Time to get my crystal ball out... Here are my predictions for the voiceover industry

Time to get my crystal ball out... Here are my predictions for the voiceover industry

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Happy 2023! Time to get my crystal ball out...

The voiceover industry has seen significant growth in recent years and this upward trajectory is expected to continue.

Here are my predictions for the future of the voiceover industry:

Voiceovers will become increasingly important in the marketing industry, for brands to tell their stories and connect with their audiences.

More people will be using voiceovers to advertise, market, and promote their products or services.

There will be an increase in demand for high quality voiceover artists who can deliver a professional sounding product in a timely manner.

There will be more opportunities for voice actors to work remotely and freelance, allowing them to have more flexibility in their lives while also increasing their earning potential.

Voiceover and AI technology will continue to merge, allowing for more sophisticated and seamless audio creation. (this is a big one!)

Voiceover will become even more common in video games, allowing players to interact with in-game characters and environments. This will open up new opportunities for voice actors to work on various projects within the gaming industry.

More and more products, services, and apps will be created for voice-based interactions. This means that there will be an increased demand for voiceover actors to create the audio content used in these products and services.

Do you work in audio, gaming, or voiceover production? I'd love to hear your own predictions in the comments.

What's the best online course you've done?

What's the best online course you've done?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

What's the best online course you've done?

Mine was Ali Abdaal's on video editing in Final Cut Pro.

In just over two hours, I went from novice to someone who could actually put together something that looked - alright.

Yes, it took a lot of subsequent practise.
But getting a clear overview of the key features, and learning those CRUCIAL keyboard shortcuts was a game changer.

The course led to the creation of my Youtube channel,
my own courses on Skillshare,
my video case studies,
my Linkedin video,
my Tiktok account (56k?!)

Learning some basics about video editing also made me a better voice actor. Understanding the logic behind cuts from a production perspective informed choices I would make in my vocal delivery.

And the best thing about it? I watched it all for free on a trial for Skillshare - though I'm now a subscriber and teacher on there too.

So what course would you recommend?

#onlinelearning #videoproduction #elearning #videoediting #skillshare

Do your voiceover clients give you room to breathe?

Do your voiceover clients give you room to breathe?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Many people come to me knowing exactly what they want.

- They’ve written the words.
- Chosen the music.
- They might even have recorded a temp voiceover to signal pace, tone an inflection.

The more of these things in place, the clearer the brief, the quicker the job.

All things for which I’m sincerely grateful

But it’s almost always leaving something on the table.

My most interesting work?

That’s done when all the information has been processed - then we forget it.
Leaving room for instinct to play.
Rather than plotting how a project will go line by line, I’m allowed to focus purely on the moment, the audience, the emotion - and then I play from there.

Unexpected things happen.
Inflections, pace and emphasis might not always go where they were ‘designed’ to be.
But an audience doesn’t respond to design - they respond to emotion.
And when every little detail is micro-managed, that can be the first thing squashed in a creative project.

I’m not advocating dispensing with briefs at all - quite the opposite.
But I love those clients who allow time for just one take with the handbrake off during a session.
It shows a willingness to be open, to engage creatively, to be surprised.

It makes me feel seen as a creative, not just a nice voice.

So how do you carve out a creative space?

#creativity #videoproduction #creativeservices #voiceoverartist #clientrelationships

Your Voiceover USP

Beyond Voiceover:

What Is Your Voiceover Unique Selling Point?

Running a business is about solving clients’ pain points. And voice over is no different whenever you get the first inquiry as a voice-over artist; the questions usually are going to involve; 

• How soon can you get me the voice?

• How much is it going to cost?

• And how good is the final quality going to be?

• Implicitly asking for social proof of what your previous clients are?

• And what your recording setup is like as well?

Major Question

But aside from these fundamental areas, what else can we do in a client-centric way to stand out from another voice-over actor? 

Let’s dig in!

Satisfactory Solution

Well, I would start by saying that more audio and voice-over content is being used by a whole variety of different companies and organizations. The traditional production pipeline of voice over going from voice talent to sound engineer to the client is being disrupted. A lot of startups are creating their content rather than outsourcing it. And a lot of existing companies are bringing in their content creation and creating their own marketing departments. And these developments give us, as service providers, an opportunity to cater to a whole host of new pain points as a result. 

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that you take your focus entirely off voice-over and therefore dilute your primary offering as a result, but having an appreciation that your narration doesn’t exist purely in a vacuum and that you can actually offer lots of complimentary services as well. That’s what’s going to make you really stand out from the crowd. I’d suggest that rather than purely focusing on those pretty prominent offerings, voice-overs should offer, i.e., outstanding recording quality and knowing how to act, and being able to deliver fast. Instead, we should really think about those things that run parallel or are entirely outside of our voice-over offering, which might also be helpful for the client’s needs. 

Offering- That can Prove Beneficial for You

I’d start by brainstorming all the different types of tasks you’ve had to execute, whether voice-over or any other job you previously might have. Then you could see if any of those additional tasks that ostensibly have nothing to do with voice-over might actually relate to your client offering somehow. 

So just to list through a couple of very obvious offerings; firstly, we obviously can record with our broadcast-quality audio, etc. Secondly, we might be able to connect with people via zoom or source connect or whatever so that people can give us live direction. So that’s another valuable thing. 

Maybe if you can include video direction when you’re talking about remote setups that might be a nice additional thing because some directors like to see what you’re doing with your body. 

But then we can move on to something like usually editing, especially when you’re starting. You just want to keep things simple. Make sure that you edit out any mistakes, but for example, I have a different set of racks that I’ve developed co-developed with other tutors audio experts who know more than me, which I can then apply to my audio. So if they want a particular promo read or a particular type of narration, read then!

I can treat the audio in a way so that it’s more ready to go. And obviously, the vast majority of sound engineers out there want it as raw as possible. And that needs to be your number one priority, but having the option to offer more ready-to-go content, especially when you’re dealing with clients who might not be able to afford an engineer, can be a fantastic direct offering.

