You'll hear about choices in your beginning acting classes (and hopefully on the web if you haven't had any formal training). Generally, they talk about choices that excite the other (usually your partner in a scene) physically and psychologically. Bad choices don't drive the action forward, they drag on and stagnate. Good choices elicit emotional responses in your partner. It makes for dynamic acting that then comes off as real to the audience.
There's a lot of good stuff about choices in Acting One by Robert Cohen. It's a really fantastic book and if you've got a bit of extra money (as little as $5 on eBay right now), I suggest picking it up. He talks about choosing:
- To find your partner interesting
- Goals that excite you physically and emotionally
- Fears that personally frighten you
- Use your entire arsenal of human emotions, tactics, and beliefs
- To smile
- To hurry the action / your partner along
As well as several other things. The book is really fantastic, but this blog isn't designed to help a non-actor become an actor. Rather, the advice column here is to help an actor learn what it takes to become a voice actor.
Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd think most actors look down on voice acting as though it were somehow easier than physical acting. For those in that mindset (and those of you considering voice acting as a career path), consider this: In normal, everyday acting, you have movement, lighting, camera angles, physical gestures, other people to play off of, scenes to develop, sound tracks, and a host of other scenarios and props to play off of. Now, consider this: a voice actor must make all of the same choices, too, and yet must elicit every emotional response in a distant audience simply by using his or her voice. In fact, you may even be in the recording booth on different days than characters you're supposed to be talking to.
Beginning to see why a lot of voice acting comes across flat? This is where script analysis, research, and an understanding of the psyche (all things I've hinted at before) come in. This next point is really important, so aspiring voice actors should really listen:
To become an excellent voice actor, you should watch other voice actors. If they manage to elicit emotional involvement on your part, rewatch it and try to figure out why. It probably wasn't what the animators chose to do. In series like Spongebob, Futurama, or Dragon Ball Z, one voice actor could be playing up to 15 or 20 unique characters (though it's likely that only one or two are main characters). The point is, they have to fully express a separate persona simply with their voice.
While Billy West does this with Fry, Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth, and a number of others, I can think of an even better example. Piccolo and Vegeta are both voiced by Chris Sabat and the voices are nearly identical. At a convention, I saw him explaining the difference between the voices. Honest to gods, the only difference is he gets quieter and closer to the microphone for Piccolo. That means that his acting CHOICES are what differentiate the two characters. It isn't even the "voice," it's the use of the voice.
The actor's voice is an instrument, but the voice actor's voice is literally his only instrument. Choose to develop a tonal range. Choose to say lines 50 different ways. Choose to set scenes in different places in your mind until you can find the real, underlying, gritty, driving, emotionally exciting line delivery you need.
The choices you make will develop a character and you can only convey these things with your voice. The tone, the inflection, the warmth or hostility, a quiver and quake, anger or enticement, and much more will influence line delivery and how the audience receives it.
Furthermore! While the audience may not be able to see your movements, I fully recommend moving (not away from the mic) while recording. If you're persuading someone in real life, you're probably using your hands and facial expressions to convey the point. Try convincing the microphone. See if that adds more emotional depth and realism. It may surprise you to find that sitting down and simply recording isn't enough.
Just remember, the choices you make influence your performance and develop your character. I suggest reading the choices chapter in Acting One (chapter 12 in the fourth edition). It can help you understand what your partner and audience expect from you and how to develop these qualities yourself. As a voice actor, you'll need to do all of these things with only your voice and it pays to be a little dramatic in your vocal staging of things since it's your only weapon.
Listen closely when people are speaking in your everyday life. What clues do the shake in their voice give? Are they attracted to someone and afraid that someone might find out? Are they hiding the fact that they just lost their job? Are they holding back excitement in their personal life because their friend has just revealed crushing news? Listening closely to these clues will help you develop the ability to make these vocal distinctions in the recording booth. Each of those scenarios will have a different waver to the voice, but the waver is there all the same. Waver isn't the only thing to listen for, mind you. Plenty of other qualities exist, as well.
Try not to pay too much attention to stage or camera actors when doing this. They've learned to use everything (or, in some cases, nothing) they have and the voice is just one of 100 things they understand. For this, I suggest listening to real people's conversations and analyzing the best voice actors you can think of.
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Examples and transitions into psyche:
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We've already explored a bit how understanding of the psyche can assist you in acting. It's similar in voice acting. Once you understand a character's tactics and motivations (usually choices you will need to make as the actor based on script analysis) then you can begin delving into what you need to be working on.
Honestly, one of the most difficult acting tasks I've had thus far was the sociopathic Dr. Kleiner from a HL2 mod I just recorded. Why is that? Well, sociopathy develops slowly and must display signs at age 15 or earlier. Those who know Half Life know Dr. Kleiner is a super nice guy. The first time I went through the recordings, I went with "he became a little nuts because he's desperate to save the Earth." That's not what the mod leader wanted or intended. He actually wanted him to be bonkers to the point of being homicidal. Essentially, in a few weeks (in-game) Dr. Kleiner's character had been transformed into Hannibal Lecter.
The way I had to deal with this was analyzing the lines and watching a clip of Anthony Hopkins talking about Hannibal's character over and over again. Then, I went to the DSM (which I already suggested getting) and looked up the general traits of a sociopath after I researched what Hannibal was technically classified as. [It would be good to mention now that Hannibal was the character / craziness reference the mod leader gave me]
After that, I had to study Hopkin's acting choices and how I thought those related to the clinical understanding of a sociopath. After I had a better understanding of the type of crazy the mod leader wanted, I had to plausibly develop in my mind (without actual story details) the decent into madness that Dr. Kleiner (a super nice guy who cared deeply about Alyx and Gordon) experienced. How was he still the same? What tactics would he use when speaking? How did his voice need to transform from Dr. Kleiner to Hannibal without being one or the other? How could I make him sound crazy without being so over-the-top that it became funny instead of terrifying?
Finally, after I'd answered all of these questions for myself, it came time to record. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a problem staying perfectly in character. Obviously, I had to remedy this, so I started adding some physical quirks to the performance (even if the audience will never see them), added a little more range to my voice, twitched and suppressed anger, and paced to make me feel like I was in a prison cell.
After that, I chose what I think made the biggest difference. Before EACH and EVERY line, I recited a line of Dr. Kleiner's from Half Life ("I was just saying hello to Alyx and Gordon") and then recited one of Hannibal's lines in a half-Kleiner, half-Hannibal voice ("A census-taker came to my door once. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.") While reciting the first line, I tried to imagine knowing Alyx and Gordon as old friends and being relieved to see them and a little perturbed at Dr. Magnusson's rushing me. Every time I recited Hannibal's line, I let my psyche slip to a darker place, a more muted, teeter-tottery place where I stood on the knife blade of sanity and "remembered" when I had invited the census-taker into my home and how delicious that meal had been.
True, it is disturbing, but these are the things that are needed to fully engulf yourself in a character so you can bring about an emotional response in the audience. That's what we're truly after and the psyche is an extraordinary part of the process. The thing is, these acting choices will affect vocal choices and since your voice is your only weapon, you need to do it. Make bold choices. Make good and exciting choices. Use the best voice you have and good luck out there.
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