Today\u2019s top voiceover tips for honing your technique come first from Anton Chekhov.\u00a0 There are so many to choose from that we will only dissect a few here, but the lessons from each are each a gold mine of treasure\u00a0 The shortest and simplest is one I was recently reminded of while re-reading Julia Cameron\u2019s The Artist\u2019s Way.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t read this book and you are looking for creative inspiration, to unblock something emotionally or artistically, or to simply expand yourself as an (any kind of) artist, this book is a MUST.\u00a0 The quote: \u201cIf you want to work on your art, work on your life.\u201d\u00a0 This brings back an old blog here that talks about replenishing the well, so to speak.\u00a0 If you find yourself writing every day, and running out of ideas, go read a book.\u00a0 If you find yourself doing voiceovers and just going through the motions in a disconnect, go listen to some commercials.\u00a0 Go listen to some music.\u00a0 Those emotive singers don\u2019t \u201cdisconnect\u201d for a split second, as they are too intensely engaged in their emotional outpouring.\u00a0 They\u2019re having too damn good a time crying their hearts out, singing with unbridled passion or joy, releasing\u2026..Take your cue from them and don\u2019t bother uttering a single word of that voice over script unless you FEEL it.\u00a0 Or unless the direction calls for vocal fry.\u00a0 Bottom line, we can\u2019t take money out of the bank unless we first put some in.\u00a0 Put life experiences in your bank \u2013 ones that inspire, devastate, amuse, warm your heart, make you feel something real.\u00a0 Now you have something to bring to that script\u2026.even the one that\u2019s an emotional vacuum.<\/p>\n
The next quote is a bit unnerving, and calls all of us out on our most uninspired moments – the ones we have when we\u2019re on autopilot:\u00a0 \u201cThere is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.\u201d\u00a0 Yep \u2013 when we just go through the motions rather than truly engage ourselves, this is what we risk happening.\u00a0 In life, in a script, everywhere\u2026.have an opinion, a perspective, and make a point.<\/p>\n
I love this one.\u00a0 Writers everywhere know this \u201crule\u201d, yet it applies to so much more:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on a broken glass.\u201d\u00a0 When you read that script, your job goes WAY beyond reading the words clearly, or professionally.\u00a0 You are there as a force, to bring those words to life, as if in picture, as if in a surge of movement that the listener feels as a call to action, by emoting, by illustrating through tone, pace, inflection, key-words, all that is there and then some.\u00a0 How else will you stand apart in casting?<\/p>\n
Finally, \u201cThe role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.\u201d\u00a0 Ok, this one i agree with for the most part, but in regards to voice over scripts you do really want to understand everything as best as you can.\u00a0 Getting in the writer\u2019s head and knowing what he wants is critical to delivering him just that.\u00a0 Perhaps Chekhov is referencing the artist who is in charge of his domain, choosing the project and all the details from top to bottom without collaboration.\u00a0 Not only that, but I imagine he is also putting value on the skill of an artist to bring up questions we the viewer may have and allowing us to form the answers form an individual perspective when viewing the work.\u00a0 In voiceovers, the voice actor knows that he is there to \u201cserve at the pleasure of\u2026..\u201d \u2013 and the way to do that is to answer these questions:<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s now take a break from the heady and do some exercises that allow the brain to relax and re-access that truly natural way of speaking and being that we all have and can learn to bring forth in our voiceover delivery to book more voice over jobs.\u00a0 It\u2019s simple.\u00a0 It\u2019s just doing the ordinary.\u00a0 Start by looking around the room that you\u2019re in.\u00a0 Notice all the objects in the room and start counting them out loud.\u00a0 Stop when you can\u2019t find any new ones.\u00a0 Next, look at each individual item and call out its individual color.\u00a0 You now may start getting more specific, such as \u201ccaramel, peach, buttery yellow, olive green,\u201d or any other food-related colors you can think of.\u00a0 (someone needs to eat lunch!)\u00a0 Next step, list out loud the items in the room.\u00a0 You can start out simple if you like \u2013 post-its, blender, pillow, couch \u2013 or you can begin to exercise your creative muscle here like so \u2013 forgetful brain papers, food mixer upper, happy head thing, lazy body friend\u2026.\u00a0 The benefits to these are plenty.\u00a0 First of is being able to observe ourselves in our most natural state when talking out loud.\u00a0 We\u2019re not putting on any false pretense.\u00a0 This is our natural way of speaking.\u00a0 Next we get to be in the flow, and to notice any natural filler words or sounds we add when we truly are speaking in an unscripted manner and don\u2019t know what we are going to say until we say it.\u00a0 Lastly, looking at items and trying to understand them from another perspective (an olive becomes a martini mascot) we are practicing our script-analysis skills and trying to see things from a different point of view.\u00a0 \u00a0You can record yourself doing these exercises as well, so that you don\u2019t have to take my word for it and can actually hear the examples\/evidence of your real self versus your performing self.\u00a0 Granted, you will speak differently when addressing someone as opposed to just talking to yourself, however these exercises still stand as a strong way to break any over-achieving false announcery habits you might have and help you relax and correct in the other, more grounded direction of authenticity\u2026.that being your main goal in all acting endeavors \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today\u2019s top voiceover tips for honing your technique come first from Anton Chekhov.\u00a0 There are so many to choose from that we will only dissect a few here, but the lessons from each are each a gold mine of treasure\u00a0 The shortest and simplest is one I was recently reminded of while re-reading Julia Cameron\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voice-over-gurus-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}