”Adv italian voiceovers are expensive and worth for major productions”: false.
Guys, it’s official. The era of advertising super-productions in which the italian professional voiceover was the (expensive) icing on the cake, is over. Video productions have increased in number and at the same time the available budgets have decreased. Even for low-cost production, thinking that you may not afford a pro italian voice talent is a false problem. The voice artists for an adv commercial are available and ready to voice any production. In this article we do not want to join the whining that characterize those italian voice overs anchored to times gone by, on the contrary: today we praise the low budget voice over work because, while you’re managing scarce means, poor production, b/level actors, improvised models, it is possible to Add value to an advertising spot with the right italian voice over capable of turning the situation and offering an allure of elegance and professionalism to any audiovisual or radio communication.
Producers who boast long-standing friendships with Italian voice overs are aware thatthey can count on their support that is compatible with any rate available.
So why do we keep on hearing on air shameful commercials with improvised voices mimicking 70s DJs, with a result that screams VENDETTAAAA?
Poor knowledge of the market, ignorance of the basic principles of advertising, a false myth that the advertising voice artist is expensive and not compatible with the meager budgets available, this is the simple answer.
Moreover, considering that today an italian voiceover owns a home studio, Where record any audio at no additional cost …
In short, low budget production can definitely aspire to an ennobling effect thanks to the intervention of an Italian professional voice talent.
Once upon a time there was a production that believed itself to be a prince and instead was … A toad!
There are also cases on the other side: those low profile commercial productions, driven without distinguishing the needs of a high-quality product from those of a botched production, in which, despite managing small but not insignificant budget. Some of those brave producers have the courage to ask, for a few Pounds, permanent and unlimited releases, as if that Poor video had to be exploited in every present and future channel “yet to be invented” (as stated in the clauses of some video contracts we used to sign just a few years ago). Let’s face it: if a commercial is made with a budget of ten thousand euros, it may be wise to offer 400 to the advertising speaker, but without expecting to be able to air it from here to eternity! It is usually television that generates low-cost opportunities, with projects based more on quantity than quality. But when this type of evaluation also contaminates advertising productions, a sort of monster is generated in which the Italian voiceover of advertising would never want to be. Those are that kind of productions that – perhaps for a simple voice studio fee – you find yourself recording dozens of takes, as if you were dubbing a Sorrentino film in front of the Maestro. Wake up you all: it’s just the commercial of An Amazon “never without” accessory, get over it!
The Italian advertising voice talent always enters the studio elegantly and saluting everybody. The owner does not even deserve a glance. He invites him to go to the voice booth he reserved for him, absentmindedly handling the practice of “what are you having? Water, coffee? ” As if in the world to refresh a person they had invented only tap-water or fake Nespresso capsules. And then … dear advertisers, welcome to the hellish circle of those who think a voiceover talent is their property for the next hour and a half.
Inside your mind, while they are asking you for continuous alternatives retakes (syndrome of lack of ideas and the few that are there are also confused), you think: “I’ll get out of this place sooner or later” …
You took head over hills!
In short, there are projects that wish they were a blockbuster while they are the classic excretion of an ant.
We advertising italian voice over are here, with our infinite patience and professionalism, doing our best to support even this kind of… nightmares!
Our time availability and the Picasso’s lesson.
When I want to console myself for a career spent training my ability as an interpreter as an italian television and Tv promo voiceover, the anecdote that is usually told about the great painter Pablo Picasso comes always to my mind. When occasionally asked to paint a portrait of a lady, after having observed her intensely, he took a pencil to draw the profile of the subject on a piece of paper. At the end of the performance, the woman, in front of his portrait, ecstatic, reacted with amazement and admiration: the Maestro had grasped his essence. When asked how much the painting would cost, Picasso replied: “five million francs”.
“Are you kiddin’?” the woman answered, “It’s an enormous amount of money: it only took a few seconds to do it! “
And Picasso replied: “In truth it took me my whole life.”
Well, remembering this anecdote, I recall many moments of my whole life spent looking for colors, shades that can offer me every particular nuance that is useful to better interpret every request that would have been addressed to me in front of the microphone. This is what we Italian voice talents do: we spend a whole career coaching, growing, exercising our talent and, possibly, we never stop doing that.
For this reason, thinking that our time is infinite is a big mistake. Although we are hired from time to time and think we are losing precious days: our time is not infinite. Let’s remember this every time our availability is somehow taken for granted, exploited, without adequate recognition. This topic is strictly connected with the habit of accepting very poor fees, in projects that are not necessarily low-budget. The consideration: “I wouldn’t have anything better to do” is understandable, but not justifiable.
Our time is precious, dear colleagues, no matter how we decide to spend it.
Ultimately, the work of the advertising voice over is typical of the artist: a few working days in front of him and a boundless passion for what he is doing. A pinch of narcissism and a great commitment with which to offer a piece of our essence to a communication project.