• Are you comfortable enough to be able to quickly separate lots of different files and batch them into different folders?

Because again, especially in the e-learning sphere, that’s a really invaluable offering to be able to have rather than having to rely on the instructional designer to cut up the audio. 

• Do you have any copywriting expertise that you can apply to a project?

As voice actors, we need to appreciate what different types of copy are doing and how they’re going about doing that. So we need an appreciation of the form of structure. Your copy feedback could therefore range from just solving the odd grammatical error to actually suggesting whole alternate sections or actually even potentially offering complete rewrites on specific areas as well. 

Maybe there isn’t a clear enough sense of conflict before the script reaches its resolution. Maybe there’s a missed opportunity for applying the rule of three when listing benefits. Or maybe there’s just an unwarranted change of tense halfway through a script because it’s gone through so many different layers of approval. That it’s kind of been hacked together, in which case it’s your job, or at least you’re offering to be able to provide a solution to that video syncing. And editing is another pretty obvious offering that not every voice actor has being able to test your voice over a recording with a video.

So that you are absolutely sure that it does sync when requested by a client can really save them time at their end. But in some projects being able to go that one step further and actually edit the video so that they work together can really be helpful in a recent project that I worked for. 

There was a video tutorial and some software, and the actual cursor that was going around on the screen was doing things much slower than it took me actually to narrate those actions. I was able to offer the client to edit the video myself to speed up certain sections or cut some dead time at various bits in the video as well where nothing was happening on the screen and then combined that with the voice-over that I’d naturally created so that I was able to give them a fully finished end product that didn’t have any dead time and sounded natural as well.

Consider if there are any opportunities to switch your hat from being a performer to being a director in a lot of the corporate content that I work with. There are often talking heads, and there are people who have minimal experience of actually being on camera themselves or narrating things themselves. But it’s thought of as adding extra value for them to say certain bits themselves authentically or appear on screen themselves. 

So what I have sometimes been able to offer, in addition to my narration, is a bit of one-on-one training with people before they go in front of the camera themselves. They can do very physically or things to do vocally to bear in mind to make the whole filming process much easier for them depending on when you started. 

If you had an entire existing career before you moved into voice acting, then it’s really your responsibility to make sure that your clients are aware of it. If you worked in law, if you worked in the medical area, if you worked in hospitality, then for clients who also operate in those spheres, you’re going to be able to communicate with even greater authority because you really genuinely understand all of the minutiae of what you’re talking about. 

And also, maybe you’re a vocal specialist in some way. Maybe you’re an exceptional opera singer, or perhaps you’re a heavy metal vocalist. Again, making people aware of this pretty unique or unusual skill set is not one that people would naturally assume when they’re booking a corporate narration. They might be able to open their ideas about the type of content they may be able to create, making it a bit more collaborative. 

It’s inarguable that the more you have a fuller understanding of the whole process and what other people are doing, that are only going to inform your decisions that much more in terms of your vocal delivery. And at the base level, it’s going to make you a better voice-over artist even if you decide not to be bold enough to make other explicit offerings. Yes, it’s all about just hitting record, doing your thing, and then moving to the next job for some voice-over artists, but in the increasingly competitive area finding these opportunities to really cultivate. 

Conclusion:

A USP, I think, is vitally important, so you can keep that momentum going as well. I hope you’ve enjoyed this video as ever. If so, please do like subscribe and share the word! And do feel free to add a comment below if there’s anything else that you can think of as a voice-over offering as well. Thank you so much for your time, and I look forward to seeing you next week.

The Rise of AI Voiceover

The Rise of AI Voiceover -

by British Male Voice Actor Chris Tester

The rise of the AI voice has been the go-to anxiety topic for the voiceover industry for the last couple of years. The one before this was arguably the acceptance of home studios. They were more readily available and affordable technology, better remote connections, and more online casting portals allowing people to go directly to their clients. 

That meant that there was a greater acceptance of that as a valid way of doing voiceover work. So before we get into the whole AI thing, it's really important that we set out what exactly we're talking about and specifically that there's a distinction between the two main types of AI voice that are out there!

There's text to speech, and there's also speech to speech. Text to speech is what we most readily accept. AI voices to be so that you're inputting text, and as a result, a synthetic voice is turning that into spoken speech. But there's also speech to speech where there is actually a live performance giving the vocal inflections. But then a digital mask of another voice is being placed over the top of it, and we also need to remember that as most developing technologies AI voice stands on a moral spectrum.

There are better examples of it and worse examples on the one side. Some of this technology is literally giving voice to the voiceless, as demonstrated by the vocal id's work in the area. And then, on the opposite side, you have the model that we as voice actors might be more familiar with, which is something like a product like speechello, which advertises itself overtly as a solution to those costly and unnecessary voice actors.

So I'd say the key questions about AI voices are:

1. How good are they?

2. Will they replace voice actors?

3. What voiceover genres will it affect?

4. And how can voice actor’s best prepare for it?

Every few months, there seems to be another development in the mainstream media that provokes another spasm of anxiety for voiceover actors. Eighteen months ago, it was probably the release of a trailer of an AI voice that could cry called faith by the developer synaptic. 

Most recently, there was a controversy sparked by the troy baker, the voice actor. Now the baker is essentially as close to voice actor royalty as you can get; he starred in a whole variety of different franchises. Some of the biggest franchises in video games have been a running joke within the industry that he's in pretty much every game he tweeted about partnering with an AI voice company to allow everyone the chance to own and invest in the IPS that they create. 

Now part of the controversy was that it was a combination of AI voice and NFTS, which is another subject. And to itself that I don't really want to focus on in this video but what I do want to focus on in this video is that it shows that many voice actors out there already are exploring the different options of monetizing an AI version of their voice. When discussing his thinking and the subsequent backlash on the podcast play, watch listen baker explain a bit more thoroughly about his rationale: you never fire like the middle management. 

