The Art of Not Giving a F**k

Commercials for the distracted generation.

So it was Superbowl weekend. And for people in the voice industry, that meant it was a chance to take a look at some of the world’s biggest commercial campaigns during the much coveted Superbowl ad breaks.

The TV spot for Poppii soda (below) was the one that stood out for me:

What was interesting about the voice acting choices?

It seemed to double down on a ‘post conversational’ approach.

To unpack that a little more - the past two decades of commercial voiceover has been dominated by conversational reads. Audiences want to be spoken TO, not AT. They want to be seen, related to and understood. The transactional act of selling runs underneath a sense of like-ability and alignment.

This Poppi commercial comes across slightly differently. The intonation is deliberately flat and only uses emphasis in a few select moments towards the end. There is very little emotion to it. It’s almost the antithesis to selling.

Instead, the quality is distracted - as if the speaker is on their phone at the same time as they’re talking to you. They’re just ‘speaking facts’, with a form of vocal shrug that seems almost self-consciously unforced.

For some (including acclaimed VO coach Nancy Wolfson), it’s not necessarily a welcome development…

I’ve certainly seen the growing popularity of this detached conversational style in the US. It will be interesting if the UK market follows suit as it so often does. Regardless of whether its a delivery that you buy, it’s a voice actor’s job to be aware of such trends and the rationale behind them after all!

Voice Acting tip of the week:

Have a clear take-tracking process!

I had a three hour directed session last week involving seven different creatives listening in and giving direction. Somewhat unsurprisingly, there were a lot of creative ideas competing for attention. I was totally down with that - sometimes it’s just my job to give each approach my best shot so it can be heard and evaluated. Not every client knows exactly what they want form the start.

But the whole process made me grateful that I had a very clear way of marking the tracks.

Before every take, I would make a point of saying ‘Take [insert number]’ before leaving a beat and then beginning the script. This allowed me a moment to vocally reset while making it explicitly clear which track was which.

Often when sessions are conducted, voice directors or engineers will be keeping a note of takes and feedback. But the bigger the (virtual) room, the clearer the management needs to be. So if you’re a voice talent, don’t be afraid to take charge in the name of clarity. And if you’re a director - maybe think about how you’d prefer to keep track of takes in advance of a session.

Behind The Scenes project of the week:

Utilising Voice Actors AFTER recording

With the lines now often blurring between voice actor and creator, more and more projects are harnessing their talent for publicity after a project has released. An obvious recent example of this is in gaming, where the cast and creatives of Baldurs Gate 3 have been all over social media to talk about the game, the process and engage with the community.

Here is a quick overview of just some of the ways clients could utilise voice actors beyond their time in the recording studio…

Media Recommendations:

Every week, I share three podcasts, articles or interviews that I’d strongly recommend. This week…

1. Voice safeguarding and AI

   How can voice actors safeguard their voice when it can be copied for free so easily? And how can clients understand their responsibilities towards the voice talent when it comes to AI? The great people at Voquent made a video looking at the options after one of their clients created an AI version of a vocal talent without consent.

2. The Spotlight on Safeguarding

   It has been revealed that British UK acting agency Bodhi Talent have been operating illegally - lying to clients, stealing their money and ghosting them. They’ve also been allowed to operate a children’s talent agency without any form of DBS check. This prompts more questions on just how stringent Spotlight’s (the UK’s leading casting directory) safeguarding rules actually are.

3. A blizzard of toxicity?

   VFX artist Chris Sayer’s account of how he was treated by games company Blizzard is required reading.

Favourite Writing of the week:

One of my favourite stage roles was performing in a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment. It was lovely to return to his incredibly humane writing with this excerpt taken from White Nights.

@chrisnaturallyrp

WHITE NIGHTS by Fyodor Dostoevsky #whitenights #whitenightsdostoyevsky #dostoevsky #dostoevskyfyodor #fyodordostoevsky #russianliterature ... See more

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Thanks again for reading, and until next week Honey and I wish you a wonderful week!