10 Voice Over Tips for 2010

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Now, for our special guest …

JC Haze: Hi there! It’s JC Haze. Thanks for joining me today. We got something real special for you. I know the New Year is right around the corner, right? Well, 2010 I want to give you ten voice over tips for 2010. Some tips that I got recently when I signed up for a class in Boston, which was taught by Maura Tighe. Maura is a casting agent. She had been a casting agent in New York for a while and is now a casting agent in Boston and has her own office there and teaches voice over classes as well.
So, here are some of the things I took from the class that I’d love to share with you to help make your 2010 even a little bit better. Here we go.
Tip number one. Don’t try to be a voice that you’re not. You know, your strength lies in your own unique voice. So, take the reality of your voice and put it into your voice work. Get yourself to fit the script. So, don’t try to be a voice that you’re not.

Tip number two. Visualize people you know when voicing scripts. Personalize your reads. Ask who am I and who am I talking to and think of specific people when you’re doing that. Put yourself in somebody’s shoes and think of who you’re talking to as well.

Tip number three. Ask what’s the message of the script. It’s important that you read through the entire script to get that big message and make sure that you’re living in the world of the spot as you’re recording it.

Tip number four. Read and understand your copy. It’s a little bit like the previous one in what’s the message of the script. So, it’s really important to understand where the script goes. Establish what’s happening in your script and make sure you adjust accordingly. It’s important that you’re really in the moment in that spot.

Number five. Connect better. And this is one that Maura made sure she talked about with me. She said, “JC, be emotional guy, not copy guy.” It’s something that all of us radio guys, and after 30 years in radio, it’s tough to get it out of us. But instead of being Mr. Joe Copyreader, we need to get more emotional on the spot and act it out rather than speak it out.

Tip number six. This is a great one. Pause in an unusual place. You know, it’s pretty cool. Sometimes that strange pause can perk up the ears of the listener and the casting agent. So yes, pause in a kind of a weird place.

Tip number seven. This is another great one. Use vocal junk in your reads. You know, I’m talking about adding those uh’s and ah’s and you know, reacting to the other person on the script if it’s a two person read. Add a little extra. Okay?

Here comes tip number eight. Think about status in your reads. Do you know more than the person you’re talking to in the script or do you know less? Who’s the expert in the script? Are they angry with each other? Is one of the characters angry? Is he or she the buffoon? Is he or she the spender? Think about that status in your reads. It will certainly help to make the spot sound more real.

Tip number nine. Also, in two person’s scripts, have fun with the environment of the spot. You know, it’s okay to adlib. What you want to do is make sure you form a connection between the characters and make sure you keep your pacing up as well. It’s important to not slow the script down. Real people don’t talk that way. They’re kind of interrupting each other or stepping on each other as they speak. And you can do that in the script as well.

And now here comes tip number ten. The voice over tips for 2010. Make sure you stay in your character. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of who your character is and you wind up, you know, getting back into that announcer read. You don’t want to do that. You don’t want to morph into somebody else. Remember who your character is and stay in that character.
Thanks again to Maura Tighe for teaching a great class in Boston. I was proud to be a part of it and really did learn a lot from Mora and hopefully, I’m a better voice over because of it. If you’d like more information on Mora, feel free to contact me or you can contact Mora. I’m sure you can Google her name and find out more about future classes. I believe she does have more classes coming up in the spring. JC Haze. Thanks for joining me today and good luck to you in 2010.

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