Moving on with our series dedicated to beginners, today we will discuss part 2 of our presentation about the main styles of texts you will encounter as a voice over. They are generically referred to as narrations and I can assure you that some of these texts you will find in a casting situation. I have listed below some of the most common types of narrations:

Documentaries, audio guides, audio books, tutorials, e-learning, corporate presentations and IVR.

In my previous article, I had promised to explain why I’ve chosen to list IVR messages – „hello, you have reached…”- as falling under the category of long texts. The answer lies with a new type of project that we are dealing with: virtual assistant.

The guidelines make them very similar to traditional IVR type texts: „a neutral and polite, moderately warm, clear, friendly, genuine, and always with a moderate attitude. What makes these types of texts special is the length of the project, which goes way beyond traditional narrations.

That is why I think that IVR‘s are to be taken very seriously and you should always take into account that they have a bigger, stronger sibling. I will touch on that subject down the line.

They are not called narrations for nothing. There is one thing that I cannot hide from you when it comes to long texts: only experienced voices can handle them. This is because they are not mass produced, they always imply new twists and adaptability and the expectations are completely different. Before you complain about it, here is what a voice has to go through when facing a narration:

Endurance (especially for audio books, e-learning and virtual assistant). Working on such a project may take between three to four hours and tens or hundreds of hours. What makes this even tougher is the fact that your performance will be quantized on a line per line basis. There is no story line naturally evolving as you read the text. When your work implies only a random series of elements that will only take form after post-production is finished, it’s very easy to lose site of the bigger picture and that will be visible in the listening or the viewing stages later on.

The quality of the performance as well your voice has to remain consistent throughout the entire project, no matter what. It’s easy to stay fresh for the first couple of hours but later down the line your experience and training will have to kick in.

This would be a good time for me to point out another difficult aspect you will have to face during IVR type projects. Any type of virtual assistance project has a certain level of difficulty for the voice. It implies a certain type of breathing and a specific work flow. Sometimes you will have to stay neutral and helpful longer than you are used to. You will also be required to not add too much „color” to the text.  There are numerous internal battles to be won when you have a full time job behind the microphone.

Knowing your subject

This is especially important for audio guides, audio books and documentaries. The voice has to become a narrator, a true story teller. Can you read a chemistry course and make it sound like a story? How about one about raising lamas in Peru or one about the iron industry? How about a text illustrating instructions for cleaning services?

Here is a funny example. „Strontium has 38 protons with a positive electrical charge.”

It amuses me when I see beginners put a certain cheerful emphasis on the word „positive”. Inappropriate accenting in this case makes protons seem like particles with a positive attitude. Can you imagine the effect it has on the listener? What makes it even more interesting is the fact that I also see this mistake with people who know that we’re talking about a physical characteristic of particles. But because they want to embellish it, they get overly zealous and they target the first adjective they can find so that the text won’t seem „dull”.

Exercise your ability sight read a text.

This is particularly important in the case of audio books and e-learning.

Let’s face it. Who expects you to have already read, multiple times even, a book that is about to become an audio book?  The harder you adjust to the lecturing of the text in terms of rhythm, tonality, articulation and deciphering, the more you will delay the delivery of the project and editing the material will take longer, much to everyone’s despair.

When you have got little to no experience, training has to become second nature.  I never understood why having no previous experience in the recording studio is an excuse to show up completely unprepared. Keep in mind that once you got the job, you will be paid and treated as a professional speaker.

Dosing your delivery

It shows maturity and skill. It means that you are in control of your performance and you are able to remain interesting to the listener and „tie” the listener to the story.

You also have to sound…tolerable…in lack of a better term. Even the most uptight performance can get away within a 20 second promo but one hour of harsh or dark rambling can get pretty annoying. It’s very important that the project still sounds relevant ten years down the line.

A good example could be the commentary in the televised programs during the communist era. I’m sure you know about them and are able to replicate that style of performance but who has the patience nowadays to believe that plastic cheerfulness and the song like cadency of the voices?

Controlling your tone

I repeat: we are talking about long texts here. This means that the voice has to blend in with other elements like music or video or rare images. These elements might not be available to us during the recording process. Besides, it has been established that the texts require an entirely different approach. Try taking your favorite passage from a documentary you’ve seen and read it like you would a TV commercial. Annoying, right? Now try reading it like it’s a news segment on the radio. Sounds kind of flat and common, right?

Finding the „inner voice” of the project is very difficult and it implies working with a larger team (the bigger the project, the larger the team will be). This means staying constantly open and having the resources to deliver various relevant approaches to the text. In the studio, I’ve seen how 5 minutes of a 45 minute documentary were recorded in 3 hours and then the other remaining 40 minutes took another 3 hours including a 10 minute break.

