Voice actor Laura Bailey is a very successful voice talent. Her story of success gives us a lot of tips on voice acting. We’ll try to figure out what this means for voice talent and for the people who hire voice talent for different projects.
This post has been updated in September 2021.
Some Info on Voice Actor Laura Bailey
Laura Bailey is a famous voice talent, with many credits to her name. She started work as a voice actress at Funimation, where she voiced Kid Trunks for ‘Dragon Ball Z’. That was the start of a prolific career which now includes hundreds of credits. In a year Laura Bailey may easily work in over 30 different projects.
Some memorable anime roles by Laura Bailey include Emily/Glitter Lucky in ‘Glitter Force’, Tohru Honda in ‘Fruits Basket’ and Lust in ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’. She’s also voiced many video game roles including Rayne in ‘BloodRayne’, Jaina Proudmoore in ‘World of Warcraft’, Chun-Li in ‘Street Fighter’, Serana in ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard’, Abby Anderson in ‘The Last of Us Part II’ (BAFTA award winning performance) and much more.
Theater Background
Laura Bailey started by doing theater in Plano, Texas. We’ve pointed out before in this blog that voice acting is, first and foremost acting. What this means is that aspiring voice talent do best if they’re ‘full’ performers before stepping into the booth.
This can mean several things. A well-rounded talent may very well dance, sing, act, among other things. This sort of talent can be well suited for the recording booth. There are different reasons for that. For starters, having all these talents gives a voice actor range to tackle a wide array of roles. Also, a performer who has such a background will probably have a potent voice, well suited to the booth.
People hiring voice talent should assess talent as a whole. The thing is that voice acting is quite deceptive. Many people feel that voice acting is all about the voice, but this is really only half the battle. The truth is that a great voice actor is also a performer. What this means is that a content creator or producer must review the background of their talent. They can also afford opportunities to talent who comes from a theater background, for instance, but have yet to do voice acting.
Scripts in Advance or on the Fly
Voice actor Laura Bailey has discussed the merits of having scripts in advance vs receiving scripts on the day on the recording. This is an important lesson for content creators and how they should work with their actors.
Laura Bailey discusses motion capture in the interview quoted above. The process here allows for more time. She states how the time a voice actor has to prepare will really depend on the type of project. In case of motion capture, she states that voice actors will have more time to work in the project. They’ll also receive the script with a good amount of time to prepare beforehand. The process also allows for a careful creation of the character, together with the developers of the project.
There are many projects, however, when the voice actors get the script with little or no time to prepare. There are situations when an actor will receive the script on the day of the recording and be expected to perform. Moreover, sometimes talent will receive only sections of the script and not the whole story. This can of course be a liability to a good credible performance and great direction is vital to make up for it.
The issue of the timing of script delivery is an important consideration for content creators. The more time a voice actor has to prepare, the better. Also, crucially, it’s ideal if the whole script can be delivered as well.
Sessions and Quality
In the same interview quoted earlier, voice actor Laura Bailey talks a little bit about her work schedule: “Most of the time, I have two or three sessions every day for different projects. So I’ll have a session in the morning, and then a session in the afternoon. And sometimes, it will be like a 9 to 11, then an 11 to 1 and then 3 to 6 for something else. So you’re really jumping from personality to personality all throughout the day.”
Such a schedule seems quite grueling. Naturally, an experienced voice actor like Laura Bailey will make things work out. There are things to take into account though. For starters, a heavy schedule will evidently demand more of actors: there will be a natural fatigue which may affect performance.
Apart from this, however, it’s important to consider the feasibility of jumping from one project to the next. Experienced pros like Bailey are certainly able to handle it, as she explains in the same interview, though this may not be the case for all talent: “That’s one of the things that I love so much about voiceover is that you can be creative in so many different areas. I can start with something very dramatic in the morning and then something crazy and goofy in the afternoon. And so I never feel like it’s work. It always feels like playtime every single day.”
Range and Type
Laura Bailey is evidently a very gifted voice talent. Her list of credits is vast and her range quite considerable. This suggests several reflections to any content creator setting out on a project involving voice talent.
First, it’s vital to realize that there are several types of voices in a project. There surely is voice talent who must carry the whole project. Talent like Laura Bailey is very much suited for this.
This is not the end of the story though. Voice acting also requires unusual voices for specific characters. Video games, for instance, have a tremendous amount of characters in need of voice talent. Many of these characters won’t necessarily have what we would define as classical or mainstream voices.
In sum, we need to be very attentive when casting a project. Some talent will carry the large roles but there are opportunities for more unusual voices too. A casting director will usually be of great help. Alternatively, an online hub like Bunny Studio can be instrumental in selecting the right talent for each role in a script.
Physical Hubs and Online Hubs
Established voice actors like Laura Bailey work for well-known companies, producing high end content. In the case of Laura Bailey, she got her start at Funimation, for instance. Now then, when it comes to audio work in these types of companies for this kind of material, things can vary. When working with motion capture, for example, work will have to be in-studio.
In the case of online hubs with voice talent working on content such as audio ads, remote work is the rule. This means that the voice actors will have a studio set up at home, and work from there, sending work and files online.
A content creator should be mindful of this distinction. With work which can be fulfilled remotely, there really is no need for the added cost of in-studio work. Moreover, such a situation allows for the use of online hubs which carry tremendous talent and very reduced costs as well as very good start-to-finish customer care.
Types of Content
It’s useful to note that voice actors such as Laura Bailey tend to work on content such as video games. They’ll also dub animated television shows or films. This is not the end of content which requires the use of voice actors though. Indeed, voice talent is often used to create things such as: short films, commercials, audiobooks, promos, e-learning and much more.
It’s useful to understand this because a project involving voice acting may seem daunting. Surely there are big projects, involving big budgets and famous voice actors like Laura Bailey. This certainly isn’t the end of the story though. There is a lot of content which can be created with voice talent. Such content need not be prohibitively expensive, nor the talent involved need to be headliners, so to speak, in the industry.
Directing and Producing Talent
It’s vital to realize that voice actors like Laura Bailey have a full team behind then. Although a lot of content creators will set out on smaller-scale projects, it’s important to provide talent the level of direction and production that big projects would.
This means several things. First of all, in the case of directing, we must remember to give talent the proper guidance. Even creating a 30 second audio ad with one single voice actor will require some form of guidance to steer the talent in the proper direction. Having said that, there’s also a need for talent to freely explore. A system where a voice actor provides three takes of the same material, for instance, is always a good start to get the performance going.
In the case of production, it’s also vital not to neglect the technical aspects of the recording. Established voice actors surely have access to top of the line technical environments but this doesn’t mean that smaller content productions should neglect this. The proper technical specs and effort in this area will make smaller and simpler content punch above their weight class and be very memorable.
Ending conclusions
The Bunny Studio Way
If you’re looking to create a project requiring voice actors, there are several ways in which Bunny Studio can help.
Indeed, Bunny Studio began as an online hub for voice talent. It has grown over the years to provide a very large array of services and talent.
In the case of voice talent, Bunny Studio has a very large offering. You can hire a voice actress, for instance, who will be able to carry a wide range of roles and projects.
Hire a voice actress at Bunny Studio today! Let’s get started!
