1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record? 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,160 Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:19,040 skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. Elijah, I do believe 4 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:24,280 that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall 5 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:31,280 we start a podcast? We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast. 6 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:35,560 Oh, they're going to take a sip for the voice. Make sure the chords. 7 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:36,560 But of course. 8 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:37,560 The pipes. 9 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,160 Yes. Yeah. Always good to be very hydrated. 10 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:48,960 Let's start a podcast, shall we? Chris Tester is the voice of reason in my mind. Not what 11 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:55,560 you would think, but we're going to get through the day today with explaining the epic pivotal 12 00:00:55,560 --> 00:01:00,280 point, the diarrhea commercial, explain what's in a voice, and then of course, the godly 13 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:08,720 figure. Not an accent, but the war hammer. Godly foes, I guess. The end bosses. How do 14 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:12,920 you get to that point and what in between? So thanks for joining. Thanks for having fun. 15 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:13,920 My pleasure. 16 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:15,920 And I'm glad you're here. You're just happy. 17 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:16,920 I'm glad you're here. 18 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,560 I want to talk about myself in true British fashion. It's lovely. 19 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:22,520 Obviously, yeah. 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:29,160 So the diarrhea commercial, I love 12-year-old bathroom humor. Anytime I can fit into a podcast, 21 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:35,580 here I am. So that wasn't in the past. I heard this on another podcast. I was being nosy 22 00:01:35,580 --> 00:01:39,360 and wondered, is this a pivotal moment in your career, one of those things where you 23 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,760 got to work it out or is this something that you've kind of landed on? How did this happen? 24 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:50,040 I mean, we've all got to work out what our USP is and maybe our USP finds us. And so 25 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:57,200 I kind of feel as if I've self-actualized to the moment of voicing a series of diarrhea 26 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:04,480 commercials and how this particular product can solve all of your diarrhea problems. I 27 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:10,720 mean, in actuality, because although the campaign itself is going to be across all of Europe 28 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:16,440 as well as the UK, I didn't actually even realize what the product was for, what the 29 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:22,840 product was until the recording session itself. As is often the case with voice actors is 30 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,800 that you don't actually know what you're voicing until you're in the session and then you're 31 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:31,720 presented with the script. Because I think people are so petrified of people breaking 32 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:36,400 NDAs and this being incredibly important confidential information. I don't know how it works in 33 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:40,040 the diarrhea marketing circles, but I assume that this is all incredibly important and 34 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:44,000 vital information of how their medication works and all of this kind of stuff. But I 35 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:48,600 didn't realize what it is that I'd signed up to. I was given the details of these are 36 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,120 the territories it's going to be used. This is the length of the recording session. This 37 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:57,380 is the money. Is that okay? Fine. They like a demo that we already have of your voice. 38 00:02:57,380 --> 00:03:02,360 So they know that they want you. You're the guy for diarrhea. But they didn't even say 39 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:06,760 that. So then I just kind of like, well, I digitally rocked up to this session. I clicked 40 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:10,960 on accept on Microsoft Teams or whatever. And suddenly I was there. And suddenly I was 41 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:15,640 presented by this very moving explainer video about all of the benefits of this particular 42 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:21,120 product, which I can't specifically name yet because it's not out in the wild as it were. 43 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:26,640 But yeah, that's just the nature of the job really. You just go, oh, okay. I'll run with 44 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:27,640 this. Yeah. 45 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:33,120 You talk a lot about the importance of branding and aligning to your network with people of 46 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:37,080 similar values. So does this concern you at all when you get into this thing where you're 47 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:41,720 flying blind, if I may, and just kind of going to be the voice and hoping for the best? 48 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:45,880 I mean, I think with something like that, that's pretty much, it's absolutely fine. 49 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,640 But there has to be obviously a degree of trust with the clients that you're working 50 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:54,920 with. And so for quite a lot of production