An insight into the acting job that got me on my way to a career as a british male voiceover artist
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voice actor
What's the best online course you've done?
By Chris Tester - British Male Voiceover Artist
What's the best online course you've done?
Mine was Ali Abdaal's on video editing in Final Cut Pro.
In just over two hours, I went from novice to someone who could actually put together something that looked - alright.
Yes, it took a lot of subsequent practise.
But getting a clear overview of the key features, and learning those CRUCIAL keyboard shortcuts was a game changer.
The course led to the creation of my Youtube channel,
my own courses on Skillshare,
my video case studies,
my Linkedin video,
my Tiktok account (56k?!)
Learning some basics about video editing also made me a better voice actor. Understanding the logic behind cuts from a production perspective informed choices I would make in my vocal delivery.
And the best thing about it? I watched it all for free on a trial for Skillshare - though I'm now a subscriber and teacher on there too.
So what course would you recommend?
#onlinelearning #videoproduction #elearning #videoediting #skillshare
By British Male Voice Actor Chris Tester
Voiceover used to be male dominated, but if trends continue as they have been in the last few years, it's predicted that female voice over jobs will actually overtake male voice over jobs by around 2025. The received wisdom has always been to go with someone who sounds like the audience. Voice over typically uses the rule of PLU. We most readily listen to people like us. And then we have quite stereotypical notions of what a male or female voice may offer. A deep male voice has power, aggression and authority and that's the reason why Mark Strong, the man who normally tells you to turn your phone off in the cinema in the UK, is also the man who fronts the UK COVID announcements.
Voice over: This is a message from the government's Chief Medical Officer about Coronavirus.
By contrast, female voices are typically considered more reassuring and soothing. A poll conducted by Harris international found that 46% of people found female voices more soothing than male voices. Soothing voices make people more comfortable. And when people feel more comfortable, then they're more likely to trust the person that they're listening to. That's one of the very good reasons why many Satnavs, computer systems and travel directions are delivered by female voices. Now this is partly scientific study by the Journal of advertising found that products that were aimed at neutral audiences or once towards men, the gender of the voice didn't really matter. But the same certainly wasn't true for female oriented products. Psychologist Phil Maclear at the University of Glasgow found that male voices with a lower pitch were usually perceived as least trustworthy, while higher pitched female voices were perceived as most trustworthy. Female voices and not just perceived as more melodic, but also clearer to by where they're processed in the brain. A study conducted at the University of Sheffield found that female voices were processed in the auditory part of the brain where music is processed, while male voices were processed at the back of the brain in what's called the mind's eye. So how does this all relate to the voiceover that you should choose? Well, Nancy Wilson, one of the foremost voiceover coaches in the world in commercial copy, talks about how copy is generally structured in terms of align, escalate and solve.
The voiceover aligns themselves with the listeners problem, then they escalate it so the listener is compelled to act and then you offer the solution with the product. Taking the listener on an emotional journey throughout from crisis to resolution. The female voice seen as softer and chattier most readily fits the aligned part of that equation. Women now drive between 70 and 80% of consumer spending, and the greater perceived emotional intent in their voices helps with that alignment. Demographics are also changing. We're seeing women make inroads, pardon the pun, in a traditionally male sphere like cars with Mercedes.
Voice over: The new A-class range with Mercedes me.
And Alfa Romeo
Voice over: NaVi is no longer blind, Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio.
With 80% of car purchases now being directly influenced by women. Similarly, in entertainment, we're seeing the rise of female protagonists to mirror the fact that more women are getting involved in games as players and as developers as well. But the taste in male voices is also expanding and diversifying too. Often a male voice will simply suit a certain product best. And sometimes you need a Mark Strong to tell you to turn off your phone and wash your hands. But we're starting to explore a more three dimensional concept of masculinity beyond the alpha male. One which possibly even started with the marketing towards stay at home dads. As copy texts in many genres have moved from telling the audience to aligning with them, there are greater opportunities to explore emotional availability, vulnerability, and nurturing tones rather than just being strong and stoic. We're seeing advertisers take a voice which may be considered alpha, like, for example, Tom Hardy, and then disrupting that by making the delivery more ponderous and introspective than you would normally expect.
Voice over: Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We're all capable of it. All of us.
