbing. [00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah. You were photographing the climbers? I saw some of those. Those were cool. And also I have to bring up. You have been to one of my favorite places. You have been down Havasu by canyon Havasu Falls and Mooney Falls. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:50] Speaker A: Which is in Arizona. [00:27:51] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:52] Speaker A: So. Yes, that's one of the places I've been. But that didn't require any ropes. There is a chain though, you hold onto going down Muni Falls. [00:27:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:00] Speaker A: Yeah. I was in 8th grade, I should mention this was not yesterday. [00:28:04] Speaker B: Yeah, they beautiful. Actually, when I went down mini falls, I was prepared to. We brought a rope just in case. And someone had put a ladder in there. [00:28:14] Speaker A: You know what needed it when I went. If 39 years later, I can distinctly remember every minute of that climb. It was. Yeah, I'm glad. And I remember my friend's dad helping a great deal because we were 8th graders. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Boy, the beauty of that place though, it's so beautiful. [00:28:32] Speaker B: And I did take an SLR camera and a wide angle lens and a portable tripod because I wanted to capture the falls. I mean, that was just such a highlight. [00:28:44] Speaker A: You should all go on and take a look at when you see the falls on her website. Those, at least some of them are those Arizona falls. And it's about 11 miles in. If anybody wants to buyer photos because the hike in and the hike out are brutal. If you do decide to do it, get the donkeys to carry your pack back out because there's how many, I can't remember how many switchbacks. It's 11 miles and a lot of switchbacks. [00:29:06] Speaker B: Yes, a lot. A lot. Though. When I hiked Mount Whitney, there's an area called 99 switchbacks. So I don't think there were 99 for Havasu. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Okay. Right there. And I've hiked. Have you done the enchantments up here? Have you ever done the enchantments? [00:29:22] Speaker B: I have not. I've not. [00:29:24] Speaker A: Oh man, you gotta do that. I've done that. Twice. [00:29:26] Speaker B: I've been up in the area, like, several times, but I've climbed Mount Baker, so that was my first glacier mountaineering. [00:29:34] Speaker A: That's summit, small mountain. That's huge. That's a big deal. You've climbed Baker? Holy cow. Yeah, she can. She mountain climbs. I'll just. I'll just. I'll just say right there, that's a. That's a big glacier up there. [00:29:46] Speaker B: It was a lot of fun. [00:29:47] Speaker A: We have a lot of big volcanoes up here. The mountains up here are not small. They're big. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Sweet. Let's see. Can you talk about recent projects, stuff you've been working on recently? [00:30:01] Speaker B: Sure. NDAs. NDAs. [00:30:05] Speaker A: I know, right? It's like, we will skip all of. Is there anything you can talk about? So she's on many NDA projects, and they're great. That's all we're gonna say about that. Do you have anything that's no longer under NDA? [00:30:16] Speaker B: Yes. So I was in reimagine two mahal, which is a VR animation. It's available on any meta quest headset. It's free. It's part of the. There's an VR animation app, and that came out last year, and it premiered at Terbeca, which was just a crazy thing to be involved with. I, right out of college, I went into entertainment marketing industry, so, of course, I knew all about, you know, Sundance, Tribeca, you know, just these big things. I was not going the route of, you know, on camera. I was in the corporate side of things by then, and so to actually then years later be a Tribeca, you know, how cool. It's because I'm in something. So the piece was about. It was based on philippine folklore, but they took that. It wasn't like a one for one kind of thing. There's a little story going on, and VR animation itself is really interesting. I hadn't seen VR animation. I've seen games, little samples of VR over the years. So when I saw it for the first time, which was at Tribeca, I was like, oh, my God, I'm looking around. Yeah. So that was so fun. And then it was submitted to different festivals. I remember, I think at Baltimore next festival, it won best ensemble cast, which was really fun. And now the series, because we were kind of. It was reimagined two, so it was one and three, obviously. And the series has been nominated for a Peabody. So that's. That just happened. So I'm just like, congratulations. I think that's really great. And the team, the creator, it's just a really nice project and definitely great artistic vision and someone going, this is a new medium, and I want to create something in it. And she'd worked in it before, but this was like, really her, like a bigger undertaking, you know, since there are, like three of them and everything, so. Oh, yeah. