Kim Handysides-Award Winning Female Voice Over Artist-Logo

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My Voiceovers

Being Award Announcer at the WTA Grand Slam of Voice Over

My Voiceovers, Voiceover Styles

WTA Awards Kim Handysides is Gala AnnouncerOne of the things I love about being a voice over announcer are the places and jobs it takes me vicariously or in person. This October, one of the biggest events in the female tennis world was held in Singapore. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals Gala Evening. And though I wasn’t there myself, I was there in voice… performing the award announcements and spinning the stories behind each player. This high profile gig was uber fun. I worked with the WTA team both in the US and UK. 

As it was an event highlighting the best of women in the world, personally I thought it was a great choice to hire a woman to voice the awards.  Announcing awards requires a different focus and mindset to most other voice over jobs. It’s a celebration, and we’re all here to have a good time!

Elite Voice Over

elite female standing out from crowdIf you’re familiar at all with tennis, you know the WTA Finals Gala Evening is the big one. It’s a night filled with the creme de la creme of the women’s tennis world, and people travel from all over the planet to be there. I was proud to be a part of it professionally.

Held in Singapore in October of this year, the international event saw many big names and players in attendance. The one thing all of these players had in common is their stories of overcoming obstacles, of strength of spirit and mind, of determination and focus – this is where I, as their Award announcer came into play. As each award nominee was announced before the winning player made her way to the stage, their stories, achievements, and accolades were told. Whether they won an award that evening or not, this night was special. It may have been the highlight of their careers and lives, being lauded among peers, or one in a string of more to come.  

Without heavy namedropping, the WTA gave me the opportunity to announce some extremely high profile names in the industry. And the best part of the whole affair was that the team was so happy with my performance this time around, they’ve pre-booked me for next year’s awards. Needless to say, I’m tickled pink.

Girls Rule… And So Do Our Voices

ladies at Award show announcerHappily, female voice overs in award announcements are growing.  Once, totally a male dominated slice of the industry, advantages of the female voice at events include (still) standing out and grabbing attention. Elements of a great voice for award announcer include warmth, depth and clarity. The delivery must come across as in-tone with the overall evening, and add grace and dignity to the event.

The step away from male voice in Award announcer, may be a step away from the traditional. But it is a step toward more visibility and more representation. This year Danica Patrick became the first female ever to host the ESPN ESPY Awards. While there have been a handful of female Oscar co-hosts (including Anne Hathaway, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn) there have only been two female Oscar hosts: Whoopi Goldberg (4 times) and Elen deGeneres (2 times). Happily, my colleague and friend Randy Thomas has donned heels and strappy black dress numerous times to be the live announcer of the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Tonys, showing a deep, pleasant, stand-out female voice over has the capability to cut through the clutter and calm any possible chaos during an awards show. 

This aspect of the voice over industry differs from others. Unlike much of the voice-over work I do, at award shows, the audience is not just one person. The Award Announcer is talking to a crowd of people. This approach requires a different focus and mindset.

As well as sounding more formal than regular speech, one needs to think bigger in order to sound bigger. At the same time, strike that balance between warmth and professionalism. My voice is there to be clear and articulate, but also captivate and hold people’s attention. To calm and relax nerves, but also amp up the excitement appropriately. 

A Celebration of Stories

The key to announcing awards is that while it is a formal event, it’s also an exciting event. It’s a celebration. Announcing the awards for the WTA was very much stylized voice over storytelling. Capturing the attention of everyone in the room and bringing them along for the ride to celebrate the most elite female tennis players in the world.

Many of the players become known in the media for loud or strange grunting noises or what they’re wearing on the court. But during an awards event, the voice-over helps to showcase their achievements, struggles and who they are as a person. As a professional female voice over artist, Award announcing holds a special place among the work I do. It’s an honor to be hired to venerate people, corporations and organizations who’ve gone above and beyond.

Awards Announcing is a Workout

Performing as an award announcer requires a lot of energy. These formal, exciting events are quite the workout. It requires vocal care: good hydration, great storytelling technique and excellent diaphragm control to bring authority and charisma without blowing out your vocal chords. 