companies, they'll ask you is the stuff that 51 00:03:54,920 --> 00:04:02,520 you will do or won't do because stuff that's outlawed in the UK, for example, tobacco advertising 52 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:08,480 might not be outlawed in other territories. So are you willing to do a cigar commercial, 53 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:13,600 for example, in Dubai or something else like that? So there are all these kind of granular 54 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:19,160 in detail kind of things, even though we don't really do a lot of kind of political stuff 55 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:25,120 in the UK in terms of advertisements as such. That's obviously a huge thing in the US where 56 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:29,800 you've got the political attack ads essentially in that kind of thing. But even as a UK talent, 57 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:34,080 I've been signed up to a lot of US production houses. They asked me, would you do political 58 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:42,500 stuff? And I'm like, hell no. So that's always interesting. But yeah, because of confidentiality 59 00:04:42,500 --> 00:04:46,680 clauses and stuff like that, you never know exactly what it is. Well, you rarely know 60 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:53,080 exactly what it is that you're stepping into. And even when you are presented with something, 61 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:58,200 it's a good lesson in not over preparing because again, you can start a session and they can 62 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:03,960 go, we've completely changed the script. So everything you've prepared and you've annotated 63 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,440 everything and you've looked up all of the words and the crazy way of how to pronounce 64 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:12,360 this Greek place, place name that you've never heard of, all of those kinds of things. And 65 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:15,800 then you go into the session, they're like, it's completely changed. All of the names 66 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,920 have changed and different as well. So let's learn those as we go, grit your teeth and 67 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:25,400 good luck. And that's and then being able to go, okay, that's absolutely fine. And it 68 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:31,400 won't affect my performance, but I just need to be able to manage the recording session. 69 00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:35,560 That's part of, I think actually working with a professional comes in. Yeah. It's about 70 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:41,680 having a nice sounding voice. Yes. It's about knowing how to use that voice, but it's also 71 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:47,160 not being overwhelmed that lots of shit being thrown at you really, really quickly, both 72 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:52,120 metaphorically and in actuality with the diarrhea stuff. Yeah. 73 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:56,480 He loves a good pun, but you love a dream client. Have you had one? Have you worked 74 00:05:56,480 --> 00:06:00,080 with one or are you waiting for that special day? 75 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,320 It's weird. Cause I mean, I didn't really, I didn't really set out with, because I was 76 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:09,000 never, I was never like, I wanted to be a voice actor right from the get go. I don't 77 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:15,560 know if there are that many people out there who do, but so I didn't have any dream clients 78 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:20,520 because I didn't really think about it. A great deal. I didn't, I had a huge lack of 79 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:27,480 imagination like when I, when I was an actor and I still am an actor, but when I was predominantly 80 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:32,880 focused on stage, I was like, I want to work at the Almeida theater. I want to work at 81 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:36,600 the English touring theater. I want to work at the national theater and the Royal Shakespeare 82 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:42,680 Company. I did two of those, but not four. But that kind of came quite naturally to me. 83 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:47,560 Whereas it was only really in the first year of running my business where, you know, I 84 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:51,480 paid to work with various marketing gurus and they asked that question. I was like, 85 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:58,640 Oh fuck. I should probably come up with some ideas. So in a long winded way to answer that, 86 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:04,760 probably games workshop this year, because that was, they do all of the warhammer stuff. 87 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:13,160 And I, as a teenager played a lot of warhammer and then I kind of put it on ice for about 88 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:19,280 20 years because I just didn't have the time. And then, and then I kind of like cottoned 89 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:24,160 on as it got more popular that there was all this law, all of these stories, all of these 90 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:30,480 books, all of these audio dramas, everything that had kind of popped up, you know, to that 91 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:35,280 kind of runs in parallel with the actual game itself. And so delving back into that and 92 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:40,280 also the, some of the video games that they do in the warhammer universe as well, that 93 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:45,840 became like one of my big things that I wanted to kind of like work with. So they are probably 94 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:51,280 a very prescient example of, you know, people I desperately wanted to work with and now 95 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:55,280 have, and hopefully I'm going to continue to. So yeah. 96 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:59,600 Across my toes, if it helps Chris. