How to Get Into Voiceover From the Comfort of Your Home

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Photo Source: Courtesy of Fox

If you’re an actor in need of a silver lining today, know that working and recording as a voiceover actor can easily be done from the comfort of your home! Voiceover professional and vocal coach Laurie Burke joined us recently for a YouTube Live seminar as part of Backstage’s ongoing remote on-camera series, The Slate. With the outbreak of COVID-19, many productions have been put on hold and actors told to self-isolate and social distance. Laurie suggests that newcomers and veterans use this newfound free-time to practice different techniques and skills at the mic. Continue reading for our highlights from the seminar (including two ways to better your voiceover skillset while stuck indoors), and you can catch her full video embed below! 

A voiceover career is constantly evolving.
“Voiceover started off in animated movies, but has since gone into video games, commercials, narration, audiobooks, working for movies… There are voiceover announcers, there are narrators, there are actors and there are artists.This industry started just in announcing and has evolved overtime.” 

Do you have a closet? Then your ready to record and submit your next voiceover audition.
“First thing that you do today when you are getting these auditions in is to find a place in your room [to record]. Lots of people prefer their closets with lots of clothes in it. I remember being on vacation with my brother in Maui when I had to do an emergency voiceover. I tried putting my mic in different places and seeing how I sounded with my headphones to figure what would be the best sound. I decided to go underneath the coffee table with blankets covering the table…. But a lot of people nowadays buy these boxes that can cover their heads to record, and it works!”

A great warmup can be just reading aloud from items in your home.
“My favorite warmup to do is on my way to work or an audition where I’ll narrate what I’m doing/seeing as I drive, as well as reading the numbers on license plates and signs in front of me. I find it really wakes me up. Of course we are all inside now, so what can you do to practice? Read everything and anything. Read the back of your cereal box; read the newspaper and books out loud; take some copy and read it in different ways.”

As with everything in an acting career, use the resources around you to find success.
“Having one-on-ones with professionals is great. Backstage is a great resource because they offer so many free things…. There’s my website at www.laurieburke.com, I’ll be having some more content on there for voiceover, as well as on my YouTube channel. Reading a book is good, but nothing takes the place of studying and having someone else hear your voice. Have that person critique it, assuming they know what they’re talking about, and have that person draw different voices out of you. When you are watching other people’s voiceovers, try it! Do what they do, as they do it. Mimic them as they do it.”

Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!