It seems really simple – the client says they’re cool with a remote recording. “Just send us a couple of takes. Here’s the brief.” And it’s pretty loose. Okay, seems pretty straightforward. Perhaps they’re really not fussy and are happy with a standard read based on the voiceover artist’s interpretation. A couple of hours later, everything’s edited and delivered. Suddenly, the penny drops and the client is crystal clear about what they want, and what they don’t want. It’s at this very point that there are some real directions. The only issue is, the recording’s already been done. But, weren’t directions meant to be given before the recording?
Where do we go now?
The pitfalls of a remote recording, particularly with a loose brief are plentiful. Here’s how this and other types of horror stories can be avoided.
1. Being online, listening to the live session is the best way to avoid the fruit, or fruitlessness of any unsupervised session. That way, you can tell the talent straightaway if they’re going in the right direction or not, and also if you need emphasis on particular words or a longer pause in between words. You might not know everything you’d like or dislike before actually hearing it.
2. If you can’t listen in to the live session, at least schedule a call with the talent, or even send them an email before they record, clearly explaining your vision and direction as well as preferences and dislikes. Any references could also help, especially music tracks as that really helps set the tone and mood of the read. The good thing about a call is, the talent can read parts of the script to you over the phone and if you want it read a different way, you can tell them so they can try out other deliveries.
3. Ensure the talent has a good booth – dead with minimal to no sound reflections or echo, and a low noise floor. Get them to record a sample in their booth and send it to you before confirming the remote recording plan. Some talent might just have a mic set up in a corner of their room with no acoustic treatment. Worst still, some might live in a noisy area and all that noise can get through in the recording. To be clear, soundproofing is extremely costly, prohibitively so, so don’t expect home booths to be soundproofed. That means, when jumbo jets and F-16s fly past, that will all get through the recording. Home booths are usually acoustically treated, at best. The talent should be using a good quality cardioid condenser or dynamic mic. The industry standard brands are Neumann, AKG, Shure, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser and Rode among others.
4. Most voice talent aren’t engineers, so please go easy on them. Reference material should be for reference. Expecting the voice talent to read to picture or sync their read with your guide voice in their home booth can be daunting and most importantly, it’ll take their focus off the script and the read. Best if your video edit, SFX placement etc. can be adjusted in case they read certain sections slower or faster than your guide. The reference video should really serve as a guide in terms of general pacing, mood, feel etc. The odd few talent might be able to sync to your guide voice but that’s more an exception than a rule. Best if you check with the voice talent if they’re comfortable with this first before confirming the remote session plan. You might be better off booking a studio with an engineer.
5. Any reference material, eg. videos, music should be sent in advance so the talent has sufficient time to review everything and load them onto their DAW timeline, if possible. Scripts should be sent as Word docs with only the VO text so that the talent is clear about what needs to be read, and the read flows nicely. Storyboards can be supplied for reference but as a separate document. Try not to send Excel spreadsheets as VO scripts as there can be instances of hidden text when cells aren’t sufficiently expanded. Generally, bear in mind that for remote sessions, the talent will be audio engineering, prepping video (if possible, for loading onto their DAW timeline) and script AND reading the script, so too many things happening at the same time can be a little maddening, and ultimately could affect the talent’s performance.
These aren’t exhaustive of course and there may well be other scenarios I haven’t covered. In short, just remember that in any session, direction is key to good VO read. And in remote sessions, the talent is all alone doing what is usually done by at least two people. So be patient with them so they can focus on performing as best as possible.
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