You fire the most expensive that's where the change happens; producers, by and large, are looking for how we can get away from hiring someone like a troy baker. Who's really expensive versus that guy doesn't cost that much. He's a negligible amount, or she's not going to be as expensive. So what I'm saying is they're trying to if they're trying to bring anybody's costs down; it's not that person. It's me! 

My job is not better than anything. My job is to solve the problem. Now I'd recommend that podcast, and I would also say that Alana Pierce - the video game writer and Mike Bithell - the video game developer made very good counterpoints in terms of obviously the very explicit risk that AI voices might have, especially for a new voice over talents coming into the industry who aren't as established as a baker. 

But what possibly interested me most about the baker's explanations towards his thinking was that it wasn't just about being as good as he could possibly be as an actor. Still, it was also about his focus on addressing the pain points of the clients that are out there, which rings true to a lot of the marketing that I do where on the marketing that recommends where it's not all about you. And what you can do but it's addressing you're the markets and your potential client's pain points first and foremost. 

But I was meeting about this literally last week with a studio that was like. We don't want to use the robot voice, but it's not a good use of our time to have people in-house. Record all the dialogue what our options are. So I definitely, I get that, and I also. I also understand that smaller voice actors are concerned with it too. I imagine that for similar for the composing community like I would guess people are split on it. Some people like it and some people don't. So given all of this, what should voice actors do? Should we just give up? Should we pretend it? Isn't it existing or happening at all just living entirely in denial, or maybe we should just sell out as soon as possible. 

We still can't be sure what exact voiceover genres will be most affected, but we can take an educated guess on IVR phone messaging. Some e-learning will probably be the most obvious candidates because if an AI program can change the language of an entire course rapidly, that can have some added value. There's also an argument for some commercial content to be specifically catered towards AI programs. Maybe you receive an advert that addresses you by name, addresses the location where you are, and also address what it is that you're playing or watching that commercial experience which some marketers are going to want to engage with is only really going to be feasible using an AI voice rather than having a human talent recording. Potentially millions of different variations in games AI voices are used as a placeholder and in the development process. And there are actual AI voices programs that are being built into and trialed in platforms such as unity which is specifically to aid the game development process because it makes more financial sense sometimes as a placeholder than it would be to hire live talent for in-progress work. Also, the wide availability of decent AI voices generally speaking would obviously invite greater use of voices in indie games. 

Whereas before, they would simply be priced out entirely, and we can see how some of the online casting sites are already catering to this where you have voice 123 and voices.com trialing AI voices and freelancing websites such as Fiverr looking at teaming up with AI providers such as lovo so that people can first of all order samples of existing human voiceovers. But then that leading probably almost essentially to them also having an AI voice offering as well there is also the wider question of diversity that needs to certainly be born in the mind which is that if a whole area is suddenly flooded by AI voice versions of reputable video game voice actors that people are going to be using instead of early voice actors, then it means that there's going to be a narrower pool of actual talent there.

As a result, some of the newer and more diverse talent coming into voice acting might be stifled in their development, but still and I'm sorry this is a cop-out. It is still too soon to know for sure exactly how this will impact. All we know is that there is a greater tolerance now that we're using Alexa, Siri, and TTS in the social media that we imbibe every day. There is a greater tolerance. It will be part of our lives in some form to come; that's as much as we know, and we can't ignore it. So what can us as voice actors do? Well, I suggest five things! 

The first thing I'd recommend is that we focus on being voice actors, and this may seem obvious. But it still bears repeating the one thing that ai voices struggle with is spontaneous, realistic emotion, and even if you do teach an AI voice to cry with specific inputs, then if you give them those same specific inputs, they will cry in the same way, there's not going to be that level of spontaneity. Whereas an actor who lives in the moment has a seemingly limitless way of channeling those kinds of things, you also need to value yourself artistically as a collaborator. As well as just a gun for hire, as a voice actor, you can understand the rules of copy and how to interpret text and give feedback on that. Similarly, with character relationships, characters' background, and the decision-making process. The decision-making process behind that is all added value that you can readily market and sell to potential collaborators, which AI voices simply won't have. 

My second point would be to be as educated as possible about the subject. So I would say podcasts like the VO social podcast about AI voices are great Anne Ganguzza’s VO boss podcasts. She's created a series of interviews with different AI voice providers about their approaches to their ethical standpoints. All of that kind of thing, I would say Hugh Edwards - a gravy for the brain has worked a lot with TTS stuff and spoken to several number developers. And I'd say podcasts like play watch listen where you're seeing game developers, game writers, composers, and voice actors, all discussing this kind of thing. So that it's not isolated but as part of our whole conversation in itself are, invaluable. 

The third thing to do is be open to potential opportunities where AI voice could augment your workflow. Yes, you could have an AI avatar that you market yourself or have someone mark a market for you for a lower stream of paid work. But there's also the potential to use AI voice, maybe just to do pickups in your workflow so that an algorithm can auto-replace those 12 errors for you instead of you having to go back in and do those pickups again. It's just being open to all of the different offerings out there. So that you can then see what might serve you best do you want an AI avatar. Do you want it to be on a separate platform? Do you want someone to market for you again by familiarising yourself with what other people are offering? You can start making some informed decisions.

The fourth point going hand in hand with that is to value your voice usage rights, and I'll always be banging on about knowing what usage is as a voice actor. Anyway, it's essentially making sure that you steer clear of anything which asks for a potential complete buyout. A lot of voice actors will have seen a text-to-speech was programmed. Where you'll have to record anything from half an hour to three hours to ten hours of seemingly nonsensical sentences from which they'll create a text-to-speech program. And then they'll offer com a complete buyout fee of anywhere from between two and a half to three thousand up to ten to twenty thousand pounds or dollars. And all of this kind of stuff is really iffy because they're essentially offering a buyout on that. And therefore, you don't have any say on where that voice may end up, and obviously, we've got a recent example of Bev standing a voice actor whose voice was used on TikTok without her permission. Those usage rights are really going to be crucial because if you sign them away too early and very, very, very cheaply, that's going to be the slippery slope. 