Having a distinct personality

Do you feel the presence of the „heavyweights” in those famous documentaries? I could sit here and list a huge number of qualities that would make up the perfect voice. Things like clarity, warmth and a certain authority but I would be lying if I were to tell you that those are the things that make a difference. In the end these are all tools of the personality behind a voice and they only add to that je ne sais quoi that takes you on a journey through the world created by a certain voice. It makes you want to meet that person and hear more stories.

I have witnessed true magic in the studio when people involved in the project were truly mesmerized by the voice chosen for the project.

The good news is that if you are talented and passionate about doing voice over projects, the work you have put into it will help you get through your first projects. Also it’s a really good idea to practice on your own. It often happens that a voice with little to no experience to be chosen for one of the upper mentioned styles of projects. It’s important not to lose your voice and even if you have our full support, it’s good to show up prepared. During the casting we will focus on the ease whit which you read the text, your endurance and the character of your voice.

In the penultimate chapter of this series we will try to illustrate the processes a project undergoes, from beginning to end.

Good luck to you all!

Andreea

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VOICE OVER AT WORK- EPISODE 2

Main styles of texts for voice overs: short texts Part 1.

Radio Spot- TV, brand signature, continuity, promo, trailer, bumper, prompter, tag, filler, ident, tap spot, PSA, jingle, in store)

In this article we will discuss the main styles of texts you can run into in a casting situation as well as a full on project that you were selected for. They were also mentioned in our previous article.

Keep in mind that by main styles of texts we mean that a certain style might be more sought after at certain moments but also that a text for a radio spot, per example, is a good way to evaluate the potential of a voice, so it also might be a requirement in a casting situation. By the way, is it ok for you to be generically referred to as voices from now on?

Let’s take one style at a time. We will begin with short texts.

Here are a few examples of short texts: Radio Spot- TV, brand signature, continuity, promo, trailer, bumper, prompter, tag, filler, ident, tap spot, PSA, jingle, in store.

Fun fact: there can be even shorter versions of short texts out there.

I kindly suggest that you do some research on each upper mentioned genre and study the „classics” and maybe steals some tricks of the trade from them.

Mimicking sometimes is a more efficient way to learn lessons rather than analyzing and describing the phenomenon.

I have not mentioned IVR type texts because I consider it to fall into the category of long texts and I will explain this decision later.

General Characteristics of Short Texts

– they announce/ sell/ promote/ provide information about a product / a service/ an event / a program etc.

– the duration ranges from 3 to 5 seconds to sometimes 60 to 90 seconds;

– time is of the essence;

– there are few words so the artistic delivery is everything;

– main places in which they are used: radio, TV, cinemas, stores and lately as part of on hold messages;

– the voice could either be solely responsible for delivering the message or it could be part of the creative process alongside the music the sound FX, the dialog between other voices or actors, still images or videos.

Common Mistakes Beginners Make (and sometimes the more experienced voices too)

– not listening to the „inner voice” of the project. That tells you whether or not to be open and cheerful, ironic but not cynical, fast but not impersonal, soft but not fading away, to whisper in an intelligible way, to be vocal without yelling, to yell but not in a mechanical way, to be neutral without seeming fake. In most cases, the voice will receive some indications about the style of delivery or there might be a guide track in Romanian or any other language that handles the interpretation side of things. But the voice should be able to take a rough sketch and turn into a dynamic presentation and should also be able to draw inspiration from an external source and turn it into something that works in Romanian as well.

– approaching each story in the same manner whether it’s an add for pharmaceutical products, luxury vehicles or cranberry jam. Short texts are not lyrics to the same song. We need refinement, kids!

– they simply do not understand the idea behind the text;

they do not warm up before entering the vocal booth. Having good diction isn’t everything, and stuttering is only funny the first couple of times. If you have a dry throat and a stuffed nose you will also produce other sounds besides the desired ones and a good pronunciation isn’t going to save the day. Besides, the sound engineer is going to make you do extra takes until you deliver a „clean” performance (Yey! We’re moving into a recording studio!) Even worse is when you show up after a party, with your voice sounding like a broken speaker left out in the cold. This will probably not end well for somebody just starting out in this field (it will leave a bad first impression) and it won’t be nice for a pro trying to get more work after that either because somebody, including the studio will have to suffer if the project turns out bad.

– they do not know how to properly control their voice or their breathing. Practice!

– they accentuate words and pause in unnatural moments in the text. Pausing and accentuating could be a void or a peak in the overall sound or rhythm of the text. They have an artistic purpose. Use them tastefully.

