Ready or not, holiday season is here. From the holiday music on a loop in Starbucks, to the tourists bombarding the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, ’tis the season: an insane amount of gifts, food, cookies, and cheer. I always view the end of the year as a time to reflect on what we have accomplished.
Since I always offer advice in this column, this month, I want to reflect on what I learned about voiceover casting and what I will take into 2016.
1. The un-announcer is the new announcer. In all the commercial campaigns I worked on this year (most notably Porsche and Home Goods) the majority of casting specs called for a new announcer that sounded non-announcer-like. I culled and auditioned hundreds of actors, received even more MP3s, and at the end of the day, both commercials feature distinctive voices that sound real and engaging without being preachy.
2. Preschool villains can’t be too scary. I cast a number of preschool animation projects (most notably “The Numberlys” for Amazon) and when chatting with the creatives, the discussion almost invariably led back to the casting specs for the villain: how to find a distinctive voice that would not be too scary to a 3 year old. The
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