So, You Want to be a Voice Over Talent?

Any voice actor who has any kind of web presence gets calls and emails from people wanting to “get into the business.” I have a saved note ready to go, but my friend Randye Kaye just posted a blog with something that I think I am going to point people toward the next time I get THE email or call.

Her article is short and to the point and covers 5 key things that a voice talent needs to be successful.

1 - A voice

2 - Reading Skills

3 - Acting skills

4 - Technique

5 - Business savvy and willingness

Click on this link to read the whole post.

For a companion piece to this – here is a link to a post I wrote called Tangible and Intangible Assets for the Voiceover Biz.

I want to elaborate a bit on her point 2 – Reading Skills. In addition to simply fluency – the ability to read a bunch of words without screwing up – you need to be able to read and UNDERSTAND.

We get so caught up in ourselves and what we are doing that sometimes we fail to actually read and understand the words in front of us. I have left auditions in the past and about half-way home I slap my forehead and remark – “Oh! That was what that spot was about!” By this time, too late to go back and ask if I could re-audition. It happens to all of us every once in a while, but in order for us to be good at this business, we must connect with the words mentally AND they need to flow off the tongue easily.

Good stuff Randye!

Find the Nouns – not the Pronouns!

Here is a free mini-lesson from Nancy Wolfson, Braintracks Audio – one of the top voiceover coaches in the biz. She really knows her stuff. This little snippets is about finding what is important in the copy – specifically the nouns and the verbs – NOT the pronouns.

We have talked about this in class – don’t stress the “you” and “your!” She calls it Uncle Samming. “We want YOU!”

Remember, in 99.9% of the cases, you are talking to one person when you read. People listen by themselves. They know we are talking to them. So in most cases, you don’t need to stress the YOU. All rules are meant to be broken, of course, but watch this little clip and you will get the big picture on pronouns.

Watch the introduction to the clip! She jumps around more than I do in class. See how she has people hold the script up over their heads, or lie down on the floor.  Parlor tricks – tricks that work – to get you out of your head so that your brain can do its magic.

Great Advice from a Real Pro VO

Voiceover actress, teacher, and manager Terri Apple has a unique voice. A bit raspy – sounds like it comes her throat. She is a working actor in a major market, but here in this little clip, she shows that she understands what it is really like in the voiceover business in this new era of home studios and the Internet.

She offers some insight on what it takes to break into the business of voiceover acting, as well as some of the specific skills and tools voice actors need in a changing business.

Character Work – Deconstructing Barney Fife

Part of developing a character is knowing a lot about where the voice is coming from in your head and mouth, how fast or slow, how high or low, if you are using your face or hands or body posture. How different is the voice from your own? What makes it different? Does the character have a different tempo or rhythm?

If you don’t know how to answer these questions, watch this short clip from a Pat Fraley workshop where he works with Scott Burns doing his wonderful Barney Fife voice, breaking it down to its character basics.

Star Wars Clone Wars Voice Actors in Action

Always nice to see the behind the scenes action for voice sessions – and this one – Star Wars Clone Wars – is fabulous.

Lots of shots of the actors in the studio, plus split-screen with the end result. Interviews with many of them, plus outstanding commentary from the director of the series, Dave Filoni.

It is particularly interesting considering what we are working on in class this weekend. Creating a voice from an image. One of the actors here remarks, “I’m a lizard,” when she sees the sketch for the first time.

Also watch how they use their bodies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yphxFOOlGE&sns=em

Get inspired! Use this to help you really bring that little bit of copy you are recording this weekend to life.

See Mike Record, See Mike Edit

One of my virtual voiceover buddies posted a video to the Voiceover Club website about how a radio spot could come together. It shows screen shots of the process of recording the voice track and then editing and mixing in a number of different pieces of music and sound effects. He is using a stereotypical “puker” radio announcer sound for this spot – but listen to the copy and you will understand why.

http://www.voiceoverclub.com/building-radio-commercial/?ref=nf

Thanks to Tom Hathaway (Fall 2010 student) for forwarding this link.

Know Your Own Voice!

Here is a podcast hosted by Stephan Cox with a well known voiceover coach in Los Angeles – Nancy Wolfson. She talks about the importance of knowing your own voice early on in the podcast.

http://www.thatvoiceoverpodcast.com/audio/Wolfson.mp3

She then moves into more about the way the business works today – talking about the changes the Internet is making in casting.

Very informative.

Vox Daily Addresses the Basic VO Requirements

If you haven’t subscribed yet to Vox Daily - follow the link below and make sure you get on this list. Most of the articles are focused on practical voiceover techniques – a few are related to the way voices.com works, but most are relevant to you.

This one came in today and reinforces some of what we have been discussing in class. An excellent article originally by Marc Cashman - a talent and teacher in Los Angeles. Here is part of the beginning of the article.

Some of these are structural skills, like breath and cadence control, articulation, eye-brain-mouth coordination; others are aimed at acting methods, interpretation and taking direction.

But there are three things that underlay all convincing voice acting: sincerity, smile and physicality.

http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2010/09/sincerity_smile_physicality.html

The Critical Skill of Self-Evaluation

You cannot improve something if you don’t have a good idea of how you are doing. This applies to voiceover work as much as learning how to drive. At the very first level of learning – Unconsciously Incompetent – this may be hard to do. You don’t yet know what you don’t know- which is why so many people “think” they should “get into” voiceovers.

At some point you move into stage two – Consciously Incompetent. Now the real work begins. You now know what you don’t know and can start the process of learning.

I ran across a series of videos by Ira Glass, the Host and Executive Producer of “This American Life” discussing Storytelling. These four videos should be required viewing for any radio or TV journalist/presenters. The third video focuses on performance and is an excellent example of a working professional evaluating and exposing the flaws in both his writing and in his performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE&feature=related

After viewing this little clip (it’s about 5 minutes), listen to your local public radio news or a local TV news broadcast and listen for the reporters to do EXACTLY what he was doing…emphasizing every couple of words in a sentence, instead of telling us what is going on. Part of that is the writing, but part of it is simply reading words on a page and not the meaning of the words.

Well written scripts – stories – are always easier for the presenter to deliver, but even a poorly written script can be helped by a good storyteller.