Voice Acting For Dummies

by David Ciccarelli

  •You may achieve less than you would if instructed privately. When you’re in a group setting, the instructor can’t stray much from the curriculum to accommodate voice actors who are at different skill levels because the instructor needs to focus on teaching what he advertised.

  Your choice is ultimately yours. Starting out with group coaching or attending a weekend workshop for beginners and aspiring voice actors is a great way to test the waters before committing to private lessons or lessons of any kind.

  Knowing what to look for

  When you start to look for a voice acting coach, you want someone who leaves an imprint on your perspectives, goals, and potentially the direction you take in your voice acting career. Coaches have the ability to inspire or to deter, depending on how you interpret their methodology, or bedside manner if you will. As a result, you need to select the best fit for you as a student for voice acting to succeed.

  When you start your search, you need to consider a few important points about your potential coach:

  Experience level: When looking for a coach, look for someone who has been working in the industry for more than a decade and has a wide array of clients. Some coaches may have enjoyed a successful voice acting career for a long time and have decided to turn their attention to teaching in their golden years. If the coach has a website, look at it to see a partial client list or roles that the coach has performed. Do what you can to research the coach’s educational background.

  Fee: The fees that coaches charge vary depending on their level of experience and the amount of time you will be spending with them on a per lesson basis. If you’re studying to learn something very specific, you’ll likely pay a premium for that information and guidance. If you’re studying in a group versus one-on-one setting, group lessons may cost less than if you were having a private lesson. Each coach reserves the right to charge what she feels her services are worth and will bundle lessons in either a curriculum or month-to-month basis. Ask the coach if you can study once or gain an evaluation period with her before you commit to ongoing study.

  Your niche: Figuring out what you want to study or improve upon is half the battle when finding a coach. Coaches who work in the niche you are focusing on will be a better fit than working with someone who is an amazing voice coach but specializes in a different area of voice acting. When you can, find a coach who has been acknowledged as a top performer by his or her peers and other industry players, perhaps even award-winning. If you want to work in audiobook narration, for instance, try to find a working narrator who has received awards such as an Audie or a Golden Earphone. If you want to work in commercials, look for coaches who served as the voice of an award-winning campaign and can lay claim to an Addy, per se.

  Personality: Life can be a lot easier if you get along with and respect the person who is coaching you. You need to be able to take constructive criticism from the coach without feeling threatened or discouraged. Finding an encouraging coach is a must. Make sure the coach is able to encourage and still be objective and honest.

  A coach’s voice demos: When considering whether you want to study with someone, listen to his or her current voice samples. Many coaches are still working voice actors and have a few demos on their websites that you can hear. Their demos can tell you a lot about what you can expect of their talent and also how they may direct you in producing a demo at some point. Studying with a coach who has voice samples in the area you wish to work in also can give you a greater appreciation for the work she has done and validate her abilities in this niche of voice acting.

  Close to your home: If you want to study with someone in person, location is a significant consideration when choosing a coach. If you live in a metropolitan city, you’re in a better position geographically to study with a coach who leads a peer group. Centers with a wide array of voice acting coaches to choose from include cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Keep in mind that if you want to study in person with a coach who lives far away, you may need to travel unless the coach offers services over the phone or by Skype. Some people are willing to travel a fair distance (sometimes up to eight hours) to train, but doing so isn’t practical for everyone nor is it desirable at times.

  Finding the right coach

  A coach who can open you up, develop, and refine your skills is available for every person. Finding these individuals and having the ambition and humility to become a student of voice acting is the real challenge. If you know your criteria (we help you figure out what you want in a coach in the previous section), you can actually start your search.

  To uncover the coach that’s right for you, use these tips:

  Ask your colleagues about their experiences with a particular coach (one with whom they study on a regular basis). Get the inside scoop from them on why they love studying with their coach. They’ll have specific reasons why they chose and continue to work with that individual.

  Don’t just ask one of the coach’s students; ask several. Each person has his or her own unique reasons for studying with that coach, and you may also find that students in a given studio share similar thoughts on why studying with a particular coach has improved their performance.

  Read written reviews or testimonials from past students. Nothing is more telling than feedback, whether good or bad, from people who have actually studied with a coach you’re considering. You can find this information by visiting the coach’s website, doing a search for the coach’s name, or visiting a chat room or forum.

  Find out whether the coach’s students are booking jobs. One sign that a coach is helping his or her students is if those students are booking voice acting jobs, landing agents, or continuously crediting part of their success to a particular coach. Good coaches also keep their eyes and ears open for opportunities that can suit their students. People who study with these sorts of coaches are quick to share that information and often do so via social media.

