VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Philip Banks · Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:29 am Post subject: When is a demo not a demo?

Look around, have a listen and you'll soon discover that the answer to the question in the subject line is - Most of the time.

If you want feedback on some audio you've stuck together and have a teenage son or daughter ask them because anything and everything Mum or Dad does SUCKS BIG TIME!

In the USA there are 250,000,000 people and 10% of them are able to help you craft - A movie trailer demo
A TV promo demo
A commercial demo
An imaging demo
An ADR while wearing incontinence pants demo
A how to extort money from wannabees demo

The other 90% have an opinion on how badly the above was produced.

Claims are amazing, evidence of real success is thin on the ground. So how do you make a demo?

First you need to do some homework. spend a few weeks listening to any demo's you can find and analyse them to the point of being anal. When you launch yourself on the voice over market anything you offer has to be as good as if not better than what is already available. There is a thought going around that standards in the voice over world are falling, for the most part this is not the case. The truth is that there are more people out there claiming to be Voice Overs, who aren't and their demo's prove that as does their work load. I'm going to get all my friends to claim they are Brain Surgeons, we're all going to advertise for work. Will people claim standards in brain surgery are falling? No, of course not because patients will check us out and find us lacking in the skills. Guess what, producers do the same with around 95% of people claiming to be Voice Overs.

How do you make a demo? 101 ways and one will be right for you but what is important is that it designed to compete with the best. Is it possible to tell? When someone calls and offers you a job that's a good sign, another way is to play your demo in context and that means listen to yours alongside people who are already making a living from Voice Over work. Which demo has to be good enough? The first one you send out to a potential paying customer.

Just some random thoughts, feel free to jump in.

dhouston67 · Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:35 am Post subject: Re: When is a demo not a demo?

Philip Banks · Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:42 am Post subject: Re: When is a demo not a demo?

jrodriguez315 · Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2006 9:22 am Post subject: Re: When is a demo not a demo?