My Personal Voice Acting Self-Critique
Ever had the chance to go back and look at work you’ve done in the past, only to realize what you might have done differently?
There are only six lines in this commercial I voiced for Leon’s Furniture, Canada, in 2012, but three of those lines, I would do over. I would finesse it and make more natural. While I received great feedback at the time, I would give it a failing grade today. Given what I now know and hear, I would change the following in the first three lines:
- Pitch – like a song, the melody needs to be taken down – the pitch sounds a little shrill to me now and the short phrases need to vary pitch-wise.
- Word emphasis – in order to make the phrases natural, the certain words need to be highlighted, and sometimes more importantly, others “thrown away”, with less emphasis.
- Rhythm – to achieve a more conversational read, the rhythm needs to be less choppy.
Have a listen. Feel free to comment…
“Pride makes us artificial. Humility makes us real.”
Thomas Merton
Hello Natasha. Well, there’s that old saying “conceive in haste, repent at leisure!” But often there just isn’t time to really reflect and finesse, and doing so can even take away spontaneity. There’s lots of life in your nice bright read: you spare us the ‘generic VO’ tone that still fills the airwaves.
I think we all experience the ‘first take’ phenomenon: Not perfect, but in some way it’s more authentic than the next two or three! Remote (or studio) direction might polish a piece, but equally often I feel the result is a bit choppy. You sense the talkback interruptions.
Great feedback, Howard! Thank you!!
Happens to me all the time – about my work, not yours 🙂 Better, best… when is it perfect?
Indeed. Instead of thinking to ourselves, “It can always be better”, maybe the best we can do is know that we are always more than good enough…