And finally, the fifth thing is to return to a theme of mine, which is the crucial aspect of forging direct relationships with your clients rather than being beholden to freelancing sites or pay-to-plays or anything like this your value proposition. As a voice actor, there will be more and more this human connection and all of the additional benefits that you can add and if other things can get in the way of that. Then that will diminish your ability to maintain a career in this area. The sooner that you're independent and very clear about what value you're adding to every single project you lend yourself with, the more you're going to make yourself independent and more self-sustaining as a business to conclude. 

I'd encourage us to look back at what I was discussing with the advent of home studios beforehand. Those talents that thrived were those who weren't afraid of new technology and were appreciative that their customer's workflows were changing. And therefore, their skill sets needed to change to cater to those new needs; they embraced new technology and saw how that could be able to enhance their client offering. We need to be aware of something that we need to bear in mind in a customer-centric way as much as possible. 

I don't believe that AI voices are going to spell the end of voice actors in their careers, especially when we live in a world where emotional connection and authenticity is a key factors in everything that we do, whether that's particularly artistic projects or voice acting, whether it's e-learning whether or not it's commercial or narration. All of these things, the emotional connection will always be key, but still, we have to be aware of what is developing around us. I hope you found this video of some interest, and if you have, please do like subscribe and spread the word; I look forward to seeing you next time!

With thanks - your favourite British Male Voiceover - Naturally RP

How to set the BEST Voiceover Goals for 2022

By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester

Essentially, what I want to do is bring together two of my previous videos, one of which was about goal setting and the other one which was about taking stock of your voiceover achievements for 2021, and then use myself as an example of how I'm going about setting my goals for this coming year. The trickiest aspect of this can be that you don't really know where to start!

Everybody has their own kind of competing goals. There are loads of posts on it at the moment on social media; various voiceover provider services are all about these things. And you can't really see the wood from the trees. So I recommend that you have to start with what your goal is. You also need to think about how you would go about achieving that goal.

But the thing that I believe is I really kind of missed out from last year in properly interrogating was the why, as well. I think this is of crucial importance to really determine whether or not a goal actually works for you personally, or whether or not you've just taken it from someone else's goal list and assumed it into your own business rather than really properly interrogating it. So it's about the what, it's about the how, but it's also crucially about the why, and this is what's going to be able to make you narrow down your options into something that is actually feeling possible to you in this coming year, as opposed to something that is overwhelming.

Let's talk in-depth without further ado!

#1. Brainstorming 

So to get onto the resolution aspect of this, the first thing that I really recommend is that you brainstorm everything. But you brainstorm everything with three major sectors in mind:

1. Technical Side

The first one is going to be the technical side. The technical side may be equipment, it may be an investment in your space, but it's to do with your recording environment, the process of recording from a technical side. So equipment, all of that kind of thing.

1. Performance Side

The second area to really focus on is the performance side. So that could be working with particular coaches in particular genres. But then that also goes towards the actual demo production you might be involved in if you actually want to showcase your work in that respect

1. Marketing/Employment side

There's the technical side, and there's the performance side, and then there's also the marketing/employment side.

• So this is to do with what are your inbound marketing streams?

• What are your outbound marketing streams?

• Inherently, that's social media and any direct marketing that you do. And then, on top of that, it's also what agents are you represented by?

• How often are you auditioning?

• Are you auditioning through production rosters?

• Are you using pay-to-plays?

• And if so, how regularly you are auditioning, all of that kind of thing.

So we've got those three rough areas from which to start with.

#2. Stock Consideration

The next stage is to make sure that you have taken stock of this year, 2021, to see what targets you've set and whether or not you managed to do so. And then also to interrogate why. So when I look back, I'm not going to try and repeat everything that's already in that pre-existing video. But when I look back, obviously, there are many things that I'm very proud to have been able to achieve.

So, for example, I didn't hit my income target, but I came very close to hitting in terms of working more in games or audiobooks. That was very successful. I managed to get this home studio built, which has made me have to worry a lot less about the technical side of things. And I've also managed to formalise my coaching offering. I've managed to work with a marketing company specifically on defining what my marketing strategies are. And I've also managed to create another skillshare course, which is very, very good and very well-regarded and completely free if you sign up for a trial, just saying.

But there was also something that I completely dropped, completely failed on. And again, this comes back to not having really interrogated the why enough. So, for example, I had this whole idea that I would create a kind of marketing pack for myself so that I could, I don't know, get more varieties of interviews or appear on podcasts or anything else like that. 

Because there wasn't a really clear why behind that, other than I'd heard a few other people do it, that never really kind of came together in any way, shape or form, or more specifically also with working on US general American accents, it's something that I'd set up as wanting to revisit because I'd done a lot of it as a trained actor before previously. 

Many people say it's a very, very good idea, but it never became a priority for me because I just didn't encounter that many castings where it was really an issue. And increasingly, as well, with people looking for really authentic accents, I kind of used it as a bit of an excuse because my why wasn't strong enough in the first place to not even begin touching that. So I'm not saying that's not something that I'm going to focus on in the new year, but I need to develop a strong enough why to justify that being on my goals list. 

So oriented around those three different areas, you brainstorm everything you think of, anything that pops into your mind that you possibly think of as a goal. Don't try and qualify it in any way, shape or form; just put it down there and attach it to one of those three spheres. And then from that, you need to focus on the why which will be a natural process of elimination before you get into the nitty-gritty of the how.

There's no point in wasting lots of time on the how if the why isn't strong enough. It's like any kind of acting objective exercise; if your want isn't strong enough, then the scene won't be successful because you won't really feel you'll need it. So there won't be that tension of drama. It's exactly identical in terms of your motivation. If these are going to be goals that you're going to be pursuing for an entire 12 months, if the why isn't strong enough, you won't do it. 

