A Magazine of Santa Clarita reader writes in about breaking into voiceover:
Q: I’ve been a public speaker for a number of years now, and have always wondered if I have a shot at being successful in the field of voiceovers. I speak in front of large and small audiences, I’m behind a microphone and I do a good job entertaining and delivering my subject matter. In a related area, my wife is a stage actress who wonders the same thing: whether she might be a good candidate for voiceover work. Have any ideas on the chances of our relative success? —Jack W., Valencia, CA
A: Jack, I get asked this question a lot, and have a few insights. Stage, TV and film actors, as well as singers, instructors and public speakers, ask me questions all the time about whether they might have a shot at voice acting, or voice-over. Especially when the number of voice acting productions is growing every year. Commercials, narrations, animation, promos, trailers, audio books, video games, voicemail systems, e-Learning modules, corporate videos, interactive CD-ROMS, telephone trees, website narrations and much more are being produced worldwide, due to the advancements and growth of media technology. If you’re in one of the aforementioned fields and you’ve ever considered exploring the arena of voice acting, you may have an edge or a leg up in this industry. It depends on the amount and/or type of experience you’ve had in your particular field. Stage actors have a lot of strengths that can be immediately applied to voiceover. Film actors share a lot of these skills as well. Instructors, though non-actors, bring a lot of talent to this field, and public speakers embody a combination of a lot of these areas. Over the next few months, I’ll lay out the skill sets that most people in each of these areas possess, and show you how they do and don’t apply to voice acting.
Cashman Commercials © 2009
Marc Cashman creates and produces copy and music advertising for radio and television. Winner of over 150 advertising awards and named by AudioFile Magazine as “Best Voice of the Year,” he instructs voice acting of all levels through his classes, The Cashman Cache of Voice-Acting Techniques in Los Angeles, CA, and does One-on-One coaching via phone and the Internet. He can be contacted at cashcomm@earthlink.net or his website, www.cashmancommercials.com .