How to Become a Voiceover Artist
If you are thinking about starting a voice acting career, here is a classic scenario: you go out to a dinner party or outing with your friends, and as you converse, one of your friends points out that you have a wonderful voice. The rest of your friends agree and start complimenting your voice, followed by them suggesting you do voiceover work. You then think to yourself,“Well, why not? It can’t be that hard.” But let’s face it the fact of the matter is that voice acting seems to be easy, but it is actually a lot harder than what people expect it to be.
But do not fear! There are several ways to prepare you for the world of voiceover. With proper training and research into the field, starting as a voice actor will be easier. Here is a list of 6 steps you can do to start practicing and to work your way to voiceover success:
- Read anything aloud: reading aloud is a first step to understanding how to read scripts. The more you practice the more you can start to understand how to play with your voice (such as tone, volume, pitch, etc.) and use it toward reading future scripts.
- Consider what kind of voiceover work you are interested in doing: doing a voiceover for animation is not the same as voiceovers for e-learning. Deciding into which area of voice over work you want to do is crucial of knowing what kind of training you will need.
- Find a place to get voiceover coaching and/or training: if you want to obtain the skills needed to do voiceover work, voice coaching and training can help you to do this. You can find schools and seminars in your area or even coaches that can put you one step closer to your voice acting career.
- Record yourself and make samples: If clients are going to hire you, they will probably want to hear a sample of your voice. Make a few different ones to show a variety of what kinds of voice styles you can do. Make sure you are directed by a coach or someone who can act as your audience. Audio quality is important, do not record just with any mic in any place. Ideally in a studio: sound proofed booth, condensor mic, etc to reach industry-standard sound quality
- Search for potential voiceover jobs or projects: once you are trained and you are a fledgling voice artist, well voiceover jobs won’t come to you, however you can come to voiceover jobs. By searching online you can find people or companies that are looking for voiceover artists for their projects.
- Advertise yourself: eventually you are going to get tired of looking for projects and are going to expect clients to come to you. The only way this is going to happen is if you advertise your voiceover services. You can either build your own website or you can join a voiceover agency. Either way you will have higher chances of getting more voiceover jobs, but that’s easier said than done. You have to be able to show to potential customers your voiceover skills, your equipment, other tasks you can perform (audio editing or synchronizing to video for example) and last but not least whether you are available and what are your rates. Well, you guess it, this is what we are doing at DirectVoices give you all the tools to get your services known and advertise for you.
As you can see, voice acting is not an easy career to start, but following these 6 steps, you will decide if voice acting is the path you want to follow either part time or full time. Never skip one single step, do them in order and you will get started towards your future success. So when your friends tell you that you have a great voice and that you should consider to be voiceover actor, don’t just say “hey, why not?” You will already know what steps it will take to get into the voiceover business and become a voice talent.
Does this answer your career starting questions? Are there more tips or steps I should include? Please share in the comment box below.