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Do you have any mentors, anybody who helped get you where you are today? [00:32:34] Speaker B: Oh, I have to give a giant shout out to the entire OG clubhouse group in the pandemic because that's what I always tell people. That's my relaunch. The audiobook, the podcast, the very small jobs I did and the little things I did back then, I kind of just moved away from anything voice. You know, I didn't have a proper recording area. You know, it was kind of a miracle that I got, like, paid jobs at all, really. And then during the pandemic, I got on the audio only app, clubhouse, and just was exploring around, and I found all these rooms that were about voice acting. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Yes. [00:33:15] Speaker B: And certain coaches were, because, you know, we're all stuck at home and they weren't doing in person, and they started offering stuff online and they'd be a room, and some of them were structured. It was definitely like, this is about voice acting. We're going to, like, have you read scripts, and one by one you're going to read, and we're going to give you feedback. Right. But other ones were just like, we're just going to talk about voice acting, or we're voice acting friends. And then I would sit and, like, kind of absorb a lot just listening to all these people talk. But then some of the reading rooms, I just. So Erika Schroeder and Sarah Natacheny, like, sarah is the voice for the longest time of Ash ketchum, they did a room about animation, naturally, and they played a game, I guess, that they used to do in person at conferences, which was basically, like, randomly assigned to creating a Pokemon. And so they pull out like this elemental, you know, and this animal is the inspiration, and this is the vowels. Are you going to use to create your Pokemon name? So you came up with your name, and then you just had to do, like, three things. Like, you're bursting out of the Pokemon. You're. I forgot the other two things that you're supposed to do. So basically three lines. And so they ask at the beginning setup of clubhouse is like, there's kind of a stage area, only the people on stage can be heard. The rest of the people are kind of like audience, and it's changed. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Or you can raise your hand it's changed since then. [00:34:46] Speaker B: So you have to raise your hand and so they ask you that. But you could see that there's already like hundred people in the audience, you know, little people on the stage. And they're just all you see, by the way, people on stage is a little circle just for picture. [00:34:58] Speaker A: Yep. [00:34:58] Speaker B: It's not like a video or anything. So you could just put your phone down, listen, or you can look at the little circles. So I raised my hand because I'm like, I have to do it or I'll chicken out. So I did. And I was like, I'm fourth. I'm fourth. Oh, no. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:35:15] Speaker B: Do I put myself back to the audience? Because once you raise your hand and they accept you're on circles up there. So they came to me and then I did my character and I, they're like, wow, okay, now do this, now do that. And then they're saying, telling me, doing to do things that they hadn't done before. Direction, right? [00:35:36] Speaker A: Yeah, direction. [00:35:37] Speaker B: Okay. And so I just did them. And this was not the first time I'd seen this room, right. So I knew how it went. So I did that. And then I was so amped up with adrenaline, like, after that, also, because the last thing that had me do was like, now yell at eleven. You know, like for anger. Right. So I did. [00:35:55] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:55] Speaker B: I, and then, so I listened, as you do during the pandemic and the clubhouse days, for hours. I mean, this, they literally went through every single person. It was at least, at least 2 hours. But at the end they said like, okay, so and so, so and so come back up on stage and they, my name was mentioned. So now there's like 30 of us total on stage. She's like, well, because a lot of these episodes end with music. Now sing along. Okay. I don't know. What is this song? I don't know. And they're trying to play it, but it's in the background, you can't really hear it. So you're supposed to sing in your character. So I'm doing that. And also they called me out again, like so and so and Eileen sing. I'm like, okay, so doing that. And, but to me, it was like, I can't believe they remembered my name from 2 hours ago. How many people? And I was just like, I can do this. I can do animation. Because before that, I was very realistic, you know, I still think it's realistic to know that a lot of voiceover work is going to be or it doesn't have to be but you're going to find some kind of, whether it's an audiobook or it's corporate narration, commercial. Like, these are things that are like either money or steady work, right? Yeah. Bread and butter. The bread and butter work, right. And until then, it was always, like, coming from entertainment marketing. And because I had gone to a performing arts school, like in high school for a year, like, I have exposure to that side of the performing arts and, and actors and everything. So I'm like, that is such a hard industry. And I thought, like, I don't have a chance in it now. You know, I know that sounds incredibly pessimistic, but I