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Word out there. Hammer, warhammer, get 97 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,520 out there. Chris needs you. You need him. Whatever it may be. There we go. 98 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:08,960 Exactly. Exactly. But no, I mean, everybody that I've worked with, Black Library, which 99 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:15,960 is games workshops, audio book division, essentially has been an absolute delight. So you, because 100 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,680 well with the recordings for them, you actually go to their in-house studios as opposed to 101 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:25,640 recording remotely. So, you know, I went, yes, I went up to their headquarters in sunny 102 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:30,000 Nottingham for three days to record an audio book with them. And it was, it was, it was 103 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,280 great. It was really, really, really cool. 104 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:36,920 Do most people get you to do a straight read? If I may just, just read naturally or do they 105 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:41,640 put you expect to put on something, a little bit of a, a persona when you're doing the 106 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:44,360 audio books or is it all? 107 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:51,440 Well I mean with audio books specifically, even the narrator is a character because I 108 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:58,720 mean otherwise get, get an AI voice to do it. I mean, essentially because even if it's 109 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:04,960 not explicit implicitly, the narrator will have some form of take on all of the action 110 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:09,760 that's going on, even if they seem to be somewhat removed from the action directly. So as well 111 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:14,480 as doing the actual character voices, I think you need to have a clear idea of where the 112 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:20,020 sympathies of the narrator voice lies and be able to make choices. Cause I think that's 113 00:09:20,020 --> 00:09:26,520 always going to be more kind of like interesting. So I mean, quite often I'll be asked to do 114 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,660 the majority of my work in my natural accent. And that's whether that's corporate stuff 115 00:09:30,660 --> 00:09:36,560 or commercial stuff, most video game stuff, audio book stuff, but then with audio books 116 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:43,060 and with and with video games as well, you know, you need to populate the world with 117 00:09:43,060 --> 00:09:47,600 other characters only just using your voice sometimes in which case or, well, or with 118 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:53,400 video games, you know, quite often the more characters you can play, the better it is 119 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:58,560 for the developer because it means they don't have to pay loads of different voice actors. 120 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:03,400 So that's a selling point for them in that way. And I mean, I'm currently working on 121 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:09,400 a Charles Dickens audio books, audio book, and there's about 35, 40 different characters 122 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:14,280 there. And I, like I said, I'm not an accent guy, but it's about making subtle differences 123 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:20,160 so that just people know without being too distracted by the performance, whatever it 124 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:24,120 is. Cause I think that gets, that can get boring quickly. 125 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:28,920 I've heard American gods, uh, audio drama is a audio book. If you're familiar, they 126 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:32,980 did the whole thing. Like they did the voice acting, they did the sound effects and immersed 127 00:10:32,980 --> 00:10:38,500 you in into the experience. Do you find that's a little too distracting? Is it just a preference 128 00:10:38,500 --> 00:10:41,040 that you have to be over the top? 129 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:45,680 Oh, I mean, I mean, with something like that, because it's all kind of done. Like for example, 130 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:49,840 we've got a company in the UK called big finish. I can't remember if they did American gods, 131 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:57,240 but they did quite a lot of Neil Gaiman stuff. Um, and, uh, yeah, I think they did. Uh, and 132 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:02,080 the way they kind of like produce that, uh, is exceptional. It's amazing. You know, I 133 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,680 mean, they get, uh, the cream of the crop of, uh, actors and voice actors involved as 134 00:11:05,680 --> 00:11:11,880 well. Um, so very rarely, uh, is it, it's not like having a small ensemble of people 135 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:18,480 trying to do like 80 or 90 characters. Um, you know, um, and, uh, and the actual sound 136 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:22,880 effects, it's, it's incredibly, it's incredibly immersive and it's a really, really cool thing 137 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:29,600 to do. So, I mean that, although audio drama isn't necessarily my burning priority, uh, 138 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:33,800 just because I don't know enough about it, I'm not that well versed in it. Ironically, 139 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:37,920 despite being an actor, um, you know, it's something that I've had a few really great 140 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:42,880 experiences with. Um, it's just, it's, it's interesting cause it's completely different, 141 