I’ve been all things voiceover lately, except on my computer. That’s what happens when….your computer breaks. I’m on a temporary one now, and the most i can manage is some simple typing. A fancy link to some other fancy voice over site? Forget it. Sorry. Today i’m going to talk about a lot and link to nothing. There’s a lot going on in the brain at all times, and it’s surprising just how much of it winds up affecting your performance. How old are you? That’s how many years of “stuff” you have either destroying or enhancing your chances of that perfect voiceover audition.
I have heard before that psychologists go through a lot of “shrinking” of their own brains first . . . to understand the process better themselves, to get past stuff that might get in the way of their helping others, etc. I have heard of it happening with massage therapists as well – the theory here being that they transfer their energy to each person they touch and well, that energy better be . . .nice. I am sure the list of jobs out there that require some sort of “cleaning” or “clearing” could go on and on, but let’s bring it back to the art of the voice over performance.
Let’s say you grew up with an overbearing mother, a large family, a father who ignored you. You didn’t get heard much perhaps. You shrank yourself in proportion to your experience of yourself through the situation. You spoke up less. You spoke quietly. You spoke with uncertainty. Amazing how much of our psychology transfers to our voice and our communication skills. Now you find yourself – wanting to be a voiceover artist. Huh? Ok. We want what we want. Actually, the very wanting of this career could be in direct proportion to NOT having the outlet to speak your mind in life for so very long. But now there is the script, and there is you (uncertain, quiet, afraid) putting into the script the same thing you put into life. I always recognize at this point that the voiceover coach’s job is not so simple. There is constant psychological evaluation going on and then conclusions as to how to tread lightly through or around it to empower the student. This of course needs to be done in the right way without setting them off emotionally in a way someone absolutely NOT trained in psychological counseling could perhaps do. In the case of the soft-spoken, unsure, quiet student i take the stance of empowerment. I am fairly certain there is nothing dangerous about impressing upon an individual this:
What you have to say IS important, intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, creative, wonderful, enlightening, amazing.
YOU are important.
Never forget that when you are speaking, someone is listening.
Someone IS listening. To YOU.
This is just one example of many, but it’s one of the reasons i never find the job of being a “coach” a boring one. I hope it’s also why we will all get a little more out of voiceover training than some money or a big national network gig.