When a client sent me their script last week,
I had questions.

The project involved lots of German and French place names, and it wasn't as simple as checking how they were pronounced.

When adapting material for an English audience, you also have to determine to what level you Anglicise foreign names and quotes.

The answer to this will depend on the client and their audience.
Knowing this kind of information in advance is ideal so that a voice talent can prepare in advance and focus on the performance while recording.

Alas, in this instance - my client didn't know.

Rather than ask the end-client in advance, they preferred to let such questions be solved 'in session'.

This left me with two options:

1) Wait until the live recording session and thrash it out as we go.

OR

2) Prepare for different eventualities so that the client experience was the smoothest possible, even if it costs me extra.

I went with number two.

I contacted a German VO colleague who I paid to provide a guide for both authentic and Anglicised versions of the names in question.

I then spent half an hour annotating my script with both versions, so I could quickly swap from one to the other depending on the client's preference.

In the end, the client wanted a combination of the two - so being able to flip between them proved invaluable. If I'd not done any prep work under my own steam, the recording would have taken twice as long and the delivery would have suffered.

But did I make a big fuss about this to my client?

No.

I fed back my experience AFTER the session had completed and everyone was happy, and said that I'd charge extra for the additional prep time if required in the future.

The takeaway?

Be prepared.
Make sure YOU look good.
Educate rather than remonstrate whenever possible.

That doesn't mean allow to be taken advantage of. If this project was longer or more complex, then I would have stood my ground about the importance of getting supporting materials in advance.

But you've got to treat each case individually.  And for this one, making a big song and dance about having to do prep work would have proven a distraction.

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By Christopher Tester, British Male Voice Actor