Communicating with Voice Actors
Communicating with your Voice Actors: Tips for Producers
by Robyn Paterson
So, you’ve casted your new radio play or fandub, and now your Voice Actors are hard at work. Or at least you think they’re hard at work, you don’t really know. I mean, after all they’re in the U.K. and you’re in Egypt, so how can you be sure? Will they make the deadline? Are they lying to you? Will the lines be any good? Should you give them your instant messaging contact info and phone number just to be sure? How much is too much communication? Should you check with them every day?
Whoa! Whoa! Let’s just calm down before you give yourself a production-influenced heart attack. After all, this is supposed to be fun for both you and them, and there’s no point in getting stressed out about things, it’s not going to help anyone.
Now, the thing to remember as a producer of any media is that you’re in charge and people are putting their faith and trust in you. They’re assuming you have the ability to get this job done, and whether you’re doing this for fun or not, it is a job, and will be a lot of work. To make this easier on everyone, you’re going to need two traits that every successful producer has: patience and professionalism.
Patience
There’s an old comment about life aboard a navy ship being “long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of frantic activity”. Well, as a producer, I tell you- “Welcome to the navy, sailor!” You’re going to whip off a radio play, cast it in a frenzy of exchanged e-mails, give everyone a deadline…and then things will get really really quiet in the old Inbox. The high of casting will still be hanging in the air, but suddenly nobody’s talking to you anymore. Is this normal? You wonder. Have they all abandoned me?
The answer is- yes, it is normal, and no, they haven’t abandoned you. The truth about audio production on the internet, when one side gives lines and the other sends them in, is that these things take time and different actors have different schedules and paces of working. Some actors are going to send you lines the next day, other actors are going to send you lines a month after that, that’s just how it is. Don’t panic and think the slow actors are abandoning you- often they just need longer to record the lines you sent them. Sending them e-mails every day asking for progress is not going to help you or them, and is more likely to piss them off and make them quit. (They’re volunteers, remember that, you can only push them so far!)
As a producer, my own way of handling this situation is this- I cast the play, set the deadlines (usually a month for most radio-plays), and then I forget about it and do something else. If they contact me, I respond quickly and deal with whatever comes up, but generally I just wait and see what happens. Two weeks before the deadline, I send out an e-mail to the cast and ask them for a status report and if anyone needs more time to please write and let me know. (I try to set flexible deadlines- assuming that some people may be late getting things in, but want most in by that date.) One week before the deadline, I send out another e-mail reminding everyone that the deadline is in one week, so please have your lines in. (And again, ask if people need more time and to let me know.) Then I wait for the deadline to come, and see what I get in. If all the lines are in, then I get to work on mixing, if not, then I generally give them an extra day to account for time changes and such, and then write to them asking politely if they need more time. After that, if they respond quickly, then we re-negotiate when they can get their lines in, if they don’t respond for a week, I send another letter asking if they received the first letter and to please contact me. If they still don’t reply after a few days I send another e-mail saying I’m sorry but I need this project completed, so I will be recasting the lines. (No hard feelings, it’s about getting the project done, obviously our schedules didn’t meet. Good luck in the future.)
Professionalism
Now, some of you reading this are probably asking why I’m so darn polite to people who have just thrown off my schedule by making me recast (assuming I didn’t have an understudy for the role), and even blown me off. The answer is- professionalism. Being a professional in any field means it’s about getting the job done, not being emotional. Sure there are emotional professionals, but they don’t tend to last very long because they either burn themselves out or quickly lose the respect of everyone around them and make a lot of enemies.
So, let me say it again- “if you want to be a successful producer, you can’t afford to be emotional”. It’s that simple.
This doesn’t mean you can’t get mad and pissed off, you will be, a lot. But, it does mean you can’t let the people you’re working with see it if you want their respect. You can vent your feelings to your friends, family or dog, but not to your actors. (Any of them, you also can’t badmouth actors to the other actors because you never know who knows who.) Welcome to the real world, because this is how it works in every industry, so you better be prepared to master it now if you want a good future, period.
