Here’s the content of an email I’ve written many times. I spent only a year working for a significant talent agency back in 1998, and only part of that time was spent working the o/c (on-camera) and v/o (voice over) division, but the advice still sticks:
“The first thing to do is recognize that the industry follows a 10/90 rule. 90% of the work is done by the top 10% in the v/o pool. There’s only four guys doing all those movie trailers.
Next, go read a book called “How To Read Copy” by Adrian Cronauer.
From there, try and get copies of 30- and 60-second transcripts from commercials that you feel your voice might match (or even make them up). There are many on the web.
Practice reading over and over again. Maybe even put together a raw (non-studio) recording as a starting block to use with your first coach.
After absorbing that, you should try connecting with one of the best v/o coaches in the industry (most charge about $100/hour). Ultimately you should take 6 months worth of lessons before you’re ready to create and shop your demo.
In the end, you need to get to a point where you could walk into a v/o agency (most have in-house studio booths) and with only 5 minutes of practice with their script, walk in and nail a piece in 1-2 takes. Agencies will typically bring in five similar talent to read a piece, then send mp3′s of all five talent to the client, the client picks one talent to return and record a master, and then the big bucks start coming in.
Once you feel buttoned-up and ready and a coach feels you’re ready, I’ll help you shop to a couple of agencies in town.”
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