  Listen to podcasts or watch videos of their work. You can easily find information online that can serve as a soft introduction to a voice acting coach before reaching out to connect. Many coaches participate on the Voice Over Experts podcast (which you can find in iTunes) or donate articles and expertise to the community.

  After you narrow down your search to a couple, have a phone consultation or interview with each one to see if you get along. You can also ask any questions that you may have about the coach’s teaching style and whether or not the coach feels she would be a good teacher for you. If auditing is an option, attend one of the coach’s workshops and sit in to observe how she interacts with students. Above all, make sure you feel comfortable in the presence of your coach and that you trust her. Your voice is a very personal thing and not just anybody should be shaping it. Be selective in this regard and use all the information you have gathered before making a decision.

  Starting off on the right foot with your coach

  You find a coach, and you’re excited about starting this relationship with the hopes of developing your voice acting skills. When you hire the coach, keep these points in mind as you start your official relationship:

  Be true to your commitment. Treat this relationship as you would the same professionalism shown to your doctor, accountant, and so on. Make sure that you clearly understand the structure of your lessons, set reachable goals, and if applicable, determine how long you will be studying with the coach. Will this be a long-term relationship or are you planning on studying with him for a set period of time? If you’re unable to make it to a class or need to reschedule, be sure that you understand your coach’s policies and how he treats absences and how he compensates you for lost time if he is late or ill. Knowing what your coach expects of you professionally is very important.

  Be a good student. If you want this relationship to prosper, you need to put in some effort and give your coach reason to loo
k forward to each class. Show up on time and be prepared to work. In between sessions, review what your coach has taught you and work on specific things you discussed in previous lessons. Applying your coach’s advice and demonstrating your ability to follow instructions can go a long way in maintaining a good rapport with your teacher in addition to improving your skill and talent as a voice actor.

  Getting the Most from Your Training Sessions

  You want to make sure you consistently apply what your coach has instructed you if you want to improve your skills. Take what your coach has presented and find a way to interpret it and make it your own. In this section, we look at ways to maximize your lessons and ideally improve your chances of getting hired for work in voice acting.

  Doing your homework

  Remember what it felt like in school to have your teacher walk by to check the previous night’s homework assignment only to find that it wasn’t completed, perhaps not even started? The same thing happens in the arts when you don’t practice. A voice acting coach will know if you’ve been working on what he assigned by your performance and skill, so make sure you dedicate time to do your homework. Review your lessons and apply what your coach taught. To help you, many teachers will make an audio or video recording of your lessons for you to refer to when practicing at home.

  Practicing is always a good idea. When you’re studying one on one with a coach, you need to have done your homework. Practicing allows your coach more freedom to move ahead with introducing new concepts and pieces of copy for you to try.

  Being open to trying new things

  The key to getting the most from your voice lessons is to discover your own voice and not to mimic someone else. What you bring to the table is special and unique, and no two voices are exactly the same. In your classes and in your free time, be open to new experiences. You may feel uncomfortable at first, but you can’t grow your voice acting skills without doing something new. If your coach suggests new exercises, don’t resist. Trust that she knows what she is doing.

  In doing so, experiment. You can work with different scripts and characters and allow your coach to share ideas with you. Don’t get pigeon-holed into one style or one type of character. Although not everything you try will suit you or work, the more you exercise your voice, the more knowledge you’ll have of your voice.

  Accepting constructive criticism

  You don’t want to pay a coach to tell you how great you are or pat you on the back. You want insight, so when your coach or classmates offer you feedback, be open to what they’re saying. Many times people don’t take to heart what objective outsiders have to say about their work. When you get feedback, take away what you need from the experience and toss what you don’t.

  Exploring Other Training Options

  Studying with a coach is just one way that you can develop your voice acting skills. Fortunately for you, training options for voice acting are as varied as they are plentiful! Everything from industry conferences, voice acting workout groups, and free resources online are at your disposal. In this section, we overview what you can do to grow as a voice actor and how you can do it.

  Attending industry conferences

  Going to conferences related specifically to voice acting is a great way to inspire you and discover new developments and skills needed for a voice acting career. Furthermore, conferences are a great way to meet and network with other voice actors. By going to a conference, you can attend sessions on how to stay ahead of the curve in the industry and chat with others about what works and doesn’t work for them.

  When determining whether to go to a conference, look at how much it costs. The price of conference tickets should be equal to the perceived value of what you are going to receive. From a business point of view, investing several hundred dollars, even for a day, to be in the same room as industry leaders, experts, and people you wouldn’t be able to meet with, network, and learn firsthand from is worth the price of admission. Before you register for any workshop, talk to other people who have attended in the past to see if it’s worth attending.

