Five tips for an awesome voice or voiceover reel

Commercial, narrative, character, animation, gaming, radio drama – so many choices, which one is best?

Most voice agents will be interested in your commercial reel first, your narrative reel second and any character reels third – because the majority of the work they get is commercials, then corporate and narrative work, then character/gaming/animation.

An agent might see you on the strength of a kick ass animation reel if you fit an unfilled slot in their talent roster (if you have a specific accent, for example), but if you don’t have a commercial reel to back that up, they won’t sign you until you get one.

My advice is always: start with commercial and narrative reels then explore the others further down the line once you have more experience or you start getting seen for jobs that require more character skills, like animation and gaming.

Almost every actor who’s come into my studio to record their voice reel (and I’m past the 100 mark) has said a variation on this “I didn’t know it was going to be so hard!”

Acting training will give you a lot of the skills that you need for voice over work – breathing, character, vocal exercises – but most drama schools and courses don’t cover the specifics of voice acting beyond a few days focussing on radio drama, which only forms a tiny part of voice over work out there.

Your voice reel session will be much more productive if you already have an idea of your own vocal range and strengths, how to interpret commercial scripts and how to generally approach the style of voice over you want to do.

You’ll most likely find this training in a workshop or course specifically tailored to voice over. A dedicated voice over course will also give you an overall view of the voice over industry: it’s a big, wide vocal world with a lot of possibility and also a lot of competition.

I know that £50 reel looks tempting, especially if you’re fresh out of drama school or you’re going through a dry patch, but don’t just leap on the cheapest deal you can find.

Make a list of what you want a voice reel package to include, which should include the time you want to have to record, whether you’re offered direction and guidance through the session and whether scripts are provided.

Ask your actor friends and read testimonials, Casting Call Pro and Voices Pro are good places to start. Have a listen to examples of reels from different providers.

Finally, call up the providers that you think will work for you and find out what they’re like as people. This is your career you’re promoting, you want to make sure that the end product is something you’re proud to send out – and doesn’t sound as cheap as £50.

Your voice reel will be the main showcase for your voice, at least for the next year, so you really want to sound and be at your best while you’re recording it.

The sensitivity of voice over microphones means they act like aural microscopes: it’s really easy to hear when you’re dehydrated, tired and ill. The night before, avoid alcohol and get an early night.

Read through your scripts (if you get them in advance) and make sure you’ve prepared any additional material like a book extract or monologue – but don’t over practise or memorise anything, keep some of that freshness for the day.

On the day of your recording session, don’t mainline coffee & tea beforehand (and especially not with milk), drink lots of water and make sure you do a physical and vocal warm up before the session, you’ll sound more confident on your first takes, your breath will be better supported and you won’t tire as quickly.

Finally: if you are ill, call your voice reel provider as soon as possible to discuss rescheduling. And on the day itself, show up on time!

Feedback from one of my castings last year where the guide was a British version of Scarlett Johansson in “Her” – “Thanks for not doing a bad imitation of Scarlett – we’ve had a lot of those! We really wanted a natural voice, so thanks for sending your “Kirsty” version”

Your natural voice is your best asset.

Get that idea of a “voice over voice” right out of your head and concentrate on giving authentic performances in your own voice. By all means, try styles that you hadn’t considered doing but don’t force your voice into a style or character that feels uncomfortable because you think you “should” include it in your voice reel.

There are a ton of actors who can sound like a movie trailer guy, and only one that sounds like you. Guess which one an agent or producer will be more interested in?