In this first installment, Kate Higgins and Laura Gerow share their experiences. Kate likes the fast pace of the work and that she is able to keep her energy and focus. Then we meet with Laura who credits the whole team for being so friendly and making her feel comfortable through the whole process. Check out the videos and let us know what you think!

Taking care of your voice during cold and flu season really just involves paying extra special attention to the normal tricks and habits that most voice over professionals should already be considering. For instance, be sure to drink LOTS of water with a minimum eight glasses of water of day to ensure proper hydration. In the winter this is especially true because the air tends to be dryer than usual, therefore vocal cords tend to become stressed with the relatively low humidity. In addition, many of us often drink extra coffee or tea to warm ourselves up, however these things, in combination with the dry air, only serve to dehydrate the body even more and, as a result, strains the vocal cords.

The common cold and flu prevention techniques will also keep your voice humming true during the winter season. Make sure you stay away from others with colds, wash your hands frequently, maintain a nutritious diet, get adequate sleep, and exercise your body and voice properly. If you do happen to come down with a cold, be sure to cough softly or not at all. Coughing and clearing your throat can seriously strain the vocal cords, thereby extending the period of time in which your voice is not working properly. Try swallowing or drinking some water when you first feel that tickle, and, as a last resort, cough GENTLY. Remembering this trick can shave days off the devastation of losing your voice. Also, try to avoid eating chocolate or drinking milk before performing, as these will coat your throat your voice will not sound as clear thus causing your to clear your throat more frequently.

In addition to illness and disease, winter also brings with it some exciting events. But, when you randomly run into your best friend from a decade ago, don’t go running up and screaming and shouting! Football season is nearing the playoffs, basketball is kicking off, and sports fanatics are sure to be rooting for their home teams. By all means, demonstrate your enthusiasm, but try doing so by dressing in full gear or with a giant foam finger rather than losing your main commodity in a heated fit of excitement.. One of the worst ways to lose your voice during the winter is with excessive cheer. When you shout or even talk, the cold and dry winter air is inhaled in greater volumes and dries the vocal cords faster. So, if you’re not drinking enough water, the vocal cords become more brittle and strained.

So, what’s the best advice we can give you for maintaining your voice during the winter season? Always keep a personal water bottle handy, don’t share it with anyone else, and be sure to keep your hands sanitized. Enjoy your winter season, but with the contained enthusiasm that will also leave you with a working voice in the aftermath.

Do you have other special tips or tricks to keeping your voice through cold and flu season?

How simple can voice acting be? North compares it to a childhood game. “It’s really not as complicated as a lot of actors want to make it out to be. It’s pretty much the same thing that any 4 or 5-year-old child does. It’s just playing make believe. “ Nolan has gone above and beyond a childhood game and turned playing make believe into a living.

North is no stranger to both the voice over and on camera acting world. Most notably known for his portrayal of Drake in the recently released Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Nolan has an extensive resume to his name. Having worked on Batman: Arkham and Assassin’s Creed, to his on camera work for Pretty Little Liars & General Hospital, Nolan’s range of characters and abilities continue to take the acting world by storm.

Do you approach voice acting different from on camera acting? Share you thoughts below!

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It is the Engineer’s attention to the detail and their knowledge of each component that allows the other members of the team, namely the writers, directors and voice actors, to focus on their creative responsibilities.

Not only must the Engineer must keep all recorded takes organized for the final assembly of the project, but s/he must also keep any reference tracks handy for the director in case, at anytime they request a source for ‘playback’.

During the voice-over recording session, it is the Engineer’s responsibility to maintain a high quality recording of the voice-over actor’s performance. S/he must be sure the actor is the correct distance from the microphone, the actor’s voice is recorded clearly and that and no additional noises are heard on the track.

After the voice-over recording session, the Engineer will deliver all the tracks and will have edited or spliced together selected takes, which will become the first semblance or edit, thus bringing the project to life.

After the voice over recording session and throughout the editing process, it is common to ask the engineer to pull up additional takes or certain lines as options potentially used to perhaps better match the upcoming visuals, which will be added in later. Just because the audio edit is done does this mean the Engineer’s job is over; they are usually on call right up until delivery.

While it can be easy to overlook the crucial role of the Engineer, we must realize that we need their experience and passion to optimize any voice-over recording session. They are an invaluable part of the team, and had a huge heart all along.

What?! I thought I was getting into a fun industry?!

