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VOICE ACTING Take Off Your MENTAL Headphones: How To Stop Listening To Yourself While Performing Voice Over  By Sally ClawsonVoice Actor, Teacher & Owner, Voice One Many voice actors choose not to wear
headphones while practicing or auditioning at the mic. Hearing themselves as
they read the copy places them in the external role of audience rather than the
internal role of product or company promoter. Yet still, some voice actors continue to rely on mental headphones
– listening to themselves read – which disrupts the natural flow of communication
and makes the actor sound inauthentic. Here are three steps to stop listening to
yourself. 1. Be Curious About the Product Every commercial script has a product. Whether
it's an item or a service the company is promoting, ask yourself several
questions:
Research the product if you need, because your
knowledge will connect you mentally and emotionally to the product's story and
purpose. Then you can focus on your newfound expertise and not your sound.
2. Start at the End At the end of every commercial script lays the
soul of the message. The tagline. It's the condensed nugget of branding that
the client wants banging around in the listener's head long after the
commercial is over. Once you've asked and answered questions about the product,
go straight to the end, and read it.
This one small phrase will illuminate the
company's personality: funny, serious, humble. It will indicate where the
product lives in the market: food, home, auto or elsewhere. And it will reveal
how the client wants to impact the listener enough to take action and purchase
the product. This is where you, the voice actor, enter the picture.
Armed with your understanding of what the
tagline has revealed, you can speak with confidence, personality and a targeted
message that will circumvent the need for your mental headphones 3. Read the Script, Then Make a Decision You've fleshed out a story about the product.
You've pondered the personality of the company. Now read the copy with these
guideposts in mind, and decide, based on the words and your own discoveries,
the one feeling you want the listener to experience. Maybe you want them to
feel delighted, inspired or astonished. Maybe motivated, prodded or judged. Whatever your goal feeling is, hold onto it, and keep it foremost in your mind
as you read. This intention will stabilize and prevent you
from listening to yourself. You will be striving to get your intention across,
which is what we do in everyday communication. Focus on how the message is
being received, not on how you sound saying it. Understanding the product, reading the tagline, and deciding on
your intention will shut off your mental headphones and allow you to focus on
the client's message. Once you've done that, you can put on actual headphones
and play back your gorgeous, smart, and intention-soaked performance.
------------------------ ABOUT SALLY Sally Clawson is an award-winning voice over, on-camera and
theater actor, as well as certified executive coach through the UC Berkeley
Haas School of Business. She has over 20 years of experience as a voice
teacher, and in 2018, became owner of Voice One, the leading voice over school
in San Francisco. Voice One offers a comprehensive voice over training program,
both in-person and online, for everyone from the novice to the professional.
Email: sally@voiceone.com Web: www.voiceone.com |
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All the Best,
Bobbin Beam
Thanks for a terrific article.