Out of the booth I often find myself listening to other actor’s voices rather than to what they’re saying – a professional hazard for a narrator and voice coach, I suppose. As I do this, I invariably form an image in my mind of what the actor looks like. Usually if I meet them afterwards
Continue reading ...Yesterday was hardly typical, and it was memorable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I had three freelance jobs that took me cross-town a couple of times through pouring rain and crazy traffic; Brisbane doesn’t respond well to the wet. The second was a confirmation (if I needed it) at day’s end that the business
Continue reading ...An interesting blog post on OurBrisbane.com today – it’s a performing arts blog run by Brisbane playwright Katherine Lyall-Watson – caught my attention. It had me reaching for the keyboard; it was about one of my favourite topics, something I’ve been dealing with for years – voice training, specifically dialect and accent work for performance.
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I can thoroughly recommend Alan Bennett at the BBC which is currently available from Audible.com or the iTunes store. I’ve just finished listening to the inimitable Mr Bennett reading what is a miscellany of his work from the past 30 or so years, and all via the BBC. By the way I very much also
Continue reading ...Rhetorical power was the subject of some attention this week. One of the US Democratic Party’s hopefuls in the presidential primary race gave a marvellous ‘Yes We Can’ concession speech which used repetition to make its point. Barack Obama is a forceful, clear speech-giver. You can catch it here. I like this take on the
Continue reading ...Perhaps I am just being patriotic, but I reckon these Aussie guys are pretty darn hot in the voice-over artistry stakes. The two contenders for me are Keith Scott and Jim Pike. Since I wrote this post, Keith Scott has removed his demos. Jim Pike’s is still live and kicking. Enjoy! I wrote a while
Continue reading ...Image by Colleen AF Venable via Flickr Depending on the content and the form of your podcast, you’ll want to think about the style of your delivery. I most often use podcasts to provide course material to students, and more often than not the audio track will be accompanied by slides to support what I
Continue reading ...Teaching actors how to find the right voice for a character is something I work at in my day job. Finding the voice for a character is something an actor works at whilst prepping a role. It’s not just about dialect and accent either, although developing these skills is important. Clear speech, acceptable pronunciation, phrasing
Continue reading ...A couple of days ago I featured a top Yank, Don LaFontaine … today it’s a top Brit, Mike Hurley. This little 14 minute video is from 1994, and my tech friends assure me the equipment and technology qualify as pure nostalgia. But there’s nothing creaky about the voice at work here. Great stuff.
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