Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.08.28– 0605 – What’s In Your BriefsWhat’s in your briefs

• Who is this for? - In other words, who is your target audience, the listener you want to hear this message and act upon it. That should usually be much narrower than “everyone”, so it could be a grandmother in her 70s, or a young businesswoman in her twenties, or new parents. Every different audience will lead you to have a different tone, or attitude, when you read the script. You can usually have a guess by looking at the script and what it’s about and how it’s written, but only the Brief will explain exactly who that ‘ideal listener’ is.
• What do you want them to do or feel? – Or “why am I talking to them about this, now?” What is the script aiming to make them do or feel?: buy a certain item, donate money, change their behaviour (perhaps by learning new ‘health and safety rules’), be better informed (say, in eLearning), or to feel something. This last one can be a very strong communication tool: causing someone to feel nostalgic, patriotic, angry, inspired, or happy can create a strong bond with the target listener. And if this direction is on a brief, it can cause you to change your whole presentation style from a lighter tone, to a more serious and slower one, or a quirky twist.

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2022.08.27– 0604 – The Brief For A Voice-Over RecordingThe brief for a script recordingA written brief, a short but clear sheet of directions, will help everyone involved in a recording session in several ways:

• You, the ‘voice’, will have set targets for issues such as the tone and pace, the target audience, the characterisation, giving you time to prepare.
• Similarly, the director, producer and client all know the same information, so they are all approaching the recording with the same idea and expectation, avoiding mixed messages and hold ups for things like re-bookings, edits and rewrites.

