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VOICE OVER DEMOS A Voice Over Demo Is Your Calling Card:Showcase Your Strengths - And Fast!  By Rick LanceVoice Actor Your voice over demo is your calling card. It showcases your work and
what you are capable of doing. Also think of it as your pre-audition to
an audition. Many questions I hear include:
Creating demos is an ongoing process - something that will need to be updated and kept current as you work on
new jobs and projects. Here is some advice on creating a solid
voice over demo, or a set of demos to land jobs. YOU'VE GOT 15 SECONDS Demos
can be passed on in the first 15 seconds of listening because of simple
mistakes. So it's important to put the time in to ensure that your demo
has the best quality and that you are showcasing the best of your work. You
want your demos to be fresh, contemporary, and relatable to the
listener. And a demo needs to reflect your skill and range. Consider
replacing spots that are old, dated, and don't sound like you anymore.
You want to sound like the person showing up for the job. Skip intro music that will not get you the job. Clients want to hear your voice immediately when they listen. A
commercial demo is historically the type that agents expect above all
others, so if you only make one demo, this is the one to focus on. A
commercial demo lets you showcase multiple aspects of your talent. HOW LONG? The length of your
voice over demo can range between 30 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on
the type of demo. However, the ideal length for a demo featuring
multiple spots is 60 to 90 seconds, which lets the listener get a good
sense of what you can do. However, different genres require different lengths of time, as do different markets. For instance, a
commercial demo that showcases your skills performing radio, TV and Web
commercials should last around one minute. Yet an audiobook demo
will be longer - 4 to 5 minutes, to demonstrate your ability to stay in
character for extended passages in a story, or to perform different
voices from different characters. Narration demos (other than audiobook
demos) can fall in between, but not much longer than 2 minutes or so. If
you are uploading your demo to an online marketplace, you will want to
keep it to a minute, which will load fast and sound great to the
listener. TARGET YOUR DEMOS The
industry standard is to streamline the genre of reads to target your
listener. You want to send potential clients the demo of the style you are trying to
book. Figure that you are working with busy, deadline-driven people, so
you want to make sure they quickly hear what they need. Put best your work
up front. If they like what they hear in the first 15 seconds they
will keep listening. If they don't, they'll move on. I even have demos
aimed at specific industries that I regularly work for, such as
Agriculture, Finance and Health Care.
And once you get hired, be sure that your actual work is as
good as the demo, if not better. FOCUS ON YOUR STRENGTHS Knowing
your strengths and the style of work that you are best suited for is
going to get you more work. Don't worry about typecasting. While
showing range in a demo is great, you want to target the types of pieces
that you are most likely to get called and booked for. A
quality demo will help you create a successful voice over career. Having
training and skills is the first step. The second step is a quality
voice over demo. ------------------- ABOUT RICK
Rick Lance has been working as a voice talent since 1993,
transitioning from singing demos and personal projects in Nashville's
music business to voicing hundreds of commercials, then promos,
narrations, character voices and more. His vocal style is described as
Americana, the voice of the Heartland. He
is currently the voice (narrator) of three hunting programs and one
outdoor program on the Sportsman Channel and the Outdoor Channel. His
client list includes Toyota, Harley Davidson, Sony Entertainment, Coca
Cola, Life Care Centers of America, John Deere, Jordan Outdoor
Enterprises and Sacred Seasons II.
He
has also become a leading voice for the industries of construction,
manufacturing, energy production, trucking, agriculture/equine, outdoor
sports, travel, community banking, finance and health care. And he is
a colorful voice for film, television, museum and corporate
documentaries. "I'm lucky to be working within my
comfort zone," he says, "literally living out my voice acting life as an
outdoorsman, horseman, weekend cowboy and working man, gentleman farmer
on my six acre mini ranch with my horses, dogs, cats and my wife near
Nashville." Email: rick@ricklancestudio.com
Web: www.ricklancestudio.comSEE MORE HELPFUL VOICE OVER DEMO ARTICLES |
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Comments (1)
William Bruce McFadden
10/7/2020 at 5:26 PM
Great advice, Rick. I took lots of notes. Congratulations on your successful career -- and life!
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