James Alburger - The Art of Voice Acting

sixth edition

The Art of Voice Acting covers all aspects of the craft and business of performing voiceover. Chapters include how to get started in voiceover, performing techniques, setting up a personal recording space, voiceover demos, the basics of running a voiceover business, unions, and much more. Throughout the book are numerous contributions from some of the voiceover worlds top professionals and website URL s for additional resources and reference. Additional content can be found on the Voice Acting Academy website at AOVA.VoiceActing.com.

James R. Alburger is an award-winning producer, director, performance coach and voice actor. After a 25-year career in recording studios and television (receiving 11 Emmy Awards), he opened VoiceActing, LLC and The Voice Acting Academy. He teaches workshops on performing voiceover, voices a variety of audio projects and is an expert in personal, professional studio design and audio production for radio, location sound recording and audio post-production for film and video. He also provides coaching for companies of all sizes, using his voice acting techniques to teach business professionals how to be more effective communicators.

sixth edition

The Craft and Business of Performing Voiceover

James R. Alburger

Sixth edition published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 James R. Alburger

The right of James Alburger to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Front and back cover images Digital Juice
Conductor image James R. Alburger, VoiceActing, LLC

First edition published by Focal Press 1999
Second edition published by Focal Press 2002
Third edition published by Focal Press 2007
Fourth edition published by Focal Press 2011
Fifth edition published by Routledge 2014

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-1-138-39160-4 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-39161-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42263-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Arial and Footlight by James R. Alburger

Publisher's Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the author.

Visit www.AOVA.VoiceActing.com for additional resources, audio recordings, and content from previous editions.

This edition is dedicated

To those who use their voice to tell stories. Whether you are behind a microphone, on camera, on stage, or in the boardroom your ability to communicate effectively makes a difference in the lives of people everywhere.

Voice acting is the performing craft of creating believable characters, in interesting relationships, telling compelling stories, using only the spoken word.

Mastering and applying the skills of voice acting will take your personal and professional communication to an entirely new level of effectiveness.

James R. Alburger

Many people stand at the microphone.

But relatively few take to the mic as if it were a canvas and are true artists.

For more about James Alburger and The Art of Voice Acting, visit our websites:

VoiceActing.com
VoiceActingStudios.com
JamesAlburger.com

James R. Alburger

The origins of this book go back to the mid 1970s . 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 didnt 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, youll 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 fluxand 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, theres 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 interpretationhow 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 youll find dozens of tools and techniques that are essential for success in this area of show businesssome of which you wont 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 dont focus on how I did it, or go into boring stories of my voiceover career. No Ill show you how you can do it! Every story and every technique youll read in this book is here for a reasonto 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 thattools 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, youll 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 wont use every performance tool all the time, and some may not work for you at all. Thats 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, youll be ahead of the game.