Reigniting Old-Fashioned Thank You’s

business, celebrate, creative professionals, small business, voiceover

Optimism in a Tradition

I re-started a company tradition in November 2019: Hand writing thank you notes to first time clients. People don’t do that much anymore, with our keyboards and computer devices. Saying a formal ‘thank you‘ to new clients after delivering excellent voiceover continues a new relationship graciously. Anyone else write real thank you notes in today’s world besides me? Tell me. Relatively, I think I’m safe to say I am in a small group doing this. Based on the fun replies, my clients notice.

This tradition exists for several reasons. One, it’s good for business, sealing new relationships memorably. Two, it’s fun to write with my hand using a real pen on real paper. (I used to have a thing for calligraphy too. There really is a visual artist within me.) Three, it’s a positive celebration of collaboration (and celebrating achievements is also a company goal). This tradition gives me great joy.

How’d this all start?

Early in my voiceover plus on-camera career, there was a lot more person to person meeting up. Thank you cards were extra effort, but, were appropriate and recommended. Some years into my career, my focus became solely voiceover. Everyone evolved as business morphed radically with the internet expansion. In person meetings fell away, with email and on-line activity replacing them.

Even if it’s an extra effort, I like writing cards and saying thank you. The personal touch of new meetings via Zoom isn’t the same either. Physically putting pen to paper, and for a moment, switching from digital devices to physical implements is tangible goodness. So in November 2019, I decided to bring back my old tradition.

Printing branded cards, I was set and haven’t looked back. My hands always write them. I don’t care if it’s cursive or some mix in between. Fetish or not, I like the touch of a smoothly rolling ballpoint pen on real card stock paper and it’s matte surface. I fondly consider the collaboration as I write, noting something specific that was special. It is physical creation in the end, another creative expression.

Do I go to the post office every time?

Fortunately or unfortunately, no. I take a simple photo of the card on a good background, cleaning up lighting and composition with a photo editor. Next I send it digitally in email, through the internet to my newest business collaborator. The idea of going to the Post Office when the pandemic started was a safety issue, being what we knew then. It’s either closed or crowded, now that it’s safe, so – still a hassle.

Regardless, I want immediate gratification for my client. The US Postal service speed of delivery has been hammered in the last couple years, which makes digital delivery expedience and avoiding crowds at the local postal office preferred. *Thank you Internet of things... who do I send that card to?

Overall Positive Impact

Sending thank you notes is sharing optimism. It sets the stage well, showing appreciation for being selected in a competitive market. Each time my very special, unique, thank you card, I consider this.

Sending the note as quickly after voiceover audio has been approved has more impact. Send it as soon as possible. In a way, it’s like sealing up my VO with a professional, congenial, unique, memorable bow.

I have a stack containing every single thank you card that I write. It’s a kind of a visual metric for my effort. It’s hard to take a photograph and help you see what that looks like. There are over 100 cards. Below is my best attempt at a pic.

The big picture?

It’s creating optimism in new relationships. Looking forward and back at the same time. Looking at what was done, how it felt and how it went. I feel a sense of accomplishment and appreciation with every card I write, and it grows with the stack. And that, my friends, feels great. I think my clients feel it too.

Doesn’t Improvising Mean Using No Script?

creative professionals, improvisation, instructional design, voiceover

Isn’t voiceover acting and improvisation a conflict?

That would seem true. Pure improvisation does mean creating out of nothing with your imagination, with the only limitations being the ones you put on yourself. And voiceover actors get scripts to read into a microphone. Let’s explore the ways voice actors can use improvisation and find out if the conflicts can be worked through.

Starting with definitions…

The definition of improvisation from the Oxford American Writers thesaurus: extemporization, ad-libbing, spontaneity, lack of premeditation, compose, perform, or produce something such as music or a speech without preparation. We can argue about the meaning of “without preparation” but let’s agree to the concept of little forethought or almost zero preparation prior to the improvisation.

The definition of voiceover acting: an actor who provides and/or records voice to represent a character in animation, film, or television entertainment; or who provides/records voice within a project for non-entertainment purposes. In either case, the voice is not accompanied by the speaker’s image.

