There are many times in life, examples of misheard communications. Your manager told you to do something but you do something else, Ordering the wrong stock as you were too busy concentrating on Facebook friend requests at the time. Well, if this sounds like you, then you’ll like this video. A tribute to those of you who hear something else entirely!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

The fantastic team at Dice Productions recently asked me to voice a spoof advert for a fictitious cruelty to animals charity. I assure you no animals were harmed in the making of this production!

The end result certainly makes very entertaining viewing!

If you have a similar project which you require a voice for. Then get in touch for a quote…..

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

A video I came across recently, with their interpretation on what Twitter’s really for!

Definitely some truth in that!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

Do Journalists Need Voice Over Artists?

By Richard Aucock

I’m a motoring journalist. For the past 10 years, the written word has ruled. First, magazines, and now increasingly, websites account for the vast majority of my content. But, things are changing – fast!

Increasingly, it’s important to harness video, too. On many sites, video earns a huge number of hits; publishers love the ability for the right clip to go viral, and editors know the huge potential for the ultimate aim of the publishing world – reader engagement.

Budgets are no larger, though. In the past, professional video productions have been filmed, at four-figure expense. They look great but the cost-v-return just didn’t add up. Nowadays, motoring publications are looking to journalist-generated footage to up the video content.

The quality isn’t top notch but readers accept it because of the ‘inside track’ perspective. It’s a nice addition to a regular written road test that ticks many social media boxes.

Problem is, we’re writers for a reason! Presentation techniques are a mystery to us – we can write, but stick us in front of a camera and we go to stilted, stifled, stiff-arm’d pieces. Some of us are worse than others; it’s often possible to get a few pieces to camera out of us, but any more than that is tricky.

A lot of this can be rectified back at base, with a good voiceover of footage we’ve shot on location. But, again, we’ve had no training here: could this be almost as bad?

Thus, the questions – do we need to employ a professional voiceover artist, and if so, in what context? Should this be for all productions? Do readers accept a less polished approach for shorter films, if the imagery and message is worth it? For longer productions, is a pro voiceover a must – and how do we justify the cost to our publishers? Should we consider training from a pro (and would this help us in front of the camera, too?), or would they be averse to offering this?

The pressure on us to generate video will only increase in the future. Rather than worry about it, what can we do to make it easier – and how can voiceover artists help? Advice appreciated!

A link to an example of a journalist doing video…:

30 May 2010

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Episode 5 – May 2010 - “Audio Marketing, a Podcast Special Edition” (24m 14s)

This is a recording of a talk I recently made at a 4Networking event in Sutton Coldfield. I talk about the importance of businesses utilising audio in their marketing strategies, how it can open up massive new avenues of audience, for the people that are auditory learners, i.e. they absorb information better in audio form. I talk about podcasting, the power of the human voice, branding your company with audio, the immense reach of the iTunes podcast directory, and how businesses can easily implement audio in their current marketing plan.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

One of my recent jobs was for a local PR and Marketing agency, to voice the narration for a documentary they were producing for schools distribution as an educational tool, to raise awareness in young people of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

The end result is a quite hard-hitting, very well made piece highlighting the dangers of SBS, and how even innocent play time with your child could easily cross over into being very damaging for their body, because babies are very fragile. I think it should be very effective in it’s delivery around the schools circuit.

This is a shortened version, for the benefit of YouTube’s time constraints.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist UK

Whilst surfing a few of the interwebs having a break yesterday, I stumbled across this. Very very cool optical illusion that looks fab!

It’s the kind of thing I’d love on one of my walls!

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Hopefully destined for a Sky TV channel, this is a TV promo that I recently voiced.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

This is a recent project of mine, voiced for a betting facilities company in Ireland. I play several of the characters within this piece….

It’s certainly something a bit different for me, playing some animated characters. Rather fun!

Anyway, enjoy…..

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist