Finding the best voiceover artist for your commercial or advertising campaign can take time, and the interview process typically includes listening to each candidate’s voiceover demo tapes. Voiceover demo tapes will give you the opportunity to listen to a talent’s overall style and tone so that you can choose which talent will be the best match for your specific marketing project.
Voiceover demo tapes can be a better resource of determining the candidate’s talent than an in-person test or voiceover session at your office. Voiceover artists who are not under the pressure of the job interview may have the freedom to perform at their best, and their demo tapes will give them a chance to showcase their best work. Here is a list of some critical elements to listen for when assessing a voiceover demo:
1. Pacing. You will have to listen for examples of slow and rapid speech. A voiceover artist that has various tones and styles can adapt to a different pace easily. Rodney Saulsberry, author of the book “You Can Bank On Your Voice” explains that pacing is an important element of any voice over delivery. Someone who speaks too slowly or too rapidly can confuse the listener, so the artist needs to show that they have the ability to pace their voice more often than not.
2. Listen for the attention point. Was the voiceover talent skilled enough to grab your attention at the beginning of the spot? The right balance of emphasis on specific words and phrases, combined with their personality and tone are indications of skill and experience. A voicover demo tape that begins with a strong, compelling, or decisive statement will assures you that the artist can enter the commercial sphere easily.
3. Dialect and accents. A vast number of talented voiceover artists have the capability to imitate certain dialects and accents. Examples of different accents and style will be heard in the voiceover demo tape, indicating how skilled the talent is in changing tones and can assume various character roles.
4. Listen to the rhythm. An important element of the professional and successful voiceover is the rhythm of a monologue or converstation. If the voiceover artist is capable of capturing the correct rhythm, the script will have effective product retention and be identified with the product or brand that is being marketed. Listen for a steady ‘beat’ as the artist says each sentence to determine if they have the mastered the skill of rhythm.
5. Humor. Voiceover talents that can deliver humor is vital to ads that are more commercial in nature and involve a conversation or a short Ââ?˜skit.’ Did the voiceover demo tape contain examples of lighthearted tones or jokes that the talent effectively delivered to make you smile? Or is the delivery strained and difficult to understand?
It is not easy to choose the right artist for a commercial or voice over project, but voiceover demo tapes will make the process of assessing the abilities and skills of a talent easier. Listen for these key elements in every demo tape so that you have an accurate assessment of the talent’s potential; a seasoned voiceover artist will demonstrate mastery in these five critical areas, and provide you with several examples of each skill and style.