Voice Over Journalism

Voice over journalism is one of those fields that can often be over-looked by the aspiring sound engineer yet in actual fact every day we are bombarded by recorded voice overs, the industry is in fact huge.

SAEOnLine Community Manager Chris Hambly caught up with voice over journalist Lucy Thorpe, a professional with years of experience! Chris wanted Lucy to help shed some light on her profession.

Her bio reads:

"EXPERIENCED BBC NEWSREADER. Highly capable, organised, articulate. Excellent voice and good grasp of a range of complex issues. As both a news-reader and a journalist I am quick to understand scripts and communicate their meaning. I am accurate, hard working and reliable. I am calm and used to dealing with pressure and a pleasure to work with.

The list of clients Lucy has worked with is impressive reading indeed including BBC Radio Five Live where she was newsreader and producer for ten years, BBC Greater London Radio and BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester.

So let's get down to business and get the nitty gritty information about voice over journalism from Lucy.

You took a post graduate diploma in radio journalism, how has this aided your career?

I don’t think I would have got off the starting blocks without it. The BBC came to my college; (The London College of Printing now the University of the Arts) recruiting for a new radio station and that was it. Within months I was reading the news.

You describe yourself as a "voice over freelance journalist" can you explain that in some detail?

As you can see I am a trained journalist and have worked in news all my life. I write every day and since leaving the BBC I contribute to magazines, websites and my own blog. Luckily for me my journalistic career also involved using my voice to read news bulletins and present programmes on BBC Radio Five Live. I love doing voice over work because it gives me a great buzz, so I try to do as much of it as possible alongside the writing.

Can you describe the surroundings you typically work in?

Dark, dingy, underground? That was just the BBC! No seriously, a lot of companies now have very swish studios and a dedicated staff. The booth where the voice-over sits is always small, that is a given really, but as long as it is well ventilated you can avoid unpleasant odour!

What do you feel is the most important consideration when you are recording?

If the script is well written then you are away. It should flow and give you natural places to breathe. I have been asked to read text which has been written for print only and I’m talking about of lot of text. That can be a challenge. But challenge is good too.

The spoken word can be very tricky to record, what are you top tips for this?

Get a great sound engineer!

I'm sure our readers would be interested to hear how you find work, is it a word of mouth thing, or are you much more pro-active than that? How does it typically work in the industry?

If you want Stephen Fry then go to the top London agencies. They deal in celebrity voices and charge celebrity prices. By-passing the agencies can be a good idea on cost grounds alone; there are so many good people out there. If you use voices regularly build a roster of reliable people and think about things like transport expenses. Nothing beats developing a personal connection, Twitter is great for that. I will approach people if they need the kind of voice work I like i.e. e-learning, audio versions of magazines and periodicals, web-based training etc

Which projects have been your most enjoyable to date and why?

I had great fun working on a couple of short films. I got to go to Pinewood Studios and imagine I was about to star in a James Bond. I was actually the voice coming out of a radio! I also loved working on the Audio Economist; the material was difficult but really interesting.

And finally where can someone find out more about you?

I would love to hear from you by phone 07808 720296 or e-mail Lucy.Thorpe@btconnect.com

I blog at lucythorpe.wordpress.com and Tweet here @LucyThorpe

I have a show reel I can send by e-mail on request. Thanks so much, it’s been great talking to you.