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VOICE OVER DEMOS 90% Of The Animation / Character Demos Are Terrible. Here's Why, And What To Do May 25, 2016  By Roger KingVoice Over Talent Agent Performance Network (PN) Agency Ninety percent of voice over animation/character demos are pretty much flat out terrible. There, I said it. Let’s take a minute to let that sink in. Okay, I think my number one problem with a lot of character demos is that most of the characters are totally out of context, if you can even recognize them as characters at all. A lot of these demos sound like someone just trying to make funny noises or voices in their bedroom. WHAT'S THE LISTENER THINK? I'm not referring to the quality of the audio recording as much as the difficulty for someone listening in terms of placing these "character voices” in anything that would resemble broadcast material. It’s like the demo clips are taken from some kind of animation workshop where participants were encouraged to explore potential voices/characters, but the listener wasn’t present during those workshops, so is at a total loss to understand what the voice talent is even trying to do. IMPERFECT IMPERSONATIONS Another issue is the temptation to include impersonations of famous people or even well-known animation characters. A little of this can work in a demo if the talent has already shown a nice range, but if you were hoping to land regular character/animation work by just impersonating people, it’s likely not going to work. If you listen to commercials or cartoons, the character voices you hear are still rooted in reality. They are more likely to sound like everyday people, just exaggerated a bit for comedic or dramatic effect. For instance, I have probably heard 100 voice demos with Sean Connery impersonations, but have only received the request once in the 15 years of running my voice agency. Ditto for Simpsons or Family Guy characters. HOW MANY PONIES? Another problem with a lot of character demos is that the talents often just aren’t very |
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