Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

0251 - How To Sound Happy And Friendly… And Sad When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. But what if they can't see you? What if they can just hear you?   Smile and raise your eyebrows.   That’s because smiling affects how we speak, to the point that listeners can identify the type of smile based on sound alone, according to a study by scientists at the University of Portsmo...

0250 - Tone and Your Mood Your natural unforced vocal tone at any moment (and tone is different from ‘pitch’ remember) is partly a reflection of how you are feeling, your general mood, and physical and mental state.   If you feel positive and upbeat, so will your voice. If your car broke down, the dog’s been sick on the cat and your wife is threatening to leave you, such worries will also be...

0249 - A Change of Mood Those voicing commercials or longer presentations such as e-books or explainers will have to work to alter their ‘performance attitude’ during a script. That’s because: ·        The script will call for different ‘delivery feels’ to be reflected within the same read ·        A single ‘mood’ will...

0248 - Brand Voices Earlier we looked at the different kinds of emotional voice tones you may be required to replicate in your script-reading and also mentioned the ‘mood’ of the overall project. Brands often create a ‘tone-of-voice’ for their product or service, to better explain their marketing focus for certain demographics. That could be the design, font and colour of their logo, the celebriti...

0247 - Script Direction More clues to your tone of voice will of course come from the direction both written in your script and from your human director in the studio.   It should also set out who you are speaking to, the answer to the cliché actor’s question “what’s my motivation?” as well as the mood of the overall project (see below) and the demographic of the intended audience.   You...

0246 - The Gravity > Levity Tonal Scale   THE GRAVITY > LEVITY TONAL SCALE Let’s take that inexhaustive list again and re-work it so the emotions progress over time from a serious to a lighter emotion on our Gravity>Levity Scale. This is of course only my interpretation and you may have other thoughts.   You will get further indication of the tone not just from the content but a...

2021.09.02-0245 – Onomatopoeia Occasionally you will find it appropriate to use words which, when you say them, sound like what they mean. “So why don’t you zzzzip up your new winter coat and…” “… and all fresssshhhhly delivered to your door.” “… with the smell of crisssp green apples.” “… relax in the luxurious bubbles and your tension will soak away” “…if it’s a tough job, this is the digger to...

0244 – I Love You “I love you” can be said in many different ways, but if you say it with the wrong tone for the moment, you may be in trouble… There will be clues in the script and the direction. If the intention is to excite someone, then sound excited. If you are talking about a miserable event, then say it in a downbeat tone. If you are using the actual words “ passion”, “excitement”, “adventu...

0243 - The Message Gives The Voice Singing coach Judy Rodman suggests this exercise. [1] Sing or say the phrase “you're the reason I feel this way ” and with the same seven words, intend to send these different messages to the listener: ·         “you're the reason I feel this way ” (you make me happy) ·         “you'r...

0242 – When tonal emotions clash   Previously we looked at how a good understanding of vocabulary will help you as a broadcaster/podcaster, so you are better able to speak a script with significance – and we’ll come to much more about intonation and inflection later. But being a bit of a wordsmith will help you here as well: if you are in a recording session and a director asks you to read, f...

0241 - Twenty-Two Tonal Emotions These aren’t by any means the only emotions which may be prompted by a script, but are here as a sample you can use in various rehearsal readings to explore your range. They are in alphabetical order.   1.      bemused 2.      bright 3.      corporate 4.   ...

-0240 - TONE IN VOICE ACTING Whereas in newsreading you have to be more impartial, with commercials you are quite the opposite: most definitely partial! You want to persuade people to your point of view, to get them to, for example, buy the product or buy into your idea.   The trouble is that many people get so focussed on reading a script that they forget the ‘emotional understanding’ of the...

0239 - More on changing ‘tonal tracks’ A TV game show or shopping channel may also have to ‘turn on a sixpence’ with the presenter’s tone: ·        “ Congratulations! You’ve just won 50-thousand pounds! ” (cheers, applause, music sting) “ Now, are you ready to gamble that… for the chance to win 100-thousand pounds, by answering just one question correctly..?...

0238 -The tonal construct for a presenter There are then certain parameters for a news reader, but not so for a presenter. Those on the radio, TV or fronting a video will benefit from showing more, authentic emotional tone in their voice. But there again there are tricks and techniques in doing so.   First, don’t forget what the emotion is that you want to convey to your audience. It’s easily...

0237 – Tonal changes from heavy to light Serious/sad ­ – another sad story from the ‘universal emotions’ file. A serious tone, perhaps tinged with a hint of resignation as if to say “everyone had not dare fear the worse but…”. If you were reading this on a station closer to this event, and perhaps had this story as a lead in the bulletin, the tone may become slightly more serious as friends and re...

0236 – Rehearse your tone with these real scripts Straightforward tone – Be careful. This is a political story, and even though it may look on the face of it as ‘good news’, it may be that the ‘devil is in the detail’ that the money has already been announced or there are caveats to the scheme.   The government has announced a 172-million pound funding package to train 8-thousand more nurses...

0235 - Marking up a script for tonal changes You can mark your scripts with smiling or frowning emojis to remind you the kind of tone you need to adopt as you read it.   Practicing appropriate tone As I said previously, one of your greatest assets in getting a better voice are your ears, so open your earlids and use them to listen to people around you in normal conversation and the tonal vari...

0234 - Working out appropriate emotional tone When you pre-read your script, work out the appropriate tone for the delivery of each story by asking yourself   “How would I communicate this information if I was telling it to a friend in an interesting and committed way?”   That goes for each item, and the tone may be substantially or subtly different for each one, but each one will be app...

0233 - Your start-of-bulletin tone And a quick thought: many news bulletins start with the reader saying “good morning” (or something similar), and all bulletins start with the most important story. As the most important is often also the most serious, possibly involving the loss of or threat to human life, be careful not to begin your update crassly with a smiley “Good morning” and then a dramati...

0232 - Emotional tone in the news as a story develops over time Let’s take another example. A toddler has been mauled by an out-of-control dog, and has died. You would likely read that with concern. Then a week later, something similar happens to another child. Is your concern more or less than previously. It’s happened again so do that make it more serious that nothing was done?   Good news...

0231 - Emotional tone within a story Beware of tonal shifts within a script.   A story that starts “300-million pounds is being given to…” sounds a ‘good news’ story, but how it continues may require a slight tonal change by the reader: ·         “street parties for the king’s coronation…” ·         “abattoirs to...

0230 - Tonal changes within a bulletin Tone also affects how you read each different story. The top one usually has more seriousness, and the last one a lighter tone. A well-constructed bulletin usually has this kind of flow to it, with a variety of hard, middle and lighter stories. [1]   But not always.   It may be that your news format is to have sports stories at the end of a bulletin...

0229 - Changing ‘tonal tracks’ As a presenter you may be required to present a story about a singing parrot one moment and then deliver breaking news of a terrorist attack. Each of these stories needs to be read in a different tone, which require you to swap tracks or gear from one tone to another, not only over the course of a bulletin, from one story to another, but also within a headline sequen...

0228 - Appropriate emotional tone in the news You would appear to be a robot or psychopath if you read every story with the same amount of ‘tone of voice’ – from a landslide burying children in a school to a tap-dancing ferret. You need to give appropriate emotional weight to the script, depending on its content and context.   Although you should not be wailing in grief over a royal death, or...

0227 - Too little emotional tone in the news The requirement of balance leads to many news readers or broadcast journalists putting an emotional chasm between themselves and their story and such disassociation can signal to the listeners: ·        that the reader doesn’t care about the content - so they can be similarly indifferent to the information · ...