While the WTA may be one of the highest profile organizations I’ve announced awards for, it’s not the only one. I’ve been the pre-recorded awards voice for educational institutions, non-profit organizations, industry alliances and associations, and everything in between. In every instance, whether it’s red carpet, black ties, sparkles and champagne, or town halls lauding the heroes of the community. I am cognizant of the part I play in bringing it together. Vocally, I represent the brand, the event, and the people behind it – and that’s what I love about working with awards.

If you’re looking for a professional female voice-over artist for your own awards event, please get in touch. I’d love to discuss working together!

Why Voice Over is the Key to a Successful PSA

My Voiceovers, Voiceover Business

PSA video for American Red Cross Kim Handysides narratorYour craft, profession or career, presents opportunities to be of service. To give back. For a voice over artist, performing the VO on public service announcements (better known as PSAs) hits that sweet spot for me. I’m currently sitting in a friend’s living room in LA,  here this week nominated for an Award for my narration on a PSA, I’m also struck by the plights they serve. Top of mind now are the horrible wildfires devastating property and lives so close by. PSAs offer solutions. They prompt us to necessary action. The key to a successful PSA is connecting honestly with the cause. When I take on the voice-over for one of these, I feel like I’m helping the world in my own way.

Like any voice-over character I take on, there’s a real art to capturing the tone and meaning of the PSA vocally. Most PSAs tend to revolve around serious and sensitive topics, and so it’s important to come across as believable. If I’m working on a PSA to encourage people to quit smoking – happy, healthy, and excited is not the sound I’m going for. Voice-over acting means embracing the anguish, ordeal, hope and joy of others.  It’s something I work on every day in the voice-over game.

PSAs Are Effective

If you’ve ever worked for a not-for-profit or government organization… or you’ve ever watched TV or listened to radio for that matter…PSAs are familiar to you. They’re not a new idea.

In fact, PSAs have been around the United States since World War II. As an article on GovTech.com states, around that time advertising agencies and radio broadcasters put out messages like, “Loose Lips Sink Ships”, and “Keep em Rolling”. This was done to encourage the purchase of war bonds, for which they needed the help of the public. To do that, they needed to capture public attention in one simple message.

Today PSAs are almost a part of TV culture, and we tend to remember the bigger nationwide campaigns for their tagline or character. Remember “Smokey the Bear”, or “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste”? Both clever examples of public service announcements which, since we still remember them, were quite effective.

The reason this type of promotion is still effective, even generations later, is because they always strike a nerve with the audience. Agencies make PSAs with the audience in mind — and as the audience changes, so does the content of the PSAs. The only things that stay consistent in the mix are the ingredients themselves. A compelling tale told via story telling style by a strong, believable voice over character. Like with much of my voice-over work, the voice-over narration in a PSA is the element that holds the most power. It’s crucial to striking that nerve with the audience. And without it, they are much less effective.

PSAs Are All About Empathy

As someone who works on a lot of PSAs, the main thing I’ve learned in this line of work is that PSAs walk the line between a number of emotions. They’re touching, they’re uplifting, and most of all, they’re hopeful.

The idea has always been to inspire someone to help, or live a better life of their own. We rarely take a negative approach to the matter, and always an honest one. And that’s why it takes experience and character to perform PSA voice-over: it requires digging into empathy and performing the role as if you’re the one affected. The thing is, no matter who we are or where we come from, we all have issues. PSAs are a matter of scratching the surface and getting into what’s underneath. They’re about talking human-to-human to those who may need help or encouragement.

Below I’ve included a couple of examples of PSAs I’ve worked on. Have a listen and you’ll see what I mean about the voice.

Case Study: Easterseals Mission

I suppose the nice thing about working on any PSA is that it’s always for a real cause. In saying that, Easterseals Mission was quite a lovely project, since the company brings such positivity into the conversation. They’re all about “taking on disability together” and helping all those affected by disability to achieve quality of life. The trick to getting the voice-over narration right for this PSA was to convey a happy, positive voice without becoming over-the-top excited and keeping it real. 