If you have ventured into the world of animation and video games, you know exactly what I’m referring to. The wonderful thing about make believe, is that anything can happen. I’ll never forget my time on DragonBall – I played a character named ‘Mai’ and she died in what seemed like 50% of the episodes. You have to get very creative in your death scenes. You can only die so many times and in the world of video games, you can die over and over again. The interesting thing about a death scene is that this isnt’ something we can truly relate to ourselves. And the way we die in animations isn’t realistic to most deaths we know. So we have to become very creative and think outside the box.

While you start practicing and developing your characters – add another layer to them that you may not have thought through – how many ways can your character die? What would it sound like if you are falling out of an airplane as opposed to falling from the top of the building? What does it sound like when you get stabbed to death? When you are being slain by a demon? When you catch on fire? Falling into a dark hole? Melting? …..there is no end to the options of a dying character.

Something I suppose you didn’t give much thought to….. until now. Why don’t you YouTube animated death scenes or Google and rent some animations with characters that are similar to your range and see what other greats before you have done. Record your findings in the studio so you will be able to mimic them again in the future. Just listen and watch the animation or create your own death scene in your head. See it all happening and try and feel and physically act out the scene with as many human sfx as you can add to it. Don’t forget your sound of struggle (if there is one) before and after the death. Add the proximity affect (for example are you falling; change your vocal sounds to give the sound of distance – and don’t forget to land with impact.)

The point is, our vocal instruments guide the scene and it’s our job to vocally assist it along and create the scene using only our imaginations and our human sounds and words.

The true key to this technique, is that your character gets brought back to life….that’s the true art to dying. Coming back for another episode or season, until next time everyone.

Most of the producer’s responsibilities occur before and after the actual recording session. It is in the hiring or overseeing of the director, actors, engineers, music etc. where the producer shines. Once the principal jobs have been filled, the voice over session (complete with all the top-notch players doing the jobs they’ve been hired to do) should unfold organically.

Once the producer has chosen a voice over director to bring the project to life, s/he will let the director do what they do best. Prior to the actual recording session, the producer will have discussed at length, with the voice director what the objectives and goals they intend to achieve.

Throughout the voice over recording, the producer may have opinions on how various lines are written and read. Keep in mind that any notes from the producer are meant to enhance the ultimate vision of the project. These notes are not meant to be taken personally. The producer is the one with weight of the project on his/her shoulders and is ultimately responsible for its success.

The actual voice over recording session is but one piece of a much larger puzzle, a crucial piece to be sure, but a singular piece nonetheless. The producer is also responsible for the artwork, the production timeline, the music, the marketing etc.

At the end of the day, The producer job is to over see the entire project from inception to execution and s/he often does it from behind the giant curtain.

Do you have producer experience? Share your experience below!

Prior to the voice over recording session, the director will have met with the producers and writers to fine-tune the tone of the project as well as the personalities and attitudes of each of the characters. In short, the director is, ostensibly, the ‘brains’ behind the voice over recording session.

The voice over director must have a strong, personal relationship with each of the actors and s/he must use that connection to help pull a perfect performance from them.

When an actor is being asked to repeat the same line for the eighty-fifth time, they need to trust the director. The actor needs to be reassured that the reason they are all on this journey is that the director will lead them to that perfect scene no matter how many times it’s performed.

The director must dance that fine line between repeatedly working an actor to the point where the words lose meaning and getting that exact inflection, that perfect line read that makes the scene sing off the page. The director does this by making sure the actors feel safe by assuring them that they are all on the same side.

The voice over director has the most hands on creative role during the voice record session. S/he is responsible for ensuring that the voice over recording goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible. We love you most of all Scarecrow.

His most recent venture, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, blurs the lines between games and film with quotable dialogue and an epic narrative carried by a cast of some of the most talented voice actors in the industry. With the rising demand for more fluid video game animation, North now finds himself blending his voice and acting skills to make a character truly come to life.

Next in our series of videos we will talk to Nolan about other elements in voice over production including how voice over for games differs from other projects and the drawback of voice over acting.

Leave a comment below and let us know: What is your favorite character voiced by Nolan North?

We hope you have been enjoying the videos and let us know what other topics you would like to see! We will be covering topics like voice matching, the voice over recording process, handling multiple characters, voice over directing and much more.

In this installment Paula Rhodes and Haviland Stillwell share how they first got into voice acting. First, Paula shares how a local voice acting class lead to connections and auditions for voice acting gigs. Haviland then shares how her traditional acting led her to voice over acting when she was heard by an agent.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!