Read The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over Online
Authors: James Alburger
This area of voiceover is often combined with Industrials because most of this work is for business.
Telephony
voiceover work includes the broad range of telephone messaging. If you’ve recorded an outgoing message on your home answering machine or cell phone voice mail, you’ve done the most basic of telephony work. Many businesses will require voiceover for
message-on-hold
(MOH),
voice prompts
, and
concatenation
, among others.
A message-on-hold recording is one or more messages, usually with background music, that are heard when a caller is placed on hold. A good MOH script will contain several short messages that focus on a service, product, or benefit offered by the business. It’s a vehicle for self-promotion.
Voice prompts are the automated outgoing messages that provide instructions to a caller. One type of voice prompt simply asks the caller to take a specific action, much like the message on your answering machine. Systems using these prompts will require the caller to press a key on their phone in order to proceed, or simply “wait for the tone.”
The other type of voice prompt takes the idea of an outgoing message to the level of creating a virtual person having a conversation with the caller. This is known as
Interactive Voice Response
(IVR). The caller is greeted by a recorded “person” who engages the caller in a conversation that will ultimately get her where she wants to go. The caller responds by speaking the request, and the computer moves to the next prompt based on what the caller said. It’s completely automated, but fully interactive. When properly produced, the voice prompts sound completely natural and may even be mistaken for a real person. Ah, technology.
Telephony voiceover has specialized software that allows for the creation of multiple prompts in short order. And there is a technology and language for telephony voice work that must be learned.
Voice prompts are increasingly the first contact a customer has with a business, and there are literally dozens of companies who are eager to provide this service.
Another aspect of voiceover work for telephony requires the voice talent to create a sequence of recorded words or phrases that can be linked together seamlessly in any order without sounding like bad edits. This process of assembling individual recordings is known as
concatenation
. Connie Terwilliger is one of many professional voice talent whose specialty is telephone messaging.
The trick to doing this type of work is to be consistent with each segment and remember what you sounded like when you recorded the part that comes before what you are now recording. Each line of copy must be delivered in context, and with continuity for what is before and what follows. The following script from TeleMinder is typical of this type of work.
Hello, a member of your family has an appointment…
at the Eye Clinic.
at the Allergy and Asthma Clinic.
on Wednesday (include Monday through Friday)
April 23rd (include all calendar dates)
in the morning (include afternoon)
at
8:30 (include all times at 1/4 hour intervals)
AM (include PM)
If you need to cancel or change this appointment, please call the office at…
Track 23 on the CD, voiced by Connie, demonstrates how this works. The first part of the track is the individual lines. The second part shows how the lines are assembled by the computer system. This is a very simple example. Some complex systems might have hundreds of different short lines that could be assembled into any of dozens of possible sequences that must sound natural when heard over the phone.
As you listen to the CD, you’ll notice that the audio quality is considerably lower than what you might expect. Most telephony systems require audio files that are compressed to an 8-bit format. These files are very small, and much easier to use in the telephony computer systems. The lower quality often goes unnoticed when heard over the telephone primarily because most telephones are not designed to reproduce audio much over 8 kHz. One of the most popular formats is the mu-law (μ-law) format which starts with a 16-bit .wav file recorded at 44.1 kHz. That file is then down-sampled to an 8-bit, 8 kHz file during conversion to the mu-law format. OK… that’s probably more than you wanted to know.
Automated Dialogue Replacement
(ADR) and
Looping
are niche areas of voiceover that are have remained hidden secrets for quite some time.
The term looping comes from the early days of film sound when a segment of the film was spliced into a continuous loop. A set of white lines was drawn on the film using a grease-pencil, with the lines converging where dialogue needed to be replaced. The actor, watching the lines converge, would begin speaking on cue, matching his original performance.
In today’s complex world of film sound, the process is basically the same, except it is now done with a video playback. Audio beeps have been added to assist with the countdown. Looping has also taken on new meaning in that it not only includes the process of dialogue replacement, but it also includes recording the natural human sound effects of crowd scenes, nonscripted voiceover, and efforts (the sounds of human exertion in fights, etc.)
