General

One of my greatest challenges as a voiceover talent (tell me if this is familiar) is inertia. As you may remember from your time in school, inertia is defined as a pair of rules.

Things at rest tend to stay at rest.

Things in motion tend to stay in motion.

In both cases you can add…

…until acted on by external forces or factors.

What does this have to do with voiceover work? Just about everything. First, I should note that my thinking on this subject was prompted by a recent post on Tom Asacker’s blog. He writes about the way he will often start a talk on this subject with this story…

“Do you remember when, as a child, you’d wake up to a pristine, snow covered landscape? You’d rush out the door on your way to school, zigging and zagging, pushing and dragging your feet to create a one-of-a-kind path? And invariably, the next kid in the neighborhood would leave his home and follow your crooked path, kicking away more snow on his way. And then the next kid, and the next, until eventually there was a well-worn, precisely defined route all the way to school.

Well, that’s what happens with your mind as well. If you think the same thoughts, or preformed the same task over and over again, you will develop a neural pathway in your brain. Like a dry path in wet snow, it becomes a comfortable route; a path of least resistance. To remove this habit or old way of thinking takes a focused effort. It requires that you step out of your rut and get your brain wet, cold and uncomfortable.”

Tom then drives his point home with these words…

The audience members typically nod, signaling their understanding. And then they go right back into their subconscious ruts, rejecting new concepts and rationalizing familiar ones. Men, and women, love inertia. And to my way of thinking, inertia is the silent killer of most businesses and, in some cases, entire industries as well.

All of this came home to roost recently when a friend was kind enough to point out that I had fallen into a terrible rut in my auditions. That everything was not only sounding very much the same whether I was auditioning for a hospital or an athletic shoe company, it was all very dark, slow and somber. In other words, not very appealing to the clients who are casting these jobs. So, it’s no great surprise that I’ve had a dry spell for a while in my efforts to book new commercial work, huh?

Now, you can always identify your true friends because they are the ones willing to tell you the truth, even if it hurts. And this is the kind of truth I need to hear, all the time. It’s so incredibly easy for me to fall into ruts, and not even recognize that I’m in one. While voiceover work is often a solitary business, as we talk all alone in our quiet little rooms, there’s no question that I’m learning just how important it is to stay connected with true friends.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if any of this has been helpful to you, today.
target=”_blank”

Steve Mathews runs a company called Radio Garage, an audio production company. And Steve blogs about his work as well. I make a point of stopping by pretty often, because he often has something interesting to say. Recently he asks a question with a pretty obvious answer…

Okay, so the question is simple. Would you rather be bored to tears, or would you rather have fun?

Like I said, a pretty obvious answer. Is there anyone who would rather be bored than have fun? Now, if you have to create a project where you need a voice, you could just pick someone you know who has a nice voice and have her (or him) do the recording for you. But, we’re talking about fun, here, remember? Doing take after take after take, trying to make sure everything is said correctly isn’t fun. It’s drudgery. It’s painful. This is why it’s always better to hire a professional voice talent. That might be me.

Now, I’m not going to be right for every project. (I’m not very good at women’s voices, for example!) So, that might be someone on Steve’s roster of male and female talent. Or from any number of other places.

Here’s the bottom line. Spend the money for a professional who is going to turn that recording project into fun, by eliminating the drudgery and pain. And delivering your message effectively. Or spend the same or more money getting your project edited and produced because George in accounting (your know, the guy with the nice voice) took 3 hours to record your 20 minute script.

With thanks to my friend Dave Houston for the post that lead me to this article, take a few minutes to read these superb thoughts from Robert Dwyer, chock full of information that every voiceover talent should keep in mind.
Here are a couple of key thoughts from Robert’s article:

Over the years I’ve heard them all. The great, the good and “who ever told this guy he could do voice-over work,” and there are a few things that make the good ones hang around. The first is a solid voice, second flexibility, and lastly consistency…

A solid voice is…

They listen to national commercial spots. They take the time to learn what word to hit hard. What it means to add or subtract emotion. They are solid! Solid from the start of the read to the end with no softening up or losing focus. They pay attention to their voices, the copy and then they learn to demonstrate how to be flexible with a paying client.

Flexibility means…

VO people must learn to be customer service people. TV stations are 24 hours a day businesses and they want someone who will jump when called, or won’t give them attitude when a revision needs to be made.

And consistency…

Consistency day in and day out is money in the bank. When you create your mix bag of reads for sports, dramas, comedies, or whatever your client asks of you. Make sure you deliver the goods the same every time.