#3. Documentary Work

So if I look at some of the goals that I'm contemplating in 2022, one example is documentary work. So that's what it is. I want to work more in documentaries and long-form duration and that type of thing. Then why is because I've always had a real interest in that from David Attenborough and his nature narrations, having a particularly huge effect on me, and then more kind of historical narration as well. I've been really interested in it. 

And so, therefore, once I've got those two as established, that's a very positive thing, then I can go into the, how could I possibly do that? And that would be by working with a coach that I think is well-respected. So maybe doing some research on that and working with them to get a demo. And then when you have that demo, well, what can you do? Yes, you can put it on pay-to-play sites. Yes, you can give it to your agents. Still, it would then be working in terms of my marketing as well so that I could identify specific leads that I could reach out to directly and then incorporate into my overall kind of direct marketing strategy as a result.

#4. Consolidation of Income

Another what that I'm really contemplating is that I want to consolidate my income. Before I get into how I want to do that, I really need to think about the why. And obviously, it's because more money is always great, right? Maybe? But the why is actually because I want to take some time off from voiceover without massive feelings of guilt. So that's quite a strong activator for me in terms of a life goal, as opposed to a business goal, to take more time off without going; oh my God, my business will plummet as a result. And then that justifies very much more strongly the, how I want to go about that.

So that's making sure that I am actioning all of the marketing work that I explored with Knowlton Marketing when I hired them as a consultant for my business. In terms of inbound work and outbound work, it's about making sure that the workflow of my content creation is as streamlined as possible so that I can be consistent and do batch contenting. It's led to some outsourcing. It's why I've got a virtual assistant for my outreach to help with that. Now, throughout this process, I'm not saying that the why has always to be ridiculously strong. It's good to have some speculative ones in there that you can subsequently kind of quantify. 

#5. Whole Dubbing and ADR World 

So, for example, with me, one of the goals that I'm contemplating is looking into the whole dubbing and ADR world because it's something that I haven't experienced. I don't know whether I'd love it or hate it because I've never even done a workshop on it or tried it out myself. So I know that I want to go about doing that. What's the why? Because it seems to be such a booming industry at this moment. So do I know whether or not I'd like it? Do I know whether or not it's a genre that would work for me? I'm not going to know that until I explore it in some kind of way. 

And so, therefore, we go down to the how, and that's by seeing what workshops are available, seeing if there are any resources that I'm already paying for, from my memberships to the VoiceOver Network or Gravy For The Brain, or other organisations are available and whether or not they have some resources that I can use, whether or not the friends or people that I know who already work in those spheres, that I can potentially talk to to see what the whole process is like. 

Once you've gone through this entire process, you should have a bunch of ideas that you've brainstormed out, and then they will have automatically kind of funnelled down quite considerably as soon as you've analysed the why. 

#6. Different Colours

I recommend even using a kind of different colours. So maybe all of the ones you've brainstormed are in blue, but when they actually qualify to the next stage, you may put the why in red. And then if they're ones that you actually want to spend considerable time on thinking about the how, then you put them in another colour, like purple for example. And that means that they are definitely going to be priorities for you. And obviously, if they chime with you and you're more excited about them, then that's obviously a very good sign. 

In a Nutshell

One of the practical benefits of having those three areas kind of like mapped out is to make sure that there's some form of balance so that you're not focusing purely, always on the performance side and not at all on the marketing side, because yes, it's great that you focus on your skills, especially when you're starting out. 

But if you want actually to make it function as a business, you need to spend at least as much time on the marketing side, on getting auditions, on getting those relationships, and on the technical side. I know that the technical side, thanks to having invested in the studio and making it such a priority in 2021, is less of an issue for me.

So it's going to be focusing more on the performance side and much more on the kind of marketing side, marketing to new areas. But again, it's about kind of forming a natural process, not by trying to get it right, right from the get-go, but by literally copying everybody else's ideas first and foremost, having them all out in front of you, and then seeing what speaks to you.

Last Words

I hope this video has been of some use to you. And I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, regardless of what the COVID restrictions may or may not be by the time that we get there. Thank you so much for your support for the channel, as ever. Please do like, subscribe. Please do tell other people that you think might enjoy this content about this content, as it would mean a great deal. 

And thank you, as ever, for your time and support and lovely comments. I will be taking a break for a week just to kind of revise where I want to take this channel next. And I hope that I'll be able to bring you all along with me. Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you next year!

How to Direct Voice Actors in Video Games

Video games are continuing to boom as an industry. And as a result of that greater popularity, the expectation for voice acting is only getting higher and higher. Gone are the days of getting your friends to do it for free and hoping that would work out. 

Voiceover: I'm fully aware of what I'm doing. Can you see? Man committed a sin, disturbing the lifecycle of nature. The original sin that man is responsible to, to protect the life cycle. 

This is the second of three videos about the best ways of working with actors for video games. The first cover the casting process, and if you haven't watched it already, you can check it out here. In this video, we're going to look at how you can make your actual recording session with a voice actor as creatively stimulating and productive as possible. This is intended to apply to all forms of voice acting and video games. But for something as specialized as performance capture or motion capture, those are subjects that I would really like to approach in another video in the future. There is also an important distinction I would like to make between a voice actor and a voice over. And there is a distinction. 

Of course, both require acting skills. But with voiceover, there's a particular style to it, there is a pattern, a formula that's actually at work. With voice actors where the emphasis is on the second word, then there's more process of using our imaginations, engaging emotionally with a character and actually putting ourselves in another person's shoes. Now performer can be both a voiceover and a voice actor simultaneously. You just need to be aware of the distinction, to be aware of the different skill sets that are associated with each. It's quite a confusing topic because different people brand themselves in different ways at different times. So for my commercial and corporate work, I will brand myself as a voice over but when I'm talking about games, I'll emphasize the acting part. Actually hiring a voice director to work with the actors on your behalf is probably the best solution. And it also allows you the opportunity to learn through observation, but you may not be in a position to hire them. And either way, some of the points that’ll raised in this video may be useful for your future learning. So to start, let's talk preparation. 

