With your top 3 favorite actors in mind, run a few scenes through your head for just a minute.

Really, close you eyes and do this. I’ll wait...

What did you notice when doing this? What do your favorite actors have in common? VO actors have one of the toughest jobs, because depicting an emotion based purely on your voice, is incredibly difficult.

Why?

Because the majority of emotions and human interactions are created through body language, facial expressions and movement.

However, the trick is being able to connect your vocal patterns to what you are doing with everything else.

Otherwise, there will be a disconnect and that’s what will throw off your performance.

When everything is in line, your performance will really come together, even with little preparation in an audition setting and you will stand head and shoulders above everyone else.

In fact, your voice could be the reason that you are having good auditions but not booking as much as you should be booking.

Your voice and the way your vocal patterns interact with your body language can either make you irresistible to a Casting Director or it will make them put your headshot in the recycle bin.

Here’s how to identify what vocal patterns your character calls for and how to nail them every time.

There are 3 distinct vocal patterns that almost every line you will ever speak can fall into.

Sure there are multiple layers to and subtle nuances, but as long as you master the 3 patterns, your character choices will always be congruent with your voice.

Those patterns are seeking, leading, and neutral. Everything else will fall into one of those categories. Your job as an actor is trace the surface level emotions back to one of the 3 patterns.

For example, when you are in seeking mode, your character is looking for something. It could be that they are seeking confirmation on an idea, looking for more information, or seeking approval from someone.

To tap into this pattern your voice would go up at the end of a sentence. The pitch will vary, depending on the nature of the scene.

A crime scene investigator, going over a crime scene and thinking out loud, or even just talking over the details with a colleague at the scene would have a smaller change in pitch than someone who is trying to make a good impression.

Both are seeking something. One is looking for information and the other is looking to make a good impression (seeking the approval of another person).

Either way, the same dominant emotion is at play, just on a different levels.

The neutral pattern is just that. It’s neutral and you use this pattern when your character doesn’t care one way or the other.

This would lead to keeping a steady pitch throughout.

For example, let’s go back to the crime scene investigator.

Let’s say he’s now talking over the details of the scene with a colleague. As they are discussion the details of the crime scene, there will be a lot of things that don’t matter and are have nothing to do with the crime.

A little bit of back story, in a crime scene everything gets cataloged at the scene and it’s up to the investigators to decide whether it’s important or not.

Aa the investigator and the colleague are talking things over they would be treating the irrelevant details in a neutral tone.

“He was a smoker. That explains the burn mark on the index finger.” The investigator isn’t looking for any information because he is confident in the information he already has at this point and has arrived at conclusion.

He’s not trying to lead the investigation, because his job is to follow the facts, so that vocal pattern is out too.

As you are making your character choices you have to run them through this pattern and identify where they originate.

Let’s look at it from the angle of the character that is trying to make a good impression.

That character would be in the seeking vocal pattern, but what about the character they are interacting with?

The person they are trying to make a good impression on, would almost always be in the neutral pattern, because they are superior in some way.

They could be a superior at work, a celebrity of some sort, a romantic interest, etc.

So if you were in this role, the way in which you are superior would limit your inflection. A boss interviewing a new employee would keep a very neutral and professional tone.

They probably wouldn’t be rude at this stage, at least not without cause.

Also, they are not the one’s trying to make a good impression (so they are not seeking anything). In this interaction they have nothing to lose and nothing to gain, so they are neutral.

You can still be neutral in a polite, yet uninterested manner. You can also be neutral and annoyed at the same time.

The nature of the scene will dictate which way to go. Regardless, your vocal pattern still falls into the neutral category.

The last person you ever want to be neutral, is a Casting Director. That’s why I created this to help you out.

Lastly, when you are in the leading pattern you are depicting authority in some way.

That authority can take many forms, but it leads to your voice going down in pitch when you end a sentence.

Let’s go back to that crime scene investigator. Let’s say that the colleague he is reviewing the scene with is actually a deputy of his. This would put the investigator above him in rank, so he doesn’t need to prove anything to the deputy, but he would be in a pattern of reminding the deputy of who the superior officer is.

So as they are going over the details of the scene he would be throwing displays of his authority.

In the same way that you can be polite and still neutral, you can also be in the leading pattern and still add on other emotions.

If you take the time to do this your performances will be absolutely spectacular. If you deliver your lines with just the 3 patterns in mind during a table read production will fall in love with you and your professionalism will be evident.

Of course, before you can use any of this, you need to have auditions and roles lined up.

That’s why I created this.

It’s specifically to help you become more visible to the industry, improve your standing with the industry and more.

You need to have a consistent way of putting yourself on display for CDs and industry decision makers and the tool I built for you will put you in the best light possible.

Just as important as who you know in the industry, is your reputation and this will help you to solidify your industry reputation.

Combine your talent with a solid industry reputation and you will be unstoppable. Before no time at all I just might...

See you at the top,
Scott