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EdKnotes
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S T U F F F O R V O I C E A R T I S T S !
EdKnotes
You're a V O I C E A R T I S T ! 2007-04-20
So how does it feel to say; "I am an artist"? You really should understand that to "make it" in
the business, you must constantly draw upon your artistic creativity. Inventing new voices is a creative process. Applying
the voice-paint to the canvas of the script through the mic is an individually artistic act! You approach a script and must
delve into your "tools of your artistic trade". Do you need a charcoal drawing, watercolor on rice paper, oil on canvas, or
spray painting on a wall? You're the artist, and you must decide. That is what the client relies on you for, your artistic
self. They may give you guidelines to let you know in your little creative gray matter which direction to go, but you have
to have an offering for them!
On another EdKnote. Here is an idea, if you haven't already been doing this, then get on it NOW!
Many modern movie DVDs have free classes in them.
WHAT?
Classes in movie DVDs?
Ed, you bettah esplain dees one!
Okay, so you are watching a movie, and in the special features section there is often a discussion
on how they made the flick, or interviews with the actors, directors, etc. There is much value in this. Even though they may
not be talking specifically about VO work, you can apply some of what you see and hear to your career. For sure, when renting
an animated movie, always check out special features about the VO actors.
* # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * #
HERE IS A MUST!!!!!
You really need to rent, or buy the anime' movie by Katsushiro Otomo, STEAMBOY. Then even before
you watch the movie, go to the special features menu, and watch the section about the Re-voicing the movie. You'll hear some
great stuff that is essentially a mini-class for your artistic voice over brain! Interviews with:
Anna Paquin ... James Ray Steam (voice: English version - the boy)
Alfred Molina ... Dr. Eddie Steam (voice: English version - the father)
Patrick Stewart ... Dr. Lloyd Steam (voice: English version - the grandfather)
Find out more about actors that do Voice Over work in movies, make use of http://imdb.com .
That is the Internet Movie Data Base website.
When watching any movie, learn to enhance the director within youself by listening closely to the
dialogue/monologues for all the elements that would normally be very important in VO only. For instance; When watching a movie
with a popular actor, close your eyes, and try to determine if their on screen Voice would be worthy or not of true VO work.
I sometimes find myself turning on the Closed Caption to find out what someone said. Sometimes it is the fault of the extraneous
sound track, yet often it is the actor just not doing good diction, enunciation, pronunciation, or putting in enough feeling
for me to extract what they are really saying. Even good actors throw away some otherwise great lines that if properly executed
in the VO realm could really add to the performance. I've listened to many scenes from good actors where they rode the action
wave, and missed the full color they could have painted by ensuring their Voice was not a "throw away".
Think as an artist. Observe, listen, read aloud, repeat aloud, broaden your experience. Pay attention
to the way you talk in everyday life! Take theater, improvisation classes, join toastmasters and do live speeches. Stop yourself
from bad habits, or at least work at it. But first you must know what bad habits you have. Do you say 'uhh' or 'umm' or 'ya
know' as you talk. Instead, pause and think of what you have to add next. Saying these non-neccessary things are only to allow
your brain to line up or think about what you are going to say next anyway. Remember that by using the pause during speech
often causes the listener to listen more intently anyway. Use of 'umm' and 'uhh' is usually used unconciously by people that
don't want to get 'cut off' by someone else in the conversation while you are talking. Plus it seems kind of dumbing to use
them.
What are some other bad habits that you find yourself doing? Improper use of inflections? How is
your grammar? Do you use expletives that dirty up your speaking? Are you adding to your vocabulary? Do you use a dictionary?
All this is to say that as a Voice Artist, you should be practicing your speaking skills in everyday conversation too. Polish
Polish Polish!
If you do accents, that's fine. However, do you also pronounce the word the way the folks you're
doing the accent does. The word respite (short break or pause) in our American English is Res'-pet, or Res'-pit but in British
English is Res-'pite. There is much to learn. Never stop learning. Don't be afraid to pay for more classes, seminars, and
such. That could just be what will bump you up further!
Until next time,
F. Ed Knutson
B E S H A R P !
EdKnotes 2007-04-22
Have you read and added to your library all, or, most
of the Voice Over books that are available? Whether or not you think one book is better than the other is not so important.
Let's say you gain a lot from the first VO book
that you ever read. Then you read another. Now that you read the second one you say to yourself, "Awww, I read most of this
in the first book I read". Well that's just the point isn't it. MOST. You were able to get some other perspectives I'm sure,
even on the repeated portions. Now since you said MOST, that means that you really did pick up a new tool, idea, notion, etc.
You've ADDED to the knowledge of the first book. Yoo - hoo! Progress! Remember the words of Ralph Parlette in his book "The
University Of Hard Knocks"; "..you cannot move up without overcoming..."
You overcome by gaining knowledge. Add a new tool. A new
technique. A new strategy. A twist on something you already knew. It's like instead of making plain ice cream, we freak folks
out and add something from a new idea. Yeah, banana-pecan-avocado! Sure that's the ticket! If not, well then, at least we
tried. But what did we come out of it with? We, like Edison, can say that we now know what doesn't work! A simple bump in
the U of HK! (The University Of Hard Knocks)
Buutttt... What if the director tried the banana-pecan-avocado
and liked it so much that they were blown away? Who's da champ now?! YOU ARE! UH-HUHH ... UH-HUHH!
IF the director didn't like it, but,
thought enough of you to accept a variation, then they may just tone you down or whatever, by giving you some direction. Now,
do you listen and allow yourself to take the direction, or, do you become an egotistical imbecile and refuse to take the smaller
bump and learn to take direction? NAWWWW, you need the paycheck 'rat now', and besides you're a 'pprrooofessssiionnalll'!
And all of this is because you read and studied all of the books, and added all that you can muster to your ARSENAL. (Tool
Box for more pacifistic folk.)
Can you stop learning? Sure, but only when you pass on...
Wait! There are those that say they have learned all that
they can. Now in reality, even the egostistical imbecile who thinks that they have learned all that they need, are secretly
harvesting all that they can from all that they can for their own means.
They may not be actively pursuing knowledge, but in their
little neuron world, they're appropiating whatever comes their jellyfish tentacled way! ZAP, Grab, Digest! And there it is!
Sometimes they go hungry.
However... YOU are in pursuit of Knowlege. Not just sitting
back grabbing whatever comes by you. You are learning, reading, listening, getting your bumps, and learning even more! There
are also DVDs available on the VO craft. There are marketing, success, and improvement, books, CDs, DVDs, that may give you
the ege.
Remember this; "A sharp edge cuts it's way to success, a
dull edge tears, lags, and may never make it through to success". Become a sharp edge!
Until next time,
F. Ed Knutson
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