How A Voiceover Is Cast And Directed
On many ad films the voiceover is decided late, recorded in an hour and treated as a finishing step. It is also the element an audience hears more than any other, often on a phone with the picture half-watched. Choosing and directing the voice is one of the more consequential small decisions in production.
It usually gets less time than the colour of a backdrop.
How a voiceover is cast
From a shortlist, usually assembled by the production house or a casting agent, sometimes with a few artists the agency already trusts. Reels are compared against a reference the creative team has in mind, and the strongest candidates may be asked to read the actual script.
The brief matters more than the shortlist. A note that says warm and trustworthy describes half the voices in the country. A note that says who the voice is speaking to, and from where, narrows it usefully.
A voice that sounds right in isolation can sound wrong against the picture.
What happens in the recording
Several reads, adjusted line by line. Pace, emphasis, how much smile is in the voice, where a pause falls. A good session director listens for the version that sounds like a person rather than an announcer, which is harder to get than it sounds.
Language adds another layer. A film voiced in several languages needs each read directed by someone who understands that language's rhythm, not just its words.
Where it goes wrong
When the voice is chosen by committee from a reel, in a hurry, with nobody in the session who was part of the idea.
The result is technically fine and slightly generic, and it is surprising how often that is the version that airs.
The fix is simple and often skipped: keep someone from the original creative team in the recording, with the authority to say a read is not right yet, and play the takes against the cut rather than on their own.
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