Category: #VoicedByNeha

If you are an artist you could agree that your life is an adventure and there is no adventure without uncertainty or risk. Every work is a project and once it gets over, it leaves its marks on you, some you may want to share like being part of a great cast, an iconic story, creative satisfaction, realisations or a challenge that couldn’t be overcome yet, relationships or other challenges at work. Fortunately or unfortunately you carry these stars or scars with you. However, your next project, if it happens soon,  may not need you to belong to anything from your past work. You know that and you don’t carry any baggage and with this affirmation, you keep moving. Years pass and your sporadic shine keeps reflecting upon you in your corner of life creating an illusion of a beautiful living dream that keeps you going. In this metamorphosis -from nothing to something to nothing again, an artist gets consumed at a psychophysical level. What is it that refuels the energy and the momentum and what is the toll that it takes?

Coincidentally, very recently there was an excerpt from Randeep Hooda’s interview from Mashable that was quoted in India today where he expressed his deep disappointment and a sense of dejection over “The Battle of Saragadhi”, which never made it to the screen. Hooda revealed that he had invested three years of his life into the role, turning down other opportunities due to the requirement of maintaining long hair and a thick beard for the film. The ‘Highway’ actor said that There were many situations in life when he thought there was nothing but darkness. He went through a big stage of depression. In fact, he says he did ‘Extraction’ in that stage of life when he was down and out. He even thought of leaving ‘Extraction’ for this project and even left films for three years. He shared that his parents won’t leave him alone. To escape from them, he would bolt his room, fearing that someone would cut his beard. He ultimately decided that he wouldn’t let this happen to him ever again.

This resonates personally too.  I remember to have been voicing for a project and in the middle of my recording halfway past the work, there comes a message, the recording is stopped and the director, engineer and myself are taken aback to hear that the project is not required to be dubbed. Was is awkward? Yes.  Did it mean a loss of money? No, we would be paid for the work done. However, there was a robbing of the emotional investment that I had made in the world of that story. In every breath there was acceptance and exchange of energy, where did it all go? Past many hours were spent in living moments that just won’t exist now? There was also an intangible loss of hope in a mother who found a world, a story and lives that resonated. Today there is a flood of informed conversations and discussions all around the world about challenges young families are grappling with. As a parent, this project was a hope because it had a universal language that had the potential to touch hearts and get through to lives creating the possibility of transformation. It is ironic and under-acknowledged that this medium of work consumes humans to touch humans.

Beyond all this, where should an artist place his compass and where is the harness? In the acknowledgements that could possibly come or with the journey that was experienced while living the part? The answer could lie at different places depending upon what one’s own currency of life is.

Would love to hear your thoughts and if you have been in a similar situation where do you place your compass?

This article was originally posted by the Author on – https://www.thevoiceovernetwork.org/buzz/the-buzz-magazine-interactive/the-buzz-magazine-32nd-edition/

The community of Voice actors is growing in leaps and bounds. With the evolving technology, a plethora of learning avenues and seamless connectivity, today, if you have a will there are more ways. But if these opportunities aren’t all that answer the questions of an aspiring or practising voice actor then what does? The answer could be different for all, but is everyone asking the same question? Probably not, because to some, voiceover is the means and to some, it is the way.

The amount of inauthentic voice work I have come across in just over a decade and the kind of queries that float around online and offline conveys that spoken word art esp voiceovers is predominantly seen as a convenient way of earning money at one’s convenience.

On the other side, there is a skill that has marked its territory for over a century. Have you ever wondered whether the legendary figures we’ve heard were merely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, or did their craft held deeper complexities that enabled them to be heard and relatable ? Did they possess an innate talent, or did their expertise arise from work on themselves? Leaving luck to mysticism, I’d like to delve into the work. Unless it is the marketing which is designed to manipulate consumers or content aimed at feeding cognitive deficit; everyone is looking for an authentic voice because they want to reach the human on the other side and strike the most resonating chord to move them to a product, service or an idea. The voice is a tool akin to any brand for a particular product. It is the human behind the voice that creates substance, the energy of every thought is contained in the breath that reverberates through the sound of one’s voice to reach you. Training can impart knowledge of practice, and it could also enable us to ‘learn to learn’, but this is something AIML stands on today. Then what are we talking about?

