Voicebank.net’s VoiceRegistry Blog

The Specs on Specs- Navigating the Voice Over Audition

We’ve all seen them. Those little details the client puts at the top of most audition scripts to guide the voice actor towards a winning audition. But sometimes the over speculating can make us more confused, right?

Here are specs for a restaurant TV commercial:

“The delivery should have a quick tempo but not frantic. Almost a stream of consciousness in the flavor of someone ordering from a menu. If you could start with the pacing of a Dennis Leary read, take out the angst and replace it with legitimate coolness that would be in the neighborhood. Don’t project too much, it’s more of an externalization of thoughts.”

Sounds like he needs to be kind of an upbeat sardonic, cool guy-next-door poet ordering battered and butterflied shrimp with tangy cocktail sauce. Instead of specs being specifics, maybe they’re simply speculation about what the client thinks they might want. What’s the vying voice actor to do? Perhaps we should do what we do best…just be ourselves.

Would love to hear your specs story. Got one? Leave them in the comments box….for speculation.

-Tracy Pattin