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:48,560 uh, in a lot of ways you do have to amp up some things, uh, because people aren't seeing 142 00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:54,740 a face. So they, they're not being able to gauge things via an expression. So you do 143 00:11:54,740 --> 00:12:00,360 have to be a little bit more distinctive in the voice. Whereas even with some video games 144 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:05,560 now, uh, although video games, uh, cause some video games tend to be a bit more heightened 145 00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:10,440 just because of the worlds that they are creating and that kind of thing with mocap and facial 146 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:16,080 capture and all of that kind of stuff, in actual fact, sometimes you can get away with 147 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:21,960 very, very naturalistic and grounded performance in there. So, you know, it really just depends 148 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,640 suiting the tools to the medium as it were. Yeah. 149 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:29,600 Anything in particular that really helped you stand out in the voice world when you 150 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:34,260 decided, uh, it seems last minute, just out of a whim to be a voice actor. 151 00:12:34,260 --> 00:12:35,260 Out of a whim. 152 00:12:35,260 --> 00:12:42,960 Uh, I mean, I, I mean, I did an online course and that online course revealed to me that 153 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:48,800 being able to work from home as, uh, or being able to work independently as a voice actor 154 00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:54,520 would, was, uh, uh, a thing at all. Uh, I mean, my understanding of it up until that 155 00:12:54,520 --> 00:13:00,440 point was that you get a great, well, you get a voice agent, uh, any, anyone will do. 156 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:04,520 And then, you know, like any kind of acting work you, you, well, hopefully you don't, 157 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,240 but you, you wait for the phone to ring and then you get auditions and that kind of stuff. 158 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:12,160 And then you kind of like work it in from there. Whereas that was very much more kind 159 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:16,440 of like, no, you can, you can build, you can build your home studio. You can build your 160 00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:20,680 own kind of like business and then you can actually reach out or post on social media 161 00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:25,020 or, you know, network in person or all of those kinds of things and do it that kind 162 00:13:25,020 --> 00:13:29,400 of way. So it was only doing that course, which was called the voiceover kickstart, 163 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:36,320 uh, by a guy called Guy Michaels back in 2016. I think that was the, that was the moment 164 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:43,080 that kind of made me want to go for it. And then, um, and then the work really, having 165 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:48,920 put all of that stuff out there, it was interesting to see what work found me as opposed to me 166 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:52,400 just kind of going, this is who I want to work with. Because as I've said earlier, I 167 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:57,080 wasn't sure who I wanted to work with, whoever, whoever paid me money, uh, which was a good 168 00:13:57,080 --> 00:14:02,580 kind of like start. Um, and a lot of corporate work came my way initially, and that was just 169 00:14:02,580 --> 00:14:06,840 through my natural speaking voice. So that became like the core element of my business, 170 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:12,720 certainly for the first three, four years of it anyway. Awesome. So what microphone 171 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:17,480 are you rocking for those podcasters listening to find what's in the voice? Uh, this is a 172 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:25,320 pretty kind of like an one of the industry standards, uh, a Neumann TLM 103, um, which 173 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:29,840 I got secondhand from a fellow voice actor about four or five years ago. So I got it 174 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:33,800 for about half the price. I think it costs around about a thousand dollars normally. 175 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:41,520 And I got it for 500. Um, uh, yeah, uh, I was pleased. Um, and it's kind of the thing 176 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:46,920 about it is, is that unlike a shotgun mic, um, which is one of those kind of like thin 177 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:55,960 ones, um, uh, which, um, can be great, uh, for e-learning particularly, um, and a lot 178 00:14:55,960 --> 00:15:00,440 of kind of long form narration. Uh, the thing about this is because it's a dynamic microphone, 179 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:05,240 I can go slightly off axis to it, which when you're doing character work is incredibly 180 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:10,520 helpful and it'll still pick it up fine. Whereas, you know, with a shotgun microphone, it's 181 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:15,200 kind of focused here. So if you go off here to do something, it really cuts down in terms 182 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:19,960 of the volume and the gain. And as a result, it's all just seems a bit kind of like patchy. 