Introduction

I’m going to take a chance here! At some point in the past, someone said something to you similar to the above statements. And you’ve become inspired! Or perhaps voiceover has been a lifelong dream and you finally have time to start learning about what “VO” is all about. Or it might be that you read about a course in voice acting, and it sounded like fun! Regardless of how you got here, the idea of working in voiceover may have been percolating for a few years, or you may have already dabbled a bit. You picked up this book because you realize that there’s a lot you don’t know, and you’ve finally decided to get serious and “take the leap.”

Congratulations!

It doesn’t matter if you are studying voiceover as part of a higher education curriculum or if you’re doing it on your own. Either way, you are about to embark on a journey that will be filled with new concepts, loaded with new knowledge, and certain to be lots of fun. But along your journey, you will face challenging obstacles, frustrating clients, and scripts that seem almost impossible to decipher.

As with most things in life, there are no guarantees. But If you are persistent, you will more than likely find success. One thing I can guarantee, though, is that you will learn more about personal communication than you ever imagined.

Maybe working as a professional voice actor is not your primary objective here. Perhaps you simply enjoy making up funny character voices or sounds, or enjoy telling stories and jokes. This book will show you how to do it better and more effectively. Perhaps you need to make presentations as part of your job. If so, this book will definitely give you a new insight into reaching your audience with a stronger message. If you are involved in any line of work for which you need to communicate any sort of message verbally to one or more individuals, this book will help you make your presentation more powerful and more memorable.

This book is about acting and performing, but I won’t be talking about performing on stage or working on-camera. In fact, with this kind of acting you rarely, if ever, see your audience or receive any applause. With this kind of acting you create illusions and believable images in the mind of the audience—a listening audience who might never see you, but who, if you do your job well, will remember your performance for many years.

Although the focus here is on developing skills for working in voiceover, the techniques you will learn within these pages can be applied to any situation in which you want to reach and motivate an audience on an emotional level. Radio personalities, professional speakers, video producers, editors, audio engineers, on-camera talent, and even theatrical actors and directors will discover new ways to approach their work simply by gaining an understanding of how voice acting techniques can be applied when telling a story.

And, after all, we are all story tellers in one way or another.

Voiceover is one of those rare endeavors that is both a business and an art! As a business, voiceover work has the potential for being a lucrative—and fun—career. As an art, it is a highly specialized craft with skills that must be developed.

The voiceover performer is an actor who must communicate effectively using nothing more than his or her voice. The business of voiceover should, more accurately, be referred to as the business of voice acting. It is most definitely a part of show business.

I’ll be perfectly honest with you right from the beginning. Working as a voice actor is not for everyone. It requires an investment of time, energy, persistence, and money to get started. And, perhaps, just a bit of luck. As they say: “Luck is being in the right place, at the right time, with the right knowledge and skills.” This book will help with the knowledge and skills … the rest is up to you.

However … if you love to play, have the desire to learn some acting skills, can speak clearly, read well, don’t mind the occasional odd working hours, don’t take things too seriously, have a good attitude, can motivate yourself to be in the right place at the right time, have a working understanding of basic business, and you are willing to do what is necessary to develop your skills and build your business, this type of work may be just right for you. Even if you have absolutely no acting experience, you may discover a hidden aptitude in communicating through one of the many genres of voiceover—or you may simply find that you are more clearly understood by those you speak to. These skills are not limited to radio and TV commercials.

This book shows you the steps to take to learn the performing skills necessary to be successful as a voice talent. It also has the information you need to build your voiceover business and ultimately get your demo produced and into the hands of those who will hire you. Study these pages and you will gain a solid foundation in both performing and business skills that you can develop to achieve lasting success in the world of voiceover.

You don’t have to be in Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago to find voiceover work. Work is available everywhere. You do need to have the right attitude, the right skills, and a high-quality, professionally produced presentation of your talents, or the casting people won’t even give you a second look (or listen). If you master the techniques explained in this book, you will be able to present yourself like a pro—even if you have never done anything like this before.

As comprehensive as this book is, I am only able to scratch the surface of many topics relating to voiceover. So, I’ve created a web page that includes a lot of information that literally could not fit within the pages of this book. You’ll find more information, resources and some unpublished bonus material at VoiceActing.com. There, under the Resources menu tab, you will find audio and video playbacks, PDF support files, image files and even links to other websites with even more support material. Please note that you will need a PDF Reader for your device in order to open some of these links.

I’ve also created a direct link to the Resources area at VoiceActing.com: Simply go to AOVA.VoiceActing.com.

As you read the pages that follow, I promise to be straightforward and honest with you. Within these pages are techniques and tricks of the trade that you will not find anywhere else. For those of you considering a move into the business of voiceover, you will learn what it takes to be successful. If you simply want to learn new ways to use your voice to communicate effectively, you will find a wealth of information.

I wish you much success. Please let me know when you land your first national commercial or big animation contract as a result of using the techniques and information in this book. I can always be reached through VoiceActing.com.