I've mentioned in a couple of past posts an all day voice over seminar that is part of my training. Well, after two storm delays, it finally happened--although the weather was bad this day too.
Held on Saturday, January 18th, 2014 at the Embassy Suites Boston-Marlboro, and taught by SAV's Steven Wahlberg (yes, but it's a very distant relation), seven of us artists-in-training learned all there is to learn about The Business. That is to say, all we can learn in one day! I'll give you a relatively quick overview here.
The day was divided up into six sessions: three in the morning, then lunch, and three more in the afternoon, with a short break in-between each session.
Session 1: Introductions and Studio Techniques
The morning started with introductions of ourselves. In class we had four former teachers (including myself), and three musician/singers. Steven comes from finance--he used to be a stockbroker.
We then moved on to talk about the two main kinds of voice-over: narration and commercial. 80% of the work these days are narration, which can be anything from documentaries, audiobooks, PSA's to on-hold messaging and airport/elevator announcements. (More on this later.)
Session One ended with a discussion of some studio techniques. Most important: Be Yourself. Use what Steven calls R.B.S--Relax, Breathe, Smile. But do your homework and preparation--mark up your copy and get into the part. After all, we are actors!
Session 2: Pitch Vs. Dynamics
A quick break, and back for Session Two: Pitch Vs. Dynamics (Volume). Pitch is how low or high your voice is; volume how soft or loud.
Picture a graph with Volume on the X axis (softer to louder) and Pitch on the Y (lower to higher). We used a 1-5 scale.
In turn, Steven had us each say the sentence "I like chocolate". The class had to determine at what point on the graph our voices are. It was decided that I'm pretty average, at around (3,3). Then he picked a random point and we had to repeat the sentence at that place. This takes some practice; it's easy to change volume, but not pitch.
The lesson here is to think of your voice as an instrument. A good way to start is recite the scale-doe, ray, mi, fa, so, la, tee, doe-- at a certain volume and go up on pitch, then do the opposite: keep at one pitch and go up and down in volume. I'll be doing this on my long commute, when I'm alone in the car!
Session 3: Articulation and Pace
We did an interesting exercise for this session. We all had the same copy--a script about the Northern Lights. In turn, we read the script with a carrot held in our teeth, right at the front of the mouth so there was room for our tongue to move. (This exercise used to be done with a cork, but no one uses cork anymore.) We all had a laugh because of how ridiculous it looks, but there is a serious point.
You have to articulate your words, make sure they are understood. Practicing this exercise will help determine what words are "crushed", and you can practice more with those words. Be careful, though, you don't want to over articulate.
The morning ended with an exercise on pacing, which is how fast you read the copy.
The Pace Scale
<-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
0 5 10
On the Pace Scale, a zero is very slow and hard to listen to. A 10 is very fast.
To practice pacing, we used a short Lunesta spot. Lunesta is a prescription drug, so we actually have to vary our pacing. For the main part of the read, you want around a five, but you want to really speed up at the end, say a 7 or 8, for the legal disclaimers. Why? Well, the dirty little secret is twofold: 1. The ad agency wants to spend most of the time (for a 30 second spot, call it 26 or 27 seconds) talking about the good of the drug. 2. You're not really supposed to pay attention to the disclaimers.
When thinking about pacing, it's always better to go long than short. If the finished cut is supposed to be 30 seconds, and your raw cut is 33 or 34, that's OK because post production always cuts to time. But if you give them a 30 second cut for a 30 second spot, they will end up short.
Lunchtime!
At around noon, we broke for lunch, which was catered by the hotel and paid for by the school. I had the turkey club wrap w/fries, chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream, and a bottle of San Pellegrino Sparkling Water. Mmmmmmm, so good.
Session 4: Emotions
Back half of the day now, and we come back to work on emotions.
The main emotions are: Shocked, Happy, Sad, Grim, Funny, Mysterious, and Excited. Of course, there are others--Proud, Hopeful, Sensual/Sexy.
In this session, we all read a short piece of copy from our workbooks. We had to pick an emotion and the rest of the class, with out looking, only listening, had to guess which one we were doing. I chose excited. Most of the class got it. Then we did another round, in which Steven told us, via handout cards, which one we had to act out. I got proud. No one guessed right.
