VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Lizden]

[ccpetersen]

Well there IS this whole issue (which I've run into listening to clients talk about what they want in an "ethnic" voice) of what the client and/or potential talent thinks about they want or can do, and what reality is.

Back when I was first getting into production, I mentioned to a talent agent that I thought using some voices with accents would be an interesting way to add some spice to a production we were doing about a supposedly multi-lingual crew on a spaceship of the future. Next thing I know, she's sent me tapes (back when cassette demos were big, so this tells you how long ago this was) of talents doing different accents. Most were okay or reasonably good, but the one that caught my attention (negatively) was the guy who said in the accompanying VO resume that he could do "Negroe" [sic], Native American, and Latino guys. And proceeded to do three of the most stereotypical and (to my mind) insulting accents I'd ever heard. The tape came with a note from his agent attesting to his "real" sound. I lived in an area where we had a mix of the REAL thing for all three voice types, and I knew from experience he just didn't have it. Yet, I'm sure there were clients who "bought" the voices...

So, what I'm getting to is that this woman may have some of the trappings of the voices, which perhaps many of her clients think are great a nd she's having some success with those types. But I didn't hear the soul of the voices in that demo. I speak here not as a fledgling VO, but as a producer who has over the years made that split-second decision many a time... and didn't always stop to reason out my decision, I just knew that I either liked or didn't...

Now, how to turn that knowledge to MY favor as I try to do more VO... hmmmm...

These are always a learning experience.
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[Lizden]

[ccpetersen]

Liz,

Yes, it does come down to the client's judgment quite often, but your judgment on that situation was spot on.

The other thought I had about this was about the "stereotypical" nature of some accents we hear. Sometimes the piece does call for the broad stereotype, like the twangy Texas accent for a barbeque place or a "fake" French accent for that Yoplait yogurt ad (remember that)?

Case in point: I'm doing a project right now for a guy developing a game. One of the voices he wants me to do is of a wealthy dowager with, as he put it, a "fake" British/American" accent. He doesn't want the real thing (if there IS such a thing) but a stereotype since the whole game is based on stereotypes.

In a way that sounds wicked, but in another way, it sort of opens up the possibilities. I was thinking about "my" dowager and decided that she had married into this wealthy American family from a position of relative poverty and felt that in order to hold her own with them, she had to affect what she thought was the voice of royalty.

So, I spent some time listening to some clips of HRH Queen Elizabeth II on Youtube, etc. to get the feel for what that "voice" would be, and then worked on giving some of the pronunciations an affected tone and a few more "American-sounding" A sounds to give her a more unique sound. (Not to name-drop, but I got that idea from a session we did with actor Patrick Stewart, who told us that after working a few years in America, his friends in England began to twit him about starting to sound American -- he analyzed it and decided that his As had changed...)

Anyway, I put all that together, and while I'm still working on getting her "right", the client is happy with it, even though it's still stereotypical. I know it and he knows it, but it's filling the bill for what he wants for his game.
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[imaginator]

what an example of laying down your own mine-field to walk through!

when i was doing only local radio, i could get away with just about anything (plus, the fact that i was almost always doing comedy or farce mitigated matters slightly). but now that it's relatively easy to get the Genunine Article, i hold back when someone asks if i do dialects. what i tell people now is that i can do "cartoon accents", and if that's okay for the project...go for it.

for one historical costume piece i did on camera, the producers actually hired a linguist to try and teach us how to properly sound "elizabethan". unfortunately, we couldn't be understood by the director! so by the time all the compromises were put in place, we sounded like watered-down irish.

i did another job as a VO in a stage play. the guy was an old coot up on a hill in new england operating his own public radio station. i told the director i was no expert, but he persisted. and since he was himself a new englander, he got a phonetic performance out of me which i literally cut together syllable by syllable. i was so embarassed when mine was singled out the in the reviews as the only believable accent in the show...when the poor slobs onstage had worked so hard to get theirs to work, night after night "live".

accents are fun, but i'd never fool a "native", even with my american accents!
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rowell gormon
www.voices2go.com
"Mr. Warm & Friendly Voice...with Character!"
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[ccpetersen]

Yep... I'm not into trying to "fool the locals" ... I think your description of "cartoon voice" maybe is more like it.

