How to Use Voiceover Demos to Find the Right Talent

Finding the best voiceover artist for your commercial or ad campaign can take time, and the interview process typically includes listening to each candidate's voiceover demo tapes. Demo tapes give you and the rest of the interviewing panel a chance to listen to the talent's overall style and tone and determine if they will be a good match for your specific project.

Judging candidates through voice over demo tapes is a more efficient method than asking each candidate to audition and perform a voice over test in your office. A talent will be able to give his or her best performance in a demo tape as a job interview can put undue pressure on anyone, even on seasoned professionals. You just need to set a standard consisting of essential voiceover qualities when judging demo tapes. Here are the qualities you should listen for:

1. Pacing. Listen closely for examples of speaking slowly and rapidly throughout the presentation. You will need a voiceover artist who demonstrates different tones and styles, and can adapt to a different pace with ease. 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. Arouses interest. You want voiceover talents that can easily grab your attention right at the beginning of a set. Along with a talent's tone, good voiceover talents can stress specific words and emphasize important phrases to stir interest in a piece. Prioritize tapes that start out strong and are able to sustain that initial interest through the end.

3. Accents and Dialects. A good voiceover artist will have a certain style but a talented artist can easily adapt his or her style to imitate different accents and dialects. Artists who can speak in different accents and dialects are usually able to play different characters.

4. Rhythm. The rhythm of a monologue or conversation is a critical element of the professional and successful voiceover. If the candidate is able to capture the right rhythm, the audience will be able to remember the script more easily and even resonate with the brand or product you will be promoting. Listen for a steady 'beat' as the artist says each sentence to determine if they have the mastered the skill of rhythm.

5. Comic ability. Most conversational and commercial scripts nowadays use humor to effectively communicate their message. Listen if a talent's tone conveys a sense of humor or if he or she throws jokes in the demo tape performance. See if the joke was delivered right and made the panel smile. Or did the joke felt awkward?

Selecting the right voiceover talent for your commercial or voice over project can be challenging, but demo tapes can help you assess a talent's ability and skill level. 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.

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