Posts Tagged ‘How to become a voice over artist’

Voice over artist: what sort of person makes a career as a professional voice over?

Having been asked by people on so many occasions as to a) how I became a voice over artist myself and b) how they could start their own careers in the world of voice overs, I produced this audio podcast on the subject and looked at the types of people who tend to make their career as professional voice over artists and why. Intrigued?

Then listen to my audio podcast, the 2nd of my 3-part series on Becoming A Voice Over Artist:

Click to listen here 

More….Part 3

How to become a voice over artist – Part 3: marketing your voice over business – what you need to do

Tips for aspiring voice over artists

Judging by the number of enquiries I get from would-be voice over artists, it must sound very appealing from the outside! Doesn’t it just involve speaking into a microphone after all, oh we can all do that can’t we? “That sounds like a jolly good wheeze, how do I become one, I’ve often been told I have a good voice?!” I’ve lost count the number of people who have approached me with that line, so I thought it would be worth while writing this blog post to provide some helpful tips…

Voice over technique

There is quite a lot of vocal technique involved in becoming a voice over artist in the first place, which most people are unaware of. Having a lay person tell you that ‘you have a good voice’ is not enough – get an expert to listen to a demo and work from any feedback you get.

Record yourself and listen to it back – what does it really sound like amplified? Once recorded and amplified there is no hiding place for imperfections! When we speak live in real time, people don’t notice these, but it can be a very different matter once recorded! Equally, some people can sound dramatically different on recorded media than they do in real life, which can be a bonus or a disaster!

Learn how to project the voice and develop good listening skills as to what comes out the other end once its amplified. You’ll need to learn how to develop your microphone technique to deal with plosives, popping and the like. How to avoid ‘wet’ noises from too much moisture in the mouth etcetera – these sounds magnify once amplified and are incredibly difficult to edit out as they’re embedded in the sound. Do you have even vocal dynamics when you speak? – do you push certain sounds forward too much, which can be jarring to the listener? Do you have control of your sibilants? Any imperfections become magnified, so you need to learn to rid yourself of as many as possible in order to become a good voice over artist. Even though I’ve been providing voice overs for some time now, I still learn something new everyday, so there are always things to aim for.

Interpreting the client’s brief is important, as is taking direction. You need to be able to read off the page quickly and be able to reproduce it so that it not only sounds like you understand what you are saying/talking about, but that the vocal production is something that people would find engaging to listen to – adding vocal colour, vocal timbre, vocal intonation, phrasing – these are all really important, and there’s an art to be able to do this, which can only be developed with practise and over time.

Concentration, focus, and taking direction…

Voice over work involves a lot of focus and concentration, often being asked to come up with a whole range of different vocal types/qualities/accents on your feet. Plus, if you’re recording at a client’s studio, creatives in the adjacent producer’s booth commenting on everything you say, some of it great, some of it blunt and to the point – ‘that voice was crap – can you do it again, but differently?’ not being unheard of. You’ve got to be able to take direction and adapt well on your feet, not take offence – and just get on with it. All this within a sound-proof room which, after a whole day, with little fresh air, will zap all of your energy, but a job done well can be very satisfying!

How did I become a voice over artist in the first place?

People often ask me how come I was able to get into voice overs? Well, my journey began with a natural affinity with the voice – I then trained as a classical singer, and morphed from that into musical theatre, and latterly jazz and swing . I studied Drama & Theatre Arts at university , did my final dissertation on voice production in the theatre and the actor in performance throughout the past few decades. From there, I trained as an actor , and from that point I started doing voice overs, and there are many actors who are also voice over artists for this reason; they’ve already had some training and experience on how to use their voices. Being an actor , however, does not necessarily make a good voice over artist; all of the above and below tips still apply.

Bring something to the voice over party, including credibility…

Now, you don’t all have to go on my journey in order to become a voice over artist, but what you do need is something to bring to the party, as well as giving you some credibility. Likewise, there are several other successful voice over artists out there whose background is in sound or audio production. Again, they have something to bring to the party which helps them understand how it works and how to produce the right sound. Equally, there are broadcasters /journalists/presenters who learn their trade, and have already developed vocal presentation skills to add voice over artist to their portfolio.

The other tip I can give you is to find out your strengths and play to them. Are you particularly good at character voices and/or storytelling? Or are you better at straight reads, rubric, or announcements? Are you better at a hard sell or a soft sell piece? What are your particular vocal qualities? Warm, authoritative, young, mature, funky, quirky etcetera?

Having grasped your technique and discovered more about the sound of your own voice once amplified, then you need a good demo . There are lots of studios who specialise in this.

