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One of the key aspects about being a successful voiceover artist is to market yourself. You need to be confident that you’re presenting yourself in a way that makes you stand out from all the other voiceover artists. One of the main ways UK Voices helps you do this, is by providing you with an online profile that can be viewed by all potential employers, and the main feature of this profile, is your demo.
The demo is a way of giving potential employers a real idea of your voice, and also can showcase any accents you can also perform. The demo isn’t something to just be put up for the sake of it, you should make sure that it’s showcasing you to the best of your ability. This article will give you some hints and tips on how to make sure that you are making the most of the demo, and that it is showcasing your voice in the best way possible.
There are two ways of recording your demo. Firstly, you can call the UK Voices demo hotline (the number can be found on your profile page) and record your demo over the phone. This is a very good way of recording the demo as you can try as many times as you want, and it’s a quick and easy way of recording. The second way is that you can record a demo onto your computer, and then upload it straight to your profile. There are guidelines to the file size (no bigger than 5MB), and the file format (it has to be MP3), but apart from that you have total freedom.
In terms of demo content , we always recommend that you have a good idea of what you want to say before you record. If you want to record a reading, make sure that you have rehearsed it and have a good idea of the words. You want the recording to be smooth and professional, not full of stumbles and stops. Try to eliminate background noise, you can usually do this by just making sure that you’re in a nice and quiet room. You don’t need to spend a ton of money getting the room soundproofed. Make sure that the demo isn’t too long. You want it to be concise; if employers have a lot of demos to go through, they won’t want to be listening to five minutes per artist. If you can do an accent, try a reading that has two characters, so that you can give two examples, but don’t overload the piece with too many different voices. You need to have a focus on your strongest voice(s), there’s no point wasting time of accents that don’t really work, but you want to get in anyway.
The demo is a tricky concept, but the main thing is to listen to your finished piece, and be sure that you’re happy with it, because if you’re happy with it, you’ll feel more confident. A good tip is to try and re-listen to your demo every couple of weeks, just to check that you’re still happy. The great thing about UK Voices is that you can re-record your demo whenever you want. Be confident in your voice, as that will show on the demo, and lead you to standing above the competition.
If you have any editorial ideas that you'd like to see included in next month's newsletter, drop us an e-mail at info@ukvoices.co.uk and we'll listen!
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