The wrong voice, or the right voice wrongly briefed or directed, can make or break a project. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.26– 0603 – Pre-Prep To Keep In StepFor radio and podcast presenters specifically, your preparation may include:·        Planned spontaneity - Have a rough idea of what to say, maybe not every single word, but blocks of topics and bullet points within them of the points you want to make and how to transition from one block to another. A road map if you will, and one that you can veer off if you want to improvise and extemporise in the moment.Pre-read and rewrite if allowed, to suit your reading style. As a commercial voice actor, you should read what you are given. OK you may suggest a slight change if there’s a mouthful of a phrase that’s not been spotted before, and then only alter it with full signed-off permission. But you are not employed to be a scriptwriter, proof reader, editor or advisor.Don’t ‘over-read’, that is don’t interrogate the script for intonational nuances, marking up the script with a slew of symbols, or you run the possibility of getting into a ‘reading rut’ reducing the possibility of some in-studio creativity, or just being able to easily respond to the director’s requests. ·        How to recover if you’re thrown - For live radio presenters especially, think what you will say if something goes wrong, an item doesn’t play or if there’s breaking news. What will do if you need to fill for thirty seconds? Do you have material to hand? How will you deal with a mistake made by you? (On the day of writing this, my computer screen froze, midway through a news bulletin, and so I had to hand back to the main presentation studio unexpectedly…) ·        A consideration of your listener’s time - Less is more. As well as talking in a clear voice, your content has to be compelling too: the world is awash in information so be memorably brief, with fewer, more powerful words. Eliminate the unnecessary and focus on substance. If you are clear in what you want to say, then your mind will be less muddled and you will appear less nervous. As I’ve said before, confidence has a domino-effect, reducing tension in your skeleton and your sound, making you sound more authentic and trustworthy. For voice-over presenters there is some specific advice on their voice prep work because of how they work with others, and to a tight, pre-approved script. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.25– 0602 – On The Day Prep To Get A Better VoicePrepping promotes polished performances.
‘With-the-script’ and ‘on-the-day’ Preparation.For anyone talking on mic, your preparation will include:·        Hydration – yep, that again! Hydration preparation! It will take 24 hours for water you have drunk to properly benefit you systemically. Sipping water on the day is great, but that’s only a ‘top up’, to ease a tickle, to clean your mouth or to use a few seconds while you look at the next line or item.Exercises - yep, that again! It’s good to do some warm-up exercises on the day, and you will have seen many of them outlined here, but some need to be done regularly in advance to best benefit your breathing, relaxation, range, volume, diction … well, everything really! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.24– 0601 – How The Way We Sound Shapes Our Identities
How The Way We Sound Shapes Our IdentitiesOur voices convey so much more than just information. They can tell other people something essential about who we are: our age and gender and personality (our feelings, our temperament, our identity).
On this episode of the Hidden Brain podcast (link below), the presenters look at the relationship between our voices and our identities, how advances in technology might help people with vocal impairments, and the ethical issues around creating personalized, customized voices.https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741827437/finding-your-voice-how-the-way-we-sound-shapes-our-identities Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.23– 0600 – Vocal Confidence Through Familiarisation With The Script And Situation ·        Familiarisation with the subject – the knowledge of the script, not just the words, but the meaning and the significance and intention of it, and the role your ‘character’ plays in conveying the message. Plus, who that message is targeted at, and what you want that recipient to do with the information… Nerves are what you are feeling – but think of the audience, not yourself.If you have to present a script that you are not comfortable with (perhaps you don’t understand or are unfamiliar with it, or don’t agree with the content), then it’s natural that you will feel nervous about presenting it. ·        Familiarisation with the situation – so, the studio, the staff, the workflow.  Of course, when presenting a podcast, a lot of this comes naturally. You are likely to be familiar with your topic as it’s one you’re passionate about. And you’re likely to be recording at home, a location that you are comfortable in … You started your podcast because you have something to say…Your message and voice is too valued by your listeners and potential followersfor you to be rendered tongue tied by a lack of confidence.David Hutchinson, weeditpodcasts.com[1] Confidence comes from experience in all of these areas. Also playing a part, possible other elements such as:·        Your health - To sound better and feel better, have plenty of rest and water. There’s more health advice a little bit later.·        Your microphone – We looked at this before: how you hear yourself may add or detract from your confidence. Is your sound real and relatable, or thin and trebly?·        What you wear - What is your ‘superhero outfit’ to wear to get into zone for confidence? Certain clothes or a wristband or pendant... to help you get into the ‘zone’. Do you dress up or dress down? Lucky socks, or a special pen, or headphones that fit ‘just right’ and make you sound really good.
One often has more confidence during a podcast because you are ‘in the moment’ but without the pressure of ‘immediately perfect’ performance, because of the ‘record-it’, ‘edit-it’ workflow.
[1] https://www.weeditpodcasts.com/how-can-i-increase-my-confidence-on-the-mic/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.22– 0599 – Vocal Confidence Through Familiarisation With Yourself ·        Familiarisation with yourself – we have to turn nervous self-consciousness to self-confidence. That is, moving from being aware of every element of who you are and where you are and what you are doing to a more overall approach: that you have put in the time and the training, the prep and the practice towards your performance. The work on your skillset, helping create your mindset.And part of that mindset comes from what you tell yourself about your voice and your performance: o  Do you say “My voice is horrid” OR “I have a great, unique and distinct voice” o  “That was a stupid thing I said” OR “That was great, personal insight only I could give”o  “Who’s going to listen to my nonsense ramblings?” OR “I’m so grateful that my audience trusts my take on this”Also consider how you think of your feelings at moments like this, and turn them from nervousness to confidence:o  That pounding heart is not terror … it’s your body’s very own drum roll before you perform!o  The butterflies aren’t nerves … their wings are little rounds of applause for what you’re about to say.o  The sensation of tightness on your throat is only there because your fantastic message is impatient to get out and be heard.Don’t knock yourself down, but build yourself up! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.21– 0598 – Vocal Confidence Through Relaxed Breathing  ·        Relaxed breathing – we have looked at this a few times. If you breathe properly your whole body relaxes, your mind calms. You are less tense, so your voice strengthens. You have breath control to get to the end of a sentence without panicking. Your heartrate steadies. You are less likely to commit verbal slips and trips. Every element is interconnected and starts with your breath. Remember what I said at the start: breathing is the key-thing.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.20– 0597 – The Vocal Confidence Quotient The Confidence QuotientEffortless attention is when the challenge and the skill, are in balance. That balance is called ‘confidence’. To put it another way: (Relaxed breathing + familiarisation with self, subject and situation = confidence) = you sound credible and authoritative  Let’s look at those elements briefly over the next few days Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.08.19– 0596 – Work Variety To Increase Your Vocal Experience  Work varietySome of that practice may come from lots of work in which you’ll be experiencing different kinds of reads and learning new styles, and keeping your eye-to-mouth co-ordination and staying in the ‘zone’. But if you have less work, then practice is good to make sure you are ready when the phone rings or the email pings And of course, the more auditions you do for say voice-over work, the more practice you’re getting. Just remember though, if you’re not getting work from all of those auditions, maybe you are not so much practicing but repeating the same mistakes, and consider getting a voice-coach to help you ‘re-set your reading’. They say “practice makes perfect”, but actually “perfect practice makes perfect” and there’s no point repeating mistakes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.