ADR is the process of replacing dialogue for a feature film. The original dialogue may need replacing for any of several reasons: the original location sound is unusable; the director did not like the way a line was delivered even though the rest of the scene was OK; or, profanity needs to be replaced for television or air-travel use. In most cases, the original actor will replace their own dialogue, perfectly matching their original performance. However, occasionally, the actor may not be available, so his or her lines may need to be replaced by a soundalike voice talent who will perfectly match the actor’s lip-sync. Most of the major studio feature films will have 50 percent or more of the dialogue replaced—and some will ADR the entire film, discarding all of the original dialogue.
A typical looping session may include a group of up to 20 “loop group” actors. The ADR session director will assign one or more actors to a specific task, or to replace a line of dialogue, as needed. The actors may perform individually, or as a group, depending on the needs of the film.
Breaking in to ADR/Looping can be a challenge as it is a small niche of voiceover work. Improvisation and acting skills are essential, as is an ability to perfectly match lip-sync. “Loopers” must be excellent researchers in order to create the realism for specific time periods and locations.
The best way to break in to this part of the business is to find a loop group and ask to start sitting in on sessions. As a loop group director gets to know you and learn about your abilities, they may invite you to participate.
James Phillips has always been fascinated with sound and voice. From childhood nights scanning short wave radio frequencies, absorbing the colors of language, to formal training in radio and television at the CBS affiliate, Brown Institute of Broadcasting. He put his passion to work as an announcer first on FM radio in Miami and then in Barcelona as a voiceover talent, becoming a signature voice in English on premier corporate films, audiovisuals, TV and radio commercials, trailers and documentaries. Combining vocation and experience, he directs voice castings and film dubbing, ADRs for feature films and the original voice soundtracks for animation films.
There is nothing “automatic” about dialogue replacement. Whether replacing dialog lines in post-production for technical reasons (such as mic noise or unwanted background sound), adding background voices and ambience, or dubbing a released movie or series into a new language, ADR is anything but “automatic.” All these processes involve voice acting and, most
often, working in a professional studio as an ensemble of actors under a director. A fourth area of voice acting in film and TV involves recording the voices for animation, often prior to the animation itself.
My work in voice acting and directing involves these four areas of ADR or “looping,” with a particular focus on full cast dubbing into English of foreign language films and the original English language soundtrack for animation films.
Many countries have a long-standing tradition of full cast film dubbing into their local languages. However, while dubbing a foreign language film into English has not been as widespread, the demand is growing particularly for multilanguage audio tracks on DVDs and to increase distribution and sale of foreign series and movies in markets where English is a major language.
In Spain, for example, where I live and work, more and more live-action and animation films are being produced with English as the original language to facilitate worldwide distribution. The films are then dubbed into Spanish, Catalan, Basque and Galician (the main languages of the country). Examples are
Agora
(2009, Alejandro Amenábar),
Donkey Xote
(2007, José Pozo),
Fragile
(2005, Jaume Balagueró) and
My Life Without Me
(2003, Isabel Coixet). Often the story in coproductions naturally involves casts that combine Spanish and English speaking actors, such as the TV movies
Reflections or The Lost
.
On supervising the ADRs for
Fragile
, numerous scenes called for recording the background voices and ambience with children. A main issue in working with children is scheduling, around their school hours, and complying with labor legislation. It is fascinating to watch how children often have natural (and excellent) eye-screen contact, which is a must for credible synchronization. However, children develop so fast that locating good child actors is a never-ending quest. When you least expect it, a child who artfully sells you a pastry at a sidewalk stand or does a spontaneous reading in a church service, brings the right nuance to your next ADR session.
Donkey Xote
is an adventure-comedy animation feature film about Sancho’s donkey that tells the “true story” of Don Quixote. All the voices were recorded without image. A rough soundtrack was then created and the animation drawn to the voices. About two years later, once the animation was completed, ADR sessions were held to accommodate scene changes or to improve the interpretation. Care must be given to ensure that the color of the new dialogue matches the old.
