VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Rognog]

I was wondering:

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
2. How do you find work?
3. What do you like most about the industry?
4. What do you like the least?

I'll go first!

1. About eleven years ago my mother showed me an ad in New Jersey Monthly for a voiceover coach who lived nearby. In classic fashion, my mom said "Oh honey, you have such a nice voice! You should call her." The rest is history...

2. Voiceovers Unlimited in NYC holds weekly agent interviews for a small fee. I also use www.voice123.com. I created my own networking system to help myself and colleagues find work. And of course, the dreaded cold calls!

3. Being in the studio with great people having fun while earning buckets of money!

4. COLD CALLS!

[anthonyVO]

Short answers... somewhat.

1. People told me I had a nice voice so I stayed away from voice-overs and went into the music biz instead. Then when I felt like I could help in getting people's ideas and messages across, i went into voiceovers.

2. I studied Improv and Scene Study and now all of a sudden I started booking.

3. Just creating an entire world in what's usually a 4x4 space! The money is nice, but if I didn't enjoy creating these worlds in my mind, this business would suck.

4. Voice123

-Anthony

[audiogenic]

1. Natural born entertainer (Leo sign) with compliments on voice lead to broadcasting diploma.

2. Agent, referals, casting directors, production houses, cold calls, world wide web.

3. Flexibility of hours, autonomy, good pay for effort involved, the high of "nailing" the read, fame with anonymity, ect.

4. The Internet has opened as many doors as much as it has prostituted the entire VO industry.

[allensco]

1. Got started in Radio when I was 18 and have wanted to do it ever since. Finally decided to go for it last year.
2. Personal contacts.
3. It's just fun, and like Anthony, creating my own little world in the booth.
4. Auditioning for sites like V123 and IV and NOT getting a call back

[Deirdre]

1. Started reading into tape recorders and doing "radio plays" when I was 10.

2. People call me or my agent. Sometimes I'll send an email to producers of a project that looks interesting.

3. Industry: meeting and making friends with my heroes. Most of the really towering-talent guys I've met are wonderful men. In general: I'm home when my kid gets home from school.

4. dislikes: being too busy to update my demos.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Mike]

1. Exactly the same as Deidre, even the age! I still have the recorded evidence. How about you Deebs? Care to share?

2. Most through Agents or production companies. Some from V123.

3. No 9 to 5. No rush hour commute. Plenty of time to spend with my kid. Getting paid to have fun. Spending time in truly beautiful studios. And the wierd feeling I get when crossing the Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba into central Tokyo, looking at the most amazing view of any city on the planet and knowing that my voice has been heard on every TV in the city. That really messes with my head!

4. Rewriting scripts because the client is too tight to employ a professional translator/rewriter.
_________________
www.michaelrhys.com

"If grass could run, cows would look like tigers."
Murray Wiggle

[billelder]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
One day before ordering at a drive through I gave the time and temperature and a quick look at tomorrow's forecast complete with sponsor tag.

2. How do you find work?
Oh Cr@p! I knew there was something I forgot to do!

3. What do you like most about the industry?
The clients with which I work. Great folks!

4. What do you like the least?
WHat's not to like? <g>

[Diane Maggipinto]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
with that high-paying radio gig came production, production, production and some really, really good copy with which to make FM magic...
when i realized it wouldn't take much to make the same amount of money on my own and not have to find someone to cover my radio shifts and possibly make more money doing less (ha! ha!), i shifted from bad bosses and lame formats to on-hold messages and community calendars on retainer. it's not bad, but not precisely where i want to be.

2. How do you find work?
working on it, i'm working on it. surfing the web, talking with folks i know, but admittedly not enough!

3. What do you like most about the industry?
fun times in the booth, oh yeah. and i like mixing and editing, too. the best thing is when a call or email comes in unsolicited. i feel so popular!

4. What do you like the least?
see #2. that, and sometimes doubting my abilities. for example, i listen to my demos or some work i've completed and think "well, that sucks and so do you."
_________________
sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[Jim Barton]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?

I was about to write about getting my first radio job on the University of Illinois radio service in 1969, but realized my first announcing gig was actually back in high school at the local Kresge's. (Before K-Mart.) In between mopping floors and glazing hams, I got to announce the BLUE LIGHT SPECIALS! I lost that job due to bad attitude after displaying less than optimum respect when voicing "Attention Kresge Shoppers..."

2. How do you find work?

A website that works, phone calls, postcards, emails, networking meetings. After a few years of diligent work you find that some of those seeds start to sprout. One of the most important lessons I've learned is to treat your clients as well as you treat the people you want to be your clients.

3. What do you like most about the industry?

The opportunity to be part of a successful effort, be it a high-tech narration, political campaign, or car commercial.

4. What do you like the least?

Slow seasons. I've been doing this for 30 years, and I still can't get used to slow summers. Sometimes I feel like I should just take down my sign in July.


Jim

[glittlefield]

1. Had my own room when we moved to Texas from L.A. I was about 10 years old and we had an intercom system in the house, so I would sit in my room and do 'radio' shows for my brothers (who would listen in their room) over the intercom system. After a sidetrack in the restaurant industry, I started in radio in my mid-20's and finally got to a point where I enjoyed doing the production more than the air shifts.

2. working on it... I do well with networking, but do understand the importance of self-promotion and agents.

3. The ability to not have the same job every day. My plan is to do away with the treadmill of commuting and ulcers because someone's financial system is BSOD'ing all over the place.

