Sunday, March 4, 2012

Voice acting: how do I get a VA career in Oklahoma?

One of my favorite past-times is imitating movie/TV show/video game characters and actors, and I think that I'd like to pursue a career that I can use that talent, and I think I'd be pretty darn good at it, and have been told so by several others. My wife was the one who prompted me to look into this as a career, as I could never really find a job that felt like I was well suited for. Problem is, I have absolutely no idea how to go about it. I also live in Oklahoma, and I don't know of any studios that would make good use. Oh, sure, there's the radio and local commercials, but I'm not sure how to even get in on THOSE. I have had some experience in vocal music and acting from high school, but I didn't keep with it in college, as I WAS going for medicine, and that, as you can imagine, took up most of my time.



A list of actors/characters that I can imitate (some better than others, but it stands to reason) are as follows:



Seth McFarlane (Peter Griffin, Carter Pewterschmidt, Cleveland, Quagmire, Bruce, Brian, Stewie (that one doesn't come out quite how I'd like it to), and several other FG and AD characters)



Gideon Emery (Fenris from Dragon Age 2, Balthier from Final Fantasy XII, etc. All of his voices sound about the same)



Steve Blum (His are a little tricky, but I can do Spike from Cowboy Bebop pretty well, as well as his Dragon Age: Origins voices. Vincent Valentine is VERY gruff, and I think I'd need to smoke a bit to be able to do that one.)



Mark Meer (Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, Mikhail Dryden from Dragon Age, and a few others. He's pretty new.)



Patrick Warburton (like Gideon Emery above, most of his voices are very similar, but they include Joe Swanson from Family Guy, Brock Samson (Venture Brothers), and others, They all sound about the same.)



I can also do Gollum, Meatwad (ATHF), Larry the Cable Guy (groan...) and some other fun characters.



That's just some of the imitations I like to do, and I intentionally left out political figures. I can do them, but I wanna leave politics out of this. I can **gasp** make up my own voices too, but it would be awful hard to give an idea of what I can do just by saying, "well, there's this voice that sounds kinda like Blah McBlah, and has a hint of Blankity Blank, but the character is more like Whosit Whatsit, only completely different," you know?



So where would I take this to? I'm sure there have to be agents around, but here in Oklahoma, I can't think of much that could make use. I think Dallas has some studios for animation (anime, more specifically) which could work, but I would like to NOT move if at all possible. Any good, viable help is appreciated, and this is a pretty big deal for me, so serious answers only, please. Thank you!Voice acting: how do I get a VA career in Oklahoma?
That's awesome, good luck with it.

So my best advice is that you need to be near where voice work happens if you want to do voice work. Video game companies are spread across the country and Canada, but they are clustered in California. I know you don't want to move, but that's just the truth.

Just to get some experience you may consider voluntereeing/ interning at a local radio station.

Also, work on your Nolan North accent, that guy is in EVERYTHING!


It's possible to put together a portfolio of sorts displaying your abilities, but you'd have to go to a studio to do so, and it would probably cost a couple of grand.

I like Bioware games too, but MAN the ending of Dragon Age II (Actually almost all of Dragon Age II) was a let-down.

Bioware is in Edmonton, would be willing to move there?Voice acting: how do I get a VA career in Oklahoma?
Like any other acting you will be most successful if you have an agent. You can look for open auditions, but actors with an agent will get preferential treatment. You also have to accept that you will need to either move or have the freedom to travel. There will be very few opportunities in your state.

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