This is for the video producers and creative directors – and the eLearning designers, and… okay, anyone looking online for a voice actor for their business messaging of any kind.
You go online to one of the many casting sites – Voices, Voice123, Voice Realm, etc…. you write up a listing about your project describing the company, the audience, the type of video you’re making, the length, your budget.
And you get a whole stack of auditions which are mostly the wrong type of voice altogether, or just don’t sound how you expected. Oops.
What did you do wrong?
You spent so much effort describing what you’re doing, and didn’t think to describe who you need.
As a voiceover artist, I see this all the time. Gig listings that give me no idea what type of voice the company is looking for.
Right now I’m looking at some job posting headings:
- “Video for corporate culture training”
- “learning center spots”
- “[random string of letters and numbers] – retail”
- “Law Firm Voiceover”
None of those tell me whether or not my voice, or a voice in my repertoire, will suit the project. What accent do they want? What age? Any gender preference?
Should I click through and read the full listing? Yes, and if I have time I will. Sometimes there will be more information that lets me know if I’m the right voiceover for this thing. And sometimes there will be none.
This is not only frustrating for voice actors, who want to be matched with the right kind of work, but it’s going to frustrate you too, when you get all those irrelevant applications.
So. Stop criticising me, Sumara, and tell me what to do, I hear you say. Okay.
When you’re listing a voiceover job on an online casting site, here’s what we want to see, so we can get you the right kinds of auditions:
In your heading:
- Your gender preference (or say “any gender”)
- The character or narrator’s cultural or racial identity, if specified
- An age range
- The accent you prefer – you can list a few if you’re open to them, or say something like “any native English speaker” if accent doesn’t matter.
- A brief mention of the genre, because many VO’s have genres they either love or avoid.
So instead of “Video for corporate culture training”, you might write “Female 35-50, Australian English, for training video”. (By the way if that is who you need, you should just go ahead and hire me. 😉 )
Or “Young adult Asian-American VO, any gender, for retail commercial” (don’t look at me for this one, but I can give you some great recommendations!)
In the main job description, provide as much info as you can, but make sure to include:
- A description of the project.
- The intended usage of the finished piece, including a timeframe (eg regional radio in NSW, for 6 months).
- The message you want to convey, and the type of tone you’re after (warm and inviting, businesslike, educational, authoritative, friendly and fun….)
-
A reference of some kind – either a voice recording, a video, a scene from a film etc that sounds like what you want in the voiceover. This is SUPER helpful for talent, and you’ll get auditions that are much more likely to match your ideal sound.
-
Your budget, or a range you’re expecting to pay (if you’re not sure what you should be paying, google voiceover industry standard rates for your country – or just ask for industry standard quotes. 🙂 )
- Nice-to-have: a statement that you will not be using any provided voiceover for any type of generative AI / voice cloning. This’ll make voice actors like and trust you.
- And finally: an easy to read, easy to access, script sample. Please don’t make us download extra documents to find a script. Cut and paste is your friend.
Gosh, this is sounding very bossy. Sorry. I’m trying to help, I swear. (yes yes, that’s what all control-freaks say… 😳)
At the end of the day, you want to find the perfect voice for your video or course. All you gotta do is tell us what that perfect voice would be. We’ll find you.
And if the casting sites aren’t working too well for you, please get in touch – my email’s at the top of the page. If I’m not right for your project, I have a big community of fabulous voice actors and I’ll help match you up with the one you need.