0352 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 1

12/18/21 • 3 min

Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2021.12.18 – 0352 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 1

Screaming and shouting

It may be that a script, say in an animation, calls for you to scream – the epitome of projection. This can potentially cause damage to your folds if you don’t prepare correctly, and could limit your work for the next few hours, days or longer.

‘Hydration before violent projection’ is part of the answer. Wet folds are less easily damaged than dry ones slamming against each other. But as we have seen this is more than sips of water on the day, your whole system needs to be hydrated ahead of a screaming session, more than ever.

Another classic tip that’s as useful for ‘extreme screams’ as any other voice work, is the warming up. Don’t go in and simply shout at the top of your voice, you need a lead up to such pressure on your voice. What’s important here is the warming up of the folds and throat which we have seen before, such as swooping up and down the notes in your range with hums, or low ‘err’ sounds into vocal fries, for example.

For the shout or scream itself, st and up so you have the best airflow for the sound and projection. Be well-grounded (again we looked at this before), so with a ‘steady stance’ with (to paraphrase Paula Abdul), one foot forward, one foot back and the soles firmly on the floor. You may also want to loosen the knees a little. A variety of semi or full crouching positions may help you get a more guttural, natural sound, and gesticulations (perhaps arms aloft or out wide, or maybe fists) may also help in the characterisation.

You won’t need to do a great ‘lungful of air scream’. The bigger your breath in, the more pressure will be built up, and the greater the tension in the throat as that carbon dioxide is driven over the folds. So try a ‘less airified’ projection and see if you can achieve a similar sound with less harmful results.

Beware of overly-tensing your body for the shout or scream. You are already going to put the body under pressure vocally and it may feel natural without you realising it, to tense your throat, raise your shoulders and freeze your face as you make the sound, but a more relaxed body may achieve the same sound without putting your ‘frame under strain’ so much.

Watch the levels on the mic, so stand back from it and turn the levels of the recording and headphones down!

Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama.

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.18 – 0352 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 1

Screaming and shouting

Watch the levels on the mic, so stand back from it and turn the levels of the recording and headphones down!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

0351 – Sounds That Drown

2021.12.17 – 0351 – Sounds That Drown

What loudness means

‘Authority’ does not mean talking loud. ‘Authority’ comes, as we have seen before, from understanding the story and having the confidence to explain its significance to your listeners, with appropriate vocal expression.

The louder you are, the more control of a conversation or of someone you are trying to achieve. That’s not ‘authority’, that’s ‘bullying’.

Shouting does not necessarily mean excitement. It does, though, usually mean simply more noise.

Sounds that drown

If you were live at a busy event, a party, building site, factory or roadside for example, you’d naturally project your voice so you are heard over the background. So it stands to reason that if you are recording a voiceover where you have background atmos that is either played in as you record, that you also project to similar extent, to create ‘audio authenticity’. (The script may say something like “factory sound effects (SFX)” or could even be more specific, such as “Sacha is loading the machine with wooden planks in the factory”.

You need to work with the director or studio producer so you create a mix that is believable - and that of course is tricky if the effects are mixed in at a later stage in the production process, after you’ve gone. You’d also have to rely on having being told that, in the mixdown, you would appear to be ‘on location’, so you’d use appropriate projection in the recording, and are neither yelling or being drowned out.

The same goes for a music track (a ‘bed’) underneath your voice: the levels of you and it in the mix need to sound natural to the listener so they can hear you and also be moved by the music, as the director requires.

Achieving the best result will be a combination of projection, distance from the microphone, and the recording levels set by the producer or studio engineer. And a good sound will also be achieved by your imagination: whether the effects are being played-in ‘live’ as you record or not, try to imagine that you are in the location indicated by the script. Visualise yourself doing what your character is described as doing, delivering the lines written, and to the target audience that’s been outlined to you, and what they may be doing as they listen. Yes – act!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

0353 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 2

2021.12.19 – 0353 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 2

Remember that screaming and shouting isn’t necessarily about sheer volume. A similar affect may be achieved perhaps by a shaking voice and a whimper, an “urgh” or exclamation may replace a ‘level eleven’ guttural shout. And even if you are specifically screaming or shouting, the microphone itself can do a lot of your work for you. After all, you’re in a recording studio, not an open-air theatre, and the effect of loudness can be made more efficiently, effectively and safely by an engineer in the control room than you in the booth.

Another tip is to leave the extreme voice work to the end of the session. As long as your studio work hasn’t up to that point been too long or tiring, your folds should be well warmed up, and importantly if any soreness is caused by the scream, it won’t affect the rest of the session if it’s done at the end.

After the ‘extreme projection’, some cooling down such as swooping up and down the notes in your range with a hums, or low ‘err’ sounds into vocal fries, for example. Bring your high, shrill screaming tone down to your usual vocal note, gradually and safely.

And then rest your voice...[1]

[1] More screaming help: https://melissacross.com/

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.

The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?

This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.