Alan Shires

The Northern Voice of Narration

March 29, 2022 by Alan Shires

Starting Out in Voiceover Narration

This title may sound like a profound gift descended upon me from the Northern voice of narration string pullers, but what I want to talk about is being a Northern voiceover actor working in narration. Like every other genre in VO, there are pockets of work here, there, and everywhere. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if all of the voiceover work was in one place? But then the fun is in the chase so to speak, and narration is a whirlwind of fun covering so many assorted styles and topics.

One of my first, and possibly favourite narrated pieces was for the car company Ford which was investing in some training videos for their staff and customers. This branch of Ford was based across Yorkshire and the North of England. The customer service was northern, the staff was northerners, and the engineers were northerners, so it made sense for the voice actor to be northern too. There is a misconception that having an accent outside of standard US and RP means you cannot book with the big brands. Well, that is simply not the case.

Being a northern voiceover artist, I have worked for a vast range of big companies, including Starbucks, Centre Points, Ford, Costa, Funimation, and many more. Though the misconception isn’t justified, the truth of the matter comes when delving into the context. Generally speaking, a lot of work indeed orbits those who yield a standard American or British RP accent, but all that means is that the performer needs to be more strategic about how they play their hand.

Northern Voiceover Artist

The example with Ford is an excellent example of how a company had a narration need, and in turn, my accent was perfect for the role. This happens consistently, all the time; why? Because companies branch out all over the place and in the 21st century, we are working in a global industry, which means the opportunities are bigger, wider, and more accessible. Every corporate company looking to book narration voiceover artists globally will, at some point, consider using multiple languages and accents.

But that is just corporate; how do accents pan out in other fields? Well, it needs to be relatable; if a particular group of people has a specific accent, then hiring that voice type makes sense. Sometimes it does not even matter, the client just wants the best character or the voice that they resonate with the most. I recently listened to a lady with a Liverpudlian accent (‘Geordie’ dialect) doing some medical narration. Her delivery was perfect, her pace was spot on, her tone was brilliant, and she just delivered an amazing accent.

Her accent made the piece more engaging to me as she had incredible discipline and delivered with clarity but offered an alternative melody to the standard voices I would typically hear. Many actors and voiceover artists, both in and outside of narration, may often adapt, develop, or practise accents to give them a greater bandwidth for characters and roles they can portray. When looking back at the basics, we must remember that narration is a genre of voiceover. Like everything else in this industry, practice, talent, consistency, good business skills, and training all feed into the overall result of booking work in any field.

The Story of the Northern Voice of Narration

I commonly use the phrase ” narrator ” to explain a vast variety of topics but take the more direct stuff out of the equation, such as the corporate and medical discussed above; there is also documentary and audiobooks to explore. Now, having not done a documentary, I won’t comment at this point (perhaps that is for a future blog?), but the audiobook element, I think, is a great piece to explore. A director recently told me he would have loved to have known me when he was recording Lord of The Rings, and though this was for a video game, his reason for giving that comment, I believe, is solid. That reason was simply that my accent fitted perfectly for the role of a character he needed to cast. The specification was a male northern English voiceover artist to deliver a character that speaks with a genuine northern English accent.

I did an audiobook back in 2021 and though it was a challenge to be in it for the long haul (as it does take a while to get through it), what I can say is this; as long as the audio quality is excellent, the delivery is spot on, and you deliver an engaging performance, the accent does not matter, if anything – similarly to the Liverpudlian example earlier, the accent adds more of a dynamic to the piece. I have narrated all types of projects, including currency exchange for holidays, in-house training videos for Costa Coffee, educational resources for the board of education, and even tax amendments in law for businesses.

Voice Actors Using Their Own Accent in Narration

What is the theme and commonality for all of these projects? They all used a northern voice actor who just happened to use his accent to his advantage. Let me close with this, be the best voiceover artist you can be with whatever voice type and accent you have. Embrace it and make it your own.

The Northern Voiceover Artist for Video Games

March 22, 2022 by Alan Shires

Where Are All of the Voiceover Artists?

