Session 1

Hey Gang  PLEASE IGNORE THE LAST DISCORD LINK SENT TO YOU - this was sent to you in error - and this email was sent prematurely so just sending to you again with the VIDEO LINK...Also the Ultimate VO Survivor Virtual Competition link is correct but it was a link to last years episodes (totally worth watching as well) so there is a revised link below everything else is correct but wanted to make sure you had the class link - see you next week

It was great to cyber meet you! I know there was a ton of lecture today, laying down the foundation of what the class will be about, things you will need, and the expectations of you to get the most out of what this course has to offer. 

Video

The video of the lectures will be posted usually the next day after the session. The files do get a bit large as each video is over an hour long so for all of you who missed the first class, please bare with us while we get them uploaded. They will appear on your student portal as soon as they are uploaded.

Class 1 Review

During the first class, we went over the three pillars of voiceover and some exercises and considerations to work on these skills. Those were:

Stamina: Having enough stamina to voice for extended periods of time, and enough strength in your voice for those intense moments during recording is essential. 10+ hour days of recording is not unheard of in the industry and without the proper training to handle such long hours could cause permanent damage to your vocal system. Below are some exercises we went over to help prepare your voice for such hardships:

• Doggy Pants: This exercise trains the strength of your diaphragm, allowing you to increases the endurance of your voice and have stronger air support as well. I suggest 200 doggy pants a day, which should take 2-3 minutes to do. 
• Lip Trills: This exercise helps with controlling your voice and ensure a constant flow of air when speaking. I suggest doing 30-60s of this prior to voicing as a method of warming up. You can even hum a song while doing this for better effect. For people how have trouble trilling, you can put two fingers to the sides of your cheeks. This helps to relieve the weight from your lips, making it easier for your to trill.
• Gasping: This exercise helps you reset your vocal system. By expelling all the air out of your lungs with a hiss, you relax your body, and the resulting lack of air forces your body to take in a deep breath of air very quickly and automatically uses the correct breathing technique to take in this breath. This should be used like a reset button when you find yourself unable to relax or take in enough air for a scene. You should only need to do one or two of these for it to work. 

Reading: We went over the idea of reading ahead and thinking ahead. Cold reads are very common in voiceover and often times, you will only have a few minutes or even seconds to look a script before you have to record them. It's not enough to just be able to read what you see. You should always be proofing your copy ahead of time to make sure you don't miss any up coming directions so that you can adjust your acting accordingly without stopping the flow of the recording session.

Speaking: Last but not least, speaking, is all about the clarity of your delivery and ensuring people understand what you are saying. Enunciation, pronunciation, and projection are the three main points to consider for speaking and works in tandem to one another. Better projection will allow you to better enunciate and pronunciation the words you read and vise versa. Remember that no matter what, voice acting is about audibly delivering what is written on a page to the audience. If your audience can't hear parts of what you are saying, it will effect how they interpret your message.

Homework:

- 200 Doggy Pants Per Day

- 10 CCC Auditions Per Week

- Monologue - Advertising Lullaby (attached): Please focus on your projection while reading this script. Imagine that you are speaking to a gymnasium full of people and you don't have a mic. Remember to take a nice deep breath to ensure you have enough air to get you through the paragraphs (in fact don't feel that you need to stay on one breath throughout a sentence, instead try and bring the copy to life). Feel free to edit and play around to get the best take.

- Peer Review: Please provide at least 1 feedback to someone who has not received a feedback yet on the homework link. Seeing others' feedback and providing feedback yourself is a great way to learn as well.

I have also included a fun quiz for you to take at your leisure.  You don't need to hand this in, but hang on to your answers, and revisit them at the end of this course.  

The Quiz 

1. _____ Do you like the sound of your voice?2._____ Can others hear your voice in a crowd?3._____ Are you a heavy breather or do you get short winded when you speak?4._____ Do people ask you if your mom/dad is home on the phone? 

5._____ Is your voice mistaken for the opposite sex?6._____ Does your voice change throughout the day?7._____ Is your voice raspy or harsh?8._____ Are you easily misunderstood?9._____ Do you have frequent colds that seem to settle in your throat? 

10._____ When you feel pressure does your voice tighten and go up 

in pitch?11._____ Do you have a nasal sounding voice? 

12._____ Do others ask you to repeat yourself?13._____ Are you constantly clearing your throat?14._____ Is your voice weaker in the morning than at night? 

15._____ Do people hear you clearly when you walk into a room? 

16._____ Do other people find your voice pleasant to the ear? 

17._____ Are you animated and interesting to talk to? 

Now that you’ve completed the quiz, hold on to your answers. You will find that many things covered in this course will address these issues. It’s alsoa great idea to ask your family and friends how they hear your voice and if there is anything they think stands out about your voice, both positive and negative. 

This is also an easy assignment:  Just record yourself having a conversation.  These aren't things I'm grading or needing to hear, but they are fantastic lessons to be learned as a result.  So no pressure - just do it when you can!  Do this again at the end of the course and see if there is a difference.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at any time. 

HAVE FUN FOLKS!!

All my bestDeb

[email protected] or [email protected] so you can keep in touch and send any questions/concerns

Here is the link to the AMAZING learning tool - The Ultimate VO Survivor (trust me this is gold) - https://getmicd.com/vo-survivor

Also here is a link to one of my main training company websites'. We teach workshops about once a month (in the workshop section) and we have tons of free educational tidbits and productions/downloadable ones as well on here- https://getmicd.com

And here is a link to my band's newest release "Just a Word" - which is very fitting for voice actors as it's not the word, it's the intention that matters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4ypFzYAPEg - Bootlegged (@BootLeggedTheBand on facebook - www.BootLeggedTheBand.com)