Can the people you surround yourself with make you a winner?

Can the people you surround yourself with make you a winner?

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

Can the people you surround yourself with make you a winner?

Ask yourself these question:

• Are there people in your life who support your decisions and help move things along?
• Do they help you dream?
• Do they believe in you and give you the confidence to keep going?
• Are they the kind of people who will challenge you to think bigger, work harder, be better?
• Do they help you set goals?

If so, then you have a winner’s circle of people around you!

Those are the people you want to keep in your life. They make you a better person and they will help bring out the best in you.

If not, it’s time to find them.

Because it's difficult to do it alone...

You need people who believe in you, support your dreams and want to help you achieve them.

They will be there with open arms to cheer you on when things are going well - and they will hold your hand when life throws a curve ball at you.

The Five Best Voiceover Tips for Beginners

The 5 Best Voiceover Tips for Beginners

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover

Since first embarking on my voice-over journey, I've learned quite a few profound lessons about what not to do that you shouldn't waste time. Arguing with people on Facebook groups about which microphone they like that the voice-over rail might not necessarily be the most reputable platform out there and that German dubbing porn might not necessarily be that good for your reputation in general, but apart from these profound takeaways, what other tips might I give myself?

The decision can be debilitating when starting any new career. There can be so much new information out there. It's difficult to know where to begin or what to prioritize, and I know that I definitely wasted a lot of time going along dead ends or making very obvious mistakes that really wasted a lot of time, money, and energy as a result. And I grant that failure is definitely an essential part of the process.

Let’s dig in!

Five Key Lessons for Beginners

As I've already covered in this video here, there are five key lessons that I would definitely go back in time and tell myself if I could when starting out and so in the absence of having a time machine. I'm going to tell you them instead!

Tip #1:

My first tip is a pretty essential performance-related one, and that is always to make sure that you're talking to one specific person regardless of what type of voice-over project you're actually working on. If you make your voice-over delivery specific and rooted in one person's reaction. Then it's going to make it more personal and go alongside that as well. I would say practicing doing voice over with a smile and seeing how that warm quality basically goes from the outside in can be essential in being able to establish a real connection with the listener as with any form of acting, really being specific in who your audience member is and what they want and what kind of um reaction that you want to get from them is incredibly crucial and something that I wish I prioritized more rather than sounding good at the beginning of my career.

Tip #2:

My second tip is also performance-related, and that would always be worked out what the subtext is. So, a car commercial is never really about the car that you're selling. It's about the lifestyle you'll want to portray that gives access to the person who wants to buy it. Go on an adventure of a lifetime on the road to discovery. The same would go if you're working for an explainer video. You're not just imparting information, but it's because you want to make a difference to the person who's listening in terms of their lives, what do they need to know, and why and again, understanding the importance of the subtext; running underneath why? What you're saying is important in the first place is really crucial in terms of giving the best voice-over that you can.

Tip #3:

My third tip would be to work from a place of relaxation, and this really comes down to the fact that when we're starting out especially, we want to get things right, and when we want to get things right in a career, that prizes speech. Generally, we want to speak very clearly, and in a career that focuses on the spoken word, that usually results in us speaking very clearly and sometimes over-enunciating, and I certainly found that coming from stage work where I did a lot of articulation exercises, so there were a lot of plosives going on and everything like that meant.

As a result, I sounded quite ready when I started out because I was pronouncing every single word, which is not what we do in real life and in speech, of course. The other thing coming from a trained actor that's been drummed into me for years is that your best performance comes from a state of relaxation. You have to be prepared. Still, then you need to let everything go and that I think is really the crucial aspect. Do your warm-ups work on technical aspects that you personally need to address but then when it actually comes to stepping up to the performance. You need to try and come from a process of relaxation. So, again focusing on the message, the connection, and the audience is not on your physical your technical execution.

Tip #4:

My fourth tip is a pretty inevitable one which is don't record your demos too soon. I know I certainly did, and I would say probably the first three commercial demos that I recorded in the early-mid-2000s were absolute and utter trash, while most voice actors are a bit more streetwise in doing their due diligence with demo producers. Now it's still something to be mindful of. You really need to focus on your coaching and your mastery of a particular genre first before you go and actually pay the money for a demo because otherwise, you'll be like me, someone who has to constantly re-record their demos because they're not good enough and you can't really salvage much from them.

You need to have a clear understanding of the genre in question. You need to know where your voice fits within that genre, and you need to know the extremes what is your range within that genre, not so that you display range for range's sake but so that you can set very clear parameters about what reads are going to serve you best as marketing too.

