Voiceover News for April 2011

It's been a quiet-ish month for our our voiceovers due to Easter, our own holiday and too many bank holidays!

However we did spend a day filming in Greggs Bakery in Pontypridd for a video production for the LBRO, a Government QUANGO. This is the second video we are making for them.

Caroline voiced an instructional Fujitsu web video in French, Tony recorded the same video in Italian and Julia did the same but in German. Basabi recorded a voiceover for Barking NHS Trust in Bengali.

Mike recorded a voiceover for a trail for the Finnish TV series "Under The North Star", Richard recorded a programme trail on SuperSport, Peter O recorded more voiceovers for Prince 2 E-Learning modules and James K recorded a voiceover for a video for a new business called Showcatcher

Ricky was the live Voice of God at the Meat and Poultry Processing Awards in Birmingham as well as voicing more on-hold prompts for Hastings Direct. And Helen Shas recorded voiceovers for an E-Learning programme for British Gas.

We now offer voice training to aspiring talent or people who need to be able to communicate more effectively in their job; we made a voicereel for former BBC TV Continuity Announcer Sarah.

And finally we welcome Dutch Voiceover Artist Arno, Romanian Voiceover Artist Gabriela and German Voiceovers Audrey and Roy.

How do I get started as a Voiceover Artist?

So you want to be a voiceover artist.

By now you either have some experience of being an actor or a broadcaster. You have done your voice training and made your voicereel. So what next?

Get yourself a good professional photograph as agents and some "pay to play" directories allow you to upload one. There are a number of voiceover directories which allow you to list your audio for free. They include Voice123, Voices.com, VoiceoverDirectory.com and Bodalgo.

However many of the free sites may not generate much work for you (or they may restrict how their site functions until you pay a fee.) Some also require you to record an audtion for every job that you bid for, thereby encouraging voice talent to constantly lower their fees to get the work.

The BigFish Media Voiceover Directory is found on the free (or organic listings) on one page one of Google for the highly-competitive keywords of voiceover, voice-over, voice artist, voice talent etc. That's why we charge a small annual fee to be listed.

We have dealt with the technical aspects of setting up your own home studio in other blogs on this site, but should you invest in your own home studio? Do you even have the space and peace and quiet for one?

Alternatively try to find a local studio (or another voiceover artist who lives close to you) who may let you use their studio for a reasonable price. Then at least you can find out if you are employable. If you find that you are getting lots of work it's time to invest in your own voiceover booth!

So what next? Contact local radio stations and video production companies. It is a time-consuming marketing exercise, but by the time you have a dozen jobs under your belt you will know what your strenghts are. Maybe it is obvious to someone else in the industry if not you.

If you get booked for lots of local radio adverts but no e-learning then maybe this is what you are best at and should focus your energies on pursuing radio and TV commercial work.

Unless you are exceptionally talented - and very lucky - you will probably have to get 2 or 3 years experience of the voiceover industry under your belt before an agent

In the meantime keep at it and update your voice reel as you should improve with practise. You should also not bother to approach advertising agencies as they only deal with the best voiceover talent via voiceover agents

And remember, there are very few full-time voiceovers - most combine being a voiceover artist with production, writing, acting or radio or TV work. Or even a real job!

Voiceover News for March 2011

Here is what we have been up to in March:

We spent a day filming in Greggs Bakery in Pontypridd for a video production for a Government QUANGO.

Basabi recorded a voiceover for Barking NHS Trust in Bengali, Jacky recorded a voiceover for a Nordiflex DVD, Michelle recorded on-hold prompts for Lumley Direct, Peter O narrated a documentary about the Ancient Maya civilisation for the History Channel and Penny narrated a children's story - and voiced all the characters - for the Wireless Kids Theatre

Ricky was the live Voice of God at the Meat and Poultry Processing Awards in Birmingham, recorded a bunch of web videos for Keycamp holidays, a voiceover for Azko Nobel Powder Coatings and on-hold prompts for Metro Cup.

We now represent Dutch Voiceover Artists Christa and Hans and German Voiceover Artist Roy

We made voice reels for TalkSport Newsreader Faye Carruthers and London Voiceover Artist Mick

New on the website this month: a podcast which Lynsey recorded for the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and Sally's voiceover for the International Trade Union Confederation video. And improved search facilities means you can now search our voices by accent, age or language. Also we now offer Voice Training

Does Networking Work for Voiceover Artists?

