Now with the 2008 Wimbledon Championships stored away in the record books, I thought I’d conjure up another British import to segue out of tennis back to some other important life affirming topics.
There’s no rhyme or reason for this post other than I just plain love The Beatles and I wanted to share my current faves from the Fab Four collection:
The numbers don’t lie, man. By far, the entire B-side Abbey Road Medley is the most played section of my iTunes library.
done
Twist and Shout from the Anthology documentary turned me from a casual Beatles listener to a straight up Beatles-maniac.
And CQ, if you’re reading this post, Across The Universe - The shitty Movie still blows more than an over-aged, delusional fluffer desperately trying to break into mainstream media.
Not that I would know what that’s all about.
Seriously, I don’t even know what that last statement means.
I know I said that I was going to take a break from voice over subjects but I’ve had a heavy weekend and trying to make sense of a lot of information I’ve just received in my personal life. So before I start to blog something I’ll regret later (after all, I want to keep this as spontaneous and unedited as possible), I want to digest the information first. So while I do that privately (for now), I’ll share some potentially useful information instead.
Let’s get to it.
You’ve got an interesting voice. People tell you this “like, everyday… practically everyday… at least a few people have told me this… uh, like my friends have told me in the past… friends who are more like family… I can count myself as my own family member, right?… Okay, I’ve told myself that I have an interesting voice… Once.”
So all anyone has to do is just hand you a script of words and you’re bound to make millions to use your voice and just… read.
Here’s the reality.
Your voice is only half the story. Even in the “professional” level I hear people every single day with great voices who can’t book a job to save their lives. After a few months of this, people get frustrated, they get discouraged and they lose all sense of confidence and self. Then they get angry and this begins a bad habit of hating everyone and everything associated with life.
And that really doesn’t book any jobs.
As a professional voice over actor, part of your job is to interpret the message within the copy you audition for. Sometimes the message is very easy to find and very clearly stated. Often times it’s not.
Writers and producers write what’s in their heads. They rarely read their words out loud. So it’s no surprise when the readers (ie. voice over professionals) read these written words (usually read out loud for the first time at this point) and realize how unnatural these words sound. Then to really twist the proverbial knife, the specs for the script call for someone to “not sell, not sound announcery and come off very natural”. Well you try saying the following line with the above mentioned specs:
“The California Lottery is proud to present to you The Big Spin Lottery scratch off ticket for a limited time only!”
How do you say this as if you’re just shooting the shit with your best friend? How do you say this without sounding like some cheesy game show host?
Well, that’s the trick. The ability to pull that off is what separates a lot of the talent who book a job and the other 799 readers (with a great voice) who don’t.
Decipher the message of what the writer is trying to convey and use your ability as a voice over actor to not make the message sound like a commercial trying to sell something they don’t need.
That makes sense right?
Okay, next I’m really going to get back to blogging about more important things: me.
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
Posted by cap
