voiceover@markmullens.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhkPWlEEUjY I've voiced commercials for Hasbro, Braun, Tia Maria, Canali and other brands, which means I've done several commercial VoiceOver sessions. There are things that in my opinion should be done to help you get a better result out of your voice actor. Here are some. 1. All material should be provided in advance. The script, references, music, the video if possible will help the voice actor get comfortable with the material. Little as

Video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gKMKbf818s When you hire a voice actor to do work, what are you actually getting? Is it just an mp3 or wave file, or something else? Think of it this way - if a lawyer sends you a legal document, is that document just a pdf file with words on it, or does its value go beyond the medium used to deliver it? When a voice actor is hired, you are purchasing a license to use that person to deliver a message. The audio file is just the ves

https://youtu.be/V5vJjXkVnGs Generally speaking, for short form content any professional voice actor should have a standard sub-24 hour turnaround time. I try to do it within the day. Recording a proper professional voice over often involves: Studying the script This includes checking for correct flow, any unusual specific vocabulary, etc Recording multiple versions and takes of that script Selecting the best takes Editing the take(s) Applying any processing that might be nee

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UWWItMSDq2Y It really depends on the size of the production. I offer a range of processing amount, which can go from absolutely raw, nothing done to it, or fully processed, ready-to-use, just drag and drop in your video timeline and it's ready to go. The key question to ask is: does the project have an audio engineer? If the answer is yes, the voice actor shouldn't process the audio. That's the audio engineer's job. This mean the voice actor del

https://youtube.com/shorts/jvqyx-Z0c6U If you're looking for a voice actor I think it's generally a good idea to get the voice actor to do some sort of short test recording or an audition, just to make sure their performance and voice fit what you had in mind. The key thing is though, the talent needs to be provided with the right material and context to deliver something that actually matches your specifications. There's no point just giving them the words and hoping for the

Imagine hiring a photographer and they don't know how to change ISO, aperture and shutter speed? Imagine if they've never changed a lens before? Imagine you hire a photographer for your wedding and they only send raw, unedited photos? It would be unthinkable in the world of photography, but somehow not in voice over. This is especially problematic in this post-pandemic world, as most voice over sessions are done over the internet. This means the voice actor is recording from

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ayrHLpHNAeA Sometimes I get castings that are literally just a script. That makes it difficult to determine exactly what it is that you want. I've often found that my best quality work comes as a result of direct communication with clients, and not "here's a script, warm conversational corporate. Good luck". Without the ability to communicate directly with you and ask questions for clarification or even have the opportunity to receive feedback s

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Uw4_NqS2P1A You'll be surprised at how incredibly versatile a lot of voice actors are. Including myself. I remember one time I had to go to an in-person session to a studio in Rome, and I entered the booth, said hello, the client entered the call, and in that moment, I was asked if I could do an American accent. Now, you might not realize, but I am not American. The answer, however, was yes because I am prepared the possibility a client has an u

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kprNwb9aFFA Have you ever worked with a voice actor and found that when they submitted their audio to you it sounded nothing like you imagined? There could be a number of reasons for this. What's very likely to be the case is the voice actor hasn't actually received either the right information or enough information. I find that clients will sometimes expect me to just get the words and just do exactly what they want, and it's not always

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/J5TdejcwVz0?feature=share The worst director I've ever had was actually not too long ago. It was for a corporate voice over, and it was not fun. This director did two things that completely threw me off: 1. He told me exactly how to say things, word for word, tonally. 1. This is essentially the same thing as puppeteering. I don't get my own say, I just create sounds completely mechanically, devoid of any true storytelling. 2. He continually int

https://youtube.com/shorts/HADWh0ohAgc?feature=share What does it mean to be happy? If I ask that question to 10 different people, I will get 10 different nuanced answers. So when I'm told that I need to smile and be happy in my performance, there's a good chance my interpretation and your vision aren't going to be completely aligned. First of all, happiness is a very superficial way of describing a state of being. You may be happy for different reasons: 1. You just got unemp

https://youtu.be/nbM1RWAg84A Voice overs are often at the end of a production chain. The video is recorded. The music has been decided. Many things have already been put together. What will often happen is a client will come to you and be in a rush. So how can you make their life easier? 1. Answer emails quickly. 1. Nobody wants to be waiting around for an email, so I make sure I answer as quickly as I can. This is why I also have an email client on my phone, so if I'm out a

https://youtube.com/shorts/_b7yZNSXSZU When you write a piece of content, be it a video, a voice over, a documentary narration. Who are you writing for, a listener or a reader? What I mean is, a lot of content out there is not actually written to be spoken out loud. A lot of of it is almost written like an academic piece of paper. It provides a lot of detail, but it doesn't give the listener space to take that information in. Take for example of documentary. If the visuals in

https://youtube.com/shorts/vQDOlu3oYZg I've done many live directed sessions as a voice actor and I've had my fair share of good directors and... "directors". Let's talk about why it helps to have a good director. A good director understands what a performance needs and helps create the conditions that enable the right performance. An experienced director will focus on how to get that result - they will help the performer with context and use techniques to give us something t

https://youtube.com/shorts/AB8okNQAqQY?feature=share Technically, you can give a script to a voice actor and that'll be enough. We just need words, and we can speak them. Only issue is, we can speak these words in many, many different ways. There's a good chance you like every interpretation I come up with, but maybe you need something specific. If I don't know why I'm saying this, who I'm speaking to, or if there's a story here, I have to create my own context which may be g

https://youtube.com/shorts/19WDoEbVCdQ?feature=share I just got off the phone with a producer, and we were talking about the fact that, unfortunately, a lot of freelancers have this tendency to just disappear in the middle of a project. Remember, if you are a freelancer you need to be on top of these things. You need to be on top of these projects because, as far as anyone else is concerned, if you don't answer an email in a reasonable amount of time, as far as they're aware,

https://youtu.be/HRIXJOeACO0 Many European studios would prefer it if remote talent have a Neumann TLM103 or U87ai. Why? It's true there are lots of great microphones out there like the Austrian Audio OC818 or the Soyuz 017 FET, and great work has been done on cheaper microphones like the Rode NT1A. However, an unfamiliar microphone means more risk. Consider this: Before the pandemic, many audio engineers worked exclusively in-person with talent that physically entered the st

In my years voicing different projects, from commercials to museum audio guides, one issue has certainly remained constant - not every script is written with the listener in mind. These can make listeners confused, embarrassed, and potentially disrespected. These listeners can become a lost sale, lost follower, or just lost! I wanted to list three issues I've noticed over the years, and suggest a solution for each one. TOO MANY WORDS There’s only so much information a listene

With recent advancements in machine learning, "synthetic voices" or "AI voices" are undoubtedly starting to sound better. You might have...