What Open AI did next... and a Spotify misstep?

Sorer for Sora: Is Open Ai coming for us all?

If you work with anyone to do with video, you’ll likely have heard of Open AI’s latest tool, Sora, which was announced last week. It’s capacity to generate photo-realistic video from simple text prompts has been heralded as yet another game changer, and it’s not hard to see why.

To say the reaction has been mixed within the creative industry would be an understatement.

On the one hand, there are floods of ‘tech bros’ heralding Sora as a landmark event, the next step towards everyone being able to create their own custom made content to a Hollywood level of production. Being able to create such detailed video, much of which seems to have overcome the ‘uncanny valley’ vibes of much AI at this point, certainly extends the pallet of creators.

On the other hand, many point out the worrying ways such technology could be used criminally to misinform, how it could easily compound societal biases, its potential threat to video producers’ livelihoods and the questionable nature of what footage has been used to train Sora in the first place.

Notably, Open AI have stated that all sources were ‘publicly available and licensed from copyright holders’ - yet this is the same company that is currently dealing with multiple lawsuits concerning IP infringement.

Voice Acting tip of the week:

Go back to the beginning.

With any script that’s over 150 words long (or over a minute), I always recommend returning to the first line of a script once you’ve reached the end.

Why?

Because the voice actor will be that more warmed-up and fully focused on the message having worked their way through the entire script.

The first line is the most important of any script, because it serves as a ‘hook’. If you don’t grab your audience with it, then what comes after is already lost.

So returning to the top of the script and recording the first line or paragraph of a text at the end of a session guards against this. It provides a different option which is often that little bit more subtly grounded.

Beware though: don’t mistake this for making your ‘concluding tone’ the same as your ‘introductory tone’. You still want to go on a journey, after all! But this is a great way of grabbing a strong alternative take of the most important bit.

Behind The Scenes project of the week:

Using Laban in Voiceover

When directing a voice actor, it’s often recommended to keep things simple. The more abstract and subjective a direction is (‘make it more green’), the less actionable it can be.

But that doesn’t mean directors can’t extend their acting vocabulary and the physical actions of Laban is a wonderful example of that.

Voice acting, like any type of acting, is a FULL BODY activity. You’re only going to get something truly authentic that connects with the listener if the words are truly inhabited. So below is a quick overview of what Laban might offer.

Media Recommendations:

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

1. Breaking down the top 9 Super Bowl ads

   Viral Video Club offers a wonderful analysis of their ‘top 9’ commercials aired during the Super Bowl. As these are the most expensive and sought after commercial spots in the media world, it’s great to get such a punchy and thoughtful overview of each spot’s strengths and weaknesses.

2. Spotify getting spotty?

   There was a huge uproar from many established audiobook narrators when Spotify announced proposed changes to the terms of service of its audiobook production arm, Findaway Voices. Laura Horowitz does a great job of breaking down the problematic terms and why it puts voice actors at huge risk. Thankfully, Spotify have subsequently issued a clarification explicitly stating that no human narration will be used to train AI voices - a timely reminder that artists need to keep being vocal about such issues in order to protect themselves.

3. The games we play (again)

   Another fascinating episode of the Play Watch Listen podcast looks at the first impressions games make and how some of them choose to deliberately play with our expectations. This leads into an interesting discussion about what most appeals to gamers today - narratives that offer a linear experience or ones that allow the player to define the meaning.

Favourite Writing of the week: The Green Goblin

When revisiting material that has already received an iconic performance, I find it far more interesting to explore the extremes of its interpretation rather than trying to recreate the original. This is certainly true of Willem Dafoe’s turn as The Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spiderman.

The character explores the duality of monster and man and where the two intersect (like most good super villains - or super heroes for that matter), so in the below video, I decided to do two versions. The first takes the characteristics of a monster and heightens it to a cartoonish extreme. The second grounds the text in a very human meditation on motivation and acceptance. It’s an interesting exercise in finding out how the same lines can be given very different emphasis through a simple acting choice.

@chrisnaturallyrp

2 x THE GREEN GOBLIN from SPIDERMAN #greengoblin #thegreengoblin #nathanosborn #spiderman #britishvoiceover #britishvoiceactor #britishact... See more

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A workshop exploring social media for voice actors

After running the occasional workshop on how I have used social media to build a following of 450,000 followers across platforms, I have been invited to hold a 3 hour workshop going through my approach by Wonderland Voiceover. You can check out the details on the workshop, being held online on 19th March 6pm-9pm GMT, here.

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