If you are an aspiring voice actor, the very first thing you need to put out there is your voice acting demo. In effect, your demo reel serves as your resume and calling card rolled into one. This means a demo can set you off on the right track or veer you away from potential success.
Listed below are some of the fundamentals of voice demo recording, so you’ll know what to remember the minute you decide to seriously start on your voiceover career.
- Do your research and study in advance.
This research will involve listening to samples, choosing the genre you may want to focus on, and even preparing your pocket for the costs involved in recording a voice acting demo. You may want to train with professionals first before you actually start recording. And if you don’t have the tools at home, it may be best to consider getting professional recording services.
- Determine how long your voiceover demo will be.
Potential clients and companies may not always have long attention spans to listen fully to a very long demo, but you still need your recording to be long enough for ample appreciation and evaluation. According to industry experts, the ideal length of a commercial demo is between 60 and 90 seconds. A narration demo can run for as long as 5 minutes.
- Specialize on a genre per demo.
To save on time and expenses, you may be tempted to do a montage voice acting demo. This squeezes in a collation of various reads in one demo recording. Although this can be one way to show voice versatility, it can also deter a prospective client from focusing on the quality of your reads or the genre you are best at. It is recommended that you record short demos with specialized genres, unless a client requests that you do a montage instead.
- Prepare a good voiceover script.
Any recording will require a good narrative, and this is where the importance of a well-prepared script comes in. You wouldn’t want your listeners and would-be clients to be distracted from the real quality of your voiceover abilities by just a mediocre script. Take time in writing a script, one that highlights what you can do instead of what you cannot.
Like any job or career, successful voice acting does not thrive on shortcuts. And your voiceover career will begin with your voice acting demo. This is how clients will mark your first impression with them. By keeping in mind these essentials, there’s no reason why your first demo should not take you to the top of the voiceover career ladder, soon!