Read part 1 here

I’ve had a lot of fun over the last few weeks talking to my colleagues about how they started working in voiceover.  Their paths have been wildly divergent in some ways, with Ben Hurst first finding his voice as a DJ in Thailand during his time in the Army, Scott Holst finding his in class which he would drive to from San Diego after working all day as an insurance adjuster, and Will Shivers getting his lucky break when he was befriended by David Duchovny while working as a PA on the X Files.  But the one thing they all have in common is how much they stressed the importance of taking classes.  Matthew Jay studied with a teacher in a class format for a year and a half, and then continued to work with her for an additional six months privately before making a demo.  I was quite humbled by the time and attention that these men had put into building the foundation of their Voiceover careers.

I spent quite a lot of last week’s post talking about class, so I won’t spend too long on it here, but I do want to touch on one thing.  Scott Holst, who is a teacher at Kalmenson and Kalmenson, as well as a voice actor, talked about the need to be comfortable in the booth so as to avoid, “windshield auditions.”  These are when you have a terrible audition, get back in your car to start the drive of shame home, and then half an hour later scream at your windshield, because you have the “ugh, that’s what I should have done!” moment.  As Scott describes it, if you are too keyed up during the audition, then your creativity can’t flow.  Later, in your car, when you finally relax, that is when you are open enough for the ideas to start coming to you.  Being confident and comfortable in the booth and therefore open to all your creative impulses is one of the main reasons to be in class.

This brings me to the first online resource that I want to talk about – voiceoverresourceguide.com.  The hard copy of this booklet can still be found at production studios and Samuel French bookstores, but frankly, there is no need to go pick it up as the online version is just as informative for the LA, NYC, and Washington DC markets.  Classes and coaches of all kinds can be found under the training tab, but that is just the beginning of the information there.  Everything from recording studios to casting services to session fees can be found.  If you are preparing to record a demo, looking for a voiceover agent, or researching which production houses to target, the voiceover resource guide is a great starting place.

Videovoicebank.com is the online resource that everyone I talked to agrees is invaluable.  There are so many uses for this site.  Every voiceover agency has all of its clients’ demo reels up and they are free for anyone to listen to.  What a great resource for research!  If you haven’t made a demo yet and you are interested in getting a sense of what they should sound like, click on one of the major agencies and start listening to the best in the business.

Maybe you already have a demo reel and you’re not sure which agencies to send it to.  Scott suggested a bit of homework.  Listen to all of the demos (of your gender) from an agency that you are interested in.  Do they have anyone who does what you do?  If they don’t, then what a great way to pitch yourself!  Or maybe you discover that they have seven or eight women who have a similar sound to you, but have a lot more experience.  This could be problematic.  You would go into that agency knowing that you wouldn’t be first on the list when they need your type.

Matthew had a really interesting way to use Voicebank.  He talked about learning your celebrity prototype.  I’m sure lots of you have had the experience of being told, “you sound like ___”.  Start collecting these names as your “prototype”.  A prototype isn’t always about matching the actual sound of someone’s voice, but also their attitude.  In Matthew’s case, his prototypes include Dennis Leary, a young Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Benjamin Bratt, and Brad Pitt.  He uses voicebank to listen to the reels of these same actors.  Now not every celebrity has a VO reel (though it feels like it sometimes), but you’ll be surprised at whom you’ll find.  I just did a search.  Not only is Jack Nicholson on there, but he’s hilarious (and no that’s not a typical demo).  Listening to celebrity demos that are your voice type can help you get a sense of what sort of reads the marketplace is looking for from you and what sort of products might be a good match.

As well as being a great research tool, Voicebank is the main conveyor of voiceover auditions.  From their website, “Voicebank’s voice-over audition system is the most widely [sic] casting software on the Web. It is the primary casting and project management tool used by more than 1600 top Ad Agencies, Animation Houses & TV/Film Studios, Independent Producers, Production Facilities and Casting Directors (voice over & theatrical) around the World.”  All of that is to say, that if you are thinking of working with an agency and they are not on Voicebank, they are not a legitimate voiceover agency.  If you sign with them you will be missing out on 90% of auditions.