Tip #5:

My final tip would be you can do it yourself. When I started out on my voice acting career, I came very much from an actor's perspective that there were certain gatekeepers, i.e., agents and casting directors, that I needed to get on board with in order to properly make progress and to a certain extent that is true but as well as cultivating those very important relationships. There are many other ways that you can actually source voice-over work, and you don't even need to have a demo in order to be able to do that.

Now with things like Fiverr and freelancing websites, there's a way of being able to cultivate and monetize voice-over work from an early stage and actually build yourself up, or alternatively, you can go through the whole pay-to-play route and also, of course, most crucially you can use direct marketing to really create one-to-one relationships with clients that nobody else owns in terms of the relationships. So, they're yours, and it's a relationship that you can build progressively.

Final Thoughts

As a result, obviously, there's a laundry list of different things that I wish I could tell my former self when starting, but these were the five that I think would have probably made the biggest and quickest difference in getting my voice-over career up and running. I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful. If so, please do like, subscribe, please do comment below if there was something specific that you found particularly useful when starting out or that you wish. You had a time machine to tell yourself when you were starting out in the first place. Thank you for watching so much as ever, and I look forward to seeing you next time!

Atomic Habits for Voiceover

Atomic Habits for Voice Over

By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist

The different elements that make up a voice-over career aren't mystical. You need to obtain a certain level of proficiency on the performance side, the marketing side, and the technical side, like almost any freelancer. But while the initial part of our careers is typically fueled by adrenaline. After a few months, the novelty of the new we can't rely on that alone to execute our daily tasks. 

James Clear, in his book atomic habits, affirms that, 

“Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations." 

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement getting just one percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run. And this is definitely a philosophy that I subscribe to. It's essential to set your goals, as I've covered in these videos already previously. But it's going to be daily consistent actions or habits that will carry you to that destination. Clear goes on to lay out a plan of how you can actually form and construct good habits. So I wanted to look at his four key points and then see how we could apply them to voice-over.

Are you curious to know atomic habits for a voice-over? Let's dig in!

Four Rules to Start Cultivating a Good Habit

The four rules to start cultivating a good habit are: 

1. Make it obvious

2. Make it attractive

3. Make it easy

4. Make it satisfying

So let's take a look at these in turn and see how we could apply them to voice-over? 

1. Make it Obvious

For the first one to make it obvious, you really need to be aware that to be vague about your intention is the enemy. Saying I need to do some marketing or I need to work on my performance skills is deliberately vague. They're amorphous, and they're certainly not smart goals, which I've covered previously in another video here. So we need to be specific so for marketing. I want to send five emails to new leads per day. 

Now we could just set a specific time to execute this task, and again in a separate video, I've touched on how I use time blocking to be able to manage my day-to-day calendar. But another way of doing this is by using habit stacking, where you attach your new habit to a pre-existing one. 

So, for example, if you always start your workday by making coffee and as much as I prize my hydration, I do that more often than not. Then you can say after I make my coffee, I will send my five emails, and then you could start chaining various habits together. So after I finish my recordings for the day, I will learn one new keyboard shortcut on my door, or after I’ve checked my Instagram, I will make sure to comment on three other people’s content. Notice also the benefit of linking these habits by location. 

So if you’re doing one habit on your phone already, then make your other habit also on your phone. If it’s a computer-related task, then link it to a computer-related task and so on. If you’re stuck thinking about what useful habits you want to cultivate in the first place, then think about where you spend your time and where. Therefore, a new habit might suggest itself from that exact location. 

1. Make it Attractive

The second rule is to make your new habit attractive. It is where a technique called temptation bundling comes in. Essentially, as an incentive for doing your new habit, you attach it to another habit that you really want to do. As a personal example, I like playing beat saber for half an hour in the morning because it’s a good cardio workout. 

But to do that, I always have to go and work out with my free weights beforehand. But more specifically, during my workday, I’ve paired doing my work emails with playing FIFA on the Playstation. If I don’t do my emails, I won’t be able to further or bury United’s quest for European domination and that stakes for you. 

1. Make it Easy

The third rule is to make your new habit as easy as possible, what James clear calls a gateway habit, rather than setting a really ambitious goal for you to send a certain number of emails or learn a certain number of keyboard shortcuts. Instead, when you’re first implementing a new habit, only do it for one minute a day. So if we apply that approach to email marketing in one minute, you might have enough time to Google a specific company and maybe identify who it is that you reach out to and maybe log their details and that’s it and when establishing that habit that’s all that you need to do. 

And yes, that is ridiculously simple, but that’s why you also have no excuse not to do it. Of course, we want to extend the amount of time you spend on that habit, but the first most crucial thing is to be consistent. 

