VOICEOVER ARTIST MOVIE TRAILERS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Movie trailer work is a very specific type of work for a voiceover artist. There’s narration of many kinds – radio commercials, TV commercials, commercial animation, feature films — but movie trailers require a very specific skill.

What is the “feel” of the spot? You’ll need to figure that out.

If they’re going for comedy, you’ll deliver a different read than you would for a thriller or a love story or an action adventure. Start reading it and see how it feels.

The pacing is very important. It’s important not to speak too quickly. Every word needs to be sold. For a scary movie, you want to build unbearable tension. If it’s a love story, we all want to make it feel very nice. Disney is “very happy,” in an upper register. Doing movie trailers requires the ability to work on a number of different levels.

Interpreting the copy is important — looking at it and seeing what kind of film it is, what kind of read you may try on this when you’re recording it.

The second thing you should do is become comfortable with the copy. Look over the copy and try approaching it from different angles.

If there’s a sentence that says, “if there’s one film you’ll see this year,” play with that line. Try delivering it slowly and dramatically: “If there’s ONE film you’ll see this year…Or you might try a casual approach.

Just get comfortable with it; try it a few times.

Then you need to be able to deliver it. You can’t waste their time, so if there’s no voiceover direction given you need to have a specific idea in mind of what you’re going to do.

SELL it, but without “selling” it. You need to give them EVERYTHING while at the same time giving them nothing. That’s a bit of a trick!

That’s one of the directions I was given by one trailer house: “Give me everything, but give me nothing.I didn’t understand that immediately, but now I always think about then when voicing movie trailers..

Movie trailers aren’t easy for voiceover artists to break into. But for those of us who love voicing movie trailers, it’s worth it.

Whether you audition for movie trailers you cast movie trailers, I hope this helps.

Just remember those three things:

1. Interpret the copy.

2. Get to know the copy.

3. Try it from all sorts of different ways… and when it comes to speak into the microphone, SELL it. But don’t sell it.