Can a voiceover actor use a script and improvise?

Here lies the apparent conflict that seems true with our basic understanding of the definitions above. To help illustrate that there is a middle ground, here’s a graph I developed for my 101 class showing how there is an overlap between these worlds.

In simple terms, the voiceover actor can improvise by doing two things: fully embracing the script and improvising details that aren’t provided within the script but fit with it.

Embracing scripts while improvising details?

Every script tells a story. A voiceover actor can use improvisation to imagine details that:

create her world for telling that story with those specific words
resound more authentically for her as an actor portraying a role
support the words and the story wanted by the producer

A few other ways to improvise while using a script are simpler, well-known techniques or tricks.

Two ways to find a natural way to initiate the script opening:

Use a running start. This means to start talking the words you imagine would be said prior to the opening of the script, using them to launch into the script.
Ask a question that the first lines of the script answer.

Within a script, allow natural sounds that assist with natural flow/rhythm/pacing and which may possibly be edited out later:

Non-verbal sounds like ‘ah’, ‘uh-huh’ or sighs
Verbal ad-libs like ‘ha’, ‘so’ or anything else intuitive that fits

The ways in which a voiceover actor can improvise throughout a script can vary as much as actors are different.

Improvising for voiceover scripts doesn’t mean rewriting them.

The major point is there doesn’t need to be a conflict between improvising and the use of a script. The improvisation should support the script, filling in details that support the story and message. In a way, the improvisation is part of the acting technique, incorporated and embedded within the attitude, tone, volume and pacing of the spoken words.

Improvising supports acting technique and creating a ‘world’ that is generated from the words in the script.

The point for the voiceover actor is she wants to deliver the words as if she’s thought of them. Depending on the voiceover script, it may or may not provide that perspective. Voiceover scripts often leave lots of space for the actor to fill in details and “live within the ink”.

What sort of situation would create her to speak these words if that perspective isn’t provided? Regardless of the variability between actors, the practice of improvising details can assist her to explore and then determine the most authentic ‘world’ with the script.

Video Design Tip: Hire VO Actors with Improv Skills

improvisation, video design, voiceover

Viola Spolin spoke of spontaneity as part of creative expression. — Actors with improv should know about Viola Spolin, who was a matriarch of improv. Viola Spolin Image from https://alchetron.com/Viola-Spolin

Find VO actors with improv skills.

Hiring voiceover actors either randomly or regularly for marketing videos? Selecting voice talent with improvisation (improv) skills gives you more power to get what you want from your voiceover session. You’ll be a happier video producer in the end, not only with your final audio recording but with the entire session experience.

Actors with improv skills are:

- - often quick on their feet with new ideas
  - flexible to shift gears and follow new direction
  - or even offer ideas on takes or ad-libs

Could this mean you’re hiring a stand-up comedian? Or an actor who wants to change your lines you’ve worked so hard to meaningfully craft? No. Even voice actors who haven’t studied improv have fears that this is what it means. Thankfully that’s not true. You won’t get a comedian. A VO actor with improv expects to collaborate with you, to discover and experience your script as spontaneously as possible while delivering the meaning you intend. Voice actors with improv practice have a strong skill set of receiving a suggestion and running with it, while maintaining overall scope or direction. From my experience, improv trained actors more instinctively pull in ideas of location, ambiance, contextual relationship to bring added performance depth with your script.

The above photo is of Viola Spolin, a woman I refer to as the mother of modern improvisation. She made immense and pivotal contributions to the craft, and her ideas are foundational in most of today’s improv schools for actors and non-actors. I believe Spolin taught actors to release their inhibitions, to play spontaneously. She created so many ways to experiment and practice this art. She blazed trails within theater and film acting and beyond.

Voice actors who invested in improvisation training offer you not only great final recordings from directed sessions. They also bring fun, confidence and probably a little entertainment during the session with you and your clients.

“Yes, And” great sessions can also be fun!

Next time you are hiring a voiceover actor, seek out those with improv training.

REBECCA HAUGH Female Voice Actor