The First Ten Seconds of Your Commercial Audition with Hugh P. Klitzke

SYNOPSIS

A reality of the VO world is that even before getting heard, all auditions get sorted into two groups: the NO List and the MAYBE List.

Want to understand how to get your audition past the gatekeepers? Join industry veteran Hugh P. Klitzke for insight into this process.

In part one of this popular workshop, Hugh will discuss the practices that greatly increase the likelihood of your work getting heard. He will share ideas about slating, labeling, casting, direction, the read and much more!

In part two, Hugh will play a selection of auditions submitted by class participants, discuss in which group the submission would likely land and why. Hugh will also offer live redirects for some submissions that made it into the “MAYBE” group.

Audition submissions are encouraged but not required to attend this session. Please know that submissions played will receive respectful but honest feedback. Please do not submit an audition if that kind of interaction is not of interest to you.

IMPORTANT: DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS, SUBMISSIONS ARE NOT GUARANTEED A LISTEN. SELECTED SUBMISSIONS WILL BE PLAYED IN RANDOM ORDER DURING CLASS TIME. IF SELECTED, PARTICIPANTS WILL NOT RECEIVE NOTICE AS TO WHEN THIER SUBMISSION IS GOING TO BE PLAYED.

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT AN AUDITION IF THESE CONDITIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO YOU.

REQUIREMENTS

Members must remain for the duration of the session. Members are invited to attend to watch and listen without submitting an audition. All participants will receive a packet of commercial audition copy a few days before class. If you wish to make a submission, you will be asked to choose one piece of copy and follow the submission instructions.

IMPORTANT: DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS, SUBMISSIONS ARE NOT GUARANTEED A LISTEN. SELECTED SUBMISSIONS WILL BE PLAYED IN RANDOM ORDER DURING CLASS TIME. IF SELECTED, PARTICIPANTS WILL NOT RECEIVE NOTICE AS TO WHEN THIER SUBMISSION IS GOING TO BE PLAYED.

PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT AN AUDITION IF THESE CONDITIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO YOU.

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Hugh P. Klitzke

Hugh P. Klitzke is a voiceover coach, director and producer in New York City. He teaches the conversational read, self-direction, the commercial read, directs auditions and produces demos (amongst other things). For nearly fifteen years Hugh was the Voiceover Studio Manager at Buchwald, New York, directing auditions for every kind of voiceover. To date, Hugh has directed over 125,000 auditions and counting.

In 2023, Hugh was nominated for Best Female Commercial Demo Production at OneVoice, spoke at WOVO, critiqued at NEVO, taught many workshops for the SAG /AFTRA Foundation and he will present at VO Atlanta in 2024. While teaching classes, private coaching and lecturing, Hugh is writing two books and runs VOnow.CO with Debbie Irwin.

Hugh has also been the head of sound for Penn and Teller, an Equity Stage Manager, a producer at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn (now Detroit), an award winning composer and lyricist for theater, film and digital media, a music theory lecturer at SUNY Purchase, assistant to a Baroque trumpet scholar, a certified K-12 music teacher and two time marathon finisher.