Thursday 28 April 2016

Should I hire an inexperienced Voiceover Artist?

Being a voiceover artist is a very specialised skill, and we find that most clients prefer to use professional voices with a proven track record.

They are very unlikely to risk their time and money on a new voice, who may take 2 or 3 times longer to read the same script.  

                                    Time is Money

Time is money and often clients are incredibly busy and can't take 3 hours of their day to just listen to a voiceover recording.      

That's not to mention the cost of the studio and engineer.


It would work out cheaper to pay an experienced professional to do a job in one hour than to pay a newbie for three hours with the cost of three hours studio time. Let alone 6 hours in the edit! 

Very few voiceover artists work full time. They may also act, direct, produce or broadcast. You don't have to work full time as a voiceover artist to be a professional - you just be experienced. 




Thursday 21 April 2016

How long does it take to record a 10 minute Voiceover?

How long does it take to record a ten minute voiceover

Clients who are after a bargain will say "oh it will only take you ten minutes to record". Not so.

Based on the standard of recording three words per second, ten minutes of finished audio (ie edited audio) is about two thousand words. For this we allow an hour's studio time. 


                                  It's later than you think

This allows us time to get the voice talent into the right tone and pace and style before starting the read properly. If our client - and our client's client is also listening, this can easily take the entire hour. 

It also depends upon how well the script is written. Often, a script will read well on paper but when it is read out loud by the voiceover artist, the client realises that it either doesn't make sense or is repetitive. 

Then that section of the script has to be hastily re-written or we need to record an alternative take.
      
                               How many alts do you want?

Sometimes we have time to do a second read in a slightly different tone or pace. Or "one for Lloyds" (ie an insurance read) in case their is a click or pop or mis-read word that no-one noticed during the first take.

Then the audio has to be edited (removing mistakes) and de-breathed (the breathing removed.) 

When pricing a job you will also need to bear in mind the time that you have taken to market or promote your services. And the money it costs. 

You will also need time to put quotes together, negotiate payment, the cost of receiving that payment (via credit card or PayPal etc), prepare the script by reading it in advance and send the audio to the client. 

You will need to bear that time in mind the next time you quote for your next voiceover

Thursday 14 April 2016

What skills do I need to be a Voicever Artist?

Being a Voiceover artist is a lot more than just reading out your script  out loud into any old microphone.
Almost all successful voiceover artists are current or former actors or broadcasters, building on the skills that they have acquired over previous years.
                                 Get your lips round that
 You will need to know the proper way to speak into a microphone, be able to speak well, pronounce clearly with out irritating mouth noises, be able to take direction and enunciate properly. You may even be required to act. All these take years to perfect.
You will need to know how to interpret and pace a script properly, as well as "lift" the words off the page and project your voice without sounding like you are shouting.

You can practise all you like but you will probably need some training and certainly a dash of innate ability to make money as a voiceover talent.





Thursday 7 April 2016

Is doing Voiceovers easy money?

A lot of people these days are looking for a way to earn a bit of cash on top of their day job or freelance/part-time work - whether it's AirBnB for a room for the night, Etsy for selling crafts or People Per Hour for translations and the selling of many other skills.  

So does this apply to voiceovers?

Here is the easy answer: Yes and No.

                                    Fishing for voice work

If you have a full-time job, and unless you work shifts, I wouldn't recommend it, as you won't be available to record during office hours when your clients are available to listen in.

If you have your own home studio, recording the occasional small job (with no client call in) will get you a few quid but nothing major.

If you don't have a full-time job and are working freelance and you have experience as an actor or broadcaster, then yes.

But is it easy money?

Again yes and no.

It's more tiring and time-consuming than you think - and you will need to add the time of travelling to a studio and back.


                               Dog-proof studio not required

Unless you have a home studio in which case it's not so easy as you have the cost of building and maintaining the studio. Oh and you will need a very quiet space for it.

Not to mention you will need to factor in the time taken to market yourself to get the chance to quote for the voiceover work in the first place.

And then you have to be lucky enough - or skilled enough - to land the voiceover job.

Friday 1 April 2016

Why does my Voiceover Recording fade out?

Have you ever recorded a Voiceover artist and found that the audio has kept fading out on the recording?

It is odd I know but this happened to us a couple of times.

Our Senior Engineer Chris traced the fault to a tarnished jack in amongst our spaghetti wiring.

                                    Very Senior Chris

Luckily we always run a back-up for our voiceover recordings.

But now we are replacing these jacks with XLRs.

And a little less spaghetti.