If you can discuss the character with the actor before the actual session. Talk about their characteristics, their background, their relationships, and the world of the game. If you have time, be open to a dialogue and make the actual creation of the character as collaborative as possible. Provide the scripts which are often called sides as quickly as possible. Most voice actors can actually be very good side readers but the more time we have with the script, the better the end product will be. If the game has a lot of conversations between different actors, then try and organize a table read of some sort, even if it is only through zoom. It means that everyone will get a whole sense of what the world is like, what the interactions are like and that's something that can feed through even into individual sessions. And then if you have a discussion at the end, where people can ask questions, it means that you only have to answer them once rather than repeating yourself time after time. 

Looking to the script itself, if there are any unusual pronunciations, then make sure that you have a guide so that everybody is on the same page. And try to resist the temptation to actor proof your script by throwing in objectives all the time telling them how they should say something, the odd direction of angry or whispered can be very good in terms of providing context to why someone is saying something in a particular way. But if it's every line or every other line, then it just limits the potential options open to the actor, which stifles their creativity and will probably be deleted anyway. Essentially as performers, we can only perform to the size of the space that you actually grant us. And finally, whenever possible, budget for more session time than you think you'll need. When a session begins, make the process clear for everyone. Make it clear how many scenes that you're covering, what different emotional states are required in each and where they come from in the game. 

Obviously, that could just be you and the actor, that could be a director but there could also be a producer or writer or any other number of people on the line. Regardless of how many there are ensure that only one person is actually giving direction to the actor, so that they're not lost in a cacophony of voices. Spend the first five to 10 minutes of the session, just checking in with the other actor, seeing where they are, how their days been, and what they're going to be like to direct. Obviously, in all cases, time is money. And if you've got 5000, as opposed to 500 words to do in a three hour session, then you want to be getting on with things. But still having that chat at the start is useful for gauging the tone for the whole session. Ask the actor if they have any questions about the character about the background about the sides, whatever. But obviously, if you've been able to build in some pre session time, this will be less of an issue. 

One crucial aspect to bear in mind is the order in which you approach material. If there's a particularly emotional scene or a lot of shouting involved, then it's usually better to place that towards the end of the session, but each actor may work differently. For some they may warm up with shouting first and foremost, different actors voices work in different ways. So check in with them before coming to a mutual decision. And one final thing before starting make sure that a break schedule has been agreed. Make sure that you enforce it, not the actor. Actors will tend to want to keep going and sometimes that's absolutely great because they're in the moment, they're feeling something, but they're still not necessarily the best objective judge of their vocal health, especially if they're inexperienced. Small breaks are important, both to replenish the mind and the body. When you finally get to the recording, you need to tell your actor at every scene, the where, the what and the why. 

The where, where does the scene take place? Is it a battlefield? Is it a council chamber? Is it a bedroom? How big is the space? Are there other people there? And how far away am I from the person that I'm talking to? The what is the essential physical action. Am I running away? Am I in the middle of the battle? Or am I working in an office. And the why is what is the objective behind the characters actions? Of course, all of this information combines with the Greater Life of the character, and also the world of the game. And again, if you've done all of that prep work in advance, then it means you can be a lot more succinct when you're actually recording. But it's crucial to focus on these essentials rather than getting distracted by any extraneous information. It's also very useful to think in terms of the characters emotional state, and generally they break down into being either mad, sad or glad. 

Obviously, there's a whole spectrum of choices lying across those three distinctions, but it's still useful to have one in mind as a starting point at each scene. It could also be useful to think of a character's driving forces coming from either their head, their heart or their groin. Just saying the same line with the same logical objective but those three different things in mind will give you different results. When at all possible, be flexible with the actual words themselves be open to the idea of aligning words or changing them if they don't feel quite natural. For theatre actors, especially the can sometimes be a reverence for the word on the page. So sometimes you need to actively give permission to mess things up and make things more believable. Hesitations, gasps, half said words and repetitions are all little things that can give texture to language in a whole new way. Think of encouraging these improvisations even before the actual words begin. 

Adele Cutting, a voice director suggests using them as springboards into an actual line itself, which you can cut afterwards. Different actors work in different ways. And if you try and enforce some one size fits all process for everyone, then it's probably going to end up limiting the results that you actually get. But try to describe the stakes in a given scene as vividly as possible using the right transitive verb. The more vivid a transitive verb is, the more stimulating it is to play as an actor. There is the difference between telling an actor to ask for forgiveness and telling them to beg or plead for forgiveness. You want to use language that is going to ignite an actor's imagination, not stifle it. So familiarizing yourself with a book like Actions, The Actors Thesaurus, would be a really great stuff to that process. Boiling down a scene to what it's essentially about is always important, but can be particularly important when we're thinking in terms of genre.

To give a personal example, I was recently working on a scene with a video game director, in which one of my companions was killed. My initial response was to take the subsequent scene very literally, like it was therefore going to be a fight to the death. But after I'd gone in horribly wrong a couple of times, the director actually pointed out that in the context of the game, which was set in a post-apocalyptic world, with lots of zombies being killed all the time, the actual essential of the scene was actually about confronting a bullet, not about a fight to the death. It was a subtle changing of the stakes, as opposed to a lessening of them, which completely changed my playing of the scene as a result. 

I think the final thing I want to say is that you should be thinking in terms of how you want the character to make you feel, as opposed to how you want them to actually sound. If you start a session with a very preconceived idea of how things should go, then it's going to be very stifling, and collaborative and also very uninspired. Sometimes lines have to be spoken in a particular way for a particular reason. And if necessary, alone reading can be justifiable if an actor really isn't getting it. But it really should be a very selective approach. You want to be part of an exciting, collaborative, creative experience. And by approaching it with the right preparation, and the right attitude all the way through, it can really be achievable. 

