Santa Clarita Magazine readers send me questions every day about the voiceover business. Here are a couple of those letters:
Q: I’ve been reading your answers to letters about voice acting and I’ve been told that I have a very unique voice. Doing voiceovers seems easy. How hard can it be to just talk? – Valerie M, Santa Clarita, CA
A: Valerie, having a unique voice is a good start in getting involved in this field. But having a unique voice is just one component of being successful in this business. You need to be an excellent reader, have exceptional articulation and because this field isn’t voiceover, it’s voice acting, you have to have some solid acting abilities. So when you ask, “How hard can it be?” you have to understand that those in the voice acting industry have spent a lot of time learning their craft and thousands of hours behind the microphone. But you’re lucky you live near Los Angeles, because there are more voice-acting classes here than in any other city in the world. If you’re truly interested, I suggest you audit a voice acting class to see if this is an area where you might have talent.
Q: I’ve been dabbling in voiceovers for the past few years and have been wondering whether I should seek out an agent. I don’t have a voice demo yet, though. What do you think I should do at this point? – Jack D., Valley Village, CA
A: Jack, you’re not going to be able to attract an agent without a professionally produced voice demo. Every voice actor represented by an agent has a demo that showcases their abilities in commercials, narration, animation, trailers, promos, audiobooks and other categories. Although not every talent has all of these categories on their demos, virtually everyone contains the category of commercials. The best way to prepare yourself for a voice demo is to take an advanced voice acting class that will ready you for the skills necessary to produce a great demo reel. If you’d like to hear the format and structure of current, competitive voice demos, go to my website and click on the “V-O Demos” button.
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 .