Voice Acting and Other Dream Careers

[quasimopho13]

Just out of curiousity, has anyone ever considered (or currently pursuing/already doing) a career in voice acting? I'm wondering about people's experiences. Also feel free to share your own dream jobs.

For me, it's always been a dream job that I will never likely act on (I'm terrible at it/don't have the heart for the volatile career. Though, I did acting growing up starting around age 9).

I read the book Voiceover Voice Actor by Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt. There was a lot of good stuff in there on what it takes to get into the field (making the $2,000 demo, auditioning ALOT, understanding voice acting terms, etc.)

Voice acting seems to have a lot of similarities with camera or theatre acting (a lot of deadication, willingness to put yourself on the line, and working other jobs until you can support yourself financially on acting).

There seem to be many differences too like conveying an entire character through a voice, having the script right in front of you and understanding how to record in a studio.

There seem to be a lot of trade-offs when pursuing the arts versus more stable careers (such as doing your ideal job vs financial stability in a steady job). If your dream job happens to be one that is stable, it seems you're set.

Though sometimes you can find stability in jobs that typically don't include this (Dee Baker did so with voice acting).

Seems you can find just as much fulfillment, even if you don't pursue a dream career though (through things like family and hobbies)

What are your thoughts? Have any of you considered this field or other dream jobs

Edited August 12, 2016 by quasimopho13

[Alex95]

I've always wanted to get into voice acting. I have a deep voice, so I've been told I would make a good bad or big guy. I would like to try out for Blazing Sword's Hector if I can find the chance

Though, like you said, it does take a bit or work to do professionally. You'd have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and really express yourself in your voices (if that's already your comfort zone, good on you!) Don't sell yourself short, though. If it's something you really want to do, then keep doing it!

As for my dream job, I'm kind of already doing it: Making games. Though it's not exactly "big" at the moment. Or a job. I currently have openings for VAs in my game

Edited August 12, 2016 by Power Master

[quasimopho13]

Awesome man! What game are you working on or is it confidential? If you have a deep voice, you could probably play the cool tough characters like Travis Willingham, Chris Sabat and Patrick Seitz (though Patrick Seitz has a more "badass" than "cool" quality. Hell, you may even get unique roles based on if your voice sounds very different like Beast Boy's voice actor (forget his name)

[ErrantDShepherd]

Gotta keep the hopes and dreams alive no matter what. :)

I would love to do voice acting. I have been told I have an excellent radio voice... and I do voices and impersonations pretty well in general.

[Emerson]

I would absolutely love to, and I've been told more than once I'm a good actor vocally, but I have a thing with my respiratory system that prevents me from doing such things. I used to be able to do decent impressions and such, but my voice is kinda eh now.

Edited August 22, 2016 by TrueEm

[Bullwine85]

I've been told that I'd be a good voice actor, though working in a call center has helped me work on my voice a bit.

[interconnecteddream]

I'm in an acting class and we did a small segment on voice acting, actually! I had a lot of fun with it, surprisingly. We tried cartoon auditions and commercial voiceovers in a microphone. We would warm up by going around in a circle and trying to use different parts of the body to speak, such as through the nose for a nasally sound, the throat for an airier sound, and the stomach for a deeper sound. We could introduce ourselves or say something absolutely ridiculous just for the heck of it. During the first one of these I actually tried my best to imitate Laura Bailey's Lucina voice and said "IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!" and got a bunch of surprised looks because i'm usually so soft-spoken... oh my (at least i didn't go for "HOPE WILL NEVER DIE" that would have been even more blatantly obvious)

It sounds really fun to be a voice actor though. Can you imagine the fun you could have if you got as much lenience with a script like Kid Icarus Uprising? Playing Palutena must be so fun.

(Although I hear in certain companies like Funimation there's actually some prejudice towards female voice actors O:)

(And it must be very tough to do a unwell-received performance and be hounded by a bunch of weaboos and other kinds of hate... maybe that's why some voice actors never openly state their roles?)

[TheGoodHoms]

Voice Acting is a dream I intend to one day come true for me. I'm still not quite where I need to be to actually being my pursuit, but I'll be there soon enough. I've participated in theatrical performances before giving me at least a little experience because any kind of acting is good to have under your belt. Plus lots of people enjoy my impressions of characters from movies and games and say I would make a good voice actor.

Speaking of impressions....

[spoiler=List based on fact]World's best Gollum voices
1.Andy Serkis
2.Liam O'Brien
3.Myself

P.S. To get some good practice I recommend cold reading, take a script you've never heard before and make voices for the characters on your own.

[Original Alear]

My ideas of dream jobs are probably kind of weird. I'd probably rather work in a call center than as a voice actor, because I interact with a large quantity of people and get brief summaries of situations. It's interesting and I end up thinking a fair amount. I'm returning to school now while I work and looking for a more lucrative career, but it's been a fun time, somehow, even though that probably makes me crazy.