1. Make it Satisfying

And the final rule to tie it all together is to make it satisfying now clear affirms that the human brain is evolved to prioritize immediate gratification over delayed satisfaction. So what is immediately rewarded is more likely to be repeated. And as we’ve already seen, temptation bundling is a way of attaching gratification to execution. But another way of getting that immediately successful hit is habit tracking. 

If you’ve ever consistently filled in a journal or if you’ve ever continued to log in your exercise process, or if you’ve ever used one of those language apps that congratulates you on chaining together consecutive days of exercise or practice. Then you’ll have sense the reward that gives you knowing that you’re not breaking the chain. 

Of course, life will interrupt at some point, and all chains will be broken but when that eventuality occurs clear affirms the importance of never missing twice. You get back on the metaphorical horse the very next day, and you reaffirm the identity that you’re trying to cultivate even if the time you actually spend doing the habit is a fraction of your normal time. 

I found this personally myself when doing my weight training. It’s been the bad workouts where I’ve only done it for half my normal period of time, and my form has been bad, and I’ve really felt kind of icky about it, but I’ve still done it. And therefore, I felt that I’m someone who does work out five days a week regardless of how good that quality of workout actually is rather than entering into a spiral of, oh, I’ve missed a workout. Therefore, I’m not my best self so. Consequently, I might as well give up entirely. 

So in voiceover, even if circumstances mean that you have very limited time to get back on the wagon, just getting back to doing even one minute of a vocal warm-up and one minute of marketing still reaffirms your identity as a voice actor who does marketing and warms up vocally every day. 

Now it’s this final point that I personally found most revelatory for my career switching from a voice actor who wants x, y, and z to one who is x y and z. I take huge pride in the identity that my habits have given me, so I’m more motivated to maintain them. Of course, this is a much abbreviated version of what’s covered in James clear’s book, and I do recommend that you read it yourself. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, I’ve demonstrated how you could start applying this to a voice actor’s career, and you’ve got a few new techniques that you can start playing around with. If you found this helpful video, please do like subscribe and share. And I look forward to seeing you next time!

The Rise of AI Voiceover

The Rise of AI Voiceover -

by British Male Voice Actor Chris Tester

The rise of the AI voice has been the go-to anxiety topic for the voiceover industry for the last couple of years. The one before this was arguably the acceptance of home studios. They were more readily available and affordable technology, better remote connections, and more online casting portals allowing people to go directly to their clients. 

That meant that there was a greater acceptance of that as a valid way of doing voiceover work. So before we get into the whole AI thing, it's really important that we set out what exactly we're talking about and specifically that there's a distinction between the two main types of AI voice that are out there!

There's text to speech, and there's also speech to speech. Text to speech is what we most readily accept. AI voices to be so that you're inputting text, and as a result, a synthetic voice is turning that into spoken speech. But there's also speech to speech where there is actually a live performance giving the vocal inflections. But then a digital mask of another voice is being placed over the top of it, and we also need to remember that as most developing technologies AI voice stands on a moral spectrum.

There are better examples of it and worse examples on the one side. Some of this technology is literally giving voice to the voiceless, as demonstrated by the vocal id's work in the area. And then, on the opposite side, you have the model that we as voice actors might be more familiar with, which is something like a product like speechello, which advertises itself overtly as a solution to those costly and unnecessary voice actors.

So I'd say the key questions about AI voices are:

1. How good are they?

2. Will they replace voice actors?

3. What voiceover genres will it affect?

4. And how can voice actor’s best prepare for it?

Every few months, there seems to be another development in the mainstream media that provokes another spasm of anxiety for voiceover actors. Eighteen months ago, it was probably the release of a trailer of an AI voice that could cry called faith by the developer synaptic. 

Most recently, there was a controversy sparked by the troy baker, the voice actor. Now the baker is essentially as close to voice actor royalty as you can get; he starred in a whole variety of different franchises. Some of the biggest franchises in video games have been a running joke within the industry that he's in pretty much every game he tweeted about partnering with an AI voice company to allow everyone the chance to own and invest in the IPS that they create. 

Now part of the controversy was that it was a combination of AI voice and NFTS, which is another subject. And to itself that I don't really want to focus on in this video but what I do want to focus on in this video is that it shows that many voice actors out there already are exploring the different options of monetizing an AI version of their voice. When discussing his thinking and the subsequent backlash on the podcast play, watch listen baker explain a bit more thoroughly about his rationale: you never fire like the middle management. 

You fire the most expensive that's where the change happens; producers, by and large, are looking for how we can get away from hiring someone like a troy baker. Who's really expensive versus that guy doesn't cost that much. He's a negligible amount, or she's not going to be as expensive. So what I'm saying is they're trying to if they're trying to bring anybody's costs down; it's not that person. It's me! 

