Take Action #12: Phrasinator Mix’Em’Up

Using the phrases for our last exercise, try Exercise: The Phrasinator

• Over here......................................... Excited
• I need that........................................ Overjoyed
• Let go...............................................Secretive
• What are you talking about..................Frustrated
• Don’t do that......................................Uncomfortable
• I don’t think that’s a good idea..............Annoyed
• Give me the new one..........................Angry
• No....................................................Scared
• Try it again........................................Sleepy
• Listen to me......................................Happy
• Alright..............................................In awe
• Stop right there.................................Uncomfortable
• Wow that’s huge................................Frightened

Then if you want continue playing with the phrases by trying each of the different descriptions with each of the sentences. To take it one step further, try adding punctuation (? . !) and see how that might change the way you say the lines.

COME VISIT US ON FACEBOOK! Voice Over Voice Actor

A great review for our book! Voice Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic

From: PlaybackSTL.com:

Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt/ Voice Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic

Even if you have no aspirations towards a career in voice-over, there’s a lot you can learn from this book.

256 pages. Emerald Book Company, 2010. $19.95 (paperback)

Everyone knows about the kind of acting where you actually see people doing stuff: Hilary Swank doggedly pursuing evidence to free her brother from jail or Jeremy Renner disabling IEDs in Iraq.  But there’s a whole other world of acting out there where the actor’s only tool is his/her voice. Not surprisingly this is called voice-over, and once you become aware of it, you will notice it everywhere: not only on the radio but also in commercials, live and animated film, television programs, video games, and recorded announcements. Basically, if you hear a voice and can’t see the person who is speaking, that’s voice-over.

Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic, written by industry professionals Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt, provides an insiders’ view of the business of voice-over acting with a particular focus on actors who want to break into this market. Between them they have over 12 years of voice-over experience with clients including Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Dell, Coke and Subaru. Yuri is, among other things, the voice of the Prince of Persia in the video game series of the same name, Superman and Superman X on Legion of Superheroes, Ben Tennyson on Ben 10: Alien Force and Jinro/Kuma on Afro Samurai while Tara’s roles include Temari in Naruto (series and video games), Wonder Woman in DC vs. MK and Dream Girl in Legion of Superheroes.

They take a systematic approach to their topic, beginning with a description of the industry then moving through the practical processes of finding your voice, auditioning, creating a demo, building a home recording booth, marketing yourself, and actually doing the work. What I like best about this book is the informal yet business-like tone taken by the authors: they don’t offer shortcuts or “secrets to success” but point the way down a path which can lead to a rewarding career. And they’re not afraid to have some fun in the process: anecdotes, cartoons and fun facts are salted throughout the text, along with sidebars from other industry professionals which offer advice, war stories and other information about working in the voice-over business.

If you think you know something about voice acting (and even more so if you think it’s easier or somehow a lesser skill in comparison to conventional acting) I invite you to listen to the demo reels of Yuri (http://www.yurilowenthal.com/page4.html) and Tara (http://www.taraplatt.com/vo.html). Pretty amazing, huh? Not only do these demo reels demonstrate the versatility of these two actors, they also provide examples of how to assemble clips to showcase your talents briefly and effectively.

Even if you have no aspirations towards a career in voice-over, there’s a lot you can learn from this book. For instance, understanding the process by which anime dubs are created goes a long way toward explaining why you’re usually better off listening to the original soundtrack with subtitles. When animated films are first made, the dialogue is recorded and the animation is made to match the voices. Creating a dub reverses the process: the voice-over actor has to create a convincing performance while trying to match the mouth movements (flaps) of an animated character (who is “speaking” in a different language) while alone in the studio (generally each character is recorded separately) and working with little chunks (loops) of dialogue. That’s a tough gig any way you look at it.

You can learn more about Voice-Over Voice Actor from the book’s web site (http://voiceovervoiceactor.com/) which also offers bonus materials like exercises to improve your skills. You can also purchase the book from this web site and from online sources such as amazon.com. | Sarah Boslaugh

Go to PlaybackSTL

Take Action #11 - Can You Shake Up Your Rhythms?

Our last blog exercise hopefully got you going, stepping out of your natural voice. Now, use the following exercise, which we like to call “The Phrasinator,” to shake up your own rhythms. Read each phrase on the left with the emotional intention on the right.