Case Study: American Red Cross

It’s funny sometimes how the little things can have such a big impact… and the PSA I worked on for American Red Cross is a great example of this. The PSA itself aims to encourage those with Type O blood to donate. And it does this with minimal words and imagery, and a clear CTA, or call to action. For this voice-over, my aim was to appeal to the heart and to speak in a way that would inspire universal donors to help.

Happily, it seems I succeeded — since the next thing I knew, I was nominated for a 2018 ‘Outstanding Commercial — TV or Web, Best Voiceover Award by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences! A top accolade in my industry it was an honor to be nominated for such an award.

Casting a Voice-Over for Your Own PSA

Performing for a public service announcement can be challenging for a voice-over artist. But having worked on hundreds (and been nominated for an award), it’s a challenge face confidently. Each PSA requires its own story and character, finding that perfect tone and digging into my empathy to tell the perfect story.

Have you been looking for the perfect voice over talent to announce your own brand’s story to the public? Kim Handysides Voice Over is your gal — I’d be thrilled to help. Get in touch today and tell me more about the project. 

Furthermore, did you know I also give away a free voice-over for a charitable event or campaign every six months? If you’ve got a cause to support, enter here for your chance to have me help, pro bono.

Unlock Social Media Super Powers with Voice Over Animation

My Voiceovers, Voiceover Styles

Group on phones voice over for mobile appsSay “animation” and most people think of  series like The Simpsons or Family Guy. Both are definitely hilarious animated TV shows (and contain equally fun voice over characters). But the kind of animations that lengthen website visitor time and unlock your social media super powers are bite sized, often fun snippets that showcase you or your company.

We’re talking about animated videos for your brand. The type of video that, once paired with a voice-over narrator, is shareable on social media. The reason behind their popularity is simple: we live in a world now where storytelling is everything. People don’t just want to buy a product or service – they want to buy into a brand too. They want to know the brand’s character, story and hear the brand’s voice. And that’s exactly where animations, matched beautifully with a voice-over artist, come into play.

I’ve worked on hundreds of this type of animation, and apart from being fun to work on, I also see their value. The internet is packed to the brim with wordy, fluffy content. So now, social media users and agencies are striving to put stuff out there that’s different from the rest. Animated videos are a perfect example of visual and voice coming together as one, so it’s kind of a no-brainer that this is what more and more brands are seeking.

Storytelling is Key to Great Voice Over

I read an interesting article in Psychology Today that talks about the importance of storytelling and why it’s become such a thing on social media now. The author says that humans have always been storytellers. Since the beginning of (our) time, we’ve used stories to both educate and entertain. Whether by rock paintings or poetry, it’s always been a thing. It’s just that now, that thing has evolved into animated videos with voice-over characters.

The other thing to consider is that as humans we’ve also evolved to want more from our storytelling than rock paintings. It’s not so much about what the story is anymore, but how it’s being told. And that’s where commercial voice-over artists like myself come into play. I take on your brand’s character and tell your story to your intended audience in a relatable way. 

Not Just a Pretty (Sounding) Video

Not only do animated videos sound and look good, but they also achieve quite a few goals in the process. An article on Medium.com suggests that whether you’re trying to explain how something works, bring in new customers, or simply reiterate a fact to the database you already have, an animated video is the way to go.

Explainers and videos are important on websites, in fact, people spend 100% more time on a page that has a video. Surprisingly, 59% of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text.  These senior executives aren’t videophiles out of laziness, but rather because of pressures of time (or lack thereof). Packaged, visually and vocally appealing info is quicker and easier to digest than a wall of words.

Another great benefit of animated videos, is their shareability on social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and their ability to heighten your Google ranking. Perhaps the biggest bonus of all is that animated videos do exactly what storytelling was created for: to entertain and educate, at the same time. They use funny characters with their own personified voice-over narration, unique animations, and a quirky and offbeat tone. And by doing so, they capture your target audience and hold their interest long enough to get the point across.

