Yardwork, Mommying and Voiceover All in One Day

I had a very busy day today.  I worked, took care of my son, did yard work and voiceover.
While he was napping, I mowed the lawn, reorganized the shed, reorganized the back of our van, watered the garden, took the compost down to the compost area, put up the new slide and swing our friends gave us, and I did a very fun audition to make sounds of getting hit, sounds of dying, and sounds of a huge attack for a video game character.  THIS WAS FUN.

Here is my audition:
http://www.voices.com/demo_detail/100281

Getting into Voiceover

I have a lot of people ask me if they can have their friend contact me to find out how to get into voiceover work.  


Here is one reply I gave to a friend:

If you have this young man send me a bunch of questions, I can read them over and then give him a call.  He can also learn sooo very much by going to Voices.com and checking out all of their resources.  I am on there as talent and pay $300 per year to be able to audition on there right from  my home.  I joined for 9.95 for a month, booked a job that paid for the yearly membership and kept booking jobs after that.    The expensive part is the home studio and microphone, preamp and computer, sound proofing, etc.    He will probably need some training or coaching at the very least.  He will need to be tech savvy and get good at doing his own editing, which takes practice.  All of the demos you hear on  my site  are self-produced.

 

Here is my page http://www.voices.com/people/HeidiEklund

So, The thing is that really, in order to begin this process, you have to invest, either in training, having a demo produced,  or in equipment and just practice or all of the above. Honestly,  you have to really know what you are doing with the computer and the sound to book jobs.  You can be the best voice for the job but if your sound isn't good, they won't want to use you.  

You can get an agent, sure, but to even be heard by them you must have a good demo and be really trained and up to date with the styles of vo acting today. You really need to know someone to get in to an agency.

I would say, the best thing to start would be to do a little reading on voices.com or voice123.com and then find a class you can take.  It would be good to listen to other artists too.  From there you can see if you want to have a demo made and pursue the work.  Then you might want to look into a home studio.

Here is how I busted in:

My partner went to see his agency, where he was already a talent for theater.  He met with the VO agent there, got sent out on one job, and he booked it right away.

He got coaching and a demo from Peter Raufe  (which cost a small fortune)

He got into the sound production side of things on his own and signed up for a website.  He booked jobs and got better and better and kept upgrading our equipment.

Then I started auditioning and I did a trial membership to voices.com.  I started booking stuff.  Before you know it I had a demo, then a character demo, etc.  Then I booked a long term gig with L'Oreal (doing their eLearning) and then another doing medical podcasts  and on and on...etc.

How much can we do in one day?

Just a few days ago, I caught up on all of my laundry.  I had bags and bags of it all over the house that needed to be folded.  I finally set out to get it managed and put away.

I played with my son.
I fed my son.
I snuck in invoicing two clients while I was hanging outside with my son.
While he was asleep, I did some laundry, and put some gluten, dairy and yeast free bread in the oven, I recorded and edited a voiceover, I wrote a proposal for a voiceover and sent it out.
Then I paid some bills and all the while I kept an eye on Freecycle to see if there is anything we needed on there.  I actually got to take a nice long shower and shave and then he woke up.

I also helped a friend with her grant proposal, by editing and giving her some tips.  This I did twice during the day.
I played with my son some more and fed him some more.
All throughout the day I worked with my son on Potty Training and changed soiled diapers.
I also cleaned dishes, took care of the garden and cleaned up toys.  I also entered sweepstakes and tried to catch up with friends on facebook.

By the evening I was exhausted.  How much can we do in one day?

Voiceover

I did a couple of VOs between last week and this week.  It is always a pleasure to do the work.   One of our clients gave us a huge recommendation too.  I always love that.

I also auditioned all on my own tonight with no sound engineer.I just did my own recording and editing.  I know it doesn't sound like a huge thing but when you always rely on someone else for your editing, it makes it all a lot easier.

I chose something simple, a childrens book.   We all know I read a lot of those these days.

Natural Thoughts from a Struggling Voiceover Mommy

This is my first blog, ever.  I kept thinking about blogging, and I am one of those people who listen to "the voice that cries out the most," in my mind.  You may be thinking that it is strange that I admit there is a voice crying out in my head...it isn't really in my head, it is in my gut.  My gut is saying... "get your thoughts out there, Lady."  Then the other voice argues, "Why? No one will read it anyway." Then the gut voices stops and the head voice stops and there is quiet and in that moment when they stop arguing I get out of bed and come to the computer and begin.

Hello world, here I AM.  Heidi is my name, and I am a newish parent of 2 years with my own son and of 4 with my stepsons.  I live in the Hudson Valley of New York where I have a tiny house and still manage to save a closet for a voiceover booth where my parter and I record voiceover as a supplement to our meager living.

I moved up here to skydive from Manhattan nearly 10 years ago. I skydived my way around the country living in a converted school bus, and then found the love of my life...again.  We had done a tour of Romeo and Juliet sometime in the late nineties he was Romeo and I was Juliet. We were great friends for  years, he was married and I had my relationships so that was all we could give each other.  We lost touch after Sept. 11.  He went on tour with The LION KING and I ran away with the skydivers.
When we found each other again in 2007, he was divorced and I had just been dumped, again.  We were meant for each other and the rest is history.   In this blog I will tell you our adventures and most importantly share stories of how we are caring for our youngest son with natural remedies instead of the five medications that were prescribed by our child's doctor.