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My 7 Step Voiceover Audition Process

About Voice Over, audio, voiceover, Voiceover Auditions, voices

A colleague of mine once said to me “The job of a Voiceover Talent is to wake up every day and voiceover audition.” Well, I’m terrible at my job. I do not audition often. My career as a voiceover talent has never been about auditioning. It has always been about marketing, personal relationships, and internet sales. But I do voiceover audition from time to time. And I do land some of those auditions. This was one of those times.

Sometime in May (2019), I auditioned for a voiceover for Publix. I have auditioned for Publix many times in my career. I have landed one and been put on hold for several more. As with all auditions, I recorded it in my home studio and forgot it. A few weeks later I received an email from my agent in Atlanta, Jeffrey Umberger, that I was on hold for the job. (On hold means that they are considering multiple talents that may fit what they are looking for.) I let Jeffrey know my availability and again went back to marketing and promoting.

Auditioning is very different from the style of marketing that I do. While some talent have found success in both auditions and marketing strategy, for me, who is not much of a multitasker, I prefer marketing. I feel more assured when I can speak to people and find out exactly what they are looking for as opposed to sending my voice off into the interwebs and hoping that what I said and how I said it was exactly what they want. Auditioning is a guessing game and a numbers game at the same time. It’s definitely a competitive sport also, except in this competition, my livelihood is at stake.

Also, I have always thought of what I do as a business and not just me being a freelance talent. 95% of the work I have gotten in my career was based on business and not doing some voiceover audition or relying on agents. Had I had to rely on agents, this voiceover thing may have been reduced to a hobby. I guess that’s why I never felt comfortable betting on auditioning, in spite of the fact that I am a talented capable voice actor.

My 7 Step Voiceover Audition Process

When I do audition, I have a process. I have shared this process in classes that I have taught but I will share some of it here for free. I start with a dry read. Having never seen the script before, I read it out loud. Having done voiceover for 15 years now, my dry reads are pretty darn good and usually have no errors. Also, my experience in live announcing also helps. For me, the purpose of saying it out loud for the first time is just to get it out of my head without prejudicing myself about what it should sound like. At this stage, there is no perfection.

My second read is to iron out any kinks in my dry read. It’s kind of a dry read but better. Throughout this process, I am recording these reads and I listen back to all of my reads as they get better. My goal is to reach 7 reads before I take any of them seriously. On the road to the seven reads is the 3rd and 4th which I use to help me memorize the lines.

Memorizing The Lines In The Audition

Memorization helps me feel that I am doing more than just reading lines. When you don’t know the material, it shows in the read. By my fifth read, I remember the lines and give it another try and I often have what I call an “AH HAH Moment.” This is not to be confused with a “Haha Moment.” The Ah Hah moment is when you have a realization about the script. It’s when you start to see the interpretation of the script differently.

My Ah-Hah Moment

My sixth read is where I lay down my Ah-hah moment read. It’s where I play with the words. After memorizing it and seeing it differently, I begin to own the copy and inject my personality into it. By the 7th read, I perfect the audition. This is the one I should go with. Sometimes I do more than seven reads though. Some scripts are more difficult than others. Other times I have more playing to do with the copy and have even more Ah-hah moments.

And sometimes I just project myself with different moods. Maybe a sad mood read or a read where it is really outrageous sounding. It’s not that I think they will pick that read, but they will see that I can read copy well in case they need to make changes in the script when we do the real record.

Don’t Obsess Over Your Voiceover Auditions. Edit & Send

From there I start editing. I don’t second guess myself in the editing process. Whatever I have already recorded is what I am going with. My process does not include re-recording. I only edit at this point. I use some lite compression and other tools that clean up the sound a bit but never anything that is too noticeable.

There is a lot that goes into voiceover auditions and the number of steps for me is just one of them. Figuring out how to connect with my target audience is important too. But this kind of thinking is how I landed this voiceover audition and others in the past. It probably doesn’t hurt that I have a great voice too.

Listen To The Voiceover Audition That Got Me The Job Below —–>>>

      Publix_Aprons_Mark_DaneReid_UmbergerAgency

Filed Under: About Voice Over, audio, voiceover, Voiceover Auditions, voices Tagged With: Atlanta Voice Over, Home voice over studio, Jeffrey Umberger, Networking, Top Rated African American Voice Talent, Voice Actor, Voice Over Agencies, Voice Over Audition, Voice Over Professional, Voice Talent, voiceover, voiceover career

Milledgeville Film Festival Voiceover Panel w/ Jeffrey Umberger, Widdi Turner, September Day & Tony Messano

About Voice Over, Interviews & Insight, Voiceover Events

Milledgeville Film Festival 2019

When I got the email from my agent Jeffrey Umberger to be on a panel, I had to check to make sure that he had sent it out to the right person. Lol. I have seen Jeffrey moderate and participate in panels many time from SCAD to VO Atlanta to That’s Voiceover and each time he has asked me “Why weren’t you on that panel?” I have been on panels before although not many. I have taught a few voiceover classes and have a few voiceover students but I mostly focus my attention on being a voiceover talent myself and finding and maintaining voiceover work. But when your agent ask you to be part of his panel, you say “Yes!”

