Too much to do, too little time gets to us all with varying degrees of anxiety, tension and stress which all affects our voice.
All voice over artists understand and practice good vocal warm ups, but these don’t necessarily release the tension and stress within.
I've been a voice artist (voice talent to us Yanks) for quite a while now and I have a confession to make - over the years I've become a bit lazy.
I know, I know. You had your head buried in paperwork December & January trying to work out what costs you can put against your taxable income as a voiceover artist legitimately ! If only somebody could tell you what you could offset; and if only you put everything away in a nice folder that you could find; and if only you started doing this sooner.
Audiobook Narration can be compared with Marmite. You are either going to love it or hate it. Just because you are an established Voiceover Artist, and have all the bits and pieces that make up an awesome home studio, does not mean that Audiobooks will be for you.
DAVE FENNOY WEEKEND 2017- by Isi ‘The Scribe’ Adeola
Nowhere was this truer during the two days I spent with fellow VO friends and colleagues and the absolute mensch that is Dave Fennoy.
Dave is someone I affectionately call the ‘Morgan Freeman of video games’. He has one of those distinctive, baritone voices that drips with charisma and gravitas, as well a laundry list of voice acting credits too long to list.
I have often thought that a good voiceover artist shares a surprising amount in common with an elite athlete. Both require rigorous initial training followed up by continuous professional development. Both need to be very physically fit and well-conditioned to fully realise their talent each time they show up for work. However, if there is a place where the elite diverge from the promising in sport it is almost always to do with mentality.
I had the privilege of narrating BBC 2’s documentary series “Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life” (screened May and then December 2017). “Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life” is described as “a landmark series revealing Mexico’s astonishing wildlife, landscape and culture in three distinct worlds – great mountain ranges, tropical forests and scorching deserts”.
Needless to say, booking a series of such quality and large exposure doesn’t happen every day (to me at least).
Twenty years have passed since my first job in the games industry. Back then, development roles were dominated by men. I was the only woman in the audio department and I think there was also a female artist. Nowadays, there is a greater swell of women working in the games (albeit far from a 50/50 split). As such, women now have a greater influence on games development than ever before.
The VoiceOver Network is about bringing the industry together to be Inclusive not Divisive
It is very hard to avoid it these days. Everyone is talking about it, what’s been said now, who said it and why? I’m talking about negative campaigning and fake news. It’s something that years ago we would have been horrified that people would accuse the media of reporting fiction as opposed to fact. But now it’s talked about all the time and no one bats an eye lid. It has become part of everyday.
