Hey everyone! This week was a BEAST…but better late than never. Here’s a rundown of my first full year in voiceover. (Click here to read last week’s installment about everything leading up to my first year)
If you are currently in your first year and are starting to get frustrated that it isn’t the easy ride that those internet ads or the demo mill promised, I hope this article helps.
Don’t ever make your voiceover demo yourself…find someone who isn’t you and who knows how to operate one of these
My Voiceover Career Year One:
I make my voiceover demo
Making my first demo was a long time coming (see previous article). And I didn’t get traditional voiceover coaching like most people would recommend. I feel like I learned by listening. By practicing. After getting advice from Beth Chaplin, I call around to a bunch of local studios, and hear the same thing “Studio time costs $200 per hour…”
Mike Stalcar answers the phone, and I chat with him. He is a no BS type of guy. We chat, and I tell him what I’ve done so far and how I keep putting off doing a demo because it freaks me out. He has me come in on a slow day. We chat. He puts me at ease. I share the copy that I’ve transcribed and discuss it, and he recommends a few other pieces.
We set a date and make the demo, and that’s it.
I book my first job (I get really lucky)
The day I get my demo, the first thing I do is post it on Facebook. I am SO EXCITED about this thing that I made that is the key to my bright and shining future! I get a lot of comments from friends and family, and then a producer that I know and have worked with texts me “Saw on Facebook you have a VO demo. I’m working on a project. Can you send it to me?”
Um. Yes. Yes, I can.
He texts back again: “Great, can you record this script. On your phone is fine.”
Once again. Yes. Yes, I can.
I send him a read, and a few minutes later, he texts me: “Can you try it again, but like you’re whispering into someone’s ear?”
Yup.
A month later, I find out that I’ve booked the job. Not only have I booked it, but it’s four separate spots, and still to this day my biggest single payout from an acting job.
A blessing AND a curse—A blessing, because HOW FREAKING AMAZING TO BOOK THE FIRST JOB I AUDITION FOR?!!?? (especially after my agent kinda dampened my enthusiasm by not allowing me to audition without a demo)
And a curse in the sense that when you get spoiled like that right off the bat, it’s hard to accept that most jobs WON’T be that. Or that you won’t work again for months.
I Set Up My “Home Studio”
Like most newbs, my “home studio” space is in my closet.
Unlike most newbs, though, mine is not a spacious walk in closet but a tiny 3’x3’x3’ square space on the floor at the back of my narrow 1930’s closet that sits under the angled roof.
In order to record, I squeeze past my clothes about four feet into my closet and tuck myself cross-legged under a shelf that barely clears my head. Luckily, I am a small person.
I deck it out with a bunch of foam I buy on Amazon, a blanket to sit on, and a wine box covered with a beach towel for my microphone to sit on.
It is very hot in the summer and very drafty and cold in the winter, but I have a space!
I Get an Agent (I leverage my luck)
When the producer informs me I’ve got the job, he asks “Do you want to go direct? Or would you like me to throw this to one of your agents?”
My brain immediately begins working strategically. If go direct, I get to keep all the money for myself, but then I don’t know what these jobs should pay and I’m brand new to this and don’t want to have to negotiate for myself.
On the other hand, if I send the job to one of my agents, I could basically get one of them to rep me for voiceover without having to convince them to do so.
It’s like: “Here’s some free money. Can I be on your roster now?”
Deciding which agent to go with is pretty easy.
I have three on-camera agents:
Agent A is nonunion only and requires exclusivity for VO
Agent B is also non-union, has only been in the game for a few years, and doesn’t get much VO work
And Agent C reps both union and non-union talent across the board for on-camera, print, and VO
I have three very good reasons for choosing Agent C:
They’ve been in business the longest
They offer the most opportunity because I can audition for union and non-union work through them
I hope that by being represented in more categories, they will take me more seriously on-camera as well
It’s a good strategy if I do say so myself. Always think strategically!
There’s a reason I never did the dating app thing…I get enough rejection and ghosting in my career!
I Attempt to Expand My Opportunities
As my representation is not exclusive, I reach out to other local agents as well, one who I am with for on-camera and one I am not.
Literally 60 seconds after sending my demo to Agent A, they get back to me and want me to come in for an interview…but they’re moving, so it won’t happen for over a month.
When it finally does happen, it goes really well!
But when I ask the question that is most important to me—”how much will I be auditioning each week?"—the answer they give me is extremely vague. “Uh, it’s really hard to say, there are a lot of factors, every week is different…”
Okaaaaay…I try again “let’s say for the past month, approximately how many auditions would someone with my voice type/demographic have gotten each week?”
After more hesitancy, I get the answer: “It’s really hard to say, but maybe 1-2 times a week?” Definitely not good enough if you’re going to make me be exclusive.
I leave the meeting feeling like:
They’re going to offer me representation, and
I don’t want it
THREE MONTHS LATER… I finally get an email excitedly offering me representation.
Oh, and they are also telling me that it won’t start until the new year officially, so I get to wait three more months.
That’s like if you had a really great date with someone you met on Tinder, and you’re expecting but instead they ghost you…only to reappear three months later and ask you to marry them, but not until their ex moves out in three months.
“What, so my choice is ‘or death’?”
I briefly flirt with another local voice agent, but they always want me to come to their place. It’s a 40 minute drive round trip, so I have to go park on the street, in the winter, in a place with not much street parking, to do something I could easily do at home.
After a few months on a trial basis, they ghost me entirely, and I breathe a sigh of relief that I can now do all of my auditions from my closet.
I get frustrated with my “home studio”
The sound in my closet is pretty damn good, as a sound engineer later confirms…
Except when the neighbor is mowing, or snowblowing, or leaf blowing, or working on his many vehicles, or his yappy dog is outside, or my roommates are home, or every 30 seconds when a plane flies over the house, or there is weather.
The bane of my fucking existence for three whole years…
I very quickly realize that my laptop fan gets too loud to have inside the closet, so I have to leave it outside on a side table, and rather than squeeze out every time I finish a single audition, I try to get them all done in one fell swoop and edit afterwards, to avoid awkwardly entering and exiting constantly.
Due to all of these…restrictions…I find auditioning very frustrating.
For a while, I take to doing auditions between midnight and 3am when the planes are much more sparse.
Except that midnight to 3am is sometimes also prime “my roommates are drunk and loud” time, so it’s still hit or miss.
Ya gotta celebrate the wins, even if they’re small!
I FINALLY book a job through my agent
January 2017…hundreds of auditions and about seven months after I first booked a job, I FINALLY book something through my agent. It is a tiny, non-broadcast job. An ad agency demo. It does not pay a whole lot.
But it is SOMETHING.
I put together a narration demo
Yeah…that’s about all there is to that story.
I learn about the biz
I take a “Business of Voiceover” class from Beth Chaplin, where she presents a bunch of her takeaways from VO Atlanta. Yeah…not much to that story either.
Overview:
My first full year of VO was full of a TON of ups and downs. Mostly downs, if we’re being entirely honest, but I was excited enough about the business to keep me going through most of that.
If you’re just getting started, expect your first year to be bumpy.
Growth doesn’t happen in a straight line, and beginners luck can make you get your hopes up in ways that aren’t helpful.
Your first year (or two) probably won’t yield much, but you’ll get where you want to go faster the more time you put in to coaching, workout groups, reading out loud, and learning about the business side of the biz.
Buckle in tight, make sure you’re on the right road, and keep working at it!
Previous posts to help you on your journey:
How to get good at voiceover… without spending a cent
Three reasons you should attend a voiceover conference…at any stage in your career