People in the UK looking for voice over courses - caution!

Luke Roberts

Hi guys!

Again apologies if this sounds arrogant of me seeing as I am so new to the industry - but for those in the UK I thought I would offer some advice which I have already learnt.

As those of you who have tried to look will know - there does not seem to be many voice over classes over in the UK at all! I think the voice over industry is for one a lot smaller here, and two seems to be a less popular profession then say in the USA (thats only an educated guess at the fact that there seems to be so many classes and tutors in america and like NONE here!).

But you may have spotted the Master Classes these (to me) appeared to be pretty expensive and I didn't know whether to bother with them. However after looking for a time and only finding a few, and once I had gotten some spare cash, I decided to invest in doing one.

I did one in London, so had some 3 hours of travelling to get there - and the course was £300 for 3 hours - plus a demo at the end of it.

At the time I really enjoyed it, the guy who did it I trusted as he works actively for a TV channel, and he was a great help sending me scripts and stuff - and to be honest the 14 page list of agents and TV/radio stations in the UK was probably worth the £300 LOL

The course itself, to be honest, was probably more aimed at more experienced voice overs - he gave you hints and tips on how he thought the script should be read, and went through some with you, recorded them, etc.

To be honest I wasn't happy with my demo at all. It wasn't the quality of the recording, or the scripts, the editing or anything like that - but I was just not happy within myself. And showing some of my friends and seeing the reaction on their faces told me they didn't think much of it either! LOL

I have no doubt that if I was more experience that I would have found the whole experience a lot more worth while - and although I did pick up some useful hints and tips, and got a great experience of what it is to be in a studio (and in fact probably made me want it even more!!)

SO to anyone thinking of doing one of these courses - think long and hard before you do!

If I could go back in time I would have wait until later on in 2007 to do a demo - at the moment I am reading some great books, one in particular which I highly recommend caled 'The Art of voice over Acting' by James Alburger, it's really interesting and fun! It comes with a CD too.

I had also realised how important acting can be - I am not saying you need to be the next Sir Ian McKellan to be a good voice over, but I think having some basic acting skills can really help.

Well anyways thats my 2 cents - I have only really been 'serious' about the VO industry for under 2 months - so I am still learning LOADS

But just thought I would share it with you guys!

Cheerio!

Luke

PS - you can check out my god awful demos at lukeroberts.voice123.com - although my trial membership expires today so you can probably only listen to 1 LOL :'(

Lynne Alston · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006, 16:43 (GMT) Post subject:

Luke,
Sorry to hear about your disappointing experience, I know how hard money is to come by over there, so to feel that it was wasted must have been a downer.
On the up side, join voice123, its worth the money just for the resources. Everyone who posts here are really helpful, and if they dont know something, they will go to all lengths to find out. You have the option to view webinars from some of the leaders in the field, oh and did I mention the occasional audition for a British voiceover, while not many jobs come in for us, when they do it is definitely a way to practice the art of voiceovers.
Lynne

Luke Roberts · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006, 16:52 (GMT) Post subject:

Hey Lynne,

OK I thought you had a British sounding voice but you are in the states - i take it you must have grown up here and now live over there? Either that or you are awesome at doing a british accent lol

Yeah I am gonna keep at it - practising and also hopefully gonna take one of those courses online/over the phone from America seeing as there dont appear to be any other coaches over here - or at least not near me Sad

Anywhoo nice to meet ya! Very Happy

And yeah this place seems really friendly already

Luke

Alan Bainbridge · Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007, 14:43 (GMT) Post subject:

Rebecca Court · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007, 20:32 (GMT) Post subject: Masterclass

Hi Luke, You've got me worried - were the guys initials GT? I did a "masterclass" last week and it was mainly recording - not much coaching really. The price seemed excessive but....were you in Denmark Street by any chance?
YOu mentioned online courses from the States - can you tell me more about that?