To show what an end result should sound and look like, I’ve included a few examples of animated videos I’ve worked on below. Sometimes friendly, sometimes quirky, they’re always effective. 

Case Study: SAGE Event Planning

Eventsage.com is an online event planning service, and this animation educated people on why their service was needed. In this video, I helped paint the picture of someone getting super stressed with their own event planning. More importantly, I explained why they should turn to a professional service for help. The emotion we were playing on here was stress, which is harder to convey in text, yet risks coming across like an infomercial if portrayed by a screen actor. The emotion in my voice paired with quirky and clear cartoons, however, captures and resolves it rather nicely.

Case Study: Dun & Bradstreet

Interconnected systems by Dun & Bradstreet aren’t necessarily the easiest thing to explain… but we achieved it in this  animated video matched with my kinda quirky voice-over narration. I particularly loved the clean good puns in this explainer video. If you get to the ‘nutshell’ part, you’ll see what I mean.

Case Study: Xpertdoc

This video I worked on for Xpertdoc isn’t necessarily as quirky or funny as other brands’ animations, but it is still an very effective tool for their business. It’s clear, it’s concise, and it informs the viewer of the service in an engaging and easy to follow way.

Need Help Telling Your Own Story?

In my time as a voice-over artist, I’ve voiced thousands of characters. Not necessarily always the type from The Simpsons, but brand characters instead. Whether you’re looking for a tone that’s serious, or funny, or something in between, performing great explainer video voice overs is one of my personal super powers.

Looking for a voice-over talent for your own business or brand’s animation? Contact me and let’s chat about giving your project a voice.

My Voice Over Life: Notes from the Scene of a Shoot

My Voiceovers

Kim Handysides voice over actor on setI choose not to do a lot of on camera work. At least that’s what I tell myself. (And my agent.) Being a woman of a certain age (and waist size) the opportunities are slim. (see what I did there?) But today I happen to be on set as a principal actor shooting a lottery commercial (Lotto Max for Sid Lee) and having more fun than I planned. The process is reminding me of everything that I love and everything that’s tedious about acting in front of a camera.

The Commercial Crew

Is awesome. Everyone on set is a consummate pro with years of experience a scads of credits from the director of photography to the props, to the grips to lighting crew, I am in the presence of collective greatness and the humility of being part of a large group working effectively and exactingly is moving.

Kim Handysides Voice Over acting on set in TV adThe Acting Work in an Ad

The acting work is fun. Running the lines, improving around them, delivering multiple takes with myriad variations on intention. Concentrating hard to make it all fall away and stay in the tight focus of the world in front of the lens. It’s challenging. I find it much easier to  world build in my own sound booth, without distraction, but then as a full time, working all-the-time voice actor, that’s what I’m used to. But the acting on cam, it is seriously not different one iota from acting behind a mic.

The Waiting and then more waiting

This is my bone of contention. Long, long periods of waiting while everyone (crew, etc) moves the set-up, marks the shot, lights it, mics it, touches everything up. We’re doing a double shoot, too. As Canada is a bilingual country, we’re shooting one ad in English, then another (pretty much exactly the same) in French. Years ago, when I worked for the national weather network, the French and English channel shared the same set. The room was divided on a diagonal. One channel (one part of the diagonal) was live, with weather woman or man talking throughout, for 4 minutes and fifty-five seconds. We’d get a 5 second reprieve of silence, then the other language-channel (diagonal) would go live. Lots of waiting. Lots of breaks. That’s TV.

The Accoutrements

At the dawn of when millennials began walking the Earth, I worked on-cam daily in television. As a TV show host, a reporter, a weather woman, an actress. Wardrobe and make-up were part of my life. I’d forgotten how much. Colors and patterns and textures, oh my. Being uber careful not to drip anything down the front of my costume. Watching in fascination as the makeup artist conjured a magical transformation with many, many subtle brush strokes and blends. Resisting tickles and the need to scratch or touch my face ALL day so as not to disturb her masterpiece.