My job is not better than anything. My job is to solve the problem. Now I'd recommend that podcast, and I would also say that Alana Pierce - the video game writer and Mike Bithell - the video game developer made very good counterpoints in terms of obviously the very explicit risk that AI voices might have, especially for a new voice over talents coming into the industry who aren't as established as a baker. 

But what possibly interested me most about the baker's explanations towards his thinking was that it wasn't just about being as good as he could possibly be as an actor. Still, it was also about his focus on addressing the pain points of the clients that are out there, which rings true to a lot of the marketing that I do where on the marketing that recommends where it's not all about you. And what you can do but it's addressing you're the markets and your potential client's pain points first and foremost. 

But I was meeting about this literally last week with a studio that was like. We don't want to use the robot voice, but it's not a good use of our time to have people in-house. Record all the dialogue what our options are. So I definitely, I get that, and I also. I also understand that smaller voice actors are concerned with it too. I imagine that for similar for the composing community like I would guess people are split on it. Some people like it and some people don't. So given all of this, what should voice actors do? Should we just give up? Should we pretend it? Isn't it existing or happening at all just living entirely in denial, or maybe we should just sell out as soon as possible. 

We still can't be sure what exact voiceover genres will be most affected, but we can take an educated guess on IVR phone messaging. Some e-learning will probably be the most obvious candidates because if an AI program can change the language of an entire course rapidly, that can have some added value. There's also an argument for some commercial content to be specifically catered towards AI programs. Maybe you receive an advert that addresses you by name, addresses the location where you are, and also address what it is that you're playing or watching that commercial experience which some marketers are going to want to engage with is only really going to be feasible using an AI voice rather than having a human talent recording. Potentially millions of different variations in games AI voices are used as a placeholder and in the development process. And there are actual AI voices programs that are being built into and trialed in platforms such as unity which is specifically to aid the game development process because it makes more financial sense sometimes as a placeholder than it would be to hire live talent for in-progress work. Also, the wide availability of decent AI voices generally speaking would obviously invite greater use of voices in indie games. 

Whereas before, they would simply be priced out entirely, and we can see how some of the online casting sites are already catering to this where you have voice 123 and voices.com trialing AI voices and freelancing websites such as Fiverr looking at teaming up with AI providers such as lovo so that people can first of all order samples of existing human voiceovers. But then that leading probably almost essentially to them also having an AI voice offering as well there is also the wider question of diversity that needs to certainly be born in the mind which is that if a whole area is suddenly flooded by AI voice versions of reputable video game voice actors that people are going to be using instead of early voice actors, then it means that there's going to be a narrower pool of actual talent there.

As a result, some of the newer and more diverse talent coming into voice acting might be stifled in their development, but still and I'm sorry this is a cop-out. It is still too soon to know for sure exactly how this will impact. All we know is that there is a greater tolerance now that we're using Alexa, Siri, and TTS in the social media that we imbibe every day. There is a greater tolerance. It will be part of our lives in some form to come; that's as much as we know, and we can't ignore it. So what can us as voice actors do? Well, I suggest five things! 

The first thing I'd recommend is that we focus on being voice actors, and this may seem obvious. But it still bears repeating the one thing that ai voices struggle with is spontaneous, realistic emotion, and even if you do teach an AI voice to cry with specific inputs, then if you give them those same specific inputs, they will cry in the same way, there's not going to be that level of spontaneity. Whereas an actor who lives in the moment has a seemingly limitless way of channeling those kinds of things, you also need to value yourself artistically as a collaborator. As well as just a gun for hire, as a voice actor, you can understand the rules of copy and how to interpret text and give feedback on that. Similarly, with character relationships, characters' background, and the decision-making process. The decision-making process behind that is all added value that you can readily market and sell to potential collaborators, which AI voices simply won't have. 

My second point would be to be as educated as possible about the subject. So I would say podcasts like the VO social podcast about AI voices are great Anne Ganguzza’s VO boss podcasts. She's created a series of interviews with different AI voice providers about their approaches to their ethical standpoints. All of that kind of thing, I would say Hugh Edwards - a gravy for the brain has worked a lot with TTS stuff and spoken to several number developers. And I'd say podcasts like play watch listen where you're seeing game developers, game writers, composers, and voice actors, all discussing this kind of thing. So that it's not isolated but as part of our whole conversation in itself are, invaluable. 

