Greeting Demo...opinions please!

Kathleen Oakley

Hi Everyone,
My mother set me up and account and I recorded a greeting for 'Our Company'. I dont really have any traning, but I like my voice and feel I can succeed. Also, I am 13 years old so I hope I will get some leads Smile

Feel Free to critque my demo. Thank you all!

Sophia G.

George Karnes · **Voice Talent** Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 905

Kathleen-
What is up with the 13 year olds. You are the second one showing up in a week.

Unfortunately for us old timers, you have a really good voice. You will need to work on the way you highlight certain words. You are over emphasizing some and under emphasizing others. A lot of that will come with practice.

I am sure other pros here will give you more advice.

Welcome,

George

Keith D. Milby · **Voice Talent** Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 570

What HE ^^^^ said.

I would certainly say though, you got a nack.

Robert Jadah · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 2627

Hi Sophia:
That was awfully nice of your mother.
I'm not going to say anything about your recording there except that you have a sweet voice.
I wish you lots of luck.
But, unfortunately, it's kind of like school. (Hey!Stop making faces like that).
What I mean is that you MUST study to get anywhere in voiceover.
A real good start would be to go right to the beginning of the voiceover Idol thread here and listen and read and listen and read.
Then listen and read some more.
Then ask your Mom for the James Allburger book on voiceover. It's mentioned a lot on these pages. It's very readable for a 13 year-old.
And practice, practice, practice.
I know it's boring to hear, but Ol' Uncle Bobby says nothing comes easy. There's just no way you will get any leads just by recording something like that.
So start your voice schooling now.
Voice On!

Joe J Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 1521

George Karnes · **Voice Talent** Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 905

I just noticed that Joe. I think she was undercover.

LOL

Lynne Alston · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Posts: 743

Hello kathleen, I could not agree more to the suggestions above. Still being new myself, I can tell you it takes a lot of homework to even come close to being able to submit a halfway decent audition.

George is right about choosing the right words to emphasize, the book that might help you most in understanding why certain words are chosen is
"How to read copy" by Adrian Cronauer, have a look at your local library, if they dont have it, ask them to order it.

Good luck.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007, 03:57 (GMT) Post subject:

Am I missing something here? Why is everyone calling her Sophia? I thought it was Kathleen?

Okay Kathleen/Sophia/whoever you are... Let me say that you've got a good start! You have a VERY good voice for your age. You'll get lots of comments about ultimately needing to get some real equipment and training and experience, and all of that is true. But right now you've got the basic voice for it; pleasant tones, good diction, lack of a major accent, and in time (and I mean in several years) you probably could do well. Go into this knowing that it's a business, just as if you decided you wanted to be a gymnast. It would take years of hard work and training just to be able to go out onto the floor and compete and HOPE you might land somewhere in the top ten. Same thing here.

Right now, of course, what you have going against you is your age. There is NO market for 13 year old voices for 'on-hold' messages. But there are plenty of opportunities for good young voice actors. If you don't have any theater training yet, find a local theater that can offer it and take some acting classes this summer. Work on developing a real voice-acting ability and you can probably start picking up some jobs here and there doing children's voice spots pretty soon. Once you've received some training, and practiced a LOT, get a good, professional demo made and shop it out to as many talent agencies as you can find and slowly, little at a time, the ball will start rolling for you.

Oh, and if some grumpy old guy shows up on this thread telling you how 99+% of the people trying to do this for a living are going to fail at it, ignore him. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I think. Wink

James Turner · **Voice Talent** Joined: 14 May 2005 Posts: 26

Kathleen, good job.

Here's a good VO practice link for you to check out, http://www.theshowreel.com/article/archive/43/, make sure to check out the contributors, Connie Terwilliger is one of them, http://www.voiceover-talent.com/index.htm, also find the book "Fox in Socks", you're well on your way, have fun.

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