Just before a session one day, I had a bit of time to chat with the client and clarify certain parts of their script while waiting for others from the team to arrive. She then proceeded to demonstrate how she wanted some of the lines read. It was a good demonstration and I told her that. Sadly, she seemed to interpret it a bit differently, then going on to declare that she too, could be a voiceover artist. I didn’t quite know what to say but I had to be polite and just smiled.
Please consider a few things before assuming that a voiceover artist isn’t worth their fees or that you could do their job. You wouldn’t assume you could be a doctor just because you know about the circulatory or digestive system, would you?
First, experienced professional voiceover artists are able to interpret and read the same line or script in different ways. Doing voiceovers regularly and for many years means we understand our own voice, know our sweet spot(s) and how to change our voice tone to suit the script and target audience. On top of that, most of us are also able to copy edit scripts so they flow better.
Sometimes there can be as many as ten people on the client’s side in the studio and occasionally, all of them could be offering directions at the same time. It’s easy to plan in advance how you’d manage that but nothing except experience really prepares you for these random instances so you remain focused and know how to dig deep to get a consensus on direction, all without losing your cool.
Preparation in advance of a session is very important. We often have to look up the pronunciation of multiple words like medical, botanical or technical terms as well as words derived from languages that we don’t speak like French, Latin, Japanese or Tamil. However, many-a-time, we don’t see the script until we get to the studio. We then have to quickly understand the script, check on the pronunciation of words or acronyms and settle on the client’s preference in terms of voice tonality, pace and direction. We also need to understand the audience so we get the overall feel of the read and even accent right.
Clients pay studio fees by the hour so we have to be very mindful of that too and not take our own sweet time to understand what’s required, and then complete the recording. Of course, if the client isn’t clear about what they want or can’t communicate it effectively, or if they’re extremely picky, that could drag the session on beyond a reasonable period and unfortunately, there isn’t much that we can do about that.
Finally, another very important and often overlooked aspect is mic technique. At a glance, based on the mic in use, we know where we should be positioned and whether or not we’re in optimum range for the best quality sound. How does one prevent mic pops? There’s also a technique to that or else your voiceover recording could end up sounding like a beat box performance.
So you see, being a voiceover artist is considerably more than just having a good voice or being able to read aloud, and this is why professionals exist.