One night I was shopping at my local drugstore and was in the greeting card aisle. I was looking for a card for my mom and while reading the card, it hit me: this is great voice-over copy!
I started imagining the music behind the written dialogue, and started speaking the dialogue out loud as if it were to my mom.
Well, that’s take one! Nevermind the people in the aisle wondering what my obsession is with “giving these cards a voice”. Voice actors; what a strange bunch we are. Welcome to the tribe.
Not being able to afford every card I wanted to voice, I took pictures with my phone and now have a library of original, well-written copy to use for practice or even a future demo.
So, take these “new scripts”, record an mp3 and then add appropriate music behind them. Or, better yet, START with the music then let that decide what your vocal tone should or could be. Music can set the tone, and your voice will naturally follow. What emotion could you apply? Do a four-question script analysis of the dialogue and have fun applying all the tools in your VO toolbelt as much as your heart desires.
For even more fun: do a couple more takes, as a character, using an appropriate accent; anything that pops into your mind. As they start to surface, remember each of these characters so you can apply them to scripts/copy in the future. Start a little book of characters, then try them out on your family. It’s hilarious.
Letting go and allowing yourself to organically speak the words on the greeting card should become easy, and so should each and every audition.
