Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.11.06 – 0675 – Using Props To Get Into A Character ProperlyUsing props As well as holding yourself in a certain way to get into your character’s voice, some voice actors also hold an appropriate prop. Your voice may sound more authentic if, when playing an elderly person, you not only stoop but also hold a walking stick. A better ‘bossy voice’ may come from you standing on a box in the studio, the more dominant position making you sound more authoritative. Wearing a certain hat or coat may help you get into the part, even if recording as an animal or inanimate object.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.11.05 – 0674 – Be A ‘Moody’ Voice ActorSo, develop various attitudes in your voice: the tone, volume, speed, and energy. And remember that a character is more than one ‘mood’ and will go through various situations that you need to show in your voice. They may usually be fun, but then on occasion, frustrated, confused, or concerned … confident or shy, determined, silly, serious or self-important … and a million other attitudes. So you have to be able to think how your character will vocalise these kinds of emotions: a usually-fun character who’s upset will sound different from a character who’s always upset!
As we saw earlier, if you see a ‘!’ at the end of the sentence, think to yourself: what has happened for that to be there? What am I reacting to and how will that affect my read of that line? Did a thought just occur to ‘you’? Are ‘you’ humorously reacting to something another character has said? Is it a sudden outburst, and if so, why?
You need to think as the character: think “why am I saying this, how am I feeling about it?”
The listener’s ears are lie detectors: if you’re not feeling the doubt, fear, or sadness then it won’t come out in your voice and you won’t connect with the audience.
Don’t just read the words. You need to be acting and reacting, in character. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.11.04 – 0673 – Animation Attitudes
Animation ‘attitudes’You should be good at reacting as well as acting, be able to read a situation and know what your character would do in that situation. This is not slow-turnaround theatre, TV or movies with lots of rehearsals and retakes and time to find your motivation. The characters may be drawn already, and you have to not only read the words that they will appear to be saying, but also react to what it has already been decided they do … and do with each other.
You won’t get line-by-line directions, you need to watch what is happening on the screen and immerse yourself in the character’s storyline as you play your part, not simply read the script. So that could be sighs and coughs and laughs.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.11.03 – 0672 – More Non-Verbal Sounds in Voice Acting
·        The performance may also require you to bring more physicality to your voice: your character may be out of breath, or I dunno, calling to someone in a tunnel. Obviously one of those will require more breath, the other more projection, perhaps with a tone of concern, so consider how your character may react with different moods and emotions as a story develops or in subsequent episodes. ·        Linked with this, when recording a fight scene[1] for a gaming animation, for example, consider jumping up and down in the studio before you read your lines, to give a more authentic appearance of energetic exertion. If your character is on a boat in stormy seas, swaying side to side or moving up and down from the knees (while staying on-mic!), will realistically affect your voice. ·        And as we saw previously, sometimes meaning comes from when you don’t speak: silence, pauses, as your character searches for a word, is embarrassed or surprised. You’re thinking of the character’s different sounds and emotions in different situations for their characterisations.
All of these character considerations are important and are unlikely to be written into the script, but you will make your animation appear more ‘3D’ if, with agreement from the director, you consider building some of these into your vocal persona
It all helps specify the character and make it believable.
Sound like the character, not sound like you doing the character.
[1] We look at the skills involved in screaming safely, in another part of the book.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.11.02 – 0671 – Non-Verbal Sounds in Voice Acting·        What is the rest of your body doing? The face obviously, but also your back and arms… Physically become your character, how they stand, how they use their hands: hands in pockets, upright, chin out, hunched over, shaky hands… ·        Personality and colour will come from your addition of ‘non-verbal sounds’, all of them in your character’s voice of course: an “eek” and an “ahh”, a “huh?!” and a “hmmm”, a “pffft” and a “tssk”, gasps, giggles and groans, all of which naturally reveal a bit more about your character’s err, character. (At the end of an ‘animation session’ you may be asked to record elements for your character’s ‘vocal library’, such as laughs and giggles, sounds of disappointment, agreement and surprise, cries and coughs, emotions of exertion and so on. These are useful for the producer to have to drop into the production as part of the overall mix.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.11.01 – 0670 – Voice Acting MannerismsOther voice mannerismsNow consider ‘fleshing out’ your character. Don’t add to the words on the page, but don’t only read the words on the page. ·        What are the voice qualities? More breathy, raspy, growly?·        Is the pitch higher or lower than your usual voice? (a lot of boys’ voices are done by women as it avoids the problems of puberty when the actor outgrows the sound of his character).·        What is the accent? Your accent and voice accent will have an effect on the viewer and their subconscious bias. Are animated scientists always German? Are baddies always eastern European or English? What about a character who’s portrayed as stupid, what accent are they usually given? What is the message that gives to viewers? If the character is intelligent or high status what is their accent? Instead of English accents, what about a Welsh one?[1]·        Does their background, image and storyline suggest that they may (on occasion or throughout the script) talk with hesitation, or a slight stutter? Do they swallow heavily, do lots of throat clearing or have a nervous laugh?·        The tempo: is it faster or slower?·        And the rhythm? Is it flowing, or ratta-tat-ta, or repetitive…?·        How do they laugh? Both in reaction to humour and apprehension.
