FREE VOICE-OVER LESSONS: BASICS/DEMO

I discontinued voice-over training and coaching, and for years still received inquiries about how to start a voice-over career (which simply has no concise response.)  While no longer teaching, I have decided to post increments from my Basics Training Event Workbook here, with a link to an audio track narrated by me.  It's my hope to help those interested in learning more about voice-over and what's involved in starting a career.

The third in the series is an introduction to voice-over demos. 
TCVO Presents…

SPRING INTO VOICE-OVER!

© Teri Clark Linden, 2014

DEMOS

The first thing (after training) you need for your VO career is a VO demo.  You can’t get an agent without one.  There’s no point in having a website without one.  You can’t market yourself without one.  You need one and that’s that.  In Pat Fraley’s “Demo World” he identifies six demo types and suggests that professional voice-over talent “are now encouraged to create and maintain from two to six of the “Top 6 Voice-Over Demos” which are:

Commercial

Animation/Character

Interactive/Gaming

Narration

Audio Book

Promo/Trailer

I have been able to broaden my market to include every genre mentioned even those not controlled by agents, primarily through my home studio use.  

What you need starting out

You are just starting out, and in a smaller market, so you will need to focus on a commercial demo first.  Jason Sasportas, my agent at Stewart Talent in New York, says this about getting your first demo: “I strongly encourage talent who are brand new to the business to avoid putting together a reel until they’ve had considerable training and are very comfortable with their reads.”  This is mainly because demos are very expensive (the well-produced ones that is).  Jason says in New York they generally run about $1,400, and I think that’s about the same for Chicago and LA, maybe a little more in LA.  

As a producer of commercial demos, I would say the key to keeping the cost low is having as much of the material ready to go before you step into the recording booth.  I work with my students to build a script library full of versatile copy and styles, hopefully picking out selections that are not only written differently but, more importantly, show off my student’s vocal ability and range.  

Combination Demo

In the Midwest you can get away with producing a demo type called a “combination demo,” which is basically a commercial demo with maybe a bit of narration, accent, or character, thrown in towards the end.  This is acceptable because our smaller markets might not support enough work in other genres to warrant separates demos.  Of course, say for instance your forte is cartoons and you want to market yourself as an animation voice-over talent from your home studio, then by all means get an animation demo made.  If this is the route you want to go, then I strongly suggest going to where the best teachers and producers for this genre are, and that’s LA.  

Personal Style

While you are here in the Midwest though, get a commercial/combination demo made to have as your base.  Once you have all your versatile material, cuts and bits totaling no more than one minute and are ready to record, you shouldn’t be more than five hours in the recording booth, on average.  It depends how talented and creative you are behind the mic, and how talented and creative your producer/engineer is behind the table.  Pat Fraley says a demo shouldn’t be too heavily produced (the music and sound effects shouldn’t overshadow your performance).  He also says you need to develop a “personal style” and that needs to come forth first thing on the demo.  You need to grab the listener in the first five seconds.  Five seconds!  When speaking to personal style, think about your strengths as a performer.  What do you really like to perform?  What interests you?  What do you feel confident with?  Is it cartoon voices and comedy, or do you have a husky and smoky voice, or a penchant for storytelling?  The more you practice your voice the more confident and aware you become of your ability, which goes back to what Jason Sasportas said about training and being comfortable with your reads before getting a demo!

Research & Rates

In a smaller market like Dayton, Ohio I recommend contacting recording studios and asking about commercial voice-over demo production.  Be specific.  Ask if they produce commercials and work with voice-over talent (maybe they just produce musicians).  If they do produce commercials, find out if their engineer also directs.  Ask if they have any samples you can hear.  Find out rates for their advertising clients (charge per hour for studio time, which should include engineer, mixing, music and sound effects – any “post-production”) and see if they offer a reduced rate for demos.  In Detroit, most do, though your time may be “bumpable” if a full-price paying client needs your time slot and you may have to reschedule.  Still, the difference between $300, and $125 an hour at five to eight hours can be a big one, and its worth checking into.  

Pat Fraley in LA is an amazing voice-over talent, teacher and demo producer.  He offers an Audio Book workshop where at the end of two days you have not only learned about voice-over in the Audio Book world but you walk away with a top-tier Audio Book demo.  Pat also offers private coaching and will produce your demo in a recording studio working with an engineer.  Trained by Pat, I feel confident directing and helping students find their vocal strengths and variety (and personal style) and getting them ready to record a demo.  For the past couple of demos I coached my students toward, I attended their recording session at RMS Recording studios in Detroit for the first hour, being on hand to help direct what we had created working one on one, and working a bit with the engineer and producer to determine what kind of effects and music (if any) we’d like under the voice-over, placement of the pieces, etc.  I also jumped behind the microphone for my male students and did a name slate for them.  I recently talked with a recording engineer who said he did a demo for a talent where it became apparent very quickly the actor had no training.  They did not know what they were doing behind the mic, so all their scripts sounded the same and were the same style.  Yes, you need training.  

You don’t need to wait years before getting your demo either.  There is a lot of prep work for demos you can do on your own that costs little money.  Edge Studios on the Internet offers free practice scripts.  So do magazines in the library or transcribing commercials you record on the television.  Practice and playback your voice on an array of recorded scripts on your own and find a voice coach to work with to help you with training.  Together, you can work towards creating a viable basic demo to begin marketing yourself as a voice-over talent.  Once you begin to make money and gain more skills, you can work toward refining your demo and laying down tracks for a second genre, like character or narration.
© Teri Clark Linden, 2014

CLICK HERE FOR MY AUDIO NARRATION OF VOICE-OVER LESSONS: BASICS/DEMO

CLICK HERE TO WATCH ME NARRATE ON BASICS/DEMOS ON YOUTUBE

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