Voice-acting tips from

“The Art of Voice Acting Workshop”

VOICE ACTING IS NOT A COMPETITIVE SPORT!

The following reply was received in response to an e-mail sent to my newsletter list to promote one of our upcoming workshops. The writier did not have the courtesy to provide his/her name, and the sender’s e-mail address offered no assistance:

“How many people are you going to train to do this. The field will be flooded and how good is that?

Short and to the poin! But from this comment, it is clear that the writer doesn’t really understand the subjective nature of this business. Here is my reply:

Did you have a question? I'm assuming you did, so I'll respond to what I believe your comment was aimed at.

If you look at the business of voice-over as being highly competitive, then the field is already flooded - and has been for well over a decade! Competition implies that one person is better than another in a specific skill or aptitude. Every performing aspect of show-business (including voice-over) is not competitive in that sense because the talent buyer often uses very subjective criteria when booking talent: the "sound" of a voice, the "attitude" a performer delivers, or simply a "feeling" about the performer that was felt from listening to little more than a cold reading of a script. Certainly, the performer's abilities are important, but any professional actor will tell you that he or she can only do the best possible performance they can do with the hope and intention that their work will fit the criteria the talent buyer or producer is looking for. Acting is NOT a competitive sport.

There are lots of people interested in learning how to use their voice to communicate effectively - whether it's doing commercials or simply getting their message across to someone else. And there are even more people who NEED to learn how to communicate effectively (especially in radio) because what they're doing now certainly isn't getting the job done. Those who choose to pursue voice-over are going to pursue the work whether I provide the training or not. My goal is to at least provide a solid foundation of basic acting and voice-over performing skills so those who choose to continue in the field will have a fighting chance to have some degree of success as competent voice-actors. And to be perfectly honest, only a small percentage of any workshop class actually chooses to pursue voice-over as a career option. I've seen far too many acting classes and so-called voice-over workshops that do little more than teach someone how to "read" a script. This sort of class does nothing to develop performing skills or an ability to function professionally in a recording studio. If you take the time to read my book, or better yet - take the workshop - you'll have a much better picture of my training, and you'll likely be much less judgmental.

So, to answer your question . . . I'll train as many people as there are who want to study with me, because the more competent performers there are, the better the work will be for all of us, and the better we will be able to provide professional quality voice-over performances for our clients. And that is VERY good!

Voice Acting

The Art of Voice Acting