Next time I'll be looking at your relationship with the actor after the recording process, which is typically the part most overlooked. If you enjoyed this video, please do like subscribe and turn on notifications and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Using Physicality in Voiceover

Whether performing or directing, it is essential to know how physicality informs delivery in voiceover - and how you can make dramatic changes through small adjustments.

By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester

How To Cast Voice Actors For Games

By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester

Whether your game is part of a huge Triple A billion franchise, or it's just you as a single developer, getting the right voice actors to be part of your game is particularly crucial. Especially with gamers expecting more believable, authentic performances as standard. In this video, I'm going to talk about how to cast voice actors. The when, the where, the how, and the what. This will be the first of three videos on the subject, with a second looking at how you actually work with the voice actor during a directed session itself. And the third looking at your relationship with the voice actor after the game is released. How they can help with marketing and promotion, and expand your broader network. So let's get started with the where. Where you cast your voice actors will depend on what you're looking for, your budget, and how many roles you need to fill. Recommendations and referrals from other game developers, voice actors or voice directors is a great way to start. It's a way of being introduced to a whole variety of talent that you might not be familiar with, but which has been vetted, been proven in some way. Of course, a pretty standard route is to contact agents, either voice agents and acting agents and ask them about the talent on their books. 

If you have a particular talent in mind, then just google their name and an agency and it'll probably pop up. Or alternatively, just google any major city name and voice agent or acting agent and lots of options will come up to. You could collaborate with specialist audio production companies who have their own talent database. You can look on social media, and especially Twitter, where a lot of voice actors are particularly active. And either put a casting call out there directly yourself, or alternatively, reach out to a company or an individual that specializes in casting indie games. You can google search voice actors and find out more about them from their website, which might be quite a long winded way if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. But if you like an actor's previous work, then you may be able to reach out directly. Or of course, you could put a casting call out on a pay to play site or voiceover casting site, inviting lots of voice actors that you may not be familiar with at all to audition for your roles and seeing what the results are. Now there is no best or worst source of where you can actually get hold of the actors that you want to audition in the first place. 

But I would say be wary of making your casting call too broad or open. Some of these avenues will result in you receiving hundreds of applications which you'll have to trawl through in order to find what you want, which can be exhausting. So the more selective you are at the front end, the more seamless the whole process will be afterwards. When do you cast your voice actors? Again, it depends on a project by project basis. But typically, if it's a more character based game than the earlier, the better. If you cast early, then it allows your writers to become more familiar with the voice that they're actually writing for, which will result in a greater degree of authenticity. It means you can have less time sensitive meetings with your actors to discuss the role and you can be a sounding board for each other's ideas. These sorts of creative discussions in the early stages could mean that your time actually in the booth recording with the voice actor is much lower as a result. But if the role is more functional than that's not necessary. 

[Voiceover: Now, you will suffer our wrath.]

In which case casting closer to the actual recording time may be more suitable, because it ensures an actor's availability. How do you cast your voice actors? The wisest thing to do to start off with is to delegate if you can afford to. Voice directors will often already be familiar with talent, how to direct talent, and it will allow you to pick up experience along the way through observation. Each actor may need a slightly different approach depending on the material. A professional director can save you time and get creative results that you never might have expected.

Voice over[Troy Baker on Director Neil Druckmann]: We start shooting the scene action and I go straight into it. And it feels weird and it feels false. And we do it three or four times and Neil walks up to me in between takes and I'll never forget this and he says I'm picking up on some resistance. And I said yeah, you're damn right, you're picking up on some resistance because we've got it. It's in the can it was take one. And he said let me tell you what I have. I have a man broken, I said guy his fucking daughter just died. He goes, No, I have a man broken what I don't have is what's happening, this is happening. I can fix it. It's not working. She's going she's gone, I’m broken. And that is when I realized that Neil Druckmann was the greatest director I've ever worked with.

It can be argued that not all voice directors are created equal. But the majority may provide a level of expertise that can prove invaluable. But if it is only you and you can't afford a voice director, then I do suggest that you check out a couple of acting books. 

Something like Stanislavski’s, An Actor Prepares and David Mamet's True And False. A crucial part of the casting process is creating an actual character breakdown with imagery of the character, their age, their physicality, their accent, their voice description and biography, ideally. When casting you'll be asking actors to read lines for the character that you might want to actually cast them as. These lines are typically called sides, audition sides. And when you write them, it's important to provide as much context as possible. An actor will say a line completely differently depending on who they're speaking to, why they're speaking to them, and where they're speaking to them as well. Try to resist the temptation to copy and paste some of your actual script for the audition sides. You want to hear as many different facets of the character as possible as quickly as possible. So if that's possible in existing lines from the actual game itself, that's great. But if not, then write a scene or an exchange that actually serves that purpose, so that every single different part of the audition is actually helping you to make a choice. 

Depending on how in depth you want the process to be, I would recommend having a first and then a second round of auditions. In the first round, have them a sample based auditions, where you provide direction the actor records them, and then you review them. And then you could have a second round, which would be a live directed session. So either you or the voice director would be working with the actor through a set script, and you could see what your relationship is like and how free and open they are to actual direction. If you have reference points to the type of game that you want to make, then share them. If you tell a voice actor that the game is in the style of The Last of Us or in the style of Zelda or in the style of Doom, then we immediately get an impression of what that world is like and how those characters would interact. Even if we don't, if we're not gamers, then we can go on to YouTube, see some of that game footage and get an impression very quickly as well. Above all else, look for people who are voice actors as opposed to voiceovers. If that makes sense. Many voiceovers may have a beautiful voice and it does also require acting, but it's a different kind of skill set. Appreciate that Screen Actors might give very detailed realistic performances, but they also might struggle in being able to communicate verbally what they would normally Express physically, facially.

