With summer holidays fast approaching, Voiceover Artists may well be looking to go away on holiday.
Providing you can go somewhere, flights, travel restrictions and lack of dog care aside: as a voice over artist you might be planning on taking a portable voiceover studio set up with you. Let’s take a look at what’s going to work best for you.
Recording space
Having a car with you can be helpful as it can be a surprisingly good space to record in as it’s quiet, well padded and available.
Unfortunately it means your family will have to miss out on that day car trip you were going to take together to the beach. Or maybe go later, when the sun has gone behind a cloud.
Portable microphone
What microphone should you take? It needs to be of a decent quality – after all, won’t your clients expect it to sound every bit as good as the precious mics you use in your expensive studio at home?
If they don’t expect that level of quality from you for a couple of weeks a year, aren’t you worried about sharing audio that isn’t the best it could be?
As we know, decent mics are delicate and expensive. Take it if you want, the stress of looking after it and making sure it’s locked in the hotel safe between jobs doesn’t sound very relaxing to me.
The other thing about good mics is that they pick up sounds.. great in a well treated space. In your hotel pillow fort? Well, you could always tell the children to be quiet and go away I suppose – even as part of that precious 2 weeks of family time.
Laptop for voiceovers on holiday
You’ll also need a laptop with you so you can record your voiceovers, edit and send. The thing is with devices is that they are also great for checking up on emails while you’re away.. you wouldn’t want to miss something would you?
Are you OK with this, really? Are your family, I’m sure they’d prefer to see your face without the reflected blue light of a screen on it – just for these couple of weeks.
Internet connectivity
Don’t forget to make sure you have a strong internet connection. Yes, I fully appreciate that decent wifi can be found in many relaxing holiday places and that’s fine. What if you decided to disconnect for a couple of weeks and reconnect with the real world?
Looked up at the sky, appreciated the world around you. Maybe the experiences, voices, sights, smells, sounds, colours around you could inspire you creatively and make you better at your work?
Prioritise
Seriously, the consequences of not responding to emails, auditions and jobs for 2 weeks is not as bad as you think.
Let regular clients know when you are going away. I tell mine a couple of weeks in advance to give them time to plan, we all know the VO is often pretty quick turnaround and this is always really appreciated and tends to result in a flurry of activity in the studio as clients pass on those scripts ahead of time to you.
I also have emails to come back to that say they hope I had a great break, here’s a script.
I tend to put an out of office on with my Agent’s contact details there. This way, they could schedule any work, look after the client and you know that your work is being taken care of. You’ll look professional.
The VO kit you should take with you on holiday is your mind, soul and body. Pack your spirit of adventure, your openness to be inspired, your love of life.
These things are precious and need to be re-charged and refreshed. As a performer you rely on your life experience to inform your performances – go and have life experiences, relax, learn, interact – listen to accents. Absorb what’s going on.
When you return, fully refreshed, the work will be there and you will be on form ready to make sure your clients sound superb and that will in turn make you feel happy that you have done your best for them.
Enjoy the break!
Clare
When I’m not on my holidays (ie most of the time!), I can be found in my studio recording cool and confident voiceovers for brands all over the world. Have a listen to my commercial reel.