The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers have sent in great questions, asking about the voiceover business. Here’s a letter I got about voice acting from a working voice actor:
Q: My voice acting coach tells me I’ve got great articulation and projection, but a detached delivery. How do I find the emotional hook in copy? — Mike S., Valencia, CA
A: There are innumerable words that you can color and give depth to whenever you come across them. These words are loaded with attitudes and emotions. When you say the word “excitement” or “exciting,” deliver it with an exclamation point! An exclamation point is the only punctuation mark I know that literally connotes an emotion — excitement!
Whether they’re nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs, don’t throw these words away! For voice actors, words are easy to say and lift off the page effortlessly, but the listener needs to hear some thought and feeling behind those words. Here are just a few examples:
Friendly, elegant, patriotic, confident, sultry, scary, stiff, sensual, helpful, funny, concern, evil, tiring, appetizing, sad, cautionary, breathless, wacky, tough, delicious, carefree, perky, nervous, stuffy, mellow, heroic, magical, cute, bored, sly and exciting.
So the next time you do get some copy to perform that has any kind of emotional words or phrases or theme, sit with those words for a minute. Feel the emotion behind the copy. Think about how you would feel, how someone you loved (or something, like a pet) would feel, and then deliver it with a newfound depth of feeling. I guarantee you that you’ll start performing two-dimensional words on a page in three dimensions.
I’ll share more voiceover questions and answers in the coming months. If you have any questions, please write to me and I’ll get back to you.
Cashman Commercials © 2008
Marc Cashman creates and produces copy and music advertising for radio and television, and was a keynote speaker at VOICE 2008, the international convention of the voice acting industry, in August. Winner of over 150 advertising awards, he also instructs voice acting of all levels through his classes, The Cashman Cache of Voice-Acting Techniques in Los Angeles, CA, as well as One-on-One V-O Coaching. He can be contacted at cashcomm@earthlink.net or his website, www.cashmancommercials.com .