Being a Judge on the VOICE ARTS AWARDS.

In one week, Sunday November 17th 2019, the 6th annual VOICE ARTS AWARDS will be handed out at the WARNER BROS STUDIO!

As a voice actor, it has been a privilege to see this legacy known as the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences, come to life. Conceived of and built by Rudy Gaskins and Joan Baker, their passion for the art, history and future of Voice Acting has been a huge gift to the community.

But how did a small time voice actor, with a few credits to his name, become a Judge on this major Hollywood showcase of talent so quickly?

It all started back in 2014 when my voice over partner in crime, Christina Smith, got nominated for her Voice Over Demo for which I helped write. She added me to the team that helped her when she submitted and as a consequence, I got nominated with her!

Then, in 2015, Joan and Rudy reached out to me to help them judge some of the entries for that year's awards. I was overjoyed, excited and humbled to do it.

I was ready for such a responsibility thanks to training I have had, and eager to do my part to help this legacy grow.

They have a great system set up for the judges to make it as seamless as possible to find the categories you are to judge, listen to them and then apply a score to them.

The precision in which they maintain the integrity of the scoring took a lot of planning and foresight. They seamlessly created a system where anyone in the world could complete these tasks. We went in with full confidence that the work we were doing counted.

With so many categories, they needed a lot of judges. Added to the fact they had a large list of categories, with each category containing a lot of entries. So how does one complete such a daunting task? How does one actually go through them to determine which one deserved a nomination or even an award?

For me it was quite simple. Did the story they were telling me, hook me in? No matter if it was a commercial, a movie trailer, or a wacky character demo. Did their acting performance pull me into the story they were telling me?

Listening to these performances really inspired me to make sure that I am at the top of my game whenever I am in the booth. They also gave me great ideas for my future Demos.

For the last four years, I have been a part of the judging team on the Voice Arts Awards, seeing great Promo Voice actors like John Grove, win multiple awards for his skills.

Seeing stars I looked up to all my life such as James Earl Jones, William Shatner, and Sigorney Weaver, win ICON awards, confirms my love for the work we do in this industry.

And they inspire me to keep pushing forward not only in my Voice career, but also my own projects that you see here courtesy of the ELP Merch site.

To all the nominees of the 2019 Voice Arts Awards, congratulations, you earned those nods. Keep pushing yourself, the craft you have trained for, with passion and skill for years to come.

When ZUG THE FRIENDLY ORC gets green lit, I look forward to seeing what my Voice Over peers will think of it. As the talent we have on board, gets submitted to the Voice Arts Awards.

Until then, keep your Imaginations, Electrified.

Ian Fults