New guy here, looking for work and advice.

Jeramy Cigich

Under the advice of friends and a few strangers as well as the need for additional income, I’m getting into the voice business. I’ll be working to get some samples of my voice up on the site as well as getting contacts to help move things along quickly. I’m very much a perfectionist so any critics of my demos are welcome. I’d love to do narration as I am a huge fan of educational material but I also like to play around with different character type voices. I would love to be able to work full time if the money is there. So please, let us get this ship moving!
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Robert Jadah · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 02:15 (GMT) Post subject:

Welcome aboard, Jeramy...there's always room for more (sigh) in our bobbing little boat.

Step One: Take those demos thingies off your page. You only have once chance to make a good first impression, and those aren't it. The copy is absolutely dull, the read is 100% a read, the audio is sub-par, and the 'b''s and 'p''s are exploding like shrapnel.

Step Two: Take your time, laddie.
Step Three: Read these forums, study, learn, practice.
Step Four: Repeat Step Two.

Sounds like you have a warm, nice voice. That puts you into the top 30,000 already.
But now, Jeramy, comes the hard part.

In the almost words of a voiceover king: "Serve no demo before its time."

Voice On!

Ed Gambill · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 02:45 (GMT) Post subject:

Do what Robert said plus these things.

Learn to listen with a keen ear. When you are good at listening you can tell what person is narrating what spot by the fact you’ve heard then before, put a name to the sound and you can make that connection again and again.

Be honest with yourself about how you sound compared to folks you hear on this forum and elsewhere.

I one asked the on air announcer at the TV station where I work what I could do to become an announcer. Dick Bennett was his name and he said, "read and record, then listen" One you are smooth and sound good then comes the real hard part. You have to read like they were you own words from the get go. When you sound like your reading it shines like a black eye.

Tell you what I’m going to do, if you will PM me with your e-mail address, I send you back some vocal exercises that you will need to master to get past the “I’m reading this stage”

Don’t put any more money into gear unless you are a trained audio/recording engineer. Master you vocal ability then you can work on better gear, gods know some of us are equipment hounds. I confess to being one of them

Scott Pollak · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 06:18 (GMT) Post subject:

Sigh.

Ya know... I have a brain, so I've decided to become a brain surgeon. I mean, it can't be THAT hard, can it? And I'm sure I can make a fortune doing it. Besides, my mom said I could probably do okay at it, so why not?

Problem is, even though I have NO background in it at all, I don't really want to invest the time or money into all those long, boring years of schooling. So I think I'll just ask the doctors to give me a couple of bits of advice and I should be on my way to quick and easy riches, right?!!

Jeramy, I probably am coming across as caustic with my opening comments, but I can't help it. As someone who has been in this business for over 35 years (much like the two esteemed pros who posted a response above me), I find myself growing weary of those who think this is a quick and easy no-brainer way to a full time lucrative profession.

Nothing... and I mean NOTHING... could be farther from the truth.
And while my intent is honestly not to discourage you, it is honestly to make sure you're crystal clear about what it takes to succeed in this business.

First, you must have some degree of innate talent. Judging from your two posted demos, the jury is definitely still out on that.

Next: You must have the willingness and tenacity to put in the - LITERALLY - YEARS of training, work and blood, sweat and tears to try to scratch out the most miniscule of livings here. Based on your comments about wanting to jump in, get a few words of advice and be off and running on your merry way to your new-found career, I'd say the jury's still way out on that one, too.

Listen to Robert and Ed, as well as the many, many seasoned and successful veterans you'll find lurking around this board, freely giving their valuable time and talent and advice. IF you have the talent, and the work ethic, and the tenacity, and the stomach for it, and the resources, and the equipment, and the contacts, then expect in about 3-5 years to maybe start drawing a fractional income from this, realistically probably less than $5000/year.

Still interested?

Maxine Dunn · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 07:42 (GMT) Post subject:

Amy Snively · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 08:00 (GMT) Post subject:

Welcome Jeramy! You've gotten some good advice. I'll just add that going into "the voice business" because you "need additional income" is a lot like saying that you've decided to become a movie star because you'd like a bigger house.

VO = acting, and it's just as much a struggle and longshot as any other acting specialty. One should, in my humble opinion, only pursue this profession if there is a burning desire inside of you and you cannot be happy unless you do. VO is not like picking up a few hours each week as a security guard or medical transcriptionist. Smile

And I concur with my colleagues-- you really should hurry and get those audio files off your V123 profile as fast as you can! When you've got demos that sound just like real radio, TV, and audiobooks, you'll be ready to stick audio back up on that page.