The third thing to do is be open to potential opportunities where AI voice could augment your workflow. Yes, you could have an AI avatar that you market yourself or have someone mark a market for you for a lower stream of paid work. But there's also the potential to use AI voice, maybe just to do pickups in your workflow so that an algorithm can auto-replace those 12 errors for you instead of you having to go back in and do those pickups again. It's just being open to all of the different offerings out there. So that you can then see what might serve you best do you want an AI avatar. Do you want it to be on a separate platform? Do you want someone to market for you again by familiarising yourself with what other people are offering? You can start making some informed decisions.

The fourth point going hand in hand with that is to value your voice usage rights, and I'll always be banging on about knowing what usage is as a voice actor. Anyway, it's essentially making sure that you steer clear of anything which asks for a potential complete buyout. A lot of voice actors will have seen a text-to-speech was programmed. Where you'll have to record anything from half an hour to three hours to ten hours of seemingly nonsensical sentences from which they'll create a text-to-speech program. And then they'll offer com a complete buyout fee of anywhere from between two and a half to three thousand up to ten to twenty thousand pounds or dollars. And all of this kind of stuff is really iffy because they're essentially offering a buyout on that. And therefore, you don't have any say on where that voice may end up, and obviously, we've got a recent example of Bev standing a voice actor whose voice was used on TikTok without her permission. Those usage rights are really going to be crucial because if you sign them away too early and very, very, very cheaply, that's going to be the slippery slope. 

And finally, the fifth thing is to return to a theme of mine, which is the crucial aspect of forging direct relationships with your clients rather than being beholden to freelancing sites or pay-to-plays or anything like this your value proposition. As a voice actor, there will be more and more this human connection and all of the additional benefits that you can add and if other things can get in the way of that. Then that will diminish your ability to maintain a career in this area. The sooner that you're independent and very clear about what value you're adding to every single project you lend yourself with, the more you're going to make yourself independent and more self-sustaining as a business to conclude. 

I'd encourage us to look back at what I was discussing with the advent of home studios beforehand. Those talents that thrived were those who weren't afraid of new technology and were appreciative that their customer's workflows were changing. And therefore, their skill sets needed to change to cater to those new needs; they embraced new technology and saw how that could be able to enhance their client offering. We need to be aware of something that we need to bear in mind in a customer-centric way as much as possible. 

I don't believe that AI voices are going to spell the end of voice actors in their careers, especially when we live in a world where emotional connection and authenticity is a key factors in everything that we do, whether that's particularly artistic projects or voice acting, whether it's e-learning whether or not it's commercial or narration. All of these things, the emotional connection will always be key, but still, we have to be aware of what is developing around us. I hope you found this video of some interest, and if you have, please do like subscribe and spread the word; I look forward to seeing you next time!

With thanks - your favourite British Male Voiceover - Naturally RP

How to Sound Conversational in Voiceover

In this video, I provide an overview of ten things that can be adjusted to make a voiceover sound more conversational.

My name is Chris and today I'm going to look at why so many people are asking for voiceovers to be conversational. And how this can best be achieved. It's probably easiest to start by what isn't meant by conversational voiceover. And that's typically known as the announcer voiceover. This is when someone is talking at you, as opposed to, to you. Like this. 

Voice over: And claim free notice this week in an American fight over thousands truckloads of living room furniture, seven piece living room groups that include a sofa, loveseat, coffee table to end tables and two designer lamps. 

Over the last decade especially, there's been a clear shift from talking at someone from a place of authority to talking to them from a place of authenticity. Essentially, it's about being a real person, about sharing your personal testimony. And this is why the analogy of talking to a best friend is often given when trying to direct a voiceover to be more conversational. Because those friend conversations that we have with our friends are most trustworthy, most authentic and most credible. It is a personal offering of experience and advice, not a transaction. Check out this advert for right move. 

Voice over 1: This is the place we are happy. This is where we, and you..

Voice over 2: This is where we bring home. 

Voice over 1: And where we bring home. 

Voice over 2: This is where we grow up. 

Voice over 1: And where we go. 

Voice over 2: This is where she.. and where we are at. 

Voice over 1: This is where we are at.

Now I'm currently in the process of actually searching for a house myself. So this probably did strike a particular chord for me. But essentially what I'm talking about is completely borne out by this advert. There is no authorial voice telling you how great the platform is, instead, it's understated, it's almost confessional, it’s heartfelt and it's real. If you think of voiceover as a spectrum, with the hard sell being on one side then the other extreme isn't conversational. The other extreme is completely flat without any intonation or emotion whatsoever. So it's a balancing act, but you have to navigate from project to project. So rather than asking a question is a script conversational or not, you've got to place it somewhere on that spectrum to some degree. So let's start by ten tips on how to get a more conversational delivery. Tip one, don't get too loud. If you're talking to loads of people, then obviously you're going to be projecting to a certain degree. But if you're actually having a conversation with a friend in a pub, or any kind of similar scenario, then you're rarely going to get too loud unless you're particularly angry with them. 