You can't even say that makeup is still the preserve of female voices when there's a whole new industry marketing makeup to young men. So as media consumption continues to develop and change and diversify, it's more and more difficult to make any kind of blanket statements about the importance of the gender. The content we consume is becoming more targeted, more personalized, and less binary.
Voice over: This is about more than just keeping a card safe. It's about keeping us safe. True name by MasterCard.
There are more and more brands looking to use non binary voices because it associates them with a more considerate and thoughtful approach to living and workplace culture. So in conclusion, surprise, there's no simple answer. Think about your product in terms of the wider industry and the target audience. Make the emotion that you want the listener to feel be of central importance. Always be aware of gender stereotypes so you can then play to them or convert them. And remember that tone, pace and inflection are going to have the most influence over your voiceovers effectiveness, which is why you should hire a professional. Why not try demoing a variety of talent not just going with what you think it should be, and then seeing what the results are like. I hope this video has been of interest to you.
And thanks so much for joining me. Please do like subscribe and turn on notifications and I look forward to seeing you next time.
By British Male Voiceover Artist Chris Tester
Whether your game is part of a huge Triple A billion franchise, or it's just you as a single developer, getting the right voice actors to be part of your game is particularly crucial. Especially with gamers expecting more believable, authentic performances as standard. In this video, I'm going to talk about how to cast voice actors. The when, the where, the how, and the what. This will be the first of three videos on the subject, with a second looking at how you actually work with the voice actor during a directed session itself. And the third looking at your relationship with the voice actor after the game is released. How they can help with marketing and promotion, and expand your broader network. So let's get started with the where. Where you cast your voice actors will depend on what you're looking for, your budget, and how many roles you need to fill. Recommendations and referrals from other game developers, voice actors or voice directors is a great way to start. It's a way of being introduced to a whole variety of talent that you might not be familiar with, but which has been vetted, been proven in some way. Of course, a pretty standard route is to contact agents, either voice agents and acting agents and ask them about the talent on their books.
If you have a particular talent in mind, then just google their name and an agency and it'll probably pop up. Or alternatively, just google any major city name and voice agent or acting agent and lots of options will come up to. You could collaborate with specialist audio production companies who have their own talent database. You can look on social media, and especially Twitter, where a lot of voice actors are particularly active. And either put a casting call out there directly yourself, or alternatively, reach out to a company or an individual that specializes in casting indie games. You can google search voice actors and find out more about them from their website, which might be quite a long winded way if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. But if you like an actor's previous work, then you may be able to reach out directly. Or of course, you could put a casting call out on a pay to play site or voiceover casting site, inviting lots of voice actors that you may not be familiar with at all to audition for your roles and seeing what the results are. Now there is no best or worst source of where you can actually get hold of the actors that you want to audition in the first place.
But I would say be wary of making your casting call too broad or open. Some of these avenues will result in you receiving hundreds of applications which you'll have to trawl through in order to find what you want, which can be exhausting. So the more selective you are at the front end, the more seamless the whole process will be afterwards. When do you cast your voice actors? Again, it depends on a project by project basis. But typically, if it's a more character based game than the earlier, the better. If you cast early, then it allows your writers to become more familiar with the voice that they're actually writing for, which will result in a greater degree of authenticity. It means you can have less time sensitive meetings with your actors to discuss the role and you can be a sounding board for each other's ideas. These sorts of creative discussions in the early stages could mean that your time actually in the booth recording with the voice actor is much lower as a result. But if the role is more functional than that's not necessary.
[Voiceover: Now, you will suffer our wrath.]
In which case casting closer to the actual recording time may be more suitable, because it ensures an actor's availability. How do you cast your voice actors? The wisest thing to do to start off with is to delegate if you can afford to. Voice directors will often already be familiar with talent, how to direct talent, and it will allow you to pick up experience along the way through observation. Each actor may need a slightly different approach depending on the material. A professional director can save you time and get creative results that you never might have expected.
Voice over[Troy Baker on Director Neil Druckmann]: We start shooting the scene action and I go straight into it. And it feels weird and it feels false. And we do it three or four times and Neil walks up to me in between takes and I'll never forget this and he says I'm picking up on some resistance. And I said yeah, you're damn right, you're picking up on some resistance because we've got it. It's in the can it was take one. And he said let me tell you what I have. I have a man broken, I said guy his fucking daughter just died. He goes, No, I have a man broken what I don't have is what's happening, this is happening. I can fix it. It's not working. She's going she's gone, I’m broken. And that is when I realized that Neil Druckmann was the greatest director I've ever worked with.