If you are represented by a voiceover agency, you are not charged to have your reel posted on Voicebank.  They do, however, provide a number of additional services that an actor can pay for.  I do not currently use any of them.  I do think that their Voice Registry system may be worth looking into for the voice actor with a great demo that is looking for representation.  There isn’t a lot of information about the service on the site, but there are a number of testimonials that speak highly of it.  It is a service that somehow links actor websites to agencies.  I do want to make clear that I don’t know enough about the service to endorse it, but this site is the industry standard and is used by all of the legitimate voiceover agencies.

I don’t feel like I can write about online resources without talking about the various fee based services which have sprung up.  The basic model for these is that the actor pays a fee to join, and is then sent breakdowns for jobs.  Sometimes the job pays a set fee and other times the actor submits a bid along with his audition or demo.  These sites include voices.com, voice123.com, and voiceoveruniverse.com.  All of the voice actors I spoke to had mixed feelings about these sites.  On the one hand, they represent a kind of democratization of the whole process.  Voice actors, without representation, have direct access to producers who need talent.  But the downsides are many.  Almost all of the jobs are non-union, and the pay is quite low.  On top of that, you need to have a home studio in order to submit auditions.  Also, they often want the voice talent to actually produce the spot, which means much more time needs to be invested than might be apparent when the job is first awarded.  Personally, I don’t use them, but I understand how it could be exciting to have a vehicle to get work when you don’t have an agent, and plenty of represented actors use it as a means to pick up additional jobs.

The website which surprised me the most when it came up in my discussions was Craigslist.com.  Ben mentioned that he had used it to find student projects.  These can be great practice.  I would just use the same care when looking at these projects as you would if they were offering an on-camera role and make sure that you are given a copy of the film for your reel.  I would stick to student projects from Craigslist.  When I did a search for “voiceover” in their “jobs” section under “tv/film/video” I did find a few listings, but they were looking for voice talent that could record and produce their own spots and for all that work they paid the whopping fee of $15 per hour.  Call me a snob, but I find that insulting.  To give you a point of comparison, you will make over $400 when you book your first radio spot, and you’ll probably work for about 20 minutes.

The last website that cannot be ignored is your own!  Having one place to send people where they can hear your demo, watch your on-camera reel, look at headshots, peruse your resume, and find out how to contact you and what you are up to has proven quite helpful to me.  It gives you a professional home base from where to reach out to producers, casting directors and agents.

I want to end with a story from Will.  He told me that early on in his time with Special Artists, he set up a meeting to speak with one of his agents, Marcia Horowitz.  He wanted to meet because he didn’t feel like he was auditioning for all of the types of roles and projects that he could do.  Her response to him was, “Just keep getting better.”  The way I hear that is, she, as his agent, was looking to find him all of the work that he was ready for.  His job, as the talent, was to keep growing and improving, and therefore, be ready for more and more work.  I always encourage you to be proactive and look for work, but at the end of the day, our greatest responsibility is to ourselves as artists.  To, “just keep getting better.”

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Scott Holst is a voice actor and teacher.  He is represented by Innovative Artists.  Some of his many clients include Bausch and Lomb, Ford, Kia, and “The Ant Bully”.

Ben Hurst is a voice actor represented by Abrams Artists.  He has worked on commercials, industrials, film trailers and promos.

Matthew Jay is an actor.  For voiceover he is represented by TGMD.  A few of his clients include Coca-Cola, Molsen, Nascar, and Partnership for a Drug Free America.

Will Shivers is an actor and filmmaker.  His voiceover agent is Innovative Artists.  Some of his commercials include the DJ Mole for Honda Element, and Addidas.

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