Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.03.21 – 0445 – Expression Conclusion
Gestures will enhance your vocal presentation.
They help you focus on the person you’re communicating with and the sense of the story, to concentrate on truly understanding and ‘living’ the message you are delivering rather than simply reading the words. And the audience hears the result of the gestures in your voice, through the resulting intonation and authenticity. So don’t sit on your hands, but give in to the natural impulse to punctuate and strengthen your words with expressive gesticulations.
Speaking to thousands of people at once is an unnatural thing to do, even more so when you can’t see them. Gestures are what you would naturally do if you were speaking on a one-to-one basis as they help communicate ideas in ways other than purely using words. So, if you want to sound natural, act natural. Use your ‘mouth-talk’ and your ‘body talk’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.20 – 0444 – Choosing The Right Gesture
If you are nervous (and there’s more on overcoming stress, later), it may be that you suffer from ‘expression suppression’: the life drains from your presentation and you become stiff and starchy. It’s the last bit of the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ trio of possible automatic physiological responses to a threatening event. You’re not going to ‘fight’ the feeling of stress, you’re not going to flee from the studio, but the ‘freeze’ is still a possibility. If this is the case then you need to think how you can deliberately build appropriate gestures into your content. This will not only help you look natural, and sound natural, it will help you feel natural too: you’ll be tricking your brain into thinking “OK, these gestures are usually what I do with these words, so things must be less scary than I thought, so I can relax…”
So how do you re-engage with expressions, how do you judge which gesture is right? When you’re relaxed, gestures come naturally, so analyse what you do in various situations without thinking. When you’re out having fun with friends after football, what do you do with your face? What is your pose when you’re pleading with police about problems with your tyre pressure? When your home with your honey, what do you do with your hands…? (Oh…!)  My point is, monitor the mannerisms in the moment, so when you need to read with ease, instead of a freeze, you can take possession with rehearsed and appropriate expression.
When you are less stressed and more comfortable with your story, and situation, you can forget about your gestures. That may be a funny thing to say in this section, but what I mean is that you’ll be able to think about communicating, not about what your hands are doing! Your body will be naturally reflecting what you are saying, so the audience will better feel and understand … not just be watching your hands. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.19 – 0443 – The Nodding Dog Syndrome
Some people get into the habit of ‘self-conducting’ while they are talking, especially when reading from a script. They nod along to the rhythm of the words, or when they ‘highlight’ or ‘lift’ a word’s intonation. That’s not so bad if you are presenting audio (indeed it can help create the rhythm of the read), but on video it can look rather unusual and be off-putting: viewers will be watching your mannerism rather than listening to your message. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.18 – 0442 – Expression Suppression
Sometimes you may need to sit on your hands and suppress the pressure to gesture. For example, if a newsreader, if it’s a sensitive or emotional story you may benefit from having your whole body ‘small’ and still. Genuine gestures onlyBe you – don’t just use someone else’s gesture because you think it looked good. It has to fit with your personality and culture: you have to feel comfortable using it, and it has to be genuinely part of you if it is to enhance your speech delivery.  Using a ‘fake’ gesture, or supressing your own will upset your equilibrium of naturalness and create tension in your mind, body and voice, and you could be distracting yourself from your task of informing, educating or entertaining. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.17 – 0441 – Signature Gestures What to Remember When You Gesture Mind your mannerismsWhen does your ‘signature gesture’ cross from being a trademark (such as, for UK listeners, the Anne Robinson wink[1], the Huw Edwards pose[2], or Magnus Pike’s ‘windmill arms’[3] ) to being irritating, a distraction or a self-parody? When will viewers cheer or jeer what you do, could they be a distraction to the information, rather than helping them concentrate on your content?
[1] https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/new-look-countdown-anne-robinson-20919907 [2] https://metro.co.uk/2016/09/08/hang-on-huw-edwards-has-been-doing-the-same-pose-every-time-news-at-10-starts-6117568/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Pyke Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.16 – 0440 – Thaw Your Frozen Face The most communicative voices have active facial language. The voice from a poker face – one that looks like a ventriloquist’s dummy, with no life in the eyes, brow or mouth - sounds mechanical bored and disengaged. You need to thaw them out!
