- You've been hired for a voice acting gig,
so let's make sure you're prepared.
The better prepared you are for a voiceover session
the better it's likely to go.
And the smoother the session and the easier you are
to work with, the more likely you are
to be asked to work again.
So, as soon as you land a gig ask for the sides.
In fact, you should ask for the whole script.
But ask for information as early as possible
so that you can read through everything.
If it's an animation ask for images of your character.
Design of the character can absolutely
influence your performance.
If it's a documentary ask if you can get some samples
of the footage that you'll be talking about.
Whatever kind of project it is,
ask for pieces to help you get an idea
of what it's going to be like.
You should also ask for a written character description.
If there's something specifically that they're going for
make sure you know as much as possible.
Now I always suggest people read the entire script,
I know I do when I go in for a session.
Don't just read your role.
It's really important to know the relationships
between all the characters because that can absolutely
inspire how to read certain lines.
Even if it's for a product
or you're an announcer, the more you know about
the entire thing could lead you to how to approach
certain aspects of your script.
Now we've mentioned this before,
but it's worth going over again.
The night before a gig don't yell a lot
or go out to a concert or a bar,
because you're having to yell
and you're stressing your voice.
You can actually end up losing your voice
or change the quality of your voice,
and if you show up for a session and your voice can't do
what they hired you to do, you're done.
If your session is going to include a lot of yelling
or strange guttural voices
or anything that's kind of stressful,
try to warm up your voice first and drink some warm fluids,
don't just go into it and start with a big loud voice,
work up to it or you could end up prematurely
losing your voice or hurting it.
In production time is money.
So that means if they give you a call time, be there.
And then be prepared to start when that director is ready.
You never really know when you're going to be
called into a session, there's an overlap of time
because things happen.
So it's your job to be ready at your call time
and it's your job to stay ready,
as sessions are often delayed.
Just expect that this could happen and don't show annoyance,
there's nothing worse than if something is going hard
for production and then you're getting annoyed at them
when that's normal, they're not going to appreciate that.
Just remember, you're one part of a larger production.
An important part, but there's a lot of things
that are going on and if you don't know all of it
don't make assumptions.
So, as you're getting ready for a gig and you're showing up
just be as prepared as you can
and then give it all you got.