now Manchester so what am I doing here
well I’m here because you don’t know my
face but you certainly know my voice and
what you just heard is a an assortment
of my showreel put together with
different styles and intonation Xand
characters which I’m going to tell you
about later I’m gonna take you on a
journey about how I got into voicing
what it means to be a voicing artist and
tricks of the trade and possibly I might
throw a couple of characters in as well
did you know that a baby in utero can
already distinguish its mother’s voice
its mother’s tone it’s not incredible
the power of voice so where did it all
start well I was 13 years old and I went
to see a show in the West End and I was
blown away I was mesmerised transfixed I
was so enamoured by the spectacle in
front of me I burst into tears and my
parents said to me who are with me and
Dean what’s wrong you’re crying I’m not
crying no Nadine you’re crying I know
I’m crying but I’m really happy because
I realize I want to be an actress so I
went Strama school and 18 years old I
graduated and I auditioned for the same
show that I’d seen when I was 13 years
old here in Manchester Manchester Opera
House Barnum the circus musical with
Michael Crawford we transfer to you
remember that in 1984 we transferred to
the West End and for eight years after I
appeared in different different musicals
finishing up with world Shakespeare
company working with Mel de Staunton Jim
Carter Cyd Charisse but I decided for it
to come to an end
why because I wanted to start a family
and I didn’t want to lead
colonel lifestyle I do however have
three wonderful boys but what happened
was I wanted to stay in the industry but
I didn’t know what it should be I wanted
it to be creative using the voice pitch
paste tone intonation characters taking
you somewhere
lifting the words off the page and I
realized there were writers who were in
a graduate years at film school and what
they wanted were artists who could come
in voice material radio work radio
commercials and I was hooked again this
passion inside of me just will it answer
all my questions I was able to raise my
family and be freelance the first
recording I did was 22 years ago and
what I’d realized then was I had this
kind of sound this natural sound of
being husky and sexy in a bit kind of
sultry so I pulled these voices together
for my first show real it wasn’t very
good and I did get my first booking
which was as I said 22 years ago for
jazz fm in London Paris Paris the
outstanding new single from the
legendary Catherine Deneuve and Malcolm
McLaren
here the single that the critics have
hailed a triumph of the imagination Q
magazine MacLaren’s best record daily
that was 20 years ago and your voice
changes all of your voices change
because what happens is as we get older
our larynx often our vocal cords
basically relax and as a consequence our
voices get lower so for a voicing
artists what you have to do is you have
to keep updating your voice your
showreel so that when you send it to
creatives and producers and script
writers and engineers anyone really who
is looking for a voice your with a sign
of the times so you go on a journey
because you need to learn well what is a
show real the show who runs one and a
half minutes it’s a calling card and as
I said you send this to anyone anyone
because basically you’re doing your own
marketing and with it you hopefully get
bookings now with mine I sort of have
adapted according to my strengths and I
sent it again to more agencies and then
you get your nice bookings you get in
nice bookings in the West End in Soho
and you go into these massive digital
multimedia state-of-the-art million
dollar pound Studios but do you go
straight in no you got to warm up your
voice it’s like getting in your car
you’re not gonna just get in the car
you’re gonna put petrol in and you know
air in and water in the radiator the
same applies to the voice so I may be
like all of you if you’re a little bit
nervous you want to do something you hum
try humming I know it’s silly you’re
sorry but what I’m doing is I’m making
the sound in the cavity of my mouth warm
I’m also smiling so that the sound is
making my muscles relax and tingle and
I’m getting the sound stuck behind my
lips so I’m able to make the bar sound
and also I’m kind of I need to do tongue
twisters to get the mouth going and the
tongue going especially and the mind
communicating and relating to the words
so New York is unique unique is New York
New York is unique unique it’s New York
you should try that one or can you
imagine
minashi manager managing monetary
monetary or your home is at risk if you
do not keep up repayments we know that
one so you go into the studio and you
know it can be quite daunting because
there might be just one person in there
you’re creative you’re Booker and the
engineer now the engineer is on your
side because he basically records your
voice he edits its he mixes it and
basically gives the final copy to the
client but when you go into the studio
there might be eight people in this lush
wonderful studio and you breathe you’ve
got to keep your confidence and you go
into the recording booth now being in
the recording booth is like being in
solitary confinement because you’re in
this studio nice aircon and I must say
great mic but there’s this big glass
partition between you and the creatives
and so you’ve got to have faith you’ve
got to have confidence because the
client will basically say Nadine here’s
the script have a go give us your
impression give us your interpretation
that might just mean I don’t know what I
want but I’m gonna listen and see what
she gives me or it might be I know what
I want but I’m not so sure how to convey
it so you give me some ideas and also
it’s your job do you give them the ideas
to help them on that journey of
delivering the right product the right
sound the right intonation also your
client who’s aimed at is at ease and
bees as in postures it receive
pronunciation or is it des or something
HT or whatever it is and you know solved
or tire which you want that I so it
really depends what they want now
there’s a lovely story here and this is
the incredible famous prolific actor
Joss Oakland now Joss goes into the
studio and you’re normally recording by
the way from minimum of an hour and Joss
goes into the studio and he looks at a
script yes
good old yellow pages good old yellow
pages good dude yellow pages
