Whether it’s the sound of Sir David Attenborough in a documentary or Morgan Freeman as a tour guide on your next visit to a world heritage site, voice-over acting is a fascinating and diverse field. But where do you start when pursuing this career option? It’s likely you’ll need to apply to a number of different casting agencies, professional collaboration platforms for filmmakers like FILMD and even offer to do free voiceover work for local charities or businesses as a way of building experience.
The first step is to create a portfolio of your best voice-over work that showcases your vocal ability and demonstrates how you can adapt to different styles. It’s important to include samples of a variety of genres, including commercial and dramatic pieces, as well as a selection of voices and age ranges. You can then submit your portfolio to a range of casting directors using sites like Spotlight and professional collaboration platforms for filmmakers, such as FILMD.
If you’re new to voice over, it might be helpful to seek out vocal coaching to help you develop the necessary skills for the job. This type of training can help you develop a consistent delivery, as well as teach you the techniques and tricks of voice acting. It may also be worthwhile to join a professional voice over actor’s workshop to learn more about the role and the responsibilities of the job.
One of the most common uses of voice overs is in film trailers to explain the story and entice audiences to watch the full movie. This type of narration is often delivered by an actor and can make or break a film’s success.
Other notable uses of voice overs are in educational videos and e-learning courses, announcements at events and tourist attractions, video games, and commercials. This is an area that is growing in popularity as people want to learn through online resources rather than in a traditional classroom setting.
Industrial narration is a genre that’s not as popular as some of the others but it can be very useful for explaining products and services to consumers. It’s also used to train employees for new systems or services, so it’s very useful for companies with large workforces.
The UK’s most famous production houses include Bristol’s Aardman Animations, responsible for Wallace and Gromit and Shawn the Sheep. Birmingham has a booming business in voice overs, thanks to movies such as Peaky Blinders and Ready Player One, and Liverpool’s working class accent is incredibly distinctive and popular. voiceovers.uk