What is it for you that makes you wonder how you ever got the job you do?
For me, it’s that moment first thing in the morning when I try to tell my incredibly enthusiastic and persistent golden Labrador guide dog, Nancy, that “I’m commminggg!” to get her breakfast – and my voice comes out sounding almost demonic!
In that moment, (no matter how many times it happens), I start to panic and wonder whether my entire career as a voiceover artist is about to unravel like the dangling pull on a tired, ancient jumper that’s seen far better days…
I muster up all my willpower and, as I scrape myself out of the warm bed sheets, over-dramatically clearing my throat as I go. I resolve to reacquaint myself with the smoother, sleeker facets of my vocal chords and get today off to a successful start.
After singing my way through my shower, (something I like to call “vocal warm-up”, but my partner tends to call it something very different), I select an appropriately stretchy outfit for my work day. I’ve found over time that voice work requires a suitable level of comfort. There is a lot of breathing involved in it and hence I have noticed the need to wear clothes that accommodate a certain amount of expansion in the tummy area.
That is not necessarily to say that us voiceovers dress especially slobbily, but anyone who has ever been to a business buffet lunch will know that there is a sweet spot to be gleamed between presentable and malleable. Find that and you’re already onto a winner.
Once washed up, brushed up, dressed up and duly hydrated, I set myself up in my home studio. The microphone hides the majority of my face from view, and then, I go through some ACTUAL warm-up exercises.
For me, I find facial exercises can be just as helpful as vocal ones – so it’s a good job the mic shields me mostly from the sight of others. These exercises essentially involve contorting your face in various different ways to get the blood flowing and to loosen up your jaw and surrounding muscles.
Tensing and releasing different parts of your face can be helpful in giving you more freedom to achieve what you need to with it more quickly and effectively.
Once fully facially limbered up, I open the audio description script I’ll be voicing that day. Audio description is very much a team effort and while some audio describers are involved in various parts of the process, (scripting, voicing, sound engineering, quality control or project management) others focus on one individual task.
Being a narrator myself, somebody else has already taken the time to meticulously craft the audio description script. This involves watching through the media and picking out anything visual which somebody who struggles to see the screen might miss. As you can imagine, that’s a LOT of information, so it often needs to be prioritised by factors such as what is most important in order to follow the story or what adds the most value to be in the know about.
Clearly, these are not easy decisions to make. While Freda might place high worth on hearing about the expression on a character’s face, Freddie might be far more concerned by the pure facts of the situation and not want an emotional interpretation. Of course, you can’t please everybody, but that’s why it’s important for audio description teams to continually seek feedback and keep evolving in order to understand what their audience is after as best as possible.
The same can be said for voicing. People have varying preferences in terms of tone and style, so a big part of my work is being very aware of my delivery and what might work best for any given genre or type of media. Personally, when the medium allows, I try to inject a touch of cheekiness and fun into my reads to make the listening experience a little less formal and a little more interactive and down-to-Earth.
Perhaps one of the most common questions I am asked as a blind audio describer is how I read the scripts.
Blind and VI voice professionals have varying ways of achieving this – some may enlarge the text, others might use Braille.
For me, having never learnt Braille and having now lost so much of my sight that reading text has become like trying to recite the ingredient names on the back of a packet of medication. Not altogether impossible but a hefty amount of effort and potentially very embarrassing. I use a system whereby I listen to the script on a screen reader via headphones. I start the screen reader off and then follow it about 2 or 3 words behind, repeating the text as I go and making sure it sounds natural and easy to understand.
This requires a LOT of practise to execute effectively, especially when it comes to long, meandering sentences with multiple clauses! It’s all about timing, accuracy and focus. Yes, I might be blind, but I sure can focus when I need to.
Talking of timing, perhaps one of the biggest challenges of an audio description narrator is how quickly you’re required to say certain sentences and still make them comprehendible. This can take a generous helping of patience, mixed in with the miracle that is my faithful sound engineer who not only puts up with sharing a studio with me on a daily basis, but who also seamlessly shaves extra seconds from my speech through the magic of editing, (amongst many other things).
From there, my day plays out to the tune of recording, listening, moving on. Recording, listening, retaking. Recording, listening, swearing. Recording, listening, celebrating!
Truly, there’s nothing like finally getting your teeth around a particularly troublesome phrase and showing it who’s boss. Ordinarily in these moments of “small victory,” I’d treat myself to something chocolatey or cake based, but I have learnt from bitter experience that dairy and dialoguing are a deadly duo – it gums up your mouth and plays havoc with your diction.
So, I try to stick to fresh fruit and the odd lemon tea to soothe my throat and keep my pallet cleansed in citrus – like a polished kitchen countertop.
Speaking of which, after a day of rigorous recording, I’m ready to go home and tuck into a delicious dinner, almost certainly followed by a decidedly dairy dessert.
After that, I’ll probably pop my feet up and watch some mindless unwind-worthy TV show – with the audio description on, of course.
I always find it slightly enviable to listen to how effortlessly some narrators silkily deliver their audio description. Secretly, I can’t help wondering whether that was their third attempt and whether they sometimes swear when they fall over their words too.
Somehow, it makes me feel comforted – not only as a professional, (knowing that I’m not the only one who makes mistakes), but also on a personal level, knowing that they are another human being who is helping me feel included and connected to what I’m watching in a very special way.
It serves as a constant reminder to me how lucky I am to have discovered audio description and how even luckier I am to get to spend my day bringing it to life.