COACHING & WORKSHOPS
Learn so much it's scary.
Grow your talent & knowledge with the pros at SG, become unstoppable.
Workshops & Workouts
LEARN FROM THE PROS
We vet our coaches to give you exposure to pro actors & directors who work daily in the industry. Our coaches know what it takes not just to give a great performance, but to build sustainable work supported by multiple styles of acting across different genres.
Curious about the difference between a Workout & a Workshop? Not sure where to start? Learn more about our framework for classes & what sets us apart before you sign up. We're here to help.
We're on holiday break from classes.
GRAB OUR NEWSLETTER TO GET FIRST DIBS WHEN CLASSES RESUME
What about Coaching with Scary Good?
Glad you asked. With much of our time going to classes, development, audio production, demos and more, we limit our number of active students so that we can focus on quality of coaching, not quantity - and so that you get the focus you need. Check out the info below to see what kind of coaching we offer.
Commercial VO Coaching
Work with Melissa our in-house Commercial guru, to up your Commercial game. Perfect your conversational read & hone your script analysis. If you're looking for representation & haven't started coaching on Commercial, you really want to start here. We'll give you the basics to gets a massive head-start.
Character VO Coaching
Work with Melissa to hone your Character skills & stand our in your auditions. We focus on perfecting the most versatile skill you can have: grounded reads. We also harness the power of deep script analysis to create unique takes that no one else will have thought of to make your auditions pop.
VO Career Coaching
Help Your Audio
Everybody needs an ear sometimes, and as someone who has worked in every style of VO from trailers to games, commercial to audiobooks, Melissa can help you take a step back to look at the big picture, & strategize your next move, or help address hurdles in performance, attitude, or skill. We're all in this together.
Work with Randy, our in-house dark wizard of all things audio (yes you can call him a wizard). He will listen to your space, provide pointers for improving your audio quality, & consult about general or applied audio engineering best practices.
Ready for Coaching?
Request a consultation below & let's talk.
Please Note: This is a request to meet, not a confirmed appointment.
As much as we'd love to say yes to everyone, we're just two people doing our best & we only have so much time. We will respond based on availability. If approved, you'll get a confirmation email & we'll get payment after your appointment.
30 min
30 US dollars
Looking for coaching?
SORRY, COACHING SLOTS FOR MELISSA MEDINA ARE FULL.
CHECK BACK SOON OR SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER TO KNOW WHEN SPOTS OPEN UP.
So what's the deal with classes?
Every new Voice Actor is told to take classes. But how do you decide which classes? Read on to learn how to protect yourself.
Vetting Coaches
Have you ever walked away from a class feeling great because you got lots of compliments, but later realized you still have no actionable feedback about how you can improve? This is more common than you think. So how do you know whether you should take a class with someone?
We think the best thing you can do is realize that you can't learn from everyone. Some people are not interested in helping you, some people want to help but don't have the experience, some people are successful but have no idea how to communicate what to do. But everyone wants to teach & help - whether they should or not & whether they're prepared to or not. How much can you learn from someone who is only one or two steps ahead of where you are?
It's important for you to come up with criteria for the people you want to learn from, to protect yourself & save time & money. Here's some questions we suggest you ask yourself.
Q: What qualifies this person to teach?
Qualifications can be:
A degree in teaching
Over 5 years of booked work
Acted in over 5 major-release or AAA titles
Casting or Directing experience in a major-release or AAA title
What is major-release? There's no official definition, but let's say it's a title that you & thousands of other people have heard of. Something significant on a public scale. This helps protect you from charismatic grifters or those more invested in your money than your wellbeing. It's best to learn from professionals & define what that means to you.
Q: Does this person have genre-specific experience?
Success in one field doesn't mean you've succeeded in other areas. If someone has a lot of success in anime for example, this does not necessarily qualify them for commercial work for example, unless they have trained to work in that genre too. The same goes for video games. So make sure you're learning from someone with multiple high-level projects in the genre they're teaching.
Q: What do former students say?
Did the coach's students walk away with information or flattery? Make sure you get what you pay for: information & guidance. Ask a former student. If you're not sure who is a former student, you should be able to ask for a few recommendations from your coach during your first meeting. If your coach has a problem providing this, it's a big red flag.
Q: Is the coach working regularly?
It's great getting pointers from a famous voice actor you grew up watching, but they don't necessarily work the same way you do & their advice might be vastly outdated, exhausted, or overly-specific. Or if the person teaching you has primarily worked with one notable employer, that's a potential red flag.
Coaching Red Flags
🚩 They push you to buy services other than coaching, like demos or group classes that you've shown no interest in
🚩 They speak poorly of other actors or coaches, publicly or privately
🚩 They constantly reschedule or cancel or don't show up on time
🚩 They push you to pre-purchase packages of classes before you've decided if they're a good fit for you
🚩 They speak more about themselves than you or acting
🚩 They flatter you but don't instruct or impart knowledge you can summarize on your own
🚩 They give very basic advice that could apply to anyone or that you could easily read online. Coaching should be tailored & specific to you, that's what you're paying for & it's the difference between coaching & taking group classes.
🚩 They criticize or insult you, rather than giving constructive feedback
🚩 They give overly-detailed or overly-technical information, or create "levels" that don't exist outside of their coaching. A coach should be speaking your language at your level, & should not overcomplicate or provide "fluff" or "word salad" so that you feel like you're getting more than you are.
🚩 They focus on small details - like the sound of your "S", diction, cadence, vowels, etc instead of the skill of acting.
Workouts vs Workshops
Everyone sees these a little differently, but it's important to set your expectations when you go into a class, to make sure you're getting what you paid for.
Firstly, Coaching is different than a Workshop or Workout. Coaching should be personal, specific, & tailored to you in a detailed & thorough way. One-on-one attention with personalized feedback.
Workshops are less detailed than one-on-one Coaching & usually have a theme that works on specific skills like Efforts, Being Directable, Dubbing, etc. Workshops usually have an "instructional" element to them where new information is being taught. They can be a "lecture" where someone speaks or instructs with no interactivity with attendees, & Workshops can also be a mix of instructional lectures with an interactive portion where you can apply what you just learned. Some Workshops don't provide much feedback or simply "check" that you understood the instruction. At Scary Good, we believe Workshops should not just provide generic information, but should have instruction, interactivity and specific, customized feedback. The difference between a Workshop & Coaching should simply be how long you get personal attention from the Coach. Classes have to give 10+ people attention within a few hours, which means you get less coaching time than you would in a personal Coaching session.
Workouts are less instructional & more about practice. Usually with no formal instructional part, Workouts are almost entirely interactive. Often there is not a specific "theme" but rather a general goal to work on your acting ability. The coach you have in a Workout makes all the difference. Because these sessions are general, it's easy to get a coach that is inexperienced, or shows up to say "great job, next", or asks you to do a different read for the sake of it without explaining why or providing helpful pointers. At Scary Good, we believe even Workouts should provide some level of customized feedback beyond "great job, next". So we ensure that you get specific feedback & tips even in Workouts.
Workshops generally cost more than Workouts because of the instructional element & the interactivity you get. Workouts cost less because they're less instructional & more about "doing". If you want more detailed & thorough feedback, get yourself a coach!
And remember, if any sessions come off as really cheap (under $50), there's probably a reason why & you should be critical - either corners will be cut or a cheap session could be used as bait to sell you more expensive services. We recommend trying a little bit of everything to see what works best for you.
Theme
Instructional
Lecture
General Feedback
Detailed Feebdack
Interactive
Cost
COACHING | WORKSHOP | WORKOUT
Sometimes
Sometimes
$$$ $$ $