Voice Over Business

When a client is enquiring or booking me for VO jobs, especially when it’s a short script it can sometimes be presumptuous to think it’s a quick in/out the booth session. An hourly Voice Over studio fee isn’t just about the recording time. Sure, the recording time is the main part of it but there’s also a fair bit of pre-recording preparation plus studio hire to keep in mind when agreeing the rate and booking a VO.

Below I’ve listed my VO pre-recording session preparation. There’s a fair bit going on before we hit the record button!

~ Water, water, water! Hydrate at least 2 hours before.

~ Eat a small snack before a session to keep tummy rumbles at bay. They can get picked up on the audio! Obviously, even a day before recording think about the foods and drink consumed which could affect your vocal performance. So avoid spicy foods, dairy, chocolate, fizzy and acidic drinks. Acid reflux is incredibly unpleasant at anytime and especially during a recording session!

~ Lip salve or Vaseline in the booth to maintain lip moisture throughout recording session.

~ Oralieve Moisturising Dry Mouth Relief Spray:- this is really effective. I keep this in my booth as a back up if my mouth/tongue becomes dry and those pesky mouth clicks return. It helped me through a live directed 5 hour recording session a while back.

~ Vocal booth – recording gear checks that everything is turned on and in good working order. Make sure it’s not overly warm and free of smells that can affect your throat ie. Perfume.

~ Script prep – highlighting specific words for pitch/pace/tonality changes, adding in a pauses, highlighting expressive words, accentuating words etc. plus a couple of read throughs after mark ups. Longer scripts will require longer prep time.

~ Vocal warm ups – intercostal diaphragmatic breathing techniques. mouth, jaw and neck exercises, lip buzzing, tongue trills, yawning, humming, finishing off with those all important tongue twisters for practicing diction…… Phew!

Plus, sipping on a warming herbal tea and room temperature water placed in the booth for the duration of recording session.

So, the recording preparation applies for the shorter VO jobs as much as the lengthier ones to provide a professional vocal performance.

I love the beginning of a new year for ….. getting organised and action planning but it shouldn’t stop there. Goal posts change, different work expectations arise etc that can alter the planned action and timescales.

I tend to set a few larger goals that I think are achievable throughout the year.

I also keep timescales a little loose as you never know what happens along the way plus who needs the added pressure if you haven’t achieved them by said date! That’s not to say we shouldn’t push ourselves to achieve though but not to feel added stress and pressure in doing so.

I tend to write out a really long ‘master action list’ which is then broken down into sections:
~ Business
~ Appointments
~ Personal
~ Home
~ Volunteer duties
~ Self care

These master sections have sub sections and from there I create my daily/weekly action with timescales plan factoring in the whole day from when I awake and have coffee onwards. Coffee being of great importance to the start of any day!

Although I do still love using a physical notebook which still fuels my notebook addiction I use my notes folder daily and there are so many great ‘action planning’ apps which help organise not just business and work but life in general. Evernote is great for capturing ideas and clipping images etc plus Trello is simple to use.

Life in general can become so fast paced with information and news thrown at us from every direction so I find taking time out to organise my world of Voice Overs, home life and volunteering duties gives a sense of personal achievement and also creates a sense of calm that things are just a little bit more organised and will enhance productivity and progress. I like to think it also helps with our mental health and wellbeing if we’re making an effort in striving to become more organised. This can help lessen stress, anxiety and pressure creating a better mindset for focusing on tasks in all areas.

This allows me to free up my head space but I can then revert back to the action list as a reminder and tick off when done. Like de-cluttering when an action list is completed it’s a good feeling of achievement that you’ve been productive and done what you set out to do. Even the smallest tasks are a win in my book.

I’ve had times when I’ve not strategised or been very organised and I do find these days are much less productive which can often then impact negatively on our mindset.

Keep it simple and consistent and form good habits.