Individual Audio Recording Blog

Human Planet
Link - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/humanplanetexplorer/collections/hp_web_exclusives

The Human Planet is a BBC documentary that focuses on human beings that live across planet Earth. It is narrated by Sir John Hurt.

Storytelling Techniques
Documentary narration is not just about reading facts off of a script into a microphone. There are important factors that need to be decided before narration can start such as subject matter and target audience. The subject matter for Human Planet is human beings and how we live, coexist and cease to coexist. Doing this correctly helps Hurt to understand the setting and tone of the narration and also engages the audience by neither under or over indulging them with either too boring or overly complicated information, therefore enhancing the viewers experience and journey through the series. I believe Hurt fully understand his subject matter to an expert level as he is fully engaging to listen to and positively enhanced the programme as an exciting way of learning about the hidden gems of our own species.
Something else that Hurt has done successfully is understand his target audience. Human Planet reaches out to students, adults and educators. It has managed to capture a large demographic and one of the reasons why is due to the choices made with the narration. Firstly, the narrator themselves must suit the style of the documentary. For example; if the narrator was a ten year old child, they would not be suited for the narration of this documentary in my opinion, due to them not having been in education for long enough, nor having much life experience which means that to the target demographic, they are not going to be very trustworthy; and trust is very important when it comes to human beings and education, on has to trust someone before they can believe what that someone is saying. This lack of rapport created by the lack of trust would make the documentary unwatchable and uninteresting. I believe that Sir John Hurt was chosen to be the narrator because he is a very substantial actor with years of experience whether it be life experience, vocal experience or education. He has been on this earth long enough and is widely known as having one of the most amazing sounding voices in the industry all giving him the credibility to be both enjoyable to listen to and a trustworthy educator for the target audience.

http://www.desktop-documentaries.com/storytelling-techniques.html - link to information about documentary storytelling techniques

Audible 'Where are you' Radio Advert
Link - http://www.campaignlive.com/article/top-10-radio-ads-2016/1418495

Advert Recording Do's and Don'ts 
When recording a radio advert such as the one in the link above, the actor is expected by the employer to already know the basics of what to do and what not to do. Below are some of the more basic yet important techniques that voice actors can use:

Do's:

• Staying hydrated by drinking a healthy amount of water will help keep your tubes lubricated and your brain oxygen fuelled. It will help improve concentration and also prevent dry throats which may restrict the voice and inhibit the actor from hitting the right tones and energy damaging the performance and therefore the advert itself.
• Treating any sinus impacting illnesses such as the common cold using the correct medicines and remedies before and during recording should help clear the throat and nose preventing any distortion in the voice. Recording with a blocked nose or a cough would produce unwanted noises and an unappealing sounding voice which would prevent the advert from being listenable or engaging.  
• Staying fit and healthy and maintain a sound cardiovascular system will allow for better breathing which is a major factor when it comes to the voice. Good breath control is important for controlling the pitch or loudness of the voice and also for how long the actor can talk for without having to breath again which could prevent the actor from reaching curtain timings in the dialog or prevent them from talking at speed if the advert is of high pace and energy reducing the impact the advert will have on the radio. Also staying fit will help improve the posture which in turn increases airflow and also betters breathing.

Don'ts:

• When moving the script or turning a page, make sure everything is gentle and silent so the noises of the paper flapping around don't get picked up in the microphone which would make the problem of either having to be re-shot, or edited which could be time consuming, or if left in would show the company is unprofessional as their advert has mistakes in it.
• Remove any clunky jewellery and clothes that could make a noise and also interfere with the acting that is happening. It will have to be edited or risk the audience hearing the mistake and being drawn out from the engagement.

Acting is always a good start too. The voice actor is not just reading the script in front of a microphone, even if the script only has a few words of dialog in it. The actor still has to research what the company is about so they can decide whether they like what the company stands for and is promoting so they can confidently commit to their performance without letting any negative beliefs get in the way and half assing the job, reducing the quality of the acting. The actor also has to understand what the text means, and if there's a character, then delve into the realms of character research, asking questions and rehearsing and answering them to play a truthful performance.

http://directvoices.com/plaza/voice-acting-tips-dos-and-donts/ - Link to information above

I listened to the Audible radio advert and I really enjoyed it. It made a rapport with me because I believe the voice acting followed the basic techniques above as well as the actor using her splendid, soft and easy to listen to and drift away voice. She inflicts the perfect amount of emotion onto every line and is superbly clear and informative. The edit is really nice as well. They have used sound effects to compliment each line of dialog to which set the scene for the listener and paint a vivid picture of each book scenario that she is enticing us to read. An example of the script painting this picture is;

'Are you praying those red eyes in the darkness cant hear you'

This line is obviously enticing someone who is into thrillers and horror books and therefore will probably be successful if that listener also happens to like listening to books.

As far as comparing these two types of solo audio performances goes, the Human Planet takes the audience member on an educational journey with Hurts voice being suitably chosen using similar techniques used in radio adverts such as finding a voice that suits the target audience and someone who is interested in the topic. This I guess, shows their similarities and that voice acting is all about using all of the techniques to their full potential, to achieve an engaging solo performance no matter what the type of audio recording the actor find themselves partaking in.