Dan Downs - Accent Specialist, Movie Voice

Accent Specialist, Movie Voice

• Dan Downs is registered with Voice123 since May 22, 2007.
• Dan Downs started his/her voice over career in 2008.
• Currently Dan Downs is a Standard subscriber.
• Auditions and proposals submitted through Voice123 during the past six months: 0
• Dan Downs was last active on Voice123 14 days ago

Voice Description

I can do a movie trailer type voice and many accents, including, British, French, Indian, English, Australian, Scottish, German, Latin and Russian.

Voice Genders and "Ages" I Can Perform

• Young Adult Male
• Middle Age Male

Language(s) of Which I Am a Native Speaker:

• English - North American

I Offer my Services for these Recording Purposes

• Commercials
• Promos
• IVR, voicemail, phone systems, and on-hold messages
• Videogames
• Movie and game trailers
• Podcasts
• Songs
• Others (on-camera, informercials, live announcers, spokespersons)

Jobs I Am Willing to Take (Union-wise)

• Non-Union Jobs

My Union Affiliations and Memberships

None

My Recording and Delivery Capabilities

• I will go to any designated studio in my area

Pre-, Post- and Production Services I Offer

• I offer copywriting services

My Home Base

Omaha, Nebraska, Nebraska, United States

Accents, Impersonations, Characters and Dialects

Unknown - Click here to ask Dan Downs

My Voice Experience

My experience doing different accents and what I call the "movie voice," has been varied. For instance, my mother has told me that when I was young, I would watch a children's show called Spot, where all the characters spoke in an English accent. Afterward, I would imitate these characters around the house. In middle school, a friend of mine and I would pretend to be British when we had substitute teachers, insisting our names were Terrence and Philip, and maintaining our characters throughout the duration of the class. These days however, I attend a church group called Crossfire, where I perform before and during a series of skits that we have named Hope Opera. Before the skit starts, I do a LaFontaine-type voice, detailing previous events in the last week's play. At the end, I again put on the voice to give a preview of what is to come in next week's skit. Most of the time, I am given a guideline paragraph that I edit and rearrange to make it more like the narration of a movie trailer. This is a formerly talkative youth group, but since the addition of the voice, the teens now stay silent, if only for the ten minutes during the play. At this same youth group, one night I was given a microphone and was allowed to narrate the entire night in a "Borat" voice. This was met with much enthusiasm, and I was even awarded a package of cookies at the end of the night for making the youth group leader, Lori, laugh so hard. On Halloween, (guilty as charged; I still dress up...) I frequently pick characters that I can use an accent with. Last year I was a Viking, not unlike the ones from the popular Capital One commercials, complete with British accent.

My Training

As a high school student, I went to a leadership camp where I took a short Improvisation course. There we had to make up a story as a group, one line at a time. This story had to make sense. You only had five seconds to come up with the line or you were passed. At this same camp, we also had to make up a fictional political candidate, complete with name, theme song (with words), and campaign slogan. This had to be performed in front of everyone at the camp that same night.

My Studio Equipment

Unknown - Click here to ask Dan Downs

Additional Skills

While I feel that doing various voices is one of my strong points (strange as that sounds), I also feel that writing is as well. In addition to doing voice over work, I aspire to be a writer and copy editor. I am very picky about good grammar and I take a certain joy in correcting others' writings. My friends frequently bring me school essays and articles to copy edit. Writing has always come easy to me, and eventually I hope to write a book. I am also involved in music. I currently play the baritone, trumpet, and tuba, and led a brass quintet for three years that played around the community.