To be or not to be? To One Voice or not to One Voice?
I promise that’s the last terrible Shakespeare joke. Well. For now.
But yes, I decided to be One Voice- an especially easy choice, given it was only an hour’s drive away from me this time. Whilst I love London and my London colleagues, the world of voice acting needs to spread its wings further than the capital. Stratford is a beautiful place with a storied history and filled with gems- though if you’re looking, Gravy For The Brain, I have many other suggestions for future conference locations!
(I also have a very personal connection to Stratford, in that my grandparents lived there for decades, and many a childhood afternoon was spent buying lucky bags and walking around Stratford hand in hand with my nana, staring up at the beautiful buildings from knee height. Ah, my ankle-biter days.)
And One Voice is?
One Voice is a multi-day conference on all things voice acting- not just commercial, animation and video game work but also audio drama, e-learning. A welcome addition this year was even more of a focus on business skills, such as branding and marketing.
I was able to snag a paid workshop with the fabulous Kirsty Gillmore on Friday, working to improve my performance capture skills, and of course the knowledge and the broader understanding of the medium I left with was invaluable. (Bonus points awarded for my superb grovelling. I’ve watched enough episodes of Question Time to know what grovelling looks like.)
Saturday and Sunday morning were bursting with knowledge- my notebook was crying out for mercy by the end of it- and there were plenty of opportunities to catch up with my amazing colleagues from all over! If you were there and I got to say hi to you- hi again!
So you just went and had fun, basically?
I mean… yes.
Something I’ve come to understand about performance is- if you’re having fun, your audience is probably having fun. Stage improv comes alive when there’s synergy between the audience and the actors. Voice acting is no different- I feel electric when I’m in the booth having fun as a character.
But the foundation of knowledge is also important! As a world-renowned wise man once said: “Knowledge is power.” (Khadgar, World of Warcraft)
My takeaways from One Voice
For a bit of a tone change… AI is not taking our jobs any time soon.
To add in some context I’ve discovered recently: AI is not profitable, and AI voice companies are not profitable. In order to become profitable, they have to either bring their inference costs down significantly, or raise their prices to the point where it would be cheaper to hire a human actor- and the read will still be inferior to that of a trained human voice actor, like myself.
But hearing from the horse’s mouth at One Voice that AI is not lining up for our jobs any time soon still had me breathing a sigh of relief.
This said, the threat and the need to protect yourself is still present. (Thank you NAVA for having every voice actor’s back.) That aside, the market is changing, and trends are emerging, so it’s imperative to not just sharpen my skills constantly, but be aware of the changing winds and enjoy exploring them. Humour is a newly popular tool in the advertiser’s toolbox! As a trained improv actor and someone who enjoys cracking terrible puns to her dog on walks- the humans stopped listening to me, he has no choice- I would love to hear from you if you need a funny woman for an advert.
And then the sun came out
Literally. We’re in a heatwave. Eurgh.
But I FELT sunnier as I left One Voice- I was armed with awareness, with new insights into areas of the industry that had felt like a mystery to me, but I was buoyed up by the energy of my colleagues all around me. I didn’t just enjoy myself, I was absorbed into the days. I had crazy fun and solved riddles and took advice. My colleagues are the most amazing bunch, and this industry is full of amazing people.
Thank you One Voice! If you’re looking for next year’s venue, I really fancy a trip to Edinburgh-
Written by : jasmineyates