So if you find yourself getting loud or projecting too much during a conversational read, you know that it's something that you'll need to adjust. The essence of a conversational read is sharing information with someone, engaging their reaction and responding organically. Then if you're being very loud, then you're not really monitoring their response to what you're saying in the first place. So if you find yourself getting loud and you're not supposed to be angry, then it probably means that you're pushing too much. Tip two make a clear choice about who you're actually speaking to and I don't just mean a friend. Quite often a voiceover will be told to imagine they're talking to their best friend about a particular subject. But the problem with that is that the voiceover’s best friend might not actually be interested in the subject of the project. Instead, it is much more useful to imagine that the person that you're speaking to has a vested interest in the subject that you're talking about. Tip three, have an emotional state. And I don't mean a heightened emotion, but have an opinion about what you're talking about and how that makes you feel. The vast majority of scripts, set up a problem, and then introduce the product or service or brand as the solution. And you need to have a very clear idea about how each one of those stages makes you feel, you might start frustrated, and then feel relief, you might start angry, and then feel ecstatic. The important thing is to be clear about those emotional stakes and invest in them. 

Tip four, speak from your throat rather than from your diaphragm. Especially if you're a trained actor, you quite often want to get on voice and start projecting. And that's fine if you're actually acting on stage. But generally, and this combined with what I was originally saying about volume, it'll end up being too much on a microphone. Instead, you really need to imagine that you're speaking very, very close to the other person next to you, like you're in a pub, for example, in real life heartfelt conversations, we tend to speak from our throat, because otherwise really resonating from the diaphragm becomes a bit too forceful. It essentially goes back to projecting at someone rather than talking to them. Tip five, if you're listening through headphones, then take them off, or at least take one of them off so that you can actually hear your own voice. Listening to our own voice through our headphones, as we're speaking makes us even more conscious of the sounds that we're making. 

So conversely, if you take the headphones off, you'll have more energy and focus to spend on the person that you're actually talking to, rather than how you sound. Obviously, during directed live sessions, you can't completely take your headphones off because you're going to be getting feedback live from the person on the other end of the line. So rather than being dependent on taking the headphones completely off, just try taking the one headphone off during your day to day recording. Tip six play with Elisions and contractions. Sometimes the script really does need to be incredibly clear and specific and that's absolutely fine. But sometimes that runs the risk of sounding a bit robotic. And that's not how we sound in real life. That's not how we sound in real life. So it's always worth checking with a client in advance if you can make little adjustments like changing as you are into you’re to make it all flow a little bit better. 

Tip seven, play with rhythm. If the authoritative voice the announcer a voice is generally quite consistent in tone and rhythm because it knows exactly where it wants to go. Conversational voice has a lot more ebb and flow to it, generally. Sometimes we know exactly where we want to go to make a point but often we're searching so you have all of these suspensions and stumbles. I wouldn't recommend just inserting lots of uhms, and aah to try and represent a form of authenticity. But I would say be aware of the ebbs and flows of normal speech and try and replicate that rather than just being consistent and definite. Tip eight, think in terms of thoughts rather than words. Quite often, especially in announcer reads, we're thinking about the how rather than about the why. In other words, how we're sounding rather than why specifically, we're speaking. In more conversational reads, the focus is really on the why, why we're sharing this with our friend? It's not about the exact words that we choose the how.

So having a clear understanding about the actual ideas that you're trying to communicate is much more important for a conversational read. Tip nine, try a lead in. Sometimes you can be so concerned about sounding right from the very first word that you can barely even speak when you get to the microphone. So try improvising a bit of the conversation that you might actually be having with the person that you're speaking to, so that the copy comes organically from that exchange, rather than just starting. And Tip ten, physicality. When we're talking to our friends, then we gesture we express ourselves through our hands and our physicality, as well as with our words. Essentially, you're sharing your emotional state, and therefore you need to be expressive both physically and vocally, rather than instructive or objective. Going back to Tip three about having an emotional state, this must be reflected in how you are whilst actually delivering the text. Even if it's a very simple imagined activity, like the frustration of putting on a watch that doesn't quite fasten, or the relaxation of lying back and having a cigarette. These will all subtly change the way you actually engage with the listener without you having to focus on how you're sounding. Even thinking in terms of the different clothes that you might be wearing could influence your physicality in a useful way. For example, if you're wearing something quite formal and restrictive, then that could give you a certain sense of status and authority as opposed to just sitting in a T shirt. All of these things might adjust your performance only fractionally, but they're useful to be aware of. Just to give us an example, I'd like to share two different readings of the same script, one which has a bit more weight to it, and one which is closer to a more conversational tone. First, let's try a quite standard corporate read.

