Nothing to it
The most commonly held misconception about voiceovers is that there isn’t much involved to successfully performing them. And that misconception lies very close to another, that you mostly just need to have a great sounding voice, however, nothing could be further from the truth. There’s an old industry maxim that says, “It’s not the voice but what you can do with your voice!”
Voiceover is the fine art of interpreting and colouring a script according to its author’s intention and purpose. To accomplish this, an artist firstly needs to intimately familiarise with the script.
Once the author’s vision is perceived, the artist then chooses an appropriate method of execution from an acquired skill set – a skill set that comes from learning. Like with most areas of expertise, the best education ultimately comes from prominent professionals working within the industry.
The artist’s skill set is their bag of tricks that equips them to meet industry demands and expectations. Skills include the ability to act, to regulate vocal tension, the dynamics of accentuation, recognition of industry-specific grammatical patterns, the correct use of pause, rhythm, inflection, breathing, etc, etc. It’s surprisingly involved!
But a skill doesn’t infuse life into a read if it isn’t effectuated by some degree of natural talent. Talent is the magic that empowers the artist to perform within the spirit of the author’s imagination, the quintessential phenomenon that breathes life into copy.
Yet ironically, there remains a perpetual and often elusive challenge for the professional artist to bring something unique to the table, to every read. Such are the unrealistic demands of a highly competitive marketplace.
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