9 Things Actors Should Know About Getting Started in Voice Over
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to
spend the 14:59 watching it.
Know your gear before you need it
The T in Laurie Burke's TALKS method is "tech it out." Learn your microphone, and learn how to make any room quiet enough to record in. She once landed a last-minute job while visiting family in Maui, built a small setup on the spot, and the recording she made there became the final product.
From the casting side, nobody should be listening to your audition thinking you would sound better once you got into a real studio. Deliver the best possible sound from wherever you are recording, because that file is what the decision gets made on.
Strong stage and on-camera actors often fail to book voice over because there is nobody to react off of. It is you telling the story with your voice, and you have to direct yourself before anyone hires you. Burke worked with an actor named Dorian on mindset and a few small adjustments, and within two months he booked Star Wars work and the film Soul.
Give three genuinely different reads, not three of the same
The L is "learn to listen like a casting director." Burke has cast voice over and says most submissions offer three reads that all sound identical. Variety proves you can be directed, which is what the client needs. Agents also want someone they can send out for many kinds of work, not one note.
The K is know the different types of voice over jobs. Burke did not pick a lane, and that is why she works across genres. Being the original voice of Google led to tech narration, which led to Jexi, where the tech voice plus improv and comedy skills got her the role. Singers get scripts that ask for a sung section and a spoken one.
Explore before you decide where you belong. Burke recently recorded a trailer for an audiobook, a job she did not know existed. Audiobook narrators sit in the booth for hours and tend to love reading. She prefers fast commercial reads. Try everything, then commit to what you actually enjoy.
The S is share your talent, but have your demo and your studio ready first. On a grocery store commercial shoot Burke mentioned on a live mic that she was a voice over artist with a home studio. The people in video village heard it, called her agent, and put her under contract for a voiceover a week.
On that same shoot the director had her repeat her lines three times, then quietly told her he could use any of the three. He was stretching the day out so the money the client spent flying people in looked justified. Casting sessions work the same way, and casting keeps files and remembers voices for later projects.
Burke keeps what she calls a badass board of her achievements, because after 20 years she still forgets them and imposter syndrome still shows up. Hers includes the voice of Google, a voiceover for the Emmys, Chance with Hugh Laurie, Jexi, and a film where she played both an on-camera FBI agent and an animated 87-year-old woman.
Ever thought about doing voiceovers? In this video, I sit down with Lori Burke, the original voice of Google and the creator of Virtual Voice Over. She'll break down five essential tips that you need to know to get started in voice over. Ready to find your voice? Let's do this. Hi Lori. I'm so happy you're here with me today and I'm thrilled that you're here to help my audience with five steps to get started in voice over. What's the first step? Okay. Hi Heidi. Thank you. I'm happy to be here, too.
Um, well, I like to go through my talk method in one way. So, I thought I'd apply the same acronym to the five steps that actors particularly need to uh go into the whole world of voice over. So, the first one would be the T and that's tech it out, right? So, you tech it out before you record. So, I'm a big believer in studying and knowing exactly what your craft is, right? I mean, that's how actors we have to know how to act, right? We basically study things. We enjoy it. So, uh it's really important that you know your tools and your essentials. So, uh that you can record at any moment. So, for example, I thought of this uh the other day. I was in Maui visiting my family and I got a last minute voiceover job.
Not the first time this has happened. This has happened a lot when you travel and I have to figure out where I can record to make it sound good and presentable. I figured out where to set up a little studio, how to record it, how to make it sound presentable, and it became the final project. I just realized how important it is that I learned a what the microphone was that I was using or if I'm traveling, what microphone I can use, how to make the space quiet no matter where I am. And also a big uh point in this because I've done casting is you want your audition to sound as good as possible. You don't want them to think, "Oh, well, if if she goes to a studio, she'll sound better or he or you know, whatever." You want to really deliver the best thing. I love that. Knowing the tech before you even hit record, whether you're doing it at home or travel is so important. Now, we're spelling out the word talk for your talk method. So, what's the A of talk? Okay, the A is adjust your acting for the mic. Okay.
