As some of you know, I have recently landed a voice acting part on one of my studio’s animated shows. I’m proud of myself for trying out in the first place, and frankly astonished that I got the part. (And even more astonished that they seem to be serious about me keeping it.) Today was my first official recording session.
Up until now, I’d never done any acting (unless you count a few decades of role-playing games). I wasn’t even considering this acting; it’s voice acting, after all. You just use your voice, right?
Wrong!
One of the first things I learned was that the more you act out the part, the more believable your voice is. I saw proof of this over and over again during the last few days of auditions, and during the last year of watching David (star of Slangman’s World) perform about 12 different voices. The more you can get physically into the part, the better your voice will be. In fact, it’s a helluva lot like “real” acting after all.
The scary thing about voice acting, for me, is the constant fear that I won’t be able to “find” the character’s voice again. You do certain things in order to get a specific voice, and every time I’m about to speak, I’m afraid I’ve lost the voice. I ended up finding one line of dialogue that seems to act as a trigger for the voice. Apparently, this is called a “hook line.” I feel very silly saying this line before I can perform a new section of the script, but I need it, so I’ll do it. One of the other actors said to me, “Whatever it takes, you do it.”
So, I stood in the sound room, in front of an expensive microphone and wearing a pair of big headphones, and read — no, performed — my lines. I did them slow, I did them fast, I did them with more and more energy. And I loved every single minute of it.
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| From 2009 Photobook |
That sounds like so much fun! Congrats!
Very cool–and that's a great picture of you!
I'm doing my first reading next month, and while it's not "acting" per se, I know I need to make sure it's interesting, that my voice indicates the characters and emotions. Eep! ;-)
That's awesome.
I only hope that when you go all Orsen Wells on them that somebody is around and recording it…
Fantastic. Voice acting is something I've always wanted to do — and there seems to be no shortage of work in that field, between animation and games and whatnot. You're just spreading your wings in all kinds of directions, aren't you?!
You do look very happy in that picture. I sounds like an amazing experience, please keep telling about it so we can live it along with you. I'm very happy for you and proud of you. :-)
That's awesome! You rock. I can't wait to see this show… :)
Thanks, guys! Yeah, I am eating up all these new experiences and opportunities with a big spoon. Who knows how long I'll be in LA? While I'm here, I might as well gobble up as much of the experience as I can, right?
I've been listening to Comic Con lectures on voice acting, and my first book on the subject arrived today. Looking forward to imbibing as much as I can about this field!
If my world had turned a little differently, I'd have had a career in looping. Voice acting. I did a few japanese cartoons when I was in my early 20's – but it ended up a bad scene for me.
Good for you! Do enjoy – it is a ton of fun!
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