Remote recordings for voice actors are a skill in and of itself. You don’t have the benefit of the rest of the cast or a director. I wanted to discuss one big technique I think levels up performances in this medium.
As a voice actor recording on your own, pretty universally, directors will ask for 2-3 line takes one right after the other. So if the line is, “Good morning! How are you today, Helen?” The VA would record 3 takes all in a row of “Good morning! How are you today, Helen?” “Good morning! How are you today, Helen?” “Good morning! How are you today, Helen?” The reason for that is so the dialogue editor has 3 choices of the line all next to each other on the recording, so they can pick which one they like and move on to the next character’s line. (And I even do what I call a “Frankenline” where I cut up different takes and put them together as one for what I feel is the best delivery of the line)
You can imagine as an actor that this is a choppy way to perform. You don’t have anyone giving you the cue line before yours. And you probably have never heard any of the other actors’ delivery, so you aren’t entirely sure how they are speaking. And then you have to repeat your line over and over, rather than keep to the flow of the scene. However, as I already stated, remote recording is a specialized skill that actors can train and hone that will still provide great performances under these conditions. More than once I have talked about how the biggest of Hollywood stars have had to do their Oscar winning performances to an “X” taped to a light flag just off to the side of the camera with a low level production assistant reading the cue lines. So if they can do it, voice actors can as well.
The skill the VAs need to develop is staying in the scene even as they perform it in this choppy manner. I will read the character’s line before mine in my head, and then I take a moment to let that line “land” on me. To truly hear it in my mind as if it was spoken to my character. Then I deliver my line as a response to that previous line. I do my performances standing so my whole body is creating the moment, not just my voice. And as I repeat my multiple takes, I am mentally and physically holding onto the emotion so it is with me through each take. Rinse. Repeat.
Two things are NOT happening here. Before I’ve even started my recording, I have done a read through of the script so I’m already familiar with the lines and the actions/emotion of the scene. So when I repeat my takes, I am not giving takes that are drastically different from each other. They never should be. You should have made a choice as the actor of how the line should be delivered. The multiple takes are because each delivery will be slightly different just by the nature of performance, and since you are recording remotely and you don’t know how the other actors are delivering their lines, one of those multiple takes may be just a bit better to fit the overall scene. So that is helping your editor.
Secondly, and most importantly, each line you deliver is part of the overall storytelling and should fit like a lego piece or building block to create the full story. I have heard too many amateur voice actors deliver each new line as if it were an island. A standalone piece of dialogue disconnected from everything around it. Energy doesn’t match the progression of the scene or character development. It’s as if the actor has detached themselves from the script. Taken each line as a mini monologue independent of story, and while giving that one line meaning, has stripped it of the context of the script itself. This is why I say that the job of the voice actor is to hold on to the emotion, mentally, physically, as they propel themselves through the script so they are a part of the storytelling and part of the scene. I’ve told this to actors who are doing small roles. Roles that seem insignificant. But they aren’t. Those characters are speaking for a reason. They are contributing to the story. Your job is to make them part of the story. Not stand out like a sore thumb.
Being an actor is using a lot of your own imagination to build the world your character is living in. And no place else is it more evident than voice actors recording alone remotely. Make choices, trust those choices, and stay true to them as you punch out the takes over and over. If you believe you are in that moment, when the entire audio drama is brought together, your audience will believe you were really there, too.
-Chrisi (aka Madison)