[1] In the 90s British TV station Channel 4 had a series called Eurotrash, a late-night comical review of unusual topics mainly from Western and Central Europe. It was unusual in that the dubbed translations for the foreign interviewees, were revoiced in various British dialects, rather than the more traditional RP accents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.10.31 – 0669 – How Visuals Help Your Animation VoiceOverOf course, attributes of animated characters are usually extreme and will have been drawn in conjunction with the story editor. Everything you see is a clue to your character’s voice:·        a larger person might have a bigger and lower voice. One with a larger, fatter face may sound more ‘jowly’·        a tall and thin person might have a thinner and higher voice·        or, go against type and create an ‘opposite’ voice (with the director’s permission): perhaps a warm and friendly voice from a monster, a mouse who sounds far from ‘mousey’[1]·        a big mouth, a small nose, buck teeth … all of those, as we have seen already, will affect the resonance of that character’s voice. Additionally, large teeth may suggest a person who finds clear diction difficult so perhaps that is a humorous or engaging sound characteristic that you can play on.·        the phrase “the eyes are the window to the soul” suggests that you can understand a person's emotions and thoughts by looking into their eyes. So how are they portrayed in the image? Wide open in innocence? Slitty and sneaky? What is the emotion and attitude in those eyes? How can you portray that in the voice you create for them? If it’s wickedness for example, how can you display that attitude not only in your voice but also in how you bend and shape the words, the projection, pace and pause?·        also take in the eyebrows and forehead: do they show frustration, amusement, curiosity or concern?
When you move your face, your voice changes – squash it up and you’ll hear what I mean. Drop your chin and let your lower lip fall and there’s another sound. Have a play with your face, your body … and your voice.
[1] Where in your mouth is the sound placed? Towards the back of your mouth or towards your nose? Where is your tongue? Use your jaw mouth and throat to develop these different voices. Play around at moving your sound back further to make you sound different, and then moving the sound to your nose to make you sound more nasally, adding more air for a breathier sound and so on – all to add a unique character trait to the voice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.10.30 – 0668 – Getting An Animation Voice That Fits The Visuals
Getting a voice that fits the visuals When auditioning for an animation role you will be sent a ‘vocal reference’, a few lines of the script, as well as a character brief: a description and personality profile of the person or object you are reading for, their role and ‘journey’: “Barnard is a British steam engine. Played by a man in his 40s/50s, Bernard likes routine and safety, is dull, grumpy and easily annoyed. In this episode, other engines want to cut corners, but when he insists that they stick to the rules, he averts disaster and mellows when he is praised for saving the day”.
And crucially you should be sent a picture of the character itself so you can see the physical characteristics from which your voice will come.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.10.29 – 0667 – Your Character’s ‘Voicernality’ It’s more than the ‘voice’Remember that a character’s voice (including your very own!) is partly based on one’s physicality: how they talk is affected by how they walk, how they hold themselves as they speak, how they stand and sit, their physicality, their energy and more.
All of these elements help create their ‘voice personality’, what voice actor Katie Leigh calls ‘voicernalities’. Some of these factors affect the voice indirectly (someone holding tension in their fists or frame will have a tense voice and attitude) and others will affect the voice much more directly (as Katie says[1] “If you do kids’ voices, you’ve got to remember their lungs are smaller than ours so they’re gonna breathe differently…” ).
Many of these attributes will tell you not only about the character’s voice, but also their attitude: their mental and emotional state, their physicality. And you will create a more believable voice for your character if you try and physically embody who it is you are playing. Now that’s quite easy if you are playing an army officer (standing up straight with steely eyes, barking orders), or a grandparent (maybe bent over, short breaths leading to a higher-pitched voice), and it’s admittedly less easy if you are playing a cartoon cat or an animated aeroplane.
Then, you need to look deeper into the character that you are playing: their age, background and storyline and it’s from that kind of detail that the voice will emerge. You need to know the subtleties within the character, not just ‘do the voice’. Voiceover expert Marc Graue says on The Voice Over Experts podcast (15/10/2008) “A great example is doing the voice of a big fat pig. … now we need to make him a bit more effeminate. Now he needs to be a 7700-lb pig  and make him sound stupid. These are all the kinds of things that come into play and you need to be able to do this on the spot”.
[1] “The VO Meter Podcast”, 25/08/2021 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.10.28 – 0666 – The Value of Creating Character Catchphrases  For example, perhaps you have created a character voice you call ‘Perfect Pat’. Pat is, as their name implies, bright and positive and speaks at pace with a smile in their voice. That ‘attitude’ is helped by imagining their neatly brushed hair, business wear, and wide-open eyes and arms. Imagine a puppy dog in human form, maybe an eager and positive religious minister, whose ‘character catchphrase’ that you say aloud to ‘find them’ is, say, “How are you this tippety top morning, in a world full of rainbows and unicorns?”. OK, now change one or two elements, perhaps the pace and the tone. Now ‘Perfect Pat’ sounds more menacing: the phrase is the same, the look is the same but now they’re passive-aggressive – and you have another character.
So, you can see and hear how it’s good to play around with your voice and alter some of the attributes or merge one with another, or see how you can move from one to another. It will make you feel more comfortable in developing a brand-new voice from your original core cast whether that be a human character (such as a cartoon professor), an animal (a talking pig[1]), or a usually inanimate object (maybe a train[2]). Or a hybrid of those: a cartoon dog that’s a professor, or an animated robot-chicken… having a repertoire of voices and having an understanding of each of their vocal attributes and how you created them, will make it easier to create new ones.
[1] Such as Peppa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLJDEBmKvwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yu2Zl6T7F8 [2] Thomas the Tank engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnYOpTo6rmA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.