module 02
Voiceover
Magic
Overview of the Voice Artist
Industry
Once
upon a time you had to have an agent a union membership and quite often some
acting experience to be a voice artist.
Today
you need a quiet room a home studio and an Internet presence and be signed to
either the free or paid-for voice agency sites.
Yes
it still helps to have an agent, particularly if you want to do corporate work
or be more involved in broadcasting.
The Rhythm of Speech
Does a spoken language have a
rhythm? To some extent yes – you can identify a rhythm of speech in chants –
say at a football match or children playing a chanting game. Rhyme also could be considered as
having a rhythm.
But when we talk about rhythm in
language we are really hearing the timing of words and all language has timing
clues. Speech is a sequence of events in time.
Conversation has timing (Cadence)
rather than any distinct rhythm.
Rhythm is measured in ‘foot’ and English language feet tend to be of
equal length, but again that is not completely true but the foot has been
adopted as the central part of metrical phonology.
Speech is structured into stressed
syllables and unstressed.
Stressed = YeS Unstressed = Y e S
Your Voice
You can practice building your
voice with some very simple techniques.
The first is to look after your lungs, exercise and eat well – we all
know it is the key to a healthy and happy life but it also good for your voice.
Pretty
Polly
Mimic and copy, listen to radio
commercials and copy their tone and delivery. Watch TV shows and practice sight-reading by attempting to
read out loud every name on the credits.
Read out loud from newspapers,
books, and road signs in fact anything and work on your delivery. See page 17
Breathing
We all do it, sit up straight.
· Stick your
hand behind your back
· stick the
other on your belly
· now get
those hands to move as far as poss (good luck getting the back hand to move)
· BREATHE OUT
quickly, but make NO sound (noisy breathing = sign of tension)
· BREATHE IN
and now say each letter of the alphabet.
If you run out breath wait
and go again!
Warm Up
If you go to the gym the staff there will tell you how
important your warm up is.
Your voice needs to be warmed up just as your body
does. A mixture of body warm up,
tongue twisters and face stretching is a great way to get you into the zone.
Many teachers will tell you to put a pen across your mouth
or bite a cork and say your warm up tongue twisters – yes that works and yes
the clients watching from the green room might be a little worried about whom
they have hired – but you should have a routine that zones you into working
with your voice.
Ahhhhh
A good way to start, inhale slowly through your nose and
exhale slowly through your mouth.
Get yourself relaxed and ready for these exercises:
1 Inhale deeply and exhale in SHORT BURSTS saying huh, huh,
huh
2 Inhale deeply and as you exhale start counting until you
run out of breath.
3 Take a deep breath and start reading these words until you
run out of breath – oh and make the words all mean something:
Collecting and projecting,
receding and speeding
and shocking and rocking
and darting and parting
and treading and spreading
and whizzing and hissing
and dripping and skipping
and hitting and splitting
and shining and twining
and rattling and battling
and shaking and quaking
and pouring and roaring
and waving and raving
and flowing and going
and heaving and cleaving
and foaming and roaming
and moaning and groaning
and dropping and hopping
4 Time to smile and time to articulate:
These are exercises to overcome “Immovable Jaw”, “Idle
Tongue”, “Lazy Lips”, and “Too Much Speed”.
LIMBERING UP
Spread the lips in a smile for “eeeee”, open them for
“aaahh”, and close them for “ooooo”. Repeat.
Rapidly say “fud-dud-dud-dah” several times. Now say
“ira-ira-ira-ira-ira-ira”.
Make believe you are a London bus pulling away from a stop.
Now roll the ‘r’ sound as if your bus is idling at the
traffic lights.
Now hissss as the air brakes let the bus go forward.
TONGUE
Say each of the
following words 5 times, trying to keep the tongue forward, just behind the
upper front teeth. Listen for brightness and liveliness of tone.
Tea Deal
Tick Dish
Tail Thick
Nape Table
LIPS
A stiff upper lip is one cause of miss-articulation. Say the
words pit-pat-pit-pat-pit-pat many times. Try to pronounce the “P’s” and “T’s”
very clearly. Now try to pick up the speed. DON’T LOOSE THE “P” AND THE “T”.
A word of warning remember not to be too explosive with your
P’s as this can cause pops with the microphone.
JAW OPENING EXERCISES
Say the following words while exaggerating your jaw opening.
Hack Yacht
Dot
Paw Yard
Dart
Tab Tot
Dark
Hah Tat
Lad
MORE LOOSENING UP EXERCISES
Repeat each of the following word groupings clearly over and over. Start
slowly at first. As your articulators become more nimble and relaxed you will
be able to pick up speed without stumbling. Do any sort of tongue twister that
comes to mind. The more you loosen up before a session, the easier it will be.
Good Blood, Bad Blood
Bad Blood, Good Blood
Red Leather, Yellow Leather
Buttah, Guttah Guttah, Buttah
The Leith Police Dismisseth Us
Voice Artist
not just commercials
·
Radio Drama
·
Character Commercials
·
Video Games
·
Audio Books
·
Instructional & Educational Videos
·
Cartoons and Animation Productions
·
Sales Presentations
·
Power Point Presentations
·
Museum Guides
·
Stately Home Guides
·
In-Store Promotions
·
English Language Tapes
·
Web Virals
·
Internet Videos & Training
·
Website Audio
·
Imaging
·
Infomercials
·
Kids
·
Political
·
TV, Movie Promo & Trailers
·
Promotional
·
Transportation
·
Public Service Announcements
·
Narration
·
Animation & Character
·
PA Stadium Announcements
·
Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR)
·
Biography
·
Corporate (Industrial)
·
Documentary
·
e-Learning & Education
·
Exercise VIdeos
·
Government
·
Impersonations
·
Inspiration & Relaxation
·
Internet & Website
·
Medical & Pharmaceutical
·
Technical
·
On-Hold
·
Podcasts
·
Bus Tours
·
Video/Computer Games
How to mark a script
Understand your script what does the client want? What do
the words mean? What is the context you are being used?
You can mark your script to give visual clues to your
performance and you can mark your script to give yourself timing clues for
pace.
Top Tip
Try and use a pencil to mark your script. This allows you
“rub out” and make new markings without getting confused.
Scripts unless a very good copywriter has written them tend
to be a piece of written work you need to turn into something aural.
Ask
Always ask what the client wants, what the Producer is
looking for, you can’t ask enough questions. Even better if you can hear the production they will be
using on the final work, or ask to be played an example of previous similar
material. That way you can also
get the tone the client wants from you.
Contractions
We tend to use contractions when we speak and scripts
usually reflect this, but are sometimes written without contractions often to
emphasise the importance of a delivered line.
Silence
Remember not gabble through the script, pace means leaving
pauses in appropriate places.
Although with commercials the copywriter might have written a great many
words that they want you to fit into a very small amount of seconds!
Tips
You can pause for pacing and effect as well as giving you
time to breath. Pausing for a breath is indicated by a single slash. For a
pause for pacing use a double slash.
For indicating up & down pitch, use an angled arrow for
an up or downward inflected syllable or word.
Underline words that require more stress. Put a double or
triple underscore under a word or syllable to indicate even more stress or
underline the beginning or end part of a word or phrase you wish to stress.
For a change in attitude, you can use any visual mark that
works for you.
Circles, boxes, lines, squares, dots, brackets, smiley
faces, or just write a word that gives you the right energy.
Marking your script can take a few minutes – but it is time
well spent and a habit you should get used to. It gives you visual cues that
will lift the words of the page.
Welcome to the 21st century
You may find some scripts are presented on an iPad or PC
Screen if you can ask for a hard copy.
Between the Lines
Understanding a
voice over script
Jargon
First of all voice over scripts are littered with jargon you
will find they are laid out in a similar way to a script for a play or
film. Here’s some of those jargon
abbreviations:
MVO = Male Voice Over
FVO = Female voice over
CVO = Child voice over
FX = refers to sound effects that will be used in the final
production
GRAMS = still used refers to music
BED = piece of music that is faded under the performance.
Make sense
Reading a script as a voice performer you must be able to
comprehend the script and understand what the client wants from your
performance.
Some questions to ask:
Who is the script aimed at? Who will be the audience for this work?
Is there a reason for the characters or words used in the
script? (There might be client specific words and characters from past
commercials)
Who is the person I am performing – what are their desires
and what do you want from the performance?
Lift it from the page
To make the performance work or come to life if it is a
character read you need to give thought to the thought behind the words, it
helps to gesture or use your body to enhance the performance, but be careful
that you do not become a ‘ham.’
And most importantly you need sincerity, you need to believe
in the product or at the very least your character or performing side must
believe in what you are reading.
You need to leave your own baggage and thoughts behind and
concentrate on the work and immerse yourself in the art of performing to the
very best of your ability.
Finally you MUST have confidence in what you do and never be
afraid to suggest or alter your performance if you think it will improve the
work.
For those few seconds you need to live the part, take on the
facial expressions of the old man, or corporate boss, the excited consumer or
trusted person.
Voice Performance is a craft and CAN be learnt with practice
like many other crafts, whether you succeed and make that transition in to
professional performance is as much a journey of determination as good luck.
Mean and nasty
A practical exercise with you saying the following short
phrases, you must mean what you say and say what you mean:
Say the word “YES” to indicate:
Certainty
Doubt
Indecision (ER)
Sarcasm
Say the word “NO” and, by changes of inflection, indicate
the following:
Definitely not.
Well, maybe.
I’m surprised to learn that.
I’m annoyed to learn that.
I’m pleased and surprised to learn that.
Say the sentence "I’ll be there.” so that the following
attitudes are implied:
Determination
Pleasant agreement
Surprise
Annoyance
Say the sentence “I like Steve.” to bring out the following:
A direct statement of fact. You mean literally what the
words say.
A contradiction of the literal meaning of the words. You
definitely do not like Steve.
Irritation and surprise that anyone could conceivably accuse
you of liking Steve.
Indecision as to your feelings about Steve.
Specific indication that your liking is for Steve and not
for anyone else who may be present.
Your answer to the question “Who likes Steve?”
