(updated) Commercial voice-over work is one of the glamour parts of the business, especially when you’re doing work under union contracts. Because, if a client produces a series of institutional ads that run and run and run, you get a check every 13 weeks for the residuals. And, often, those are the kind of ads that are fun to work on. At least that’s been my experience.
But, as much as I enjoy working on commercials; I also really enjoy non-broadcast. Training films and videos. Sales pieces. In-house video newsletters. e-Learning Web sites. That kind of thing.
For example, if you’ve worked at UPS as a pre-loader in the last 15 years, you’ve probably heard my voice on the training video. You may also have heard my voice doing the monthly in-flight marketing announcements that run on the TV screens on most domestic US Airways flights. For several years, I was the voice for Lockheed Martin‘s air show kiosks; but unless you work in the military, you probably didn’t hear one of those.
All in all, it’s great fun. And it’s amazing what you can learn from the scripts you record.