On Monday night I was at J.R. Fugett middle school in West Chester taking an introductory voiceover class via the Chester County Night School. The class was offered by Voice Coaches. I’ve been interested in doing voiceovers for a while, and have bought some self-training courses and books on the topic with the focused intent on learning to do voice work well. Mom noticed that this class was happening, and sent me a copy of the flyer, after which I immediately signed up.
The class was good. The instructor, John Gallogly, knew what he was talking about, and gave a good introduction to the field of voiceovers. About 17 people showed up for the class, of all different age ranges. Everyone introduced themselves in the beginning and talked about what they were hoping to gain from the class.
After the introductions were done, John talked about the voiceover profession. It seems logical that it wouldn’t be possible to individually train 17 people in one class session, so the overview made sense instead. He talked about many useful things: The good and bad aspects of choosing to be a professional voice actor. What happens when you do a recording session. The personalities and the people involved in the process. And, of course, the money.
Here are some points that were interesting to me. Being a voiceover artist essentially means that you’re going into business for yourself. You need to represent your brand, send out demo CDs, and promote yourself to people that will choose you to record. This sounds to be 90% of the job. Because lets face it – when you learn to do the voice work, you’re basically standing in a booth with a mic, talking. But getting a foot in the door is the trick, and it’s not a matter of being lucky or having some special voice, but mostly of perseverance.
Here’s another interesting point, although I knew this. Like I said, you don’t need a special voice. You can’t come in with a crackling voice and no skill for reading. But even if you’re monotone and dry, there’s probably work for you somewhere. And most of the work these days is going to people who sound… normal. Would you want to buy a new car from someone who sounds like a sales guy? Or would you rather take a recommendation from a friend? Producers look for people who sound just like you. Good news, right?
The money isn’t the thing for me. I just want to do it. I think it’ll be fun. But it is interesting that a voice actor - a pro, not just a noob - can make $150 to $300 on a job. Which, if you are a pro, will take anywhere from 15 to 40 minutes. Which is pretty good for less than an hour’s work. The real trick is getting called back for more work, which seems to be reliant mostly on being professional about the job. Doing things like “showing up” seem to be very beneficial, but also being friendly and creative, and willing and able to take direction.
I was proud of myself for being a bit more forward in this class than I normally am. When he asked for volunteers, I just stepped up. It’s not something I normally do, but like I said, I kind of want to do this thing. While I was up, he demonstrated what it’s like to do a recording in a booth and take direction from a producer, which is a role he plays all the time now that he’s a partner in his recording company. (By the way, a “producer” is the equivalent of a voice director. There is no “director” like there is for movies or TV, just the producer. And the producer for voice is also responsible for hiring talent…)
There were two actors (I’m not sure what that means) in our class, who both sprang out of their seats when volunteers were asked for. One of them had been convinced by his wife to attend the class, and she said she’d go with him, so she volunteered, too. So that was the four of us. There’s some weird impression I get from people who call themselves “actors”, having been around some for other classes (acting) I’ve taken. I’m not sure what the impression is exactly, but it’s not good, and feels something like they have a lot of hubris. Like I said, anyone can be a voice actor, so why they would behave as though they’re already better because they’re actors… Anyway. The guy’s wife sounded a lot better than either of those two did.
What I learned while reading is interesting too. I’ve been reading some books that talk about putting emotion into the reading, and knowing who you’re reading as, and knowing the intent of the copy. After this class, I still think that’s a great part of it, but it’s not the whole thing. There were suggestions in the book about marking up copy with inflection notes, and it seems like - in the real world of voice acting - that’s not something you’d even get the chance to do, since they usually just hand you the copy and say “read” immediately. What is important is reading like you’re speaking, not like you’re reading.
I found it interesting that the parents in the class were already better at this (to my ear) than everyone else. My guess is that you spend a lot of time reading as characters to the kids, and so you can just fall into reading in a regular speaking tone more naturally.
Here’s a hint of explanation of what I mean. You know how when you start to read something aloud from a book, you begin by taking a deep breath? Well nobody does that when they talk. They just start talking. Unlearning how to “read” is the key feature of a voiceover actor’s skill, and when you have it, you’re ready. Getting your foot in the door by sending out demos is important, but unless you can reproduce the skill that’s on your demo, nobody will re-hire you after your first (probably lousy) recording session.
Towards the end of the class, everyone had an opportunity to have their voice recorded and evaluated by John and one of the people in his studio. They would listen to the recording and provide an honest (potentially brutal) critique of your work via phone the next day.
We all recorded some stuff. I had a couple of lines from a cell phone commercial that I read. I listened to everyone else record. Some people I thought did well. Other people, while they were being recorded, didn’t sound like they should be allowed anywhere near a microphone, training or no. But then he played everyone’s recordings back, complete with commercial-sounding music bed…
Everyone sounded great! It was crazy. The woman who started out at the beginning almost stuttery sounded like she’d been doing it forever. Sure, there were a couple of exceptions, but they all sounded significantly better than I had originally listened. And then there was mine. Ugh.
So when we were done, I took a flyer for the Voice Coaches training program and headed out. In the parking lot I was thinking about how terrible I had done, and how all my desires to get into voiceovers were doomed to fail. I eventually talked myself out of it, trusting that things would pan out or not in my phone call.
At 7:02 the next morning, I got a call from one of the folks at the studio. She was very positive. I was really expecting her to say worse things. Practically the only negative thing she said was that I read a little fast, which she couldn’t imagine avoiding in a class of other people with that much pressure on a single attempt. But she said I had a good pitch and tone, and told me that my voice didn’t have any characteristics (like being unavoidably squeaky) that might prohibit me from seeing professional voiceover work.
She told me that in the commercial realm my voice might be good for “important” work, like banks, brokers, insurance companies, etc. And if I was doing narration work, I could be suitable for documentaries, biographies, or audiobooks. That was both interesting and heartening considering my expectations from the night before.
So that’s it. The next step would be to do some one-on-one training and record a demo. Unfortunately, the price they’re asking is a bit on the expensive side. It now comes down to how serious I am about doing this type of work, and whether I’m willing to put the money and time in to go pro.
I guess we’ll see.
