Preface

James R. Alburger

The origins of this book go back to the mid 1970’s. At that time, my life revolved around my work as a part-time professional magician, my work as audio producer and director at the NBC-TV affiliate in San Diego, and my side jobs of editing music for other performers and working part-time at a local recording studio. I really didn’t have much of a social life back then!

Although I was working with voiceover talent on a daily basis, and I had an innate understanding of creating visual imagery and telling stories through the medium of sound alone, I had no idea that I would one day write a book that has become one of the standard reference works on the craft and business of voiceover.

Each edition of this book has built upon the prior editions by adding more techniques, completely updated information, and more content from many of the top professionals in this industry. In addition to this book, you’ll find a ton of supporting audio content, and much more, under the Resources menu tab on my website at VoiceActing.com. This area of my website can be reached directly at AOVA.VoiceActing.com.

The business of voiceover is one that is in a constant state of flux—and a lot has happened since the previous edition of this book was published. Although the fundamental performing techniques may be consistent, there are trends and performing styles that are constantly changing. As voice actors, we must keep up with these business trends, maintain our performing skills and adapt to a variety of changes in order to keep the work coming in. But the reality is, there’s actually a lot more to it than that.

What you hold in your hands is a manual for working in the business of voiceover that will take you from the fundamentals of performing to the essentials of marketing… and everything in-between. Most books on voiceover talk about interpretation—how to deliver phrases and analyze a script, or the book is more about the author than the craft.

This book is different!

This book was written with the intention of giving you a solid foundation in both the craft and business of voiceover. Within these pages you’ll find dozens of tools and techniques that are essential for success in this area of show business—some of which you won’t find anywhere else. With this book, you will learn exactly how to use these tools, not just in voiceover, but in everything you do. Unlike some other books on voiceover, I don’t focus on how I did it, or go into boring stories of my voiceover career. No… I’ll show you how you can do it! Every story and every technique you’ll read in this book is here for a reason—to teach you exactly how some aspect of this craft and business works, and how you can make it work for you.

The tools and techniques are just that—tools and techniques. Without understanding how to use them, they are little more than words on the page. But once you learn how to use these tools, you’ll discover that they can be used to improve relationships, get more customers, resolve problems, close more sales, make you a better actor, improve your public speaking skills, and so on. You won’t use every performance tool all the time, and some may not work for you at all. That’s fine. Find the tools and techniques that do work for you, take them, and make them your own. Create your own unique style. If you can achieve that, you’ll be ahead of the game.

This is a book about how you can communicate more effectively than you can imagine. Everything you experience in life holds an emotion that can be used to make you more effective as a voice actor. And even if you never intend to stand in front of a microphone in a recording studio, you can still use what you learn here to become a more effective communicator.

Performing voiceover is much like performing music: There is a limited number of musical notes, yet there is an almost unlimited variety of possibilities for performing those notes. The same is true with a voiceover script. Words and phrases can be delivered with infinite variety, subtlety, and nuance. A voiceover performance is, indeed, very similar to the way a conductor blends and balances the instruments of the orchestra. Your voice is your instrument, and this book will give you the tools to help you create a musical performance. You might think of voiceover as a “Symphony of Words,” or “Orchestrating Your Message,” both catch phrases I’ve used to describe the results of what we do as voice actors.