by Roger D. Bernier

Created on: March 27, 2008

You have seven seconds to get a producer's attention. That's less time than a bronco-buster is expected to stay on a bucking horse in a rodeo! Knowing that simple fact should wratchet-up the professional level and efforts that you put into creating a voiceover demo.

An agent or producer tasked with hiring a voice-talent to record a radio or television voiceover can receive dozens of mp3 files or CDs each day. At some point in their busy day of casting, producing or doing paperwork, an agent or producer will squeeze in time to plow through the stack of packages piling up on her desk, or downloading mp3 files of demos overflowing his email folder. Usually this is done while trying to cram down a sandwich before the next recording session.

If they don't hear what they want in the first few seconds, your CD quickly becomes an unidentified flying object, headed for the nearest wastebasket and mp3's are sent packing into cyberspace make room for more.

Should you be discouraged? Should you give up and go back to your night job at the local quickie-mart? Not necessarily. It may mean that you didn't have the sound of voice that they wanted to hear in that particular script. Everyone has a unique voice, with its own unique characteristics. When your voice and delivery sounds like what the casting director had in her head, the job is yours.

The above paragraphs were written to give you a taste of reality before you go rushing off to put together your demo.
Now, to the making of your voiceover demo...
(1) Listen. Go online, Google "Voiceovers" and listen to a wide assortment of demos from both male and female voiceover artists. Try to distinguish on your own what sounds good and what does not.
(2) Practice. To be a voice talent you must be able to read the "King's English" comfortably and in a manner that does not sound as though you are reading. Voice-acting is just that, "acting". The voiceover industry is more closely related to stage-acting than it is to a radio announcer. In fact, radio announcers rarely get cast for voiceovers due to the over-the-top, affected delivery that often emanates from mouths (think "Ted Baxter"). Read from children's books, colorful magazine ads or from the J. Peterman Clothing Catalog for practice. Learn to deliver copy with a wide range of emotion. Do not be afraid of "going over the top".
(3) Attend a seminar (or two). It is an industry with a tight clique of individuals in virtually every major metropolitan area. Some have come from an acting

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