- All
Kinds of voices are needed to communicate with different people.
We
all like people who are like ourselves. We also like people who sound like us.
Ever year the advertisers and project producers use a greater variety of voice
talents to sell their products and narrate their projects.
Advertisers
and casting directors need a wide range of voice types in order to sell to all
kinds of people. The demand for a wider variety of voices is greater every
year.
Sometimes
there is a misconception that only dramatic or impressive voices can do
voiceovers. That simply is not true. There was a time in the 50’s and the 60’s
when the sound of the “announcer” , big deep voices, was completely dominant
but not any longer. So, if you love speaking and playing with words, if you
like language and expressing yourself, you could be part of this very lucrative
industry.
Your
own uniqueness can be the reason you make a lot of money. Often, people try to
be like everyone else. In voiceovers, being different can make you rich. Of
course you have to fit in to the various styles, but your individual sound can
bring a richness to someone’s project that will be perfect for them. Think how
many times we haven’t understood an explanation until some one who is more like
our self explained it to us.
Different
people are needed to explain things to different people. One type of voice
might not be able to convey the ideas to one person, that another person saying
the exact same words can explain with perfect clarity.
Many
times a less dramatic voice is perceived as more accessible.
Obviously
this depends on the person who is listening, what is being talked about, and
what they are drawn to. But having said that, if we are seeking assurance or
affirmation, then we tend to prefer a more authoritative voice. On the other
hand, if we are trying to learn new concepts, or instructions in a new field, a
more gentle voice can often help us understand better. Why? Well we sometimes
feel slow or foolish if we don’t understand something new right away. It’s a
basic human tendency to want to understand and to be impatient about the
learning process. Consequently a more gentle, less dramatic voice allows us to
relax more and not feel as impatient or embarrassed if we are having trouble
grasping a concept.
So,
there is not only room for all of you, but a need for all of you and your
voices.
- It’s
more about persistence than anything else. This is always an interesting fact of
life that I never get tired of musing over. The main question really
isn’t… is there room for you in
this competitive field. The question is how badly would you like to do
this for a living. Everything is a result of process and process requires
focus and commitment. We all have to do the work to acquire skills and
develop a familiarity and proficiency in the world of voiceovers and voice
acting. It is a life long sport and a fun and rewarding one at that. So
I’m pointing out that too often people thing of persistence only in regard
to making an effort to obtain work. Well of course that’s important, but
that isn’t where it ends. I have always found that the more I develop my
skills in all areas: cold reading skills, the ability to do different
reads, voice development and breathing exercise’s, marketing skills,
networking skills, and technical skills, the luckier I am at getting work.
It isn’t just persistence, it’s persistence in all of the related and
necessary areas that are a part of the whole. That’s important, because a
partial effort, will not lead to success and you don’t want to mistake an
unsuccessful partial effort for failure, or a lack of talent. That is just
natures way of saying there is more to do. More often than not it isn’t a
lack of talent as much as it’s a lack of preparation. It is very easy in
Los Angeles or any other city for that matter to get a little training and
jump into networking to get those jobs. It is important that you don’t
unintentionally run around in your enthusiasm teaching people that you have
underdeveloped skills. Persistence in all areas will lead to you getting
work.
- The
market is growing and needs more voice talents. Now we have talked about how clients
and advertisers need all kinds of voices to communicate with all kinds of
people, but the other fact is that there aren’t enough voiceover artists
with great technique to satisfy all the different needs out there. Sure
there are many, many people doing voiceover work, but just go to any
medical convention in the country, for example, where suppliers are
selling goods and services to doctors, hospitals and other healthcare
providers and listen to the video presentations. It always amazes me that
about two thirds of all the video presentations and power point
presentations are narrated in an old school dry boring style. I think it
came from a philosophy that if it’s medical it has to be serious. It has
to be authoritative. We’ll from my point of view that doesn’t
automatically mean dull and boring. It is exciting and fun to figure out
how to deliver medical presentations in an interesting way that is easy
and fun to listen to and still be completely respectful of the topic and
he audience.
- Non
Union Freelance jobs are the rule. The vast majority of all the voiceover work is
non-union. All you need is someone who likes your work. In the non-union
world it is just between you and them. As long as you are being paid an
amount of money that you think is fair and you agree on where and when,
you’re in business. Most of these places will ask you to record in you own
studio and deliver it via ftp upload. I’ll explain that process in a
different session. It is cheaper for most of the places of business to not
have and in house engineer and studio and to just have us do it. There are
just so many areas of corporate voiceovers and narrated that it’s mind
boggling: on hold messaging, power point presentations, corporate
narratives, healthcare infomercials, new sales training videos, training
videos of all kinds, quarterly report presentations, just to name a few.
So by all means go to conventions that interest you and start learning how
you can do it better than they do by watching all the different
presentations. Take that inspiration and practice, practice, practice.
Non-union jobs are much less intense than major jobs like a national
commercial or jobs through voiceover talent agencies. God bless them for
all the work they do they contribute so much to the success of many major
projects. But it is the “NFL” so to speak so the intensity and the
competition takes place at the highest level. In the non-union world it is
just you and them, there is less money involved of course. It is a good
idea to work in the world of non-union in order to prepare yourself for
representation with a voiceover talent agency.
- Good
Service is hard to get. You
just can’t even imagine how hard it is to get good service consistently.
There are horror stories everywhere about poor audio quality, poor
service, poor voiceover work and bad attitudes. There are also a lot of
fine professionals who take enormous pride in every aspect of their work.
You want to be one of those. When you get new accounts often people will
thank you for solving their voiceover problems and tell you how much they
appreciate your professional work and always delivering on time. You want
to join the ranks of people who take pride not only in the quality of
their work, but also the quality of their service. All you have to do is
think through how you would want a voiceover artist to behave if that
artist was doing work for you. This is one of the best and most inspiring
ways of figuring out what your business profile should be. How do you want
to be viewed by your clients and what things can you do to earn that
perception
