That is the reality of being a freelance creative.

When I first started my acting journey, the only thing I knew was that the statistics told me that only 2% of actors are gainfully employed at any one time.

When I first started voice acting, I made the decision to go 'all in' purely because I was earning more from it than from what I could scrounge through zero hour contracts (around £400 a week).

And even in the last year, I've instigated a profound shift by moving into a genre - audiobooks - that I'd never touched 18 months ago.

It's now about 60% of my work, and the entire workflow and rhythm of my day has changed as a result.

THIS is why having my branding shots done by Musselwhite Photography Ltd was such a no brainer - because images like the one below encapsulate both the challenge and the invitation of a creative life.

To make your mark and be truly memorable, you have to be brave enough to make bold and distinctive choices. And you have to be prepared to take them knowing that it might not work out.  Consistently.

Today, having the bravery to stick to that choice is only getting harder.  Whether it's increased competition, the fear of advancing tech or the general sense of the world burning... it certainly doesn't seem to be getting easier.

So to anyone looking for a quick pep talk - know that you're not alone.

Be brave enough to take that step.

It's the only way it works.

To Be The Sword Full Drawn


Voice acting is acting.
And acting utilises your FULL body.

But this isn't in some randomised way.
Actors don't just need space to thrash around.

It's about the specificity of physical action.

In the piece below, the register the character uses changes as they become more and more confrontational in their physicality.  It's a simple 'ladder of intensity' grounded in the act of drawing a sword.

The body doesn't follow the voice.
The voice follows the body.

What makes VOICE acting even more of a craft, is that you have to slightly heighten these beat changes to make the performance register in an audio-only medium.

IF the project doesn't involve motion-capture or high-fidelity visuals, these changes need to be slightly more pronounced than a film (sometimes even a theatre) performance would demand, so they can still be received clearly.

This is why it's so helpful to locate any script in a physical space, with a clearly defined audience.

Whether it's a warrior on a battlefield or an explainer video to a workforce, the real nuance comes from clearly defining these details, so that an actors imagination can catch fire within a clear container.

Behind The Scenes:

When a client sent me their script last week,
I had questions.

The project involved lots of German and French place names, and it wasn't as simple as checking how they were pronounced.

When adapting material for an English audience, you also have to determine to what level you Anglicise foreign names and quotes.

The answer to this will depend on the client and their audience.
Knowing this kind of information in advance is ideal so that a voice talent can prepare in advance and focus on the performance while recording.

Alas, in this instance - my client didn't know.

Rather than ask the end-client in advance, they preferred to let such questions be solved 'in session'.

This left me with two options:

1) Wait until the live recording session and thrash it out as we go.

OR

2) Prepare for different eventualities so that the client experience was the smoothest possible, even if it costs me extra.

I went with number two.

I contacted a German VO colleague who I paid to provide a guide for both authentic and Anglicised versions of the names in question.

I then spent half an hour annotating my script with both versions, so I could quickly swap from one to the other depending on the client's preference.

In the end, the client wanted a combination of the two - so being able to flip between them proved invaluable. If I'd not done any prep work under my own steam, the recording would have taken twice as long and the delivery would have suffered.

But did I make a big fuss about this to my client?

No.

I fed back my experience AFTER the session had completed and everyone was happy, and said that I'd charge extra for the additional prep time if required in the future.

The takeaway?

Be prepared.
Make sure YOU look good.
Educate rather than remonstrate whenever possible.

That doesn't mean allow to be taken advantage of. If this project was longer or more complex, then I would have stood my ground about the importance of getting supporting materials in advance.

But you've got to treat each case individually.  And for this one, making a big song and dance about having to do prep work would have proven a distraction.