Using Your Diaphragm and Script Reading as a Voice-Over Artist
Posted by Kay Stanford Jr Kastum at 1:19 AMWhen you're listening to the radio while driving your car, do you keep it on one station, or do you flip through different channels? What makes you stop -- a favorite song, the latest breaking news, or perhaps a commercial that really grabs your attention? If the voiceover talent reading the script is doing a great job in acting the part, then you may stop because the topic sounds exciting or relate-able. A good voiceover actor really brings a script to life!
Voiceovers can be a fun, flexible and an incredibly lucrative career! Last year, the industry grew 7% to $11.7 billion! Having a "marketable voice" is definitely important in voiceovers but there's a lot more to it than that. Voiceovers are voice acting. You need to do more than just read the words on the page. Before you read a script, you want to ask yourself a few basic questions that will help you analyze the product, as well as understand your listener.
1) What audience is the script intended for?
2) How can you connect with the product? Because voiceovers are voice acting, think about personal experiences that you can relate to. If you can't relate to it, how can you pretend (aka, act) to relate to it?
3) Understanding the emotion of the script is very important to be able to bring it to life. Ask yourself what the emotion will convey the message of the script.
4) Who do you know who you can picture while reading this script? If you can't personally relate to it, then who (as the actor in this situation) are you picturing that you're talking to? Visualization is very important in voiceovers!
There is always a big-picture reason for reading the script, other than being hired by a client for the voice over job! You can have the best voice in the world, but if you sound like you're reading, you're probably not going to book the job.
Analyzing copy, which is another name for a voiceover script, is very important in voiceovers. Another important skill to master is breathing! Using proper breathing techniques as a voice actor is critical in helping you sound natural and conversational. When you're reading a script, you should never sound like you're running out of air. When we start running out of air while we're talking, we just take a breath before the lack of air is even noticeable. Therefore, when you're doing voiceovers, breathing properly and breathing in the correct places within your script are essential skills to hone.
When breathing properly as a voice actor or singer, you need to intentionally use your diaphragm. By intentionally engaging your diaphragm, it will give you the ability to control your breath will result in more natural sound. It will also help with reading through complete phrases and give you better stamina for longer reads.
How to take a diaphragm breath:
1. Raise your arms up over your head and lower them gently while keeping your ribs raised. This isn't needed to take a diaphragm breath but helps pre-set your body when you're learning how to do it properly.
2. With your hands slightly above your waist position your finger tips so they're towards your belly button and your thumbs on your back. Also, not needed to take a diaphragm breath but it will be a good indicator if you're doing it correctly.
3. Once your hands are in place and your ribs are raised, then focus on taking a low, deep breath. This will feel more like a "filling up like a balloon" sensation, or a downward motion, instead of filling your lungs up with air. When you take this breath, make sure that your shoulders do not move up. In actuality, your stomach should move OUT when you INHALE and move IN when you EXHALE. This is very similar to how a baby's stomach moves while it is sleeping.
4. In addition to seeing your stomach move and feeling the motion on your finger tips, you should also feel a slight movement in the palms of your hands as your entire diaphragm is moving outward. If you were to study your body while you're taking a proper breath, the front, sides and back of your lower torso should be moving with each breath that you take.
5. Here are some exercises that you can practice to help learn how to breathe with your diaphragm:
a) Sit down on a chair with your legs together in front of you. Then bend over so that your chest is touching the top of your legs. Let your arms hang down towards your feet and take a low deep breath. Focus on feeling your stomach moving against your legs.
b) Lie down on your back, flat on a floor or bed with your arms at your sides. Take a low breath and then focus on your stomach moving upward when you inhale, downward when you exhale.
c) A third exercise is to lie face down on a large ball and curl your body over it with your arms hanging around the ball, like you're hugging it. You should position yourself so that your stomach is primarily making contact with the ball, not your chest. Then take a low, deep breath and focus on feeling your stomach move outward against the ball when you inhale.
Breathing properly is very important in voiceovers, but so is knowing where exactly to breathe. You want to make notations in your script ahead of time telling you where you should breathe so you don't accidentally run out of air. When notating your script, you want to keep in mind natural phrasing and conversational pauses as well.
You can use whatever notations work the best for you to show breath. Often times voiceover talent will mark a breath by using a mid-air comma (like a musical breath notation), or a line like this | or this / You can also draw a long, continuous line in an arch shape over the words you want to notate NOT to breathe in between.
