The Engineer is the person responsible for all the machines used in the voice over recording session working perfectly; their job is to capture all the vocal magic. While they could easily be regarded as ‘button pushers’ or machine-focused; the fact is, that the Engineer put his/her heart and soul into each project and their performance cannot be understated or overlooked. One could argue that they are our Tin Man – seemingly machine, but truly much heart.

It is the Engineer’s attention to the detail and their knowledge of each component that allows the other members of the team, namely the writers, directors and voice actors, to focus on their creative responsibilities.

What are the roles of a Voice Over Producer and Director?  A producer is someone who takes a kernel of an idea and out of that kernel, creates an actual event. In the world of Voice Over Production, they are responsible assembling all the principals needed to fulfill the ultimate vision of the project. If we use the analogy of The Wizard Of Oz, the producer would ultimately have to be The Wizard, that being said s/he can be the Wicked Witch as well.

The voice over director has a myriad of responsibilities. They include, but are not limited to: The breaking down of the script by character, by scenes, beats within each scene and determining the flow of the voice actor’s performance as well as the correct edit and cut. Organizational and communication skills are paramount to the success of the director, as s/he is liaison between actors and the engineers, writers and producers, and must be as loved as the Scarecrow by all.

Paula Rhodes gives voice acting audition advice.

We are excited to announce we are kicking off a new series of videos around the voice over production process and industry. From individuals we have had the pleasure of working with on projects, you’ll find regular updates right here on our blog and soon, on iTunes and other platforms.

We’ll be covering topics like voice matching, the voice over recording process, handling multiple characters, voice over directing and much more.

To start, here are four videos from actors we have had in the studio, giving their audition advice for aspiring voice actors. First, Sean Hankinson reminds us that this whole process should be fun. Paula Rhodes then gives a couple of tips, including how you can get close to voice over casting specialists and voice over directing experts. Next, Nakia Burise shares that you should always be yourself and have faith in your success. And finally, Laura Gerow tells why you should let yourself be nervous.

Being Not John Malkovich

Voice matching or voice mimicking is part of an arena of the voiceover industry that falls into voice over production work, specifically matching, voice replacement, ADR or looping. ADR stands for Automatic Dialog Replacement. This was previously referred to in the industry as looping. Voice matching includes adding background sounds to films, adding sounds of TV or radio and a movie and generally fleshing out the film in a studio or ADR sound stage. At times, it also means matching a celebrity to save time and money when a project is in an urgent situation.