in a world

Mike and I recently watched "In a World" starring Lake Bell who also wrote and directed the movie. It's the story of Carol, an underachieving voice coach who's trying to make it as a voice talent despite the lack of support from his father, who is the king of movie trailer voice-overs.

The title alone is already quirky - "in a world" is such a popular line, thanks to Don La Fontaine, and voice over talents usually try their best to capture the way he delivered it.

The movie was a fun watch for Mike and I, both of us being voice over talents, because we found ourselves relating to many of the scenes. I could especially relate to how Carol was always trying to prove her skill, because I often find myself in such predicament, despite having done several ads and voicing many shows already over the years.

You see, I don't have the deep, husky, bedroom-ish voice that casters usually look for in female voice overs. My voice is a little more high-pitched, and I guess this is why I often find myself doing character roles - like an office clerk, weather girl, or a student - instead of landing major announcer jobs, which are more "bida" and I think pays more since they mention the brand and carry the product more than all the other talents in the ad. When I was doing voice overs for TV shows, I would always land jobs for variety shows or entertainment talk shows, but would never pass auditions for a channel's main voice.

Doing this job for so many years already, I've already found my groove and I know where my strength lies. I know what kinds of jobs would suit my voice, and I know what my limitations are (like I don't have a hundred voices like some really talented people I know!) Thankfully, I still get great projects that make up for those times that I get turned down, or worse, accepted and then replaced.

Being a good voice over talent is more than having a nice voice though. Like for commercials, you have know how to act and interpret the copy; and for live voice-over gigs, you have to be able to think on your feet in case you're asked to adlib. You have to understand the phrasing and tone that would work for the job. And hey, not all deep/husky/bedroom voiced talent can do that! Haha :D 

Moreover, what I've learned is that whatever project I get, it's not just about how good I will sound, but how clearly I'm able to get the message across to the audience.

I scoured Youtube to see if I have some work that have been uploaded and luckily I found some :) Here's when I was doing pinch hit VO work for defunct entertainment news show SNN.

This one's a TV plug that aired on The Filipino Channel. Hello, pang-global kaya boses ako hahaha!

Oh how I love doing VOs! I hope this post attracts more projects my way! :D