Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Breaking Into Voice Over Commercials

By Marci Glover


There are many aspects to advertising which most people never take into consideration. The audience may be drawn in by the visuals and catchy tunes but one of the most memorable parts of any ad is the vocals. Doing work on voice over commercials is a great opportunity though it takes patience and persistence to become truly lucrative.

Contrary to a popular belief, it takes more than just sounding good when speaking in normal circumstances to make it in this business. In addition to appealing conversational tones, one must enunciate clearly and possess a certain amount of acting capabilities. The bulk of the job is reading a script in such a way that it comes out sounding flawlessly natural with all the necessary emotions.

This is a talent that is used for many things such as movies, cartoons, audio books, documentaries, video games and many multimedia formats. Advertisements for television, radio and the internet are some of the most often heard outlets for this field of work. They are so common that many people do not even realize just how many ads they are exposed to on a daily basis.

There are three basic categories in this type of advertising work. At the local level, possible jobs may include car dealerships, small businesses and civic announcements. Regional ads will be those that cover chains and companies that are only active in a particular area, while the national spots will be the more top level brands and events.

Granted, most of the national level jobs are given to celebrities simply because their voices are more easily recognizable. However, it is important to remember that the local and regional ads can be just as lucrative if one remains persistent. There are far more spots available than a handful of famous names can fill, so there are ample opportunities available in all three categories.

Very few people in this field are discovered simply because they have amazing speaking abilities. There is a process to building one's talent and becoming as marketable as possible in order to gain a higher level of success. The first step is finding a competent vocal coach who can help improve techniques and give instruction on how to best to control breathing while doing a recording.

Step two is to create a professionally recorded quality demo tape to submit as part of one's resume'. It should be sent to as many production companies, talent brokers and advertising agencies as are in the desired work area. After mailing out the CD packages, it is important to follow up with phone calls, just as one would do with any other job application.

Building success in this field requires one to exercise patience with a fair amount of persistence. Though many of the ads on the national level are reserved for seasoned performers and celebrities, there are still plenty of opportunities available. Working at either the local or regional tiers can be a great way for the novice to gain valuable experience while learning the tricks of the trade, and could become quite lucrative as skills are honed.




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