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A Live Directed Voice Over Session It’s Easier Than You Think!

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This article is meant for anyone working directly with a voice over talent, either with or without a creative agency, so you can be comfortable with the process and come out the other side with a great voice over track for your project.

 

A few weeks ago, I was working with a client that owns a small mechanics shop, to create a video about his specific area of expertise with older cars.  He worked with an online company to create an animated video that would live on his website, YouTube and other social media.  We were going back and forth a lot with the script and voice over for changes so, I suggested we do a live direct session.  It’s always better if the word comes from the horse’s mouth.  He was a little reticent at first, insisting that he didn’t know a thing about directing but as it turned out, he was great, we both enjoyed the session and he got the perfect voice over for his animated explainer video.

 

There is nothing complicated or scary about directing a voice over talent live, even for the layperson. Creative Directors and Producers are old hands at it, but if you are a small business hiring a voice over actor for the first time, it might seem a little intimidating.  You don’t have to be an experienced creative director or producer to talk a voice over talent through reading copy for your commercial or company video.  You are the business owner, you know what you want, you know how you want your message to sound.

Live direct sessions can be fun, and they also allow the VO actor and the client to bond and be on the same wavelength. This can be really important, especially if you plan to use that voice actor again for future projects.  Voice over talent actually love a live direct session, because we don’t have to guess at what tone the client is looking for.  We are trained to look at a script, delve into the bones of it and produce a voice track with our interpretation, but this happens faster if you can listen and give feedback, thus avoiding a cycle of guessing and revising sessions through email or individual phone calls.  The live direct session is a golden ticket for a VO talent and the client as well.

Let me take a moment here to say that experienced Voice Over artists are familiar with Live Direct and Phone Patch sessions, so if your VO artist refuses or tries to steer you away from a directed session, it’s time to find a new VO talent.

  • A typical session would begin with the VO talent taking a first run at the script you have provided. While they are narrating, the client takes notes but allows the VO to read without interruption.
  • When they complete the first run, it’s the client’s turn to share the notes taken so the VO can make changes on their script and have another go at it. They will be expecting your thoughts and opinions.  Don’t worry about offending them, they are used to doing it over many times, if that is what it takes for their client to be happy and excited with the final voice over.
  • After the first run through, it’s your time as the client to jump in. It’s ok, go ahead, ask them to stop at points where you want a word emphasized or pronounced differently. You may ask them to slow down or speed up.  If it’s something you just want to try… let them know that so they don’t make it a solid change until you’re ok with it.

Let’s get technical and talk about the different easy ways a live direct session can happen for a client and VO talent.  There is of course the option for you both to be in studio together but these days, that is rare since many VO talents work from their own well-equipped studios.

 

I’ll keep it as simple as possible and just list the most common ways clients and VO talent can connect to each other via phone patch.  We call it a phone patch, although it’s an outdated way to describe the new ways used to connect which may not even involve a phone.

Here are some FREE and easy methods to connect for a live direct session with your VO Actor.

  1. Cell phone – Call the Voice Actor at a scheduled time and they will use their speaker phone or Bluetooth headset to listen to your comments as they record the session on their DAW or editing software. Be careful of hidden charges if you are speaking internationally.  It might be better to use What’s APP for international calls.
  2. Zoom – https://zoom.us This free app can be used on your phone, computer or iPad/tablet. You or the VA initiate a Zoom meeting and you can choose to use video or just sound if you aren’t comfortable being “on camera” and proceed with the session while the narrator records your script. There can be multiple people on the session which is great if you are working with a team but only ONE person should be giving direction to the narrator.  Zoom caps sessions with three or more participants at 40 minutes, so keep that in mind. Easy and fun.
  3. What’s App – https://www.whatsapp.com/ This free app is a real gift for people that need to work and talk to each other internationally.  Download the app and you both can connect with just a click.
  4. Skype – https://www.skype.com This is probably the most commonly used app for hooking up clients with a VA as it’s been around the longest, it’s owned by Microsoft and it’s free to use as long as it is a Skype to Skype connection. There are small fees to call from phones and you can get a dedicated Skype number to share for a really modest price if you want. It’s also very easy to connect with multiple people. A couple of warnings about Skype: 1) ALWAYS test it before a session because it’s forever updating, and you don’t want to have to wait on it to start a call. 2) Sometimes the connection can be a little sketchy.
  5. Google Voice – https://voice.google.com It’s free, you get your own number and can call anyone in the world. You can even choose to port your own number in or can choose to use a dedicated google phone number and redirect that number to your phone.

Now that the mystery of doing a live direct session with a voice over talent is over,

  • Agree on one of the great choices above
  • Schedule a session time
  • Jump on a live session to help your VO Actor do what they do best, get the best voice over project recorded for their client done exactly the way they want it

If you have questions, please feel free to pop me an email, I’m always happy to hear from you. Have fun out there!

 

Deep Work and Voice Actors – Friend or Foe?

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Productivity for a Creative Voice Over Actor with a HIGHLY Distractible Attention Span

As a freelancer and even more importantly, a RIGHT Brained Creative Freelancer, practicing disciplined structure of any kind is definitely NOT my thing. But now that my productivity directly affects my own success because I own and run my own business, it’s become really important and somewhat problematic.  I started to notice and be frustrated, by my own propensity to drift away and just generally waste time, leaving me dismayed when I came out of the haze and realized how much time I had wasted doing nothing at all. I couldn’t get that time back.  I discovered two systems that could work in tandem and help me.  Bullet Journaling and Deep Work.  I’ll share how I discovered them and how I use them.

