Advice on Voiceovers
Do you need advice on voiceovers?
Recently, a client asked me for consultancy work on voiceovers of radio ads in Irish language media and I agreed. In my opinion, this would be worthwhile work and of course, the ad should be clear and easy to understand for both Irish speakers and the general public. I decided to get stuck in.
I didn't have to travel to the studio, and I linked up with the team on the Zoom platform. Of course, under the Official Languages Act, 20% of public bodies’ advertising content must be in Irish and no less than 5% of their annual advertising expenditure must be for that purpose.
A first-class professional actor was on duty for the recording. However, he accepted corrections willingly and it was easy to correct him accordingly. I advised the actor about the pronunciation. For ‘mothúchán’ the ‘ch’ must be soft with the right sound and I gave him the same advice about the ‘ch’ in ‘coinníollacha’. I also advised him to have the ‘d’ soft in ‘airgid’.
One sentence was a little too long. I decided to advise them that it would save them time if they only used one word. The word wasn’t needed and would help to better highlight the other words in the sentence. So we changed the sentence. It was recorded and made the message much clearer. I've seen every sign of notifications.
In my opinion, the recording was good at the end. If you hear an ad on the radio, chances are that Dréimire – Language Services advised the actor regarding the ad. But if you hear something out of place, keep it to yourself!
Of course, it is mostly translations in our sector, but we can also advise on voiceovers if necessary.
