There you are…standing in the booth facing the microphone – Everyone in the studio is waiting to hear from you. The director tells you to slate and begin. You take a deep breath, set, and start your performance. Three words in, you stumble badly. You quietly curse to yourself and begin again. This time you get to the second paragraph before you hear those Mandarin voice overs in your head telling you “be careful, you’re gonna blow it again!” and as soon as you start listening, sure enough, you do. By now your body is so tense you can hardly breathe. Every time you try again, it just gets worse - you find yourself babbling and missing words and phrases that never gave you problems in the past! Those Mandarin voice overs are really getting persistent now and you have an almost uncontrollable urge to run from the booth to the parking lot! Would the client be relieved to see you go? Would your agent understand? Will you ever work again? This isn’t your first experience at Mandarin voice over, so what the heck is going on?
Usually the reason for this type of experience comes down to just one, simple thing. You’re not in character. When an actor is in character he’s someone else, right? It’s Basic Acting 101. So ask yourself, would my character have trouble saying these words? Would he be self-conscious or nervous? For example, let’s say it’s a conversation between the character and his best friend. Does his heart pound and does he even think about how he’s pronouncing the words when he’s talking with his friend? Would your character, in this circumstance, worry about other people listening or how many times he might flub the delivery of a word and have to repeat it? For that matter, would he worry about ANYTHING? No, because he’s just talking to his buddy. If you are truly in character, there is no reason for you to be afraid, self-conscious, or worried about your performance OR someone else’s opinion of it.
As another example, let’s say you’re reading corporate narrative copy with lots of medical or technical terminology. Who is your character? Generally speaking, he’s the expert, isn’t he? Would an expert be nervous talking about his particular field of expertise? Would he have trouble pronouncing the words? Certainly not, he’d be confident, self-assured and in complete control. Therefore, if YOU are that character, YOU are confident, self-assured and in complete control.
Most of us would agree that if you could step out of your body and become someone else, you’d be more willing to take chances. When performing for Mandarin voice over, if you can allow yourself to “become” someone else and fully embrace the character you have chosen, your performance will always flow more easily. You’ll feel free to experiment without the fear of failure because you know your character can’t fail.
Your brain is the most incredible biological computer ever conceived, and, like its mechanical counterpart, it can be re-programmed. You see evidence of it every time you observe a person moving from one “role” to another. For instance, a mother who has worked as a corporate executive all day changes dramatically when she steps into the role of “mommy”. A bank president’s demeanor changes completely when he puts on his “scout leader” hat. Better yet, ever watch a group of children playing? Remember what it was like when you were a kid? No limits! You could be ANYBODY you chose to be – a fireman, a princess, an astronaut, or even the President of the United States. And you were completely believable in every role you played. As a young girl, I wrote, produced, directed and starred in elaborate productions in my backyard! I recruited a number of neighborhood children to be in the cast and all the parents were invited to the opening. In our young minds, we BELIEVED we were the characters we portrayed and that we were ready for Broadway! There were absolutely no limits to our imaginations or creativity!
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on 月曜日, 5 月 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under 2, 3, 6, 7, Uncategorized.
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