Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2023.01.20 – 0750 – The Hydration Situation   The Hydration Situation (or How to ‘Get A Wetter Broadcast, Podcast and Voiceover Voice’) Up to 60% of the human adult body is water [1] : the brain and heart are composed of 73% water; the lungs are about 83% water; skin contains 64% water; muscles and kidneys are 79%; bones 31% water. Each day we have to consume a certain amount of water to surv...

2023.01.19 – 0749 – Why Cough Sweets Are A Con First up, it’s important to realise that nothing you swallow touches your vocal folds. Yep, those soothing cough sweets you take for example, go nowhere near them and any help they might give is either somewhere else in the vocal tract, or simply psychosomatic. (Indeed, as we’ll see later, such lozenges may actually be causing other problems!). I mean...

2023.01.18 – 0748 – Vocal Health as Asset Protection As we have seen, the vocal cords are super thin muscular folds the length of your thumb nail. Air exhaled from the lungs passes over the taut cords and they vibrate [1] , producing sound waves. High-pitched sounds are made when the cords are short and taut [2] . They work best when they are really well hydrated and it’s really hard for them to w...

2023.01.17 – 0747 – You Are A Vocal Athlete We are vocal athletes!   Those of us who speak for a living are trained and skilled, we have physical strength, agility and stamina. We can get highly stressed and suffer from fatigue that affects our performance. And we use our body in an unusual way. So, be aware of what kind of foods, situations or symptoms are the precursor to poor vocal he...

2023.01.16 – 0746 – Exercise Advisories Over the years in the many training sessions I have led, I have just known that the advice I have given to my clients in this area is going to be ignored: lip trills have been considered childish, to mindfully meditate was seen as ‘hippy’ hokum, stopping smoking as an unnecessary infringement. I am happy to say that in recent years those views have largely c...

2023.01.15 – 0745 – Your Vocal, Physical and Emotional Health: an introduction   ‘The first thing to be considered is what sort of voice we have and next, how we use it. The natural power of the voice is judged by its quantity and quality. The good qualities of the voice are improved by attention and deteriorated by neglect.’ Quintilian, first century AD, a leading instructor in eloquence at...

2023.01.14 – 0744 – Telephony Voiceovers Telephony voice over – (‘voicemail’, ‘Message On-Hold’, ‘MOH’, ‘Integrated Voice Response’ or ‘IVR’ “ for sales press 1, for help press 3… ”) These voices have to represent the brand and what they stand for and might sound like and who they’re speaking to. The voice is the representative of the company and so a more mature, experienced voice might be most a...

2023.01.13 – 0743 – Voiceover Cut-Throughs A voice-over might hope that with a commercial read they may be asked to record another ad for the same brand, but it’s not a given. That job may be a one-off. But with trails and promo voices, once chosen you are likely to be on contract for months, seasons or years. You may be on a retainer, and have to voice any number of items with a quick turnaround...

2023.01.12 – 0742 – Station Imaging Voiceovers   Station imaging These are the branded voices that are used on promotional trailers for radio and TV stations. So not on the commercials advertising other brands (such as a car showroom or a breakfast cereal), but introduce or promote an individual show (or shows) on that station (“ The News At Ten – with Kylie Johnson … Joe Smithson on spo...

2023.01.11 – 0741 – Voicing Public Service Announcements PSAs In times of disaster, be it natural or human, a Public Service (or Safety) Message may be the best way to get information out fast and elicit help. An appropriate tone might be: ·        Calm and reassuring, clear and uncompromising, with a touch of urgency – for an informational read to those cau...

2023.01.10 – 0740 – The Tonal Scale on Political Voiceovers With negative ads, you are unlikely to be shouting and screaming in fury, instead, your style will be more measured and composed although still somewhere on the scale of: ·        Bewilderment ·        Disappointment ·       ...

2023.01.09 – 0739 – Political Ad Voiceover Styles Like most advertising where the style of such campaigns was once very ‘announcery’, both of these content styles are now much more conversational, contemporary and authentic, inspiring and upbeat or authoritative and direct. And your accent is likely to be from the community (say Maine or rural Mississippi) and the demographic (Floridian Spanish, 1...