Exercise: The Phrasinator

• Over here.........................................Uncomfortable
• I need that........................................ Scared
• Let go...............................................Frightened
• What are you talking about..................Awe
• Don’t do that......................................Sleepy
• I don’t think that’s a good idea..............Happy
• Give me the new one..........................Overjoyed
• No....................................................Annoyed
• Try it again........................................Uncomfortable
• Listen to me......................................Angry
• Alright..............................................Secretive
• Stop right there..................................Frustrated
• Wow that’s huge................................Excited

Was the word on the right not always the word you might have naturally associated with the phrase on the left? Did you discover some fun things simply by shaking things up a bit in this way?

Now, let’s take it one step further, and crank up the phrasinator. Try reading the first phrase with each of the thirteen words in the right-hand column, one at a time. Then move to the second phrase and do the same thing. Then the third, and so on, until you’ve gone through all the phrases and all the descriptive words. Do you begin to feel your old boundaries melting away as you expand your vocal tool box? Are you beginning to see the potential in this exercise for setting your audition apart from how another actor might automatically read a line?

If you want to continue playing with these phrases, take it one step further by adding punctuation (? . ! …) and see how that might change the way you say the lines as well.

COME VISIT US ON FACEBOOK! Voice Over Voice Actor

Take Action #10 - Can You Step Out of Your Natural Voice?

Stepping outside of your natural voice can be a lot of fun! Once you understand what your natural vocal qualities and “sound” are, you can begin to play outside the box and expand the range of characters and qualities you can offer. This exercise helps you play with a range of emotions. As you read the following phrases, you’ll notice that we have removed all punctuation, which can often be a clue to a phrase’s tone. But in order to expand your range, let’s play around with the many different ways the same phrase can be said. First, see what your natural inclination is when you read the phrase. Copy and paste this blog to a Word Doc, and after each one, write down the adjective that you feel most fits the phrase/sentence. For example, a sentence such as “stop,” might be angry. As you read the phrases, see how you naturally interpret the emotion associated with saying the words.

Exercise: Phrases

• Over here                                          
• I need that                                         
• Let go                                                   
• What are you talking about       
• Don’t do that                                    
• I don’t think that’s a good idea 
• Give me the new one                   
• No                                                         
• Try it again                                         
• Listen to me                                      
• Alright                                                 
• Stop right there                               
• Wow that’s huge                            

Now, review your phrase list and see how you naturally ‘heard’ the specific words. Perhaps your “no,” was “frustrated,” because you assumed that if you are telling someone “no,” it’s because you’re frustrated about something.

Becoming familiar with your instincts can be very helpful because it’ll allow you to make a choice outside of your natural inclination, which can yield very interesting results.

Come say hello on Facebook: Voice Over Voice Actor

VOVA on Lulu

The book is now available as an eBook for anyone who loves to read on the go! Simply visit Voice-Over Voice Actor on Lulu to buy your copy now. The eBook is the entire paperback version in a handy electronic delivery! Enjoy! But if you'd prefer to hold a book you can still pick up a copy at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Samuel French, Drama Book Shop and our website (where you can also get autographed copies).

Caffeine

Sure, who doesn't like a stimulus and pick-me-up delivered in a tasty beverage like coffee, tea or a soft drink. But when you're getting ready for a VO session, that caffeine can have the unwanted side effect of drying out your vocal chords. So be aware of the effects before hitting the booth. An herbal tea can be a wonderful substitute and still maintain the lubrication necessary to keep your vocal chords moist and healthy.

Breath Control to Tara, come in...

So, I've been doing a lot of really long industrial narration sessions lately. This means pages and pages of technical, verbose writing and lots of talking, talking, talking. I've noticed that with these sessions, since I have elected to sit down to maintain a consistent level of energy throughout, I've gotten really yawn-y. Now at first I assumed that I was yawning cause I'm sitting in a dark-ish booth, droning on and on about a fairly dry subject, and maybe haven't gotten as much sleep the night before as I might have liked. So I started getting curious, and experimenting with switching the time of day the sessions were scheduled. I would do them first thing in the morning, in the middle of the day and even late in the afternoon, all with the same result. About 30 pages in, and I just start yawning away.

Then I realized, you don't just yawn when you're sleepy, yawning is a natural reflex when you aren't getting enough oxygen. Voila! I've started to focus on deeper sustaining breaths and the problem has drastically reduced. I mean after an hour and a half, 100 pages into a long narration, you're bound to have your brain a little muddled, but maintaining strong diaphramatic breathing has made all the difference. Corporate dialogue here I come!

Take Action #9 - What are your specific vocal qualities?

Taking from Action #7 and #8, consider your list of adjectives and adverbs and how certain words describe other people's voices and particular vocal rhythms and patterns. Now, using your list begin to eliminate words that don't fit your voice and hone in not only on which famous folks have similar sounds to you but what your own vocal description might be.