Chris Voice over: Work. Life. Balance. Three tiny words. An impossible a question that humankind is trying to solve for centuries. What would it mean to your life if you could achieve all of your goals? If family, fitness and personal finance could come together with career progression and big promotions? introducing Wequilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. Download it for free at wequilibrium.com today. 

So physically, I'm going to think about being less on voice, taking one of my headphones off speaking from the throat rather than going down into my chest resonance. Rather than speaking to a generalized audience, I'm going to imagine that I'm speaking to someone who shares exactly the same problems as me, that they're struggling to get the work life balance, right. As a result, maybe the physicality is going to be a little bit more fidgety to begin with. 

I'll try and play with the rhythm a little bit more as if I'm discovering these thoughts as I'm actually having them. And I might also try a couple of lead ins, which can then be cut out in editing. 

Chris Voice over: I’ll tell you. Work. Life. Balance. My God, they're just three tiny words. An impossible equation that humankind has tried to solve for centuries. What would it mean to your life, if you could achieve all of your goals? If family fitness and personal finance to come together with career progression and big promotions? Well, there is something that work for me. Introducing Wequilibrium, a productivity app that seamlessly brings together your personal and professional goals into a streamlined schedule that puts your dreams within reach. You can even download it for free at wequilibrium.com today. 

Okay, so I'm not saying that one right is better than the other. But I am saying that there are some very clear variables that we can adjust, depending on how conversational we actually want the script to sound. Thanks so much for watching. If you did find this video useful, then please do like and subscribe, and I'll bring you something new next week. 

26

Twenty six.

Twenty six in just under two months.

That’s the number of people who have contacted me about getting into voiceover since lockdown commenced in the UK.

The questions are typically the same.

What equipment do you use?

What recording software do you recommend?

They might even go so far as to ask how do I actually get the work?

But none have actually asked if I thought it was a good idea.  So I’m writing this now.

And the answer is ‘no’.

Now there are caveats to that.

If someone is determined, talented and intelligent enough, and voiceover is something they can devote themselves to - then now is better than never.  You never win a race you haven't started.

And a lot of people have time on their hands, for sure.

But it’s not easy.  And in the midst of a pandemic, where businesses are struggling to survive and recession is imminent, the situation is… not ideal.

So to the question not one of those 26 has asked me - either because it hasn’t occurred to them, or because subconsciously they don’t want me to answer it - is nope.  

It took me a few weeks to get my head around the technical aspects of recording from home, and a few months more to refine my workflow.  But even years later, it’s a process I’m continuing to adapt and refine.  

Today, studios and audio engineers seem to have an increased tolerance with inexperienced talent - coinciding with almost every VO agency pushing their rosters to have a ‘home studio’. But as the dust settles, only those adept at editing, recording, engineering and marketing will be able to transfer that momentum into a consistent source of income.

I was making a living purely out of voiceover within four months of setting up my home studio - but that was partly because of necessity (as previously blogged here), when no obvious alternative was available.  It’s taken me years to get my head around marketing, establish an online presence and brand, and translate all that into a relatively consistent income. And even now it’s a machine (the business side of it) that needs constant maintenance and upgrading.

I’m not saying it’s impossible - because I did it.

I’m not saying don’t try - because it’s rewarded me hugely.

But I will say this is a particularly tough time for talent already established in the industry.  And the sector is full of self-proclaimed gurus who have a vested interest in persuading you otherwise.

When I’m asked if it’s as simple as getting a mic and emailing agents, my head drops.

Particularly when it’s posed by people who know the grind of the acting profession, and how having great representation is still no guarantee of auditions, let alone jobs or a livelihood.

All the content is out there to make it as a voiceover.

If you’re good at it and willing to train to get even better, have a strong work ethic, then it’s a totally viable career.

But you need to act clever.

And the first clever thing you need to ask yourself is, are you really up for the level of commitment involved?

There’s not a straightforward answer to that, of course.  Everyone’s journey is different. And essentially the VO community is an incredibly generous one - far more mutually supportive than the acting one, I’d venture

But essentially you really need to put the hours in - to your VO skills, your demos, your set up, your brand, your marketing.  And that will take hundreds of hours.  Thousands.

So if you’re still stuck in lockdown for the foreseeable, and were at risk of being number twenty-seven, I recommend the following:

• set three hours a day as non-negotiable time for voiceover for the next month.  That’s the minimum amount you need to spend each day getting yourself up to speed as quickly as possible. 

