I've always been captivated by the radio. It's not the music that draws me in, but rather I am oddly fascinated by the voiceover talent! I don't know if it's because you can't see them, and there is an element of mystery about the talent behind the voice.
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I guess it was because of this fascination and curiosity that I decided to use my writing skills to get a job in the advertising industry. My lucky break was for an audio production agency who specialised in recording, cutting and mixing professional voice recordings and royalty free music for multimedia productions and corporate videos.
I was employed as the copywriting for this audio production company, but when management saw how interested I was about learning to become a voice artist, they soon put me into training. And let me tell you, I really, really, really sucked! Lending your voice to this craft is not as easy as they would have you believe. Standing in a booth, with head phones on, a large microphone in front of you, script in hand and someone listening and scrutinising your every word is really kind of nerve wracking. After many, many months of practice I did eventually improve, but let me tell you - it really does take a special person to pull off the professional voices you hear on radio, TV, on hold messages or even your corporate videos.
As part of my training, I listened to many professional voiceover artists and asked them for advice, and to be honest, they all had their own techniques on how to improve your voice and speech, but the two tips that were a constant from all the voice talent, was:
Breathing
Just like our finger prints, every single one of us has our very own, individual voice. We might sound like our mother or our sister, but nonetheless, our voice is our own and there will always be variances.
Every sound we utter comes from our breath, and our breathing increases our capacity and control. This is extremely important to a voiceover artist, as this ability to increase capacity and control will determine how loud you can be and for how long. Obviously, the louder your voice, the less time you can keep it up - but if you can master your breathing the louder you'll be for longer. A good voice artist has their breathing technique down pat.
There are three types of breathing:
Chest Breathing
Most beginners breath from here - breath - lungs - breath
Diaphragm Breathing
This is expanding the chest just below the frontal ribs. It does give you a better sound than chest breathing, but it is not as effectual as...
Abdominal Breathing
For this you expand the abdominal area. Pressure is exerted against the lower back muscles and abdominal organs. Tuck the pelvis in. This makes the abdominal muscles nice and firm.
Abdominal breathing is by far the best method, and your posture can dramatically help you control your abdomen.
Steps to achieve good posture
Seriously, once I started to really focus on my breathing techniques and posture, the more professional my voice recordings sounded.
Often when I am coaching my voiceover students on the best voiceover techniques, I am tempted to give them a line read. Since no girl from Jersey without some serious background in Theatre should ever be doing that, I refrain. My next best option outside of pure direction (explaining through adjectives and description the way to a technique) is to refer to what is already out there that has proven to be voice over gold. I often refer them to Voicebank where they can hear demos hungarian voice overs of proven successful voiceover artists. We can also just go to the movies! We can learn voiceover strategy often just with our ears, in the most entertaining of venues.
When I think of a "great voice" from an animated film, the first one that always pops up for me is Sterling Holloway's Cheshire Cat from the original 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland. The voice is at once quizzical, satiric, bemused, and ethereal. It calls to mind another place and time -so fitting for a character living inside of a "wonderland". Presently my new favorite, while less "magical", offers a whole different bag of treats. The voice of the Once-ler in The Lorax is modern day comedian Ed Helms, known for his work on the Daily Show, his iconic Andy Bernard character on The Office, and for his big feature role in The Hangover. Ed brings a mixture of good-natured, self-effacing humor to most roles, but also a deep intelligence that balances that modesty and pleasantly confuses the audience. He is familiar, and yet refreshing. In The Lorax, I am finally impressed once again after so many long years of animated films without anything beyond incredible eye treats. Ed's delivery has texture, range; a whole set of adjectives come to mind when hearing it. He can be innocent at times, fun and quirky at others, and then turn on a dime and become fearsome, overly confident, aggressive. This mixture is what makes him stand out. Yes I loved listening to Chris Rock's Marty in Madagascar; it was hysterical. What I love even more are voices like Ed's, that bring a whole universe of emotions and energies all at once and ask you to digest it slowly and savor it. It is this texture and style that comes to mind when I am teaching my students what it means to be interesting and engaging (without losing your authenticity in the process.)
Some of the best voiceover artists I know, possessing the top voiceover techniques are walking the streets of New York right now and you would never recognize them, but sometimes it is a bit tempting, if not easier, to just look to the stars - bright, shiny, and possessed with some fabulous vocal chords.