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                               Calm                     Perky

Honest                         Open                  Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                     Happy                 Clipped

Giddy                           Haughty              Innocent

Secretive                     Emotional         Bored

Inquisitive                  Playful                  Cool

Sexy                              Witty                     Crazed

Earnest                       Angry                    Grounded

Trustworthy            Confident              Relaxed

As you go through each word on the list, be really honest with yourself when deciding if it fits your voice naturally. Right now the focus is not on whether or not you can sound a certain way if you push it, but how you normally sound without pushing. Happy hunting!

Award Winning Voice-Over Voice Actor!

We've just won two awards for VOVA. We are so proud of our recent 2010 NABE Pinnacle Book Award for Voice-Over Voice Actor for "How To." The North American Bookdealers Exchange offer Pinnacle Awards for independent publishers throughout the US who present outstanding achievement in various categories.

We're also extremely proud of our Winning Award in the "Young-Adult Educational" category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards. The NIEA award finalists and winners in various categories for independently published books, so we're quite pleased to be the Winning book in our category.

Getting an award is always both flattering and appreciated, since it's always nice to know others think highly of whatever you've spent such time & energy working on. Go VOVA!!

BOOK TOUR: Dates & Places added

The international book tour is going gang-busters with great signings in the US and abroad. Next up, stops in:

New York City, NY Join us at The Drama Book Shop for a FREE voice-over workshop and talk as well as a book-signing this Friday, October 8th at 5pm. The Drama Book Shop is located at 250 W. 40th St., NYC, NY 10018.

More stops to be announced soon for California, and possibly Florida .

We're also in various local stores throughout the United States, so stop by Barnes & Noble or Borders to pick-up/request your copy today, order online via Amazon or our website as well as the new eBook on lulu!

We will add details and more cities as soon as they are confirmed, so check back to get more details!

Coming soon:

Los Angeles, CA. Stay tuned for more info!

In the meantime, need reviews on Amazon.com which YOU can help us with! So if you've read the book, we'd love for you to review it for us, CLICK HERE and write your VOVA Amazon review. Thank you :)

Below is a list of places we've visted and done book signings or voice-over talks! Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

MONTREAL, CANADA at Fantastic Film Festival, doing a VO talk and book signing, July 17 & 18

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA at ComicCon July 22-25, please check Comicon schedule.

LONDON, ENGLAND, c/o London Expo Saturday/Sunday May 29/30, at Excel London, E16 1XL

DUBLIN, IRELAND Saturday June 5th from 12 noon - 2:30 pm at at Forbidden Planet Dublin, 5-6 Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, Super Happy Tokyo Love, 8p-10p Sat March 8, Royal T, 8910 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA90232

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS, our apologies!!

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 10 & 11, RNA Showgrounds

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, c/o Supanova Con Saturday & Sunday April 17 & 18, Melbourne Showgrounds

SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Comic Outpost, 12:30-2:30, Sat. March 13th, 2381 Ocean Ave, SF, CA 94127

LAS VEGAS, NV Alternate Reality Comics, 3:00-5:00pm, Sat. February 20th, 4800 S. Maryland Pkwy, LV, NV 89119

Take Action #8 – What Do Famous Folks Sound Like?

Choose a well-known voice to help you figure out what a particular quality sounds like, and put your quality list into practice. Think about the ways you would describe that voice to someone who couldn’t hear that person? Who are some celebrities who have unique or interesting sounds? What are the qualities of their voices that make their words or thoughts stand out? Use the following list and begin to narrow down particular qualities that a few famous folks have, as well as those of some people you come in contact with daily.

Exercise - Other People’s Qualities

Drew Barrymore

Samuel L. Jackson

Michael Jordan

Christopher Walken

Angelina Jolie

Barack Obama

George Clooney

Lucy Liu

The radio dj

A friend

A family member

______________

Take Action #7 – How do these words make you feel?

Begin by reading the list below and noting what each particular word means to you: how each word affects you, or what kinds of thoughts or feelings come up when you read them. What are the attributes or qualities of each specific descriptive word? Of course, if there are any of these words that you are unfamiliar with, do not hesitate to look them up.

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                                       Calm                                      Perky

Honest                                 Open                                     Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                             Happy                                  Clipped

Giddy                                    Haughty                                Innocent

Secretive                            Emotional                              Bored

Inquisitive                           Playful                                   Cool

Sexy                                       Witty                                    Crazed

Earnest                                Angry                                    Grounded

Trustworthy                        Confident                             Relaxed

Start with the first word on our list: wry. Think about what it means to you. Who is someone you think is wry? What are the qualities you associate with wry? What pictures or images come to mind when you think of that word? As they come to you, jot them down.

