The Mic Guy: Adventures in Voiceover

I had an infinitely better Friday this week than last.

Today’s VO workshop was busy, busy, busy. I had six — count ’em, six — opportunities in the booth today, and while I don’t know that any of the six displayed my finest work, all of them flowed more easily and less painfully than anything I did seven days ago.

I even got one “strongest read in the group” from Samantha, albeit on a piece of copy on which she described our collective work with adjectives including “horrible” and “atrocious.” So I’m sure exactly how much of a compliment that was.

More importantly, though, I regained much of my customary ease in front of the microphone. I still found myself fighting my copy a few times, but today these were minor skirmishes as opposed to the pitched battles of recent weeks. As I listened to my playbacks, I never felt like cringing. I wasn’t pounding myself on the back with self-admiration, but I wasn’t kicking myself in the groin either.

Progress is progress.

A few excerpts from today’s “notes to self”:

• Remember that in commercial reads, even an angry character needs to be likable. I struggle to find the happy medium between a sufficiently strong emotional choice, and one that pushes the envelope too far.
• Even when my “levels” were off, I liked the choices I made today. A couple of times, my choice didn’t work as well as it might have due to poor execution. But I’m still glad that I made the specific choice.
• Relax, relax, relax. The words are less important than the performance. Let go, and let God.
• As much as I enjoy hearing — and frequently, learning from — the work of my peers, I’m glad that I do what I do. I’m learning to love my instrument, which is a major step forward for me.

At this juncture, I’ll take all of the steps forward that I can get.

I took positive note of how much easier it is to work when I’m well-rested physically. Last weekend came at the end of a stressful and exhausting stretch of days. Today, I stepped into the booth armed with a solid night of sleep. A world of difference.

I can’t yet say that my mojo is back, but I can hear its footsteps. And for a change, they’re getting louder.

This entry was posted on April 3, 2009 at 8:35 PM and is filed under Reflection, Voice acting, Voiceover, Voicetrax, Workshops. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.