Session 5: Narration Vs. Commercial
We said in the beginning that these days narration is 80% of the work; 20% is commercial. Now we got deeper into the differences.
For narration, the main goal is to inform-NOT to persuade, convince, or sell. These have long run times; the finished cuts are usually an hour or more. You have to sound like you're interested in the topic. You're the authority, but don't be condescending.
Narration can run from TV shows (Mike Rowe on Deadliest Catch) to character work (in audiobooks).
Conversely, commercials are a call to action, the main goal is to persuade. These are very short--generally from 15-60 seconds.
Session 6: The Home Studio, Marketing, and Wrap-up
For the last hour, we moved away from performance and talked about the business part of The Business.
First, the home studio. While you may have to occasionally go into a professional studio, most work can be done at home with some basic equipment: computer, interface, headphones, and a microphone/mic stand. For software, Audacity, Pro Tools, or (for Mac users) Garage Band will do the trick. That's it!
Next, marketing. Social media is big here. Start a website, open a business page on Facebook and join groups on Linked In. Contact advertising agencies in smaller markets. Join P2P (pay to play) sites like voices.com, voice123.com, and voplanet.com, among others. Just get your name and demo out there.
And don't get discouraged. For the first year or so, you'll be spending 90% of time looking for work and 10% actually doing work.
Finally, as a wrap-up exercise, Steven asked the class to evaluate each of our voices and what kind of work we would be good for. When it came to me, my classmates thought that I have a relatable, guy next door kind of voice, and I would be good for, among other things, electronics, hardware, and beer.
In the end, it was a long, fun day full of information and good people. It was worth the wait.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Diary Of A Voice-Over Artist In Training, Part 2
The adventure continues. Part 1 can be found here.
Wednesday December 4th, 2013 7:00PM EST--Today's coaching session is on SMILES. It's important to smile while recording. If you are like me and have experience working in a call center, you know that the caller can "hear" your smile when you're speaking with them. It's the same with voice over.
There are many different kinds of smiles: amused, confident, I'm-the-boss, in love....the list goes on and on.
Sometimes it's hard to smile. For instance, if you are in a bad mood, but you have to record something happy, you have to force the smile. A trick to help with this is to write "SMILE" at the top of every page of script. You won't be able to resist smiling then! After all, we are actors!
Sunday December 8, 2013 8:00PM EST--Another part of my package is a biweekly webinar. In the past, we've had them on studio equipment, finding your niche, and getting into the zone. Tonight's is on script analysis (SA), hosted by Los Angeles based SAV coach Nancy Wilson.
SA is a very important part of the work. It's the first thing you do when working with a brand new script. It involves answering questions such as: 1. Who are you; 2. What is the product?; 3. Who are you talking to?; 4. What are you reacting to?
When answering these questions, it is vital to get as much detail as possible. Do real character development and backstory--give them a name, job, age. Marital status? Kids? Detail, detail, detail. This will help determine the emotion, pace, and tone of the final recording.
For example, lets do a quick SA on this copy for a Delta Express spot. ("Copy"= script, "Spot"= ad or commercial)
"You say you want a low fare to Florida? A reserved seat and sky miles? Then express yourself with Delta Express. When you fly Delta Express, you can choose from daily nonstop flights to Orlando with simple everyday low fares. We don't require a roundtrip purchase, or even a Saturday night stay. You'll get a low fare, a reserved seat and even sky miles. Delta Express--low fares, and a lot more."
1. Who are you? I am a DE reservations agent at the DE call center.
2. What is the product? Duh, Delta Express. Yes, but go deeper. What am I really selling? The product is an inexpensive, easy, convenient, fun vacation now, and a chance for an even more inexpensive one later (when they use their sky miles.)
3. Who are you talking to? Steven and Elise, married couple, early 30's from Columbus, OH. 3 kids, 10 year old Alex, 8 year old Mallory, and the newborn, Jennifer. Steven manages the local PBS station, Elise is a self-employed architect.
4. What are you reacting to? Steven and Elise have decided it's time for the kids to have their first trip to Disneyworld. They've never flown with us before.
Based on this SA, you'll want a more upbeat tone and a little bit of a faster pace--but not too fast. This will be an exciting trip for the family and you're excited for them. And remember all the great stuff the parents get: convenience, low fares, and sky miles!