  Putting on a conference costs money, and part of the fee you pay to attend goes toward costs associated with the venue, food, speakers, and any materials that are being provided to you. It isn’t uncommon for a conference to cost $500 or more to attend. Generally, conferences that cost several hundred dollars also provide food and drink throughout the day.

  Participating in workshops or peer groups

  Attending workshops and participating in small groups of your peers are great ways to improve your skill set and network. No matter whether you’re new to the field or you have decades of experience, you still need to brush up on your skills every so often or get referral business from others in the field.

  Workshops give you opportunities to discover something new in a group environment. For instance, you can attend a workshop on voice acting in animation or a workshop on how to read commercial scripts for television and radio.

  A peer group is great for developing new skills, figuring out voice acting in general, and gaining support and encouragement from others in your field.

  You can find workshops and peer groups by searching online for keywords related to the type of group you want. For example, you may search for “voice acting workshops, New York City” or “voice-over group in Toronto.” Most workshops are advertised well, but peer groups are harder to find. You may have more success finding peer groups by asking other voice actors for referrals.

  Taking classes via phone, Skype, or webinar

  If you live outside a large city, such as New York, Los Angeles, or Toronto, where many voice acting coaches hold classes, you may be able to take classes via the phone, webinars, or Skype.

  Coaches may teach telephone classes on a weekly basis with a curriculum that they want to teach for a matter of weeks. These classes can be short or can run for more than an hour. You can go with private coaching sessions or group lessons taught in an ongoing educational course format.

  Other coaches may provide webinars that allow you to listen to special guest instructors. At the end of the webinar, participants can ask questions and receive immediate answers from the featured presenters and experts. Webinars offer an alternative to simply hearing what is being shared by sharing material in real time. Check out the resources section at www.voices.com for some different types of webinars.

  Listening to podcasts

  Podcasts are radio-style shows that you can listen to either on a website or by downloading your podcast of choice from a podcast directory, such as Apple’s iTunes. You can listen to podcasts to enhance your voice acting skills and discover new skills. Most episodes contain pearls of wisdom and tricks of the trade to improve your voice-over career. Voice Over Experts is the No. 1 educational podcast featuring renowned voice-over coaches from the United States, Canada, and abroad.

  Watching YouTube videos

  You can find videos online that give you a greater appreciation for the art of voice acting and touch on a variety of industry topics, including home studios, recording, audio editing, vocal technique, performance, auditioning, and voice acting. Many of the most successful voice actors have uploaded videos to YouTube that share tips and let you into their studios for a sneak peek. Some voice acting coaches also share tips that can help you grow in both knowledge and skill.

  For example, plopping down on the couch to watch a YouTube video of Kevin Conroy in session being directed by Andrea Romano won’t suddenly make your Batman voice or interpretation any better. Watching what Conroy does, studying his choices, interpreting them, and rehearsing those choices on your own as the Caped Crusader will.

  Chapter 4

  Understanding Your Role

  In This Chapter

  Getting to know the “real” person

  Finding your voice as a narrator

/>   Releasing your inner announcer

  Acting as a spokesperson

  Being an instructor

  The art of communication — the most powerful, persuasive, and distinctly human tool in any marketer’s arsenal — has evolved to the degree that you don’t have to be in the same room to get a message across, even the same country for that matter. Despite this advancement, making sure the audience receives, understands, believes, and acts upon a message is so important. Voice acting skills (as well as the copywriting) can ensure you achieve this audience response, which is where the voice actor’s role plays out. As a voice actor, you can play different character roles to get the message of your client across in a direct and effective way.

  Voice actors play many different roles. In fact, voice actors can find themselves voicing for five main categories of roles, each one representing a different purpose and segment of voice-over work. Think of all the situations in which you’ve heard voice-over work. Commercials, entertainment, or educational purposes all use voice-over work. That being said, no matter what the voice-over is, it still falls within one of those five areas.

  In this chapter, we introduce you to these five categories: the real person, the announcer, the narrator, the spokesperson, and the instructor. These roles apply to any and all voice acting, depending on the goal the voice-over wants to achieve and the direction you receive.

  We also explore subtle differences between these roles and provide instruction on how to give each sort of role your best shot with insider tips to help in your preparation for practicing, auditions, or jobs you have booked.

  Saying Hello to the Real Person

  Projects requiring a more casual approach often benefit from relatable, genuine voice-overs. These voice-overs are referred to as real-person voice-overs, commonly known as “the regular guy” or “the girl next door.” The character is homegrown, sensible, and friendly with a touch of familiarity, and it provides a more intimate interpretation that instills trust. You probably have heard the real person in commercials, podcasts, explainer videos, or any application where the voice actor needs to speak as though he or she is having a conversation with the listener.