Jeffrey LeClair, President of JL Recording Studios in Toronto discusses how to break into the voice over business.

1. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
By Jeffrey LeClair
The beautiful thing about the voice-over business
is that everyone has a unique voice, even if you
sound similar to someone else, breaking into the
business is a little easier with the market always
looking for a fresh voice.

2. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
Voice acting is the type of business always
providing an avenue to break into it. You'll need
to specifically understand which areas of the
business you want to work in, which area is to
make the money in, and which area is the best
way to market your voice depending on which
city or state you live in.

3. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
I would not suggest jumping in, by rushing out to have
your demo made. You as a voice-over actor need to
be proactive, you'd do well to hire a coach, it's even
common to get coaching over the phone. You need to
do whatever possible to work with somebody
knowledgeable about the voice business.

4. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
It's important to understand the concept of
reading scripts, as well as being competitive in
this business. When you are ready to record a
voice-over demo you must be able get that out
to casting directors, the agents, the production
houses, nonunion and union agencies
positioning you in the competitive area of the
field.

5. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
A voice actor is best to put together an audio
demo when they feel confident enough that
they are able to go into a booth - without
starting off in a booth, being able to create the
read in a cold reading process.

6. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
Understanding the elements of the read, if a
director says "warm" "authoritative" you'll need
to hit that mood, "fun" "easy going", or "off the
cuff" you'll be able to switch it up. So most
importantly, what a voice actor has to learn is to
bring their unique stamp.

7. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
Your voice over demo, "commercial" specifically
speaking, provides the most lucrative avenue of
the field, a mix between television & radio, with
several different moods that maybe fit five or six
approaches. Once the director has "hip" "cool"
they don't need "hip" "cool" anymore.

8. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
Now, maybe they require an element of "warm
sophisticated". Working with the right coach
and/or the right voice over producer will help
you choose the appropriate script copy to select
what you're going to put on your demo.

9. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
The voice over business has changed greatly
over the last ten years now that everybody has
their own home studio. With so many more
people in the business there's considerably
more competition for each job than there use to
be. We didn't have the Internet access that we
have today and the agents use to be on the
phone.

10. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
With the home studio situation there are pros &
cons. The pros are that if you have an agent in
New York, however you live in Toronto, your
agent can email the scripts for you to
record in a professional recording studio, or a
home studio and you send your MP3 audition
back.

11. How to Break Into the Voice-Over
Business
The con of that is, if you do not know how to
self direct you're doing yourself a great
disservice. You want to bring your "A" game to
the table and connect with the right people who
know how to work in this business and are
capable of guiding you in the right direction,
that just aren't out there to say, "nice read" or
"bad read”.

12. About Jeffrey LeClair
Jeffrey LeClair is the founder of
JL Recording Studios. Over the past 19 years,
since arriving in Toronto, he has been
immersed in the recording industry for all
aspects of audio production. His professional
audio producing and engineering skills include
recording, mixing and mastering for commercial
voice overs and all genres of music. You can
also follow his thoughts and musings on Google
by following @Google+.