183 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:25,160 So for my purposes, this suits me really well. And it's been, you know, basically the hub 184 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:31,080 of my entire business for about five years. Brilliant. I'm working the stage mic that 185 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:36,160 you'll see at SM 58. I think it's what it's called. And a lot of people will just go like 186 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:40,480 this, the rock stars, but I like it because it's indestructible. It feels like, and when 187 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,680 I was, you know, going around remotely to doing different podcasts with friends, bringing 188 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:50,040 my equipment, it needs to be robust. Yeah, that's the thing. It works, but you got to 189 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:53,920 get right in there. And someday I'll get to the, the industry insurer, which is, you know, 190 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:59,240 the ones where those microphones were Michael Jackson sang into and stuff. And that'll be, 191 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:02,840 then we can go toe to toe microphone wise, you know, it'd be great. 192 00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:07,400 I mean, I mean, for the sake of something like podcasting, it's trying, it's trying 193 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:11,600 not to overcomplicate it because it's, it's really marginal gains. But when you're, I 194 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:17,560 mean, when you're recording like big, expensive kind of commercial stuff or video games stuff, 195 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:22,800 especially, then you need to be rocking things at a certain level. And then, you know, I 196 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:27,360 mean, the, the, the, the upper limit is ever, you know, there's a U 87 or whatever you're 197 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,800 talking thousands and thousands, but it's kind of, I mean, sure, it'll be, it's a nice 198 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:36,600 to have, but not a must have. So I'm very much in the technical aspect of like, I got 199 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:42,680 geeky for a very short and concentrated period of time, but then, you know, it can become 200 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:48,560 overwhelming because then you're always looking for the next upgrade and it can become insatiable. 201 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:54,600 Whereas when I kind of moved house and set up this studio itself, and it was all kind 202 00:16:54,600 --> 00:17:00,720 of like custom built for me and everything. That kind of scratch that it's good and proper 203 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,320 as it were. So now I feel like I'm set. I'm good to go. There's not really anything else 204 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,640 that I want to iterate or upgrade on anytime soon, as long as everything is running. Because 205 00:17:09,640 --> 00:17:14,560 as soon as you change one thing in your audio chain, there are whole other things in the 206 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:19,280 back end that you can fiddle with as I'm sure you're aware. So it's just like, uh, if it's, 207 00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:24,080 if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's kind of my, that's kind of my outlook on it right 208 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:28,360 now. Beautiful. If someone wants to level up their game and doesn't want to necessarily 209 00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:31,880 spend on the equipment, but they want to spend on Chris's delicious voice, where do they 210 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:36,440 find all the demos and information that they need to find you at? 211 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:41,440 Uh, I mean, they can just Google my name, uh, Chris Tester. And I think I'm the first 212 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:46,440 person that comes up, although there is another Christopher Tester out there who is also an 213 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:52,960 actor, uh, but based in the U S and he doesn't do voice work. Uh, or, uh, my website, which 214 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:59,800 is naturally rp.co.uk, uh, the RP being for receive pronunciation and, um, it kind of 215 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:05,760 rule one-on-one, uh, for voiceover websites is that all of the demos are there, both combination 216 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:10,520 demos and also single tracks. And it's all downloadable. So if people do want to kind 217 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:15,760 of like download specific things, just so that I have them on file, then great fine. 218 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:19,200 Or if they just want to bookmark my website and then completely forget about me, that's 219 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,520 okay too. 220 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:26,240 I was looking, you're, you're, you're not just overselling it. I was going on the Google 221 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:30,480 and I was like, wait a second, that's a completely different website for Chris tester. And this 222 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:34,520 is when before you had a beard. And so you've been doing this a long time. It's kind of 223 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:35,520 cool. 224 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:39,080 I felt well. I've been hanging around a long time. Well, I graduated from a drum school 225 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:47,800 in 2008. Um, so, so been acting and, um, I think the very first voiceover gig I did 226 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:55,840 was in 2012. Um, so yeah, 11 years ago, that was for dark souls to the, that video game. 227 00:18:55,840 --> 00:19:02,200 So kind of like started out on, on the big end one, like a AAA game, uh, completely unknowing 228 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:06,280 at the time about what I was getting into, but it was, it was, it was very, very cool. 229 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:11,100 But yeah, I mean, continuing to hopefully build on the experience. 