A more typical job I'd probably really enjoy is something related to scientific research on aquatic organisms. It doesn't have to be sharks or dolphins - shoving a box into the ground and spending all day counting how many of different species of worm are in your sample is fun, too. I haven't done that on a professional level. Being in or around water when doing science stuff adds something for me, somehow.

Edited September 9, 2016 by HELP

[Bullwine85]

My ideas of dream jobs are probably kind of weird. I'd probably rather work in a call center than as a voice actor, because I interact with a large quantity of people and get brief summaries of situations. It's interesting and I end up thinking a fair amount. I'm returning to school now while I work and looking for a more lucrative career, but it's been a fun time, somehow, even though that probably makes me crazy.

A more typical job I'd probably really enjoy is something related to scientific research on aquatic organisms. It doesn't have to be sharks or dolphins - shoving a box into the ground and spending all day counting how many of different species of worm are in your sample is fun, too. I haven't done that on a professional level. Being in or around water when doing science stuff adds something for me, somehow.

Also depends on the call center, have had two call center job, as the job can drive you insane, but in different ways,

For instance:

Working customer service for a certain cable company taught me to hate that company.

Working as a business consultant for a credit card company has not taught me to hate that company, it taught me to not like certain customers.

[Original Alear]

Also depends on the call center, have had two call center job, as the job can drive you insane, but in different ways,

For instance:

Working customer service for a certain cable company taught me to hate that company.

Working as a business consultant for a credit card company has not taught me to hate that company, it taught me to not like certain customers.

I answer for dr's ofcs after hours, don't really give any advice or do higher level decision making - just work as a cog, mostly. Some dr's can be assholes but most are generally pretty cool. Some patients can be jerks but most are pretty cool. The nurses, receptionists, and other more "support" level staff are almost always really great to work with and talk to. In fact, I've been working here for about a year, and until about july or august, I would have said they were always great. Edited September 11, 2016 by HELP

[Thor Odinson]

When I was younger, I wanted to be an artist professionally. I suppose that would be a dream job for my younger self.

I didn't go to art school, though. Art as a profession is extremely competitive to get into, art school is expensive as fuck, and at 17 I knew the direction I want to take with my art. I feel art school, at that point, wouldn't help me much except give me some mandated practice time, especially since I had private art lessons for years. At the same time, I also really liked math and I felt it's a waste if I just stopped doing math with my aptitude in it. I'm also on the computer a lot, so I thought, why not do something that is basically do math on a computer? And then I ended up doing computer science.

Compsci ends up being the best decision I made. Although it was tough going into an accelerated program with only knowledge of how to make static html pages, I ended up loving code once I got past the learning curve. I also really like learning about algorithms. I actually ended up doing a stint as a paid and contracted artist for a company part time during undergrad, and then I got an internship at a tech company as a front-end developer, which I stayed at after getting my masters in CS.

It turns out, that professionally, I prefer programming to art significantly.

I enjoy making art, but during my time as a contracted artist I felt I wasn't able to create to the best of my abilities, because I had to draw whatever was asked of me. I enjoy art a lot more when I drew things that interested me on a personal level, and doing it for the money only really stifled my creativity. As a programmer, I tackle each task like solving a problem and it didn't matter if I wasn't emotionally invested in the task, it didn't impact my performance. It's also really satisfying watching shit I made work at the end of putting everything together.

Also it pays well.

So now even if you offer me an artist job I probably wouldn't take it, even though it was my dream job as a teenager.

[Nym]

I'm in theater right now (studies). Voice acting is an option where I live but it's very hard to get the job (like more complex).

And I also heard that in Europe is cost less money here than in Canada :(.

But hey, maybe something will happens.

[Ki11erpenguin]

For me creating video games would be a dream job. I'm the kind of person who is almost incapable of doing productive work if it isn't something I enjoy, and I'm passionate about video games, I just need to find a discount way to learn how to do it...

[TriforceP]

My dream job is being an actual actor. I was a drama guy in high school, and have done a ton of plays both before and since. Though I doubt that'll ever actually happen :P
As for voice acting, I've done it for a YouTube channel one of my friends writes for, and may do it if I ever get the animated series on my channel off the ground, but I have such a hard time keeping a particular voice going that I doubt I'd get hired on to be a professional.

[SimpleTactician]

It's really interesting seeing everyone's dream job. As for me, I'm unfortunately at "that" age, when you can't decide what the heck to do in the future.

R.I.P in deep voice, I don't have one. I swear that most of the time I sound like an excited 10 year-old. Also, I can't shut up. I talk all the time.

But back to dream jobs. I don't have a passion for anything? Everything's just... neat to me. Nothing pops out that really grasps me. But if you have an unbridled love for a job, then go for it. Might as well do something you really enjoy and be slightly less than well-off than doing something you don't like and be slightly more than well-off.

tl;dr Don't let your dreams be dreams