Making money as an actor can be a tough gig but voiceover work is one of the few ways you can top up your acting income without resorting to a proper day job. This short article gives you 7 tips to getting more voiceover work.
Many actors achieve great success in this industry. Its fun, they make great cash, and they keep getting work over and over again. Then there are others who are struggling to even get one gig. After many years as a copywriter working with successful (and a few not so successful) voiceovers, and founder of online voiceover directory I ve been studying what makes certain voiceovers successful. Here are 7 tips:
1. Is your demo good enough?
You can promote yourself as much as you like but at the end of the day, it comes down to your demo. You re competing with some very talented people out there. An ok demo is not good enough.
2. Call back immediately. If you get a message that someone is trying to book you for a gig, don t wait a minute. Ad agencies are usually up against very tight deadlines, and if you take too long getting back to them, they ll simply book someone who is answering their phone.
3. Do a special offer Offer a producer in an ad agency that you ll do a free gig IF it s for a charity ad. Or you could try something like giving concession tickets of a show you re acting in to a producer or copywriter. These things don t cost you money, but they spread good karma, and hopefully drum up some business for you in the future.
4. Get some training. If you are inexperienced, try to go on a training course. It s a small investment in comparison to the amount of money you can make doing voiceovers.
5. Pick someone s brain. If you are inexperienced, go for coffee with a more experienced VO and pick their brain. Ask them everything about what to expect when you do a gig from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave. Sometimes just knowing what to expect will calm the nerves when you re doing your first gig. You can also take a few scripts along to this coffee and ask them to crit you doing a read.
6. Spam yourself Create a database of ad agency copywriters and producers and send them a link of your voice sample. This takes time, but doesn t cost you a penny.
7. Get a Dictaphone. Buy yourself a Dictaphone and recite and record scripts for practice. (Some mobile phones also have voice recorders.) Sometimes it s amazing how great something sounds in your own head, but only once you hear it out loud can you really figure out which bits need improving. This is fantastic exercise schedule ten minutes a day to practice.
You can find the full 25 Things the Successful Voicover Artist in Ebook called 7 25 Things the Successful Voiceover Artist Knows (that the Rest of the Plebs Don t)
http://www.piehole.co.uk and http://www.piehole.ie are two leading voiceover talent websites. They are independent sites that are created by copywriters, for copywriters.
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