230 00:19:11,100 --> 00:19:15,840 When you get somebody that creates a different experience for you, like myself to says, I 231 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:20,160 have a creative idea. I don't really know how it's looking the opposite of this dark 232 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:26,240 souls to polished big, big time studio. How do you kind of inject ingest that information 233 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,880 to kind of make the best product possible to give that first impression? Kind of walk 234 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,160 me through the Lord pop roll if you could. 235 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:38,360 Uh, I mean, I mean, from a voiceover perspective, I mean, it's, first of all, it's just asking 236 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:43,480 the right question. So, I mean, very actory questions. Sure. Like who am I? Who am I talking 237 00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:47,520 to? What is it that I want? What is it that I want them to be buying into? Because they're 238 00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:52,040 buying into something one way or the other. Um, uh, what is it that you want the audience 239 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:57,080 to feel is also a kind of like a great start. Cause quite often people will start with the 240 00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:03,320 sound and that's perfectly legitimate, but then it becomes very technical. Uh, and if 241 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:07,920 I don't know what's justifying that sound, what's running underneath that sound, if you 242 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:13,320 want me to be really breathy and low and all of this kind of stuff, that's fine. But like, 243 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:18,320 why is it because we're trying, is it because there's visually kind of like a viewster and 244 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:24,840 we want to create a sense of awe and wonder, or is it suspense and danger because it's 245 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:29,120 technically, you know, it could be the same voice, but doing very, very different things. 246 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:33,600 So if I can understand the why in any, in any kind of like shape or form first off the 247 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:38,760 bat, that would be great. Um, but for the first thing is just kind of working out, you 248 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:46,240 know, where is it going? Is it going on TV or online or is it on radio? Um, B because 249 00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:52,040 that in itself will massively affect, you know, how I use my voice because with radio 250 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:56,840 where it's audio only, as I touched on before, you know, the voice has to do a lot more work 251 00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:01,600 because apart from the music and the sound effects behind it, it's, it's the message, 252 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:07,500 it's carrying everything. Whereas if there are visuals to go with, then rather than thinking 253 00:21:07,500 --> 00:21:12,280 of voicing over those visuals, you're kind of voicing under them because it's a supplementary 254 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,760 thing. You're not working in isolation. So if I understand, uh, or I'll say like, do 255 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:21,840 you know, uh, have you got, uh, a lot of clients will maybe have a work in progress thing. 256 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,360 They might have stuck a temporary voice in or an AI voice in as a guide, or they might 257 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:31,120 have some work in progress visuals or just some music, which may not be the music that 258 00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:36,120 they, um, that they're actually going to end up using, but like, this is the kind of energy 259 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:41,080 then that's really useful because if I, you know, stick that playing through my headphones 260 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:47,480 as the same time as I'm recording, that will naturally, you know, affect the read, um, 261 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:51,920 and kind of like take it from there, but you've kind of got to keep on your toes because you 262 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:56,040 know, one client will start out with a whole monologue about the, um, the companies or 263 00:21:56,040 --> 00:22:01,320 the clients, you know, dreams and goals and how inspiring this thing will be. Uh, the 264 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,640 other one will kind of come in and say, it needs to be no longer than 30 seconds. That's 265 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:12,000 it. I need you to do it fast. And you're like, okay, fine. Uh, and then your kind of your 266 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,440 voice acting, Spidey sense will have a look at the page and immediately go, that's impossible 267 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:22,000 or that is possible, but it's going to be too fast. Can we take out a few words or yeah, 268 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,080 okay. That's absolutely fine. And so therefore you've got to kind of cultivate these other 269 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:31,600 weird, uh, kind of skills of like, not consciously, but subconsciously you get a kind of like 270 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:36,080 a sense of the timing. If someone says, I need you to knock half a second off that you 271 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:40,360 can't kind of mathematically work it out. You've got to kind of feel your way to it, 272 00:22:40,360 --> 00:22:45,400 uh, but you've got to do it in a take because time is money. 