Full cast film dubbing begins with the translation of the original dialogues into the new target language. Once translated,
the script then goes to the “adjuster”, who makes modifications in order to match the lip movements as closely as possible to the new target language dialogue.
The director chosen to direct the dubbing preselects the voice actors for all the characters in the film. Once the replacement language script is adjusted and the cast of voice actors is approved, the actors are scheduled. The sessions are generally intense, with a feature film typically dubbed in five to seven days. In the past, actors were convened in groups as needed for the different scenes, and recorded together. However, with the increased use of surround sound and other mixing considerations, actors are more often than not recorded individually.
Screen-eye contact is paramount in dubbing. Voice actors must be guided more by visual cues for starts, pauses and stops, rather than by listening to the original voices. As a result, the use of headphones is generally discouraged except for complex situations. After explaining the character to an actor, rehearsal of the first loop begins. The original sound is played back over the speakers and the actor rehearses on top. If the actor is new to dubbing, sometimes I explain the need for eye contact; other times I wait for the reaction when we rehearse without sound and the sudden realization: “Whoa, I have no idea where I come in, where the pauses are, where I have to end.”
You need to be able to retain the line in your mind so you can deliver it while keeping as much eye contact as possible with the screen. The TC (Time Code) is helpful, but you must not become dependent on it. Look for a visual cue to tell you when to start. You already have the rhythm and emotion of the line in your mind from hearing the original sound.
Rehearse at performance volume while listening to a dialogue loop several times with sound coming over the speakers. Sometimes an actor will rehearse mentally, in a low voice or whisper, and then when they go to record the loop, they are way off sync. If you do not rehearse at your performance level, your rhythm and emphasis are different. The next step is to test without sound until the actor and the director are happy with the match and interpretation and the line is ready to be recorded. A good sound engineer has saved many a day by recording the final rehearsal loops, which are often the most convincing.
ADR is a great way for voice actors to learn to work as a team. Whether replacing lines verbatim, adding ambience, recording for animation or substituting dialogue into a new language version of a film, ADR requires concentration but it is fun and creative as you work in an ever-changing lineup of projects.
The term
anime
refers to a style of animation that originated in Japan, but has become associated with dialogue replacement voiceover work that requires matching lip-sync and timing to the original foreign-language animation. Anime is among the most challenging types of voiceover work.
Debbie’s specialty is character voice work for animation and anime. She has voiced roles in
Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, Benjamin Bluemchen, Neverwinter’s Night
, and
Max and Buddy
, among others. She runs her own production company where she writes, voices, and produces a variety of audio and video projects. Debbie is also one of Canada’s top VO coaches.
Anime is an art in itself. Fans take anime very seriously. Many watch the original versions (in Japanese or whatever the language) because they get the true intent of the author.
Have you ever watched English dubbed anime’s like
Dragon Ball
or
Pokeman
? It’s often hard to watch because the mouth doesn’t always match the words. Let me explain why. Imagine learning all there is to learn about creating characters (which is A LOT) then trying to implement that in your session, not memorize your script, watch TV, and match voice flaps THAT AREN’T EVEN IN YOUR LANGUAGE—all at the same time? It’s near impossible!
It truly takes a gifted person to match voice flaps, adlib, and die 5000 different ways. Seriously! Three quarters of a session is sound effects: falling, dying, running, etc. It all must be done to PERFECT time, matching beeps, mouth work and body actions. Anime is the hardest of all forms of animation voice work.
On top of it all, it pays less. WHY? I asked too! They say that the original voicer is the one who created the character and we are just mimicking it. Although I respect that very much, it’s hard to understand, when the anime dubbing work is far more difficult than any other form of voiceover.
If you want to voice animation, learn to act and how to voice anime style. There are a few amateur dubbing sites out there to help get you started from the comfort of your own home, but with anime dubbing, you will more than likely voice in their studios.
Although anime is more work for less pay, animation in any form is one of the most exciting and fulfilling jobs you’ll ever do.