Welcome to Resnick Interactive’s Spotlight Series. Twice a week, we take a little peek into the most pressing topics in today’s voice over industry. From services, to products, to the latest happenings, we’re revealing trade secrets and bringing you all the latest information. This week, we shine the spotlight on client involvement in the voice over production process.
One of the questions we get the most is “how involved will I– the client– be in the voice over production process?”
And our answer always goes a little something like this: “how involved do you want to be?”
We can break it down a couple of ways. But at the core of this process, we value transparency. We’re in the production process together and we welcome our clients to be as involved as they would like to be. Here’s a list of stages we go through on a project and the various levels of client involvement that we have experienced over the years:
Pre-Production
– For larger projects this can be a rather open ended and long custom-tailored process. For example, let’s say we have a current bid out with Client X that has been going on for several months and the pre-production process for them has included doing research for additional services such as MOCAP. And we have often done tests– not just a quality test, but a work flow test– for the client so that they can gain a more accurate picture of how the production will function.
– On smaller projects, such as low-budget games, the process is much shorter and basically entails us analyzing the needs of the project internally and allocating resources without too much input of the client.
Casting
– Client wants to be with us in the studio for a casting session in person.
– Client wants us to turn in reads for their approval.
– Client allows us to use our own judgement on casting.
Production
– Client wants to be with us during the record. Either they will take a passive role and let us direct or want to be more involved.
– Client wants to be be patched into the session and listen remotely. We make sure to take pauses more often when doing this to check in and address any notes they have.
– Client does not want to be involved in the recording session and leave it all to us.
Post Production
– If we’re doing a mix to picture the client may or may not want to be present.
– If there is no picture and we’re just delivering files there isn’t much room for the client to be involved as it’s just an editor hard at work!
