At UVT Coaching, we appreciate every inquiry we get but there is a particular detouring narrative amongst new talents looking to get into voiceovers. They want to wing it and do everything on their own before they drop a bunch of money on coaching. I get it. I've been there! Investing in voiceover coaching can be a difficult hurdle to jump over.
"Once I book a few gigs, I will come back to you for coaching." I read this line several times a year and it's the wrong move. Instead, I would highly recommend getting training upfront to have the best chance to book work. For example, if you took up flight training, you likely wouldn't tell an instructor that you're going to fly the plane for a bit first and then start your training.
I can't stress enough how important it is to learn how to interpret and perform a variety of commercial and narration scripts before you do anything else. But unfortunately, so many invest all their money in recording gear before picking up one script. I absolutely understand this. It's more fun to buy the guitar than learn how to play it. But What happens more times than not is that your gear starts to collect dust and the gigs don't come.
Voiceover coaching prepares you for auditions and live-directed sessions with clients and various sessions teach a variety of skills, including the use of your voice to create an authentic character. In addition, they provide guidance on vocal tonality and how to talk to an audience.
At UVT Coaching, we work with students on multiple readings; varying from commercial to eLearning narration to character scripts-so they can start getting good practice in these areas! In addition, voiceover coaching helps new talents make the best delivery choices in a given situation. For example, voice actors are required to portray many different emotions and that is hard to accomplish on your own if you don't have any experience.
It's never one person's way or the highway but based on my experience, which stretches over thirty years now, taking the proper steps in the correct order will give you the best chance to succeed. You train to book work. You don't book work so that you can train.