Bruce Carey Blogs about Sound and Audio

Siobhan Thompson talks about diverse British dialects in her “One woman, 17 accents” Anglophenia episode of her video blog on YouTube. She is good! And she’s a blast.

In the mid-90’s, I had a morning show on ABC Radio Networks that went via satellite to 61 markets. I was lucky enough to go to the U.K. on my employer’s dime to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the Beatles first album release.  For ten days, we walked the streets of London, recording shows and interviews from places like Abbey Rd, Parliament, Pickadilly, Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner, pubs, you name it. At the end of each day, we would go to Capital Radio and upload the show back to ABC.

I’ve always been a mimic and done impressions- that was a big part of the show- and I was amazed at the diversity in accents in London alone. I’ve since made friends with people from Leeds, Edinburgh, Cornwall and Devonshire. It took me a while to tune my ear to know what they’re saying. Glaswegian is the toughest for me. It would be a lot more convenient if people from Glasgow came with subtitles. But that’s just me. I wish dogs could talk and I believe in Unicorns.

My co-host was Brain the Butler, a London native who worked at the network with me and later, on San Francisco radio. He was the perfect guide. We’d be riding on the top of a double decker bus with the digital recorders going and our mics and he’d say, “That’s St. Clemens. My dad was in the RAF and that was our chapel. We used to sing ‘Oranges and lemons, the bells of St. Clemens.’” Or we’d drive by a park and he’d say, “When I was eighteen, I worked on a BBC mobile crew and that’s where we shot Monty Python’s ‘Ministry of Funny Walks’ ” Brian’s a fascinating guy and really helped me identify the various London dialects.

We hit the streets early, walking 10 or 12 miles a day, fueled by bad pub food and strong English tea. We spent an entire day at the British Museum, looking at the Magna Carta and Beatles manuscripts. I said to one of the docents, “Man, you have a ton of Egyptian artifacts, here.” He said, “Oh this is nothing. Most of it’s not even on display. You should see what’s in the basements!”

We got a huge sampling of the diversity of accents. North London, Cockney, etc. “RP” or Received Pronunciation is what Brian spoke. Siobhan talks about these in her video. She makes it look and sound easy.

It’s like here in America. You can almost chart dialects like a weather map. Rolled R’s toward the East- the closer you get to England and our language’s roots. Softer in the coastal South, more twangy in the deep South, sharper and harsher in the NE

To do a dialect, we have to be able to hear the dialect. You know, sensitize the ear and really listen. Is he rolling his R’s? Is there a diphthong? Nasality? A deliberate lisp like Castilian Spanish? What are the components? That’s the key. Being able to identify and reproduce the physical components. Not everyone can do that. Siobhan Thompson is really good at it.

So, by the end of our trip, I could clearly identify about ten distinct London dialects. We took the Tube to Ealing one day, a suburb west of London to interview an author. He was Bill from Liverpool, who supposedly was the guy who introduced John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Who knows. We met him in a mall at 10 am. The first thing he said was, “Hey man, can I get a glass of wine?” He loosened up pretty quickly. It was a great interview. We got thrown out of the mall.

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As I’ve said, interpreting a script is always more than just saying words on a page. That’s just the external part. But we do have to practice externally a little bit so we can say the words without tripping. Why? When we speak extemporaneously, here’s the writer – he said, pointing to his brain; here’s the speaker – he said, pointing to his mouth, and there’s no disconnect between the two. If there is, you need to see a neurologist.

But with someone else’s words, an extra step is added. Our eyes have to see the script, our brain has to process it, understand it and fire the right fine muscle motors to enunciate it. So, I’m going to suggest you read the words out loud at least three times.

Once, somewhat slowly for comprehension. Because we can never communicate that which we don’t first understand ourselves.

Second, for enunciation. Really open your mouth and cross every “t” and dot every “I”. Physically exaggerate. We’re creating muscle memory here.

Third, flat and quickly to reinforce step two. So, once for comprehension, once for enunciation and once to reinforce the muscle memory.

It’s like driving a race course for the first time. You have to go slowly at first and learn where the turns are so you don’t spin out and hit the fence.  This frees us up to focus on the next task at hand, preparing the script internally by creating a scene.

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Part one of a series that talks about the entire process, the components and the skills that allow the voice over actor to Create a Compelling Scene

The script is just a starting point in our craft. Black words on a white page. Just “the shell.”

The words of a script are the be all and end all – for the writer and the agency that got it finally approved by the client. For voice actor, the script is never simply about manipulating words on a page with your voice. There’s a scene to be created.

It may look like a monologue. But, it’s always a dialogue. A conversation.

There are always imaginary friends with you in the booth. You’re not alone in there.

And you have to have the creativity to hear these other character’s questions, answers and feedback in your head as you perform.

BUT, before you can create and communicate the scene, you have to understand what’s being said and why.

Understanding STRUCTURE helps you understand the meaning. For instance, a common commercial structure is: Problem >Solution>Call to Action. It’s a progression.

Problem: You can’t get a good night’s sleep.
Solution: You run into your neighbor at the supermarket and he says, “I got the new Sleep Atomic bed and now I sleep like a baby!”
Call to Action: “So where do I get one?” “You can get it at any Big Box Store or call 877-555-1212.”

A script is often presented in three Acts, often broken down into three Scenes per Act.
& sometimes finished with a “Button Line” that is ironic, comedic or simply observational.
Sometimes you’ll say to the producer, “I know what I did on the audition, but now that we’re doing it for real, what are you looking for here?” And she will say,

“It’s on the page.”

By this she means that the piece is written well enough and contains enough information or clues about who, what, why, where -that you should be able to figure it out.
The converse is – when it’s not on the page! Meaning it is not very well written and there are not a lot of clues and you have to work extra hard to create a compelling scene.

Regardless of how well the script is written you have to figure out the structure.

Once you understand the STRUCTURE of the script, you have the basic framework to begin developing a character, asking the actors questions and creating a compelling scene.

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People are always asking me what I mean by “internal” and “external” when I teach my voice over classes. Great voice over, counterintuitively, is not about the voice.

“Whaddaya mean, voice over is not about the voice?! It’s VOICE over, Bruce! Of course it’s about the voice.”

In truly compelling voice over, the voice does not lead. You move through a scene with your head and heart and the voice follows. When you move voice first, you are operating externally.

When you move head and heart first, you are operating internally – from the inside, out.

To move externally, is to manipulate your voice without really feeling or understanding what is actually going on in the scene. Sooner rather than later, a really good writer or producer will challenge you in a way you are not prepared for. I hear a lot of broadcasters moving externally.

Take the game of Chess

If you don’t understand what’s really going on, you think it’s a game of moving pieces on a board. But it’s not. That’s only the external. What’s really going on is strategy. Chess is about strategy, which is internal, hidden. If you don’t understand that, then you think it’s a game of simply moving little pieces on a board, which can be very deceiving.

Same with voice over

Let’s focus on the actor inside, not the voice outside. It’s not about manipulating your voice. It’s never just about words on a page. These are the external things. Compelling voice over is about the internal world you are creating and living in. It’s about being in a scene and filtering someone else’s words through your own experience and emotions and sending them out the old pie hole spun with your particular emotions and point of view. This is the real work. The real work is Oral Interpretation. And that’s very different from a great set of pipes. You can buy a fantastic musical instrument – a Stradivarius violin. But playing it? That’s another matter entirely. Voice acting, like any fine performance, is an internal art.

“That’s not a recording booth, it’s a scene.
That’s not a microphone, it’s someone’s ear.”
~ Bruce Carey

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