2023.01.08 – 0738 – Finding The Key Points in Political Voiceover Scripts As a voice-over you have to immediately identify: ·        Is this ad actively promoting the candidate, or doing so by knocking their opposition? ·        Who is it targeting? Undecideds, grass root supporters, soccer moms, small business owners…...

2023.01.07 – 0737 – Political Voiceovers: Lead Ins and Pay Offs Ads of either style often start with a question, another rhetorical device that gets the listener to ‘fill the vacuum’ with an answer: ·        “ Would you trust Tracey Garcia with your money? ” ·        “ We gave this man the keys to the Governor’s House...

2023.01.06 – 0736 – Key Words to Highlight in Political Ads All styles usually have a script that is clean, clear and sharp, one which has a point of view to catch the attention and emotion of its target audience.  Common rhetorical devices will be used such as comparative balances (“ the wealthy profited, and we paid ”, “ while they only care about their family, we care about yours ”, “ keep...

2023.01.05 – 0735 – Voiceovers For Political Ads Political ads These are most common in the US and can be divided into these categories: [1] , [2] ·        Positive – promoting the attributes of the candidate with an uplifting, aspirational and honest message and tone ·        Negative (or ‘comparative’ or ‘attack’ ads...

2023.01.04 – 0734 – Movie Trailers Voiceovers Movie trailers The ‘god’ of these was the iconic voice of Don LaFontaine who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. At the height of his career, he was voicing 60 trailers a week. He became identified with the phrase " In a world. .....

2023.01.03 – 0733 – Medical Narration Skills Medical VOs These can be quite content-rich and may be for professional medical education or maybe for drug or equipment reps, and will likely have pharmaceutical and physiological terminology. Some of the information may be ‘patient facing’, for example explaining a situation for someone undergoing treatment. That will be made clear in your direction....

2023.01.02 – 0732 – The 4 P’s of Speaking Outdoors   VOICE BOX Speaking outdoors   ‘Public speaking’ at out-door events, garden parties, open-air weddings, theatres and so on can put an added strain on your voice, but some tips are the same as indoor work: warming up (even though the weather may be warm, you need to prepare your voice for what is to come), and hydration (again, the warme...

2023.01.01 – 0731 – Sport Stadium Announcing In this category could also come ‘announcers’ such as those as sports events.   Bob Sheppard was the long-time public address announcer for more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over 56 years. He was also the in-house voice for New York Giants football games for more than a half-century. Wikipedia says “Sheppard's smooth, distinctive bar...

2022.12.31 – 0730 – Skilling Up To Be Godlike Additional skills ·        You need to be able to ask questions, use initiative and take direction when presenting in this situation. You need to be diplomatic: who are you taking direction from? The sound engineer, the stage manager, the MD of the company, the hotel manager…? ·     &nbsp...

2022.12.30 – 0729 – Your Godlike Presentation Your presentation ·        Don’t talk too fast or information may be missed. There may be a busy room with hubbub and people mid-way through a conversation. In a large warehouse-like conference centre your voice may echo slightly and so a slower read-rate may be best. Think about how the audience is receivin...

2022.12.29 – 0728 – Your Bow Tie And Ball Gown Prep ·        Seeing a script in advance will let you prep any unusual terminology. Perhaps it’s a sports event and you may need to give a score or a result. You may be expected to lead some kind of audience participation and explain a voting procedure or how to use a piece of tech. Even explaining where the buf...

2022.12.28 – 0727 – Prepping For ‘Voice of God’ Announcements Preparation ·        Ensure you get the script well in advance so you can read and rehearse. There may be words, places, people’s names and technical terms (a trade show for medical equipment, a conference for engineers…) that you are not familiar with. At awards ceremonies, some of the categories...

2022.12.27 – 0726 – Your ‘Voice of God’ Voice Your voice ·        In this position you are often the face, or rather the voice of the event: the conductor. Assess the brand of the events and the type of content you are reading. Is it a corporate gig or a relaxed and younger audience? Your voice needs to be representative of the client, and fit with the brand...