Since there are so many opportunities to book work on your own in voice over, I’m often asked by actors if they should pay a commission to their agent for work they got themselves. Continue reading
When To Commission Your Agent
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Category Archives: Voice Over
Slating for Voice Over
When slating for voice over, there are a few basic rules of thumb. When slating for a commercial, promo, narration, or industrial, just slate your name. When slating for animation, a video game, or for a partner read, slate your name as well as the role. There is a big debate about whether you slate in character, and here’s the balance that I’ve found that works for me: slate in the tone of voice of the character, but not the full energy of the character. Save the full energy for your audition.
Sometimes your agents will have specific slating requests or protocols, so make sure you follow the directions specifically. For example, one agency asks that we always slate our name followed by the agency. Another agency requests that we not slate at all, because the lead agent feels that a slate detracts from the actual audition.
Following directions on administrative stuff like slating helps you to get your audition heard and not deleted. Save the creativity for the audition itself. Don’t risk your agent’s assistant or the casting director deleting your audition simply by disregarding administrative requests like slating and file naming protocols.
Microphones and Software
Two technical questions I’m often asked are, “What microphone should I buy?” and, “What sound editing software should I use?” The best answer is, “it all depends on how much you’re willing to spend.” Continue reading
The First Two Seconds
Place yourself in the mind/ears of a buyer who is combing through oodles of auditions. Usually your agent is the first in a long line of people to listen to your audition. Your agent hears all of the auditions that their clients send in for a particular role. Let’s say they hear 50 people for one spot. If you were to listen to 50 auditions of the same copy, you would be sick of hearing that same copy by 9 or 10. Imagine what it feels like by 25 or 40. And then think about how you’d feel if you did this all day every day…with multiple auditions per day. Continue reading
What I Love About This Business (Hint: Voice Over and New Media)
I am a huge believer in the mantra, “do what you love and the money will follow.” The inaccessibility of so many areas of the entertainment industry has been made null and void by the advances of new media and the wide availability of affordable equipment and software. If you wanna be creative, then go be creative! Continue reading
What Does “Non-Announcery” Mean?
Audition technique is of paramount importance to your success in booking voice over jobs. Just like in the on-camera world, the tricks to getting the job are often very different than the tricks to performing on-the-job. Since it’s so easy for clients to fast-forward through voice over audition MP3s, what are you doing in your auditions to stand out? Continue reading
Where’s My Booking?
“I recorded my demo, and I’ve been auditioning for a year, and I haven’t booked anything yet! What gives???”
“I used to book all the time, but now it’s been a year since I booked my last spot. Am I just rusty or has my luck run out?”
Oof. These questions are locked and loaded, so allow me to implore you to do a very proactive thing to turn your luck around. If you haven’t booked in quite some time, then I say yes, something is wrong. Continue reading
Location, Location, (Web Search) Location!
Voice over is open for business 24/7 to clients all over the world. If you have a PayPal account, a microphone, and internet access, you can fulfill orders for clients at any time in any country. Continue reading
Anna’s Mocap Edification
Woody Schultz wrote a fantastic blog post on mocap here: http://actors-network.com/blog/?p=338
So of course, I gotta follow up with a quick story about my recent introduction mocap…
Last month, my voice over agent called me to schedule a callback for a few roles in a sequel to a popular video game. I had done some minor characters in the original version, so I was excited to get in there and read for some lead roles. Since I don’t go outside of my studio for a voice over audition very often, I was excited to put on some make-up, get out of the house, and talk to real people! Continue reading
What is IVR?
IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response, basically, you call a company looking for information, and a computer detects your voice and telephone touch tones to get you the info you need. For example, let’s say you need to call the airline to get a flight status. A pre-recorded, pleasant sounding voice will ask for a flight number, and once you answer, the IVR system will answer you using pre-recorded voice clips. The airline you called pays a voice talent lots of cash to record all of these prompts, instead of paying hundreds, potentially thousands of customer service reps all over the world to look up the information for you.