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G’day. Troy Dean, and welcome again to the Voice Over Tips video series. In this video I want to talk about a direction that you generally get as a voice over artist. It’s warm and natural.
A producer might say to you, “We just want this read to be nice and warm and natural.” What does that actually mean?
What it means is that they don’t want you to sound like a voice over artist. They don’t want you to sound like a radio jock. They don’t want you to sound like an announcer. They just want you to sound warm and natural. Here are a couple of techniques you can try to sound warm and natural.
The script here is for a university. It’s, “Start your career at the Grandville Uni open day this Friday, 9 ’til 1.” I’m going to give you this as a radio kind of jock announcer. Then I’m going to give it to you warm and natural. I’ll explain what I’m doing.
First off, radio jock announcer. “Start your career at the Grandville Uni open day this Friday, 9 ’til 1.” That might be something you’ve heard on the radio a lot. It’s kind of ‘announcer-ish’ and it doesn’t sound like I’m having a conversation with anyone.
Whenever I hear warm and natural, I just imagine that I’m talking to someone in a pub or a dinner party or over a cup of coffee. I’ll generally always put a smile on my face to make it nice and warm. I just imagine that I’m having a conversation with someone. Even though some of the lines might not be really conversational, I just imagine that I’m having a conversation with someone. I don’t yell at them. I pull my projection back. I just talk in my normal voice. I put a smile on my face and hopefully it sounds warm and natural like this. “Start your career at the Grandville Uni open day this Friday, 9 ’til 1.”
I might slow that down a little bit, too, because it’s a bit quick. If I want to be more natural I’ll try and slow it down, if I’ve got room in the script, just by putting some pauses in. I’ll put some pauses in after “open day” and after “Friday.” The script is “Start your career at the Grandville Uni open day this Friday, 9 ’til 1.” I’m going to put a pause after “open day” and a pause after “Friday.” “Start your career at the Grandville Uni open day this Friday 9 ’til 1.”
That’s much less offensive than the radio jock announcer yelling at us. Hopefully that comes off as warm and natural. Just imagine that you’re talking to a mate over a coffee, put a smile on your face, and if you can, just slow it down a fraction.
I hope that helps and I’ll see you in the next Voice Over Tips video.