Bret Brizzee · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 08:03 (GMT) Post subject:

Hey Jeramy!

voice over is an incredible business in every respect. It can fun, rewarding, educational, and even lucrative! Just as often, it is scary, difficult, unnatural, mean, degrading, and viciously, horrifically competitive!

If you truly want to make a dent around here, you'll need to put in a gargantuan amount of work.

I'm relatively new to the industry as well, having spent roughly one year training, and only about two months auditioning for work. Of course, prior to that I worked in professional theatre for almost a decade. The point is, of the four (Note: Amy managed to post something while I was writing, so include her whenever I say "four.") responses you have received thus far, I'm the one who can most closely identify with you. (By the way, Robert, Ed, Scott, and Maxine are pros to which you should be aspiring. They know what they're talking about!)

What I've noticed in the past year around VO forums such as this is the following (let's use an example):

Joe Schmo signs up, logs in, and posts a bubbly welcome message. Joe surfs around the forums religiously for about 3 weeks, constantly looking for sources of information and experience. He might spend some money on studio equipment and workshop CDs. He'll have a number of questions answered on the forums, and he'll practice every day.
About two months after Joe's initial welcome post, he loses interest. He had been working non-stop up until that point, but his labor produced nothing but rough critiques and more suggestions for improvement. Joe is burnt out. What he initially found engaging and interesting has become tedious and unforgiving.

"Joe" is incredibly common in this business. It takes patience, perseverance, and skill to move forward. You can't expect to be booking one job per day after two months of work. Hell, you can't expect to be booking one job per month! Even the "prodigies" of this business took years to build themselves into competent talent.

Of course, there is ALWAYS still fun to be had in VO. You might spend a long time toiling, but along the way you'll probably meet some awesome people and learn TONS from them (also, skills you need for VO are skills which can translate to other professions beautifully). As long as you're comfortable with the idea of working hard without major reward for some extended period of time, you can probably make something out of VO.

Now, as a "newbie translator", I feel it necessary to help clarify Scott's intentions. You see, Scott is really just a soft, cuddly puppy with floppy ears (see avatar for reference). Sometimes he bares his teeth, but he's still a puppy.

Writing as someone who is violently pursuing both VO AND a career as a MD/Neurosurgeon (seriously, I'm avoiding that organic chemistry book in favor of writing this post Wink

), you should definitely take to heart the gravity of commitment in this field. It is not enough to want to "dabble." You have to really want it.

As far as "innate talent", I can't say I would put much weight with it in this day and age. I've heard utterly horrific performances become deliciously pleasant after two to three years worth of work. Sure, you need to be able to read and speak clearly, but even individuals with severe speech impediments have worked with speech/language pathologists to become great VO professionals. "Talent" might give you a "head-start" of sorts, but it won't necessarily shave off the years it will take to truly transform your skills.

--> Maxine just posted something in the interim (between the time I started this post and now)... I'll point out one relevant quote.

Geoff Huenerfauth · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 20:49 (GMT) Post subject:

Hiya Maxine. I'm not Jeramy, but here's my n00b answers for you.

Robert Jadah · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 22:11 (GMT) Post subject:

That's the spirit, Geoff.
One solid step at a time.

Voice On!

Scott Pollak · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 22:59 (GMT) Post subject:

Ya know, everyone has responded here except Jeramy.

Gee, I hope he comes back by to check his messages!

Maxine Dunn · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 23:01 (GMT) Post subject:

Maxine Dunn · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007, 23:02 (GMT) Post subject:

Scott Pollak · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007, 02:12 (GMT) Post subject:

Kind of like women have been known to faint once they saw the length of my.....

WHAT???!!!

Get your mind out of the gutter! I was talking about toenails!!!

Maxine Dunn · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007, 02:25 (GMT) Post subject:

Caryn Clark · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007, 01:45 (GMT) Post subject:

All good advice. I think it's so nice of you guys to take so much time to answer so thoroughly to newbies.

I wonder if one of our moderators could make a sticky post at the top of this topic named something like, "NEWBIE? START HERE PLEASE", and we could formulate a detailed yet somewhat succinct post (sorry Max, I think you're fab and you always have good advice, but you lose me at hello Smile

) to generally answer this kind of question. Or, those who are pros that want to chime in could each post, but it could be a sticky.

Whaddya think? I just hate the thought of you guys spending so much time typing out these replies to similar questions. My guess is that maybe you're organized enough to actually copy/paste your responses... I dunno?