Posts Tagged ‘voice over classes’

Making Mistakes In The Voiceover Business

Mistakes.  We all make them!  Making mistakes is part of learning and growing and while we all hate to make them, the value is in what we learn from them. The best part is we don’t have to make all of the mistakes ourselves, we can learn from the mistakes of others.

I get emails daily from people who want to become voice talents.  They’ve heard all their life what a unique and wonderful voice they have, how special it is and how they are missing their calling of being a professional voice over talent.  With pure exuberance and an unquenchable curiosity they contact me hoping to get the one answer that will make their dreams come true!  Some are more curious than serious and some just want to make it happen so badly their excitement and sense of urgency leads to some really bad mistakes.

Here are some examples of bad mistakes aspiring voice talents tend to make:

• Not Investing In Training
Prior to cutting a demo, a voice talent should invest in high-quality voice over training to work on script analysis, delivery techniques, recording, working with recording software, basically, the skills you will need to actually be a voice talent.  It takes some time to develop these skills and investing time in training and practicing your skills will increase your confidence and help you to accentuate your strengths and improve upon your weaknesses which will prepare you for your demos.

• Homemade Demos And Recording Demos Prematurely
Your demos speak for you and you need to make sure they speak well!  They need to be professionally produced. I do not produce my own demos.  Rather I work with a professional voice over talent, producer, and coach whom I can trust to bring out the best I have to deliver and I have been in the voice over business for over 20 years as a professional voice talent, coach, and producer.  You need to have an experienced professional who can be objective and pull out your best voice.  Demos must be succinct and should accurately reflect your abilities, range, and versatility as a voice over talent. Recording your demos is not the first step!  Training and skill development first, demos second.

• Sending Agents Homemade Demos And Audio Clips
Checking out agencies and getting a feel for what is available as far as representation is good.  What is even more important is putting your best foot forward.  Agents want current professional demos not voice clips, and most will not even speak with you unless you have professionally produced demos to offer them.  They want to be able to give a definitive yes or no based upon your demos.   Lack of professionally produced demos demonstrates a lack of professionalism and as much as agents are representing you, make no mistake about it, you are representing them when they give you the opportunity to audition for a gig, so the more professional you come across, the better your chances for representation.  That said, even some of the best voice talent get turned down periodically by agents because they may have similar voices they are representing too.  My best advice is to invest in proper training and send agents professionally produced demos.

Ambition and excitement are wonderful qualities.  Learning how to harness them and taking the appropriate steps to make good decisions will help you avoid unnecessary mistakes like these.

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The Different Types Of Voice Over Work

Here are some of the different types of opportunities available to voice talent today.

Commercial: Contrary to popular belief this form of voice over is mostly for voice actors as it generally requires playing a role of a character. Playing a character does not always mean a funny voice it more often than not means playing a role of what may seem as an everyday person, more importantly a believable character. As much as we still hear many commercials with one announcer reading a script in an in your face “buy now” style, the more affective form and most widely used form of commercial is through creative writing and role playing by the voice actor.

Television Promo: This is one form of voice over that many people believe is easy, my theory is that it only looks easy because the people doing it are so good at their job they make it look easy. Reading a TV Promo script can be one of the most challenging forms of voice over as it requires the voice talent to become part of the pre produced promo. What many seem to forget is that TV Promo voice over’s are also selling a product. Whether it is the Prime Time News, a Drama Series or the Late Night Movie the aim of the VO is to make it a “must see”. There is an art to it and out of the select few who have gone on to be the familiar voices we trust on our television sets there is still only a handful who have mastered the art.

Narration: There are so many possibilities that can fall under the banner of Narration. It could be a documentary, corporate or training video, an audio tour guide at a museum or even interactive training with a new software package. One of the wonderful plusses of this type of voice work is that more often than not the clients are looking for someone who can sound pleasant and real while being engaging and understandable. This is not necessarily an easy feat and I will go into more detail about sounding real a little later. Nonetheless there are so many different possibilities and opportunities for this type of work it can sometimes be a great starting point for people.

Audio Book: This is probably the fastest growing industry in the voice over world and there are many voice professionals making a lucrative career out of reading audio books. There is an art to it of course and it can also be dissected into numerous categories. There are people who specialize in reading character driven fiction and there are those who read information driven non fiction and each is an art in itself.

Podcast: Believe it or not many of the podcasts you tune into are presented by hired voices. Quite often the person who has a message to get across and especially those who have a product to promote and sell will hire a voice that will present better than themselves. Like narration this voice will need to be pleasant and real and more importantly they will need to sound like the information is coming directly from them, this is in fact a huge part of voice over and voice acting as a whole and we will go into more detail shortly.

Radio Imaging: We all have favorite radio stations and more often than not we become very familiar with the voices that come on between the music reminding us what station we are listening to… and why. Like TV promo this quite often seems easier than it actually is. Remembering that a large selection of the voices who do these sweepers and station id’s are also the producers of all the fancy effects that go along with them. Radio or voice imaging as it is widely known requires a voice that generally pierces through the music on our radios, sending a clear message without sounding offensive. One of the bonuses of this form of voice over is that there are a multitude of radio stations worldwide and quite often a collection of them are looking for a fresh new sound at one time. If you can become that sound then you can make a nice little income, well at least until the stations decide to reformat again.

Obviously this is not the whole voice over industry but rather it’s an overview of a large chunk of the available work for voice professionals.

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Voice Over Classes Aren’t Just For Voice Talents

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I know what you’re thinking. “I thought only people that wanted to get into voice overs take voice over classes. Not true at all.

When I was teaching classes around the country last year, I had all kinds of wonderful people take my class. Priests, CEO’s, Managers, Poets, etc. Were they there because they wanted to get into voice overs?

Maybe a few but most were there because they wanted to learn how to become a better speaker. How to take hold of a room full of clients. How to be a more effective Minister or Priest.

Voice over classes aren’t just for voice talents. In my classes, I worked with students on how to become a more efficient speaker by looking your audience members in the eye and connecting with them. Smiling as you speak and using your hands to help illustrate a story or point.

One most of the most important things you’ll learn in a voice over class is how to warm up your voice before you speak. I always did tongue twister and breathing exercises with my students. During the breathing exercises, people would walk by the classroom and think it was a yoga class.

So, even you’re not an aspiring voice talent, I would highly recommend taking a voice over class or get some kind of voice coaching over the phone. Especially, if you’re a CEO or Manager. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with your voice when you’re done.

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