And then you type the address into your GPS and you realize that the panel is at 11 am on a Saturday at a location that is 2.5 hours away. The Milledgeville Film Festival was only in it’s thrid year and this panel would be the first representing voiceover. It included myself, Tony Messano, Widdi Turner and September Day Carter. September and I had never actually met but felt like we had. We’re connected through facebook so it feels like we had.

Jeffrey moderated the hour long panel in which we discussed our different career paths, rates, projects and what it is like finding work and maintaining a voiceover business. When the session wrapped up, the fun continues at a local eatery where we further discussed finding opportunities and life around being a voice talent. September is a mom and also a wife to a fellow working voice actor and Tony is a blessed grandfather who enjoys his grandchildren when he’s not in the studio. It was just an all around great time getting to know them and well worth the 5 hours in the car traveling back and forth to Milledgeville.

Note: If you go to the Milledgeville Film Festival website, pay no attention to the picture of me. Lol That’s Tony

Filed Under: About Voice Over, Interviews & Insight, Voiceover Events Tagged With: Jeffrey Umberger, millegeville film festival, september day carter, tony messano, widdi turner

VO Agent Jeffrey Umberger- What Books Voiceover Work?

About Voice Over, Blog, Demos, Interviews & Insight

Voiceover Agent Jeffrey UmbergerHe’s one of the Southeast premiere voiceover agents, representing over 400 talents from celebrity voices to voiceover bloggers like myself. His agency fields auditions for jobs from Publix, to Walking Dead to Network promos and he does it without breaking a sweat. In fact Jeffrey Umberger runs his Atlanta based Umberger Agency almost entirely by himself, and still has time to appear locally and nationally on panels to dish out expert advice on the voiceover industry.

To say Jeffrey Umberger has an ear for voiceover would be an understatement. He is one of the most known, respected and talented agents around. And he’s done this all without a New York or L.A. office which is pretty remarkable. Jeffrey has a great ear which he developed while at another agency directing talent.
Jeffrey Umber With Dane ReidI interviewed Jeffrey Umberger at his home last year in Atlanta. We sat down and he gave me the inside scoop on how to land an agent, what components of a demo catch agents and clients attention and what helps clients book actual jobs.
Jeffrey and his expert advice are everywhere. Earlier this year he was a panelist at VO Atlanta 2014. He regularly appears as a panelist around Atlanta, does some coaching and teaches VO business success classes. Additionally he is a featured agent at the “That’s Voiceover” Career Expo in New York and will be appearing at Randy Thomas’s Voiceover Mastery Event in Ft. Myers Fl.
To top it off Jeffrey is a really nice and humble guy. Whether you are one of his top booking talent or someone who has no idea how to get started in voiceover, he relates everyone on the same level. That in itself is a talent and is the reason he has been so successful in finding the industry’s best voiceover talent.
The Umberger Agency- Representing voice actors in the US, Great Britain, and Canada, including Jasmine Guy, Tony Dow of Leave It To Beaver, Grammy winner Lee Greenwood, Dustin Diamond of Saved By The Bell, Karen Grier of 11 Alive News and more.  Owner Jeffrey Umberger was a Casting Producer on 2 seasons of DIY Network’s hit show ‘MEGA DENS’. He once did some scouting for the Television series ‘COLLECTOR INSPECTOR’ on HGTV, and ‘BREATHING ROOM’ on Fine Living Network. He later began working in commercial casting with Casting Director Kris Redding. It was after this that Jeffrey began his career as a talent agent. Jeffrey now owns Umberger Agency, with one of the most respected Voice-Over talent rosters in the country. As a Voice-Over Agent, Jeffrey has placed talent with Tyler Perry’s ‘HOUSE OF PAYNE’, ‘LOVE THY NEIGHBOR’, ‘THE HAVES AND HAVE NOTS’, ‘SINGLE LADIES’ on VH1, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, DIY Network, The Food Network, Fine Living Network, The Cooking Channel, and Georgia Public Broadcasting, among others.

Jeffrey Will Be At The VO Mastery Event Presented By Randy Thomas. You Can Catch Him There

Jeffrey Umberger At The VO Mastery Event

Check Out Jeff rey At “Thats Voiceover” In NYC Also

Jeffrey Umberger At Thats Voiceover

The Umberger Agency Represent Dane Reid As A Voiceover Talent

jeffrey@umbergeragency.com

http://www.umbergeragency.com

Filed Under: About Voice Over, Blog, Demos, Interviews & Insight Tagged With: Atlanta Voice Over, Booking Voiceover Work, Jeffrey Umberger, Voice Actor, Voice Over Professional, Voice Talent, Walking Dead

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