(This is a very over simplified explanation of what it takes to get into voiceover work) The number ONE…MOST important…absolutely most VITAL tool… a potential voiceover personality must have (ready?). A demo. “Oh sure”, you say, “But how do I get a demo when I am trying to break into the business?” 1 – Get Experience In order to get experience in voiceovers, you may have to be willing to work for free for a while (or at least really, really, REALLY cheap). Find a community radio station in your town. Most will readily welcome volunteers. Ask for the “Production Director”. If they have one, tell them you are interested in voiceovers and ask if they might need an extra voice from time to time. They might use you for an ad here and there. KEEP A COPY OF EVERTHING YOU DO. You will need it later to put together a demo. 2 – Assemble Your Demo Hopefully you the more you do, the more opportunities you will have. Depending on your experience with audio editing, you may need some assistance in putting together a quality demo. Gather your “best of the best”. You can hire someone to help you with your demo, have a friend do it for you, or try doing it yourself. Several good and bad demos can be found at http://www.voice123.com. You will soon hear the difference. 3 – Make Contact Burn your demo to CDs and start sending them out along with a good resume and cover letter explaining what you are doing. You can send them to advertising agencies in your town (stay local for now; don’t try to go global yet). You may even try sending them to Production Directors of other radio stations or TV stations, although these places usually have an abundance of voices already in-house. 4 – Talent Agencies If you do a little research, you may find that there are a couple of local talent agencies that represent voiceover talent. DO NOT call or e-mail talent agencies. Send (you remember snail-mail) your demo in a professional looking package with your resume and cover letter. Ask them to review your demo and state that you are looking for representation for your voiceover work. DO NOT pay an agency. REAL talent agencies make a commission from the work they get for you. If an agency asks for a few hundred (or thousand) dollars before they will agree to represent you…RUN. You will need an agency for most "audition-able" opportunities out there. Don't count on just finding "open auditions" for voice work. 5 – Don’t Give Up Do not be easily discouraged. If voiceover work is what you TRULY want to do, keep trying. It can be a lot of fun. It WILL be a lot of work. Its not easy, but you can do it if you keep trying. 6 – Voiceover and Voice Acting Here’s a quick side note on voice ACTING. This is an entirely different type of voiceover work. I have worked with voice talent for over 15 years and there are many who can read narrations and sound really good. Yet if I were to ask these voice veterans to ACT…they’d read a narration for me…blah. Voice acting is just that… acting. You’re not just reading lines. You have to BECOME the character. This is not something I can teach in an article like this. This takes time and experience, and for some, it just doesn’t ever happen. If you have any other questions, pleas feel free to ask. My specialty is character voice work. I have a home studio in Colorado. I have one or two years of experience and I record new stuff almost every day. If you would like to hear MY humble demo, visit my website (http://www.davechristi.com).

I'd suggest that you try to do some demos and send them to professional studios like www.graffittistudio.com