The voice in the dark is Scott Rummell

It has taken Rummell years to rise to the top in a tough business. There are roughly 8,000 working voice-over artists in the U.S. today, lending their talents to all kinds of promotions, animated TV shows, DVD releases and grocery store radio ads. Movie work is one of the most competitive fields -- and the most lucrative -- because so many different spots are recorded for so many different types of media.

"The bulk of the money is on TV spots for feature films. It's not just what you hear in theaters," said Paul Wintner, owner of the voice talent agency Wintner Artist Management. "There might be a spot on Lifetime geared toward women, an action spot for the NBA Finals, a dramatic spot during 'Lost.' There are different ones for different shows. You could easily do 30 different spots for a movie."

Paid by the spot with scale rates determined by the Screen Actors Guild, voice-over artists earn hundreds of dollars per second, which, for the handful of top artists in the field, can translate into an annual seven-figure income. There's a high demand for the best in the business, and Wintner said voice-over work continues to hum despite the downturn in the economy.

"It hasn't really affected it," said Wintner. "Studios are trying to save a little bit of money on marketing, but . . . people go to the movies in a recession."

Voice-over work is, in large part, acting. It isn't just the timbre of an artist's voice, but his or her ability to use it like a well-developed muscle -- to shape it for each particular script, employing different tones, pacing and inflection, and finding the right combination in just a couple of takes.

What causes one artist to be picked over another "isn't anything all that scientific," said Michelle Jackino, a creative director with Ant Farm, an L.A.-based production company that made the trailers for the upcoming films "Bruno," "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." "It's not like two parts science and one part inspiration. It's more about in your gut who feels right for a project."

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susan.carpenter@latimes.com