BEST PRACTICES FOR VOICE OVER

Voice acting has several unique challenges; in terms of performance, understanding the genres of voice work available, booking work and working with agents, clients, and production houses. The following best practices for Canadian voiceover artists include helpful points toward maintaining a durable voice acting career.
Best Practices For Voice Actors
1. Acting is foundational to voice work
Unlike theatre or on-camera work, voice acting is often done in seclusion or separated from other characters in the scene. Yet, successful voice actors bring the same set of skills and craft to the work whether they are portraying a character in a game or animated series, voicing a commercial or a documentary or narrating an explainer or elearning video for a company.
2. Study the voice work genre
If you want to work in animation, study cartoons. If documentaries are your dream, watch and better yet, listen to hundreds. Pay attention to commercials to get into ad work. Beyond diving deeply into your preferred genre, learn about that part of the industry and stay abreast of trends.
3. Understand the business of voice over
To create a long term career in voice over work, actors need to understand many aspects of the voice over business. From finding work opportunities, to being aware of studio culture; from good agent, casting director and client relations, to communications, reliability, marketing, and planning for your financial future. Voice over artists who maintain life-long careers in the industry grasp the business of voice over.
Best Practices For Finding Good Voice Over Coaches
Many people offer voice over coaching services in Canada. Many are excellent. Many are not. How do you find a good voice over coach? Before you invest in a course or a workshop, ask these questions:
1.How long have they been in the business and how much have they booked themselves?
Learn from someone who has been in the industry and had success in the field themselves before they began coaching. A good voice over coach should have been in the field long enough to have learned it, and well enough to teach it.
2. Are they charging a fair market rate for their services?
A good voice over coach has spent a lifetime building knowledge and loses time creating their own voice work when they teach. The wealth of tips and tricks they share has value. At the same time, knowing rates (online and in-person) for private and group coaching helps your bottom line.
3. Do they have a proven track record as a coach?
Testimonials, word of mouth, participation in blogs, podcasts, workshops and conferences give insight as to whether they’ve helped others get a leg up in the voice over field.
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Best Practices For Creating a Voice Over Demo
Voice actors showcase their work with voice over demos. There is no one “right” way to make an audio demo. Budget, experience and skill all factor into demo creation. Some actors put together a “reel” of work they’ve done. Others create a produced demo highlighting the work they can do and aspire to be hired for. Things to consider when creating a voice over demo:
1. A great demo showcases best work, market trends
Like headshots and resumes, demos should only include the best work you’ve done or can do. A stand out voice actor’s demo has excellent sound quality, demonstrates the actor’s performance and reflects current trends. A great demos with a variety of clips or cuts which showcases the actor’s talent may help and (possibly) get work. A poorly produced or performed demo has the opposite effect.
2. Best practices on Hiring a demo producer
Great demo producers are clear about their process, their services (i.e. custom copywriting, sound capture in a home studio or brick and mortar studio, rehearsal, direction), rates and terms. They outline whether coaching or directing is included and offer an estimated turnaround. Feedback on a produced demo comes best from others in the industry, especially an agent or manager with a vested interest in the actor’s success (not friends or family outside the industry).
3. Best practices on promoting a voice over demo
Once produced, a demo can be used by talent and agents or managers to promote the voice actor’s skills. It can be sent to potential clients, housed on a voice actor’s website or social media profiles, and used on pay to play websites (marketplaces for voice over work).
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