Working in your home studio may kill voice over artist creativity?
It’s a question I’ve always asked myself. Working within the house walls may downgrade the artistic expression of a Italian voice actor. In the end, what does our client care about? Generally he asks us for estimates, availability, timing, he gives us some advice about the delivery on the microphone … But what about the creative side, what about the emotions? Voicing in Italian means being able to talk with the emotions. Our customers just need to evoke emotions with an adjective … An aspect that is taken for granted and that is embodied with the perception that the advertising world has of an italian voice talent. Of “that” particular advertising voice actor. It is a unique, distinctive feature that touches deeply inside our hearts and means to each one of us the reason why we take our place in the panorama of voiceover artists for audiovisuals and communication generally speaking.
A producer won’t choose an Italian voice artist just because of his low budget positioning or because it is cheap. He also wants something that Matches with his his idea, his expectation, the emotional investment he made in production, no matter how much money he spent for it. Think about it: every small project represents an investment in terms of effort, emotion, involvement. Why not have expectations also from the sound and voicing side?
That’s why we professional Italian voice actors and advertising voices are chosen. Perhaps also because we are good-natured, available, professional (of course we take these qualities for granted), but above all because we know how to offer – in our own unique way – emotions.
Here we are at the heart of our topic: staying on the four walls of our home recording studio will kill creativity? My answer is “a little yes”.
How to improve an Italian voice artist versatility?
No need to deny it. I don’t know how you are used to walk around the house. For instance, I hate dressing gown and slippers while I am at home, I prefer – experienced during the lockdown – to feel like at work. That’s why I get fully dressed. Here, unless we want to experience the whole range of emotions from domestic brutalization, our voice will also be affected by the attitude we show in our everyday home life. Separating the moment of relaxation from the moment in which we express all our ability and professional experience is essential for maintaining the right emotional tension at the microphone. And then … and then there are the colors of the actor’s voice that must be trained, tried and tested. And here, the need arises to get involved outside the home. My home recording studio in Milan is essential. Right soundproofing, the essential equipment to generate a top quality voice. And nothing else. Not a comfort furniture, no soft lights, no comfortable armchairs. I’m not going to stay in my home studio any longer than necessary. For the rest I have a life out there waiting for me and that I need to live in all its nuances in order to be able to give back, when asked, every single emotion every time my voice is chosen for an Italian audio production.
Experiencing life through the colors of a voice.
Okay, not all of us can live the life of Ernest Hemingway who left us a piece of modern literature, nor can we pretend to experience on our skin every kind of experience that we are asked to play in An advertising voice session with our own voice, however I think that training how to evoke emotions, being able to recreate them is an essential ability. On the other hand, the legacy of us Italian voice actors is just that: being able to convey the contents of a brand with emotions, through our voice. Therefore it is unnecessary to stay at home, paying the tribute of standardization of tones and atmospheres, that make us look identical both when dubbing a commercial for a shampoo and for a sports car. Better go out and get involved. It costs, but it’s worth it.
For this reason, when I am called by an Italian recording studio For a commercial, I always prefer to move and get to the production studio. I willingly submit to anti virus precautions with gloves, masks and … hand gel in order to get in touch with sound designers, producers, creatives, all around our common goal: make a good job when voicing an adv in Italian.
Today communication agencies are increasingly characterized by smartworking. They are all at home; accounts, creatives, producers. Even sound designers are forced to follow a recording of which they do not have the slightest control over the microphone, preamp, compression etc. A mortification for the professionalIty of all these people whom I know well for their competence and seriousness. My hug to you, unfortunately virtual! We will see you soon (I hope) in the audio booth.
Working with other voice professionals is the key to success for an Italian voiceover
The secret of versatility and the ability to properly face each different situation, therefore, is contamination. All of us, advertising voice actors have had an artistic mentor in our career driving our professional growth. Certainly it is not an aspect to hide! Having inspiring models helps to grow professionally, looking for particular deliveries we listen to in others and that we would like to make ours, allows us to evolve and change, without necessarily appearing Clones of of the voice that we like. But Just listening to them is not enough: we need to understand what they think, how they think, what’s their personality, to understand what generates in us that particular emotion that we would like to be able to recreate every time we are in front of a microphone. As an Italian voice talent, In my career I have had and still have many Inspiring models today. I don’t mind saying that when I started I loved Pino Locchi, the great voice actor dubbing Sean Connery, and then, among the voices of advertising, Fabrizio Casadio. Today I am passionate about listening to Roberto Pedicini dubbing Kevin Spacey. They are inspiring, I just said, which doesn’t mean that we have to look like them. Rather admire their ability to Bring emotions: the only effect of which we must have the utmost respect when we speak of Italian voices for advertising.
So let’s leave the house, reach the audio rooms, meet our colleagues, listen to them, talk to each other. Once the word “contaminate” may represent a positive value …