Starting out in voice-over?
Voice-reels.
A voice-reel is an essential tool used to sell you to clients for voice-work. Ideally you would have a voice reel for the type of work you are looking to get. This would be Commercials, Corporate, Narration/Documentary, Games and/or Animation. If you are starting out it’s best to choose one or two areas to focus on as getting a voice-reel can take time and cost money so it’s best to focus on the areas that interest you the most and build from there.
When recording for a Commercial, Corporate and Narration/Documentary reel it’s best to record in your natural native accent. It can be confusing to have a voice-reel in several accents. Generally you will be cast in your native accent. There are so many amazing voice actors around with a whole host of accents so in my experience clients will prefer to cast native accents. If you are adept at accents then showcase these in a separate accent reel.
Before you are ready to get a reel it’s best to practice with scripts and record yourself on your smartphone, listen back and see how you can improve. Record, listen, record again, listen again. Practice as much as possible.
You can find scripts for commercials here or here or look for your favourite brands commercials on YouTube and read these scripts.
Find scripts for brands that interest you and appeal to you and match your demographic.
When you feel ready to record your voice reel you can either find a professional studio or if you have the skill and equipment or a friend that can help, you could record yourself. A word of warning on this, the finished product will need to sound professional. The sound quality needs to be perfect and the recordings should be mixed to music and sound effects. If the reel doesn’t sound professionally produced then it will not sell you as a professional.
A few recommendations for professional studios that produce reels are : io Audio, Sonic Pond or John McLarnon at Bespoke Voice Folk who can produce a remote mini-reel that is very reasonably priced - especially good if you are just starting out and want to test the water with voice-overs.
These studios offer a full service whereby they will help select appropriate scripts, offer coaching, recording and editing.
A useful tip, make sure you name each reel with your name and the style. If not and you are sending your reel out then once it’s been saved on someones computer its just going to be another ‘Commercial Reel’ and not easily identifiable. Anyone you send it too will see the file name so label carefully.
Now you have a voice reel. What next?
Now you have a reel, how do you get work? That is of course what it’s all about!
Your next step is to gain as much experience as possible and hopefully earn some money. If you are very new it’s unlikely that you will get a voice agent early on so your best bet is to look for jobs on some of the P2P sites (Pay To Play). For casting voice-overs my site of choice is Mandy. But there are others including Bodalogo, Voice123, and Voices.com.
You will often need to pay a subscription to access the jobs on these sites so research them carefully to work out which one might work for you.
The jobs on these sites do not pay particularly well but they are your most likely route to getting your first paid job.
Immerse yourself in the voice-over world.
If voice-overs is the career for you then you’ll learn a lot by immersing yourself in the world of voice-overs. This can be through Facebook groups, podcasts or websites. A few I would recommend are linked below.
Gravy for the Brain - A brilliant website that has a huge amount of information and has useful tools and a rate card guide.
The VO Social Podcast - Nic & Leah will talk you through a wide range of voice-over topics. They also have a Facebook page that offers a lot of useful information and a voice-over community. It can be found HERE.
Nic Redman also runs a Voice & Accent Hub linked HERE.
A Voice Overs Audio Adventure Podcast - Jo Troy presents an informative podcast all about the voice-over and audio industry.