Kim Handysides pulling a face web commercial actingThe Special Treatment

A steward from my Union (ACTRA) showed up first thing to make sure all was ok. “Did you get anything to eat?” Shannon asked. Wow. I usually only see my stewards at the AGMs or Awards shows. But all day, I’ve been constantly handed water bottles, snacks, a boxed lunch. Being led away from the cold stairs (where I’d parked myself to jot down these notes – I liked the cool marble – the set was warm) and parked in a short (i.e. comfy) folding (i.e. set) chair at a table. I forgot about the spoiling. The spoiling is nice.

The Bottom Line

Is the money better on-cam? You would think so, but not necessarily. It all depends on the media buy. I did an hour’s worth of voice over work in June on a regional ad that paid more than what I will get for today’s full day (8 hour) shoot (including the much smaller media buy, plus fees for the 90 min wardrobe call, the two hour rehearsal and the audition call-back). The drawback with on-cam stuff is that your face gets burned (not literally, obviously). I mean, unless you become the spokesperson for a brand (i.e. Flo from Progressive), you can’t expect to get hired and rehired every month for different commercials in the same city. Ad agencies (and clients) will not want to use the same face over and over again. Personally, it’s another reason why I love and live by voice over work. I get to work much more often in a huge variety of jobs.

What’s your preference? On-cam or behind mic? Or do you love both? Got any stories to share?

My List of 7 Behind the Scenes Insights in VR Narration

My Voiceovers, Voiceover Business

Got VR? You will.

 

Virtual, Augmented or Mixed Reality, 360…it’s known by several names and may morph into more before it takes over the world. Statista’s conservative prediction is that the market will grow from $3B now to $40B by 2020. Others in the industry think it’ll be much higher. Orders of magnitude higher.

Virtual Reality Voice over Narrator

SO, have you been part of a virtual reality narration gig yet? Last year I did a voice over acting job for one. This year VR narrations under my belt number about 12. The applications for the technology are endless. Among the work I participated in was a game based on 50 Shades of Grey, two company tours to live on home websites, a grocery store application and a watch-and-learn surgery, as well as a number of conference booths and other business videos. I expect/hope to do 50 VR narrations next year. I, and others working in the medium have come up with sharable insights to think about when approaching VR and its voice over narration. Here is my list of 7 of these:

 

  1. From Outside In to Inside Out

The medium is different than a movie, video game or theatrical production, but has things in common with all of those. So says Rafael Pavon, creative director at Future Lighthouse. Virtual Reality has the capacity to immerse you more fully into the story, feel moments more intensely, be closer to the characters involved. You are no longer outside, looking in. You are inside.

 

  1. Empathy

VR makes the participant feel things at a deeper level. If you’ve ever laughed, teared up or shouted in reaction to a movie, you’ve displayed your EQ of empathy for other people. 360 immersion into experiencing other realities, will sharpen that aspect, making the participant feel what it would be like to be in places they otherwise would never be able to be. This not only requires acceptance – the saying yes so often purported in improvisation work actors undertake– but it requires respect for your audience.

 

  1. Special POV

To date, the point of view VR writers have fashioned their stories around are from privileged observer, no one sees you, and you cannot change anything. You can be an observer who can change things. You can also be a character without impact or even a character with impact. With each special point of view an adjustment in approach is required of the actor or narrator. In essence, it is getting closer and closer to embodying the participant themselves.

 

  1. Vulnerability

The fall of the fourth wall in VR makes users vulnerable in ways that are unprecedented. With VR, we step beyond empathizing with a character who acts as our representative in the world – we become characters inhabiting the space. Meeting this requires vulnerability on the part of the actor or narrator, as well. Astrid Kahmke of the Bavarian Film Center says virtual reality involves a shift from time-based narration of beginning-middle-end storytelling to spatial narration. It’s not storytelling, per se, it’s world-building. It’s not narrating, it’s creating. It’s not linear, it’s nonlinear.

