It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve written on the subject of\nvoiceover technique. If you feel like\nskipping this moment while I muse on how I came to write this particular set of\nvoiceover tips, you can go to the next paragraph and you\u2019re forgiven. What has happened to me over the years of\nvoiceover coaching is that I have learned so much more about coaching, about\nhow to TEACH. In the beginning of my\ncareer it was all about sharing how much knowledge I had about the various ways\nto book voiceover jobs, about how to use your inflection, your keywords, your\nvolume, your pacing, etc. What I have\nadded to my resume since then is the even more important ability to teach. This concept comes through a bit less\npowerfully in a blog article to a general audience, but when coaching an\nindividual voice actor it is magic. We\nall learn differently because we all think differently. Some of us need a push to let the emotions\nout, some of us need our right brain to be taught to because our left has gone\non vacation\u2026and now I see that this is truly what teaching is about. It is as much about teaching to the\nINDIVIDUAL PERSON as it is about teaching the material. So here are the interesting teaching moments\nI have experienced through many individuals who have given me the opportunity\nto teach them and learn from them in less traditional ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have a student, let\u2019s call him Joe, who struggled with his\npacing\/pausing. This is one of the many\nways we can communicate (or fail to)\nauthenticity in a performance. When we\u2019re\nexcited we talk a little faster, when we are being serious or sincere we go a\nlittle slower, etc. This is what we do\nin real life and therefore it becomes critical that we use the appropriate pace\nrequired of the emotional subtext of the writing. Pausing is a part of this as well. We really only pause in real life if it is\ngrammatically necessary (to separate points in communication). We also pause for dramatic effect, but not\nthat often in everyday conversation. But\noh do you voice actors loooove to pause! It\u2019s fun, indulgent, and\ndramatic! It helps you breathe through\nlonger sentences! But it\u2019s not what you\ndo in real life, so it is going to sound theatrical. Joe was reading a sentence \u2013 \u201cSometimes you\njust want a great latte.\u201d We decided\nthat the main keyword was latte, but great was an important leading word\ntoo. Joe read the sentence and paused\nafter the word Sometimes. Another time\nhe paused after the word Want. It was\nunnecessary, unnatural, and too dramatic for the subject. I told Joe to think about his keyword \u201clatte\u201d\nas a restaurant that he was meeting a friend at. I asked him if he would normally make any\nstops along the way when driving to the restaurant. He said \u201cprobably not.\u201d Then guess what Joe? Don\u2019t make any unnecessary stops on the way\nto \u201clatte!\u201d Pausing: do less of it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had another student, Mary, who taught me a great way to\nthink about the process of experimenting and seeing what you can do with a\nvoiceover script and how you can express yourself properly but also creatively\nthrough it. Mary likened it to a child\nplaying in the sandbox. There\u2019s no way\nto experience that type of play and discovery without making a mess. And that\u2019s to be expected. Recognize that when you are training to be a\nvoice actor, and even if you are already auditioning, that self-censorship\ndestroys the magic. So many people try\nto read \u201cperfectly.\u201d All this does is\ncreate tight boundaries around the delivery that leave it flat, colorless, and\noften without a smile. Let go, have fun,\nmake a mess, and see how much brighter you sound! I add to Mary\u2019s analogy that it is like a\nwoman trying to find one tiny thing in her huge purse. She can\u2019t find it because it\u2019s lost in the\ncavernous folds of the fabric, shuffling around with a myriad of other\nobjects. Sometimes you have to turn the\npurse upside down and dump EVERYTHING out on the table to find what you were\nlooking for. Back to making a mess. Shake out your shoulders, smile a bit more,\ntake a risk. Let it ALL out. (You can always put back a few things that you\ndidn\u2019t need on take 2.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My new favorite is from Matthew. He asked me if it was \u201cok\u201d to listen to music\nwhile recording his voiceover auditions. \nOK? It\u2019s a fantastic idea\nMatthew, and I\u2019m telling everyone! So\nthank you! The word \u201cok\u201d also reminded\nme that there are no HARD rules in this creative world, only \u201cish\u201d\nconcepts. Basically, whatever works for\nyou is not only OK, it\u2019s fantastic! As\nlong as the outcome is authentic. That\u2019s\nreally the crux of it \u2013 there\u2019s nothing natural about saying someone ELSE\u2019s\nwords, so pull whatever tricks you want. \nMy student Wayne says he grew up in a household full of Scandinavian\nintellectuals and there was absolutely no emoting. Wayne could certainly benefit from some\nmusic. Don\u2019t the tears come hardest in\nthe sad scene in the movie when the sad song starts in?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly I want to cover a session I had where my student Liv\nwas just holing back emotionally as well\u2026more so out of inhibitions. Society tells us to be one thing and then the\nbest voice acting technique asks us to defy that and be everything\nsometimes. First I just told Liv it was\nokay to be expressive, that this was not about sounding perfect in any way, in\nfact that is what will fail in a performance. \nReal life is not perfect so neither is communication. Get wild, have fun, color outside the lines,\nstop taking it so seriously \u2013 because then you sound SERIOUS! UPTIGHT! \nNooo! So Liv, you have permission\nto do this on your terms. That was the\nkey for her, just knowing she had permission. \nHmm. Connected to that idea would\nbe censorship. She stopped and started a\nlot during a script. I reminded her that\nwas her censor-self getting in the way and judging everything and that is a big\nno for any artistic expression. BE\nfirst, censor later\u2026.but I bet you won\u2019t have to at that point \u2013 because you\ngave yourself permission to shine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve written on the subject of voiceover technique. If you feel like skipping this moment while I muse on how I came to write this particular set of voiceover tips, you can go to the next paragraph and you\u2019re forgiven. What has happened to me over the years of […]<\/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":[19,7,14,11],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voice-over-gurus-blog","tag-voice-acting","tag-voiceover","tag-voiceover-strategy","tag-voiceover-technique"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","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=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}