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
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