Isn’t it funny that work can bloom out of the most unconventional things? As a kid growing up in the nineties, who would have thought playing games or watching TV would be a pioneering force for my career as a voiceover artist for video games? I remember being told to be quiet so much in school, and on any parent’s evening, they would always comment that I chat just a little bit too much. That reality does amuse me now, and it is essential to me that everyone’s voice is heard. But because every voice is heard, it does not mean every voice is found – we will come on to that shortly.

Video games are the most heavily over-saturated and competitive niche of voiceover. Some statistics show how it makes more money than the combined forces of music and movies. This is evident in the amount needed for a game or console, which is getting pricier. With every game comes countless sequels and prequels, so it’s easy to say that video games are a massive moneymaker.

So, if it has that much money behind it, where are all voice actors? Where are all the jobs, and where are all the auditions? The products on the shelf in the video game store are massive titles which means they are certainly going through agents, so people starting in voiceover may not have access to these types of auditions, though there will be plenty of indie jobs out there.

Video Games Voice Talent Finding Their Space

As an actor with an agent, voiceover experience, acting experience, and performance capture experience, I consider myself a viable candidate for video games (especially with the number of training courses I’ve taken). But going back to my point in the previous paragraph, it’s about being found! Are you in front of the casting director when he or she needs you? If you did not audition for the job, the answer is no. Over the years, I have made friends with many casting directors in video games. I have drafted articles on and with them, hosted them on webinars and workshops, and even been with them at mutual industry-relevant events. One good friend of mine, a worldwide casting director, turned to me one day during a conversation and said, “you are a Northern British voiceover artist, right?” To which I replied “yes“. He said, “where were you when I was casting Lord of the Rings? I needed your accent.”

So, it shows that voice talent isn’t the only ingredient. Networking is vital because your talent goes unused if you are not getting the auditions. Video games invite various unconventional character types depending on the genre. Sometimes, the accent does not even matter when it comes down to a fantastic performance. I do adore video games!

For this reason, playing a dragon, a goblin, or a mage just invites so many theatrics, which is how I was initially trained in the arts. It demands that child-like imagination come at the forefront of the performance to encapsulate the power of play! Why is play important? Because it allows us to try different things until the director is satisfied and has been given sufficient performances for the task

Voice Actors Need Competitive Awareness

I remember my early days working in voiceover, I was so desperate to work in video games, and I hustled unrelentingly to get in front of whoever I could that might be able to give me a shot. I soon learnt the big players were hearing close to a thousand auditions regularly with only a small handful of roles at their disposal. Smaller companies approached me, many based in Asia developing apps for phones. What is fascinating is how the rates in the UK and US are so much higher. It almost makes it seem like a rip-off when working internationally sometimes. Sometimes the rates are excellent. But in this instance, they are not. The client wanted me to work for a rate that was a fraction of industry standard, and we haggled and negotiated until we had to agree to walk away from it because no common ground was being made. It was simply too low.

The company felt $50 per session was enough with continual work in the future, whereas I know the rates are four/five times per hour. Of course, like in any good negotiation, I came down a little, and they came up a little, but fundamentally the price was too low, and they felt it was too high, and we just could not get to where we needed to be. The sad truth is contractors are working under duvets in university halls to get a quick buck for the weekend recording on an iPhone that will take these jobs in a heartbeat.

The Future of Voiceover for Video Games

Regardless of the above, you pay for quality. The client would be in a tricky position should they have needed a pickup from that contractor, as who knows where they will be on the other side of the weekend. So, to close, I knew that this genre had a lot more to offer me in the way of payment and experience, so I did not want to give my voice away to something which offered no pay and little enjoyment, especially not for my first video game.

Animation Voiceover – Rediscovering Your Childhood

March 16, 2022 by Alan Shires

The Evolution of Animation Voiceover

I remember the day I went to have my animation voiceover reels recorded. The session director was phenomenal, and as a Northern voiceover artist, she had great fun with my voice. The session started with her asking me a question that I distinctly remember: ’’what cartoons did you grow up with?’’. This invited a flow of happy memories as I began listing; Dexter’s Laboratory, Recess, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Power Puff Girls, All Grown Up, Rugrats, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Simpsons, and many more. She went on to say ‘’forget them”. I was like, what! Why? And her response changed my perspective of the industry because “the style, the art, the humour, and the content has all changed since you were a kid’’.

