- In this video,
we're going to talk about using your body in performance.
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When someone acts in theatre or film,
then it's essential that they use their physicality
because people will be seeing them as well as hearing them.
And it's a visual medium
as much as it is a aural one as well.
So even if someone chooses to be static
in terms of their character choices,
that is still a physical performance
that communicates something to an audience.
And so when we try and translate this into voiceover
and how physicality may apply and affect it,
obviously there are certain genres like animation
and video games, especially
where you are dealing with characters
who are quite often in extreme states
and they're dealing with extreme emotions
and as a result,
the physicality needs to be able to mirror that
so that you can make believable sounds
as opposed to self-conscious ones instead.
You quite literally are asked to do efforts
at the end of most video game recording sessions
which is literally sounds
that your character would physically make
if they're being killed or if they're being hit
or if they're being upset, all of these kinds of things.
And they're like the sinew which holds together
but the muscles of the actual performance
in terms of making it credible,
it's with these humanizations.
But when we think about more "traditional"
forms of voiceover as opposed to voice acting
if you want to make that distinction,
it can be a bit tricky to know exactly
how to apply your physicality to a corporate text
or to a commercial text in quite the same way.
Those of us who might have some acting background,
acting training may instinctively
apply certain methodologies that we've learned or discarded.
It could be a movement one like Laban
different states like that or it could be
any other kind of external, Patsy Rodenberg's three circles
which is a vocal technique
but it applies to your physicality as well.
These are all tools that we can use.
But for people who don't come from that background,
who maybe don't have that vocabulary
or that's just not how they work instinctively,
we need to find different tools of how to apply this
to commercial and corporate induration text.
And obviously even with something like an audio book,
the a narrator needs to make very clear choices
about each character in terms of their vocal placement
and their physicality
so that they all sound distinct even with the same voice.
Well, to start with the biggest takeaway
is that we need to accept that every single text
has an emotional aspect to it.
An emotional point of view,
how you feel about what you're saying
and even if that's the driest e-learning text possible,
then well, potentially maybe your narrator's bored.
I mean hopefully that's not gonna be a particularly
great choice to use, but some people ask for that as well.
So there is always a choice to be made
and that needs to be reflected in your physicality.
But a lot of the projects that you do voice
will require a certain amount of energy behind them.
And there are nuances to that of course,
but it means that in terms of your fundamentals,
how you stand, I always make sure
that I stand with one foot in front of the other
rather than being side to side, because first of all
it means that I can easily control my proximity
to the microphone and backing off it as well.
But it means that I'm literally more front footed
I can be more dynamic if I want to be
or I can be more laid back as well.
And immediately that informs my physicality in some way
even if you're a voiceover who tends to sit down
as opposed to stand up for your voiceover work.
How you sit is gonna hugely impact how you deliver.
And as a base rule, I always make sure
that I sit towards the edge of my seat
with one leg lower than the other,
so that I've got room to breathe in my diaphragm
so that I can project on support as well
and be available and direct with the text.
But let's use a specific example of a corporate project
that I voiced a couple of weeks ago
and how it can be massively affected
in terms of performance, purely through the physicality.
And in these two reads that I'm gonna give,
one which is gonna be quite physical and energetic,
and one where my physicality is gonna be quite slumped
and laid back and sat down as well.
I'm not changing any emotional state in my mind.
I'm not thinking of a particular emotion
that I need to be excited or get there,
I'm purely working 'outside in' as actors might say.
So let's see what you make of these two reads.
The year was 2000.
We had a vision.
In the ever transforming landscape
of business and technology, we kept moving.
From the Thames in London,
to the Opera House in Sydney and the Big Apple, New York.
We kept adapting, kept moving, moving forward dynamically
with the promise to deliver beyond expectations.
We are transforming, but with our values intact.
And then as an alternate take,
we're gonna sit down, we're going to be laid back relaxed,
not projecting in any way,
use the minimal amount of physicality
and if we do, it's gonna be a bit of a shrug.
The year was 2000.
We had a vision.
In the ever transforming landscape
of business and technology,
we kept moving.
From the Thames in London, to the Opera House in Sydney
and the Big Apple, New York.
And we kept adapting,
kept moving,
moving forward dynamically
with the promise to deliver beyond expectations.
We are transforming, but with our values intact.
Now, hopefully you see a difference in those two takes
and I'm not saying that one is better than the other,
but all I'm saying is that the physical choices,
as opposed to the psychological text analysis choices,
will immediately give you something
hopefully very, very different.
And furthermore than this, I'm blessed with a studio
where I can make these physical choices very very easily
and very, very simply.
It's one of the reasons
why I invested in this studio in the first place,
but even if you're in a restricted space
and I started my career as most voiceover artists do
kind of huddled over with sound blankets on top of me
and all of that kind of thing,
but you need to start kind of practising
how to use your physicality in a confined space.
So even if that means you're articulating
but with your arms to your sides in some kind of way
or just to be able to increase and decrease speed
or inflexions, then even little hand pointing gestures
imagining that you have a sock puppet
or that you're suffering some form of mental illness,
all of these things actually can really help
in terms of breaking out of a instinctive read to your text
so that you can add a second or a third take
very very simply without having to sit and analyse things.
You can even take this one step further
or arguably more subtly and just change what you wear
and see how that impacts your physicality.
I know that with certain corporate reads,
it makes a certain psychological sense that I wear a suit
but there also is a certain amount of physical restriction
it makes me stand in a particular way
which will therefore affect my alignment
and my voice as a result,
as opposed to if I rock up in a hoodie
where again my physicality is instinctively gonna be altered
in a whole different way.
Now my essential point from all of this
is not that one type of physical enactment
will result in this particular type of delivery,
but it's that you as an individual
need to know what works with you.
You need to experiment
with all of your physical extremes essentially
and then see how that just organically affects your voice
so that you can then have a whole palette
of acting options available to you.
And it's something
that completely takes your mind out of the equation.
It's, again, like I say, outside in,
rather than inside psychologically
working out into an interpretation of the text
and that can be very handy.
Discovering our own physical triggers
and how different changes affect us is crucial
because we've all been in that situation
probably where someone tells you to smile,
to give a warmer vocal delivery.
And for some people that works and it's fantastic
but for other people, it feels as if you're being forced
to wear clothes that you really don't want to
and it becomes forced, it becomes more tense as a result.
It's not gonna work for absolutely everybody.
So you need to find what kind of physicality
that is gonna get you to that warmer, happier,
more approachable, more conversational read
so that when you get that direction of,
"yeah just say it again, but could you do it with a smile."
That you can make that adjustment,
so that you can get that result much quickly
and nod and say,
"of course, how high do you want me to jump,"
rather than grimace and push on through it
and come across as an actor who can't take direction.
I hope you found this video of some use to you
and some interest at least.
And if you do have a particular physical technique
that you use for voiceover that I haven't mentioned here,
then please do comment below
because I'd love to kind of like
add that to the conversation as well.
Please do like, and subscribe, spread the word,
all of that jazz
and I look forward to seeing you next time.