Tara Breathnach is currently working on series one and two of the cartoon ‘Olivia’ with Abú media for TG4 as the voice of the title character. She is also a nominee in the favorite soap actress category in the WalkerTVNow awards. YAY! GO TARA!!
As we speak, voiceover Aenne Barr is busy walking 800km on the “Camino de Santiago” pilgrimage thingy. Better you than me Aenne, but good luck anyway! She’ll be walking till the end of June. You can view pics of her walk on her blog.
We got a call last week from RTE’s The Business radio program to help out in producing ads for a competition they were running. The concept was that listeners would write their own radio ads and send them in to the station. The ads had to promote Ireland as an investment destination. Its fair to say, that most of the entries took a rather tongue in cheek view. You can listen to the full excerpt below.
E-learning is a growing part of a professional voiceover’s repertoire. Siobhan Wells from Skillsoft has been using Piehole to source voices recently and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions about e-learning, what makes for a good VO and how to prepare yourself to get more of this type of work. (more…)
STEP 1: GET A SCRIPT
First, you need to figure out what goes in the script. You need to figure out - what is the one message that you want customers to remember from your radio ad? Bear in mind that people listening to the radio ad are often driving or cleaning the house or doing something else while they’re listening to the radio. It is not a captive audience. So you need something that someone can easily remember. Don’t be tempted to put too many facts and benefits of your product into your radio script. The simpler the better. What is the ONE thing you want to say about your product? Is it that there’s a half price sale on? Is it that you have great service? It can’t be both.
Once you’ve figured out what that one thing is, you need to dramatise it in the most memorable and interesting way possible. Think of all the drivel you hear on the radio. Your ad will be nestled in between a bunch of those other ads. You need to make your ad stand out from the crowd.
It has to be punchy, entertaining and creative. Don’t bother with the long phone numbers. If you have a web address you’d like people to go to, make it easy to remember and to spell.
If you’d like your ad to really stand out from the crowd, it’s best to source a professional freelance copywriter to write your script. You can do this buy googling “copywriter” or checking out Linked-In or Elance. Make sure when you brief them, to explain to them the ONE thing you want people to know about your product.
STEP 2: PRODUCE YOUR SCRIPT
Once you’ve got your script finalised, there are a few options available to you. You can contact a sound studio directly to produce your script (there’s a list of great Irish sound studios in our E-book). Their rates tend to be between €150 and €250 per hour. A 30 second radio ad shouldn’t take more than an hour to produce. They can advise you on which voiceovers to use, and they’ll sort it all our for you. The standard Equity voiceover rates are between €140 - €500 depending on which stations your ad is airing on. (For full rate card, you can download our ebook here).
If you like to be more hands-on, you can also manage the process yourself. You can source your own voiceovers online. We’ll arrange phone auditions, so you hear samples in advance of your script. Once you’ve chosen a voiceover, you can then approach a sound studio with your script and chosen voiceover/s.
The 3rd, easiest option is to get Piehole to do the whole shebang for you. We’ll arrange sound studios and voices for you. Here’s more info.
STEP 3: GO TO AIR
If you’ve already got media space booked, that’s great. You or the sound studio can simply email the final mp3 file to the station.
If you haven’t, you need to figure out what station to use. You don’t always need to go for the big breakfast slot on the massive national radio station. Sometimes your money will go further on a selection of smaller radio stations. Each slot on the radio station has a different audience, so be careful where you book. For example, if you are targeting house wives, there’s no need to buy the expensive “drive time” slots, because if you wait an hour or two, you can still reach the same housewives, but at cheaper rates. Ask the radio station to provide you with information regarding each of their shows and who listens to them. Then you’re able to make a more informed decision.
Relatively speaking, the production of the radio ad is very cheap in comparison to the cost of the media space. That’s why you need to stand out on air. What’s the point in spending so much money on media space - and then nobody listens or cares about your ad?
Dublin based, Igloo Animation, recently launched a new service aimed at Dublin businesses. They create short explanatory animations, illustrating how products and services work. Of course, all this means more work for voiceovers. Good stuff. Trevor answered a few questions for our blog and here is what he had to say about getting voiceover work for animations.
Who the hell is Igloo Animations anyway?
Igloo Animations is an award winning animation studio
set up in the digital hub in Dublin8
What sort of clients do you have?
Igloo’s clients range from large corporate companies to small businesses
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Ted.com and Movies, Music, People that make a difference
Where do you normally find to people to voice your animations?
It depends, sometimes it could be someone that you live with
and other times you have to cast actors for different roles
and find them through casting agencies.
Do you have a favorite VO?
No, nor do I really have a favorite screen actor. I have seen even great
actors cast wrongly and it’s hard to look at when that happens. Sometimes an actor that you would never rate highly can get cast into a role that they fit perfectly and then your opinion changes, so you never know
What advice would you give to a voice over looking to do more animation work?
Get VO samples online at casting agencies etc… so that people can have a basic idea of what to expect of you before you come in.
You have recently started doing special ‘explanatory’ animations for products on services. Have you any idea how much more effective (if at all) they are over plain old text?
Yea, It’s way more effective, well for people that want visuals like me anyway. Would you prefer to read about a movie in ?plain old text? or would you prefer to see the trailer? A picture can say a thousand words
What sort of budget do I need to get one of these short animations made?
2,500 euro’s
What better way to see what this is all about than heading over to their website where you can a short version of NAMA, Sustainability and even FL Financial Services (whatever that is).
Amy Stack, Voiceover Artist
There will be a screening of the Short Film, Touched, in which Nicola Lindsay plays the lead role. The movie has been rocking out, and has been accepted into major film festivals in China, Europe and… Ireland!! It will take place in Filmbase in Temple Bar on the 29th of April, 18.30. Drinky poos and foodies afterwards.
In other news, Nicola has been keeping very busy. She was in the first episode of RTE Storyland’s Zombie Bashers… As well as 4 other short films in the last 3 months, playing the lead in all of them. She was also featured in the Bord Failte ad that’s running at the moment on the telly and in cinemas. Plus she’s just done a shoot for an ad for Fine Gael! So pretty busy stuff, long may it last! Or at least, till just before you get a stomach ulcer or drop dead from exhaustion! LISTEN TO NICOLA’S VOICE DEMO.
If I told you that you get voiceovers out there in the world charging €20 for doing a radio ad, would you believe me? It’s crazy, but true. Many voiceovers totally undervalue themselves in the hope of securing the gig. And many other voice overs simply don’t know what to charge.
Our advice
Our advice to voice overs is always: when quoting a job… STICK TO THE RATE CARD. It’s there for a reason. That’s what IAPI considers a fair wage to artists, and the rate card is put in place so that voiceovers don’t get ripped off. Don’t undercut your fellow VOs, because that will create an industry where lots of people are earning no money. If you tell people, “my quote is €x, I just charge the standard IAPI rates”, they’ll understand and won’t want to be seen ripping off struggling artists.
Why IAPI rates are fair
People think that voiceover work is very well paid. Yes it is, in a way, but that is taken out of context. Think of all you have to do to be a voiceover artist:
So yes, it is nice getting a TV job worth €800, and getting it done in less than an hour. But you’ve earned it.
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Don’t forget to catch Jon Slattery on the final episode of The Holiday Show is on TV3 this Sunday at 5.30.
