Pic: Karen Herman Wright
Sounding natural, being conversational and authentic is a pretty common request in a lot of the voiceover work I do. Having worked as a radio presenter for nearly two decades and often having ‘reads’ to deliver it certainly became second nature whilst on air. I remember having conversations with people about which radio presenters they thought were scripted and when I’d explain how it worked, people would be fascinated.
Now I use my radio skills in my podcast work and whilst I know it’s an amazing medium enabling so many people from a huge range of backgrounds to be able to be creative, I realised how my presenter background comes into its own. I’m soon to start incorporating ‘reads’ in the radio sense into my show, and working with my co-host who doesn’t have the broadcast background I do has really made me realise what a skill it is, to actually make this stuff sound engaging.
I’m not writing this to blow my own trumpet, which is what it may well sound like. More in a way of, I hadn’t realised it wasn’t something a lot of us couldn’t do. I was on a networking call this morning talking about what I did, and was asked whether I was an audio coach.
I have no idea whether that exists, do you? It has certainly got me thinking!
You see, yesterday we were recording a new trailer my podcast ( which I should be editing rather than writing this for you ) which is soon to be relaunched. I was coaching my co-host through the script, as whilst she is a brilliant fertility expert and all-round amazing person and hugely qualified in her field, give her a script and she finds it incredibly difficult to just read it, without sound like she is reading it.
So I shared some of my tips with her, the main one was getting her to really think about our listener and that she was talking directly to her. That we were sat having coffee and just telling her the words, not reading them..
Several takes later – a few shoulder rolls and lip trills to ease the slight tension as she was winding herself up a bit and we got it.
I think we creatives, be it VO’s, presenters etc don’t give ourselves enough credit for our skills as they’ve become second nature to us.
I was on a networking call this morning talking about what I did, and was asked whether I was an audio coach. I have no idea whether that exists, do you? It has certainly got me thinking!