How to Hire a Voice Over
Define the Target
The first step in finding the right voice over is to define your target audience. As an example, are you trying to reach men or women, retirees or teenagers, affluent investors or blue collar workers? These are a few of the questions you need to ask yourself in this phase of the process. You know your business better than anyone else and you know who your customers are. Define them! Defining your target audience narrows down the scope of your search by beginning to develop the characteristics you will be looking for in a voiceover.
Develop a Voice Profile
Once you set a target you can develop a voice profile. Start with broad strokes and ask yourself who is this voice and what are they doing. Much like a screen writer or novelist you are creating a character. Re-read your script and think about the tone, delivery and intended target audience. Good copy tells you who the voice should be. Todd Ellis is the owner of Audio Image Marketing in St. Louis, MO and a professional male voice talent and producer. “I usually have a voice already inside my head somewhere. If I have good copy and a strong sense of where the spot or campaign is heading it doesn’t take long to dial in, or out, an audition,” states Ellis. Listen to your script and it will define your character.
Ask yourself if the script requires an older grandparent type voice passing on advice, a hip twenty-something sharing helpful information or a child displaying excitement during a fun experience? Think about your target audience. Would a male or a female voice best set the tone of your message and connect with your audience? Ellis also says, “Recently I thought I was looking for a female talent until I heard a kid read the script. After some direction the kid is who we went with so it’s important, while having a destination in mind, to watch out for those cool side-trips.” In some projects gender and age are primary considerations but sometimes the delivery is more important than the character’s sex or maturity.
Will a delivery that is warm and friendly connect with your target audience or should it be authoritative and formal? Today many companies are looking for a delivery that is authentic, or “real,” – note the number of television commercials that feature normal looking actors as opposed to the “beautiful people” ads so pervasive a few years ago. That same sense of reality can be conveyed by a skilled voiceover talent.
Put a lot of thought into this process so you are not overwhelmed with audition tapes from voice talent that do not meet your needs. That is a waste of their time and more importantly yours. Define the voice of your script and write it down in one or two sentences or a well defined list of bullets points. Keep it nearby as you listen to each voice audition.
Tags: actor, audition, Bob Souer, Brian Hart, Brian Mishkin, Caryn Clark, casting, DB Cooper, hire, professional, Stephanie Ciccarelli, talent, Todd Ellis, VO, voice, voiceover
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 2:20 pm and is filed under General, Voice Over. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 19th, 2010 at 2:00 am
How to hire a professional voice | Voices Of Advertising says:[...] friend Brian Hart has prepared a superb article covering all the bases of hiring professional voice talent for your project. If you’d rather, you can download his article as a [...]
February 19th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Brian, thank you for this terrific reference. It answers all the important questions and makes the process of finding us and hiring us very doable.
I am sure I will be quoting you and sending this forward.
Jane Ingalls
February 19th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Jane, thank you very much for taking the time to read it and to post a comment.
February 19th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
uberVU - social comments says:Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by DavidHoustonVO: RT @HartVoiceOvers How To Hire a Voice Over article is live. A must read if you have never cast VO talent… http://bit.ly/bEcxWw...
March 10th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
This was a great read even for a beginner who is looking to get into the industry on how the atual working-recording, marketing, getting hired, getting paid-works. Thanks for taking the time to write this comprehensive piece Mr. Hart!
March 10th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
uh wordpress thinks i’m spam. i didn’t even figure the comments or this site was built on wp, but now that i look around i can see the anti spam WP protection. seems like they got their back end secured. anyways i came over from the vo-bb where this piece was linked and i read through all 7 pages and felt like i had learned a lot just by taking the time to focus and read through your words of advice. thanks! i will be following the site
March 10th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Lae, thank you very much for taking the time to comment. I’m glad you found the article helpful. Let me know if there’s every anything I can do for you.
September 4th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
My Blog Title says:Another Title…
I wish more folks would use professional VOs….
February 9th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Hi Brian!
This should be mandatory reading for all those looking to hire a voice over talent.
Kudos for this awesome post!!!
February 11th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Morgan, thanks very much for taking the time to read it.
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:50 am
This is indeed the best article I’ve ever read on voice over hiring. It will save me lots of time and money. Thanks Brian!