Voice Acting For Dummies

by David Ciccarelli

  The demo represents your best possible work and gives people a way to quickly hear your ability and skill to assist them in making a hiring or casting decision. Because a demo plays such an important role, you want to plan and ensure that what you’re recording best suits your voice.

  As a result, the script you use for the demo is utterly important. When compiling material for your demo, you can write your own material, license the works of others, or find copy that is in the public domain. This chapter takes a closer look at these script options for your demo. After your script is ready, we explain the importance of practicing your script so you’re ready to record your demo.

  Authoring Your Own Script

  Writing your own original copy guarantees that you don’t have to go through any copyright hoops or fret over whether or not the copyright has indeed expired on a work you want to sample from. If you aren’t confident in your inner William Shakespeare or J.R.R. Tolkien, you can always hire someone else to write the custom script for your demo.

  If writing your own text is the route you want to take for your demo, these sections can help you overcome any writers’ block so you can come up with an inspiring script.

  Gathering ideas

  When you want to write your own script, you need to have a good understanding about what to write about. When writing your own script, be sure to write about things that you know quite well. Writing about topics you are knowledgeable of and have a genuine interest in will make your spots more believable. Take care to research anything you’re unsure of, such as how to pronounce certain words or names.

  One way to gather ideas for demos quickly is to listen to the work of others, specifically those voice actors who have already established themselves as professionals and are working regularly. Their voice samples are like low-hanging fruit in terms of what may be popular right now, how long your demo and its respective spots should be, the kinds of spots you could write, and also for how the voice actors present themselves. Chapter 3 discusses different ways you can listen to other voice actors’ demos.

  Putting pen to paper

  When writing a script, you need to know everything, from what the commercial is about, who it targets, and what the message is, to how to best communicate the value being offered to the prospective buyer. You also need to know who the characters are and what roles they play in the process. You may want to start with picking an industry that you’re writing about, such as a particular kind of product or service commonly offered, and then decide who the sales message targets. Avoid using clichés unless you can find a way to make them funny. Remember that for a demo, you’re using snippets from a script to make one spot. You still may want to write out a 30-second spot and then choose a portion of it to use as a spot in your demo.

  We suggest you write your own script by listening to a commercial, say about a fast food restaurant, and then developing your own text. For instance, you can write a spot for a gourmet catering business and how its food is organic, why its food is better than fast food, and what makes it unique.

  Does your script still have to do with food? The answer is yes, but it has absolutely nothing else to do with the ad that inspired you. You can create a fictitious company name (double-check on the Internet via keyword searching that the name isn’t being used or registered by anyone) and run with it.

  Here is a sample script based on this example:

  Looking for a better, cheaper way to eat well at your next event? Most people think organic means expensive and local translates to boring. Not so with Chic Gourmet. Our company caters events, both large and small, serving locally grown produce and free-range meats raised without antibiotics and other harmful stuff. When you want pure taste, you need Chic Gourmet.

  As an example, you may take the following out of this script to use as one spot on your demo:

  Most people think organic means expensive and local translates to boring. Not so with Chic Gourmet.

  Determining how many spots to write

  You want to keep your demo about 60 to 90 seconds in length, and within that time, you want to easily showcase between five and seven spots, give or take. A spot is basically 7 to 10 seconds, so you want to write at least six spots. Chapter 6 explains more about how a basic demo is structured.

  A good demo covers a wide range of topics, products, and services. When you’re writing, remember that it’s best to write about what you know. You may want to start by identifying five or so different companies that you love and jotting down what they do and why you enjoy their products or services. The result can be the basis for spots that highlight the company’s strengths and value proposition.

  Consider writing spots for household goods, such as food and beverage, personal hygiene products, cleaning supplies, electronics, automotive, and banking spots. Just be sure not to include a mention of a year or particular model that may date your demo and make it sound older than necessary before you’ve enjoyed the full extent of its use. You can then change the company’s name or decide to leave the company’s name out altogether.

  Using Preexisting Material

  If you want to use preexisting material for your script, such as from books, advertising, or the like in your demo, you need to pay special attention to what you use. Some of the material may be copyrighted, which means you need permission to use it. Other material may be in the public domain, which means its copyright has expired, been forfeited, or is inapplicable, which means you don’t need any permission to use it for your demo script. These sections help you locate appropriate preexisting material for your demo and help you figure out whether the preexisting material you want to use needs permission or not.

