Finding The Right Voice

Hi there! This is a blog run by myself, a freelancer in voice-over acting. Here I will be giving a few practical tips and insights into the professional voice-over business, as well as keep a log of my work to showcase. This is my second attempt at keeping a professional blog. My previous business blog was previously on Blog Spot. I decided to update and transfer it to my new website since the expansion of custom in the last couple of years.

Advertising is in itself a versatile market. Being a voice over artist is about being able to sell a company’s product or service, by giving it the image it deserves.  Similarly, finding the right voice to suit a set of images and a piece of music is just as important. It isn’t quite enough for voice actors to have a ‘stand-out radio voice’. Delivery styles should be memorable. A quality VO artist is not one that’s instantly recognizable, unless they’re always commissioned the same type of commercials or announcements. If the product you’re selling varies, the voice should vary along with it. I always say a voice actor should be Bruce Wayne by day, Batman by night and lots of other characters in-between!

Let’s talk advertising. A highly trend-based, competitive market calls for a voice actor capable of delivering a range of tonalities in a few seconds.

Chocolate.

Think about anything chocolate. A chocolate commercial is anything but boring! I’ve recently been asked to do a series of Kit-Kat commercials (much to my dismay I was paid in cash and not in chocolate). I had to find the right chocolate temperature I like to call it. Chocolate commercials can be tricky to record. They can be fun, flirtatious or sexy. Then again there’s various temperatures for all three kinds of tones. Consider the music or jingle and the lines in the script. For the Kit-Kat series, the music was a bit cheeky, fun and frivolous, the line curious and naughty – the voice? I opted for a lush tone, grainy at times and definitely in-keeping with the cheeky theme, and ended it with a whispered question.

For another chocolate commercial I had done months earlier, I went along with the more sensuous music and gave the commercial a deeper, more velvety and sultry voice.

Make Up

For make up and perfume ads past and present, the tones are always fresh, fun, flirty and feminine. That’s more or less the basic formula. The audience is fashion-forward and aware of what it wants. It loves to sync wonderful lipstick reds and pinks and rouge to a voice  it can identify with.

Cosmetic Casing Companies

There is, of course, a difference in tone between recording a make up commercial and an infomercial or branding video for a cosmetic packaging company – When it comes to commercials, the audience should direct the tone.  From premium to mass market, cosmetics packaging companies focus on quality, the requirements of their customer, on professionalism, creativity, innovative products, finishes and services, and your voiceover should reflect that. I have been a designated voice for cosmetics packaging branding videos for TOLY USA and TOLY Malta since 2008, where detailing in delivery is of the essence.

Insurance Advertising

This is one of the many popular projects I work on. I’m currently working on yet another series of MSV Life commercials. When working on TV and radio commercials for insurance companies, a subtle, soothing and pleasant smiling tone is required. Be it for home insurance policies, purchasing insurance or a pension scheme, no one likes to be reminded of debt or of ageing. Because the future is at times uncertain and a little unsettling to think about, a voice over artist’s job is to ensure that clients feel confident and reassured with their investment purchase and that the promise of quality is reaffirmed.

Interiors

One other popular form of TV advertising is for stylish furniture and interiors companies that offer big-name, high-end designer products and quality services. I’ve given my voice to companies such as IdeaCasa, BoConcept, Fino, Satariano and many more. The tone here is smooth, sultry yet again. Furniture stockists and big brand names want to ensure quality with every step (of that fabulous walnut staircase in their showroom).

Web-Help

There is a focus on standards in technology when recording voice over projects for IT and Software companies. Computer software applications for all industries, from airports to shipping companies to the healthcare sector, are among many of the projects I’ve worked on regarding instructional and promotional videos. Software companies want their best products to stand out and their platforms to make an impact on their clients’ company logistics, data logging systems and to help save human lives the world round. The tone is corporate, standard, informative.