As a 25-year-old, I thought to myself; surely it has not changed that much in the last 10-15 years? The director went on to show me that it had changed dramatically! So, what does this mean from a voiceover artist’s perspective? It simply means we must stay hot with the trends, keep an eye on which actor is booking what, train regularly, and give different takes in auditions. As the weeks and months went on, I learned that what I was used to was not dead, it still cropped up, and some of these programs have a great legacy and are still aired today. The only difference was it now has more diversity. The new stuff did not make sense to me all that much but HEY! Seemingly the kids today love it.

Today’s Animation for the Typical Voice Talent

My daughter enjoys all sorts of content, from Moana to Micky Mouse Club House to Peppa Pig. There is a vast diversity in these programs. First, Peppa Pig is mainly voiced by kids, not adults. Moana is a hardcore Disney story about survival. Then we have Micky Mouse! The ever-iconic voice of him and his friends holds a legacy. So just in my daughter’s daily viewing, I am impressed by the massive variety of content.

As a kid, I remember the characters being either heightened, annoying, or given an accent. The Powerpuff Girls were all a heightened performance with squeaky voices. Characters like DeeDee from Dexter’s Laboratory were annoying beyond comprehension. Finally, characters like Dexter from the same show were given an accent. So, what is the theme amid these unique styles? Well, they all tell a story, entertain, and offer a slightly different performance style to the viewer. Does that mean animation appeals to different age ranges? I do not imagine a 14-year-old watching Pepper Pig or a 2-year-old watching The Simpsons to fully understand what’s happening.

Past and Present Voice Actors

But with that said, what I can say is as a thirty-something male voiceover artist, I find elements of my daughter’s viewing very amusing. They have been strategically written, comedically drawn, and wonderfully performed in an entertaining way for their primary target audience (kids) whilst giving the parent something of a comedy. I undoubtedly praised these phenomenal voiceover artists who do an excellent job ticking both boxes. Finally, on animations standing the test of time, we only need to look at Pokémon to see how something from one era lasts for decades. Perhaps Pokémon isn’t the best example as it crosses the thin line between animation and anime. However, dozens of others, such as Looney Tunes and the Simpsons, fit the bill.

Animation Voiceover Gigs

I have had the honour of working on a few projects, some of which have a regularly growing series on YouTube. Others are on streaming platforms, and some have entered a film festival. Being a Northern voiceover artist working in animation, I was pleased that a casting director invited me in to read for the role of a villain and the role of a soldier in the same production. Both characters valued my slightly less polished accent to complement their slightly less polished persona. I love animation because it is fun – it’s as simple as that! I have no deep insight into my love of it, just that it makes me happy. In another project, I had the privilege of playing the character on a journey from being sad to trying new things and ultimately becoming an absolute rockstar!

In that one character, I had to portray three different things considering tone, pitch, tempo, and many other elements of my character development process. Concerning the auditions, I always found the process to be swift, but I guess, like everything else, it’s subjective. I remember speaking with Jamie Sparer Roberts, the casting director for Frozen. She told me it once took her 18 months of searching before finding the perfect actor for one particular role. In other instances, she’s known from the first second of seeing a performer act.

Where Does the Anime Voiceover Journey Begin?

January 13, 2022 by Alan Shires

The Journey Into Anime Voice Performance

Anime! Anime voiceover! Anime voice acting! How does that even work if you are a Northern voiceover artist like me? This is something I’ve been asking myself since the age of 8 years old. Even today, I do not have a one-fit-for-all answer. What I do have is my anime voiceover journey which I am excited to share with you. In 2014 I saw an ad for a Pokémon contest that was endorsed by Nintendo. I investigated it, and the spec asked for a confident Nintendo DS Pokémon X and Y player to audition, so I did and was successfully invited to be a part of the team. This introduced me to the world of conventions where I began networking with different convention hosts.

