When does one make a Demo Reel?

[Humility]

Having pursued many of the finely done demo reels in this forum it seems as if most, if not all, of them are clips that seem to be taken from produced shows, with background music, voice modification (echo, etc.) and sound effects.

For those who've made such reels: did you take the clips from previous work you did and then put it together in a reasonable fashion or did you generate the specific clips yourselves, then added your own effects? What is the more common method? Does one do shows and thereby get professionally done clips to splice together or does one make their own and then get parts? Seems a bit of a Catch 22 if its that way.

Thanks for your time!

[tomatocars]

I think this might be in the wrong forum but I'm sure an admin will move it accordingly.

Anyway, to answer your question, there are many ways to make a demo reel. Some people do use lines that they have recorded for other projects and if that's the case, you can always ask the producer to give you a copy of the project so you can splice it yourself.

However, most people (around here at least) mix all of their demos from scratch. The demo reel itself is a mixing project, if you will. You choose which emotions you want to convey and which voices you want to display and just write lines to fit them accordingly. Then after you record the lines, just add in your own background music and sound effects if you feel like you need them.

It's all up to you. You want to show off a great range that shows you can do multiple characters and you want to show that you can act out a wide range of emotions. A demo is all about you so the only person who can do the best job at showcasing you is yourself.

Hope that helps!

[Tomoyo Ichijouji]

Ditto tomatocars -- I had this very same question starting out and I found out you can basically write out whatever the heck you want. Since I'm a writer it was kind of fun figuring out what lines to convey a wide palette of emotions and personalities. XP What was it that one person said to me? "It's a demo reel, not a resume". So it's not about clipping stuff you've already done, not by a long shot (though it's fine to get stuff from your work in the future but y'know, if you can make up your own WHY NOT 8P )

[Y. Chang]

Honestly? I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

Taken from Sapphire's great VA guide on Newgrounds:

"Avoid making a voice acting demo reel until you've landed a handful of roles, or until you've gotten 70% better from the day you started acting. For some reason newbies like to create a crappy demo reel as soon as they get into voice acting. Just chill and improve on your skills before you create one."


http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1166594

[Tomoyo Ichijouji]

Honestly? I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

Taken from Sapphire's great VA guide on Newgrounds:

"Avoid making a voice acting demo reel until you've landed a handful of roles, or until you've gotten 70% better from the day you started acting. For some reason newbies like to create a crappy demo reel as soon as they get into voice acting. Just chill and improve on your skills before you create one."


http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1166594

Well that may depend on the person, I did my demo reel within a month of joining and it's served me really well even till now (though I really want to make a new one this summer, I think I've improved since then and have some better voices to showcase XP ) It actually *helped* me land some of those first few roles, rather than the other way around.

[MorningStar Smiles]

Yeah actually I would have to say that a character demo reel was one of the first things I ever recorded and produced. Traditionally, in the professional world, you're not supposed to make one until you've done some gigs but this is the practice world. If you're just starting out with voice over, I think it's a great way to experiment with different kinds of voices at once and figure out what your current range is. That way you'll have an idea of what you need to do next to improve. Sometimes, for amateur projects, people still ask for a demo as well, so it can be good to have one just in case.

Making your character demo reel right away is also a great exercise for developing your own characters that you can later pull up for auditions. Say you have a certain voice you like to do: make a name for that character and write down details about them such as what they look like and what they like to do. Do they have anything strange or special about them? Where are they and where are they going? This will make them more colorful and fleshed out when recorded. The more real they are, the less they'll sound like you're just making funny voices, or worse, generic sounding funny voices.

Now, chances are your first demo isn't going to be too hot. Mine certainly sucked and so did the second. But as long as you don't send it out to professionals before you're absolutely ready, take it as an indicator for where you are as a voice actor now and improve your demo once you have some roles here under your belt.

Eventually it's best to pull from work you've done because you've had practice with that voice that goes beyond a line or two, it's real, fleshed out characters, and it saves time in demo making. That said, I also often take things I've done, re-write a particular line to fit my demo, and re-record it, adding in new special effects and/or music.

Also, make sure you research demo making either in voice over books, this board, or other places on the internet before you embark on your demo making journey. It will save you time if you know what you're supposed to do.

[JWalker]

my demo has a few made up characters but other than that, it's been stuff I auditioned for and got the part sort of thing.

took me about 5 or so VA parts before I sat down and seriously thought up of my 1st demo reel.