Voiceover Narration

Creating Performances from the Inside Out

Dian Perry

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350158535
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

What goes on inside a great narrator to make them great? This ground-breaking work answers this question by exploring the psychophysical aspect of voiceover. The reader is given a bird's-eye view of the professional narrator's mental, physical, and vocal "machinery" as well as an in-depth look at the underlying currents that power it: energy, intention, emotion, connection, and flow. Ideal for all-from novice to seasoned voiceover pro-Voiceover Narration inspires the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of voiceover performance within each narration subgenre, including audiobooks, corporate films, documentaries, e-learning, and explainer videos.
With wisdom, humor, and personal anecdotes, Dian Perry shares everything she has learned about narration from decades as a voice actor and teacher. Her advice is supplemented by graphics, worksheets, and a variety of sample text for practice. Voiceover Narration is a much-needed handbook that guides voice actors in creating and delivering more intuitive voiceover performances.

1 The Essence of Communication

We humans have long used language to communicate. Whether you subscribe to the theory that it all began with Adam and Eve conspiring in the garden, or cave dwellers telling stories around the campfire, we can all agree that we’ve been talking to each other for a very, very long time. Language helps us to convey information, express ideas, and share feelings. In many ways, we’d be lost without it, but it does have limitations.

Imagine that every avenue of human communication was bundled into a length of fiber-optic cable. If you could slice this cord open and have a look inside, you’d see that language is only one glass strand among many. Spoken words are only one facet of how we relate to each other. We express ourselves through our eyes, tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, gestures, and (whether we choose to or not) our energy.

We are constantly broadcasting (and receiving) vibrational data via the body’s energy gateways. Information about our inner states, thoughts, and emotions is contained within the electromagnetic fields which emanate from and surround us.¹ Unfortunately, since the time of the cave dwellers, our lives have become much more complex and we seem to have forgotten about our innate ability to influence (and tune into) these vibrations.

Over many centuries, we have trained ourselves to focus and rely more on the words we speak and hear than on the energy, intention, and emotion behind them. We have this wonderfully intricate conduit at our disposal, through which we can transmit, receive, and connect, but most of the time we limit ourselves to using a mere fraction of it. It’s a bit like choosing to use a carrier pigeon instead of a cell phone.

Making the best use of our “conduit” enhances all forms of communication—from personal and business relationships to our work as speakers, voice actors, and narrators. But before we get into the actual machinery of voiceover narration, we need to recognize the underlying currents which power it: energy, intention, emotion, connection, and flow.

Together, we’re going to explore these hidden depths of human communication and discover why they are so essential to a spoken word performance. Let’s peer into that fiber-optic cable, look beyond the strand of language for a moment, and see what magic we can find.

Energy and Vibration

You and I are living in a giant ocean of energy. Everything we can see, touch, smell, hear, taste, or experience is part of what Einstein called “the ether” (also referred to as “the field,” “the unified field,” or “the superstring field”) and most of the time, we aren’t even aware of it.² We’re a bit like fish, who don’t know they’re living in water. They swim around, feeding and breeding, without ever being conscious of what surrounds them or realizing the important role it plays in their existence. But their lack of awareness doesn’t change the truth of the matter.

It’s the same with the energy we’re living in. We may go about living our lives mostly oblivious to it, but it still exists, and whatever happens in this immense sea of energy has an effect on everything else. Of course, we’re made of the same stuff, so it makes perfect sense that we are affected by and can influence this field.

Whenever we send out waves of energy—whether in the form of thought, emotion, intention, or voice—we alter the environment we’re all swimming in. It doesn’t matter if we’re conscious of it or not, we are constantly “feeding the field” with new vibrations every second of every day, affecting everything and everyone existing within it.³ We cannot have a “no-energy zone” in our world any more than we can have a “no-peeing zone” in our swimming pool—it’s all intermingled. This concept becomes very relevant when we start managing the quality of the vocal vibrations we send out as speakers.

Energy Speaks Louder than Words

I was a sensitive kid and have always picked up on the atmospheres in a room and the moods of those around me. I recognized early on that the words people spoke and the energy they sent out didn’t always match. For example, whenever I felt that my mother was upset and I asked her about it, I would often get a conflicting response—her words assured me she was fine, but her voice and energy told a different story.

While I was growing up, I noticed many other instances in my family when people said one thing while actually meaning another. Sarcasm is a great way to achieve this, and it was a staple in our house. Humor was also part of our daily life, which was wonderful, but it could sometimes be used as a cover when one of us was feeling anything but funny. While at times confusing, these childhood experiences shaped who I have become and I’m grateful. They provided a glimpse into what lies beneath the surface layer of words. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of my life-long fascination with the energies of communication.

