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recently i've been talking to folks about directing VO/voice acting- often, as a designer or writer, you may be asked to participate in VO sessions for dialog you've written or are building/designing content for. here are some quick do's and don'ts: (thread)
DO: get the script to the VA at least a couple days beforehand. it's not cool to be the person rolling into the record day-of with a bunch of rewrites. i have sometimes had to do this-- emergencies happen-- but ideally, you give your VA time to absorb & review the material.
DON'T: tell the VA exactly how to deliver the line. you can suggest emotions in a 'notes' column on your script. the VA is the pro; they can help you find the right inflection for a line if you let them explore. often you get a read that's way better than what you had in mind.
DO: read up on basic terminology.
e.g. "ABC/123" - do the line three times with slight variations in inflection.
"pre-life" - start the line with an emote, like a laugh or effort or an emphatic word like "listen,--" to give it extra energy.
e.g. "ABC/123" - do the line three times with slight variations in inflection.
"pre-life" - start the line with an emote, like a laugh or effort or an emphatic word like "listen,--" to give it extra energy.
DON'T: ask the VA to do a bunch of shouts/yells without compensating extra. the VA's voice is their livelihood. if you put them through long sessions of screaming, you may prevent them from working tomorrow.
DO: understand that good voice acting takes time. make sure you're prepared to pay + leave enough time. if you try to rush their performance so it's done faster and therefore costs you less, you will get worse results and a stressed-out VA who doesn't want to work with you again.
DO: work with an audio engineer for the recording. if you are at an AAA company this will be taken care of by the studio (i.e. Formosa in LA, Clatter & Din in Seattle). if not, please don't try to DIY it unless you really know what you're doing. i speak from experience here lol
(re: the above - if you're doing remote records, a lot of freelance VAs will claim to have home studio setups. have them record a test of a couple lines and send it to you. they may not really have a very good setup at all and you'll have to do costly cleanup - check beforehand.)
DON'T: come in without a clear intent for a line or ask the VA to improv. no VA likes to hear "yeah, not really sure what i want for this line" or worse, "just improv some funny/interesting stuff here!" improving your whole script is not their job. know what you're looking for.
most of this advice should be relevant regardless of whether you're in indie or AAA - i've written & handled VO processes for both. but would be interested & eager to hear if others' experiences differ, or they have additional tips!