– they do not properly engage the text. The entry is so flat that it almost seems like negligence. Do not waste words. They are your friends. They have character, life, music, poetry, intelligence, form, connections, meanings, nuances. There is not a lot of room to raise tension in a 30 second promo. If you start off too soft and shy in contrast to the music, you might seem insignificant at best compared to the intensity of the music.

– they do not take into account the fact that there will be music, images and sound FX added to the final product.

– they lack structure in their delivery. Beginning-middle-ending. Problem-question-solution. Suspicion-confirmation-information. Sitting down, standing up, then flying. There is a story to be told even in 15 seconds. You need to discover it and bring it forth to the audience.

– they are not focused on the job at hand. This is a tough and complicated subject. We all have our personal problems. Be sensible towards yourself and mature in approaching the people you work with and postpone or cancel the session if you feel mentally unprepared to handle the project. Keep in mind that if you decide to show up, you will be considered as being competent and paid accordingly in hopes of a good result.

This has been the list of the „sins” committed by beginner voice overs upon encountering short texts.

Keep an eye on our blog for part 2: long texts.

Andreea.

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Preparing for a casting – useful tips (original in RO)

Hello, my name is Andreea. Me and my colleagues at the Taine-Multimedia Studio, thought we would give a little helping hand to those who are about to enter a studio for the first time to take part in a voice over casting and also to motivate the ones who aren’t convinced that they want to try it out.

That’s why we put together a few useful tips for delivering a good voice over performance in a casting situation.

We have organized these tips in a standard FAQ format, though the answers sometimes are a lot more complex, we decided to keep it as simple as possible for the moment. Let’s get started!

1. Why do I need to record a voice sample at the studio?

The purpose of the initial casting is to capture your voice in digital format so that the studio and the clients can easily have access to it, thus increasing your chances of being selected for the projects suited for your voice, without you having to come down to the studio each time there is a new project in need of a voice over talent. In other words, you cannot be taken into consideration as a possible voice over on any project if nobody knows what your voice sounds like in the studio. Do not bring a CV or photos. They are not relevant to this type of casting.

The initial casting is important because it also captures your dynamics and your style of working.

Contrary to popular belief, being a voice over doesn’t mean working only on TV and radio promo spots. There is a wide variety of projects that require voice over work and the way you adapt to different styles of interpretation is essential. These castings are free on both ends- neither you nor the studio will be making any money off of these initial recordings. Also, you will not be able to use your voice samples in other contexts without the studio’s permission and the studio won’t be able to sell your demo without yours and without paying you for it.

2. How long does a casting tale?

Our castings last up to one hour. We will go through different styles and at the end we also encourage our talents to do a voice-acting part which is entirely optional. It is very important for us to understand what styles of interpretation come natural to you and which ones are more difficult for you to do, what style suits you, what your type of voice is and if you can take directions during the recording process. An hour is not a lot. Most of you show up there nervous and an hour is plenty of time for you to relax and then focus on the recording.

3. What styles will we be taking on?

We are working on an entire article explaining each of the main styles of interpretation. But mainly it’s important for you to know and understand the nuances and the rules for: short and long form texts.

Short form could mean: TV and radio promos, trailers, IVR, branding and radio jingles.

Long form or „narrations” could mean: audio books, educational texts for e-learning, corporate presentations, documentaries and many more.

4. Must I go through every style?

That depends on your professional goals as a voice-over actor. You don’t have to do everything but it wouldn’t be good for you to end up in a situation where you don’t know what to do with a certain type of text. We recommend you try out most of them.

5. I have a voice reel. Will you upload it on your website?

Yes, if you have permission from all parts involved and if there is no third party copyright infringement.  It is possible though, that due to length and relevance issues, that we might not upload it.

6. How do you prepare for a casting?

Good diction, good breathing technique and being able to understand the objective behind a text written by somebody else, are important abilities. All these take time to prepare. Make sure that you get plenty of rest before the casting and postpone it if you are not physically well. It might be an only chance and you don’t want to miss out in it. Try to be open and relaxed. Any type of distress will be audible in your interpretation. Don’t forget to stay hydrated. The people in the studio want you to succeed so listen to their advice and indications. And last but not least, do not neglect your vocal warm-up.

7. Can I redo my casting?

Sure. If your diction and your voice have undergone changes or if you simply improved significantly as a voice-over, we actually encourage you to do so.

That’s about it for now. I hope I have managed to shed some more light on what a voice-over casting is. Keep an eye out for new posts. Good luck! See you soon!

DISCLAIMER:

Reproduction of the text in its entirety without the author’s consent is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of up to 300 characters of the original text is allowed without special permission by the author only if the original source is mentioned.