Voice: Acting

When voicing commercials, your first line is crucial – often where you insert your personality or point of view. Casting director Hugh Klitzke says: Take it a step further. “The first line is also often where direction lives.”

Are you rushing to post hundreds of auditions on the voice over online casting (P2P) websites – and not booking any jobs? According veteran voice talent / coach J. Michael Collins, only 20% of the auditions there are truly competitive. Why? And how to break into that 20%?

VOICE ACTINGImprov Fires Your Neurons! And ExpandsYour Voice Over Performance SkillsJune 13, 2014By Rebecca Michaels Haugh Voice Actor, Host of ‘Love That VoiceOver’ Internet Radio Show& Improv Workout LeaderI work…

An audition to voice a toy led to a full-time career in voice over for Amy Rubinate, now also an audiobook narrator and coach. Here’s how her career grew with the building of a repertoire of characters …

“It’s happening more and more all the time,” says voice talent Rachel Fulginiti. “I book a job from my home studio. They forward me a script with an mp3 and a short note: ‘Use this to capture the tone.’ Rather than getting actual direction on a piece, I get a scratch track of the director, writer or producer doing the voice over.” How does she handle this?

The mini-vacation plan allowed plenty of time to get back home on Monday for the national voice over gig in her ISDN studio. But then, as Bobbin Beam shares, freaky weather played some freaky tricks …

If you “upturn” your voice every time you see a question mark in the script, you won’t sound right. Not all questions are alike, explains casting director/coach Hugh Klitzke. For instance …

Working remotely with voice over clients has its benefits, but veteran voice talent Andrew Peters (also founder/managing director of the online directory, Realtime Casting for SAG-AFTRA voice talent), cautions about challenges of never personally meeting clients who are overseas – including your availability for jobs, understanding the job, and communication and technology skills …

When you have the privilege of working with another actor on a project, it can really help your performance. Yet it can also test your listening and acting skills. As voice talent-coach Deb Munro explains, a key is to know how to listen and react – how to feed the other performers in the copy …

Will you voice better if you wear headphones to hear yourself as you speak? Or is hearing yourself a distraction? Many voice over pros are passionate about this, one way or the other. But the universal goal is to sound your natural best. Voice casting director-coach Hugh Klitzke (YES) and voice talent-coach Gary Terzza (NO) give reasons why …