The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers have been sending in pertinent questions about the voiceover business. Here’s a recent one:
Q: In learning how to use my voice better and being able to use it for voice acting more, how helpful are standard acting classes versus dialogue coaching or voice training? —Jenna M., Sylmar, CA
Jenna, thanks for your query. Most commercial voice acting is based upon using your natural voice. Listen to a documentary or a voice-menu-prompt system or even a national television commercial and you’ll probably hear a natural-style voice-over. Voice-over producers typically search for voice-acting artists who can use their natural voices in front of the microphone. This is because most voice-over artists sound contrived when affecting his or her voice to sound like someone else. And in fact, if a producer wanted a voice type different than yours, they would hire someone who naturally had that voice. Therefore, ensure that any training classes you attend teach you to use your natural voice. Acting classes or improvisation classes can be helpful. They teach you spontaneity, how to be free with your emotions and how to turn certain ones on and off. This is very helpful for a voice actor as it prepares you for producers who’ll tell you what emotion they want exhibited in a script.
But some acting classes aren’t helpful. Some acting classes, mainly stage acting, teach the actor to project, so that their voice can be heard in the back of the theater without the need of a microphone. And the mere reality of being in front of a live audience calls for a bit of overacting, not the subtlety called for in many radio spots. This is the opposite of a natural voice. With this type of training, it’s common for the voice actor to over-project and overact.
Voice acting classes are specifically structured to train you how to use your voice behind a microphone, which in a sense, is like talking into someone’s ear. If you want to excel at voice acting, take a number of voiceover courses to learn proper technique in this medium and improv classes to learn how to emote, develop character voices and be spontaneous in your acting. Keep these points in mind when considering an acting class. Good luck. I’ll be sharing more voiceover questions and answers in the coming months.
For more information, please contact Marc Cashman at cashcomm@earthlink.net or at his website www.cashmancommercials.com.