the imaging voice

Written by Justin Coombes-Pearce

Forward

I have taken the time to write this guide for people who have that desire to work in voice over but really have no idea where to start. By no means will this guide start making you huge amounts of cash straight away or neither should this guide be the only info you read. It is purely a guide and introduction to the industry with information on everything from the different types of voice work to purchasing a microphone and setting up a home studio.

The information I present in this guide is a collection of lessons and wisdoms I have learned from experience and from talking to, training with and studying some of the best voice professional in the world, most of whom are only to happy to offer advice and encouragement to those wanting to genuinely develop their skills and succeed in this industry.

If you ever meet a professional voice over artist or voice actor who works full time in this industry you will most likely find one of those rare people who just loves their job and why not, it’s a fun industry with new challenges daily and it can be quite financially rewarding. I will refer to other voice talents in this book, some of whom I know personally others are authors of books I have read that have helped me and then there is the voice people who are at the pinnacle of this industry, those who we all aspire to be.

I hope you enjoy this read and more importantly it helps you get started in this wonderful industry.

Introduction to voice over

There are many different schools of thought on the name voice over or as it is becoming known more and more these days as voice acting but in my opinion there are subtle differences between voice over and voice acting that I will go into detail for a little later. So for the sake of simplicity in this book when I refer to the industry as a whole I will use the term voice over and the people who work in the industry as voice talents.

Voice over is one of those industries that becomes desirable to so many people because it looks like easy money, let me tell you that it is far from easy for most starting out in the industry.

In most cases we all need to learn to speak again, we also need to learn to gain control of an instrument most of us have just let run wild for the better part of our lives and then there is the hardest part… we need to find our own point of difference to the thousands of other voice over artists competing for the same jobs we are.

This is not to say that it’s not possible to succeed in this industry in fact far from it. It’s like anything, if you are committed enough success can and will come.

One of the greatest friends of voice over is technology, with the price of great quality recording equipment getting lower everyday and the ability to source jobs and record for and with clients worldwide thanks to the internet the possibilities are infinite.

Next page (The different types of voice over work)

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