(no subject)

[oakenguy]

Last night was my first "How to Make Commercial Voiceovers" class. The teachers are a pair of performers/producers who've been in the industry for about 25 years, and teaching the class for about 15--they've got the whole thing *down*. The two of them in matching shirts and ties, very similar haircuts and polished radio voices were a little bit freaky, especially since they each looked like a 'Daily Show' correspondent. Eventually I just gave up and assumed they *were* the Daily Show actors, and felt much better.

It's a funny thing, talking. I've been doing it most of my life (okay, there was a stretch from 13 to 15 where not much of it happened). But doing it in front of people who were not only teaching voiceovers but, during their day job, *hiring* people based on their voices? Whole other ballgame.

Here's how it went:

Teacher 1: So let's start by having everyone introduce themselves and say a little something about why they're here.
What I think: No pressure okay here we go deep voice no slurring let's impress these guys
What I actually say: *high-pitched dolphin squeak*


After that they told us how to breathe, which I've also been doing completely wrong. I got so caught up in breathing through my diaphragm the proper way that I started to feel woozy from lack of oxygen. (And on a personal vanity note, breathing that makes my belly expand outward? Yeah, *just* what I need. Why can't it be my biceps?)

So that's my assignment for the week, breathing and talking.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Ah, the breathing style is the same as singing, it sounds like. If you do it long enough, and particularly learn how to keep your ribcage expanded while you breathe, you'll increase your chest size. Believe me. One semester of voice lessons back in college booted me out of size 36 bras and into a limbo zone where hardly anyone makes bras, just on my ribcage size alone.

Think of barrel-chested operatic singers and don't worry about the belly thing. :)

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

I hear it keeps you perky too.

[fightguy.livejournal.com]

Keep us posted on how this develops for you, man! V-O work is great; the couple of Union jobs I tend to get every year make for a nice piece of pocket change. Are these teachers going to cover the best ways for you to find V-O work as well, or is it purely a technique class?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

If anything, the first class spent slightly more time talking about the industry and how to find work (and why the previous teacher of the class, who called it "How to make a fortune with voiceovers!!" was a scam artist) than it did with technique. They probably realized that we were still stuck on breathing. ;)

That'll change radically next time when they take us into the recording studio.

Argh!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

What did you actually say? :)

[devina.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I SO want to do this!

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Heh--I'm keeping careful notes!

[malterre.livejournal.com]

Breathing..good thing you remembered ;-)
And presumably no dolphins were harmed...

[simply-juniper.livejournal.com]

You mean those are actors on the Daily Show? Not actual news correspondents!! Oh dear, what has the world come to!

You will have to spill all your secrets about voice over to me once you get them. Too often has a boy flirted with me based on my voice. Makes me think I should do phone sex... for a job... Do you know how hard that sentence was to phrase?

[devina.livejournal.com]

Makes me think I should do phone sex... for a job...

This is an idea I've toyed with for years, researched, thought out how I'd get into it, but then backed off because I wasn't really sure. Then my current boy pointed out that because it's an anonymous setup, there would be men who said things to me that I might not have wanted to hear, and might never be able to forget. Which has closed the issue for me. At least for now. But it was a good point, and one I really hadn't considered.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Ooo, agh, yes. I remember there was one that involved corn. *shudder*

(One that I read about in an interview with a phone sex actress, that is.)

[bellebet.livejournal.com]

Rogueactor has been interested in this for years. Can you give any info on where the class is, how much, etc.?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Sure thing. :) It's offered several times a year through the Cambridge Center for Adult Ed (www.ccae.org). It's a course called "Making Commercial Voice-Overs" with Ken Carberry and Jordan Rich, and it's $97 for the two classes (and the mini-recording session that's part of the second class).

Have we met?

[bellebet.livejournal.com]

We know a lot of common people from faires. And I'm sure if we saw each other, we'd both go "Oh, yeah. Him/Her!" :)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Hee--this sounds all too likely.