wasn't. [00:37:48] Speaker A: Well, it sounds somewhat realistic depending where you're coming from, right? [00:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And then Alsar was living infantry, which is close enough to LA, but, you know, it's within striking a distance. There's certain people, especially in the southern part of the county, who, like, totally work in the movie industry or tv industry and they can do that. But I just felt like, oh, you know, that's just so hard. That drive, do I have that drive? And then I'm like, well, I'll be realistic and do this because I love audiobooks. You know, I actually even enjoy non fiction stuff. So, like, corporate narration works. And I just, this is something I can also do at home and be more flexible with their schedule, you know, like all sorts of, like, this is great. I just, I love the voiceover voice acting genre, both of them. But because of that aspect where I saw how hard the actors struggle the on camera and on theater, I just thought like, ooh, you know, can I do that for voice animation? But once I did that, I was like, I can and I will. You know, it was, I can and I will. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, so I have to ask, what is your journey out of the pandemic then into doing animation? [00:39:03] Speaker B: So that was. Hmm. It took a, well, first of all, tons of classes, tons of workshops, and of course, shout out to Seattle voice Academy because I did a corporate narration class early on. I think it was still the pandemic, I'm pretty sure. [00:39:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was too. Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Because again, this was part of my, like, what can I do and what have I done? And I just need to get better at this and just, also just see more opportunities. So I took that class and I was like, this is a great, this is a great academy one. Yeah. Because I was like, one. Every, all of it was there. There's like, these are great teachers. You know, it's reasonable price. The class size is good, and it's teaching you things. Actual teaching you, you know, it's not. [00:39:53] Speaker A: It was. Yeah, teaching is really important to us. Like, that's the more. It's. Yes. Yeah, we're voice actors, but we're also teachers. [00:39:59] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. So it was a good combination. I was like, this is what I need more of. So that was, like, I purposely looked at different workshops, and because I'd been exposed to other coaches on clubhouse, like, I knew how coaching could go. Like, you know, certain types of coaching and certain types of classes. So, of course, I took classes in all the genres, including animation. And then I also had a membership to gravy for the brain, which is an overall site with, like, tons of recordings. [00:40:32] Speaker A: So much stuff. [00:40:33] Speaker B: Really great for people starting out, but a lot to digest. A lot to digest. So that was a place that I did, like, overall overview of. Just watch their animation stuff. Every time I saw something that was like a podcast, I listened to that. And even though I said I left voice acting between the, you know, the radio track mic and pandemic, I was still going to, like, Comic Con. That's part of another thing I did. There's a whole nother life I have with video games, but. But I would always go to the voice acting panel at Comic Con. Like, just, I always loved that. I've always loved that. You know, again, back to the animation times with the flip books. You know, I'd be doing the voices for the little flip books. I'd make, you know, I'd be doing voices for the stuffed animals and, like, I made little felt finger puppets and was going to put on a whole production of the Nutcracker, but I didn't have enough felt to make all the characters. I only had scraps to work with. But anyway, so, like, animation was always there, but, you know, it wasn't until that kind of pivotal moment in that room and then going, like, into the different classes and eventually workshops and having people that I trusted say, like, you know, you're good at this. You know, you could that. Yeah. And I'm still. I do want to do more of it. You know, you asked that question, what do you want to do more of? I also also like dubbing, which a lot of people don't. In fact. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you're in the right place for it. There's a lot of it. [00:42:14] Speaker B: There's a lot of it. Um, and I think it's partly, like, my music background. Someone actually told me this. They're like, my first coaching session ever, and they're like, you haven't done this before? I'm like, no. And then he goes, do you have a music background? I went, yes. And he goes, yeah. People who have a lot of music background understand this. I'm like, yes, of course. The first system I learned was the four beep system, which is very natural. And then you come in. This makes sense. [00:42:42] Speaker A: It's like a click track. Yeah. [00:42:45] Speaker B: So that part was just like, wow, I'm good at this. It's fun. You get to act. I mean, all of this, you get to act. But there's so many characters that opened up. And then live action. The first one was training it with animation, anime, and