The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over (40 page)

I’ve said this before, but this is so important that I’ll say it again: do not produce your demo until you are ready, and even when you are ready, have your marketing plan in place before you spend the money on producing your demo. Spending some time on a critical self-evaluation to determine your performing strengths and weaknesses, your vocal style, the market you want to work in, and researching the talent buyers in that market is homework that will save you time and money.

From this point on, I’ll assume you know who you will be marketing to, you’ve got a marketing plan in place, you have a functional home studio, you’ve mastered your performing skills, and you’ve gathered a number of scripts.

Rehearse your copy with a stopwatch—you do have a stopwatch, don’t you? An analog 60-second sweep stopwatch is best because it is easy to start, stop, and reset. Some newer cell phones have a built-in digital stop watch that can work well, but many hand-held digital stopwatches can be cumbersome to use. It may take some searching, but you can find analog stopwatches online starting at about $50. Time yourself with each rehearsal, recording yourself if possible, and do a complete analysis for each script. Make notes on your scripts about the character, attitude, and emotional hooks, as well as ideas for music style and sound effects if appropriate. Consider mic placement for each script. Mark off what you believe to be the
strongest :10 to :15 of each script and consider a possible sequence for the demo. Be prepared to record the entire script during your demo production session, and be flexible enough to understand that everything you rehearse will probably change. The work you do at this stage will pay off later.

Ideally, you should find a director who can assist you with the production of your demo. Hiring a director is like having a second set of ears. It allows you to focus on your performance so you will not have to worry about the technical details of the session. Many recording studios have engineers experienced in directing voiceover.

Above all, when you are in the studio recording your demo, have fun and enjoy the experience! I encourage you to stay through as much of the process of producing the demo as you possibly can. This is your primary tool for establishing yourself in the business, and you’re paying a lot of money for it. It is not only your right, but your responsibility to make certain your demo is produced to the highest possible standards and completely meets your needs as a marketing tool. Your input will be important for your producer or the engineer to create an effective demo. You take a great risk if you simply go in and record your tracks, then leave the production up to the engineer or your demo producer. By observing the production process for your demo, you will learn a lot about what really goes on behind the scenes in a recording studio.

The question of your demo length was partially discussed in the section covering the various demo types. We’ll take things a bit further here.

There are two answers to the question of length. The first answer is: if you have an agent, ask her what length is preferred by their agency for the type of demo you are producing. The second answer is: if you don’t have an agent, you’ll want your demo to conform to the current conventional length for the type of demo you will be producing. As with other trends in voiceover, the length of a voice demo has changed over the years. The general standard lengths for various types of demos has been discussed earlier, but preferences in your market may also be a determining factor for the length of your demo. The best way to discover the appropriate demo length is to listen, and time, other voiceover demos. Visit websites for talent agents in your area or listen to demos at
www.voicebank.net
.

In major markets like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, you’ll find the average length for a commercial demo to be around 1 minute to no longer than 1:30. The trend has been moving toward shorter demos, and some Los Angeles agents are requesting demos as short at :30. Other markets may prefer longer demos between 1:30 and 2 minutes. It will be rare to find commercial demos longer than 1:30 in today’s voiceover world, although demos up to 2 or 3 minutes were the standard length only a few short years ago.

Your demo is an advertisement for you. The clips in your demo do not need to mention any product names, but should demonstrate your ability to communicate emotionally with a variety of styles and attitudes. There are actually two schools of thought on this. Some agents and producers believe that including product names lends credibility to the performer (especially if the spot is one that the performer actually worked on) and that they give a good opportunity for the producer to hear how the performer “sells” the client, or puts a spin on the product name. Other producers feel that the most important aspect of a demo is the performer’s talent and ability to communicate the message or tell the story, and that product names can actually become distracting or that the use of product names may be misrepresentation if you didn’t do the original spot. The reality is that most talent buyers, agents, and producers don’t really care if you actually did the spot or not. They want to hear what you can do with the words. They know that most voiceover demos aren’t the real thing—and it doesn’t matter.

If you choose to include product names in your demo, I’d suggest including only one or two and let your delivery and performing abilities shine for the rest of the copy. It may be a good idea to include a product name in your first demo just so you can demonstrate how you can give value and importance to the client or product. If you do choose to include product names, just don’t overdo it. You can also change the client or product name to avoid any concerns of misrepresenting that you actually did a spot. As you acquire copies of projects you have worked on, you should include a few product names from actual spots in your updated demos. Unless you have actually worked for the clients you mention, you should never include their logos on your CD cover, on your website, or in your marketing, and when you do, it should always be only after obtaining proper permission. To do otherwise may be viewed as misrepresentation.

There are many approaches to obtaining copy for a demo. Be creative! Some demo studios provide the copy and handle all the production. This is fine if you don’t mind taking the chance of other people in your market having the same copy on their demos. The only real advantage of having the studio provide the copy is that your demo session becomes more like a real recording session; that is, you won’t have the opportunity to see the copy in advance. The downside is that your session may take considerably longer because you will be working the copy cold and relatively unrehearsed. You might also feel rushed when you are “on the clock” to get through all the copy necessary, which could easily affect the quality of your performance. However, the major problem with the studio providing the copy is that you can easily end up using copy that is not right for your performing style. The purpose of your demo is to present your
talent in the best possible manner. Performing copy that is not right for you can only work against you, no matter how well the demo is produced.