So, there are a lot of people that are great actors, but they can't transition into voice over and bring what they've studied into voice over, right? To get booked. So, just like you would study me or Samoski or whatever your your method is, you also need to have a method. I believe I've always used a method uh to deliver voice over and get book. One of my favorite stories on this is that I knew a great great actor and his name is Dorian and he came to me once and he was like, "Lori, I'm not booking voiceover and I don't know why." Now, he had a voice like James Earl Jones and he was an amazing theatrical actor, on camera actor. I mean, he's done everything. And I said, "I don't know why you're not booking. This is just, you know, amazing." and we just had to go over some mental blocks and kind of some things that transition from being on camera or on stage to just telling the story with your voice. Okay? And it's really important because you're not and when you learn these different methods, again, I'm really big into studying, you know, you're reacting, right? Well, you're not reacting off of anyone. It's you, right?
and you're hopefully getting directed once you get the job, but even before that, you have to audition and direct yourself before you you get the job, right? So, how do you do that? You need to get those skills. And I'm telling you, it was just a little tweak. And within 2 months, he booked um a role on Star Wars. He does all the Star Wars stuff for um for one of the characters. And then he was in Soul, uh which is an Oscar nominated film. And I'm not I'm not going to take credit for all this. he's a great actor, but it really was just the mindset and he just need a little bit of adjustment and I find that that's so common in actors. So, it just made me very very proud and you know actor to actor it was just a wonderful experience. So, Oh, I love that. I love that.
Just cuz you're a good actor doesn't mean you going to have all the skills behind the mic, but you you have so many you just have to learn how to adjust it to the mic. So, so T is tech it out. A is a gesture acting for the mic. And what is L of talk? Okay, L is learn to listen like a casting director. Okay, so I am a casting director. I worked uh on camera casting as well as voice over camera uh sorry voice over casting and um I can say without a doubt that you you really need to get the ear to listen like a director when you are presenting your uh audition. Okay? Because um for example uh I did this I just casted for this video game and I produced it and I did all these uh you know voiceover artists and I got a lot of demos and reads and they think that they're reading three different ways but they sound the same. And you really need to have some sort of way to make them sound different so that when I'm listening I go, "Okay, this person can be directed, right?" Because at the end of the day, it's it's it's their project who who hired me and it's their baby and they're going to tell you, you know, once you get uh hired how to deliver that uh particular script, but you need to show them that you have this variety in your voice, that you're just not a one note. And I think a lot of people came up after CO where they got into voiceover and they just didn't study or they didn't figure that out because the demos that I heard right after CO were like was anybody directing like you know they all sound the same. Your voices all sound the same.
And this is also true especially if you want to get an agent, right? An agent wants to have somebody that they can send out for a lot of of different things, not just one thing. Okay. So um so that's that's basically my my big thing for you know learn to listen like a cast director. Yeah. Yes. So, we've got T, we've got A, we've got L. K. What is K? Okay. So, K is know the different types of uh voiceover jobs and know how to book them, right? So, we have heard a lot, especially as multi-creatives.
I know you you have a lot of multi- creatives that um that uh you're helping and I'm one of those as well. And we're always told kind of pick a niche, pick a niche, pick one thing kind of thing like that, right? I did not subscribe to that and thank goodness I didn't because I have been able to use all the different skills in these different types of voice over you know as well as on camera but particularly in voice over so uh if you're a singer for example you might have a you might get a script and they're like hey we want you to sing this portion of it and we also want you to deliver the bo as well right so you can study a lot of different things and use them together now for me because I was the original voice of Google. I then somehow ended up doing a lot of tech cuz I was also in the Bay Area. So, I found out, oh, I'm pretty good at talking about tech. I have no idea what I'm talking about. That's where the acting skills come in because I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, right? And so, that just got me uh into that whole genre. That being said, you want to do a whole bunch of different things. Even if you're in audiobooks, wouldn't you want to do a commercial as well? I mean, I know I like to do all these things, right? And when you keep working at it and you do what you love and you gravitate and try all these different uh styles of voiceover, and believe me, there's more than you know uh that you can get paid for.
Again, I just did a a trailer for an audio book. I didn't even know that was a thing that they made trailers, you know? I know they make movie trailers, but I didn't know that was for audiobooks. Um then your your particular skill set will get you hired for something. And and that's what happened when I was on Jexie uh which I played a phone that went crazy. Um it was because I did Google voice. I had that tech kind of voice uh that was very you know welcome to Google voice you know but then I could also use my acting skills to improv and be funny and swear and you know it was a great gig. But that was all because I had just kept on doing things that I love. And when they came to me, I I took them, right, and I learned what I was really good at, which is kind of like your head shot, you know, and what you keep getting called in for, let's say, but then you also want to stretch it and play some other things. So really know the different things that are out there and explore and have a lot of fun with it and be open to play because I mean just think about how the world has changed in the digital world and how I imagine that's really changed voice over with the type of jobs that are available and as that evolves there's going to be even more. So being open to that and just trying new things you're just going to have more opportunities I bet and I think it goes back to where you know where I was where I began with knowing your studio and your tech. You know, people that do audiobooks, they like to they're in the studio for a very long time, right?
