It’s always been the whine of many voice actors — putting up so much effort and time for auditions that do not always lead to paid jobs. It’s totally relatable, nothing is more frustrating than investing without the ROI.
But ugly truth to be told — doing voice over auditions is actually your real job here. Working on the actual paid voiceover project serves some sense of relief because mostly you just have to continue reading the entire script from your sample read. This is especially appropriate to starters because it’s you who chase the jobs, so you have to work your butt off in sending out voice over auditions.
So how do I make my auditions a better candidate for a paid job?
The following are 8 audition tips we compiled to help you derive more jobs from your voice over auditions.
Master The Script And Give Your Best Shot
First things first, you have to keep the right mindset: treat your audition as if it’s paid. This is the only way you can give your best shot. However not applicable to every voice actor, a good technique is to keep in mind that you there’s no way you can get booked for a paid job without undergoing an audition. More over, remember that clients come for auditions because they are looking for the best voice for their project. In response to that, you should always give your best shot for you only got one slot of chance to be chosen.
So even if you are not reading the entire script, it’s best to study the casting spec and be in character. At early time you should be able to give the clients the closest voiceover to what they are looking for so make sure you don’t just read the script and show-off what voice type you have.
Keep The Quality Consistency Of All Auditions
To piggyback on the first tip, keep in mind that every audition is equally important. Do not cherrypick on which auditions you only feel like doing your best at. Otherwise, because you cherrypick on auditions, the probability of your audition to be chosen falls off.
Choose The Best Equipment
By choosing the best voice over equipment, we meant the equipment that will make your voice sound the best. It doesn’t have to be necessarily the most expensive of it all, you also have to take into consideration if the microphone is fit for you. Your voice over equipment is very important to your auditions because it’s not like you can send them second-rate voice overs for the audition first, and then use the better equipment for the paid job.
Do Not Read The Whole Script
An important point to take note of in recording your samples is to keep them short and to separate them depending on their category. Why? Because no client has all the time to spare a minute or two to each of the hundred samples they riff through. More or less, a client will only listen to about ten seconds of an audition or demo before moving on to the next.
So the rule of the thumb is do not read the whole script, not to mention that auditions are not sure-handed paid. Otherwise, you might have just set yourself for a bigger loss.
Make Your Demos Unique
The voice over market is very competitive. So make it a trick that you do something to make your samples stand out. Highlight everything you can do to your voice to impress your clients and make them see something in your voiceovers that they feel they cannot find in others.
Use Proposal Templates For Your Auditions
Every audition needs a cover letter, so it’s better to create proposal templates for each niche so you don’t have to do the same thing over again. Your proposal is like your second shot at destiny. In your proposal letter is where you have the chance to mention and highlight good points about you that you can’t in your demo samples. Your proposal should include a basic introduction about yourself, the services you offer, and your experience.
Audition Only To Your Scope of Niche
Knowing your scope is important. Challenging yourself is different from taking on projects that are totally out of your scope. So while you aim to audition to as many projects as possible, take a step back to see if the project is for you. Because if you keep on accepting projects left and right without assessing whether or not you are capable of delivering what exactly your client wants, let alone pick up the useless sample you made.
Submit Your Auditions Early
Early birds take the most of the advantages. This final tip ties to the first audition tip — give your best shot. Why? Because actors who are first to submit auditions sort of set the bar. The rest that comes in after would need to measure up to the first auditions listened to. So while you are confident about your auditions, waste no time in submitting it the earliest you can. Clients would generally listen to auditions in by date of submission, hence, you have better chances to be chosen.
There’s nothing to lose to apply all these simple tips in doing your auditions. See if it makes a significant change and share it with us in the comments below.