 

  1. Beyond suspending Disbelief

Immersive media causes a strong visceral reaction and cognitive belief in what is experienced. Belief puts the real into virtual reality. Books, theatrical productions, movies, all of these require us to enter a complicit contract. One where we must suspend our disbelief: that what we are reading/hearing/watching is real, when we know in fact it is not. VR gives our sensory input a push off the deep end. We perceive the unreal to be real. The power of the resulting visceral reactions and cognitive belief is profound.

 

  1. First to market opportunities

Companies and institutions that capitalize on virtual reality’s novelty and use it on their websites, in learning opportunities and other forms of engagement, provide their customers/users a more intense experience than traditional media, making them and their brand more memorable.

 

  1. Where the Voices and Narrator Sit

To paraphrase Pink Floyd, in Virtual Reality, the narrator is in my head. There is little distance in the case of characters and no distance between you as the narrator and the user. As such, your voice over performance needs to be better than best. Authentic, genuine, real, natural. Soft, I have found. You’re the angel sitting on the shoulder, the little bird who told them. More than any other medium, your facility in making the written word sound like your very own will ensure you continued voice work in VR.

What have your experiences been in virtual reality?

 

Though most days, Kim Handysides is found narrating from within a 4×6 padded cell, her virtual reality today is from the cold pristine Canadian mountains, on the edge of a lake with sifted snow dusting the ground and a pale blue sky overhead. 

My Fresh Insights Behind the Scenes in Audiobook Narration

My Voiceovers, Voiceover Styles

Audiobook Narration Kim Handysides
(Shutterstock)

There are few things I love more in life than story. Nature, maybe. Water, but that’s a subset of nature. People aren’t things…well, not generally anyway. But the point of this big reveal into story at the head of my behind the scenes insights on audiobook narration is that the tales we tell and how we tell them, whether through aural or oral tradition, wrapped in celluloid, tramped across boards or lining the pages or screens of books has been my happy obsession for decades.

 

Prep and Lead In

 

So with a lifetime drenched in a study of story, how it’s written and performed it was with great joy I sauntered into my first audiobook trilogy this month. A fictional biography to be recorded in a local studio over the next few weeks. I poured over (absorbed, really) the first book on Labour Day weekend and we began the following Wednesday.

 

Day 1 Oh my gosh, what fun! Breathing life into the characters, massaging vocal choices into form, hearing the story unfold like a film through the instrument of my chosen art. I really, really like this. The book is so lovely. So wonderfully spun. I must do it justice. I will. I am so exhausted after today’s session. You expend a different kind of performance energy. I have to take a nap. Two hours later – whew – that’s better. Now to the booth. A job came through while I was away. I need to clear it off my plate so I can concentrate on tomorrow’s work.

 

Day 2 Oh, hurray. The studio sent the first chapter to the author yesterday. She had a couple of notes, but overall, liked it very much. Huzzah! Still loving this process, but I’m not happy with my unfinished to finished read rate. (That is how many hours it takes to complete one edited, “finished” hour) When I quoted my rate for the trilogy, I assumed that I could apply my very tight read ratio to an audiobook read. But I seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time. Only 36 pages in almost 5 hours! Wait a minute. Hmm. Ok. There are 720 on an average page in this format. That’s 26K. 9000 words in an hour. So, almost 3 finished hours. I guess that’s not bad. I’m exhausted again. I need another nap. I never nap!

 

Kim Handysides Audio Book Narration
(Big Think)

Day 3 Pearl Hewitt, an audiobook narrator friend of mine messaged me I should not worry about the read rate. I am reading at an respectable rate. Darn my ego. Making me think my skill at speed was transferable to this medium. Reading news, narration and eLearning even for a couple of decades is not the same as reading an audiobook. This adjustment requires time. Time to world build. Time to mete out the appropriate emotional weight and pause. Plus, I am going back and forth in French and English. Many French names in an English book. Plus, there are so many characters.  I feel duly shamed. I am going to complete this at more like a 2:1 or maybe even a 3:1 rate. This brings my pay per hour down. I care, but I also don’t care. I am happy to be on this project.

