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Tuesday Talent Tip: Lynn B
Lynn B, one of Studio Center's Top Ten Voiceover Talents Shares Today's Talent Tip
Following Directions
One of the most interesting things about voiceover work is how very subjective it is. The way you interpret something on the written page may be very different from how the session director wants you to say it. Every time we read something to ourselves we hear it a certain way based on our experience and abilities. Unfortunately, just because we hear it that way does not mean that is how the director hears it. Because they are also hearing it in the way their knowledge and experience dictates with a project at hand. One of the key abilities a voiceover artist must have is the ability to hear direction, understand it, and act on it. If the director tells you to try a line again, but this time with a smile in your voice then you need to be able to reread that line with a smile. Actually smiling always helps. Another way directors can ask you to interpret a line to their specifications is to ask you for a set of three. That means they want you to read the line three times in a row, a different way each time. It doesn't make any sense to read a line three times the exact same way so each line should feature a different inflection, or tone, or mood. Often a director isn't exactly sure themselves the way they want a line to sound in the scheme of the whole project. Hearing three different options allows them the ability to explore their own designs for the project, and it even allows you to collaborate with the director by offering your interpretations. Multiple sets of threes can get challenging, but oh how it expands the horizons of interpretation. Not just for the director, but for yourself. Following direction in a session is not always easy, but it is definitely critical to your success as a voiceover artist.