Your best approach is to assume all actors who “drop off the face of the planet” have some good reason for it, and just forget about them. No, you never need to cast them again or give them a second shot, and yes you can tell your fellow producers about them, but for the sake of the current production you need to just forget they exist and move on. Which brings us to the next stage of producer-actor communication- re-takes!
Once lines start coming in and you start checking them, you’re going to find a few lines you’re not happy with. Maybe the actor skipped a word, maybe they pronounced something wrong, maybe they just don’t have the emotion you’re looking for in a line. At this point you have two questions to ask yourself: 1) how important is it for this line to be right, and 2) does my schedule allow them enough time for retakes. If the answer to both are yes, then write to the actor (specifying the line number or even just cutting and pasting the lines into the e-mail for ease of reference), tell them clearly what’s wrong and how you want it fixed, and politely ask them to redo it.
Thanks to the difficulties of communicating speech as text over the internet, it’s likely that the retakes may not be quite right either. That’s okay too, most actors in my experience are more than happy to redo a few lines two or three times to get them right, and some will even redo more than that (but don’t push it unless they offer!). Again, the key here is being polite and professional- assume both sides want to get it right and work with them to get the job done. If they give you trouble over the retakes, or don’t have time to do them, then you may have some recasting to do as well, but that’s life in the audio producer game. (In my experience, sometimes bad lines can be dropped or edited to deal with a lot of problems if retakes aren’t an option. Audio editing software is indeed your friend!)
Once retakes are in, and everything is mixed, then you hit the post-production stage. Remember to credit your actors properly, and ask them how they want to be credited in the production. Don’t make any assumptions because some people want to use their real names, some want to use stage names, and some want to use aliases. Whatever the actor wants, they get, it’s that simple if you want to get them to work with you again in the future. You may also ask them if they want their e-mail addresses included in the credits, so that other producers who like their work can find them, but this is entirely optional.
And finally, when the production is released, don’t forget to send an e-mail to all cast members letting them know it’s out there. This is just common courtesy, and often if they like it they will let others know about it, so it’s in your favor to do this. However, don’t expect them all to write back and tell you how wonderful it is, that’s probably not going to happen. They did their job, and if you want feedback it’s not their job to give it to you, go look on a forum or wherever you publish your work for that.
Tips and further thoughts:So, there you have it. Be patient, professional and polite with your actors, give them the room they need to do their jobs, and keep the lines of communication open. Follow these rules, stay organized and stay positive, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful and respected audio producer. It’s not easy, and it’s a long slow and often hard process, but if you do it, and do it successfully, then you’ll be one of the few…the proud…the elite…Go Navy!
- Your actors are not your friends, they are people volunteering to help you out and work with you, but this does not make them friends. If they decide to be very friendly and chatty with you that’s great and you may indeed make new friends (I know I have), but if they decide to send in lines and “here’s your lines” as the only body in the text, then that’s their choice and you need to respect that. They may be very busy people and not interested in doing more than sending in lines, so don’t bombard them with e-mails or hunt them down on MSN. Let them come to you, don’t go to them more than necessary.
- You’re working with volunteers, so don’t push it! I can’t emphasize this enough- these people are helping you out from the kindness of their hearts. Yes, you are making the next epic fandub that will make everyone adore you and have Hollywood calling, that’s fine. However, right now you are nobody, and you’re lucky to have anyone helping you at all, so be polite, respectful and make their lives as easy as possible. This doesn’t mean treating them like divas or sucking up, but being as professional and direct as possible. (In trade, they will hopefully respect and work hard for you!)
- Be available, try to reply to any e-mails you receive from your actors quickly and answer their questions as clearly as possible.
- Give them their own space, let them come to you when they need help, otherwise leave them alone. Assume they know their job and will do it to the best of their abilities, then let them do it. You produce, they act. Unless they come to you, communicate with them once a week, tops.
- When giving actors criticism be as constructive as possible, don’t just tell them what mistakes they made, tell them how they can do better next time. By helping them get better, you’re helping yourself and the community, so it’s worth it to take the time and help those you work with.
Resume 
Originally Posted by UltraRob