4. I'm sure there will be something.
_________________
Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[JeffK]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
Like most of us, others have told me I have a great voice. I have heard this routinely for a long time. Years ago I thought about radio but after researching it appeared that the income wasn't very lurcrative. The comments regarding my voice didn't stop and just a few short years ago, out of the blue my wife told me she booked time at a recording studio. Next thing you know I have an agent. Presently, I am not at a point that I can go full time but hope so in the very near future.

2. How do you find work?
Use to rely soley on my agent and the gigs were few and far between. I now have stepped up the email and thanks to several here, began making calls which have netted very positive results.

3. What do you like most about the industry?
The opportunity to utilize a God given talent, the opportunity to stretch my creativity "out of the box", the great people (like around here!), the thrill of seeing my kids light up when they hear me.

4. What do you like the least?
I tend to worry too much! Perhaps it is because I am still very green. I still get nervous when the producer and engineer are talking on the other side of the glass, especially when it appears they aren't real happy and I am thinking their displeasure is with me.. ...then I find out the producer was complaining about his mother-in-law and it had nothing to do with me!! The other thing I like least is the emotional roller coaster of the thrill and let down of an audition. You feel good about the audition, get great feedback and hover over the phone waiting for the "call' and it never comes. I know you're suppose to do the audition and forget it but that hasn't been easy to do...another sign of green!

[dhouston67]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
I suppose I got started while in radio, as I was thrown into the production studio early on and asked (actually, "told") to knock out spots and promos. (Gotta love those $20 "talent fees".)

2. How do you find work?
Promote, promote, promote.

3. What do you like most about the industry?
Meeting incredible people like Deebs, Banksey, and pretty much everyone on this board. Also, see glittlefield's # 3.

4. What do you like the least?
Wading through a saturated talent pool; balancing the need for competitive rates with the need to eat and pay bills.
_________________
Great Voice. Great Choice. For Voice Talking and stuff.
http://davidhoustonvoice.com
Do That Voice! - The DHV Blog

[Tom Greenlee]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
Ever since I was a young adult 19 or 20, Like everyone else here, I've been told what a great voice I have....It got to the point where I was getting several comments a day, every day from different people, which led to my graduating from broadcasting school. Then while in the military, I got part time gigs at the local radio stations after interning with them for a couple months. Because of my schedule in the military I could never be relied on for full time regular radio work, so I figured radio probably wasn't going to be the way for me. I let it slide until earlier this year after the repeated comments and my ex-wife confiding in me that she used to strike up conversations with me about things she knew I was really into (and she wasn't), just to get me talking and then she would just shut up and sit back just to listen to me talk. So I decided to do something about it.....that's where I'm at now.

2. How do you find work?
Through my agent, and unsuccessfully through V123

3. What do you like most about the industry?
I love being able to utilize my voice in a way that is appreciated by others.
And I love the people I've met that are in the industry (You all included)

4. What do you like the least?
Having to exercise the patience needed to land the work. (I want it and I want it right now!)
_________________
TG2

"Communication without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communication is irrelevant."

Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
Former Commandant of the Marine Corps

[Dave]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?

I would stay up most of the night listening to distant 50k AM stations...WLS, KAAY, WOAM, WWL and thinking that has to be the best job in the world! When I was about 10, I bought a portable reel-to-rell tape recorder and annoyed every one that got near me with my "man on the move" interviews. Finally, I got into radio in the 60's (left the biz in 83). It was a dream come true...(being painfully shy which I still am) I could be "famous" and remain anonymous at the same time...what a deal!

I don't recall anyone ever telling me that I had a great voice. But I suppose my passion made up for it. In fact, when I announced at a family reunion that I planned to go into radio and tv... an uncle smiled approvingly and said, "That's great, the family can alwasy use a good repair man." (TRUE STORY).

Anyway, thankfully the voice did develop over the years...as well as my ability to interpret copy and do all sorts of imitations. A couple million radio/tv spots later...I left morning radio in 83... and here I am.... Somewhat by accident. Numerous people continued to mention (by then) that I had a great voice. Finally, I gave into pressure to record a few spots for folks as a favor...the rest as they say is history.

2. How do you find work?

It sneaks up on me! Well, as I mentioned, thats the way the freelance vo career began. Now, I have a talent agent, and like most everyone else, beat the bushes to find more. The lions share of my work is corporate (80%) and a little commercial stuff here and there.

3. What do you like most about the industry?

The anonymous ego trip But seriously folks, the hours are fantastic and flexible, I work out of my home studio, and I manage to pay the bills with some degree of regularity. Perhaps most of all....I don't have to put up with petty corporate B#$% S**#$% meetings, power struggles and social climbers.

4. What do you like the least?

GRRRrrrrrrr! There are a few flies in the ointment but they all come with the territory (others have mentioned them anyway) and I think we all have learned to roll with the punches to continue to do what we love.

Dinosaur Dave
_________________
. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.

[Audiogal]

1. How did you get started in voiceovers?
I so relate to previous posts...the tape recorder as a kid...scanning the dial for faraway stations as a teen. But I have to add that around age 6, I was pulling things out of the pantry, renaming them, & doing voiceovers about them.

While a radio air talent, agenciesbegan to ask me to cut spots for them. I found I liked that extra cash. I later worked in TV production (where I was the only "voice" but for the imaging guy & the occasional sales person-who-came-from-radio.) When I left TV, I decided to start my own voiceover biz.

2. How do you find work?
Cold calls & referrals from other clients

3. What do you like most about the industry?
Flexibility. No commute. Getting paid for a gift I was born with & that I built upon. My zany colleagues, such as those here on the board.

4. What do you like the least?
The fact that the technology side of it doesn't always come as naturally to me as I wish it did. I try to keep it simple!
_________________
Mary