What separates amateurs from professionals? It’s their EDUCATION.
In any industry, those that are considered professionals are the once-amateurs who learned, practiced and perfected the skills needed to master their craft. Such mastery could only be achieved by going through training with the proper institution, and mentoring with the right people.
The Voice Acting Academy Philipines (VAAP) formerly Known As the Philippine Center for Voice Acting (PCVA) – an institution whose name needs no explanation. It is the first and only training institution for voice acting in the Philippines. Since 2005, VAAP has trained and produced over 1,000 graduates who are now thriving as voiceover talents, dubbers, hosts, radio broadcasters and even voice directors and coaches.
Four times a year, the school conducts VOICEWORX – a 2-month intensive workshop on voiceover, voice acting and dubbing. Each session is taught by veteran voice artists and voice directors, each bringing with them at least 2 decades of experience in the industry. These instructors share the dream of honing a new breed of voice artists who promote voice acting as an art and not just as a “gig” or a “sideline.”
VAAP started with the vision of a man known as the VoiceMaster of the Philippines, Pocholo Gonzales. Pocholo started his voice acting career at age 16, after winning against 10,000 contenders in DZMM’s radio drama and singing contest “Radyo, Radyo.” It was not long before he got into the world of dubbing and voiceovers, and pretty soon, Pocholo became the voice of thousands of dubbed anime and telenovela, radio and TV commercials, children’s shows, radio drama, video games, audiobooks and even the Tagalog Audiobible published by Biblica.
Pocholo’s contributions to the voice acting industry goes beyond him being a “man WITH a thousand voices.” He is more recognized as the “man BEHIND a thousand voices,” for opening the doors of the voice acting industry to those who aspire to become part of it. Pocholo brought the Filipino voice acting talent to the international scene in 2008, when he worked on several projects with the video game company Sega, whose arcade games such as Golden Gun, Operation Ghost, and Transformers: Human Alliance all used Filipino voice actors, all of whom are talents of Creativoices. He became the only Filipino/Asian panelist in the 2012 VoiceOver International Creative Experience (VOICE) Convention held in Anaheim, California. In 2016, Pocholo released the first Filipino voice acting book, “Gusto Kong Maging Voice Talent,” which was hailed as the BEST BOOK ON PROFESSIONS in the 36th National Book Awards.
But Pocholo’s success in the industry was not without challenges. In fact, he experienced the monopoly and politics surrounding the voice acting industry at a young age, and it wasn’t difficult to see how newbies were not much welcome in the business. And while most people would take such challenges as a sign to give up on their dreams, this challenge propelled Pocholo to all the more believe in and realize his vision: TO MAKE THE PHILIPPINES THE CENTER OF VOICEOVER EXCELLENCE IN ASIA.