 

Day 4 A crazy busy weekend. I worked up a few more voices for upcoming main characters. I need to anchor phrases and lock them into place. Johan, the sound engineer is making samples for me to refer to when I forget how this or that one sounded. Smart!

 

Day 5 What a great day! I am seriously loving this book. Enjoying the characters SO much and feeling of nailing their voice and how they would deliver a line is invigorating. I pushed hard to summon the necessary energy and so was dismayed at the end to discover we’d only gotten through about 34 pages (21K words) in almost 5 hours. I had 56 minutes (finished) of medical eLearning to record later in the afternoon and was again distressed when I didn’t read as smoothly or quickly as I normally would. And took a 2:1 read ratio on text I would normally chew off at a rate of 1.3:1 when fresh in the morning. I guess I’ll chalk that up to fatigue.

 

Kim Handysides Audio Book Narration
(Premium Beat)

Day 6 I’m still unsettled about my read ratio. I am going to convert this pdf into a word doc. I want to try a few new things. Changing the font to something I’m more used to working in (like Calibri) and at a size of 14. I’m going to do something Hilary Huber –at least I think it was Hilary- told me to do. Use highlighters in different colors for various characters.

 

Day 7 A fresh insight today: it’s not about how long the audiobook takes. It’s about the performance. The tension of pushing to get a certain amount of word done per day threatens to take me away from delivering my best performance. Or at least enjoying that process. My ears were sore at the end of today’s session. I wonder if I should bring in my own headphones. We used to do that when I worked in radio. The station headphones got seriously mangled and then there was hygiene.

 

Day 8 Today I figured out that Audiobook Narration is like Theatre in the voiceover world. Most actors love theatre. Above film and television. Above voice work. It’s immediate. Instantaneous. The connection with a live audience is exhilarating. The work is intense and profound. It pays the least (except for Broadway) and often demands the most. In voice acting, gaming and dubbing also require energy and intensity, both highly technical and exacting and ironically and unfortunately on the lower end of the pay grade. The marathon that is a good fiction audiobook performance is similar, albeit less technical in terms of dubbing and less exhausting in terms of sustained gaming energy requirements. A book is this beautiful play that one gets to act out solo, but embodying many characters, including the narrator. Sorting and accessing all those voices, anchoring and locking them in place is the technical aspect. Alex, another audio engineer I’m working with, created a grid of voice samples for quick access today. I also spoke with Serge about perhaps recording remotely with my home studio and using Source Connect or an ISDN bridge. I could save parking fees ($15/day x 10 days) and 90 minutes on the road. That would free up a studio for them to rent out as well. We will experiment with this between book 1 and 2. Not a good idea to change studios/mics etc., in the midst of a recording. Ears ached at the end of today’s session again. Must remember to bring in my own headphones on Monday.

 

Kim Handysides Audio Book Narration
(Squarespace)

Day 9 Today’s session went by so fast! Am I perhaps getting the hang of it? Sliding into the characters more easily? Making the adjustment from one to another with fluidity? I am very conscious of helping to unfold the story in the best way possible. Imbuing the characters with light and life as well as maintaining variety, especially in scenes where five or more converse. Only fifteen pages left for tomorrow’s session and then we wrap. I am sad it’s coming to a close. Yes, this is the theatre of voice work.

 

Day 10 Ok. The voice over narration marathon is over. The book is complete. I feel good. By the end of this intense run I am happy with my performance and understand and have such a greater respect for the energy and creativity required to perform a book. And I am thrilled this is a trilogy. Because I don’t think I got enough of the experience. I definitely still enjoy shorter voice projects. Simply because of all the reasons I’ve always loved them: variety, the challenge of working well within the limitations of a construct and frequency. But the audiobook? Ha. This is a dance I might just become addicted to.

 

Need a narrator for your audiobook? Or want to talk story? Drop me a note in the comments & let’s chat.