273 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:48,760 People on a budget starting on a podcast, time is money for them too. Right. So do you 274 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:53,280 have any principles or ideas or just basic fundamentals to get that voice, right? To 275 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:58,320 create a sense of confidence and first impression and, and, and something that I want to listen 276 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,800 to, even if it's long form 30 minutes, do you have any? 277 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:08,240 I mean, relaxation, which is, it's kind of like, um, it's a bit like telling people not 278 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:15,040 to think about the, the elephant in the room really. Um, yeah, just be relaxed. Uh, uh, 279 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:20,800 don't get stressed. Okay. Um, but I think people in our underwear. Yeah. Yeah. Then 280 00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:26,360 that's absolutely fine. But I mean, I think some form of very basic kind of like breath 281 00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:31,760 work, even if it's just focusing on, you know, uh, breathing out for a count of three, just 282 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:37,040 to get some kind of like deep breathing in there, because when we get tense, the breathing 283 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:42,120 kind of like locks up again, physically, because the physicality as ever affects how the voice 284 00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:46,520 works. So start with the body. And if you're breathing from the chest or from the neck, 285 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,560 uh, for most of the time, then your breath is going to get shorter. You're going to get 286 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:55,600 sound a bit more panicked very, very naturally and all of those kinds of things. So just 287 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:59,920 even just focusing on breathing, you know, from the tummy as much as possible, not necessarily 288 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:03,600 from the diaphragm, darling, because you don't need to project because there's a microphone 289 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:09,880 there, but you know, just kind of like trying to connect to that breath and taking the time. 290 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:17,840 Uh, and I would say also not being afraid of pauses because quite often in the audio, 291 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:23,400 uh, sphere where it's so desperate to be able to fill that space and be aware of the dead 292 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:30,320 time in it, we can therefore fill everything with all of this incidental mucky kind of 293 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:35,440 like stuff, which is horrible to listen to as well. So, you know, it's just about finding 294 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:40,240 that kind of like balance, but I think taking a moment to just doing to connecting to your 295 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,280 breath, I think is a really important thing. I won't go as far as saying meditate because 296 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:48,400 I don't meditate, but you know, being able to connect to that breath and how your full 297 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:53,600 body is kind of working, not overdosing on caffeine too much is probably a good step. 298 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:58,320 No, no monster drinks or energy drinks. The ones that give you, I mean, I, I, I mean, 299 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:03,120 I personally have like, uh, they affect me really badly, really severely. Like they give 300 00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:08,120 me heartburn and palpitations and that kind of stuff. So that's a definite no from me. 301 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:13,000 No, no, no. What's going on for 24? What, what are you planning on? Are you getting more 302 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:18,320 Bentley commercials in or, or maybe another video game planned or it can, 303 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:23,520 uh, I mean, I mean, I, I mean, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Um, I mean, I mean, 304 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:28,960 it's both the blessing and the curse of the gig is that you have no idea. You have no 305 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:34,800 idea what, what, what it's going to be like. Uh, I mean, I mean, unless you're in, uh, 306 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:43,600 a huge video game project, which would be potentially long form, in which case sometimes 307 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:47,800 they're recorded in a couple of weeks. Sometimes they're recorded over a number of years, but 308 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:52,080 that's a very select few number of people who actually kind of deal with that. So very 309 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:56,480 often it's kind of like you're one and you're done. Uh, I've, I've just literally wrapped 310 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:02,200 on a video game project, which is released in December. And that's, um, I was recording 311 00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:08,080 that part for a year, but I, even from my first session, I didn't know how long the 312 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:14,320 whole process was going to be. They don't tell you even your, you, uh, you, the protagonist 313 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:19,040 or are you a companion character or are you an NPC who gets killed in the first level 314 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:23,880 and that's it? You're dead. You just record a bit and then you record a bit more and then 315 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,760 you're brought in for another session. You're like, okay, from the kind of things that I'm 316 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:32,800 voicing, I guess that I'm quite a considerable character in this game. And then suddenly 317 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:36,960 a year has passed and you've done like 20 sessions, but you didn't really kind of like 318 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:42,360 realize it. Um, so quite often you might be booked for something thinking that, you know, 319 00:26:42,360 --> 00:26:47,080 it's just going to be one and done. And then it just kind of goes and goes and goes. Um, 320 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:53,080 but for me, um, I mean, I used to run a, like a voiceover to voiceover accountability groups. 