The AI-Human distinction at work. Enough has been said about mindfulness and breath from ancient texts to spiritual practices. Whether it is Shambhavi Mahamudra, Shaolin martial arts, Yoga, Kalaripayattu, Ballet, Jazz or the Suzuki method. Artists who live life with consistent instrument practice are discernible for their presence. So where does this come into the picture for a voice actor? Well, being judged for every audition yet needing to remain neutral about your work, cast after comparison with other voices for other characters yet aiming to be an authentic version of yourself, working with people limited by authority and struggling with the articulation of instructions, working in a highly perceptive environment where social media rings. You are what you are and you may know it but for the world to send opportunities your way it needs to be able to perceive you likewise. Being grounded and your truest self while sustaining your work opportunities and living a fulfilled life needs inner work because it is all cyclical as one feeds the other. Once this is at the fore of attention some ways may start appearing. It could be a spiritual practice, a physical art form or the pursuit of a milestone for the body through form training. Arriving at a state of mind by initiating the body first begins a journey that is absolute, non-negotiable and definite.

Imagine if despite an unfavourable day or phase in life how you responded to a person or situation has no impact on your performance. Form practice and breathwork have this definiteness about them. They lead you to elevate your faculties and capabilities as a human by enabling you to harness your centre. Your well-being as an artist is as much essential for you as it is for the human on the other side listening to you. Whether you count it in your journey is an individual choice but in raising your consciousness you would be undeniably raising that livewire of energy that threads us all.

This article was originally posted by the Author on – https://www.thevoiceovernetwork.org/buzz/the-buzz-magazine-interactive/the-buzz-magazine-32nd-edition/

Before I begin writing today, for the uninitiated, I want to also set the background to understand a typical studio scenario for a voice actor. Let us consider a dubbing artist in this case. Enter studio – You just joined the team for this session with a script, an engineer, a dubbing director, a bottle of water, a mic and a recording booth just to yourself. After a gentle exchange of greetings, the engineer comes and helps set up the equipment and checks your relative placement to it, then goes back to the engineer’s bay. There is a clear glass partition that separates that area from your booth. A brief of the story and the character is given, you may watch the beginning of the content to engage your other sensorial faculties and there you go, start rolling.

“Rolling” is a tech lingo that connotes “start recording”. Your director has locked the hours for today’s session and that is already calibrated to the deadline committed by the producer so you are already in the committal of delivery before you know it. In other words, you are trusted. Since the character you are recording for is not someone you could spend any time with, prepare for or even have a dope on to walk its path, here you are – as a Voice Actor, to do the job of the actor in your person and voice but for them. Yeah, exactly. Simply put multi-tasking level 1. The momentum picks up immediately or sometimes in a little while and while observing the character, its mindset, mannerisms, personality, relationships and responses in the series of moments, you are also hearing the source audio called “pilot”, calibrating your speed of speech in another chosen language, embodying the character, working on the breath, listening to the cues and feedback from the director while being in a ready body to respond to the cues of the previous conversations or events on screen.

Well, if one gets specific it is these many things at every moment of dubbing. In a nutshell, it is a hyper-focused job that requires multitasking. Let us call it multitasking level 2. If the day has decided to challenge you a little more then you realize that the script is not metered and needs fewer or more words in every line. So now, you and the team keep creating the text to fit the need while keeping the liveliness of the ongoing scene intact. And just like that, your recording is done for the session and you wrap up and leave for the next recording. Oh, I just forgot to mention, there is contextual analysis and text analysis that happens while you are responding through your takes and you are also mindful of the space in which the character is present whether it is a marketplace, an intimate one or a conversation with someone in a chase or a trek. One last thing at the top of my recall is maintaining your levels of the audio so that there is no loss or distortion of your audio in post, the engineer is very acutely on this task to support you through, which also brings a very high chance of retakes notwithstanding the optimum level and clarity of speech. Well that’s the occupational hazard you could say. Even if you are in not a great mood that day, you need to give that laughter as many times as it takes to get it right. That’s all I guess.

Now, I feel I may have tricked you into feeling that dubbing is a very complicated job and also made you wonder how people do it. So, let me also offer you a simplistic way to look at it. As I said earlier Dubbing is a hyper-focused job that requires 100 per cent presence in every passing moment. Similar to something that driving or sports need. That is what allows one to use all, some or one of their faculties at any moment through real-time response and reaction. Every support in terms of resources or expertise can turn ineffective if the voice actor is not fully present. Though a common internal joke but something to admire is how in the face of a challenge sometimes voice actors dub without the script by simply watching the video and churning and speaking the lines at the same time. Anyways, the next time you watch something do consider watching the dubbed version and spending a few moments pondering behind the mic work of the voice actor whose name you might be able to see in the credit list though after a considerable wait time.

This article was originally posted by the Author on – https://www.thevoiceovernetwork.org/buzz/the-buzz-magazine-interactive/the-buzz-magazine-32nd-edition/