Airlift Productions’ VO session in progress with Steve Blaze of Lillian Axe fame at the hot mic
Of all the audio jobs produced at Airlift Productions, I enjoy creating Voice and VoiceOver Demos the most.
Whether working with a ‘newbie’ or a veteran, taking the written word on a page and using all the tricks in my audio producer’s bag to bring it to life, to create ART, is indeed an art unto itself.
And today in 2023 the Voice Demo runs the gamut – from commercial to animation, video games to the medical field, and from industrial narration to audio books.
Still today affectionately called a “reel”, I’ve seen the demo go from reel-to-reel tape… to audio cassette… to compact disc… to digital wav file and mp3.
Yet through all the technological changes, the heart of the art remains the same —
The copy has to ‘sing’, the reads have to be spot-on, music selection and editing, along with proper equalization, compression, reverberation, and normalization remain paramount.
Art, unlike science (although there is a helluva lot of science involved here), is indeed a very subjective call. And what is art to one … is shite to another.
The call here is obviously up to the reader of this blog.
Enter Exhibit A – JOHN DENNEY.
When Denney first rang my phone, he’d found my website in a Google search, had experience behind a microphone – he founded the Weirdos, an LA-based punk band in the ’80s – had moved here to NOLA, and had never done a commercial in his life.
I said, “Well, John, we’ll change all that!”
And change it we did. It began with a commercial demo (heard here); after he landed his first job within two weeks of production, he subsequently returned to produce an animation demo… and a medical demo.
** JOHN DENNEY VOICEOVER DEMO **
Enter Exhibit B – RACHEL WULFF.
A longtime television news anchor and reporter, Rachel had moved to town, had been in New Orleans about ten years, and was looking to exit the local TV scene and begin self-employment as a VoiceOver artist.
Again, like John Denney, she had a lot of on-camera and on-mic experience, but Rachel had no commercial background.
She does now.
** RACHEL WULFF VOICEOVER DEMO **
Enter Exhibit C – MARY ROSE NEUMEYER.
Mary Rose was all of fourteen years old, had studied acting for some five years, done some on-camera things, but was looking to spread her wings into the VoiceOver field.
After a brief pre-production meeting, we collaborated on some copy, I then coached her through all the reads and edited her demo.
It captures promo pieces as well as commercial copy, and I’d have to say, for a “newbie”, she states her case for an on-mic job most eloquently.
** MARY ROSE NEUMEYER VOICEOVER DEMO **
Finally, an entry from yours truly.
Enter Exhibit D.
As I pursue the AudioBook field, I’ve compiled a demo targeted at this particular audience; a demonstration recording completely different from the shorter commercial ones.
It also differs from the previous demos, which were “manufactured” and produced from scratch, in that this demo is actually from a product being currently sold and marketed.
So, in this case, the demo is more of a ‘sampler’.
What follows here are actual excerpts from “Murder In Coweta County”, a true crime drama that took place in 1940s Georgia and shocked the nation.
Think ‘The Sopranos’ gone south! With mysticism, race, murder, and the police all thrown into one big gumbo….
** MICHEAL ZIANTS AudioBook DEMO **
Commercial, AudioBooks, Industrial, Animation, Video Games, the Voice Demo in 2023 sure does cover a lot of ground.
Er, ah… make that “air”.
And make no mistake. Evoking this kind of emotion is an ART.
Or is it a science?
OK, how about BOTH?
Well, whatever you want to call it…
Call on Airlift Mike and Airlift Productions to book yours.
**********************************************************
“For voice over actors, the demo serves as a calling card and is unquestionably the most important tool in the pursuit of voice over work. Mike Ziants and Airlift PROductions produced my first VO demo and within weeks I landed my first job in the industry. Airlift’s state-of-the-art recording studio combined with Mike’s wisdom and expertise provided me with an excellent demo as well as the confidence needed to achieve success.” ~ JOHN DENNEY, Founder/Lead Singer of the notorious LA-based punk band The Weirdos … and relatively new VoiceOver Artist
*****************************************************************
Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy & Digital Magic from New Orleans since 1984
