VO Recording Sessions Focus Points
When I’m in the booth, my mind and spirit are usually aligned with these thoughts.
Deliver my highest level of work
This is why I’m here. To provide my voice craft and help clients successfully engage their audience(s), evoke an emotion, a mood, and help convey the experience they wish to share. Just stand and deliver.
Stay focused
Script changes. New directions. Client feedback. Adjusting my reads to get into the zone, and another zone, and maybe another galaxy. Over-direction, or lack of (clear) direction. Stay open-minded and be ready to offer the read that’s sought as well as others that might help if requested. Day in, day out.
Be understanding
There’s a lot at stake in advertising, communications, business, and politics, so if it sounds like people are working through a process during the session, they are. Media productions involve and impact numerous users/clients/audiences, so everyone’s trying to get it right before we wrap. Expect delays, alternate and optional reads, team consultations, and back-channel IMs before the work is done.
Stay cool
We work with concepts and ideas, which aren’t always 100% aligned at the beginning of the process, and tend to shift, diverge, and evolve into their best form as each yard is gained. So as the ebbs and flows of tides go, so do recording sessions.
Have fun
I really enjoy being part of a larger project. The way I see it, we all come from different walks of life and come together around this beautiful thing called productions. When we’re hired, it’s our turn, and we do our part. I see myself as the guy they call in from the bench, who nobody really knows, but who helps put the game within reach. Though it’s like a Hero’s Arc, it only plays out in my head, and everybody wins.
Gratitude
To me, every project is a blessing and I do everything in my power to return the same consideration to the wonderful people who hire me. Each recording is a way to provide my best work to those who have trusted me to be an important part of their productions. I always remember this.
Alfonso Guerra, Voice Influence