Voice over: It has been amusing watching your sea-wracked corpses stumble and doddder as you tracked the prey

Some stage actors may be particularly good at bigger characterizations or multi character parts, but some of them could be a little bit too big or performative. And again, depending on experience, some might have quite a lot of mic technique, and others may have none. All of these things will have a greater or lesser importance depending on the type of game that you want to make. So for example, if you put a filmic Actor in a performance capture context, where they're also going to have their face mapped as well, then all of those issues might not be an issue at all. And similarly, if your voice actor is working with an audio engineer during the session, then then being on or off mic is going to be less of a practical concern rather than if they're recording from a home studio and are responsible themselves for gauging their distance from a mic. 

If your project is going to involve home studio talent, then ensure that all of their auditions take place using the setup that they'd actually use. Have the recordings vetted by an audio engineer. Because even if something sounds possible, there may be issues with it. Also bear in mind that you're looking for acoustic continuity, you want to ensure that all these voices sound as if they've come from the same place with a minimum of fuss. And also cast as authentically as possible. It's 2020 and there's enough talent out there. It's not an excuse to say that you can't find it. And finally, for what, how much would you actually pay your voice actors. Actors fees typically break down into two things; a per hour fee, called the basic studio fee, which covers their actual recording time. And a buyout that actually licenses their voice for your game, which is normally the basic studio fee again, or a multiple of it. Obviously, as the demands of a project expands, so will the fee. 

How to Hire a Voice Actor

In this video, I provide an overview of all the different ways voiceover talent can be hired - and what’s the BEST way… SPOILER - you’re already on the right website, and there’s a step by step process detailed here.

In this video, I'm going to show you the best way to hire a voice actor. If you've never worked with voiceover talent before, it can be a bit overwhelming to know where to start looking. A lot will depend on your budget, your timeframe and exactly what you need. So it's important to keep these three things in mind when you make a decision. In the next few minutes, I'm going to go over the four main ways of hiring voice over talent and the advantages and disadvantages to each option. Throughout them all, I think it's useful to keep in mind this diagram. Any service land at some point in the spectrum, and the same is definitely true for voiceovers. Option number one, voiceover agents. If you go into Google and type in voiceover agents, then you'll get a list of the most high profile agencies in your area. Are all voiceover agencies created equal? No, but they are typically the first stop for the best high profile talent, because the agencies themselves would have already cherry pick the best in the field. An agent's job is essentially to curate the best talent from a diverse range of the industry. 

Depending on the agency, a lot of the talent represented might actually be actors who also do Voice over on the side, so they might not have access to recording facilities themselves. But they'll either be able to use the agency's own studio or an external one. Especially since COVID, a lot of agency talent have also moved to get home studios as well. And these will have all been vetted by the agents in advance. Essentially working with an agent to result in a high quality product with a cost that reflects that as well as paying the talent. The agent will also be taking a commission of between 15 and 20%. So rates will be on the higher end. Thanks to an agent's knowledge and expertise, you'll be given a number of very credible options and the turnover time will be relatively quick. But there is inherently an extra layer of correspondence within the transaction, which means it's not necessarily the fastest. And it also means that you're often not talking to the talent until the session itself. Option two, pay to play sites. Pay to play sites are essentially voiceover casting sites, where talent pay a subscription fee, in order to play, essentially audition for your project, or someone posting a job. The fee for actually using the platform is often conflated into the overall voiceover fee. But there's often quite a difference from site to site on how ethically that this is done. Some are very ethical, and some really aren't. Pay to plays are extensively fast because you can set the deadline, you can also set the budget which could be well below industry standards, the barrier of entry to the site is very variable. 

Essentially, if you can pay then you can play, which means that you will be inundated with auditions that you'll have to go through which will take a lot of time, listening to countless readings of the same script can get very tiring very fast, especially when the performance levels are very variable, but also the actual quality of the recording itself. It adds an unwelcome degree of technical uncertainty into the mix. But if you do have the time to trawl through everything, then it can be a more budget friendly option, if time doesn't necessarily equate to money for you. Option three, freelancing sites are something that I'm just going to touch on very briefly. Imagine all of the complications and potential issues of a pay to play site but with no barrier to entry. Pay to plays at least have the barrier of entry of a subscription fee that the talent must pay. Whereas on a freelancing site, anyone can have a go. So while turnaround times may be quick and rates often extremely low, finding anything that's actually usable is like finding a needle in a haystack and will require a lot of patience on your behalf. 

And finally option four, hiring freelance voiceovers directly. Returning to Google again, if you search for the type of voice you're looking for, and the word voiceover, you'll be presented with a huge range of talent to choose from. Any voiceover artists who has spent time building up their online presence, recording a range of demos, done their SEO and constructed a clear brand has to be dedicated to their job. If they've managed to get on the first or second page of Google, then they likely know what they're doing. They'll have invested in their own professional studio, which means that they'll be able to turn over recordings quickly, that you won't have to deal with a third party in order to speak to them. And that you won't have to wade through lots of auditions in order to get what you want. You'll be able to immediately check out their work, find out where they're based and make contact with them. And thus the whole process will be conducted directly. There'll be no commission involved, rates will be more competitive, while still respectful of the industry. And just as a side note to that, if you don't know what the proper going rates are for a voiceover, then I recommend you check out the Gravy For The Brain rate card. If you've already got a pretty clear idea of the voice that you want, then you can find a few different talents, ask them for a demo. And they'll usually turn over it in a couple of hours. If you've got much vaguer ideas about the talent that you actually want to use, then probably having somebody like an agent to bounce ideas off would be more useful. But another huge benefit of working with voiceovers directly is that we're a community, which is partly the result of us talking to ourselves all day. The best voiceovers will be very clear about what they can do and also what they can't and be happy to recommend you if someone's more suitable. 

I make personal recommendations to my clients pretty much on a regular basis because it's part of me building a relationship with them. The best voiceovers want to be a resource to you, not just book a job and are in it for the long haul. So don't be afraid to ask them. So there you have it. Each job is a balancing act and no budget or timeline is going to be created equal. But I've hopefully given you a clear idea of the options available to you and what their various pros and cons are. If you enjoyed this video, please do take the time to like, subscribe and turn notifications on so that you don't miss any of the future videos. Thanks so much for watching, and see you next time.