Susan Sheridan- A case study

Famed for her roles in popular children’s show Noddy’s Toyland Adventures (1992) , as Trillian in radio 4’s original series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy (1978), and Eilonwy in Disney’s The Black Cauldron (1985) Susan Sheridan has been working as a voice actor for over half of her life, in amongst taking on roles in theatre and TV, and coaching voice development.

She studied at the Guildhall school of music and drama, although her passion for performing began at a much earlier age, when she attended the Brigidine Convent in Windsor, a school which encouraged drama and dance, and put on annual shows at La Scala. Her first credited voice over role seems to have been as Trillian in 1978, although there were other commercial voice over roles from 1965.

In 1984 she was nominated for an Emmy award for her contribution to an episode of TV series Fame in writing and composing the music, and although she is credited as the voice for many popular and cult figures in radio and animation, she has not yet received any other awards.

I find her admirable because she has a very distinctive voice naturally, and although she has a home coutnies crispness to her voice, manages with ease to sound inviting and friendly. Some may think she does not have such a range of character as some other voice actors (in this instance they would be incorrect; she voiced eleven regular characters in Noddy’s Toyland Adventures, plus several additional voices), but even so, she has a strong and memorable voice which she knows how to use. She has portrayed characters of all ages and both genders, and although she may not be critically lauded, she has made a long and successful career from her voice. If there is one person i can currently look to as inspiration, it's her.

Rob Paulsen- A case study

It would not be unreasonable to state that Rob Paulsen is one of the voice actors that inspired my interest in the field, and certainly one of my idols. As a child of the 90s decade, there were very few cartoons I would watch which Mr Paulsen wasn’t involved in for at least an episode.

Rob Paulsen landed his first credited job as an “additional voice” on The Smurfs (IMDb, date unknown), and was in work consistently from the mid-80s onwards. His personal website lists his most well-known roles as Raphael of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), the title role of Mighty Max (1993), Arthur in The Tick (1994), both characters of Stanley Ipkiss and The Mask in the animated series of The Mask (1995), Carl Wheezer of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (2001), Jack Fenton in Danny Phantom (2004), and Bobble in the Tinkerbell DVD series (2008-present). With a career this long-lasting and wide-reaching, Mr Paulsen is an imposing and knowledgeable figure in the voice acting industry.

He was born in Detroit, and raised in Michigan. From an early age, he was an avid fan and player of ice hockey, but soon found that he did not have the skill or temperament to play professionally. So, at the age of eighteen, he decided to dedicate himself to acting and singing, his other passions. It was clearly a wise choice, as he has had a varied and prolific career, with some on camera roles, character voices for animations and video games, and commercial voice-overs all evident on his resume.

Rob Paulsen currently offers one-on-one and group seminar sessions in a bid to raise money for children’s’ and veterans’ charities.

His awards include:

4 nominations and 3 wins- “Annie” awards, voice acting in the field of animation

1 nomination and 1 win- “DVDX” awards, best original song in a DVD premiere movie

2 nominations and 1 win- “Daytime Emmy” awards, outstanding performer in an animated programme

I think, personally, my admiration for Mr Paulsen stems from his tendency to portray particularly talkative characters, displaying a mastery of wrapping his mouth around particularly difficult phrases. My first knowledge of him as a performer came from his role as Yakko Warner in the 1991 cartoon Animaniacs, a particularly good example of Paulsen’s ability to be both wordy and witty. With the pointed yet drawling New York tones of a teenage Groucho Marx, Yakko was supposedly the elder of three ink-blot style cartoons, who used a special brand of music and mayhem to make an entertaining, educational programme. The wordiness of Yakko’s character did not end with witty one-liners and parodies of famous speeches, but extended on into songs that listed the presidents throughout American history, the planets of the solar system, ingredients in ice cream and chocolate bars and, most famously, the countries of the world.

If there are two things Rob Paulsen’s career can teach the aspiring voice actor, they are that commitment, practice and perseverance are invaluable skills, and breath control.

"The Jabberwock" reading

"The Jabberwock" is one of my favourite poems, and I recorded myself reading it as an exercise in attitudes while reading. I thought it was a good example of the style in which a person speaks being more important than the words. The words of "The Jabberwock" are utterly nonsensical, and as such any performance of it relies entirely on the tone created by the performer. I think I did a rather good job!

In other news, I finally got to meet local professional voice artist Pavel Douglas (www.paveldouglas.co.uk), and he has been amazingly kind and helpful in recommending local projects and opportunities, agreeing to an interview for this blog, and allowing me to visit his personal studio. I cannot wait to speak to him further!

