The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over Read Online Free PDF Page A

concentration, plus an ability to make quick changes in midstream. Prior acting experience is an advantage, but the essential performing skills can be picked up as you go, so don’t let a lack of experience stop you. If you can use your imagination, tell a story with vivid imagery, and take direction, you can do voiceover.
    One of the greatest misconceptions is that you need a certain type of voice to do voiceover. You do not need a “good” voice, or “announcer” voice. You do need a voice that is easily understood. If your voice has a unique quality or sound, you can use that to your advantage, especially for animation work. But a unique voice quality can also become a limitation if that is the only thing you do. You may find you are better suited to one particular type of voiceover work—corporate/industrial, for example. If that’s the case, you can focus on marketing yourself for that type of work. Still, you should consider other types of voice work when the call comes.
    Variety is an important aspect of voiceover performing. By variety I mean being able to use your voice to convey a wide range of attitudes, delivery styles, personality, interpretation, energy, and emotions. These are the characteristics of your voice presentation that will allow you to effectively tell a story that contains a message. And communicating a message is what working as a voice actor is all about.
    Many people think that because they can do lots of impersonations or make up crazy character voices, they can do voiceover work. Vocal versatility is certainly valuable; however, success in the world of voiceover also takes focus, discipline, and an ability to act.
    So, just how do you learn voiceover performing skills, break in, and get yourself known as a voice actor? There is no simple answer to this question. To be successful, you should learn everything you can about acting, communication, and marketing. In this business, an old adage, “It’s not what you know, but who you know,” is also very true. Getting voiceover work is largely a numbers game—a game of networking and making yourself known in the right circles. To be successful you cannot be shy. Let every person you meet know what you do! But you must also possess both the performing and business skills that qualify you as a professional, and that is what this book is really about! Or, you can do voiceover as a hobby!

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The Best∼Kept Secret
    Let’s face it—if everyone were equally good at every job, there would be no need for résumés or auditions. Fortunately, in this world, every person has uniquely different talents, abilities, and levels of skill. It is this variety that makes the voiceover business a potentially profitable career for anyone willing to invest the time and effort.
    For years, voiceover was one of the best-kept secrets around. The job can be loads of fun and very profitable, but it is not an easy business to break into. Today, there are roughly five times as many people who claim to be voiceover talent as there are actors trying to break into TV and movies. Add to that the major film stars who have discovered that voiceover work is more fun than spending many hours in makeup each day. The simple truth is that competition is tough, and it is easy to become frustrated when just beginning.
    Voiceover work is part of “show business.” As such it has all the potential excitement, celebrity status, and opportunities as the other areas of show business, as well as the long periods of waiting, frustrations in getting “booked,” and problems dealing with agents and producers.
    The Realities of Voice Acting
    You have probably heard most of the pros of voiceover work: big money, short hours, celebrity status (fame and fortune without anyone actually knowing who you are), and more. For some voiceover performers, these things are true but it takes a long time, and constantly being in the right place, to get there. In other words, they had to work at it.