As some of you know I am an aspiring voice over artist.
I have never had much luck with it, mostly because I have no clue what I am doing. I have done some voice over drops here and there for people that asked me to do so, like an internet radio station out of the U.K. and a voice over for a youtube video selling joint rollers. But those were all stuff that I recorded at home with my computer, I have never done it in a studio with an actual company or anything like that. I dont have a demo tape and would not even be sure how to set one up. Basically i dont know how voice overs are done on a professional level.
By chance one day a few months ago I got a random follow on twitter from a guy who is a voice over coach in California. I didnt think much of it since I am in the Detroit area and he is on the other side of the country. A few weeks ago on a whim I sent him a message asking if he had any words of advice for someone trying to get into the field.
After a few messages back and forth he offered to talk with me on Skype about it. He said he normally charged for this kind of thing but was willing to talk to me for free since I was just starting out. Since then I have had 2 Skype conversations with him, one about an hour long and one about an hour and a half long. This gentleman is impressive. He is a coach and mentor to well over 200 people right now as well as doing voice over work, directing commercials and other ventures. He even has a Sundance film festival award for a movie he did back in the 90s.
Unfortunately it has reached the point where he has to start charging me money. I totally understand that this is how he makes a living and did not expect free help forever. The problem is he is expensive! Basically he charges $200 an hour. The way he sets it up is that I would have to sign up for 8 sessions. The sessions can be an hour at $180, a half hour at $100 or even 15 minutes at $65. To make it more affordable I can have the sessions spread out as little or as much as I like. If I was rich I could do 2 one hour sessions a week and end up spending a bit more than $1400 a month or spend as little as $65 a month for one 15 minute session a month.
While I would like to do an hour a week and knock out the 8 sessions in two months I can not come close to affording that. Right now I am considering doing a half hour session every two weeks over the course of four months, spending $800.
Am I crazy? At the age of 42 I really have no business looking into another career.... but... I have always been told I have a great voice and that I should be doing radio.... and voice overs are something that, at least at first, I can do while keeping my current job. The guy offering to mentor me made no guarantees. He said that it could be years before I am ready to do professional voice overs. He did say that I have an interesting voice but that my lack of any theater or other acting experience could hold me back. He said honestly he wont know until he works with me some more.
At this point I think I would rather try and fail than spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have done it.
So what do you guys think?
I have never had much luck with it, mostly because I have no clue what I am doing. I have done some voice over drops here and there for people that asked me to do so, like an internet radio station out of the U.K. and a voice over for a youtube video selling joint rollers. But those were all stuff that I recorded at home with my computer, I have never done it in a studio with an actual company or anything like that. I dont have a demo tape and would not even be sure how to set one up. Basically i dont know how voice overs are done on a professional level.
By chance one day a few months ago I got a random follow on twitter from a guy who is a voice over coach in California. I didnt think much of it since I am in the Detroit area and he is on the other side of the country. A few weeks ago on a whim I sent him a message asking if he had any words of advice for someone trying to get into the field.
After a few messages back and forth he offered to talk with me on Skype about it. He said he normally charged for this kind of thing but was willing to talk to me for free since I was just starting out. Since then I have had 2 Skype conversations with him, one about an hour long and one about an hour and a half long. This gentleman is impressive. He is a coach and mentor to well over 200 people right now as well as doing voice over work, directing commercials and other ventures. He even has a Sundance film festival award for a movie he did back in the 90s.
Unfortunately it has reached the point where he has to start charging me money. I totally understand that this is how he makes a living and did not expect free help forever. The problem is he is expensive! Basically he charges $200 an hour. The way he sets it up is that I would have to sign up for 8 sessions. The sessions can be an hour at $180, a half hour at $100 or even 15 minutes at $65. To make it more affordable I can have the sessions spread out as little or as much as I like. If I was rich I could do 2 one hour sessions a week and end up spending a bit more than $1400 a month or spend as little as $65 a month for one 15 minute session a month.
While I would like to do an hour a week and knock out the 8 sessions in two months I can not come close to affording that. Right now I am considering doing a half hour session every two weeks over the course of four months, spending $800.
Am I crazy? At the age of 42 I really have no business looking into another career.... but... I have always been told I have a great voice and that I should be doing radio.... and voice overs are something that, at least at first, I can do while keeping my current job. The guy offering to mentor me made no guarantees. He said that it could be years before I am ready to do professional voice overs. He did say that I have an interesting voice but that my lack of any theater or other acting experience could hold me back. He said honestly he wont know until he works with me some more.
At this point I think I would rather try and fail than spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have done it.
So what do you guys think?