OK, I’ve got my demo – is that it now? World, come and get me!

Voice over work involves not only learning your craft, juggling several clients at once, admin, but perhaps most importantly of all, marketing your voice over business.

Marketing my voice over business?

Once I’ve set myself up, doesn’t the phone just start ringing then? Isn’t it a question of just doing the voice overs?? Don’t I just get an agent to do all this for me I hear you cry? Well, you could, but getting onto the books of a top voice over agency takes time – the good ones are oversubscribed and places are usually taken by very well established voice over artists, and/or celebrity voices, such as the brilliant Stephen Fry. It’s great to be on their books, but don’t rely on them, otherwise you’ll literally be sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring!

You have to get good at self-promotion, go out there and market yourself, particularly online in this day and age. Make use of social media, such as Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn , and any other relevant listings sites you know of.

You’re essentially running your own voice over business

You’ll need some business skills to start and run your own business. There’s plenty of free advice out there – Business Link is one of them.

Rewards

Voice over work can be feast or famine, just like any business and it can be a great life doing what you love and getting paid for it. Like any business, if you work hard enough at it, you will succeed…however, if you just hang around waiting for the phone to ring to book you for your next voice over job, you might be waiting along time!

An insight into the world of the working voice over artist!

Ever wondered what we voice over artist peeps actually do? What does it involve? I’ve often been asked this by a whole range of people, including professionals in the corporate and creative worlds, but also friends and other people I meet on a daily basis. I think people think that we just wait for the phone to ring, someone picks us up in a taxi and off we speed to the studio to speak a few words and then whoosh! We’re whisked away again, and get paid a fortune….yeah right…:>) Well, I thought I would give you an insight into one of my weeks recently…

I voiced a complete array of projects:

The Commercial voice over

Provided the voice over for a commercial which needed to be voiced, edited and returned to the client within hours.

Audio book character voice over

I already had an Audio Book project booked in to record that week, a really interesting and fun project, and I always enjoy doing Audio Books . This involved devising 2 female character voices for a fully dialogued audio book, one young girl, and a middle aged Queen with a post-nasal drip – lovely, I get all the glamorous jobs!

Educational voice over

I then had some short phrases/passages to record for a long term ongoing educational media project.

Online web video voice over

I voiced an online web infomercial , on a client’s product range, involving mapping/editing my voice to their Web Video – not as easy as it sounds! In between projects when I had a moment, I voiced short web videos on a large scale, promoting client properties – exhausting!

Radio Advert voice over

There was one radio advert in my inbox, asking me to be the voice over for a short advert. Now, with radio ads, you need to be on the ball, and be able to turn these around fast.

Corporate / technical voice over

What often happens is that you get last minute requests (Fridays seem to be popular), such as voicing a Corporate DVD / Web Video – a very technical read, full of awkward jargon, names and places, and requiring accurate pronunciation skills, and a reasonable level of intelligence to understand it and assimilate the information as quickly as poss! Technical reads invariably take slightly longer because of this. Sometimes they film the video and then decide they need a voice over – but yesterday – in steps moi!

That lovely, glamorous voice over studio booking!

Wah hey, here we go, that lovely studio booking I mentioned at the start of this post,when you imagine we get booked just like that, whisked off in a taxi, have everyone tell us how wonderful we are, give us coffee and buns, then say just a few words into the microphone and get paid a fortune? Having got the booking we get ourselves to the studio and even get a coffee and biscuits but then it’s a full day of focus and concentration. We do get lunch and plenty of breaks, which is always welcome – and necessary to keep the energy and concentration going!

Voice over enquiries and quotes

In between all of this there is answering enquiries, providing quotes, one being for a TV commercial on Channel 4 (TV Commercials are great jobs to bag!), plus the ongoing self-promotion that we have to do as a one person business: that’s marketing, including your website/blog , and networking activities – both online and face-to-face, getting out there face-to-face meeting people.

Admin admin admin!

Every time you do a job of course, you need to invoice the client and chase payments. For this, you need to have good admin and organisational skills to keep on top of it.

Managing/working the voice over recording facilities!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also have my own recording and editing facilities, and there are always new things to learn on the editingfront. Having some teccie/sound production skills is a bonus here!

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There, I hope this has given you an insight into a voice over artist’s world. There can be a lot of variety and many interesting voice over projects to become involved with, and it can be a great life.

And one last thing, don’t think that things always run as smoothly as that particular week; sometimes it can be like the Marie-Celeste – is there anybody there??! When the only ringing sound you’ll hear in your ears is definitely not the phone – it’s that old actors adage ‘my agent thinks I’m dead’!