Running a voiceover business we know how important social media is to its success. You know: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linked In etc.

I have met a couple of real life friends through Facebook. We have also made a good few business contacts (both as voiceover artists and clients) the same way.

But this week we met a potential business partner through Twitter. In real life. And there I was thinking no-one actually reads what is posted there. How wrong can you be?

Anyway Phil runs a video production company also in Woking so we met for a cup of coffee and a chat about the day-to-day running and the challenges facing media production and voiceover businesses in 2011. We exchanged ideas and discussed how we might be able to help each other - or indeed work together - in the future.

It seems to have become the norm for people who live and work very close to each other to meet through an international medium of the internet.

Funny old world isn't it?

How fast is a fast Voiceover booking and recording?

We pride ourselves on being able to deliver audio files of our voiceover recordings files extremely quickly and meeting the most exacting of timescales but this week we had a request from a client which was hugely challenging.

The production company called us and asked for a "big voice" for a TV-trailer but they only had 3 hours left in the edit for the video and needed to add a voiceover to the video before they lost their edit suite.

I gave them a choice of half a dozen voiceover artists, they chose one; Richard, who scrapped his plans for the afternoon and was in our voiceover booth within 90 minutes, did two takes of the script with 20 minutes that we had left on the clock.

Result: the client was delighted and we made the deadline!
    

Voiceover News February 2011

Here is what our voiceover team have been up to this month (as well as a much-needed week in sunny Spain):

Steph narrated a documentary for BBC4 and BBC2 Scotland: "When Bill Patterson met Bill Forsyth" will be shown on 1st March. Steph is also the voice of a TV advert for the Edinburgh Marathon. Andrew recorded adverts for The Sun and The News of the World for Oasis FM and Bay Radio in Spain.

Ricky Salmon recorded a web video for Scotts of Thrapston and on-hold prompts for Cyplon Holidays; Michelle is now the on-hold voice of John Lewis car insurance and Rob recorded on-hold prompts for the Giorgio Armani hotel in Dubai.

Penny did voice dubbing on the film "Mission London", Sally recorded a web video for the International Trade Union Confederation, Caroline recorded a web video for Fuijitsu and Alexandra recorded web videos for TagMan.

Peter O recorded many, many more voiceovers for a huge "Prince 2" practitioner E-Learning course, Graeme recorded a voiceover for Red Bull Racing in a 1930's-style RP and Colin Crecorded voiceovers for an animation for a Ring2 Teleconferencing video.

Our gravelly-voiced Voiceover Artist and Actress Jennifer asked us to make her four new voicereels which we were happy to do.

And we welcomed experienced Voiceover Artist Brian and new European Portuguese Voiceover Artist joana who has already recorded a voiceover for BP!

Voiceover News January 2011

January was an interesting, extremely busy and varied month for our voiceover business:


Ricky Salmon carried out Voice Training on the BA (Hons) Journalism Course at UCA in Farnham, Surrey as well as recording more voiceovers for Elsevier Ross Wilson Archie, on-hold prompts for Hastings Direct and more voiceovers for the Pen Warehouse website.

We welcomed Punjabi, Hindu and Urdu Voiceover Artist Rita Sharma, German Voiceover Artist Julia Effertz, the smoky, lived-in voice of Jennifer Munby and former Sky TV Presenter Viv Creegor. No sooner had we taken on Viv than we got her - along with talented actor Andrew Fallaize - to voice an animation for the BBC's intranet site "Gateway".

For TV and Radio: you can hear Drew White voicing new promos on Classic FM; Lynsey Hooper is the new voice of Sky 2 Continuity; Steph Bower voiced a TV trail for the BBC 2 programme "Posh and Posher" and Ricky Salmon voiced a trail for Mood FM in Jordan.

And in the corporate world, David Vickery, Mike Rogers and Sally Beaumont recorded voiceovers for our NovoSeven DVD. Michelle Horn recorded on-hold prompts for Toyota Insurance. Peter Offer recorded the first batch of voiceovers for a "Prince2" E-learning project. Brian Matthews recorded a voiceover for United Printing and Publishing and Charlotte Gittins and Luis Soto recorded characters for a Ring2 Teleconferencing web animation.

And we made a Voiceover Showreel for aspiring Voiceover Artist Vicky Shotton-Oza.

What a great start to the year - long may it continue!