An aggressive and emphatic answer to the question “Who could
possibly care for a man like Steve?”
Top Ten of Voice Over
Tips
Tip 1 What am I capable of?
Don’t try to be a voice that you are not, no your
limitations but also where your strength lies.
Exercise: How would I describe my voice?
Tip 2 Who am talking to?
Always try and visualise the person the script is aimed at.
Tip 3 What does the client want from the script?
What is the message of the script, what is a client trying
to impart?
Tip 4 Understand
Understand what you are reading – if you don’t crucially others
listening will not either.
Tip 5 Emotion
Use emotion to convey the message, if it is a scary script
you need to feel scared, if it has humour you need to read in a humorous way.
Tip 6 Silence
Leaving a pause at the right moment, which does not always
mean following the grammatical pauses.
Tip 7 Joined Up Reading
Sometimes scripts need to have contractions added, ands and
other expressions common to spoken language.
Tip 8 Expert thinking
In the script are you the expert who knows what they are
talking about, or are you an idiot with no idea about the product are you the
person who has the money to spend?
Tip 9 Adlib
Sparingly and particularly if it is a two person script you
can use ad-libs, some of the funniest lines and natural sounding copy can be
achieved with an ‘ad lib.’
Tip 10 Character
Whoever you are playing try to stay in character and don’t
slip into another character or somebody else.
Top Practice Tips for
a voice artist
·
Read out loud every day – anything and
everything
·
Record your voice – use your phone your pc
·
Move emotions – put feeling and care into your
practice
·
Play your work back, could you do better?
·
BUT don’t beat yourself up!
·
Mimic ads on TV, Radio
·
De-construct what you hear on TV and Radio
·
Know your limitations!
THE
DEMO
·
Demo should be 1’30 – 2 mins max and each
example 20”
·
Should be your very best work, and the very best
should be first.
·
Always present the best technical quality you
can on a demo.
·
You must sound natural, relaxed but give a
delivery that does not sound ‘acted’ or ‘read.’
·
Poems can be used on demos to highlight your
ability to interpret work.
·
Character work, needs to be believable.
·
A mix of dry reads and produced work,
·
The right material for your voice.
·
Demo should have branded material, be up to date
and not sound ‘fake’
·
Make sure that each voice artist skill is
showcased – commercial delivery – announcer – they all require different
skills.
·
Variety (if you can do it) is the spice of life.
·
Copying stuff off the TV and Radio for your demo
should be avoided.
Finally listen to the competition go to professional
voice-over sites and listen to their artists – you will hear what you are up
against and how you can compete.
NOW RELAX – BREATHE
BREATHING EXERCISES
Firstly lie flat on your back, arms away from your body and feet spread
apart slightly. Relax. Let all the tension flow out of you and allow your body
to feel the floor as much as possible. Concentrate on your body melting into
the floor. Let everything go.
Now slowly slide your knees up so that that the whole of your back is
pushed into the floor. Keep you feet firmly flat. Enjoy the feeling of your
back spread against the hard surface. Bring your hands to lie across the base
of your ribcage, where your diaphragm sits. Let your two middle fingers touch
and relax your forearms as they drape across that area.
Roll your head gently from side to side to stretch out the muscles in
your neck. Yawn. This will open and loosen your vocal chords.
1)
Take a deep breath in through your mouth, making
sure you are filling only the lower part of your lungs underneath your hands.
Hold it. Release it slowly through your mouth. You should hear a ‘rushing’
sound as the air travels into and out of the throat. Relax and take a few
normal breaths. Repeat.
2)
Take another deep breath. Hold it. Release it to
Mmmm for 3 beats. Feel the vibrations on your lips for a few seconds and then
drop the mouth open wide to release a fuller ‘Ah’ sound. Enjoy the sound and
the feeling of your whole throat area being widened.
3)
With the next deep breath count out to 15 or 20 or
25. Make sure the numbers are spoken in a firm articulated way. Like military
orders. You should feel your diaphragm ‘bounce’ underneath your middle in fingers as you breath
out a small pocket of air with each number.
4)
Take the last deep breath and say the three vowels
‘A E I O’ slowly, over and over again until you run out of breath. You should get the sense that these
vowels are bouncing off the back of your mouth – the ‘cave’ area.
GET OUT THERE
Use social networking professionally – Linkedin and
Facebook and Twitter. Use blogger
to create a blog and update this regularly. Create a website with a template company like Moonfruit or
Go Daddy.
Join for free or pay and create a profile on as
many voice artist websites as you can.
Always keep your picture and copy consistent.
Submit to voice artists that allow you to send
demos:
AND
PRACTICE – PRACTICE -
PRACTICE
What To Do Once I
Have My Master Demo?
1) Word of mouth is the best possible approach. Give a copy of it to any friends/family
or friends of friends who work in a media or media related company.
2) Upload it onto a V/O website or get one of your own.
Other sites to take a look at:
3) Go Googling ‘radio and TV production companies’ in your
area
Ring up as many as you can and explain that you are a voice
over artist and that you live around the corner. Be friendly and ask nicely if you could have the email of
one of their producers so you can send him/her your website link or demo
A good site for extra information about agencies and
organisations
