How to Give Feedback to a Voice Actor

The best feedback tells the talent what you want the listener to feel, not how you want the words said. Most buyers do the opposite. They write notes like "say it faster here" or "hit that word harder," and what comes back is a technically correct read but it's not hitting the mark. Give the actor the emotion and the reason, and they will find the delivery on their own. That is the job you hired them to do.

Direct the feeling, not the line reading

When you ask talent to read a line a certain way, you get an imitation of your own head. When you tell them you want warmth, or urgency, or the calm of someone who has done this a thousand times, you get a performance.

Emotion words that work well in a brief:

• Confident and grounded

• Warm, like talking to a friend

• Urgent without shouting

• Dry and understated

• Excited but not hyped

Pace belongs in the brief too. Say whether you want it relaxed, conversational, or tight against picture. Actors adjust pace instantly once they know the target.

Tell them what the video is for

A while back I was involved with a spot for an athletic product. The talent was good. The read missed anyway. The instructions she got were thin, and none of it was her fault. She never got told the purpose of the video or what the viewer was supposed to feel at the end of it. The briefing needed more details.

Before you send a script, answer these in a couple of sentences:

• What the video is for and where it runs

• Who’s the audience

• What you want them to feel

• The CTA

Four sentences. That is the whole thing. It saves time and cost of ordering revisions.

Record yourself saying the hard words

Product names, brand names, medical terms, city names, anything with a pronunciation your audience will notice. Do not spell it out phonetically. Open the voice memo app on your phone, say the words out loud, and send the file. Super easy and saves tons of time and cost.

Written pronunciation guides get misread constantly. A ten second audio clip removes the guesswork completely. This is the single easiest thing a buyer can do to improve a first delivery, and few take the time.

Write revision notes with precision

If you need a section re-voiced, say exactly why. "Doesn't feel right" gives the talent nothing to work with, so they guess, and now you are on round three of a job that should have taken one round. For what counts as a reasonable number of revision rounds, and why more of them can make the final file worse, that covers the full picture. For what counts as a reasonable number of revision rounds, and why more of them can make the final file worse, that covers the full picture.

A useful revision note includes:

• The exact line or timecode

• What is wrong with the current read in plain language

• What you want instead, described as a feeling or an intention

• A reference example if you have one

Reference examples do a lot of heavy lifting here. Find a video, a commercial, an audiobook, anything with the delivery you are looking for, and send the link. Talent can hear in five seconds what would take you five paragraphs to describe.

Send everything you already have

The strongest briefs include recorded samples, reference videos of finished work in the style you want, the emotion you are after, and the pace you need. If the video is already cut, send it. Watching the picture tells the actor where the energy rises, where the pauses live, and how much room they have.

I have seen the same script produce two completely different reads based on nothing but whether the talent got to see the video first. It makes a huge difference and it costs you nothing.

How this works on Voice Dragons

Every job on Voice Dragons has built in messaging, so the brief, the reference links, and your recorded pronunciation samples all live in one place with the talent. You can upload sample audio directly and share links to reference videos.

Two other things worth using:

Ask for a short sample read first. On longer scripts, have the talent record a paragraph before they voice the whole thing. If the direction is off, you find out in an hour instead of after a full delivery. Sample reads on long scripts are included at no extra charge.

Book a live directed session. When the read is complicated or there are stakeholders who need to weigh in, direct it in real time over Zoom or Source Connect. There is a small additional fee, and it is usually cheaper than three rounds of written notes. If you have never done one, how a live directed session works and when to use it covers the process from start to finish.

Most jobs come back within 24 hours and many the same day. One revision is included, with more available if you need them. Good direction up front means you may not need a revision at all.

Key Takeaways

• Direct the emotion and intention you want, not the specific line reading.
• Tell the talent the purpose of the video, the audience, and what the viewer should feel.
• Record yourself pronouncing product names and difficult words, and send the audio file.
• Revision notes need the exact line, the reason for the change, and a reference example.
• Send reference videos and the finished cut whenever you have them.
• Use a short sample read before a long script, and book a live session for complicated jobs.