Energy.

I’ve written here before about karate and voice-over. Both are physical and anyone who does physical activity and voice work on a regular basis can tell you that the parallels are numerous. But use of the voice in karate is what got me thinking about the relationship most recently. The subject of psychological and kinetic energy came up in Pat Fraley’s voice-over master class last weekend. One of our exercises was to read a number of lines using one or the other of these two energy types, and to mix up the two types within one line. One common choice for kinetic energy is volume – make it LOUDER. There are other ways of expressing kinetic energy and I was experimenting last night in karate class when my turn came around to count for whatever exercise it was that we were doing. The count is tremendously important in karate – it can motivate or it can depress one’s fellow students, and it is “spirit” – more precisely ENERGY - that makes the difference. I wanted to motivate with kinetic energy but not at great volume - to minimize the risk of hurting my voice (volume doesn't hurt if produced correctly, but I don't always multi-task well and wanted to focus on one thing), and without showing expression – because in karate you don’t want to your face to give away your emotional state.

In the booth, smiling is a huge help in adding energy to a read. It may be the single easiest way to change the feeling of your words. So trying to convey energy while counting for karate, without smiling or showing other expression, is a very challenging, interesting and fun exercise. The way I approached it was to “show” expression in my mind. To think it and try to get it into my voice but without showing the expression on my face. I believe that it worked pretty well. I don’t think it would work if one’s physical carriage were also removed from the equation – energy also serves as a sort of skeleton, a vertebral column of sorts, or maybe it’s the other way around – that one’s body provides the scaffolding for energy. Without good posture and a proud carriage, I don’t think the “show kinetic energy without showing facial expression at all” would work.

So how can this help in the booth? Maybe this is just a long-winded, B.S. Zen way of saying, watch yer posture and if you have to do a narration on a subject for which a smile is not appropriate, there are other ways to put energy into your read. You can be sure I’ll be experimenting with it further.