When you feel you’re ready to try a voice over demo, find a reputable studio with an engineer who produces a lot of commercial and corporate work. This voice over demo will be your major selling tool. You want it to be as professional as possible. If you want to rough out a voice over demo on your own beforehand to take with you to the session, that’s fine. It might be helpful for both you and the engineer. But don’t do a first time, beginner, homemade voice over demo and start trying to get an agent with it. Some might listen, but they’re going to send you for a professional voice over demo before they start representing you for voice work. If you’re working on your own without a coach, be sure you work with a very experienced engineer – someone with whom you have a good rapport. These guys, who have been engineering for many years, have heard it all and can give you valuable guidance, but, you don’t want to be completely intimidated either! As a beginner, you may just want to make one generic voice over demo to start. Try including a variety of styles and use commercial and corporate narration scripts if you feel your voice would lend itself well to the corporate world. But the first voice over demo you should create is definitely a commercial voice over demo.
After you have some actual work under your belt and have acquired copies of actual spots you’ve done, you may want to create separate specialized voice over demos. Keep the demo SHORT – 1 to 1 ½ minutes or less. Most directors and producers make a decision in the first few seconds – much as we’d all like to think they listen all the way through to hear all that we can do. That’s assuming, of course, that they even take the time to listen at all. Sorry, it’s a tough world. Unless they’re casting something at that very moment, your CD, cute as the label is, probably won’t get heard if you randomly drop it off or mail it , which is why your marketing will be so important -more about that in just a moment. As for the snap judgments when they do listen to voice over demos, try it yourself. Visit a voice talent web site and just cruise through the voice over demos. At first, you might listen to each demo all the way through. Then, you’ll find yourself, hearing the first few words, and feeling like you’ve got the essence of that particular voice and you’re ready to move on. By the way, listening to other professional voice talent demos is a great way to learn what you’re going for – and what you want to avoid.
Be sure to find out what the studio will charge for your voice over demo. Some studios offer a special rate to talent producing a voice over demo. Others will not. You will have to pay for studio time, editing, effects, music, and duplication. Studio time varies, but can run around $100 + per hour. You will probably be recording in the studio for about 1 hour and then the editing process, with the addition of sound effects and music, may take another hour or more. This is why you want to be as prepared as possible! If you find a good voice over coach, it would be helpful to have him or her attend the session to help direct you. You will need to budget some payment for the coach as well. One of the most excruciating things for a performer can be trying to create that perfect voice over demo. It’s hard to be objective and hard to know what to cut. An experienced “ear” can be a tremendous help.
You’ll want a CD or two at minimum. If you have an agent or are seeking an agent, you’ll need to either drop it by or send a copy to them. Most everyone uses CD’s exclusively these days - either that or an MP3 sent via the internet. Many agents and internet listing services request that you mail a CD as they are concerned about opening attachments. You’ll have to either have professional CD labels made or create your own with special software on your computer. You can either have many copies of your CD voice over demo made by a studio or web sites that specialize in making copies of CDs or you can burn them yourself as needed from your master if you have the required computer skills. You probably don’t need a huge quantity of your voice over demo CDs on hand as you may find the need to “tweak” the voice over demo as soon as you actually do some work or to meet the requirements of your new agent.
To learn more about becoming a professional voice talent please follow the links below.
Featured Audio Clip
"NASA" (Click the link above to hear one of my latest voice overs.)
Featured Video Clip
"Chevron Corporate" (Click the link above to see one of my voice over videos.)
Featured Testimonial
"I just got off the phone with the producer of the TV spot and everyone involved says that you nailed it so well, it was a finished product. Incredible audition! Thank you for making me look so good!" - John, Winking Bull Productions
MELANIE'S AVAILABILITY: 9AM - 5PM Central, Monday - Friday OUT On VACATION, July 13- 21
For more voice over information, please email
Melanie@melaniehaynes.com or call (832) 912-9250.
If you are looking for great male voice over professionals, visit my
links page!
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