It can be argued that not all voice directors are created equal. But the majority may provide a level of expertise that can prove invaluable. But if it is only you and you can't afford a voice director, then I do suggest that you check out a couple of acting books.
Something like Stanislavski’s, An Actor Prepares and David Mamet's True And False. A crucial part of the casting process is creating an actual character breakdown with imagery of the character, their age, their physicality, their accent, their voice description and biography, ideally. When casting you'll be asking actors to read lines for the character that you might want to actually cast them as. These lines are typically called sides, audition sides. And when you write them, it's important to provide as much context as possible. An actor will say a line completely differently depending on who they're speaking to, why they're speaking to them, and where they're speaking to them as well. Try to resist the temptation to copy and paste some of your actual script for the audition sides. You want to hear as many different facets of the character as possible as quickly as possible. So if that's possible in existing lines from the actual game itself, that's great. But if not, then write a scene or an exchange that actually serves that purpose, so that every single different part of the audition is actually helping you to make a choice.
Depending on how in depth you want the process to be, I would recommend having a first and then a second round of auditions. In the first round, have them a sample based auditions, where you provide direction the actor records them, and then you review them. And then you could have a second round, which would be a live directed session. So either you or the voice director would be working with the actor through a set script, and you could see what your relationship is like and how free and open they are to actual direction. If you have reference points to the type of game that you want to make, then share them. If you tell a voice actor that the game is in the style of The Last of Us or in the style of Zelda or in the style of Doom, then we immediately get an impression of what that world is like and how those characters would interact. Even if we don't, if we're not gamers, then we can go on to YouTube, see some of that game footage and get an impression very quickly as well. Above all else, look for people who are voice actors as opposed to voiceovers. If that makes sense. Many voiceovers may have a beautiful voice and it does also require acting, but it's a different kind of skill set. Appreciate that Screen Actors might give very detailed realistic performances, but they also might struggle in being able to communicate verbally what they would normally Express physically, facially.
Voice over: It has been amusing watching your sea-wracked corpses stumble and doddder as you tracked the prey
Some stage actors may be particularly good at bigger characterizations or multi character parts, but some of them could be a little bit too big or performative. And again, depending on experience, some might have quite a lot of mic technique, and others may have none. All of these things will have a greater or lesser importance depending on the type of game that you want to make. So for example, if you put a filmic Actor in a performance capture context, where they're also going to have their face mapped as well, then all of those issues might not be an issue at all. And similarly, if your voice actor is working with an audio engineer during the session, then then being on or off mic is going to be less of a practical concern rather than if they're recording from a home studio and are responsible themselves for gauging their distance from a mic.
If your project is going to involve home studio talent, then ensure that all of their auditions take place using the setup that they'd actually use. Have the recordings vetted by an audio engineer. Because even if something sounds possible, there may be issues with it. Also bear in mind that you're looking for acoustic continuity, you want to ensure that all these voices sound as if they've come from the same place with a minimum of fuss. And also cast as authentically as possible. It's 2020 and there's enough talent out there. It's not an excuse to say that you can't find it. And finally, for what, how much would you actually pay your voice actors. Actors fees typically break down into two things; a per hour fee, called the basic studio fee, which covers their actual recording time. And a buyout that actually licenses their voice for your game, which is normally the basic studio fee again, or a multiple of it. Obviously, as the demands of a project expands, so will the fee.
How to Direct a Voice Actor
When you take the time to organise a directed session, either remotely or in person in a studio with a voiceover, then it's important that you use that time as effectively as possible. So in this video, I'm going to give you Twelve tips to ensure that the voiceover and yourself are best prepared to get the most out of the session that you possibly can. And by the way, this video will be mainly dealing with corporate narration and commercial direction. But a lot of it also applies to video games. But I will be doing a separate video about directing a video game session as well. So look out for that. So let's get started with my 12 tips on how to best direct a voiceover in a live session.
