Ever since I was a young child, cartoons have always fascinated me. Frankly, I think that most people can say that. At least, all the people I know can definitely say that. Aside from writing, one of the things I always wanted to be was a cartoon character. Now, I know that it's impossible to magically animate one's self and live life as a drawing like in that god awful film Cool World.
But I could definitely learn how to become a voice over artist. My time in theatre had taught me how to project, I have taken singing lessons and had a vocal coach for a while. My roles in theatre had leaned towards character parts, and I've played things from a young dying girl to a prepubescent boy. Most of these things involved me changing my voice in some way, and I found that I loved doing that. Fast forward a few years, and I have taken a break from performing. (Having triplets will do that to a person!) And yet, I'm still putting my voice to use. Anyone with kids will understand that story time isn't so much reading a book to young children. It's performing it. And if I don't give each character the attention they deserve... The audience I have at home make Waldorff and Statler look kind.
"You think that's what a troll sounds like? Well I think that's what a stinky fart sounds like!"
Lately, I've decided that I'm going to finally follow my dreams, and one of them was to learn how to be a voice over artist. Now, I don't believe in doing anything without at first finding out how to do it properly, so I asked the friends I have in the business how they started. (Always a good place to start.) They sent me to Melissa Altro, a voice coach. I very quickly learned that there is more to this than meets the eye. I did some training with her, and I did one of her workshops where I got to play in a sound booth, and I very quickly learned that this was something I loved doing. I worked on my strengths as a performer- which leans towards younger characters, moms, and quirky sounds. I learned about sound play, and how to do sound effects with my voice (exertions, puking, falls, fights, etc.), and then I started working on the scripts for my demo.
As a writer, I thought that this would be the easy part. I could easily write up a bunch of mini scenes I could play and boom! I'd have a demo. Not so much. I wrote too much. Where I should have done moments to play, I wrote actual scene work, more like mini monologues. Thank god Melissa helped me out so I could fix it all up. We worked it all out, and the end result had me in a sound booth, headphones on, facing the mic, with my three kids in the control booth watching their mom be a troll, puppy, mother, teen space hero, and nervous little girlie. I think watching their reactions helped me see that I was on the right track. If they were laughing and smiling, I had to be doing something right.
Now, I have my demo, (which can be heard here on soundcloud, or through the youtube link below) and just like with writing, it's about getting this recording into the right hands. Whose those will be, I have yet to find out, but I know I've taken my first steps towards something awesome.
In the sound booth with my script.
The kids and I after my recording session.
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