yes thanks very much Joss little bit
faster they don’t also like that by the
way
good old yellow pages good old you loopy
just good old yellow pages yes thanks
very much Joss I’ve so this continues
but this isn’t ten minutes this is an
hour and after 103 takes later he leaves
but which take do they actually use for
that massive national campaign that runs
on TV for years and years and years take
two
and basically what it teaches you in the
artist is don’t take it personally do
your best and listen the skill of being
of voicing artists is listening not just
speaking and also sight-reading
brilliantly so that is the multimedia
studio and by the way when you leave
there’s always a planet full of
delicious chocolates grab those
chocolates but don’t eat them before you
go in why because it dries out the
larynx the sames coffee and tea little
sips of water but not topless sorry so
that’s a multimedia studio I’ve got a
studio and it’s this big okay and my
boys call it my padded cell it’s
actually converted toilet but I did take
those things out and what it is it’s
basically to kill the sound I put duvets
on and also acoustic tiles which are
basically egg cartons but it does the
right thing and there are two ways to
use this studio the first is I get a
script from a client and I record it and
edit it mix it and send it to them as an
mp3 or a wav file or I link with a codec
a producer anywhere in the world with
incredible digital technology so what
happens is I speak into the microphone
it goes through the mixing desk into a
codec the codec converts my voice
interested digital format sends it back
down the line through to the codec
anywhere in the globe and spits it out
reconfiguring it as if I’m standing in
the same room with them incredible
technology and instant now where can you
hear voices well
there are a number of different areas
where I’m sure they all recognize voices
are like narration and corporate now
what is voice of God voice of God is not
spiritual it’s not religious voice of
God is when you can hear the person but
you can’t see them ladies and gentlemen
the award ceremony will start in five
minutes
what about animation now animation is
pretty cool because we like animation
because we can kind of get our teeth
into it and also I suppose being an
actress I can kind of feel it more
rather than just the words off the page
so recently I just played a mushroom a
snake and a police cop you go yeah right
right well what I do is I look at the
storyboard I look at the script and I
see a mushroom you know and it taught
like that see because it’s got a short
vowel and what I do was to say oh I’m a
fungi really sorry about that
and what about snake now snake is very
and with snake we elongate the vowels
and we can even crackle our voice in a
very malicious wonderful and if I want
to take it further and be a wicked witch
or police cop now police cop is
interesting because you know she’s sort
of down in her heels in the weight of
her heels and I kind of feel like I want
to hunched over she’s got the truncheon
she’s got a handcuffs you know heavy and
her boots you know what I wanna do is go
hey Mickey come on come on for you and
help us we gotta do something now the
other side of voice thing is possibly
when you’re not really voicing and that
is when it’s an adult film okay so
there’s not much script but there’s a
lot of heavy breathing okay yes we’ll
move on from that one show it so this is
my idea of a script
so this is a radio script it’s not a
real one just so I don’t offend anyone
but this gives you an idea of what it’s
all about and as you can see it’s a 30
second and the top left and what I
realize is voicing artists straightway
if I was given this is that it’s quick
it’s very fast in fact it’s really
really typical of writers now
sorry writers we’re overwritten all the
time so a client always has Nadine
you’ve got to really really fast to make
it sound really slow hmm don’t really
get that one but what we can see here is
the MV omal voice-over is 15 seconds so
the female voice over FeO and at the
bottom the T’s and C’s is well 15
seconds as well so the process of
elimination is about nine seconds for
the T’s and C’s and six seconds left for
the FeO
also you’ve got to ask the client or how
do you want telephone numbers read is it
double one double eight eight oh is it
double one triple eight Oh treble eight
oh and do I even have the time to say
the pound sign because all of these
wrapped up in a 30-second commercial
well it counts for a lot
so you’ve got to focus on the main copy
of script who the brand is who the
client is and lift those words so the
other thing you’ve got to also think
about is well timing about music it’s
called a bet and is the bed gonna crash
the voice where does it come in so this
is how it sounds I hope at the end
thanks to Ian Swan of voicing and Rick
loins of the wireless group together
with my voice do you want a new car
because yours is really rubbish well it
should comes for you I have one with
your name written all over it
you can get it for just 249 pounds 81
that’s right just 2 for 1981 come on
have a look around and take a test drive
call Oh 8 3 6 1 double one triple eight
Oh cheap cars for you driving you around
the bend and the state roads as well 96
monthly payments of juice or money to
one optional final payment 7201 92t
sincere supply he’ll probably not even
listening anymore nobody listens to me
on sale only in bold available on new
orders before the end of June well Jesus
sees don’t we just love Tia’s and sees
now of course you have to write them in
at some points but T’s and C is do we
really talk that quickly we do but the
engineer can quicken it up if he needs
to if you need to focus on the main body
of the script because of course the
brand the client is far more important
than the T’s and C’s so this morning
when you got up you might have asked
Alexa a question to do something for her
well she actually lives in Wiltshire and
when you go home at the end of the day
from this amazing hall you might ask
Garmin satellite navigation systems to
drive you somewhere
well I’m here I’m standing here now you
can ask me a question now one thing I
will say though is when you’re next on
hold on the telephone and you hear your
call is very important to us please stay
on the line you were caller number 3472
don’t shoot the messenger we’re just doing our job thank you