People always tell me I have a great sound and should do voice overs. It sounds like fun. How do I know if I have any talent? I don’t want to embarrass myself or waste my time. One of the biggest misconceptions about voice-over acting is what we like to call the myth of the Golden phonation. Do you have to sound hugely resonant and deep like James Earl Jones, or authoritative like Don LaFontaine to make money in sound over acting? As a matter of fact, you do not. in the commercial world all kinds of voices are needed; low voices, whiny voices, gravelly voices, flat voices and even average voices. So, even if you do not have a classic ?good phonation? you can enter the field if you have determination. voice Over work is an exciting vocation for phonation-over talent but you need training to develop professional voice-over skills to participate effectively in this industry. You often have just a few moments to analyze and interpret copy in a phonation-over audition or a voice-over job.
One of the particular challenges of this job of ours is that there is indeed a very highly paid and highly visible tip of the iceberg in almost every branch of the profession. This can either be very prohibitive for everyone else, who is not experiencing such fame and fortune, or worse, can be the kind of carrot which encourages beginners (and sometimes people with more experience who should know a lot better) to hold out for the glamour jobs at the expense of getting busy with the day to day gigs. Certainly, there are people who luck into attractive voice-over work because they happen to have a profile in some other area, but anyone making a vocation or a substantial part of their career from sound-overs is likely to have put a lot of hard work in honing their craft so they can earn their current money. Appropriately in a piece on sound-overs, it is now time for me to shut up and hand over to two very authoritative voices, speaking from both the artist and agent side of the microphone.
When you are pounding the pavement on your own be sure to follow up with the prospects you have sent your marketing materials to especially if you mailed a package with a CD. Keep your name front of mind. You may not receive a response from every person you send your promotional materials to but that shouldn’t deter you from marketing your services. When someone needs your voice, they will get in touch!
