I’ve been working at voice over in the online realm for years. I do most of my work with Voice123 and Voices.com. In that time I’ve seen a lot of auditions. Likely thousands of them.
Reading through those auditions I’ve come up with 10 of the most common reasons that I personally skip over a project posting. Odds are, if I’m skipping them, other talent are too.
If you’re a voice seeker wondering why you’re not receiving any auditions, or quality auditions, for your voice over projects it’s possible that you might find the answer here.
This post will be two parts. I’ll share the first five reasons today and I’ll post five more tomorrow.
5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Auditions
1) Poor Direction: If I see a project with no direction at all, how am I supposed to know how to successfully audition? Further to this, if I see a posting that offers directions such as, “We’re looking for the perfect voice,” that’s not useful to me either.
Tip: You know what you want. If you make it clear in the audition notes, you’ll be much more likely to receive quality auditions.
2) Unclear Budget: I recently saw a posting on one of the casting sites. It listed the recording length as 3 minutes. It listed the budget as $150. As I read the actual job notes it stated, “20 videos x 3 minutes.” Now I’m left wondering, is the budget $150 per video? Or is the budget $150 for 20 videos?
Tip: Be very clear and specific about your budget. Is it per? Is it inclusive? Outline it exactly.
3) Poorly Written Script: Even the best voice talent in the world is often only as good as the script provided. If your script is filled with spelling and grammar mistakes, I’m likely going to skip the job. I don’t have time to try and figure out what you actually meant to say. While I’m doing that, I’m missing other audition opportunities. If the script was originally written in another language and the translation to English is very poor, I’m also likely going to skip the audition.
Tip: Proofread your script. If you know your script needs work and you require script writing assistance mention it in the notes.
4) Conflicting Info: Not that long ago I saw a job posting for a Young Adult Male. In the notes it further stated, “We’re looking for a Sam Elliot voice. Huh? Another example, in the Voice Type notes is says, “Middle Aged Male.” In the notes it says, “We’re looking for a female talent…” Or how about, Language Requirements, “North American English.” In the notes it says, “We’re looking for a foreign sounding voice. Considering either a British or Spanish.” If you post conflicting information in your job, I’m going to skip it because I don’t actually know what you want, so I don’t know for sure if I’m a good fit.
Tip: Double check your job details before you submit the posting. Confirm everything jives and makes sense.
5) The Kitchen Sink: The jobs I’m referring to here are ones seeking auditions from Young, Middle Aged and Senior Males AND Females. In other words, everything including the kitchen sink. That’s far too broad a range for me to compete with. I’m looking for auditions that I know, without doubt, I am a fit for. Those are the ones I devote my time, energy and auditions to.
Tip: If you want more auditions, get a clear vision for the project and narrow your focus.
More To Come
These are just five tips to get you started. If you address each of these, I promise you you’ll notice a difference in the number of auditions you receive. Not only the quantity of auditions, but the quality of them as well.
Check back tomorrow. I’ll have five more tips for you.
QUESTION: As a Voice Talent, what turns you away from an audition?
