Every piece of advertising starts with a creative vision – leaving that vision to chance and not directing your talent can yield some undesired end results. Even talent with 20 years in the industry enjoy receiving creative direction from a client. If you’re new to the direction process here are some simple tips that will save you time and money.

Technology is on your side. There are a number of affordable, quality options that will allow you to direct your talent without having to be in the same studio. All talent provide some way for you to direct them free of charge while off site. Many offer phone patch, Source Connect, Skype or ISDN. Conference in your client, producer, writer and other decision makers and you can ensure that everyone involved gets the opportunity to approve the VO while it’s being recorded.

Talent are actors. Actors think in pictures. Remember, they only have the voice God gave them. While some talent are excellent at accents, dialects and character voices not all are capable of wildly changing the sound of their voice. So asking a talent to sound like a well known actor or celebrity may not help them to achieve the sound you are looking for. Instead, use words to paint a picture of the setting, events, scene and feel of your material.

Always record extra/safety takes. Once your talent has “nailed” the sound you want ask them to read again at least twice more, once a little faster and once a little slower. These alternates are called ‘safety reads’ and make the process of editing the audio later much easier. Your audio producer will benefit from having all those choices to work with and it could spare you a costly re-cut later.

Always talk to your talent about recording settings before they begin. Do you require MP3, .wav, mono or mono files as opposed to stereo?

Lastly never approve the final audio on the spot. Always let the talent know they have done a great job but you won’t be able to fully sign off until the client approves the final production and that could take a few days or a few weeks. Tell them you‘ll let them know as soon as possible. They may still charge a fee if you need to go back and record but at least this leave a window of opportunity for changes at a reduced cost.