The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers send in their questions about the voiceover business. Here’s a recent one:
Q: “I’m not an actor, but I’ve done some announcements for a local cable television station. Do I have any chance of doing announcing for radio and TV commercials?” — Edward M., Valencia
A: Edward, thanks for your question. You certainly have a chance of doing more announcing on broadcast media, and it’s great that you’ve already had an opportunity to get behind the microphone and voice some ad copy. Although many commercial announcements are relegated to staff announcers, a lot of freelance announcers are hired for their acting ability, vocal variations, versatility and a wide range of delivery styles. It really does help, however, to have some acting techniques under your belt.
You can get a lot of announcing work by being able to perform advertising copy in a conversational manner, when called for. You’ll also need to know how to perform other types of announcements, like hard sell: “shouting” copy information; Soft sell: an easygoing, friendly attitude; Youthful: delivering a tone that young people relate to, from sweet to zany, and many, many more styles.
A lot of announce copy makes the announcer an emotionally detached third party. You won’t find a lot of “me” or “I”, but many times you’ll see “we” or “us” to signal friendliness or familiarity, and you’ll always see “you”. To make certain types of announce copy interesting, and something that the listener can relate to emotionally, requires creativity on the part of the performer. Visualizing whom you’re talking to (the targeted customer), or relating to the product or service personally can accomplish this. Your level of excitement and enthusiasm is also a factor. Smiling helps a lot, as does adding exclamation marks.
I’ll share more voiceover questions and answers in the coming months. If you have any questions, please write to me and I’ll get back to you.
For more information, please contact Marc Cashman at cashcomm@earthlink.net or at his website www.cashmancommercials.com.