" Be committed, be persistent, be good at your craft, your business and your technology."
Continued from pg 25
the sides, I jumped into my car and and used voice memo on my iPhone to try to rehearse as I drove there. It didn’ t work out very well. All the way I kept wondering if there was an app to help me prepare and learn my lines for auctions. "
" Even though the part that I auditioned for was written out of the script, it lead me to develop a really cool app that helps actors prepare for auditions, Rehearsal ® Pro. It follows an actor’ s workflow. It’ s mostly used for preparation and is perfect for actors everywhere. The App has been featured in New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and used by quite a number of celebrities. I love it when I get an email saying,‘ you need to see what Lili Taylor said about you,’ or‘ what Kevin Bacon said about Rehearsal ® Pro.’ It’ s pretty awesome knowing that my app is helping others. I designed it to help myself succeed and it just works. And even if I were the only user, I would be happy because it has proven success."
We then asked David about his voice over business.“ The way I teach it is from three perspectives; the art, the commerce, and the science. We teach our students how to book commercials. They will learn about narration work and audio books. I show them how to do animation and video games voice-overs, promos and trailers. We also place a somewhat higher importance on understanding the technology that’ s required to have a successful practice. You will know how to run your own business and the correct technology that ' s required, all in 36 classes. It’ s very thorough and what a voice over talent needs to be successful. I ' ve even won four Backstage
Readers ' Choice Awards for best voice over instruction.
How does he do it all, you might ask?“ I probably spend about half my time performing, acting and doing voice overs, then about a quarter of my time teaching voiceover, and finally a quarter of my time developing, marketing, and supporting Rehearsal ® Pro."
When asked about his downtime, and what his secret passion was, he said,“ I make sure I have plenty of personal downtime. I make time to watch television. I love television. People like to ask about what shows we watch. Well, I tell them that I watch everything, from reality TV, like MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT to great sci-fi like, I, ROBOT. My girlfriend and I spend a lot of time binge watching as well."
We asked a big question that many have a strong opinion on, as does David, ' Do you recommend that actors watch television and movies?'“ If they aren’ t, then it is the biggest mistake they can possibly make. They should be watching the very outlets that they’ ll be auditioning for later that week and I think that’ s a huge mistake in judgement if they aren’ t. They should also see as many films as they can. I’ m not just talking about lovely art films, but the blockbuster films, because that is where the money is. It should be a goal to want to generate a career that is both profitable and satisfying, as opposed just being to artistic and uplifting, yet your ' re unable to pay the rent. Friday is my favorite day, when I go to my mailbox to pick up my SAG / AFTRA checks from the network projects and film projects I’ ve worked on. You don’ t receive checks from student films, or nice little art films, web series and things like that. You receive checks from working on network television and big studio films.” And with close to one hundred network episodes and just over forty feature films under his belt, David knows this first hand.
David likes to give back to the acting community by mentoring actors. He makes it a point to take a lucky actor out to lunch every so often, because he feels that actors are notoriously hungry for food and for information. It’ s something that no one did for him when he was first getting started in the business. Also, because he ' s had the success he ' s had, he feels it’ s important to prevent people from making some expensive mistakes. " I can’ t stress enough to other actors, that you have to be as much of a good business person as a talented actor.” Thank you, David, for all the great information! ���
How can our readers follow you? Website: http:// davidhlawrencexvii. com / VO Teaching site: http:// www. vo2gogo. com / Rehearsal ® Pro: http:// www. rehearsal. pro / Twitter: @ dhlawrencexvii FB: http:// www. facebook. com / DavidHLawrenceXVII LinkedIn: http:// www. linkedin. com / in / davidhlawrencexvii
" Be committed, be persistent, be good at your craft, your business and your technology."
- David Lawrence XVII
Photos by Ali Donze, Donze Photography
ActDanceModelSing. com
Page 6