The sacred trinity of the modern voiceover artist

The voiceover world, as with a lot of industries has undergone a huge transformation over the last decade. Gone are the days where every voiceover involved a visit to a swanky Soho studio and boozy lunch afterwards. For the most part, those jobs have largely disappeared. That’s not to say that the voiceover has disappeared. In fact far from it. In this age of 24 hour contact-ability and instant information, the voiceover is more relevant than ever. Any website worth its salt will have a video nowadays and that video more than likely will have a voiceover.

Add to that the fact that when most online customers are considering a product or service the second most likely place they will visit after Google is Youtube and once again you can see the power the moving image and how it has become extremely important for modern brands and customers. Just as the old adage was

A bad website is worse than a no website

so the same can be said for your narration. A good voiceover can rescue a lack lustre video but conversely, a poor one can ruin an otherwise good piece of content.

So there are far more voiceovers happening a year than ever before but the landscape has changed dramatically. For this reason, the modern voiceover artist needs a different set of skills. No longer do they regale the client with stories of their showbiz pals, now they need to be efficient and provide value for money.

That is because in today’s world most busy voiceover artists work from their own studio and that means they need to understand how to use it. It’s why when artists apply to be on our sites we look for three very important qualities, the sacred trinity of the modern artist.

As has always been the case, they must have an exceptional voice. Although trends have changed and regional accents are far more in vogue than 30 years ago, the basics of having a pleasing timbre haven’t.

What has changed however is, very often now, there isn’t the budget for a director. That means clients rely on the experience of the artist to get the best out of a script and often that experience and input include script editing. So a quality which we ask for in our artists is the experience and ability to instinctively interpret a script. This is something that happens naturally after years in the industry and essential if clients are to get value for money in these budget conscience times.

Finally because all our artists work from their own studios, it is essential they understand them and know how to use them. This is something artists of the past never had to worry about. There was a chap who switched the switches and moved the faders, now it’s all part of the same job. That’s why the voice artist of 2018 is a very different animal and from a client’s perspective, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.