For example, when I think of wry I imagine someone who cuts-to-the-chase, makes no-bones-about what they are saying but does it in a very tongue-and-cheek kind-of-way. Someone who is wry almost seems to be smirking as they tell you the facts; I can picture a weary mom telling me about a trying to keep her kids’ clothes clean with a wry, “What are you gonna do? I love them, but they just get so darn dirty."

Take Action #6 – What can you learn from the people around you (without them even knowing…)?

One great way of getting your ear (and then your voice) attuned to a variety of voices, inflections, accents and qualities is to go people watching, or people-listening, rather... Find a fairly busy spot, like a mall, a zoo, a crowded lobby, café, etc, sit yourself down, and observe. Listen to how different people talk, take note of their pauses, inflections, their unique affectations and things you find interesting about them. Without appearing creepy, you might even pay attention to their mouths to see if there’s something specific they’re doing to create sounds.

If you think it might help, bring a note pad along so you can take notes on things you want to remember. Consider also bringing your quality check list with you so you can quantify for yourself the characteristics of the voices you’re hearing. In case you haven’t built a quality list yet, here are some examples to start with. Use them as a jumping-off point and add your own!

Calm      Pointed      Sincere      Flustered      Agitated      Loving

Hypnotic      Polite     Warm       Shrill       Distant       Brash

See how many different qualities a particular person’s voice might have: perhaps they have a calm, sincere, loving, polite voice, or maybe their voice is pointed and agitated. Mix and match to best describe the voice you are listening to, or add any qualities you become aware of that aren’t yet on your list.

Happy people listening!

Take Action #5 - Read Aloud

We stress the importance of reading out loud. It may seem simple, and maybe you haven’t done it in years, but it can be hugely effective in improving everything from your acting to your ability to quickly assess a script, make choices, and pull the words off the page. Sir Ian McKellen claims that reading out loud was how he learned to act, and I think most of us will agree that he knows his stuff in that area. So, good enough for Sir Ian, good enough for us. Here’s a simple exercise you can almost anywhere and on your own time: Pick three things to read. Any bit of written media will work. Start small if you want. A pamphlet, a matchbook, a newspaper article, a newspaper ad, a comic book, a shopping list, someone’s blog, anything. Over the course of the day, collect those three things. Now-- and this is where it gets tricky –read them. Out loud.

Read each one at least once through, and if you’ve got time and you’re enjoying yourself, read them through again. See if each time through differs for you. See how the writings may be different from each other. Is one a story? Is one just trying to sell a product? Is one using a story to try and sell a product? Is one just a list of numbers on a receipt? If you’re having fun, give a different “character” to each one, or even switch it up within the writings.

You may not feel a change after doing this exercise, but trust us, it gets your brain and mouth working in all the right ways. Most importantly, as long as you’re reading out loud there is no wrong way to do this exercise. Unless of course you’re a monk who had, until this exercise, taken a vow of silence. Or if you’re in a library where they frown on doing anything out loud.

Have fun!

Take Action #4: The Business Side of Acting

As actors we can sometimes become too focused on the craft of acting and neglect something that's equally important: the business side of acting. This may not be as "fun", but just as important as tuning your vocal instrument is finding out who might hire you to use your voice and where they are. It's a pro-active way of forwarding your career in voice-over. So for a moment look at VO as a military objective. This week's exercise focuses on selecting a few targets and doing a little recon, or research. And you won't even need to get your hands dirty. Start with what you like. For example, if you really like the show Naruto, you might search and find out that in the United States, Naruto is licensed by a company called Viz. A little more looking (with your friend Google) might turn up that the English dub for Naruto is recorded at Studiopolis. Voila! You now have a production company to add to your hit list when you have a demo to mail out! With commercials, you might have to be a little more investigative, but there are resources (such as adforum.com) out there that can help you find the ad agency who produced the commercial and who's associated with the promotion of that product.

So, for this exercise, pick an area to start with: animation, video games, or commercials. Now choose three of your favorite shows/movies, video games or commercials. Begin to do a little Internet legwork. Find out who the production company is, and in the case of commercials, the ad agency who commissioned the spot. Try and discover if the company/agency casts their projects in-house, or if they have a relationship with a separate casting company. In some cases, you may even find that the same studio/ad agency produced more than one of your selections, then you know they're definitely somebody you want to target.

