Thinking about hiring vocal talent for a voiceover project? The first thing you should do is consider exactly what your needs are, because you are going to have to choose between different types of voice talent and different types of personalities to make your voiceover production shine. For instance, a TV promo voice may be the best thing for one type of project, while theatrical skills may be essential for another. And when you are talking about something as creative as a project like this, you cannot discount the effects that personality will have on the outcome.
First, consider the types of projects that voice talent hires out for and what skills are involved. A TV promo voice, for instance, is a great thing if you have a short radio or TV spot and you need to get the attention of potential customers quickly, and quickly deliver a message. Time is limited. You may have as little as 60 seconds to get your point across. Therefore you need a voice that's going to cut right through whatever the listener is thinking about at the moment. This voice is going to have to make them stop thinking about whatever their boyfriend or boss or dog or boyfriend's boss's dog did that upset them so, and start thinking about your product or service.
But you don't want a voice like that to read your Gothic novel. Not that an announcer's voice wouldn't be great for some narration or audio book projects (business books, for instance), but you have to consider the possibility that your project requires a particular kind of voice, be that an announcer's voice or a more theatrical voice over.
For this type of project, a person has got to be able to hold people's attention for hours on end. He or she needs to be able to paint an audio picture using the voice as the brush and the paints. Silly image, yes, but you get the idea. This person has to have range, and has to be able to demonstrate it all in the same project, yet not exaggerate it. They should be able to sound warm or cold, and should be able to express a range of emotion believably.
The individual has to be considered when you are choosing vocal talent. It isn't a case of saying, “I want a blue one and a green one,” because each person—even if their skill sets read exactly the same—is going to take your project and make something different out of it. Of course, that is part of the excitement of going on creative ventures with other people. It just pays to adjust the basic requirements where you can.
Radio Voice Over Talent
Now that you are planning a voiceover project yourself, this may be the first time you've considered that guy with the TV promo voice. You know the one. He can make any product sound like a dream. He sure could make yours sound great. You know it would sell in a heartbeat if you had him - or someone just like him - telling the world about what you have to offer. You know somehow that doing your own commercial would be a bad idea. Or would it? You've seen homemade commercials and how bad they can be. But is this guy so much better that he's actually worth spending a bunch of money on? Or can you save so much money in the beginning by doing your own commercial that it will make up for not selling as much?
The answer is absolutely not. You can never make up for poor advertising, and that's exactly what you'll have if you make one of those laugh-a-minute commercials like Sal the Radio Man did last year with his Cousin Larry. People sure didn't remember Cousin Larry, but they forgot all about Sal's radios because they were too busy laughing at the commercial. It was a hit. Sal and Larry are stars. But they haven't sold any more radios since the commercial than they did after the commercial.
You want to make your voiceover project count. You're going to have to spend money to make a commercial anyway. Spending a little and selling a little is not anywhere near as good as spending a little more and selling a lot. It's all about percentages.
You're probably wondering why that's so. To put is simply, a professional - which is what a voice actor is - is going to lend your production an air of professionalism. They do this by enunciating their words, or speaking clearly, which is a lot harder to do consistently than you would think. Most people run things together, speak too fast or too slow, use filler words and sounds, and mumble, among other things. It's not that much of an issue when you're having a face-to-face conversation with someone because they can always ask you to repeat yourself. But they can't do that if you're talking to them over a radio.
Another reason sounding good in a commercial is more difficult than it looks is because sound equipment is not very forgiving. Whatever flaw you are exhibiting in your speech, sound equipment will amplify it tenfold. So someone speaking on air can't just be good - they have to be perfect. Better, if they can manage it.
While he's doing all of that, a voice actor is either delivering lines that he's memorized flawlessly, or reading a sheet of paper while making it sound natural. In fact, while he's enunciating and watching his timing and regulating any number of elements in his voice, he is making it sound perfectly natural. That is what's so special about professional voice talent.
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