0629 – Getting Feedback On Your Voice

2022.09.21 - 0629 – Getting Feedback On Your Voice

VOICE BOX

Giving and Receiving Notes

Directors:

·        Only have you give the feedback not everyone in the control room.

·        Realise that everyone has different expectations about feedback or Notes:

o  For some it’s “tell me what to do”

o  “Share with me what you think I should do”

o  “This is what I’m doing, is it OK or not?”

·        Don’t give too much information back to them in the first couple of reads.

·        Then, don’t give feedback all in one go, but ‘layer up’ your notes.

·        And be specific

·        At first, gently remind the reader who they are talking to and their role

·        Subsequent suggestions might be around the speed and pauses

·        Then, say, tweaks to tone and intonation

·        And make the notes clear and specific so they are easily understood, so your actor knows why they are doing the read again

·        Keep everything upbeat and low-pressure. There’s no point keep referring to the time left on the studio session or getting exasperated that the actor “doesn’t get it”.

·        If it’s still not going right, then ‘re-wire’ your approach. Consider de-pressuring the situation:

o  Move on and coming back to that part later

o  Take a break – for a ‘tea and wee’ and a chat about something completely unrelated to the script

o  Make a joke out of the situation

o  Re-calibrate the read - read the part in an over-the-top giant style, then as a mouse, before returning to the actual read. Play around to break inhibitions and maybe find gold by happy accident.

·        Be careful about your use of language, especially around someone’s accent or dialect which are particularly personal.

Voice-artists:

·        Politely check early on who of several people in the control room, is directing you: “so just so’s I know who I’m taking direction from, is that you, Maggie?”. This saves studio duration, contradictory information and general confusion.

·        Actively listen to what the director says. That is, don’t just ‘hear’ their suggestions but concentrate and understand them

·        Consider repeating what they have said back to them, so you both know that you have understood (or not): “so a little bit slower on that tag line, and to slightly lift the brand name, yeah? No problem…”

·        Write down the direction, marking your script up as required to help you remember and act on what you have been asked to do

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.