Justin Lundin, Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
A dragon, a hypnotist and a historian—Justin Lundin has represented them all.
Since he was a teenager, Lundin, an accounting major at Sy Syms School of Business, has dabbled as a freelance voiceover artist, carefully cultivating and transforming his voice to anchor hundreds of projects ranging from movie trailers and audio books to advertisements and even birthday messages.
Lundin, a senior from Detroit, Michigan, sat down with YU News to talk about his passion for voiceovers, accounting and Judaism.
Q: How did you discover this talent?
A: When I was in high school, I’d hear movie trailers being narrated—some guy saying, “This summer…” or “…in one epic drama.” I thought those were such cool voices. I was especially intrigued by the trailer to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which played off the tremendous contrast between two styles of voiceover in the trailer itself. The first narrator had a very posh, British voice, and then all of a sudden it switched into the standard movie trailer voice—the voice that sounds like it’s coming from a seven-foot tall man who’s been smoking cigarettes since childhood. For some reason that gripped me and I started trying to get that voice.
I would actually practice and try to get my voice to that level. I was very much into filmmaking in high school, so I’d use my voice for films and documentaries that I made for school.
The first time I did professional voiceover work was during my two years studying in Israel. I was put in contact with two production companies and one of them in particular coached me a lot. They taught me how to work with different tones of voices and enunciation, how to get yourself into the character and mood of each particular project.
Q: What kind of projects have you taken on?
A: When I came to Yeshiva University, I started doing voiceover work online. A friend directed me to a website where people provide creative services for five dollars. I get clients from all over the place: introductions to audio books, movie trailers, low-budget films, video games. I did the intro video to an iPhone app video game where I had to do a voice similar to Gandalf the Grey’s: “Once upon a time, in a far away land…” I’ve also worked for hypnotists who wanted a low, soothing, organic voice. Read the rest of this entry…
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