  Identifying a good piece of material

  Recognizing a good piece of material is easy if you’re aware of what to look for. Not every work is a masterpiece or worth recording. Ultimately, whether or not a piece of copy is any good boils down to the following:

  The text’s quality and nature

  How it comes across as a spoken word recording

  Whether it lends itself to your particular voice type and voicing style

  A good piece of material, unless you’re making a demo specific to works by writers such as Shakespeare, Donne, or Dickens, should sound like it’s in the present era and should use words that sound normal to the 21st-century ear, as opposed to language that is outdated. The copy should be interesting, have substance, and be relevant in some form or another to a modern audience or target market. Remember that your voice is in the service of the words. Even the most painfully dull copy can be read in a manner that engages the listener and communicates a desired message.

  You may look at the material in terms of its popularity or subject matter, but make sure you only record material that you believe in and know to be true. The potential exists for you to be held responsible for what you’re saying, even though you aren’t the party being portrayed in the advertisement or voice-over recording.

  Considering copyrighted work

  When you’re looking at potential text to record, you also want to keep in mind whether the work is copyrighted. Each country (and even each state or province) has its own policies for copyright, so you want to be prudent and aware of copyright laws concerning the material. Using copyrighted material means you must acquire permission to use it and often pay for the rights. Obviously doing so can be a time-consuming and expensive process, so that’s why we suggest you stay away from copyrighted work.

  A copyrighted work means that someone owns the rights to the work and that person is the only one in a position to legally grant its usage to others. The copyright holder would likely desire financial compensation through a fee or royalties for the work’s use. Copyright protects someone’s intellectual property. Intellectual property is the creation of the mind, expressed in many forms, including inventions, literary or artistic w
orks, art, names, designs, and so on.

  The Berne copyright convention, having been approved and supported by the majority of leading nations, deems that every creative work is copyrighted the moment it is established in a tangible format. Although the owner of a copyright doesn’t need to give notice of the work being copyrighted, it does help to take this step should a legal dispute occur. Registration of a copyright is only necessary for those who wish to be able to sue someone for using their material. A copyright lasts until 70 years after the author or creator of the work dies. Note that facts and ideas cannot themselves be copyrighted. Only expressions of a creative effort can be copyrighted.

  Although some individuals in the industry use copyrighted material and brand names in demos (refer to later section, “Avoiding Brand Names in Scripts” for more information), if you want to be on good terms with others, we suggest you observe all copyright laws and rules. Just because everyone else may be using copyrighted materials without getting permission or paying for the rights doesn’t mean it’s right.

  Nearly all the text you uncover, whether it’s a print ad or commercial, is probably copyrighted. Using the ad or the brand name or slogan could be a trademark violation. As a result, you may want to just write your own spots. (Refer to the earlier section, “Authoring Your Own Script” for ideas.) Copyrighted material can inspire you, but make sure you take only the core or the spirit of those ads and then translate them into something new.

  Keeping updated on copyright legislation

  When you’re considering using copyrighted material, you want to take note of the potential of copyright extension and how it may affect works you were hoping to use in a demo or otherwise.

  The US Congress passed The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) in 1998, which extended copyright terms by 20 years. Copyrights used to last 50 years after an author’s death or 75 years after the publication date (whichever came first) before the work belonged to the public domain. However, based upon the CTEA, an author’s work is made available in the public domain either 70 years after his or her death or 95 years after the publication date (whichever comes first).

  The law also extended corporate authorship. Disney’s Mickey Mouse, for instance, actually enjoys 120 years’ copyright protection after creation or 95 years after its publication, whichever date comes first.

  Locating public domain material

  If you don’t want to write your own script and you want to use preexisting material that isn’t copyrighted, you can look for work in the public domain. Public domain works are available to use free of charge. You aren’t required to get permission to use them or pay any royalties.

  When it comes to playing it safe as a voice actor making demos, you need to know the work’s copyright and be able to determine whether something is in the public domain.

  Public domain works generally include anything published before 1923. These works may include music, poetry, literature, and so on. Another qualification of public domain includes the number of years that have passed since an author’s death. To be sure, double-check on a per-case basis because some copyrights expire based upon how long it has been since publication or the number of years it has been since the author’s death.

  One great resource for finding works that are in the public domain is ProjectGutenberg.org. Project Gutenberg does a great job in presenting public domain material and posts the texts verbatim on its site. You can search through 33,000+ public domain ebooks in a number of ways, including by authors, titles, and subjects. In addition to being able to download free ebooks, you can volunteer in Project Gutenberg’s community as a proofreader.

  Avoiding Brand Names in Scripts

  Using an unauthorized brand name in a demo can spell some trouble for you with a capital T. Unless you’re the voice of an official campaign, stick to fictitious company names or leave the product and/or company name out altogether. If you have permission from the copyright holder to use the brand name, that’s a different ballgame, but overall you should stay clear of using brand names in scripts. Some of the most effective demos don’t use brand names. In fact, they’re engineered not to.

