Voice Over Production Timeline: What to Expect
Wondering how fast you can get voice over delivered? You’re in the right place!
I’m a professional full-time VO! Here to take you through what a typical voice over production timeline looks like for different types productions.
✋ Hold Up…
Before we jump in, if you’re a new client, it’s important to understand your process and expectations. Coming to an agreement about how we’ll be moving forward will make things go smoothly. It’s common for review periods (breathing room for the end client to provide approval or change requests) to be neglected. In reality, these items can significantly slow the project down if not nutted out in advance.
If you have any questions or would like to meet and have a chat, book in a call with me! I’d love to discuss what you need and how I can help.
Commercials, On Hold Messaging & Explainers
These shorter scripts typically have a voice over turnaround time within the same day for your initial review. They tend to be much shorter scripts, with clear direction in the brief.
Live directed sessions are a boon for commercials and explainers, when organised in advance. Once the tone of the piece is nailed in a session, pick-ups or revisions are easy to deliver within 24 hours, if there is feedback for changes from the client. Or legal. Ususally the legal team.
Animations, Video Games, Audio Dramas and Video Narration
The voice over production timeline for character work may require a longer time to prepare, or a meeting beforehand to discuss the circumstances of the scritpt and style of characterization. That said, a lot of this can be overcome with a live directed session, where we’re able to play around with the script and adapt the performance to the narrative in real time. This is usually the most effecient.
Similarly, longer video narrations will take a bit longer to record and ensure the recording is free of errors and packaged nicely for delivery.
If any of these projects require editing or file splits, that may add a day or two to the timeline. I am a voice actor first, and an engineer second (or not at all). It is a service I can provide and have my own efficient workflows for, but I’m certainly not certified! For high-value productions with many separate assets or files, I suggest bringing a bonafide audio expert on board to bring it all together and mix it seamlessly.
Audiobook Narration, eLearning Courses & Principal Character Performance
Extremely long scripts take the most preparation, research and communication to ensure the best outcome. As a result, these will see the longest timelines.
Depending on the length of the script, word difficulty (pharmaceutical or fantasy jargon) and effort required (particularly for things like video games or animated reads) this work requires time to breathe! Voice actors will pace themselves to keep our instrument, our body and our voice, healthy. To give you an idea, a typical audiobook of may take on average about 23.5 hours of focused recording time to make. And that’s even before proofing, editing, or your reviews for approval! Most days, it will not be feasible to record for more than 6 hours a day. Even if focusing soley on that one project. Therefore, it may take up to a week to output the raw narration alone.
It requires a lot of endurance to do this work, and a lot of effort will go into training and resting ourselves regularly each day to be able to give our best to each piece. I’ve talked about my personal routine as a working actor previously, if you’re intersted to know what goes into that!
Longer narrations will either be punch & roll, where I ensure my output is error free but unprocessed, or fully edited and mastered. Depending on what’s needed from my end, there may be an extra week’s worth of work to deliver your finished production. In this case, it may be up to 80-90 labour hours (including the recording process). Considering a typical 9-5 is about a 40 hour work week, including breaks, it’s safe to assume a full production in the above example could be turned around in as little as three weeks or up to eight weeks during peak periods.
Peak Periods
“Peak” times greatly affect the voice over production timeline; how quickly we can review, when we can record, or if we have the bandwidth to take on the work at all. During the year there are peaks and troughs for how many requests typically come through.
Most of my work will land in my inbox completely unexpectedly! A huge video game role that I auditioned for six months ago (among hundreds of other auditions per month). A previous client requesting an update to their phone system. An upcoming indie narrator inquiring if I’d be interested to tell their story. Much of my planning is pie in the sky, and juggling everything and nothing at the same time. I thrive in this chaos.
Before holidays or key economic dates can be a huge crunch. Everyone is trying to get everything handed off before the long weekend, the end of a quarter, or, god forbid, the financial year. This means that January through March and July through August tend to be quiter times when scripts can be jumped on more quickly. Or larger projects delivered far ahead of schedule.
It’s All Important… and Urgent
Every client and their project is important to me to complete on time and to a quality we’re both proud of. That said, what is one to do when everything is important and urgent?
Communication is the key to success.
From you, that means giving me as much detail as possible about your project; the due date for delivery, script, usage plans, the brief and examples of what you’d like to hear. Being upfront with with your expectations will expedite how fast your can get voice over!
From me, it means taking all that data you’ve given me, looking at my current schedule and being transparent with you about our expectations for delivery. If you have wiggle room, that’s all the better for me to know, as it helps me prioritise! Most of the time, you’ll get things back ASAP.
Ready to Rock?
If you’ve made it here, well done! Thanks for taking the time to understand what goes into my service for you.
Ready to make magic? Send me your script and brief to request a quote.
Would you love a sample read first? Shoot through the details for the role on your production to request a FREE audition (and quote).
For anything else, get in touch 👇
LET’S PLAY!
Need a playfully gritty voice actor?
Get in touch with me via email to chat about your project, scope and budget. We can schedule a call to discuss your needs and expectations more in-depth: