Real Talk with Kelly Wilson

Getting into character is well, what you do as a voice actor...you're an actor. Sometimes dressing the part helps.  For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself. 

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

My life is all mixed up. As in my children are at home with me while I work. I do have quiet times to record my voice over projects, but when that is NOT happening, they are being children and children are loud. I found myself apologizing for my children…as if…how dare I have them. Saying that out loud sounds ridiculous.

Now with this pandemic, everyone’s lives are all smushed together. This is how it is. This IS the new normal. 

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

Did you live and work through the last recession? The Great Recession? I did and so much good came out of so much pain. Now in this recession, I know more learning and growth are to come.   

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

Have you ever engaged with someone, then the moment passes, and you replay that full conversation in your head, only you recreate it in the perfect way you can best imagine?

That’s how I see voice over.

Full control over the conversation, images, story, end result, the win, the loss, everything. For a moment, you are a movie director and you create the reality.

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

Six months into a pandemic and both my children are home with me now, I work during naps, early morning, late night, and when they're distracted. It's hard to think I am making it work. I am. Voice over has been a saving grace...like a comfortable pair of jeans I can slip right into VO. As for mom life, that's a hot mess though, but I'm doing what I love to do with the people I love. 

Talking about the messiness of it all and honoring it and embracing it. Bring it on. 

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

Hey, I’m Kelly Wilson and I am a voice actor, however, when I worked in previous jobs in corporate settings, I have hired and worked with other voice actors.

The hardest part about hiring the voice actor, I found, was convincing my colleagues that a quality, professional voice actor was worth it.

The BEST way I found to do this, was one of two ways:

1 - Give up. Yup, some people will never be convinced and you can better spend your time elsewhere. 

2 - Let them hear it. Make a spec ad with a professional voice actor and play the old project next to the professional project. Let them hear the difference between the two. 

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

The next time you walk through a store or your own home and you hear a child speak, it sounds different right? Does it stick out more? It does for me.

So, if you can, get a real kid when you are casting voices for a child part. Real kids sound…real. BUT real kids are real unpredictable.

So let’s say you want an adult who can sound like a kid, because maybe it’s more of a cartoon character instead of an authentic kid. Many women can sound like little boy voices, hello Bart Simpson. I can do a crazy, mixed up squirrel voice myself.

Really no difference here in hiring a voice like this. If you work with a usual voice actor anyway, ask them if they can provide the voice, you never know…but also ask them if they can refer anyone. If they know someone who would fit the project, they will be able to quickly connect you to someone in their own network.

So let’s say you want an adult who can sound like a kid, because maybe it’s more of a cartoon character instead of an authentic kid.Many women can sound like little boy voices, hello Bart Simpson. I can do a crazy, mixed up squirrel voice myself.

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

So what if you DON’T want to direct a voice actor, but you do want some multiple takes?

Just ask for it. Whoever you hire for voice over, just communicate what you want to the voice actor.

Here’s what I usually do, depending on the length of the script, for example, if it is short and I don’t want to direct them, I do this:

I tell them about the brand, the video, who they are playing and who they are specifically talking to. Then, I will ask for three takes. The first two are variations on how I want it done. The last take I ask them to just give me a version they prefer or they think how it should sound.

Don't want to direct the talent? No problem. Just tell them what you want. 

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

When I was a kid, I did this science project with playing cards and we tested people’s memory recall. We learned that people remembered the cards far more often when we showed them the playing card and said the playing card type aloud to them.

I’m reminded about this experiment anytime I’m working on an eLearning project.

So when you are hiring a voice actor for a project where recall and/or learning is required, you will want to make sure they slow down so the viewer can fully comprehend the content.

For eLearning, I find it helpful to bring the voice actor into your project. If you have a scratch track or previous versions of your project, show it to them. Let the voice actor know how the voice over and the video will come together. For example, will the final project live inside a Learning Management System (LMS)? 

Remember, you are the project creator…you are the parents. Think of the voice actor as the cool aunt or uncle. While the project is your baby, bring the voice actor into your world, so they can take care of your baby, but also livin’ it up, bring it to life, and possibly sugar it up and spoil it.

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.

Should you use a male or a female voice?

Now we could go on this long rabbit hole of branding, BUT skip all that.

Now ask yourself about the end user. Who are you talking to in your project? 

NEXT, who does the end user need to talk to in order to have the outcome you want.

NOT, who do they want to talk to, but WHO DO THEY NEED to talk to.

For example, when I ask my husband if he likes what I am wearing, I fully understand that he will say yes no matter what I am wearing. I also know that he really means it. He is not who I need to ask..maybe who I want to ask, but not who I need to ask.

For more Real Talk with Kelly Wilson, join my email community at https://www.kellywilsonvo.com/subscribe and receive my free gift of 5 voice actors to add to your voice over roster, including myself.