The VOICE OVER MISTAKE CHART

Following Direction Mistakes

If you’re normal, you’d like to get more voice over work. One way is to impress producers by taking better direction.

In this section of the Edge Studio “Voice Over Mistake Chart”, we discuss the most common direction-taking mistakes that voice talent make.

After seeing every imaginable mistake (some not even imaginable), we’ve listed the most common ones.

GENERAL

• The BIGGEST mistake voice talent make is forgetting (or not realizing) how CRITICAL it is to do what your customer requests.... rather than doing it your way. Listen, they're paying, and they therefore have every right to be nit-picky. Would you EVER hire back a painter who did it their way, rather than yours?

WHEN MARKETING

• A casting professional requests talent to keep in touch via email, but the talent calls instead. Or they specifically says “MP3 submissions by email only”….yet the talent mails a CD
• A casting professional requests a follow up next Monday, but the talent finally calls a week after

WHEN AUDITIONING

• Talent doesn’t follow audition guidelines. For example, the engineer says, "Please slate your first name only, the script title, and read the first three lines of the script." Yet the talent says, “Hi this is Jane Doe from Idaho. I'll now read a passage......"
• Talent doesn’t name their files as requested
• Client requests an MP3, yet the talent emails a WAV

WHEN HIRED

• Talent is told to arrive early to go over the copy with the client before the session, but doesn’t show up until the session is scheduled to begin
• Talent is told to bring a copy of the script with him/her, but doesn’t
• Talent is asked to research pronunciations that he/she may not be familiar with, but doesn’t

AT RECORDING SESSION

• Talent doesn't take direction (they're not listening, or not writing it down, or they're untrained,...)
• Talent takes direction but messes up something else. For example, a client asks the talent to "Slow the read down". But then, when the talent reads more slowly, they also lose energy. Now the client has 2 bad takes!
• Talent is told to read something very specific but doesn't. For example, a client asks the talent to "Please read the first three words." but the talent reads the entire sentence

POST RECORDING SESSION

• Talent doesn’t follow directions of how, when, or who to invoice
• Talent requests to hear the final recording, and is told to call back in 3 days, but doesn't for a week. By that time, it takes the engineer MORE time to get them a copy because they need to go back into their archives