In both narration and TV commercial acting, tone quality is a key factor in the success of any voice work. For narration performances, since each project has its own personality and message, the trick is to find a balance of mood and emotion that feels appropriate to the script. It's all so subjective but when it's right everyone seems to nod their head in recognition. Each experienced voice over actor has his/her own tone and feel.

A lot of technique and hard work go into developing a successful performance whether it be on stage, screen, radio, audiobook, and so on.  Conveying information in an accessible way to a large audience is the key to successful any performance.  In TV acting, the objective is to establish a long term rapport with the viewer.  Unlike film or stage, the television character is unique in that he or she develops familiarity usually over a period of time.  A typical televised syndicated show goes on for several seasons, and even after they stop, loyal fans watch re runs of favorite episodes in an kind of exercise in nostalgia.  Consequently, the TV commercial actor is in a unique position to “befriend” the audience and develop a level of fondness.  How many times have you watched a film (Avatar, Pirate of the Caribbean, come to mind) and wished it was a TV program you can watch week after week?

Film similarly has the power to engross the audience, drawing them in to another world for what could seem like minutes, hours, or years even (as in the case with Inception).   Unlike television, a film viewed in the theaters can completely remove outside distractions such as bills to pay, errands to run, etc. and plop a viewer in the middle of 13^th century Scotland or a faraway planet thousands of years in the future.  Film is time travel, world travel, imagination travel, and filmmakers employ this magic with well-practiced skill.  They are masters of their craft.  They weave emotion, scenery, music under one fluid direction and the outcome is a masterpiece of visual storytelling that stands the test of time, like a good book.

With audiobooks, avid readers find their treasured novels coming to life with voice over roles taking characters off the page and giving them an audible voice.  “Reading” an audiobook is a wonderful experience for those who haven’t explored this form of media entertainment.  It’s an experience in and of itself, following the history-long tradition of oral narration, likely the very first form of story telling since the beginning of man.  For additional information, visit www.johnpatrickwalsh.com to learn more.