How to cast a voice talent

Identifying the best voice talents for your project is easy with bodalgo's free online casting service. And if you provide the right pieces of information when posting a job, the results will be stellar. Here is how it works…

For you to find the best voice-over talents out there while saving much time, we have created this step-by-step guide on developing excellent casting calls. In this 3-minute read, we will look at each bit of information that will help the talents provide highly relevant auditions to get your job done.

Let's jump right in with the most important piece of information you need to provide when looking for a voice actor: Type & Usage. These two parameters are crucial because they determine the budget for any voice-over job. You need to understand when to select "Commercials" instead of "Corporate Presentation", for example. But there is an easy rule of thumb: Whenever money is paid for the recording to be broadcasted/distributed, we are talking about a commercial. In other words, if there is media spending, it is a commercial.

Examples of commercials are pre-roll-ads on YouTube (those little clips that appear before and during YouTube videos), Facebook, TV and radio commercials, etc.

If a clip is shown on the company's own website/Youtube channel/Facebook page, etc, then this is a corporate presentation.

Length of the audio

You may provide the length in seconds, minutes, words and takes/modules. While the first two are pretty obvious, let's have a closer look at the rest: Words: Let's say you have a script you want to match to a video of a specific length. To make sure the copy won't be longer than the video you start reading along with the script in your head while watching the video. Big mistake! Always read aloud as we read much faster when doing so "in our head". This is very important to remember to avoid frustration during production.

Takes/Modules are used mainly used for IVRs or dubbing. A take/module represents one line in a dialogue (dubbing) or a portion of related copy (IVRs).

To estimate the time a script needs to be read, here is a rule of thumb: 120 to 140 words will take a talent approx. one minute to read. Keep this in mind if you have a tight timing. You don't want to rush the talent through your script to make it fit as your message you want to get across will be totally lost. We mean it.

Don't combine jobs

Let's assume you need a great voice talent for three product presentations, two minutes each. Don't combine them to make them look like one six-minute piece. Each video has to be treated separately unless they are indeed connected to each other (like chapters in a book).

For example, showing three different aspects of the same product in three different videos would qualify it to be combined in one job, whereas showing three completely different products wouldn't. The latter case does not mean you must post three other jobs. It just means that the budget for three distinct videos of two minutes needs to be higher than for three videos showing three different features of the same product. If unsure, explain the nature of the job in detail in the description so the talent knows exactly what's expected.

Job description – the most significant bit

The description/briefing is the most crucial part as it helps talents understand what exactly you need. There are three things that absolutely have to be included or your project is headed to "Mediocrity Valley":

1. What kind of voice and what type of read do you have in mind? Hard sell? Energetic? Calm? Rough voice? High pitched one? Sexy? Confident?

2. What is your target group? If talent can visualize what kind of people they are addressing, the read will be much more convincing!

3. What is the objective? The better the talents understand your goal, the more relevant the audition will be.

It can not be stressed enough how important it is to provide these three bits of information. It takes you only a minute, but it is poised to boost the quality of the final result big time.

Providing scripts

If the script is ready, you should always provide a portion of it. It adds to the talent's understanding of what's needed. A word of advice, though: Many voice-over talents are willing to record custom demos according to your script. Don't take this for granted, and refrain from "forcing" voice actors to audition only with customs demos as a matter of courtesy. Remember: Back in the old days, custom demos (also referred to as "layouts") cost money! If talents voluntarily produce custom demos, be happy about it but do not exploit their willingness to do so.

The issue with weak job postings

If you are looking for the perfect voice-over on behalf of a client, you may have limited information about what exactly your client wants. This might lead to a relatively weak job posting if, for example, you can neither define gender nor age because the client "has not made up their mind" yet.

Why would that be an issue? Because you will end up listening to dozens of auditions that will not be relevant to your client. They might not know what they want, but they will always know what they do not want to hear. Presenting candidates to your client can be a very frustrating experience if the job posting is not accurate. What's more, it's not fun for the talent to audition for jobs with little to no information.

Conclusion: Great job postings create great results

Does a proper job posting take a bit more time than just bashing out a vague description? Sure it does. But it pays off big time when you enter the final stage of your production and realize that you have achieved two significant goals: Finding the truly best voice-over talent in the shortest amount of time.