I'm a Colorado native with little natural accent, living in New England, and I can definitely 'hear' differences in the Boston-area dialect even as I move through regions only a few miles apart. For example, when I first moved here, I was camped out in Boston's North End for a few months and I heard a "soup" of dialects there, mostly what I called "Boston" and a lot of Italian. Then, I'd walk over to South Boston and there was this shift in the vowels that was ever-so-slightly different from what I'd hear in the North End or in areas north of Boston or in Cambridge.

For a real difference though, I'd go to Chelsea or Revere... or wow--driving up into Maine... what a difference!

yet, to someone from the west, where I was born and grew up, I suspect they'd all sound exactly the same, sort of like assuming that all English accents are the same when they're not. (I love driving around the British Isles and listening to the different accents... it's an audio delight.)

For another project I auditioned for the client asked me to do a New Jersey mobster's wife. I have NO experience with those, so had to rely on what I've seen on really bad TV gangster movies. Not sure I nailed it, but it was kind of fun to try the stereotype on for size.
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[Lizden]

[Philip Banks]

A couple of years ago a studio in New York needed a native African male voice over. A tribal sound as opposed to urban. Imagine someone sat by a fire in a small hut telling a story to the Elders.

The subject of the documentary was getting water to places where it hadn't rained for months.

Characters voices and accents are :- Grotesques and therefore fun, people sort of play along with the performer but they're not foolong anybody. A light hearted creation but you allow yourself to believe the person exists and finally the real thing. In the latter case, the person is who they say they are.

Fun is the wrong word to describe my ISDN session with the studio in New York, but it was highly satisfying. I forget most of the jobs I'm asked to do yet the memory of that session will stay with me for a long time. A beautifully written script helped me really pull something out of the bag. I reached levels of mediocrity I am unlikely ever to reach again.

[Lizden]

Once again, Philip, your humility astounds me...what's "funny" is that I can SO see and hear you in the glow of the campfire light!

L.
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Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[ccpetersen]

Philip,

You put your finger on the other "live wire" of production -- the beautifully written script. It's an art, it requires patience and humility, and a knowledge of just how the mouth and brain work together to tell a good story. I, too, can see you as that storyteller.. because you believed in the character and brought it to life and the script was part of that

On a related topic, the discussion above about the Elizabethan accents in the play reminded me of my all-time favorite page on ICanHazCheeseburger:



And the discussion below it is a scream:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/02/01/canst-thine-hath-milk-curd-and-minced-beef-sandwhich/
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[Craig]

Not experienced at these things, I thought she was, as we say in Utah, perty good. But thin agin, I tend to put the cort bifore the un-horn-essed harse.

Creg....from down by the crick.
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Craig Park
www.parkvoiceovers.com

[voicy1stef]

To me as well, some of the accents were a bit off
-- but I say well done! to 'Amy Walker' for having a go at it. She had the essence of that soft Irish accent.

Wish her the best.


I think that when we attempt dialect work, we have to train and study and then just take a leap of faith and go for it. We can only get better if we keep working at it!
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Intuit and do it!

British-American voice artist based in England for the past umpteen years. I say, has it really been that long!

http://www.stefsvoice4u.co.uk
Podcast: Positive Affirmations and Audio Stories, on iTunes, Spotify etc.

[ccpetersen]

True -- as mentioned above, the training is essential. I, too, think that she made a decent go of some of them, but not of others. Also of note: each speaker brings a different set of experiences and values to any dialect -- I was just listening to Pat Fraley's excellent "Freebie" lesson about dialects (http://www.patfraley.com/FreeLessons.htm) and he brings out that point very directly.
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[todd ellis]

i wish i'd read more posts before hitting the "play" button.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[jrodriguez315]

To my decidedly untrained ears, although they may not have been 100% authentic, I thought she was pretty darn good. I think she'd do great in video games and cartoons.
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Joe Rodriguez, Bilingual Voice Actor | The Voiceover Thespian Blog