CAA? Why didn't I discover this sooner???

[MorningStar]

Hi everyone! ^_^ Wow, I had no idea a site like this existed. I hope it turns out to be a great place to come and visit.

I am a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (the more conservative of the Lutheran Synods. We follow strictly the Bible and nothing else.) and my Dad's a pastor.

I am 19 years old and want to go into Voice Acting and Film Production as careers. I may also get into Illustration but that's more of a hobby. So y'all will probably see me most floating around the art section and probably Theology because I could use some work in that area.

[glitch1501]

welcome to CAA!

[Gypsy]

Hi, I'm glad you found us! We don't actually have a Theology section because of denominational differences, but we are associated with TheologyWeb - that's where our Theology link will take you. ^^ If you have any questions about anything, just ask and someone will kindly help you out, or you could PM me or one of the other mods. Other than that, welcome to CAA and I look forward to seeing you around on the boards!

[Jasdero]

Welcome! ^O^

[HikariChan]

Welcome to the CAA :]

[Roy Mustang]

Welcome to the board.

*Hands out Chocolate Pocky and Ramnue Soda to our new member*



Wingzero22

[shooraijin]

Hajimemashite. I'm a product of the Lutheran school system, myself (but Missouri Synod, in this case).

[MorningStar]

wow thanks for the warm welcome! ^_^ *goes off to post now*

[Joshua Christopher]

Enjoy your time here, yo.

[Melody]

Hi! I'm not much of a welcome since I'm new too, but I hope you enjoy CAA! The members are quite..unique, if I must say so myself!

Voice Acting and Film Production! Wow, that's way cool. I'd love to see/hear some of your work! Do you like to sing?

[Shadowchild]

hi. i am also a newbie. welcome. *hands morningstar a bowl of ramen noodles* hope u like this place. i have only been on here for one day and i think that it is awesome. ^-^ i bet you have a great singing voice...

[Elric_kun]

Hi, and welcome!^^

[MorningStar]

Yes I do like to sing. ^_^ Learning how to sing is a great way to learn more about your voice and how to use it correctly, which is useful for voice acting.

[mastersquirrel]

Yes I do like to sing. ^_^ Learning how to sing is a great way to learn more about your voice and how to use it correctly, which is useful for voice acting.

Really? That's quite interesting... I guess I'd make a good voice actor!
Ayway, welcome to CAA. Hope you enjoy it!

[Sakura15]

Yes I do like to sing. ^_^ Learning how to sing is a great way to learn more about your voice and how to use it correctly, which is useful for voice acting.

Hey!! Welcome to CAA! ^_^

How do you learn how to sing? I mean...do you learn from just singing? or...something else lol. Im just curious as to how you use your voice correctly.

[holysoldier5000]

My Dad is a pastor too. Glad to see a fellow PK join the ranks. I wish you the best, and may you live long and prosperous... \\ // u.u \\ //

OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I love voice acting! How many voices can you do?

[MorningStar]

Ok here are the answers to your questions ^_^ Sorry if I ramble. I tend to do that sometimes ^^;;;

First question about how to sing and use voice correctly:

There are SO many rules, tips, and tricks that I can't even list them all and I'm sure I'll be learning new things till the day I day but here are a couple of important ones.

1. Breathe from your diaphram. Naturally, we want to breathe from our lungs but if you practic enough to breathe from your diaphram, your voice (sing and acting wise) can become 10x as powerful. Using my diaphram allows my to have a much larger vocal rang so I can do deep voiced women and still sound believable. It also allows me to sing louder, clearer, and puts much less strain on my voice. Cheering while breathing from your diaphram also can be done a lot longer without hurting your voice then breathing from your lungs. It also makes your voice clearer and less strained (mostly for singing though in that instance)

2. Enunciation. If you have a good choir teacher like I did, you can learn how words physically your mouth pronounces words and how you can have your mouth form them in the most clear way possible. I also learned this specifically for acting in my Stage Dialects class this last year. One tip I learned for improving enunciation just recently was from the book The Art of Voice Acting by James Alburger (a MUST book for getting started in voice acting). What you do is stick a pencil horizontally about a quarter of an inch into your mouth and bite down gently on it. Then you try to talk. Because of the pencil, it will be hard to do so and you'll try extra hard to try to make the words sound natural. After doing this for a few minutes (it really gives your mouth muscles a workout!) try speaking the same thing over again and you'll notice immediately how much your enunciation improved. It's really cool ^_^

Answer to question about how many voices I can do:
Well actually, I don't really know. I don't judge my acting by how many voices I can do, but how believable they are. You see, believability I'm told (and I think so too) is the most important thing when doing the voice of a character.
Also, I don't try to mimic other characters very often because of something that a lot of voice actors have said in articles I've read: Why would they hire someone who can do that voice when they already have someone who does that voice who's a professional voice actor.
On the other hand, versitility is a big pluse for voice acting. So there are several things I do to improve that:

1. Test vocal range. Everyone's voice is naturally on their own note. So I talk and then turn my speech into a hmmmm to find that note. Then I raise or lower that note and begin speaking again. It's a really cool trick because, if you can keep it without losing it, it instantly changes your voice. So I can do deep voiced women (ex. military style), higher voiced women (which is popular with some animes), or children

2. Learn dialects. I took a wonderful class on Stage dialects last semester in college and it taught me how to learn a ton of dialects such as American Southern, Brooklynese (New York), Irish, Austrailian, Standard English (British), etc etc. I think that knowing several dialects (and knowing them well) would be a handy tool for any voice actor because it adds versatility.

In this class I also learned about the IPA (International Phonics Alphabet) which shows how words are pronounced (that's what those weird letters behind a word in a dictionary are. They tell you how to correctly pronounce the word). This is useful for translating normal English into whatever dialect you want. Also, it shows you how much of a dialect you yourself have because it shows you how words are supposed to be pronounced. I found out there were a few words that everyone where I live pronounces one way but it is, in fact, the wrong way to pronounce that.

3. TAKE ACTING CLASSES!!! This is something that every professional vioce actor under the sun will tell you. I hear it every time I talk to one or read an article by one. Acting classes not only teach you how to act (duh) but they also teach you about "becoming the character" and many times that can be helped if you change your voice to match what you'd think the character's voice would sound like. I recently was in a play (Shadowlands) where I played a 30-something yr old woman. Now, I'm only 19, so what I did was deepen my voice slightly so it would sound more womenly.

Ok wow I think I typed way more then I meant to. ^^;; Sorry about that. If you have any other questions feel free to ask but I'd like to remind you that I'm not a professional voice actor yet (though I'd like to be in a few years) so you might get better questions answered from a professional.

^_^