In 2016 I met a group of Anime voice actors including Eric Stuart, Dan Green, Jason Douglas, Chris Rager, Josh Martin, Eric Vale, Sonny Strait, and Monica Reel. Recognise any of these folks? Dragonball, Yu-Gi-Oh! Pokémon and many more massive Anime hit shows are the platforms for these amazing actors. It was great getting to know some of these guys and I was able to chat to them about the industry, the magazine I work on, and some of the other things I was involved with. I invited a few of them to work closely with me in a more formal setting and from there via The VoiceOver Network we hosted a range of workshops and webinars.

One of the actors I met had previously directed a production that needed British actors, he turned to me and said ‘’Where were you 6 months ago when I needed Brits?’’ It certainly did remind me that networking is so important.

Training in Anime Voiceover

These workshops were phenomenal, as a participant, I got so much value out of each workshop I attended. I was able to hear some exceptional content that helped me to understand where anime fits in voiceover, and learn about how it is similar to or different from videogames and animation. Even at conventions, I was able to share and present my material to some of the actors for feedback, and what I noticed is that these formal relationships I had started with these inspiring anime voiceover artists, had soon become friendships that remain today.

Networking is essential in any voiceover platform and being a Northern British voiceover artist, I have such a unique niche that I can enjoy and use. As time went on, I was being introduced to more actors. I had moved away from the Pokémon role and began supporting event organisers and guest appearance agencies in the convention setting. I continued to meet more people and in 2019 several people introduced me to Chris Sabat, a very well-established anime voice actor in his own right as well as the owner of Okratron5000. Chris, one of the people I now call a dear friend, was so generous with his time, going on to teach several workshops for us and collaborating with us on a few different projects.

Voice Actors Booking the Job!

In 2020, Chris had a project demanding British accents and asked me if I could support him with this. I was happy to support in any way I could, so we sent the audition scripts out to our base, receiving more auditions than I could count! I of course threw my own hat in the ring and auditioned too. They hired three male talents and one female talent which for them was phenomenal. As someone watching the process, I was so pleased for all four of these voiceover artists and though I wanted to book the job myself, I did not let it dishearten me as I have been in the industry long enough to know that it just sometimes is not the right fit. So how do you book work in anime voiceover? Well these four actors, joined a networking organisation, trained, and auditioned. That is such a simple route and kind of what you would expect, but my journey is much longer and bigger than that.

Anime Voice Talent for the Northern Artist

So how did it happen for me? Well after supporting the initial project I watched the animation, and the work was amazing. What I learnt is that the characters were all over the country and on the back of advice from Sean Schemmel (one of the biggest anime voiceover artists on Earth!) I decided to reach out to the Okratron5000 team to offer my insight on the different accents required in each part of the country.

Shortly after this the show producer and director Rawly Pickens reached out to me telling me they were recording season two and would love to audition our audience again. We followed the same process and the Okraton5000 team narrowed it down to around fifteen voice actors. We discussed their needs, I listened to the material, we covered the spec, and narrowed down a new cast of three. At the end of that process, Rawly invited me to join him for a 2-hour session as there was a police officer and a member of parliament who were both perfect for my voice type – the Northern British anime voice actor.

Voicing the Anime Projects

A lot of the show was based in Durham, which is hard Yorkshire, some of it was based in York which is only twenty miles away from where I lived. So, though the series started off with a lot of London-based accents the more the story developed the more characters that came in the show and the more accents required. For me, the journey took me to a place of support, and really, my outlook on everything in voiceover is to look at how I can help, not how I can be helped.

It was in that second season an opening for my voice type came up and this time they did not need to look for an actor, they had someone right in front of them. I was very blessed and am incredibly grateful for the process, the training, the friends I’ve made, the faith invested into me for my role both in casting and for recording, and knowing that the journey is just at the beginning not at the end. I look forward to the next project and I am excited to help and support more as the years go by as and when I am needed.