How does a voice casting work?

How a Voiceover Casting Works at VoiceArchive

Are you considering becoming a voice artist here at VoiceArchive? Or would you like to know more about how a casting and audition process works with us? Then this post can be helpful for you. We will go through what a casting and audition are, and then delve into the process here with us when we receive a new project. We will also touch on casting for foreign voices and our child artists.

What is a Voiceover Casting?

Broadly speaking, a casting is a pre-production process for selecting voice actors for voiceovers. It’s an important process because this is where we find the voices that will be most effective and credible in the project, they will be a part of. After all, it’s their voices that bring the scripts message to life. If the wrong choice is made, we risk the message having a negative impact on the video content.

Voiceover Casting at VoiceArchive

We have a database of all the voice actors we collaborate with across more than 150 languages. Our clients have the opportunity to listen through these voices to find the right one. At our end, we differentiate between casting, audition, and paid audition, and they are therefore not the same, although they are closely related.

From a customer’s perspective, a voiceover casting is where our sales team compiles a selection of general pre-recorded demos from recommended talents that they believe would be relevant for the customer to hear.

Voiceover auditions involve customized readings of an excerpt from a script provided by the customer for their project, containing the desired emotions, format, and target audience description. More extensive auditions come from global companies seeking specific audio personas. Here, we receive a detailed description of the persona they’re looking for, which can easily include several pages of description, company information, etc., directly tied to the company’s brand and DNA.

Most of the time, castings and auditions are free with us, as 95% of the voice artists offer them through our VoiceFinder. However, we also have paid voiceover auditions, where the artists need to record a complete script for our customers, for which they pay.

Whatever you call it, our sales team will guide you to the right voice. We’ll work together to determine whether you should go with a casting or an audition for your project, or if it’s even relevant for you. Usually, this is relevant for larger productions.

The Process in Voice Actor Casting

This process varies depending on whether it’s a casting, audition, or paid audition. Generally, the process starts for most of our clients by reviewing our pool of talents on our website or directly contacting our sales department for help in selecting the best talents for their project.

After that, the sales department will create a list of pre-recorded demos or have selected artists record a snippet from the project’s script, depending on what they deem relevant for the project and its message. This applies whether a voice is needed for a commercial, e-learning videos, podcasts, etc.

Sometimes, our clients have a reference voice they like, and we will attempt to find a “voice match” in other languages. It’s important to emphasize that our sales department is trained to identify matching criteria, which includes factors like the voice’s age, style, tone, etc. This is relevant if the customer likes a voice similar to a certain voice actor but finds him/her to expensive.

Duration of the Casting Process

Several factors affect how long a casting or audition process takes. It all depends on the customer’s needs. A casting process will always be much shorter than, say, an audition or a paid audition, as it involves pre-recorded audio files that the sales team sends to the customer.

A casting for a voice actor can be quite quick and typically lasts 1-2 working days, after which the customer will have the desired lines recorded and just needs to choose the best fit. If, contrary to expectations, we don’t have the desired voice in our database, it can take 1-2 weeks as we then search for the ideal voice. This service is offered to selected customer profiles.

Auditioning for voiceovers in other Languages

We stand out from our competitors because we assist with script translation and recording in the specified language. We can cover more than 150 languages, and this naturally impacts our auditions. All our voice artists are verified and quality-checked by local translators. This ensures that they speak the language at a native level.

Regarding casting and specific auditions, our sales team is trained to listen for criteria such as voice age and tone in the respective language. Therefore, they will only be presented with talents that meet the customer’s requirements.

Adult Auditions vs. Child Auditions

When it comes to auditions with children and adults as voice actors, there’s a difference. The process we’ve outlined mainly applies to adults. Children are different, and they also vary from each other. Working with and recording children might require more time and patience. Parents or agents are also obliged to participate in auditions, which requires more communication and organization on our part.

At VoiceArchive, we prioritize protecting our child talents regardless of the project, workload, or client involved. Children only attend auditions if they wish to offer them in advance. If not, we simply send the demos they have from their previous jobs with us.