Tip Number One, read the script yourself. Read it out loud most importantly. Make sure that it sounds as if it makes sense. That the grammar is all absolutely correct. And obviously that it fits the timings of whatever spot, it's supposed to. Be sure to have a clear idea about how certain words might be pronounced. For example, if you say, our company as opposed to our company, then it's a lot more formal as a result. And these are decisions that really should be made prior to a session rather than during it. Or at least you're aware and then you can record an alternate.
Tip Two, clarify pronunciations. Whether or not that's a person's name, whether it's a company name, which is always very, very important, or whether or not it's an abbreviation of some sort. A voice actor might need to practice these pronunciations again and again in their own time prior to a session. So the sooner that they get all of that information, the better.
Tip Three, think about how you're going to divide the session before you actually get to it. You're going to spend 10 to 15 minutes chatting about the approach that you want to take with the script before you actually record. How many takes do you ideally want? And other alternate takes that you have in mind. Thinking about these things in advance, we'll ensure that there's a good balance between productivity and creativity in terms of different alternate takes you can make. And if you've never directed a voice session before, then why not ask the voice actor themselves how they would normally conduct a session and take their lead.
Tip Four, have an agreed way of marking takes. Either verbally or technically in some way. In commercial sessions, especially, where you've got a lot more time to do a small amount of takes, that usually means that you do a lot more takes as a result. And you need to have a system in place to ensure that you don't get lost. So if it's marking takes verbally, before you do each take, or whether it's actually putting it down on a piece of paper, make sure that something is in place so that you don't get lost in the Edit.
Tip Five, what is the status? By that I mean, whether it's B2B or B2C, what is the actual status of the person speaking and the audience that they're speaking to? It's really good to have some very clear variables which you can play through throughout different takes. So if you give the speaker a status of one to ten, and the audience has status of one to ten, then you've got some clear things to play with.
Tip Six, give the voiceover a clear role. Are they the educator? Are they the parent? Are they the best friend or the next door neighbour. If you talk to a voiceover in terms of their role, as opposed to how they should sound, then they've got something a lot more tangible to be able to creatively respond to.
Tip Seven, share reference materials. Whether it's a soundtrack, whether or not it's a particular read from another commercial or corporate project. These are a fantastic shorthand to make sure that you and the voiceover are on the same page.
Tip Eight, be clear about who is giving the direction. In a directing session, it might be one on one, you might have an audio engineer, or you might have an end client or multiple end clients on the line as well. If this is the case, though multiple inputs are always welcome. Ensure that you operate as the filter to the voiceover otherwise, they might get conflicting direction and become confused. Obviously, people in the creative team might have very different takes on how a particular word or sentence is said, but you need to be the arbitrator in the process. So the voiceover isn't put on the spot having to choose between one or another direction to do next.
Tip Nine, be specific as possible in your direction. Terms, like conversational are both incredibly popular, but also extremely vague. If you can talk in terms of the voiceovers perspective and their emotional state and the audience's emotional state, then that gives us a lot more stimulus to be able to work from.
Tip Ten, Avoid line reading, unless it's absolutely necessary. Your time is money. So if you need to make a line reading, then ultimately that's absolutely fine. But preface it by saying I want to try some line readings if that's okay, rather than subtly inferring that they're getting it wrong.
Tip Eleven, Ask the voiceover to do one take for them. At the end of a session hopefully you have everything that you need. But if you do have the time, then it's useful to invite the voiceover to just read the whole script straight through from start to finish. The benefit of this approach is that the notes that they got at the start of a session will have had time to bed down in their subconscious. And now they'll be invited to just give it a natural flair. It's essentially a free hit, but you might be pleasantly surprised by the result.
And finally, Tip Twelve, Be very clear about the delivered format. By that, I mean, do you want the whole session? Or do you want editing takes? Do you want it raw? Or do you want the audio processed in some kind of way? How do you want the different files labeled? And what kind of file do you actually need?
If you have an audio engineer present, then they may already be able to supply all the answers. But if not, make sure that the voiceover knows exactly what it is that you need, so that there's no confusion further down the line.
Okay, so that's my twelve tips to get the most out of a directed session with a voiceover. If you found this video useful and you're interested in more content like this, then by all means, please subscribe. I'll be able to upload every week or two.
Thank you for taking the time to check out this video which I'm sure it's very rough around the edges and also to honey my cat who has been asleep all this time.
Have a great day and see you soon.