Don’t read with a blank face, but animate it. This may be tiring at first but find a balance.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.15 – 0439 – More Advantages of Gestures More advantages of gesturesGestures affect your energy, help lower your tension and raise your resonanceOn video people will see your energy – it’s obvious, you will be animated. And using energy will releasing happy hormones into your body, affecting how you feel and sound. Smiling and moving will help release tension, rather than having stored-up stress in places such as your shoulders and jaw. Again, that will be heard vocally. Bringing your arms up with gesticulations will also help expand your ribcage and so aid breathing and breath control, increase the opportunity of resonation and vocal ability and decreases vocal strain.  Yep, your whole body is your instrument.  Expressions aid better communication You may want to frown when you read a sad or serious story, or smile when you have a kicker to read. A complicated story may benefit in the telling if you gesticulate.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.14 – 0438 – Gestures In Voice Acting
Voice-over is acting, it’s not just about ‘reading out loud’.  Getting your whole body involved will help you develop your character: a ‘little old lady’ voice will be easier and more authentic if you ‘become small’, maybe hunched over, pulling your clothes near you to keep out the cold. But it’s not just humans. The ‘voice’ of a steam train will be more on track in its express-ion, if you ‘act like a train’: big, powerful and forceful. The sound of the sun, may be bright and open and welcoming, so think of the appropriate gestures to help you create that voice. How might you characterise a voice ‘the wind’, what might be the movement and hence the sound of a bottle of dishwashing liquid[1], a credit card[2], a tiger[3], …? If there’s space in the studio, and you’re still on mic, animation will help your narration and characterisation.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow_cFieXoFM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7N-tIqy6yQ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ9j841_YSw&t=11s Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.13 – 0437 – Eye Contact For Video And Stage Performers
Eye contact for video and stage performersOK this isn’t about the voice per se but let’s just spend a short time looking at this closely associated topic. When you speak, involve your listeners with your eyes: it’s natural, personal and conversational and helps create a bond with them. That’s easy of course if it’s a one-to-one conversation or with a handful of people as you can look at each of them in turn. With an auditorium of people, look at different parts of the audience and within that some specific individuals. On video, look into the lens of the camera, not at yourself in the screen. Yes, you can glance away in all of these situations, to one side, or down at your notes or up at the ceiling as you do a ‘mock’ search for words, say. But looking someone in the eyes suggests (in most cultures), honesty and friendliness and averting your gaze suggests disinterest, nervousness and insincerity. Plus, if you don’t look at them, they won’t look at you! You will have broken the ‘eyeball bond’ and the audience will feel excused from giving you their eyes, their ears and their attention, which in turn may lower your confidence and raise your discomfort. Looking at your audience completes the feedback loop that we looked at before: you can see your listeners’ reaction and change your delivery accordingly. Furious scribbling in notepads shows you’re giving content of value (although possibly a little too fast). People looking away and talking to each other suggests you may be losing their interest so maybe consider brightening your intonation, animating your gesticulations, or moving across the stage.  Has anyone got their hand raised with a question..? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.12 – 0436 – Gestures For TV and Video PresentationsExpressions on Televisions - Gestures on TV and VideoTV video work can be a bit different. With audio production (either radio or voice over work) you can make many and large gestures to help your vocal presentation, partly to give life to your words.  TV is more intimate. Gestures are small and your delivery is more conversational. On TV viewers can see your natural reactions, and see them quite close-up too! And even though you the presenter might know that the camera is the other side of the studio, if the shot has been zoomed in, that’s not where the audience is. If the shot is tight on your head and shoulders (a mid-shot) the viewer may be, in effect, just a few feet away and your voice and overall style should reflect that. Those recording YouTube videos or webinars, on either a small mobile camera or webcam should be careful with expressive arms. These may either go out of the frame of the camera, or if adjusting the camera, viewers will see your hand lunging at them out of the screen. A ‘poker face’ might be good playing cards but not in effective communication. And as your face gives away your thoughts and feelings, attitude and personality, people will be watching as well as listening for clues as to what they think you may be thinking. For example, your expression and gestures may be perceived as editorialising the content of your presentation. This may not matter if you are a YouTuber giving your thoughts about the pros and cons of a gadget during an unboxing, but may be more concerning if you are reading about the Presidential race on an impartial news channel. An unconscious expression may suggest an attitude that you don’t have. For several years British politician Priti Patel was criticised for having what appeared to be a ‘sneer’ or ‘smirk’ on her face (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anb7A6Em9B0), although that is her regular expression.
Beware of lip-licking, lip biting, nervous twitches or tightening of the jaw which may give away that you are nervous, inexperienced or ill prepared. What will the audience feel if they sense you are nervous?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.