So grab some copy, a pencil and remember to breathe.
Voiceovers can be a fun, flexible and an incredibly lucrative career! Last year, the industry grew 7% to $11.7 billion! Having a "marketable voice" is definitely important in voiceovers but there's a lot more to it than that. Voiceovers are voice acting. You need to do more than just read the words on the page. Before you read a script, you want to ask yourself a few basic questions that will help you analyze the product, as well as understand your listener.
1) What audience is the script intended for?
2) How can you connect with the product? Because voiceovers are voice acting, think about personal experiences that you can relate to. If you can't relate to it, how can you pretend (aka, act) to relate to it?
3) Understanding the emotion of the script is very important to be able to bring it to life. Ask yourself what the emotion will convey the message of the script.
4) Who do you know who you can picture while reading this script? If you can't personally relate to it, then who (as the actor in this situation) are you picturing that you're talking to? Visualization is very important in voiceovers!
There is always a big-picture reason for reading the script, other than being hired by a client for the voice over job! You can have the best voice in the world, but if you sound like you're reading, you're probably not going to book the job.
Analyzing copy, which is another name for a voiceover script, is very important in voiceovers. Another important skill to master is breathing! Using proper breathing techniques as a voice actor is critical in helping you sound natural and conversational. When you're reading a script, you should never sound like you're running out of air. When we start running out of air while we're talking, we just take a breath before the lack of air is even noticeable. Therefore, when you're doing voiceovers, breathing properly and breathing in the correct places within your script are essential skills to hone.
When breathing properly as a voice actor or singer, you need to intentionally use your diaphragm. By intentionally engaging your diaphragm, it will give you the ability to control your breath will result in more natural sound. It will also help with reading through complete phrases and give you better stamina for longer reads.
How to take a diaphragm breath:
1. Raise your arms up over your head and lower them gently while keeping your ribs raised. This isn't needed to take a diaphragm breath but helps pre-set your body when you're learning how to do it properly.
2. With your hands slightly above your waist position your finger tips so they're towards your belly button and your thumbs on your back. Also, not needed to take a diaphragm breath but it will be a good indicator if you're doing it correctly.
3. Once your hands are in place and your ribs are raised, then focus on taking a low, deep breath. This will feel more like a "filling up like a balloon" sensation, or a downward motion, instead of filling your lungs up with air. When you take this breath, make sure that your shoulders do not move up. In actuality, your stomach should move OUT when you INHALE and move IN when you EXHALE. This is very similar to how a baby's stomach moves while it is sleeping.
4. In addition to seeing your stomach move and feeling the motion on your finger tips, you should also feel a slight movement in the palms of your hands as your entire diaphragm is moving outward. If you were to study your body while you're taking a proper breath, the front, sides and back of your lower torso should be moving with each breath that you take.
5. Here are some exercises that you can practice to help learn how to breathe with your diaphragm:
a) Sit down on a chair with your legs together in front of you. Then bend over so that your chest is touching the top of your legs. Let your arms hang down towards your feet and take a low deep breath. Focus on feeling your stomach moving against your legs.
b) Lie down on your back, flat on a floor or bed with your arms at your sides. Take a low breath and then focus on your stomach moving upward when you inhale, downward when you exhale.
c) A third exercise is to lie face down on a large ball and curl your body over it with your arms hanging around the ball, like you're hugging it. You should position yourself so that your stomach is primarily making contact with the ball, not your chest. Then take a low, deep breath and focus on feeling your stomach move outward against the ball when you inhale.
Breathing properly is very important in voiceovers, but so is knowing where exactly to breathe. You want to make notations in your script ahead of time telling you where you should breathe so you don't accidentally run out of air. When notating your script, you want to keep in mind natural phrasing and conversational pauses as well.
You can use whatever notations work the best for you to show breath. Often times voiceover talent will mark a breath by using a mid-air comma (like a musical breath notation), or a line like this | or this / You can also draw a long, continuous line in an arch shape over the words you want to notate NOT to breathe in between.
So grab some copy, a pencil and remember to breathe.
About the Author:
To claim your free voice-over evaluation and consultation on getting voice overs, visit our website. Our proven blueprint for getting voice over work have helped thousands of voice-over actors get started in this fascinating industry.