Energy, when charged with refined intention and emotion, is the secret ingredient in authentic communication. Without it, the spoken word (whether in daily life or performance) lacks depth and meaning. Words are merely a mechanism of expression, not expression itself. To put it another way: language is just the transport vehicle, while energy, intention, and emotion are the precious cargo. Verbal communication is essentially the transfer of vibrating energy using the processes of speech and, as you will discover throughout this book, we have the power (and responsibility) as narrators and storytellers to influence the quality of this energy.

Vibration

Nikola Tesla is famously quoted as saying that “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”⁴ This was a profound statement, especially for the 1800s, and one that has intrigued me for many years. If you’ve read anything about quantum physics, you will understand (at least theoretically) that everything in the perceivable universe is vibrating energy. Objects may appear solid but when we zoom right in, there’s nothing physical there. Everything from the atoms in the chair you’re sitting on to the pages of the book you’re holding is essentially just wobbling energy.⁵

So how do we reconcile this with our everyday experience? It helps to remember that everything is spinning. Imagine you’re driving down a country road and a tornado suddenly crosses your path. You stop the car to consider your options. You know instinctively that trying to plow through that spinning vortex would be like trying to drive through a brick wall, even though you know full well that it’s mostly made of air.

Thankfully, you and I are going to be working with aspects of energy and vibration which are much easier for us mortals to grasp.

Sound and Voice

It’s no great revelation to tell you that sound is vibration. We understand this very well and experience it every day. Put simply, sound is air in motion. Sound waves travel through the air (or another medium) and cause our eardrums to vibrate. These vibrations move a series of very small bones in the middle ear which then transfer the sound energy to the cochlea of the inner ear. The resulting nerve signals are then interpreted by our brains.⁶ It will also be no surprise that the human voice (being sound) is vibration as well. Merriam-Webster defines voice as the “expiration of air with the vocal cords drawn close so as to vibrate audibly.”⁷

Sound is a powerful force in our lives. Apart from catapulting us through time (who among us hasn’t relived a moment when a certain song is played?), it can have a profound effect on our emotions. In fact, our brains are actually wired for it. In an article for The Hearing Journal, Dr. Nina Kraus, professor of auditory neuroscience at Northwestern University, wrote:

Hearing is coupled with feeling: In the brain, the auditory and emotional systems are interconnected by feedforward and feedback pathways, and reward-related neurotransmitters such as dopamine are expressed in the auditory centers of the brain.⁸

As speakers and narrators, we have an enormous capacity to reach our listeners at the very deepest levels of human connection.

Emotion

Emotion also consists of vibrating energy. You only have to sit next to an angry person on the bus to know for yourself that this is true. We have the ability to sense the emotional states (vibrations) of others, even when they’re not consciously or verbally expressing them. These vibrations can affect our own emotional state and even our physiology.

Most of us have, at one time or another, had an emotional reaction to an actor’s performance, whether from the stage, in a film, or via the spoken word. And we’ve probably all experienced goose bumps in response to a beautiful piece of music or singing. When a skilled actor or singer transmits authentic emotion within a performance, we receive so much more than just story, character, and delivered lines—we are affected on a visceral level.

But what about those performances when we are expected to be emotionally moved but it doesn’t happen? An actor could be doing all the “right” things physically and vocally, but if they aren’t really connected to the scene or text, the performance will feel shallow. In contrast, when a performer is fully invested and feels what they are doing and saying, then we as the audience feel it too, and our engagement is deepened. To help illustrate this, I’ll share something from my own experience.

Many years ago, I was in a London studio narrating a corporate film for a big company event. It was a call-to-action piece intended to motivate a group of global managers. The visuals were stunning and the music was a powerful orchestration worthy of John Williams himself. While I was narrating, I was completely immersed in what I was saying and experienced strong physical and emotional sensations. I had chills up and down my spine, misty eyes, and a very strong sense of pride. After the recording, I joined the others in the control room to listen to the playback and everyone else reported similar reactions.

It wasn’t until years later that I put the pieces together and I know in my bones that this is true: Whatever energies we generate within are transmitted through the vocal vibrations of speech and into the ears of the listener:

What we feel, our audience feels.

This realization changed the way I would approach every single voiceover project. If I wanted to evoke a visceral reaction in the listener, I was going to have to put my whole self (energy and all) into every read, every time. In order to fully connect with my audience, I would need to do so much more than just read the words and make them sound pretty.

Resonance and Connection

The term resonate is used a lot these days. It has become a real buzzword, as in “That idea really resonates with me” or “I really resonated with what that person said.” But what does it actually mean? Merriam-Webster defines resonate as: “to relate harmoniously; strike a chord.”⁹ In other words—to make a connection.

Whenever we speak to anyone in any capacity, our primary goal is always to connect with them on some level. We want our audience to absorb, understand, and respond to what we’ve said. We may wish to evoke a certain emotion, encourage an individual or group to take a particular action, learn something new, or simply relax and allow themselves to be entertained. Wha...