Story Highlights: - Use real commercial scripts when practicing.
- Get crucial feedback on your work.
- Master different speaking styles.
- Once you’ve done all that, get the timing down.
1. Find Real Scripts
You need to find real commercial scripts. Companies don’t want to hear you perform a script that you’ve made up, no matter how clever it might be. They want to know what you sound like doing a real script. Look for real services, real PSAs for real organizations, because people want to know what you sound like doing real work. You should also read from a variety of scripts. One option would be to transcribe a commercial or a piece of narration that you really like. You can also find many scripts for free on the website Edge Studio. There are scripts for commercials, narration, telephony, videogames. The website has about 3,500 different scripts to choose from. Some example scripts include Walt Disney Resort commercials, audiobooks, and wildlife documentaries.
2. Take Advantage of Resources
Edge Studio also has Feedback Forum, where you can upload your practice runs and have fellow voice-over artists comment on them and give you constructive feedback. This kind of analysis is crucial for beginners. The website also has a Weekly Recording Contest. Every Friday they put a script up on the website, you record it, and send it in. What is really helpful is what comes after: they explain why that particular piece won. They also point out the common mistakes of the other contestants. That way, you know what to avoid, and what to aim for and why. So this feedback is incredibly value.
3. Provide Variety
Unless you’ve really found a niche or a particular style that you’re going to focus on, showing people a developed range in your voice is important. Remember, you should have a commercial demo and a narration demo. In both cases, you want show off the different styles and different abilities in your voice. The more variety you demonstrate, the better. You want to show you can get across different tones like humor, drama, or a character voice.
4. Timing is Everything
One challenge with scripts is meeting time. The scripts on Edge Studio don’t always have the timing on there, so you don’t really know how long a script should be. But if you read it and time it out, and its 17 seconds, chances are it’s supposed to be 15 seconds. With a script that does denote time, you need to match it. So once you know the script, you can get the main message across, and your delivery and tone are good, you can start practicing it to time. With broadcasting, timing is everything. You have to read it in the time that’s allotted, or else it gets cut off. I didn’t realize how slow I read for the longest time. I would think I was reading something with good pace, but when I listened back it seemed very slow. So listening to it back and timing it really help. One second under time would be great: audio engineers will be impressed. But it’s also bad to read it too fast; you don’t want to be too under. Just remember, within two seconds under is acceptable, and absolutely nothing over is acceptable.