• What will you fill this time with and from where? Gravy for the Brain have a free trial on. And basically everything you essentially need is on Youtube in some form or another.

• See if you can maintain this without excuses. 

• Rinse and repeat for the month. That’s it.

That may sound ridiculous, simplistic or extreme, but you’ll find out soon enough if you have an affinity for the reality of it, rather than the romantic idea of it.  And then you can either embrace your newfound passion, or save yourself some time knowing it wasn’t for you after all.

Voice Over Network - Game Jam

Wearing my actor hat, I've increasingly become sceptical about organisations that offer workshops.  They seem to roughly divide into two categories - ones which are basically an opportunity to introduce yourself to a director or casting director, but are billed as tuition (usually in something like camera, audition or cold reading technique which you really should have learnt already if you trained), or exploratory workshops on a given text or technique (in which the learning is primarily incidental, the barrier for entry is non-existent, and therefore the quality is variable).  This is a gross generalisation (some of the stuff offered to actors via the Actors Guild and directors such as Bruce Guthrie are definitely worth checking out) - but the exceptions tend to prove the rule.

And so it was with some hesitation that I originally signed up to the Voice Over Network about nine months ago.  I knew I had a lot to learn, but having felt, after countless actor workshops, that the transaction had really only been for a certain casting director's email address, I was wary.  Or basically, cynical.

Gradually, the balance shifted as I started to imbibe the considerable amount of content that VON produces for its members.  The weekly webinars it holds gave me a lot of valuable information on a number of topics, spread across the 'core' skills of performance, technical expertise and marketing.  But I still held out on booking for any of the workshops, having been somewhat chastened by my actor experiences.

VON's second 'Get Your Game On' event was a way of easing that transition.    A day of talks and workshops which offered the opportunity for some networking, but was as much if not more about educating all of the participants and fostering an environment of mutual support.  This was neatly combined with VON's first 'Voice Over Jam' event - where teams of VO's would devise a one minute game trailer in response to a breakdown over a 48 hour period the week before.  And then there was an opportunity to spend a weekend learning from Dave Fennoy - one of the standout leading VO's in interactive entertainment today.

The experience as a whole - from my first Skype meeting with my other Game Jam comrades all the way through to wrapping a recording session at Coda Studios - was an absolute joy.  The talks - from Yvonne Morley, Adele Cutting, Mark Estdale, Steve Brown and Dave Fennoy - covered a myriad of subjects much more articulately summed up by Sam Hughes (aka The Sound Architect) .  The workshops (I chose Stephane Cornicard’s character workshop and a talk with Mark because I'm a huge Horizon Zero Dawn fanboy), offered valuable insights into character work and marketing yourself to game devs respectively.  The results of the Game Jam (which fellow teammate Katie Flamman brilliantly reports on here) saw the victory of my team Gataroto despite an exceptionally high standard from all the teams involved.  And then I spent two days properly learning from Mr Fennoy.  What was great about that weekend was the shear amount of subjects he covered, from the history of video game performance to where it is now, what makes a good gaming reel, seeing other members of the group tackle a huge variety of genres and characters, and then actually working in a proper studio on pieces where every take you did was professionally recorded.

Fundamentally, what struck me most was the atmosphere of support and encouragement that infused the three days.  People were never in competition, and were full and frank in their opinions almost immediately.  There was rarely a sense of anyone 'playing the game', partly because of the aforesaid atmosphere and also because the hierarchy that seems to overshadow so many acting workshops I've done was almost non-existent.  

Perversely, this may come down to the nature of the work.  Whereas actors generally need other actors in order to work, the career itself is fundamentally nomadic.  You spring from temporary surrogate family to temporary surrogate family, with indeterminate periods of unemployment in-between.  People you've never met become best friends, and then (if your as poor at socialising as I am), can disappear for years.  Conversely, voiceover is (on a day to day basis), quite a lonely profession.  Having spent the majority of the day talking to yourself, there seems a greater pull to counterbalance this by fostering the feelings of a true community whenever there's an opportunity to be in the same room.  Any feelings of competition are dispelled by the principle that what 'sells best' in voiceover is simply your unique authenticity, while with acting that same principle can only be held up to a point (how your look, your agent, your connections and your number of Twitter followers start properly coming into play).  Maybe as a comparatively fledgling growth area, this feeling is bolstered by some naivety - but I doubt it.  VON gave me the most wonderful experience a few weeks ago, and emboldened me to do better like no other event - for which I must give special thanks to Rachael Naylor and Leisa Fisicaro, who made it all possible.