Best Voice Over: Spotlight on Health Care Ads Health care ads are a mainstay in advertising and the best voice over chosen to present medical messages is a critical part of creative choice. Healthcare commercials achieve their goals through a few specific avenues in terms of vocal tone and direction: sentimental – those that tug at heart strings, inspirational – through sharing success stories or great track records, and solution – matter of fact – as in, you’ve got a problem? ...
Tag Archive for: commercial
3 Ways Storytelling is King in Voiceover for Ads and Business So…what’s your story? Or rather what is your relationship with story? Chances are it’s tight. We humans love story. We swim in it, soak in it, eat it up daily. Hourly, even. But have you stopped to consider your relationship with story as a voiceover artist? Levar Burton, (Reading Rainbow guy, Geordie from Star Trek:Next Generation, Kunta Kinte in Roots) as the key note speaker at DevLearn 2017, stated that st...
How Copywriters and VoiceOver People Triumph over Disruption Sipping nectar of the bean and browsing my groups this morning, I was inspired by copywriter chieftain Steve Roller and how many similar cliffs of insanity people in the copywriting and voiceover narration fields have to scale to triumph lately. All because of the (anti) buzzword of the decade “disruption.” That concept we all rallied around. Even got excited about. At first. Kind of like the frog, happy in a pot of wate...
What’s the first question I’m asked along with how fast can you get this back to me? “What are the prices?” I, like most voiceover artists will answer with a clear as mud, “It depends.” So, let’s demystify this. Professional voice over actors base their rates on three major parameters: use, population and time. Geography also sometimes enters the picture. But other factors also weigh in heavily in on how we cost out the licensing of our work and d...
Happily, most of my voiceover acting life has been supported by a steady stream of commercial work. In discussions with a student, I realized there were reasons for that beyond being able to deliver a great read. Yes, you have to know what the market wants, give your director what s/he wants and “bring it” (whatever it may be) on time and on target. But more than that it also takes a deft ability to read the room. The commercial sound studio is never the place to display any toxic or taboo b...
In the voiceover world, your demo is your calling card. More important than your business card, or website, it’s a reflection of work you have done or are capable of doing. A demo becomes your audition to audition. It needs to be good. A poorly written, badly directed, over or under produced demo can kill opportunities and sabotage your efforts. I have multiple demos on my website. Commercial, eLearning, explainer, audiobook, trailer, accents and characters just to name a few, but if I...
After sorting out how to find the right voice with top notch audio quality and a quick turnaround time, the big question for producers hiring voiceover professional is rates. How much does it cost to hire a voice actor to narrate your material? The simple answer: Union First let’s sneak a peek at the Union vs non-Union rates. If it’s a Union (Sag-AFTRA-ACTRA) gig, the minimum or “scale” rates are set and negotiated between representatives on behalf of the actors and the pro...
Applications for voice work are many and multiplying and every few months I’m delighted to discover another avenue within my field. A couple of months ago, I worked on a pitch for a large Audio Description project. You might have accidentally come across Described Audio, Described Video or Audio Description in your TV travels. It’s that separate narration track that describes what’s happening on screen during the natural pauses in the dialogue. I admit the first time I came a...
Audio Dialogue Replacement, (ADR) or looping, has come Poor quality of ADR dubbing in old School kung fu movies a long way since the old-school Kung Fu movies where the mouth movements and dialogue didn’t match. Dubbing is the unglamorous low man on the totem pole in the voice world. Not as prestigious as cartoons or videogames, not as lucrative as commercials or TV narration, it still requires a very specific talent. Matching and timing what comes out of your mouth with what shows up on scr...
So, it helps to have talent. Obvi, as my kid would say. (Insert age appropriate eye roll here) And a few technical things too, like training, practice and timing. But more than that, the secret sauce in how to make spectacular commercial voiceovers is a recipe of love, understanding and respect. Let me break this down. Love the ad Since I was a little girl, talking to myself in the mirror, telling myself about Scope or Crest or Johnson’s Baby Shampoo I have loved ads. I started out lovi...
