Voice Acting

Okay, so I've been holding off blogging for a long time, both on this personal blog, and with fictional blogs in any of the Mythoi I've been writing for. And I know it's infuriating to people who I work with on world building like the people in the Holders Series or Acelegin and his Danielverse, and I have one semi-good reason for it.

Voice acting, voice-over work, what have you. Let me tell you that, even with the almost euphoric release of emotions that venting through writing gives me, my lifelong dream is to be a voice actor of some caliber. Work with the likes of Dee Bradley Baker, John DiMaggio, Tom Kenny, etc. So, basically, I've been taking a good deal of roles right now, I've been doing read-throughs of blogs, working in audio drama, and auditioning for as much as possible so I can gain experience, money, and most importantly... more experience.

I've been in a handful of stage performances, two of which (one is Geoffrey Chaucer's Flying Circus and the other is It's A Wonderful Life) I've played the main secondary character, but it's not enough to come even close to getting enough experience to put enough emotion into voice.

I have done voice acting before. A lot of the vocal work I've done has, sadly, not been released to the public.

Roles, like Joseph and Brall in Resident Evil- The Parody and The Red Wolf, respectively, have been part of works that have not been released to the general public, save maybe an episode. Roles like Constable Christopher Franklin in Blackburn Gaslight Adventures hasn't come out yet and are still mixing, and I'm still trying out for works like Bluebeard, Complete Isolation, Scarlet Soul and probably whatever I can find. One role, Antonio Migliosi from Jim Nolan, P.I., I did the work for but fell sadly short in mic quality (no pop filter, and my computer caused a whining noise in everything at the time), so I was replaced and for good reason. So hopefully, in about a year or two's time I will have enough experience, money, and confidence to enter the risky world of voice over artistry.

There are, of course, a few problems with that.

A.) Schooling and Other Work- I am still in high school, and I haven't put that much forward to the idea of college. Of course, voice-over artists don't get their whole income through voice acting, and the few who do like Tom Kenny didn't start off that way. I need to get scholarships or do work or at least take a year or two of community college before I start out. Of course, on VAA, there ARE paying works I can do, and places like Kroger, McDonalds, and Wal-Mart are all places that hire fairly easily for hard, diligent work.

B.) Location- I live in Ohio. Not in the middle of the sticks or in Wyoming or up in Alaska or the Yukon, mind, but it's still far away from the major hubs of voice acting activity (New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver). The closest cities that have a good number of voice acting opportunities are, in order from closest to farthest, are Richmond, Toronto, and Chicago, and they are ALL at least three hours away. If I have to move instead of take the occasional flight down to do a single episode or a single audition, or just set up a recording studio in my home instead of flying out there, it's going to definitely require I get genuine schooling and get a hell of a lot of money.

C.) Experience- I don't have much in this regard. Yeah, I have about ten or so stageplays under my belt, and I have done work, both released and otherwise, official and otherwise, paying and otherwise, in voice, but it's simply not enough. It's not enough to fill a demo tape or two, which I need to send to talent agents who I need to find roles within my range.

Of course, I'll keep writing for the Fear Mythos, but I'm taking a break, possibly short, possibly longer, until I find my foothold in voice acting or not. I'm doing work within the Fear Mythos, too, from writing my own audio drama scripts to doing read-throughs of Alliterator's blogs, doing the voice of a private detective in Pandora/Espequin/I-Don't-Even-Know-Anymore's Reaper Series, and I'm eventually going to do things like read the Drayton Files, or perhaps OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING.

But baby steps.

Eventually.