There is plenty of information available on the Web, and a little digging could turn up e-mail addresses or maybe phone numbers that you could use to contact the company and find out who might be best to send your reel to. Start a file and keep the info you find for future reference. Good hunting!

Take Action #3: Breathing is Crucial in Voice-Over

Sure, breathing is important to staying alive, but because we do it all the time, we kind of take it for granted and we sometimes get lazy with it. Breathing is crucial in voice-over. You can't speak without breathing, and you can create powerful (and safer) vocal effects with proper breath control. To increase your breath control try this simple exercise. Start standing. Simply notice your breath. Now, exhale all the air in your lungs and hop/jump up into the air as you inhale as much air as you can. Then as you land begin counting aloud, "one-two-three-four..." up as high as you can on that breath. When you've emptied your lungs of air once more, jump up as you inhale as much as you can, and then land and begin counting out loud again. See if you can't get a few numbers higher than the first time, speaking as you exhale, or "on your breath."

Do this several times. Try to see if you can best your initial count by 10. Do this every day and you should begin to notice that you have better breath control and increased lung capacity. This will help sustain and protect your voice as you speak "on your breath."

** If at any point during this exercise you begin to feel dizzy, or otherwise uncomfortable, stop immediately. As with any other exercise, consult a physician before engaging in a new or unfamiliar activity.

Take Action #2: Parrot the Actors in Commercials!

(Exercises re-published with permission from VoiceOverVoiceActor.com) Flip channels on your television or radio for 5 minutes to listen to commercials. Each time you find a commercial, try parroting the voice actor who is speaking. Try to repeat not only the words, but the musicality, the nuances, the tone, and the inflections.

Then turn off the radio or TV and pick up a random piece of text (it can be an advertisement in a magazine, a book, a piece of mail, etc). Try to use the same vocal patterns, tonality and style you were just mimicking as you read this new material.

Practicing this will begin to train your ear, attune you to what is currently "hot" in the advertising world, and get you reading and speaking aloud, which is important in and of itself.

Vegas, baby, Vegas

I  can't believe it's been a week already since Yuri and I were in Las Vegas at Anime Vegas...we had a great time, and got to meet a bunch of fans as well as seeing some familiar faces in the crowd. We even had some help with the documentary that our friend/documentarian Boris Kievksy is filming of us going to conventions this whole year. At our panel on VO, the audience helped out by playing along and chiming in on some of Yuri's VO tales, and (hopefully) much fun was had by all. Vegas is also a special city for Yuri and I, since it's where we got married almost eight years ago. Being crazy as we are, we were driving cross country from NYC to LA and hit Vegas and eloped! For the Vegasites (Vegasans? Vegasians?) who may know, we were married (long before even becoming voice-actors) at the Wee Kirk of the Heather Chapel near Fremont Street and Old Vegas! For those of you not as familiar with LV, the Wee Kirk is known by the many famous marriages it's held (Madonna/Sean Penn; etc.)

But, mostly, we had fun, went to a great con, met a bunch of cool folks, signed a bunch of autographs, went to the pool (Wave Pool! Lazy River!),  did some panels, ate tons of tasty food, celebrated Boris' birthday with his folks, saw the Lion King (!) and thoroughly enjoyed Sin City (which for us is more of Win City!) :)

Thanks to Rich Stott for another great Con, the guests and fans for making us feel so welcome, and to the city for treating us nicely while there!

t:)

The VO gods giveth and they taketh away...

To give you an idea of how quickly tides can turn in an industry like this, allow me to briefly describe my day. When I went to work this morning, I was in the middle of trying to schedule not one, but TWO jobs for the next day. VO for a national TV commercial and for a radio commercial. That's a very good day in this biz. They both wanted me to record tomorrow morning and we were trying to work that out. The TV commercial took precedence, though, because, well, I'll be honest, they pay more. But the TV people (go into the light, Carol Anne...) were being cagey about what time they wanted me to come in and record in the morning.  And the radio people were getting antsy because they needed me to commit  so that they could book studio time and schedule the other actor I was going to be doing the commercial with. I was in a bit of a fix, but after a while, with no word yet from the TV people, I had to do the responsible thing and tell the radio people to give up on me, that they should probably go with their second choice because I hadn't yet heard back from the TV people. Hey, being responsible is hard sometimes.

A little later I get a call saying that the TV people decided to release me. No reason given (but then that's how it works in this town).  I get on the horn with the radio people. Too late. I won't be recording with them tomorrow either.

When I woke up, tomorrow was gonna be a good day. By lunch, I had lost two jobs.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that tomorrow's not gonna be a good day...