Voiceover Demo Reel

This week we turn to voiceover reels: what should your VO reel look (well… sound) like? Do you need a professionally produced reel or can you create one at home?

Do you really need to have a VO reel?

The answer is yes, if you want to work in voiceover, you do need to have a VO Reel. Without it, casting will have no idea how you sound and when you submit for projects, they’ll be much less likely to request an audition from you without proof of your previous work. Your reel is your best marketing tool as a Voiceover artist. The good news is you can absolutely create your own VO reel at home; in fact, many working VO actors' reels consist of material they’ve specifically created for their demo, so that they can have greater control in how they showcase their abilities. Creating a reel from your own set up can still yield incredibly professional results—in fact, many VO actors record work, especially audiobook or narration jobs, in home studios. See this as a great opportunity to improve your home recording studio for higher quality auditions or any VO gigs that ask you to record from home. When you create your own reel, you get to choose what you want to say and what kind of characters you want to feature, allowing you to show off work that really puts your best foot forward. 

So, what should be in your VO reel?

It depends on what kind of work you want to book. You should have a separate reel for each genre you want to perform, such as video game/animation, commercial, audiobook narration, and corporate/educational narration (think e-learning or training videos). If you want to focus on character work in animations and video games, your reel should feature the range of characters you can do and emotions you can play. If you want to work in commercials, you should showcase a few different types of commercial voiceover, with a range in subject matter and tone. Having a separate reel for each genre makes everything more streamlined & professional (though they’re fun, a commercial casting director doesn’t need to hear your quirky character voices and vice versa). 

If you’ve done a lot of VO work already, and have enough recordings to compile into a reel, you can absolutely create your reel from that. Especially if your work is animation/video game based, you can create a “performance reel,” showing short videos from each project (whereas a normal VO demo reel would just be audio). Place your biggest and most exciting work at the front. If you want to go above and beyond, you can make a performance reel AND a demo reel that showcases more range from your previously existing professional projects.

If you don’t have enough previous VO work or prefer making a reel with your own demo clips, that’s absolutely achievable!! Start by deciding what kind of characters, vocal tones, and genres you want to showcase. You can use copy from previously existing media, find mock VO copy online, hire a demo writer, or try writing your own copy. Take your time with each recording; private coaching with our Actorsite teachers is a great way to go over your material and make sure you’re really happy with your performance.

If you don’t want to go the DIY route, another option is to use a professional voiceover demo reel creation service. They’ll consult with you on what kind of voices & scripts you want to spotlight, direct you through your recordings, and edit it all together. However, these kinds of services can be very expensive (and with research and hard work you can get a similar result at home) so it’s only best if you have the funds to invest.

Editing the Final Product

Once you’ve got all your footage compiled or audio recorded, it’s time to put your reel together. Include 10-20 seconds of each clip, just enough to highlight your talent without losing casting’s attention. Show off your range, featuring a variety of characters, genres, and vocal styles. Use editing software like Audacity to smooth out the transitions and normalize the volume for a seamless & professional sound. You can mix in music and sound effects from royalty-free sound libraries—and it is common for VO demo reels to include music/sound effects so casting can imagine what your performance could look like in a real production. If editing isn’t your strong suit and you have the cash to spare, you can always pay an editor to put your reel together in an exciting & polished way. 

PRO TIP: If you want to learn how to edit your own material at an industry-standard, keep an eye out for our Audacity Editing intensives, taught by BAFTA-nominated VO actor Valerie Lohman!! This is an excellent and important skill for any voice over artist to have, allowing you to record high quality audio from home and produce your own work.

Another great option to get demo clips is to our unique Ongoing Voiceover Class with a Demo Clip. You’ll work on both commercial and animation scripts, receiving personalized feedback on how you can improve over the course of 4 weeks. At the end of class, you’ll submit a final recording for professional editing, including equalization, compression, and mastering. You can keep taking the class (with new material to work on each time) and continue building your portfolio!

Overall

Voiceover demo reels are an industry-standard and the best thing to market yourself as a VO performer. If you don’t have one yet and want to watch your voiceover career soar, now is the time to make one—whether that’s with previous performance clips, at-home demo recordings, professionally produced demo material, or in our Ongoing Voiceover Demo Clip class.