0616 – The Voice-Over Studio Workflow

2022.09.08 - 0616 – The Voice-Over Studio Workflow

Let’s just take a quick look at what happens when you go into a voiceover studio.

·        Read the Brief and the script

·        Assist the studio engineer in setting the mic position and levels, the level of your headphones and talkback and the position of any script stand

·        Have a first run-through of the script and get any questions answered about style or speed, timing and tone, projection, pronunciation and contractions (can you say “they’ll” rather than “they will”, for example?), and so on. Work out[1]:

o  who you are ‘talking to’ in the script

o  how old they are

o  where they are listening

o  what your role is

o  the name of the product, brand or service

o  the overall message and the key words and phrases that help communicate that message. Have you understood the script correctly? “Also, at the food and drink fair, more famous wines…” Is that additional wines that are also famous (“more, famous wines”), or wines that are much more well-known (“more-famous wines”)?

o  the mood and tone of the script and how your voice personality can convey it.    

In a commercial read, your director should be able to tell you exactly who the script is aimed at, and the ‘part’ that you are playing. This vital information will help you choose an ‘emotional state’ for the read, and an appropriate style and tone.

For example, advertising a car, the copy and the placement of the production (the script and where the commercial will be seen, or alongside which TV programmes), may be directed at a general consumer, parents (perhaps the copy highlights safety features and accessibility), corporate users (mentioning the miles per gallon or comfort), or the ‘petrol heads’ (with technical specifications being highlighted). You can see that each of these scripts would place the production in a different place.

And what part are you playing? Are you the caring mum? Are you the reassuring expert, or maybe the ‘boffin’? Are you an educator, a neighbour? What kind of neighbour: the annoying one from two-doors down who everyone avoids, the one that’s always organising cakes sales and car shares, or the one-next-door who you share babysitting with? Having the director give you the role and the audience will mean you have something to creatively respond to, to help you find your character voice and then the style of the read as well as other elements such as the pace and projection, tone and pitch.

·        Mark up your script with any changes,

·        Go for a ‘take’ (sometimes called a ‘first pass’ take) and get more notes.

·        More takes and minor adjustments. Possible feedback regarding doing one phrase “like in Take 3” and another “like you did in Take 8” and so on as well as doing it all completely differently, just “because”.

[1] We looked at a lot of these key questions and the reason behind asking them earlier in the series 

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