[Will-Reierson]

Hey Logan, a couple of thoughts.

You may find it helpful to change your mindset around what you’re trying to accomplish with your reads. “Sounding like a commercial” is a very broad statement and doesn’t give you a lot of room to play because we all have our own idea of what a “commercial” sounds like. For some it’s Superbowl ads, for others, it’s late-night “buy it now” tv. Instead, I’d suggest thinking in terms of performance. A good commercial read is based on a good performance, and there are criteria that must be met in order to accomplish that.

A good performance consists of a couple of things:

1. Connection with the copy (i.e. believing what you are saying, getting in character, etc.)
2. Risk (willingness to push boundaries and try new things)
3. Connection with the listener (realizing that someone is listening to what you are saying and you are speaking to them, not reading a script)

Those are the three main building blocks. If you want to add some extra spice, throw in:

4. Joy (it’s easy to hear in a person’s voice if they are happy to be doing what they’re doing. Being happy will naturally make your reads better, even if you’re playing an unhappy character)
5. Love (the listener – especially if it’s a commercial – often has a problem that needs solving. They want to know that they’re in good hands, that they can trust you, that you care about them)

With this in mind, I think your best line in this script was “Now if he could only operate the microwave” because you sounded like you were invested in this guy. Maybe you’re his roommate, or his brother, or even his husband. It really doesn’t matter; the point is that your delivery added some subtext and created a level of depth that the rest of the script lacked a little. It felt like you really know this guy, and that you’re amazed that in spite of him being capable of all these amazing things, he still can’t get the darned microwave to work.

I’m not saying that the whole script has to be read like that. Like Hazaro said, this script is very much “Movie Trailer” in its style, and it would make sense to approach it that way. What I’m saying is that voice acting is more than reading a script: it’s performing. You’re taking the words on the page and not just making them sound like they are your own words, but making us genuinely believe that YOU are the one saying them. The best voice-over is the one that the listener doesn’t even notice. If they notice it, it means they’re picking up on something being off. Yes, varying your pitch will make it sound more natural, and it’s important to learn how different inflection patterns convey different meanings, but doing that is – in my mind – going about things a bit backward.

You already know how to sell something. If there’s a brand of clothing that you’re a big fan of and your friend says they need some new shirts, you’re going to tell them all about why your favorite clothing brand is the best freaking clothing brand in the world and why it’s perfect for them. You’re not trying to sell it, you’re telling them because you’re passionate about it, because you love your friend, and you want to help them. THAT is what commercial voiceover is, and if you can tap into that authenticity that you already are able to produce, then the rest will come easily. You won’t need to worry about pitch because you’re focused on being real. You don’t think about your pitch in day-to-day life, do you? Of course not! You communicate your thoughts naturally based on your relationship with your conversation partner and what you want for them. Pitch, timing, prosody, and diction don’t come into it.

I’m not saying that those things aren’t important! They are, and there are certain things that are appropriate in different markets; British voiceover is much more structured than American voiceover. Your prosody and pitch do matter. You need to be able to speak clearly.

What I’m saying is that they aren’t the be-all-end-all, and they – in my opinion – shouldn’t be your end goal. You’ll hamstring yourself into delivering technically perfect reads that lack life because the performance has become an algorithmic process based on pausing at the right place and inflecting down on the correct word. Instead, have your end goal be delivering knock-your-socks of performances, and let the tools of pitch, timing, and diction serve that goal.

Keep it up! You’re doing great 🙂

[Will-Reierson]

If your coach is telling you to focus on pronunciation, I’d listen to them. I’ll just add a couple of my own thoughts/opinions.

Firstly, pronunciation is important, but only to a point. Having perfect diction will not serve you if you’re trying to connect with a listener or have them believe what you’re saying. Nobody speaks perfectly, and so hearing someone with perfect diction subconsciously makes the listener disconnect from what is being said. If you’re speaking to someone from North America that hasn’t been raised in the upper echelons of society (most people), chances are that you’re going to hear them say “yer” and “fer”, not “your” and “for”. Focusing on pronouncing things correctly is important if you’re just starting out and don’t have control over how you are saying things. Once you have control, then you can start making intelligent decisions (based on the character) as to how refined your speech is going to be.

In the same way, pitch/timing is only important to a point. Focusing on pitch is helpful as a teaching tool, but not beyond that. Learning about pitch and timing teaches us to think about how we say things, and how different prosody patterns affect the meaning of what we’re saying. Once that is understood, however, pitch/timing becomes a stumbling block. I can promise you that Al Pacino doesn’t think about pitch when he’s acting. He’s thinking about the character- correction, he is BEING the character. That is his focus, and through that, his performance comes naturally.

[Will-Reierson]

Your diction is good. You do get hung up in a couple of places (on “to free patients to live better lives” and the pause between “for more than a decade” and “Acclerant”) but overall you’re solid.

You’ve got some serious plosives going on with your P’s so make sure that you’re recording slightly off-axis from the microphone to avoid those.

“Conversational” is something that I feel a lot of people (particularly people doing the hiring) don’t understand. “Conversational” means having a conversation. If I ask you “what’s in your living room?” you’re not going to give me a perfectly delivered pat answer. You’re going to have to think about it. You’re going to pause in weird places to breathe, skip commas, ignore periods, say “uh” and “um”, speed up and slow down depending on how fully formed your thoughts are. What you’re NOT going to say is “I’ve got a couch and a side table, as well as a rug and a coffee table. The TV sits on a black TV stand which sits to the left of the bay window.” People say conversational and think it means “casual”. As far as I’m concerned, those are two drastically different things. Casual means relaxed and not up-tight, conversational means you’re having a real conversation with someone.

I’m guessing when you say conversational you’re thinking “casual”. Casualness can be conveyed by speed (the faster the delivery, the more “casual” it will sound) and by letting your enunciation slide a bit (blending words together in some places, saying “tuh” instead of “too”, “what’d” instead of “what did”, “fer” instead of “for”.

The biggest thing however that I feel almost everyone misses (including myself) is connection with the listener. Unless a script is expressly written as a speech, the unspoken intent is that you’re having a dialogue with the listener. You aren’t monologuing. Throughout the script, the listener is asking you unspoken questions and you are answering them. At the start of the “Accelerant” script, the listener could be saying “Man, I’m sick and tired of this sinusitis. It’s ruining my sleep, and my performance at work is dropping. I’m literally losing my mind.” Or perhaps it’s an ENT doctor and they’re saying “I’ve got a bunch of patients that are struggling with sinusitis so if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.” Find the questions, the pleas for help, and answer them. Your reads will improve ten-fold if you can do this.

Keep it up!

[Author]

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