Friday December 13, 2013 2:00PM EST--Yet another part of my platinum package (I have to say, I am getting a lot for my money) is an all day seminar on the industry. This was supposed to be tomorrow, but I've just checked my email and with the storm coming, it's been postponed until January 4th.
Wednesday December 18, 2013 7:00PM EST-- Tonight is my 7th coaching session. Half way there! Angela and I go over some practice scripts to reinforce what I 've learned so far. She is really impressed with my practice ethic and how well I'm doing. As I told her, "You know the old joke: 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.'"
Towards the end of the session, she says that it's time to start thinking about what kind of scripts I want for my demo. (Yay!!!!!) To help me with this, she asks me a whole slew of questions to think over. We will go over them at our next session, which will be on Jan 8th as we are off for the holidays. In the meantime, she will send me some more lessons and practice copy.
Wednesday December 4th, 2013 7:00PM EST--Today's coaching session is on SMILES. It's important to smile while recording. If you are like me and have experience working in a call center, you know that the caller can "hear" your smile when you're speaking with them. It's the same with voice over.
There are many different kinds of smiles: amused, confident, I'm-the-boss, in love....the list goes on and on.
Sometimes it's hard to smile. For instance, if you are in a bad mood, but you have to record something happy, you have to force the smile. A trick to help with this is to write "SMILE" at the top of every page of script. You won't be able to resist smiling then! After all, we are actors!
Sunday December 8, 2013 8:00PM EST--Another part of my package is a biweekly webinar. In the past, we've had them on studio equipment, finding your niche, and getting into the zone. Tonight's is on script analysis (SA), hosted by Los Angeles based SAV coach Nancy Wilson.
SA is a very important part of the work. It's the first thing you do when working with a brand new script. It involves answering questions such as: 1. Who are you; 2. What is the product?; 3. Who are you talking to?; 4. What are you reacting to?
When answering these questions, it is vital to get as much detail as possible. Do real character development and backstory--give them a name, job, age. Marital status? Kids? Detail, detail, detail. This will help determine the emotion, pace, and tone of the final recording.
For example, lets do a quick SA on this copy for a Delta Express spot. ("Copy"= script, "Spot"= ad or commercial)
"You say you want a low fare to Florida? A reserved seat and sky miles? Then express yourself with Delta Express. When you fly Delta Express, you can choose from daily nonstop flights to Orlando with simple everyday low fares. We don't require a roundtrip purchase, or even a Saturday night stay. You'll get a low fare, a reserved seat and even sky miles. Delta Express--low fares, and a lot more."
1. Who are you? I am a DE reservations agent at the DE call center.
2. What is the product? Duh, Delta Express. Yes, but go deeper. What am I really selling? The product is an inexpensive, easy, convenient, fun vacation now, and a chance for an even more inexpensive one later (when they use their sky miles.)
3. Who are you talking to? Steven and Elise, married couple, early 30's from Columbus, OH. 3 kids, 10 year old Alex, 8 year old Mallory, and the newborn, Jennifer. Steven manages the local PBS station, Elise is a self-employed architect.
4. What are you reacting to? Steven and Elise have decided it's time for the kids to have their first trip to Disneyworld. They've never flown with us before.
Based on this SA, you'll want a more upbeat tone and a little bit of a faster pace--but not too fast. This will be an exciting trip for the family and you're excited for them. And remember all the great stuff the parents get: convenience, low fares, and sky miles!
Friday December 13, 2013 2:00PM EST--Yet another part of my platinum package (I have to say, I am getting a lot for my money) is an all day seminar on the industry. This was supposed to be tomorrow, but I've just checked my email and with the storm coming, it's been postponed until January 4th.
Wednesday December 18, 2013 7:00PM EST-- Tonight is my 7th coaching session. Half way there! Angela and I go over some practice scripts to reinforce what I 've learned so far. She is really impressed with my practice ethic and how well I'm doing. As I told her, "You know the old joke: 'How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.'"
Towards the end of the session, she says that it's time to start thinking about what kind of scripts I want for my demo. (Yay!!!!!) To help me with this, she asks me a whole slew of questions to think over. We will go over them at our next session, which will be on Jan 8th as we are off for the holidays. In the meantime, she will send me some more lessons and practice copy.
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