then I was like, I gotta try live action too. So I did one coaching session with live action, and then I was like, oh, okay, I think I got that. And then I've been in the, I've recorded, like, I think, four different shows for dubbing now, but three of them I do not think we'll ever see the light of day, unfortunately, but, ah. [00:43:21] Speaker A: Yes, yes, the entertainment industry. [00:43:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So hopefully the fourth will come out and then that could be a nice announcement someday. Awesome. [00:43:30] Speaker A: So here's a question they ask everybody. Did anyone ever say the wrong thing to you? And if that, if it ever happened, how did you cope? [00:43:41] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:43:42] Speaker A: And some people have gone, no one's ever said the wrong thing, which is totally a legit answer, by the way. [00:43:47] Speaker B: I have to think on that. I mean, the first thing that came to mind, I don't know if it was really the wrong thing, but the podcast I had, someone left. Oh, no, it was an email. They emailed me. And they said, like, you have no respect for the material and you should hire a professional. And I'm like, you are listening to a free podcast. What are you talking about? And I thought to myself, okay, so this book I'm reading right now is set in England, and I do a variety of characters, and they all have english accents. So I thought, like, does he just hate my english accent? And I thought like, okay. So I go back, I listened to that episode, and because there's a particular character, and I felt like, did I maybe do him too much over the top? Right? And I was like, no, that wasn't too over the top. I was like, so I'm not sure what he's talking about. And then, like, surely if he just hates my english accent completely, he would have not listened up to this episode because it's like, quite far into the book, you know? Right. So why, why are you complaining now? And it was about that particular, you know, he mentions it. So I'm like, I just felt like he was having a bad day or something. [00:45:04] Speaker A: And plus, so how did you. How did you deal with it? Did you. Do you ignore? Did I. Obviously, you still remember it. [00:45:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I ignored. I laughed, actually, because of the factors. I just told you, kind of like, are you really asking me to hire someone? This is free. I do this out of my free time. I had also already been a moderator and then eventually an administrator in a video game community. And as you can imagine, there's a lot of. There's a lot of stuff to moderate in a video game community. [00:45:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:45:37] Speaker B: So I had a very thick skin, so I think maybe that's also why I just was able to laugh, you know? And I don't know where I read this, but somebody said, okay, it's about love letters. Like, you're supposed to keep your love letters a throwaway. Your hate letters doesn't make sense. [00:45:55] Speaker A: But, you know, but the sentiment behind it. [00:45:58] Speaker B: Behind it does. Yeah. So I remember thinking, like, well, okay. You know, I kind of felt it was a mark of, like, making it, like, someone I have a hater out. [00:46:07] Speaker A: There I love, you know, like. [00:46:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I did. I did keep, like, a really nice email of someone who really enjoyed the podcast and said that his mom was losing her vision, and he was so glad, and she was so glad they found my podcast because, you know, it opened up. Like, she could still listen to all these books. And I was like, oh, that's beautiful. God. And, you know, they said the way I did it was great and a lot of great stuff at my performance. So that was also nice. And it kind of makes me feel bad that I stopped that podcast. [00:46:36] Speaker A: But the good news is that, yeah, the accessibility, back when you were doing it, you might have been one of the only ones they found. Right. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Right. That's what I say. So I don't feel that bad because there's so much. A lot. And, in fact, one of my audiobooks that I did is available on learning Ally, which started for visually impaired, but then is also for anyone with learning. [00:46:57] Speaker A: Like, I'll put learning disabilities. I'll put learning ally. I will put the link to them as well. They do phenomenal work. If you want to volunteer with them as a voice actor or if you need them, they provide for people who need that. [00:47:09] Speaker B: So they have fantastic professional production. So if you can work for them, you know that you're, like, out of snuff and you're in good shape. Yeah. