Ooooh I saw this and couldn’t resist, as someone who’s been on both sides of things as both a director and a voice actor!! This is a long one, apologies for that ❀ Q - (Not part of the survey) Would you like your answers to be credited (if so, to what username?) or would you like to remain anonymous? ❀ A - Fine to be credited! At either @hanamori_ii or @miss_hanamori ❀ Q - How long have you been voice acting? ❀ A - I started around November-December 2019, so a little over 6 years! ❀ Q - How do you most frequently find a series to audition for? ❀ A - On scratch, either through audition studios or what friends of mine have auditioned for. On CCC I typically just scroll through haha ❀ Q - What makes you choose to click a casting call? ❀ A - A good thumbnail, something that hints at the vibes of the series. Something besides just some default scratch text that's clearly a screenshot from the audition haha ❀ Q - After viewing a casting call, what makes you decide whether or not you want to audition for it? ❀ A - A lot of things. Clarity on expectations--such as how long a series will run for, a deadline for auditions, and what the host is looking for, especially regards to lines (e.g. deadlines or how quickly things will be needed). Generally a well put-together and professional looking project--something with music, clear readable text that's not default purple on white, lines for characters, and optionally character art if it's for something visual. Also a form for VA's to put additional information is always a good sign! ❀ Q - What is something (or multiple things) that will make you immediately choose not to audition for something? ❀ A - A lack of clear effort put into the project. If it's clear to me that this person is just putting out auditions for fun and they don't have clear goals for where a project will go, I'll click off. Also egregious spelling and grammar errors--if I have to decipher what your lines are, I'm not reading them. Not including character genders and voice descriptions is also a huge one! Unless every single one of your characters is androgynous (Which I'd hope would be stated nonetheless), I'd rather not have to guess. ❀ Q - What component(s) make a casting call (not someone’s audition) high quality? ❀ A - I mentioned a lot of this before, but a quick list: Character descriptions (Personalties, voice descriptions, age range), character lines, clear expectations for voice actors, a good description/synopsis for the project, a project timeline (This one's hugely underrated in my opinion!! I want to know how long I'm committing for), a clear deadline, and some type of form or agreement for VA's ensuring everyone's on the same page. ❀ Q - What do you like to know about a series you’re considering auditioning for? ❀ A - Series timeline, as I mentioned, as well as the format, and general synopsis are the biggest things. In my opinion, character art isn't a *huge* necessity in an audition, but the audition had better be high quality to make up for the lack of art if that's the case. ❀ Q - Do you like to have a visual of the characters? ❀ A - Yes, but it's not an end-all-be-all for me. ❀ Q - What is important to include in a character’s voice description? ❀ A - General age, pitch, a couple adjectives describing the voice (e.g. bright, powerful, melodic, soft, shy), and also personality notes--even though those aren't directly related, a lot of time they go hand in hand. ❀ Q - What’s your favorite kind of character to voice act or audition for? ❀ A - Personally, I *love* doing villains, as well as characters that get to show a lot of emotion! Generally anyone with a strong personality is super fun to play, whatever that means. Though, and I'm going to contradict myself, I also love doing narrator type voices since I can kind of just zone out and read haha. ❀ Q - What should a casting call include? ❀ A - I think this is mostly a repeat of before, but a quick list: Synopsis of the project, project timeline, form or agreement for VA's, expectations for the amount of recording and recording pace, and lines to record. I don't actually think including specific characters is a necessity--sometimes, it can be easier (And will also make your audition a bit unique) to just include a general reading for people to do in a few voices they're comfortable with, and you can go on to cast them from there (I especially find this helpful when there's a lot of minor/background roles that might not deserve an entire page dedicated to them and their lines) [[Continued below because Scratch told me the desc was too long ; ;]]
[[answers cont]] ❀ Q - What do you want to know about the character(s) you’re auditioning for? ❀ A - Mostly a repeat as well, but: General age range, voice description, personality, their significance in the project (main character, side chara, etc.) and also I find it’s helpful to know the general emotions I’ll be expected to portray, though sometimes this goes hand in hand with the personality. For example, if it’s a really happy-go-lucky character so there won’t be a lot of negative emotions, or a main character where we’ll get to see the whole spectrum. ❀ Q - Is it important for a casting call to be high quality and why or why not? ❀ A - Yes absolutely, with one exception! A casting call is a reflection, often times, of the project’s quality. It doesn’t need to be anything insane, but putting effort into an audition project shows that a creator will put effort into the project. However, I think this is less important when the creator already has a track record of following through on their projects–for example, they have an old series that was fully completed during the timeline that was projected. ❀ Q - What is the best way for a series creator to give you lines you need to record? ❀ A - A notification & link to a project. I don’t have very strong opinions on this, but I have a visually impaired friend who can find it difficult to see lines if they’re all in one giant comment, or in a description, so another thing would be maybe using costumes with high contrast text that’s easy to read. ❀ Q - What would you want the creator of a series to know about when it comes to VAs? ❀ A - I think it’s important to recognize in retakes that a lot of the time it’s due to miscommunication in the script, not deliberate from the VA. Though this is important for both sides to recognize. As someone who’s been on both sides of things (Directing and voice acting), it can also be difficult to understand expectations a lot of times as a VA, especially when a project doesn’t have a clear timeline, so this would be another thing I’d wish more series creators did. For example, I want to know if I’ll be receiving lines immediately after audition results, or waiting 6 months for them–and for the latter, I think it’s important for series creators to know just how much vocal talent changes and improves over time, so I might sound different to the audition as time goes on. From a VA perspective, going back to the expectations thing, amount of lines and pacing is also a huge deal. I want to know if I’ll need to record 100 lines in a week or 10 lines in 2 months, as it’s a totally different commitment. Anyways that’s it!! Sorry for the long responses, please let me know if you want anything clarified! I can’t promise that I won’t have more thoughts on this later and come back to add things :sobs: but I’ll leave those in the comments section and ping you if I do.
