Liz Drury Voiceovers' Blog

Last week my eldest son started his first paid job. He's washing up at The Black Bull pub two nights a week , and although he's only being paid the minimum wage for 16 year olds of £4.20 an hour, he's still going to have more money than he's ever had before. On the first night he was there, the industrial dishwasher was broken, so everything had to be washed by hand, and as we have a dishwasher at home, 3 hours of washing up was possibly a slight shock to his system! However, he did also get to fry an egg for a food order, and it didn't get sent back so I think he was quite pleased with himself. Photo by  Catt Liu  on  Unsplash It made me think about the jobs I had as a teenager and later as a student. I did a few different things over the years - some I really enjoyed, other not so much, but they all added to my experience and helped me work out what I was good at. My first ever paid job was at Blisworth Tunnel Boats, a narrowboat hire company on the G...

Proud Mum on results day! This week my eldest son received his GCSE results. I’m relieved to say they were a cause for celebration, even though it made me feel rather old to have a child big enough to be collecting exam results! The next stage in his education will be studying for A-Levels at Sixth Form College, and his chosen subjects are Geography, Geology and Business Studies. He doesn’t have a clear idea yet as to what he wants to do as a career – how many people really do at the age of 16? I know I didn’t, and until quite recently I still joked that I hadn’t really decided what I wanted to be when I ‘grew up’. That was before I trained as a voiceover artist. Now I know that I’m doing what I should be doing and I’m loving my career. Not sure if that means I’ve finally grown up or not….. Anyway, I started thinking about the subjects I took at school, and whilst none of them were courses in how to be a voiceover artist, some of them have definitely been useful to m...

If you’re the sort of person that likes technical kit, then being a voiceover artist might be the kind of job you’d like. Personally I’m not really very interested in gear – I know what I need and I’ve got what I need, but I’m not someone who has to have the latest gadget! That being said, I do often get asked about what equipment I use, so I thought I would write a blog post about the various microphones and so on that I use in my business. There are a number of different types of microphone, which have different qualities depending on what they are being used for. The microphones used on stage by singers are different from those being used in a music recording studio, which are different again from those used in an television interview situation, or those used for voiceover. For voiceover, the type of microphone needed is a condenser microphone with a cardioid (heart shaped) pick-up pattern. Some microphones have a switchable pick-up pattern and can be changed, for examp...

Liz Drury Voiceovers Redundancy: Noun. The state of being not, or no longer needed or useful. One year ago this week I was made redundant. At the time it seemed to come totally out of the blue, but looking back I can see that there were signs that things were about to change. I was being given less to do, and what I was being given had nothing to do with my skills set. Being made redundant is never a nice process – you’re left wondering what’s wrong with you and asking yourself why your employer doesn’t want you any more, but for me, those feelings were far surpassed by a feeling of freedom! I had worked at Franklin college for over 11 years (apart from a couple of years in America with my husband’s job) but since starting my voiceover business it had always been in the back of my mind to leave and pursue my passion full time. There was never a good time to leave though. I only worked 15 hours a week at the college, so I still had time to work part-time as a voice...

That was what my 15 year old son said to me when I announced that I'd been shortlisted for a business award. I was pretty pleased with my achievement and his rather derogatory comment took the wind out of my sails somewhat. Now granted I wasn't running my business full time at that point, but still, he'd seen me working at home, disappearing into my recording studio at all times of the day, so if I wasn't running a business, what was I doing?! I asked him about this and he said, 'but you don't have any premises'. So, in his mind I needed to be going 'out' to work, for it to count. Bear in mind this child is taking Business Studies at school, so really he should know that businesses come in all shapes and sizes, and that a business run from home is still a valid business - but no - a business run by his Mum doesn't mean anything. Why are my children so dismissive about what I do? They are never excited by my successes or pleased that I've ...

I've been to a couple of voiceover conferences in the UK before, but nothing quite on the scale of VOAtlanta . This was the biggest voiceover conference in the world - ever! With over 600 delegates including voice actors from across the voiceover spectrum and 12 different countries, casting directors, talent agents, coaches, and equipment manufacturers, we took over an entire hotel - and then some. BUT, when you consider that some industry conferences attract thousands of people, it just shows what a niche industry we are - and that our talents are quite unique. One of the recurring themes of the conference is that we should know our worth - and given that not everyone can do what we do, we should be able to command a decent fee for our work. However, the industry has seen a downward trend in rates over recent years, with people setting themselves up on the likes of Fiverr with a cheap mic and providing voiceover services for next to nothing. However, you do tend to get what you ...