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:47:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Let's see. What is any advice you would have for either young artists or adults who are just starting in any of the arts that you do? [00:47:30] Speaker B: Oh, I'd say, okay, so we'll take photography first. Photography is just develop your eye, and by that, literally take your camera, aka your phone. You don't have to have actual camera at this point to start with, especially. And take what captures your eye and then share it with people and see what they thought of it. Look at their reactions, because you're trying to get your vision into the pixels and capture light, as we like to say. But you also want to see what do people respond to and look at what others have done. You don't have to, like, study it, like, to. To the nth degree. But sometimes I go to art museums, and you could see composition. You see light, you see color, you see storytelling. You see everything. Like, you know, I go to modern and, like, historical, you know, art. So that's always where you start with, because it comes from you. Because everyone's a photographer now. Like, everybody. Like, you're doing a selfie, you're doing whatever it is. But if you want to, like, continue or become professional at it, then you need to, like, develop your eye and develop a look, but then also, then eventually go out and learn from people, whether that's a formal setting. You know, it could be online, in person. I did things called photo walks. They were free. I think they're still going on. I'm pretty sure they are. You could just join one in a group, and you're with, like, a group of photographers, and you go and you'll do, like, a walk somewhere, and then you'll come back later on and look at people's pictures and compare, and you're like, I saw that same scene. But they took it this way. [00:49:22] Speaker A: We got lucky. We were on a scuba diving trip many years ago with our first underwater housing for dive for diving. And one of the people at the resort had filmed, but he was a professional underwater photographer, and we had digital. So every day at the dive resort, he would make us download all the pictures we had taken that day and critique us that night and then take us underwater and reframe it for us the next day. But we had instant feedback. [00:49:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:47] Speaker A: In that. Wait, well, under what? Basically, it was, we had photo swim. Photo float. [00:49:51] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds so fun. [00:49:54] Speaker A: Right? So what would you say for. Thank you for that, for voiceover, for someone who's new. [00:50:00] Speaker B: Oh, so that's. So for audiobooks, I'll repeat advice I'd heard, which is the go into a closet and read a book. And if you can do that for a week and not feel like you're bored or going to tear your hair out, then maybe audiobooks is for you. And I say that because I do know a lot of voice actors, narrators, like, who'd be like, oh, I couldn't do audiobooks or I couldn't do audiobooks of x length because it's really unique in its genre. And voiceover in the big voiceover umbrella. Now for general voiceover, I'd say, well, there's that. It's I want to beavoice actor.com. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is D. Baker. Dee Bradley Baker has I want to beavoice actor.com. it's a fantastic website. [00:50:55] Speaker B: It's great. I mean, just do that. [00:50:57] Speaker A: He's real. And then, yeah, read that. [00:50:58] Speaker B: Yeah, read that and it'll give you so much. But you could start either place or, you know, just start with acting even, you know, there's always acting. So there's different things for different levels. You know, I was really shy as a kid, and so certain things would get me out of my shell. So sometimes, like, you're, if you're self, like, I'm self kind of contained to learn this certain way, then it's like, oh, great, before the brain, you know, there's all that stuff you can absorb that way. And then if you want to be outgoing and you're in a bigger market area, as I call it, like city, and you can go in person and try a workshop. There's always, like, workshops for beginners. And then, you know, step back from that. I was like, online. Seattle voice Academy. Hello. [00:51:47] Speaker A: All your skills. [00:51:48] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. So, and then you just jump around and see different ones, different workshops, but it's kind of like, just try them. And also do not go out and buy expensive equipment right away. Just don't, don't. [00:52:02] Speaker A: And besides, as she's mentioned, used is a real good idea. People change their equipment all the time. There's no need to spend a lot of money. Wow. Eileen, thank you so much for, is there anything else you want to add to the conversation today? Oh, just anything we didn't talk about. [00:52:17] Speaker B: This is delightful. Just creative world is like a wonderful place to be in, work in and play in. So keep doing it. [00:52:28] Speaker A: And we're looking at your room and the room where you get to do all your stuff. And she also goes outside to take all those photographs of all that stuff as well. So thank you so much for being here today. [00:52:39] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:52:40] Speaker A: Hey everybody, thanks for listening. To go to your room and make stuff the podcast for artists of any kind who want to make art by themselves. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast in all the places where you find podcasts. Find us on social media, and if you ever have any artists you would like to see featured, please let us know. Now. Go to your room and make stuff.