Commercial Voice Over… a mere start

“I want to read commercials for radio, internet and TV and make lots of money.” Okay, nothing wrong with that but the competition is fierce. What kind of products? Cars? Food? Medical? Cosmetics? Restaurants? Sports?

If yes to all the above, first, you should know what you’re getting into. Second, practice! Third, market yourself. Back to practicing though, how are your reading skills? Read something out loud for 20 minutes every day, anything, a book, magazine, etc. After a week or two has passed, start recording yourself, and take notice of the pace you read; any words stand out need more emphasis? Is punctuation necessary? Are you telling a story or selling a product?

Now, look for newspaper clippings, ads in magazines and read them out loud as though for a commercial. Your job is sell the product to the listeners. So in the script, no matter how long or short, imagine your audience asking such questions as these: Who are you? What is the product you’re selling? Do you believe in the product? Why should I buy the product? How does this product work?

This technique is mentioned countless times, just like in the post regarding Dave Fennoy and his Video Game Acting workshop. However the questions in that post were meant to help the reader establish their characters. Here these questions are meant to help define what you, the seller, wants to say to the listener/buyer. The more you practice asking questions with your lines the more you’ll look at a script and understand how to interpret what you’re selling or sharing with listeners convincingly without writing many notes and thus developing a conversational reads.

If you’re alone, pretend someone is asking these questions. For practice, if you have a way to record yourself while reading the script and the questions, just cut the questions out of the audio once done and listen to the playback. Better yet, have a friend or family member read the questions and answer them the way you would on a conversational level.

First Example:
(SCRIPT)
What is the topic/product? Biodiversity. What does it do? It rules our oceans. But it’s threatened!
Why should I care? And that means big trouble for our life on Earth.
Oh? How is this possible? Learn why on the next Radio Expeditions special coming this October from the National Geographic Society and National Public Radio.
When? Call your local NPR station for broadcast times.

Second Example:
(SCRIPT)
Feel and See
Feel and see what? Genuine leather, Ceramic Craft and Metallic Craft. What for? The back of the all-new LG G4 has been fabricated in three cutting edge materials, each designed with an eye towards classic craftsmanship. Ok, is that all? And with 5.5” IPS Quantum QuadHD display and 16 MP camera with an f/1.8 lens underneath it all. So what does it do? It performs as beautifully as it looks.
Is it worth it? See the Great. Feel the Great.
Where can I learn more about it? Visit www.LG.com/G4

Third Example:
(SCRIPT)
What are you doing? Presenting the new Unstoppables collections with ultra-long-lasting scents. What do I do with these? Smell like the lifestyle you deserve. What are they called again? Unstoppables.

***
Do you sound like a conversational person or an announcer? If it’s the latter keep rehearsing, and asking the questions multiple times till you have a feel for the conversational. The vast majority of magazine ads are not written to read aloud like scripts for TV or radio, but if you can make them sound legit, they can make great copy for future commercial demos. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work out. It’s about practice! There’s also the option to find commercial copy online through a genuine search on google. Then pick scripts that you feel comfortable with and repeat the question exercise again.
That my friends, is the just the start.
Later discussions will include which workshops or classes to consider for commercial voice over and classes that are helpful when pursuing animation and video games.

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