Yeah. My husband audiobook narrator, so you know, that's right. And he does hours some days, very successful. And he likes that. And also, it's typically I know a lot of my students are like, they're people that really love to read. They're really into it. So, that might be something that you enjoy. Now, I'm I have done those, but I'm more of like a commercial read. I like the In-N-Out. I'm kind of like the one of those quick kind of uh read things. And so, that's um I'll take the other jobs. that's great, but that's not really where I'm where my heart and my passion is.
So, you kind of have to try everything and then uh you know, you're going to succeed in the thing that you love the most to do in life in general, I believe. Do you have any other tips for us today? I did for number five. I was like, talks. Um that's the bonus one. And that is share your talent. And there's a a couple. You obviously are the queen of that. You're helping so many people share. I am not as gifted as you are in the social media realm yet, but I'm trying to follow you um to get your your work out there. Now, I will say one thing. Make sure that you have everything all your ducks in a row, like have your demo, have your studio set up, all this stuff before you start kind of sharing that you're a voiceover artist.
And why I say that is I'm I know I keep telling these stories. Um but I I'm very grateful that I got to do a lot of different things and I want uh actors to really listen to this. I was on set uh for a commercial for a grocery store and I was you know you're miked up and everybody's listening to you and um and two things happened on that that I would like to share with anybody watching this for especially actors. One thing is that I was I was speaking in it and I said yes I'm a voice-over artist. I have a home studio blah blah blah. Well, all the powers that be that were in the other room, you know, in kind of video village heard that and when I finished the shoot, they called my agent and said, "Hey, listen. Um, we want to hire her and get her under contract. She's going to do a voiceover a week for these grocery stores." I cried when I got that right. You're you have a steady gig going in, you know, well paid for a huge grocery store. And that was because I mentioned it. And so you do have to put yourself out there a little bit and really, you know, tell people that that's what you do because people won't assume because you're an actor that you're also a voiceover artist. And another thing that I really want to tell them is on that same shoot, I remember the the director coming up to me and uh this is just actor to actor kind of thing.
And I I said my lines, he had me do them again and then he had me do them again. And he came up to me and he said, "Hold your mic." And I said, "Okay." And he said, "You see all these people around that they flew in for this and this big and they spent all this money and said he goes, I'm I can use any of those three that you just did. I just want you to know that I'm doing this to make me look good because they paid all this money and I need we need to have the time and make it look." And so I want actors to know that that it's not you, you know, when you're when you're there. And it's the same thing in a casting session. It's not always you. It's it's so many other factors. So please don't get discouraged. Uh just keep going. And I'm so grateful that he said that to me because of course after three you think, "What am I doing wrong?" Right? But you're not. And voice over is the same thing. If you don't get that gig, yes, you can work on your voices, but you know, they have in their mind what they want.
They will remember you for another show. They'll they'll remember you for another voice. They keep files. Casting always does. And we think, you know, that voice actually would fit here. So, just keep going and um and enjoy what you do. Really have fun with it. I have a little bonus question for you. Can you tell us what your five favorite voiceover jobs have been? Uh yeah, I don't um can they be acting and voiceover kind of Sure. Sure. together.
Okay. Um because I have a All right. So I have my um I don't think I could swear, but it's a badass board. And so um as an actor, we always have kind of like imposter syndrome or we're not quite sure. Even though I've been doing this for 20 years, I forget. And so I wrote down like some of my achievements. So I'll just tell you a few of those is that I love I love it so much. Okay. Um okay, being the original voice of Google obviously that is um I'm very proud of that and I was that was fun. Um I did a voiceover for the Emmys. That was very fun. Um I worked with Hugh Lori on Chance.
That was awesome. Very cool. Um I um I worked on Jex with Adam Divine which was super cool and Alexandra Ship. Oh, and the one that I just did, uh, which was, um, I got to play two roles in the same movie. So, I got to play an on camera FBI agent my age, and then I got to play an 87year-old, um, animated old woman, and that was really fun. So, so there's probably more. I'm I I have to look at this sometimes. cuz I think it's really important to remind ourselves that we actually do this and you know how far we've come right from studying to you know my my studying at ROD is on here too to actually doing things and um so anyway that's really kind of embarrassing but I love it I love it thank you thank you so much Lori for being here today this has been so helpful everyone watching the link to Lor's YouTube channel her socials her website and virtualvoiceover.com has some awesome free guides and resources to help you get started in voice over even more than what we covered today. I put all of those in the description below. I'm going to get the voice of Google to sign off with me on my video. I'm so excited. Do you want to sign off with me?
Yes, I do. Of course. All right. All right. We'll see you on social. See you on social. Bye. Bye. [Music]
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