Video blog 5 and some news

Well, here it is! Blog 5, which is a bit overdue. Life's getting a little bit hectic, as all of my assessments are starting to pile up, but fear not, readers, I will not forget you!

Lyrics for "Yakko's World" follow, so you can sing along at home:

"United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama
Haiti, Jamaica, Peru,
Republic Dominican, Cuba, Carribean
Greenland, El Salvador too.
Puerto Rico, Columbia, Venezuela
Honduras, Guyana, and still,
Guatemala, Bolivia, then Argentina
And Ecuador, Chile, Brazil.
Costa Rica, Belize, Nicaragua, Bermuda
Bahamas, Tobago, San Juan,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Surinam
And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam.

Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Finland
And Germany now one piece,
Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia
Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
Poland, Romania, Scotland, Albania
Ireland, Russia, Oman,
Bulgaria, Saudi Arabia
Hungary, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran.
There's Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan
Both Yemens, Kuwait, and Bahrain,
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Portugal
France, England, Denmark, and Spain.

India, Pakistan, Burma, Afghanistan
Thailand, Nepal, and Bhutan,
Kampuchea, Malaysia, then Bangladesh (Asia)
And China, Korea, Japan.
Mongolia, Laos, and Tibet, Indonesia
The Philippine Islands, Taiwan,
Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Sumatra, New Zealand
Then Borneo, and Vietnam.
Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Angola
Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Botswana,
Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Gambia
Guinea, Algeria, Ghana.

Burundi, Lesotho, and Malawi, Togo
The Spanish Sahara is gone,
Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Liberia
Egypt, Benin, and Gabon.
Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya, and Mali
Sierra Leone, and Algiers,
Dahomey, Namibia, Senegal, Libya
Cameroon, Congo, Zaire.
Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar
Rwanda, Mahore, and Cayman,
Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Yugoslavia...
Crete, Mauritania
Then Transylviania,
Monaco, Liechtenstein
Malta, and Palestine,Fiji, Australia, Sudan." 

"Me and Mine" extract reading

As promised, here's the extract reading/trailer for Sarah Goodwin's "Me and Mine", voiced and animated by yours truly, with music from Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com

"Me and Mine" is available as an ebook from amazon.com, and amazon.co.uk, and as a paperback from lulu.com.

blog 4!

Just a brief update, with more vocal exercises to follow. Huzzah!

New year, new blog!

After a bloomin' long time, I finally got around to making another blog.

One brief note, I think I gave the wrong address for What Have You. Just in case you want a link, it's right here! 

So, all I can say now is Happy New Year, and be sure to spread the word of an amateur voice actress looking for work.
Talk to you soon!

Video blogging at last!

No one likes a sore throat

Well. There has been progress, and there has been hindrance. In the 'progress' column, I have phoned Piehole and taken their voice evaluation test, so I should be hearing back from them within a few days. I have also drafted up my official proposal for this project, and it shoudl be posted here once it's been approved on Thursday. However, in the 'hindrance' column, I have suddenly come down with a rather nasty cold, which has of course chosen to manifest in the form of a sore throat. I'm doing all I can to rid myself of it, though, because I'd like to start using video logs soon, and practicing my own vocal analysis.

I've also recieved a list of the required inclusions for my production logbook (read: this blog), and so I will include them here. Aims are:

• Include records of rehearsals and rehearsal activities.
• Set out the AIMS of your rehearsal process and HOW your methods of rehearsal will enable you to investigate your question.
• Convey evidence of your broader research in relation to how this directly informs and impacts upon your practical-based studio-work. Documentation of your wider reading and related research and bibliography. All wider material read needs to be referenced, and the type of material stated (i.e. play, article, book, essay, film, etc)
• The evidence of critically reflective thinking in relation to the creative processes you have undertaken in your practice-based research. 

I think I've established a lot of these in former posts, so it should be a question of continuing to update. I think that's all the news for this week, and I would like to encourage anyone and everyone reading this blog to pass it around. I'm looking for amateur projects to take on, and for credits to add to my resmue. If anyone has a friend looking for a voice actor who will work for nothng but the credit, please send them here!

Good news, everyone!

So, about two hours after I made that last post, I got a phone call from the lovely people at Piehole, checking that I was happy with their website and generally being friendly. They also told me that they have a special, new "short" version of their voice analysis. Yes, you get a third of the feedback, but it's at a third of the price, so that's really welcome. I signed up for the voice analysis, and hope to phone in and record today.