  Rather than misrepresenting yourself and companies named in the demo, we recommend that you craft your own copy or work with someone, usually a copywriter or demo producer, who can help. Although a brand may not seek legal action against you for including its name in your demo, it certainly has the rights to sue.

  A good writer can weave snippets of a commercial together without even dipping his or her toes into copyrighted territory. Instead of relying on the name to carry the commercial or spot, you can create a feeling of brand. These kinds of spots on demos not only avoid brand names, but they also set out to highlight the benefits of a product or service and draw more closely upon emotional responses from their listeners. Through copywriting, you can generate the feeling of selling an emotion or experience that a brand may give without actually including the brand name. (Refer to the earlier section, “Putting pen to paper” for help.)

  Recording public domain audiobooks is a great opportunity for you

  Voice acting has hit the mainstream with the recording of audiobooks. If you’re interested in becoming a narrator of audiobooks, you can get involved with a wonderful resource and community to foster your growth in that area called LibriVox (www.librivox.org). People who use LibriVox often record from public domain works. You may want to check librivox.org for additional resources and to see how this community is making an impact on aspiring narrators and seasoned voice actors alike. Sites like this also give you an opportunity to practice, both as a voice actor and recording engineer.

  Figuring out who an audition audio belongs to

  A couple of years ago, we interviewed a lawyer, David Canton, for our blog VOX Daily and asked him a number of questions about whom audition audio belongs to. Here we provide a portion of that interview.

  Please note that laws vary by country, and even by state/province within countries. Legal answers always depend on the specific facts at hand, and small changes in fact can lead to different results. So David Canton’s answers here are for general guidance and information only, and aren’t to be considered or relied upon as legal advice.

  Another thing to consider is that rights owners vary greatly in their inclination and desire to enforce their intellectual property (IP) rights. Some may not care, or may let violations slide on the basis that it is good publicity. Others may be overly aggressive and try to stop things that one is legally able to do.

  VOX: Voice actors do auditions every day at Voices.com and through other services. Usually a script is provided by the client that a voice actor can partially record for demonstration purposes. This allows the client to review the samples and get a better idea of how that person would sound representing their company.

  Should that ad copy or script be considered off limits to voice actors if they don’t get the job? In other words, is it okay for a voice actor to use the audition spot they recorded as a sample of what they could do and post it publicly on the web or include it in demo materials that they send out to prospective clients or agencies?

  David Canton: If the script is provided by the client, the best approach is to ask permission to use it as a sample and get that permission in writing. Indeed, that should be standard practice for the voice actor. In addition to removing all doubt, it shows a very professional approach that the client may like to see. One factor here is that if the sample script is close to the final ad, the client may not want versions other than by its final voice choice to be floating around.

  VOX: There have been a couple of instances where we have received complaints from clients who noticed that auditions submitted featuring their scripts had been used as promotional materials by voice actors who weren’t hired for the job. Those voice samples were removed from the profiles of the voice actors in question and the client was
pleased with those actions. This may seem obvious, but would you advise that voice actors simply archive their auditions and not use the audio for other purposes, particularly promotional purposes that may endanger or misrepresent the company’s brand?

  David Canton: Yes, that’s a wise approach. Again, the best approach is to always ask if one can use the audition for samples.

  The bottom line: You should obtain written permission before using ad copy or a brand name.

  Furthermore, another reason to avoid using brand names is to eliminate any chance that you confuse yourself with being associated with the brand. A voice actor who is actually hired to voice a particular spot may have the right to ask a voice actor who didn’t book it to remove a fake piece from his demo. In addition, if a client wants to hire the real voice associated with a brand name but then backs out because the client can’t find the real voice actor or the client thinks the voice actor who recorded that material (illegally) is the actual voice, the true voice actor loses work over it. Although that may sound rare or severe, imitating the real spot may cause confusion for those listening who don’t know any better.

  Practicing the Different Types of Scripts You May Encounter

  No matter the type of script you use (whether you wrote your own or you used preexisting material), you need to feel comfortable with the script. The best way to get comfortable with the different scripts you may use for your demo is to practice reading a range of scripts. Doing so can help expand your vocabulary and expand your voice-acting skills.

  Focus on reading as many books, news clippings, pieces of ad copy, and audition scripts that you can. Diversify the type of material that you read. As you read, focus on the content, application, and style to improve your reading skills. Basically, as a voice actor, you want to become a voracious reader.