Voiceover technique and your ultimate success in this pursuit can depend on so many things, as it resides inside a complex and also very subjective industry. However, there is one universal key to master if you are to be successful in this business that truly cannot be avoided, and that is sounding authentic. No one trusts a phony, in commercials, or in life for that matter. Authenticity can be achieved through many means, and since this is a blog and not an e-book (yet!), here are just a few important tips on how to get there:
1. Script analysis: the number one most important path to sounding authentic. Voiceover technique 101 encompasses understanding the script through understanding the writer’s intentions. This begins by reading the script over many times until you “get” it, in the same way you “get” a story. Is it a romance, an adventure, etc? What is the mood of the script? Look at the word choices, the adjectives, etc…..all the keys are there to unlock the mystery of what “kind” of script it is. When you have a grasp on the script’s style, you might also have a grasp on the style of delivery that you, the “voice”, are expected to have.
2. Write down three adjectives that describe how YOU are going to sound while reading this script. You base this on what you garnered from your analysis. Examples: warm, strong, sarcastic, intimate, sincere, caring, wry, bubbly, confident. Once you ask yourself to do this you are now one step closer to reading with authenticity, and not just “reading words off paper.”
3. Go through every single line in the script, and allow yourself the space to understand what the POINT is that’s being made. If you don’t do this, once again you are only going to sound like you are just reading words off a piece of paper. If you understand the points you are trying to make, and that every single sentence has a purpose, that’s GREAT – now underline those words that demonstrate your point. Example – “Colors can really affect us.” What can really affect you? Colors. Underline colors. What can colors do? Affect. Underline affect. Now try reading the sentence out loud and put extra emphasis on those words. Try the line just emphasizing one of those words. Then try it emphasizing just the other word. Try it again emphasizing both. Decide which way makes the most sense, which sounds like you are connected to the point you are making. This is your most “authentic” version of the sentence.