No risk no reward

Have you mastered some concept of voiceover technique by now and are looking to up your game? Are you wondering why you understand voiceover technique and still aren’t booking any voiceover auditions? Like most things in life, and voiceovers are no exception: no risk, no reward. Let’s expand on that and see ways we can apply it to reading a script. 
In a previous blog I talked about “clearing the mind”. This“Tao of Voiceover Coaching” article helped you get a better understanding of how to get out of your own way, so to speak. There’s no way the “magic” can come out if we are censoring ourselves all the time, listening to our performance while actually performing, and not sound false, or worse, stop ourselves in the middle of it because we hear something we don’t like. On the “Hit List” to your right, I get deeper into this and how to solve the problem through Julia Cameron’s life-changing book The Artist’s Way. So now you’ve stopped judging yourself mid-read. Great. You are now clear for risk-taking.
So – no risk no reward. What’s the risk you are going to take? Before you can get specific about it you want to do some voiceover exercises. A great one to start out with is reading voice over scripts with no specific intention. Loosen up your goals and your focus and learn to relax by reading it the first time with zero analysis, zero pressure. Stream of conscious. What you are aiming for here is to read the script in exactly the mood you are in, not the one suggested to you by the script’s writer. Get that read out of your system! Do it! Read it grumpy, crazy, excited, fearless, sensitive, powerful – get it out. Get yourself “out of your own way.” Now read it again. This time read it over the top, theatrical. Big. Overly expressive. Loud. Dramatic. Read it again, but this time try some attitude, some edge, some “I am overly confident about this topic” vibe. Don’t worry about sounding too off-putting. Stop giving your censor power. You can do that later, when you have seen how much voiceover ass you can kick when you just read with abandon and take a risk. I know whose read would make my ears pop if I was listening to the casting. And it’s not the one playing it safe.