Voice actors often work on short-term projects that pay well, such as commercials, audio books or video games; developing their portfolio and networking are essential steps toward becoming a voice-over artist.
Setting up profiles on online marketplaces such as Voices and Audible is also key to finding gigs.
Getting Started
Once you are ready to launch into voice acting, find a reputable producer to create a professional demo that demonstrates your abilities. This will enable you to audition for voice over jobs. In addition, considering hiring a voice over coach may help fine-tune your skills and avoid common rookie errors (such as long pauses, ums and non-natural sounds) that rookies make.
Another effective place to search for clients is local business directories, which often include listings with website and contact information of businesses in your area. You could also check websites like Elance or Fiverr for open calls for freelancers.
If you know someone at a company that might need voice-over work, ask them to recommend you. Social networking sites like LinkedIn offer great ways of reaching potential clients; simply select "Connect" next to their name or full profile and connect!
Finding Clients
Recurring work such as voice acting for animated television shows or explainer videos can provide voice actors looking to make this their full-time career a steady source of income. An agency can connect you with potential clients.
One simple way to find clients is to start looking around your local business community for companies who may use voice over in some capacity. If you know any such businesses, reach out and offer your services - many individuals do not realize how valuable professional voice over can be for their businesses! It is also important to educate potential clients as much as possible regarding why professional voice over services might benefit their ventures.
Email can be an efficient means of reaching clients, but cold contacting someone requires considerable effort and can quickly become overwhelming in their inbox. Double spacing your emails may make reading and understanding your message simpler for clients.
Recording
If you are serious about making voice over work your full-time career, invest in quality equipment and secure work space. In addition to that, becoming familiar with audio recording and editing software is also key.
Most voice over artists specialize in one area of work - for instance reading text, narrating videos or portraying characters - before setting up their home studio and recording the project. Once finished, they send it off to clients.
An effective voice over performance requires clarity, pacing, and the ability to convey emotion. Furthermore, it must sound natural without regional accents or pronunciations that could potentially mislead people outside your region. Before beginning recording sessions, it's advisable to compile a script that includes everything you want to say so as to avoid long uhms and ahs between sentences; furthermore it helps avoid speaking too fast or using unfamiliar words that sound rushed and inattentive.
Editing
Voice actors understand the effort required to sound natural on recordings. That's why many professional home-based voice actors invest in top quality microphones and audio interfaces, along with computers capable of running recording software to record and edit their work.
Practice pacing and speaking clearly if you want your video to run smoothly; aim to keep up with its pace while making sure that your voice does not sound rushed or too slow.
At times, clients may ask that you record specific sounds or accents to reflect a character in a video or script; for instance, video game sound effects could include shouts or gasps instead of speaking lines; this kind of non-speaking dialogue known as sound effects can be quite effective and could land repeat gigs with clients if you deliver these successfully.