A better approach to finding copy for your demo is to listen to radio and TV commercials and browse through magazines. By listening to radio and television commercials, you can find copy that matches your style. Record commercial breaks and transcribe the ads that fit your abilities, putting each script on a separate piece of paper. Transcribe the entire commercial even though you may end up using only a small portion if that script makes it into the demo. Having the entire script in front of you will help you discover the emotional content of the commercial and the target audience.

You can also find copy by rewriting magazine ads—especially from women’s magazines. There are also a variety of resources for copy on the Internet. However, here’s an important point to keep in mind: the scripts you’ll find on an online script database are there for the purpose of providing rehearsal copy, and may not be the best choice for your demo. The best copy for your demo will be copy that is uniquely yours and presents your performing abilities at their best.

Magazines are a great resource for a potential demo. Look for ads that include a lot of copy. Look for ads that target specific audiences: men, women, young, older adults, and so on. Look for products or services that will allow you to perform the copy in a variety of styles: serious, humorous, hard-sell, soft-sell, dynamic, emotional, and so on. Look for key phrases and sentences that have emotional content—these will be your keys to an effective performance. Most important, select only those ads that might actually be potential radio or TV commercials. The tracks in your demo must sound like real-world radio or television spots.

Technical, news, travel, and women’s magazines often have ads that can be easily adapted for voiceover. Most print ads are written for the eye, designed to be read, and include a lot of text that may not be appropriate for voiceover. However, if you think about it, you’ll realize that the people who write these print ads are often the same people who write national-quality radio and television ads. Since print copy is written to be read silently, you will usually need to rewrite the copy so it can be used for voiceover. You don’t need to completely rewrite a print ad; just take the strongest sections and rework them so they make sense for voiceover. If you have a talent for rewriting copy, here’s an opportunity to let your creative juices flow. If this is not one of your strong points, your demo producer or one of your coaches may be able to help.

If you have some writing experience, you can even write customized material for your demo. But be aware that if you write your own copy, it must sound as though it was written by a professional.

Obtain as much copy as you can and narrow the scripts down to about 30 to 40 different ads from radio, TV, magazines, and technical journals. Include a variety of styles that will reveal your full range of capabilities: slow, fast, dynamic, emotional, character, and so on. Also make sure each script you choose is appropriate for the type of demo you will be producing.
This may seem like a lot of copy—and it is—but by starting with that many possibilities, it will be easier to determine the copy that best fits your style. By the time you start recording, those 30 or 40 scripts will be whittled down to about 12 to 15.

Be prepared to perform the entire script at your demo session. The reason for this is that you may actually end up with an extremely effective delivery on a segment of the script that you may not have expected. If you only rehearse portions of your scripts, you might overlook an opportunity for a perfect transitional element, or an especially emotional performance. Your director can help create the best performance for each script and you may end up actually recording only a small portion of the copy.

Thoroughly woodshed and do a character analysis for each piece of copy, making notes on the scripts. Practice your performance for each script just enough to become familiar with it. Be careful not to get yourself locked into any specific attitude or character. Keep in mind that your session engineer might direct you into a performance completely different from what you had decided on. If that happens, you need to be able to adapt to the direction. If you can’t, or if you find yourself getting stuck in the same delivery for each take, then you are not ready to have your demo produced.

As you prepare your demo copy, make notes about music style or sound effects, but don’t worry about finding them. The engineer will handle that at your session. Your job is to focus on finding suitable copy that you can perform effectively. You have the luxury of being able to prepare and rehearse. Take advantage of it! You will not have this luxury in a real-life studio session. Take at least three clean copies of each script with you to the studio: one copy for yourself, one for the engineer, and the third for your director.

The purpose of a demo is to feature
your
voice-acting performance. Including other voiceover performers should be done judiciously. If you include a dialogue spot, make sure that yours is the featured performance and that the other voice is of the opposite gender. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at the number of demos with two voices that are hard to tell apart. Also be certain that the other performer knows how to act. I’ve heard far too many demos that include a dialogue spot where the second player showed little or no acting ability, or worse, the other performer showed superior acting ability. And don’t be tempted to do both voices yourself. Producers want to hear how you work with other voice talent, not how clever you can be performing multiple voices.

The use of music and sound effects is essential to creating a demo that sounds like it contains real-world spots. If used, music must be appropriate for the mood and energy of the message. It is an infringement of copyright to use music from store-bought CDs or downloads, or even arrangements of popular tunes that you perform yourself. Only suitable music from licensed
music libraries
should be used in your demo. Sound effects should only be used where appropriate, and although sound effects are not copyrighted, they must be of high-quality. This aspect of your demo requires a knowledge of audio production, editing, and postproduction that is acquired only through many years of experience. You might have the best recording equipment and software, but if you don’t know how to produce and mix professional audio, you would be best to leave the production to an experienced demo producer. Attempting to do this yourself will generally result in a demo that is substandard and leaves a bad impression with the talent buyers who hear it. And, as a voice actor who is attempting to present the image of a professional, that is something you cannot afford.