Bullet Journaling

My first step to putting myself on a more productive road to success was to find a fun way to organize my time that I felt I would actually participate in. I chose a system called bullet journaling. The inventor of this system started with Matt Ragland who bullet journals to increase his focus and productivity by creating yearly, monthly, weekly and sometimes even daily spreads in a journal, creating accountability that  can easily be seen. He uses task management lists and goal trackers that I can create in my own personal journal, that can change and grow as I do. Some people jumped on this wagon and went to very artful sides of drawing, lettering and doodling but Matt keeps his VERY minimal in style and functionality.  It’s really up to the individual and what important things they wanted to control more effectively in their lives.  I LOVED this bullet journal idea because I could structure it in any way that worked for me and I could also let some of my creative artsy side out when decorating it. I don’t think anyone can really say they have the final answer because what you need in a journal to help productivity is a constantly changing monster in the room which is tamed by your ability to shape it as you go in any way that works best for you at the moment.

I did a lot of researching bullet journal mavens and really enjoyed seeing how they use their journals.

This constant search for others who journal and learning of their bullet journal ideas to make mine better,  led me to a recommendation from Matt Ragland to a book by Cal Newton, about a system to take back time for work that was productive. Deep Work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Cal writes that people need to rediscover the ability to focus on work, quickly master hard things and produce at an elite level with speed and quality.

Working Busy and distracted is something that a lot of workplaces have made the norm and unbeknownst to the higherarchy, that practice has stolen much of their productivity.

Here is a link to a PDF that simplifies the book into some basics. https://www.productivitygame.com/upgrade-deep-work/

I have only begun the book and my journey with Deep Work,  but I know right away that some of these strategies are too brutal for me to begin with.  But, the more I get into the practice and start thinking about how I can use this system, I am rethinking some of my techie habits that are really sidetracking me. Here are a few strategies that I’m going to work on right away.

DEEP WORK -Strategies

Schedule Distractions

  • I’m working on training myself to first identify the distractions that are derailing me from doing Deep Work. This would be Facebook, Instagram, Email and the really deep hole for me; Pinterest and YouTube.
  • I am formulating a plan to allow the distractions. If I feel the tug to check Facebook, I can a time I have set aside for that.  Some of my time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are actually PART of Deep Work for me so that will take some discipline to make sure I get in, do the work, and get out before I fall into the “watching cute puppy video” traps.
  • I will work to train my brain to build tolerance to avoid distraction.  This will take time but should be easier as I see success from the productivity this brings to my business.  For me, that will be with booking more work and building more clientele.

Develop Deep Work Sessions

This is probably the hardest change for me.

  • Defining Deep Work – First, I think I need to define what DEEP WORK is for me. As a voice actor I think that is Auditioning, Marketing and Education. Developing a Monday morning ritual of what DEEP WORK projects along these targeted tasks I need to work on in the coming week and defining those projects in a written list, so I can refer to that list if I get lost (which happens A LOT), is a really essential first step.
  • Generate a rhythm – I will work to generate a rhythm for focused attention, which for me will begin with an early morning session after I finish my daily habit of looking over my day, using my bullet journal for planning the day and checking email. This means scheduling in intervals of DEEP WORK during the day. Since the research shows that most new people can only use deep work for about an hour a day, with my right brained habit of drifting away, I know this will be hard for me.  My way to deal with this proactively is to add a time tracker to my bullet journal and also a very minimal DEEP WORK tracker for the week as a whole. Tracking the reoccurring time every day for DEEP WORK from the list of projects I made will hopefully wor and help me create it as a habit.
  • I’m shooting for four hours a day, but I realize that is a heady goal.  I plan to work up to that.

Evening Shutdown

  • I’m lucky to have a husband who will come in and nudge me to shut down for the night. This is important to people who work from home because that home office and any unfinished projects just lying around on the desk, seem to call out to you from a place only a few steps away. I’ve worked from home before though, so I already know how important this step is to my productivity.
  • The best way to do this without going crazy is to set aside a time before I leave my studio every evening, to go over my bullet journal. see how the day has gone and write down anything that is essential for the next morning. Once it’s all settled, and I can see it in writing, I’m better able to leave it and move on to family time, working out. etc
  • Step away and literally say, “Shutdown Complete”. Yes, it sounds silly but seeing the bullet journal all stashed away and hearing myself say Shutdown Complete just causes a little click in my brain that enables me to move on.

I’ll try to update this blog as my Deep Work self-experiment goes on but here is a link to a PDF of Cal Newport’s book with a VERY simplified explanation of the premise.  https://www.productivitygame.com/upgrade-deep-work/

Making bad copy sound good!

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I love advertising. Let me back up and qualify… I love GOOD advertising. Bad ads will send me stomping into the kitchen muttering curses under my breath. I think all businesses can have good ads, even if they are in the middle of nowhere, if they hire good copywriters and art directors.  These are trained creative that are not just trying to complete as many ads in a day as they can but write the words that really sink into the message of the business owner and what they are trying to do.  Why do businesses let themselves be treated this way?

The One Club for Creativity spoiled me and left in me the desire to demand good advertising. As a voice over talent that worked in the industry, I have some talent for writing copy. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. Making bad copy sound good is probably the hardest thing a good voice talent can do. I long for the days that I might have the chops to say when given a script… you can do better than this.  l know LOTS of wonderful creative people that are trained to get the message across and I’ll share that information with anyone that asks.