The landscape of production methods has continued to change in recent years, and the search for that elusive voice is no exception. The voice business, along with everything in life, used to be a touch more personal. Producers who were casting for voices would bring actors down to their studios, and meet them in person along with the engineers and writers. The writers would have a chance to throw some firsthand direction at the actors and see how they played. The engineers would compile a mental database of how it would work with many of the city’s top performers before they even had an actual session with the talent. Actors quickly found out how their artistic flourishes or interpretations were received.
But this scene is fading from our memories. The Internet has brought people from far away closer together, and has kept people who are close together a touch further away. Outsourcing auditions can save time and money. Talent agencies and even individual actors are recording auditions themselves, as low-cost quality studios are popping up everywhere. Recording studios may even offer casting at a discounted rate, in order to secure the production of the spot internally.
Independent casting directors are hired for projects that have difficult specs or high levels of stress. Ad agencies, casting directors and studios have been found to literally hit the streets in search of real people who are free of any sort of "polished" sound. Millions of dollars are still being spent on voiceover demos to stock producers’ personal libraries, and there is always the standard casting from memory and past relationships: "I think I know who would be perfect for this spot."
Do you like the fast lanes on the highroad of voice casting? Turnaround times are down to a day and a half or shorter by means of the Internet and MP3s. Everything seems to be faster, cheaper and a little more distant. Compact discs let agencies scan from one take to another at the push of a button. Everyone agrees that it "sure isn’t like the old days." But does that mean the old days were actually better? For better or worse, we’ve advanced ourselves to either a bold new world or a nicely painted corner.
So now that we have different choices of approach, what is the best plan of attack amidst all of the choices? Each option for casting has its benefits and downsides. You decide which type of casting best fits your budget, time and needs.
FROM PERSONAL
MEMORY
This can certainly be the quickest and cheapest way to go about things. Personal memory of those you have worked with in the past is probably the most reliable way to cast someone you are confident in. You know their work, you know their sound and you know their range and creativity. Best of all, it takes about two minutes to rack your brain for just the right person.
But how will the talent perform on this particular script? The downside is you won’t know until the day of the session, and you are limited to only those people you know. There are certainly some people out there you have yet to meet. Are you servicing your client with the best possible choices?
OFF OF DEMOS
There are many great demos out there that showcase some really fantastic talent. Just so long as you can reliably link them with some good professional references, you should be fine. A nice way to do this is to couple up demos with agent recommendations. Then you can just listen to the names they have suggested. But you’d be pretty hard pressed to give a complete stranger with no recommendation the job based on 60 seconds of someone else’s copy. And once again, you don’t know how these voices will perform on your script and on your time.
Though casting from demos may take a bit of extra time, and you may have to listen through some rather rough talent, you could find some new and fresh talent. It’s risky though. Who knows if those spots are real, and if not, how many thousands of takes did the actor spend to get them where they are?
THROUGH TALENT
AGENTS
Lately, this seems to be the choice for most because it combines a free ticket with the ability to hear the talent read the intended script. Most competent agents have installed quite passable facilities with which to record custom auditions that they can send to you via e-mail, Web site or CD. The talent is able to receive your direction on how you would like to approach the spot, albeit in third person.
One major downfall is that talent agents have many other scripts from other clients, as well as all of their actual agent duties to take care of. Therefore, their day is not focused on casting, often resulting in very little time to really work with the talent on direction. The person running the session also likely has limited directing experience, and has been confined to the styles and creativity of those talents that they represent.
Having several agencies put folks on tape will result in several different hands in the directing pot, and leave the actors with a less talented agent/director at a disadvantage. You may only be getting one take per talent, and you may still be getting just the usual booking suspects. Also, if you throw the net out to several talent agents, you may wind up with a huge stack of CDs or e-mails to go through, which can cost time.
For a little bit of sacrifice on the budget side, services like voicebank.net can make this process far more smooth and painless. Either way, it has proven to be one of the cheapest ways to audition talent with them reading your particular copy.
AT THE AD AGENCY
In terms of cost, this can actually be the most expensive choice. Time is money, and this option takes up the entire day of several of your staff, as well as very valuable studio time.
On the other hand, it gives the creative team the opportunity to work directly with the talent they will choose from. Also, writers are often inspired to write new spots and campaigns by voices they hear and personalities they come across.
On the downside, ad agencies are usually under time constraints because of so much going on, and they are simply not familiar with a large amount of talent that is in the market. If you are looking for specialty talent (i.e., foreign languages, accents, improvisational types) the producer will find it much more difficult to find the needed talent as this type of intensive search is not one of their usual duties.
AT THE RECORDING
HOUSE
This approach splits the difference between casting at the ad agency, and casting at the talent agency. You lose the ability to direct in first person, but the directing skills at the recording house will typically be better and much more focused on your job than at a talent agency. You can also guarantee a consistency in direction for each of the actors auditioning.
Price should be lower than that at a stand-alone casting company if you also award the studio the production of the spot. The same difficulty ad folks have in finding specialty talent will also apply here. Though they will find a few, they are much more accustomed to going after the old standbys. The number of overall (and new) talent will be similar to those when casting at the ad agency. The quality of directing will be decent, but perhaps not as efficient as those who run auditions on a daily basis.
Also to take into consideration is that there are many "casting persons" at recording studios whose major income is from producing demos for voiceover actors. So an impartial judge of talent can at times be at odds with true ability when choosing voices to put on the audition.
THROUGH A CASTING
DIRECTOR
This approach should yield some strong quality casting, but comes with a higher price tag. The cost is typically up there with doing it at the ad agency. Casting directors cast. That’s all they do day in and day out. They are hired as objective searchers in regards to talent since they don’t make money from those that are auditioning, but from the client that has hired them.
The other thing you will pay for is a knowledge base of actors and non-actors, the old standbys and the up-and-comers, especially when dealing with the larger houses that cast for many types of projects beyond voiceovers. The broader knowledge base of talent will ensure that your casting net is thrown far and wide. One other occasional benefit is the advantage given to you in negotiation of talent rates through a third party.
While the arena of voiceovers has changed, the need for strong and talented voices still exists. Until we get to a point where computers can replicate the voices we need, we’ll keep the search going. Part of that search is to find the most efficient and easiest way to do this. Hope this makes the lives of those who work with voice talent easier. Happy hunting.