321 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:57,560 So with other voice actors, uh, and you know, goal setting was obviously a very big thing 322 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:03,360 because, you know, for, for freelancers anyway, I think you need to choose what kind of direction 323 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:09,400 you want to be aiming at. Um, and for me for this year, I didn't know that I was going 324 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:15,440 to get started on audio books at all, but I have, um, and I'm now on my sixth or seventh, 325 00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:22,960 I think. Um, uh, so that's been an unexpected thing. Um, and the whole like social media 326 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:29,120 thing being a thing in my, in, in, in my business was not again, something that I expected this 327 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:33,360 time a year ago, I think is when it kind of like really properly kind of kicked off before 328 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:38,040 that it was something I was like, as we all do, I'm experimenting, throwing a lot of shit 329 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,680 over the wall. I don't really know if anything is really working and I'm spending far too 330 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:47,280 much time on it. Whereas now it's kind of the main source of work that I get. Um, so 331 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:51,400 that was not something that I planned. I mean, projecting what I want is I want to be in 332 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:56,400 the next Mass Effect game. I know it's coming out at some point in the next couple of years. 333 00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:02,680 I kind of know the companies that are probably, uh, you know, or in, uh, involved in the casting 334 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,160 of it. And I've reached out to the people that I know that I can reach out to who haven't 335 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:10,800 responded to me, but you know, I can say there are like, there are certain franchises or 336 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:17,720 developers that I can go, I want to work with them. Maybe. Um, but, uh, I'd say they were, 337 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:25,920 I, I, I would say that I'd be limiting myself because I don't know what is out there, um, 338 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,960 as well. And it's like, I don't, for example, don't, I don't just want to do lots of video 339 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,480 games because a lot of the video game stuff out there, I'm not actually that interested 340 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:39,880 in doing, uh, you know what I mean? Um, yeah, there's very particular types of work that 341 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:44,800 I'm interested in doing. Um, and so I think it's about being more and more particular 342 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:51,080 and really zoning in on that kind of stuff. Um, that's actually corporate. Um, I mean, 343 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:55,160 I mean, corporate pays the bills and corporate is always interesting, you know, in a different 344 00:28:55,160 --> 00:29:00,800 kind of like way. Um, but it's that, that's something that I will continue to put myself 345 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:05,440 out there. Uh, I feel as if I've got a great deal of experience and I can offer a lot. 346 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:11,000 Uh, my priority would be to kind of like, is there any more kind of like room to freshen 347 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:15,600 things up in the corporate sphere whenever kind of possible? Cause I feel, you know, 348 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:20,760 otherwise things get quite flat and stale and boring very, very easily. And if you wear 349 00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:25,320 too much scent or not enough to nature to send you home anyway. So I just have to get 350 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:30,760 the sweet spot. Yeah. Yeah. No, indeed. But, but I mean, yeah, I generally, I'm, uh, I 351 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:36,920 I've got, you know, a couple of loose kind of like goals, but mainly it's, you know, 352 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,920 it's it's just managing the day to day, keep doing what I'm doing and be, be open to those 353 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:45,600 opportunities as and when they come really. Um, so if you have an idea for Chris, the 354 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,760 amazing voice actor, if I may just throw them an idea, see if it sits, it fits, see if it 355 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:53,400 sticks, see if it happens. And then we go from there and you can kind of roll the dice 356 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,800 and see what comes at you. Cause you never know what people are going to have in mind. 357 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:02,280 Exactly. You never know. Yeah. No, exactly. I'm, I'm, I'm always happily surprised, but 358 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:06,440 you know, it's, it's the stuff that you least expect that actually ends up usually igniting 359 00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:11,360 something within you. Yeah. The least expected. I'm just going to end because I could talk 360 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:15,320 forever. Chris, this has been amazing. It's been great. And I love how you put your glasses 361 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:19,040 on at the end, even though we're listening to this on audio, like you're smarter. Just 362 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,880 want to call that out for people listening. So they go to your website and check you out. 363 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:29,360 My pleasure. Appreciate that very much. Let's start a podcast.