In other news, I'm working on putting together an advert for a friend of mine, who has self-published a book. I'm also talking to Ian (the head of my course) to get some contact details of rpo, ex-pro and semi-pro voice actors, so I can hopefully have a chat about the voice acting world at large and how I might fit myself into it. So that's fun.

I'll update in a couple of days with the results of my analysis. Wish me luck!

Investing in Awesome

So, I've wanted to be a voice over artist for years. This project is really just the incentive, the push to actually commit to the idea, but I've wanted to do it since I was old enough to realise that it was a job. And now, here I am looking into the field, and it's more than a little scary. It's scary because I'm committing to the realisation of a dream, it's scary because I'm very close to putting myself in a position where I may be told I'm not good enough, and not least of all, it's scary sheerly because of the amount of time and money you have to invest.

It's understandable, primarily. If you want to make good recording, you need good equipment. That's one cost there. Then you can look at online directories like voices.com or piehole.co.uk which, while they seem really helpful and friendly, and are a perfect way into the industry for new voices like myself, don't really come cheap. Free or cheap memberships usually only provide you with the most basic of listings, with very little help or support. Again, it makes sense; a paying customer is more valued to any business, and these directories are, first and foremost, businesses.

The fact that all the expense is completely justifiable almost makes it worse, because it's as if you are saying to yourself "if you truly believe you're good enough at this, you can and will commit. If you believe this could be a profession, paying £64 for an indepth analysis of your voice is a small downpayment to help you along your path". Scary, huh?

Yes, piehole.co.uk is my site of the week for helpful yet scary revelations; they allow you to download or recieve a free copy of their book of tips and advice on technique and ettiquette. This has been amazingly useful, and I'm going to follow up with an adaptation of their plan to help my own developement. Howeer, they also offer, for the price of £64, an in-depth, over the phone analysis of your voice, including advice on where your strengths and weaknesses are, what you should improve and what your next steps should be. A service like this is amazingly tempting, and looking at the site's credentials, I have to say that I would have my utmost trust in them, but the question of price is something that I'm going to have to think about. I'll keep you posted on that one.

In other news, this week I was further inspired by Mr Rob Paulsen, and his amazing podcasts in which he discusses the nature of being a voice actor, along with anecdotes and information on how the job works. The only drawback is that he is of course referring to American voice over, which is mostly geared towards animation for companies such as Warner Brothers, Disney and so on. If I could find a British equivalent, it would be much more helpful, as I knowBbritish voice over to be geared more towards adverts, radio, and only the occasional narration or animation spot.

But, for now, my research continues, as do my dreams.

A look at resources and links

I've been looking around the net for my initial research into the resources available, the requirments and expectations of a voice actor, and the general protocol of the industry. So far, I've found several handy dandy websites. First, we have The Voice Actor's Notebook, a wonderfully straightforward site that has plenty of information, tips and tricks, not to mention lists of suggested reading and suggested equipment, and on top of that, suggested seminars and free scripts to practice and audition with.

Next is voices.com/, a directory of amateur voice actors and people looking for voice actors, which also has an online community in which users can ask and answer each other's questions.
 Along these lines are "voiceoverclub.com", "voiceactingmastery.com" and "acting.lifetips.com", which are all websites dedicated to tutorials and community building with the hopes of helping amateurs along.

Finally, and this is something more personal, we have Rob Paulsen's website, which he is currently using to promote a string of tours and seminars across America to raise money for charity. Mr Paulsen was pretty much the voice of my childhood, giving life to either a major or supporting character in pretty much every cartoon I watched as a child, so having his weekly podcasts where he discusses the world of professional voice acting with other actors is really helpful and inspiring.

And so begins a new blog

Hello there. My name is Vikkie Moule, and I have started this blog to help chart my eight month long project:
I aim to become, at least at an amateur level, a voice actor.
Now, I know that it takes far longer than eight months to become a talented or noted actor in the field, but the next eight months of researching and developing my efforts will be charted in order to support my degree (a BA hons in Drama and Theatre Studies). My goals for the next eight months are:

• to check in here at least twice a week with some sort of progress or reseach
• to use my free time to further my understanding and skills in teh field of voice acting
• and to begin amateur projects to help myself towards at least semi-professionalism

So please follow, reblog and help me get the word out there; I am trying to promote myself, in the hopes that I will manage to become, or at least understand, a part of the voice acting world.