Episode Details

Episode 139, April 7, 2014
Voice Acting Masters Roundtable
Guests: Elley-Ray, Marc Cashman, Randye Kaye and Elaine Clark
To get into the chat room: at EWABS website click on “chat now.”
0:03:30 Skype TX coming someday. 
0:05:00 Guest introductions. 
0:08:00 First topic: Voice Over Styles 
Elaine: Every city/ad agency has a different feel. 
Elley-Ray: Actors forget we’re in a dialogue and to naturally respond (not displaying, 
dictating or announcing).
Randye is having bandwidth problems.
0:11:20 Changing styles isn’t easy. It seems people who are “just me” do well.
Elaine: the more real it is, the more you have to become part of it. For some it becomes 
more about them. The listener should feel and take action. Your delivery will depend 
on how close you are to the mic.
Elley-Ray: we perform by ourselves, but really we’re part of a team. We forget it’s not a 
singular enterprise. We can’t just grab the ball for ourselves.
Elaine: We have to know our job. Sometimes our character personifies the problem, not 
the solution. We have to understand our role.
The “classic announcer” is now more of a caricature. 
Randye says the announcer still works but before a group. VO actors have to have a 
point of view, we’re not neutral newscasters. That’s new in the last few decades. We 
have to know what we feel and what we want the audience to feel. There’s still a place 
for the “engaged announcer read.”
0:16:30 Dan asks how the number of VO actors these days affects what we do.
Elley: adapt and change. For her, time in the biz gives her confidence. For newbees, 
don’t get locked into what you may think is your “safety net.” Things will come full circle. 
Bend with the times.
Elaine: technologically things have changed, but our core is technically based. In the 
late 90s there was so much “attitude” and youth orientation, followed by 9/11 which led 
to heart-felt, deeper. Then with aging baby boomers, now we need 50+ VO. Attitudes 
and styles of writing change, but techniques stay the same.
Elley: Women’s roles have changed from airheads to professions. We’re now more 
conscious about who and how we voice.
0:20:30 Dan asks how do you do it differently?
Elaine: there’s only one YOU, complete with opinions and visualizations. Bring your 
personality to it. 
Elley: we read left to right and get stuck on punctuation. She advocates dumping the 
punctuation. Change pitch speed and play with elongating prepositions. “Not read.” 
Discovery point in a sentence—how do you discover a response. When it’s written 
down, screw with pitch, speed, rhythm, volumes. Play with those things. Take risks, 
put your opinion and put in emotional truth.
Elaine: coaches’ jobs is to put as much as we can in students’ bags of tricks. Change in 
reading copy (after 5 seconds of the same, the client is gone).
0:26:20 Break
0:28:49 They’re back.
0:30:00 Marc Cashman joins via Skype and George sorts it out. 
0:32:00 Dan talks about a script he got today with confusing direction. And then he got 
copy written for what they say they don’t want. How do you get through this?
Dan reads the copy and asked the group to respond.
Randye said it’s difficult to coach since Dan’s read in his “see what this is” mode.
This doesn’t say if it’s for radio or TV. 
Elley: There’s a humility needed that if you know too much, you can sound slick.
Elaine: read it again as a TV commercial.
Take 2.
Dan reads again. Loses the script. 
Take 3.
Coaches reply.
Elaine: you have to imagine when you see the word “imagine.” It implies a storyteller 
style. The copy divides into three parts. Boil it down to a simplistic style. Turn the 
paper over and tell her a story about the script is about, in your own words in whatever 
time you want.
0:40:36 Dan does tha