12 February 2012

It's February - and it's blog time again.  Actually I was hoping to "blog" once a month, but since my first was in November and this is only my second, something went slightly wrong there!  To be truthful, I haven't been massively busy, so there's not been an awful lot to blog about.

 

So, here is the latest news from the voiceover world according to Janine Cooper-Marshall.  With one or two bits of news from the acting world to which I dip in and out of from time to time.  I hope you don't find it too dull.  Constructive criticism will be taken, as always, on the chin.  Wales won at rugby yesterday so I'm feeling particularly positive - bring it on!

 

Since my last blog, I've been lucky to have been asked to do a few local radio ads which have been broadcast on The Wave/ Swansea Sound, Real Radio Wales + Capital FM South Wales (Wilkinsons,, Bwcabus, Christmas in Carmarthenshire, plus a series of ads for Gold Reserves, to name a few) but I've also recently voiced ads broadcast on stations further afield - Andover Sound, Minster FM, Worthing FM, Juice FM, Radio Wave, Peak FM and Meridian FM are a few stations where you can hear my voice trying to sell you something at the moment! 

 

As for onhold work, I've got a few new clients this year  - so if you ever need to ring the following : Ty Hafan, Metcalfe Catering, Coversure, Severn Fuels, Days Motor Group, Hornbill and KTP Solicitors - you may well hear my voice when they put you on hold.  I've also done regular updates for clients such as Welsh Mountain Zoo, Marsh Farm Country Park, Holiday Inn Newport and Celtic Royal Hotel.  And last week I completed some e-learning modules for a new client.

 

I'm still getting studios ringing me up asking if I speak Welsh.  I'm learning as fast as I can!  Seriously, though, it'll take me a long, long time to be able to be fluent enough to voice pages + pages of e-learning modules or onhold prompts, so I'm always happy to suggest Welsh speakers.  I get the studio fee, so we all end up happy! But even though my command of the Welsh language leaves a lot to be desired, if you're ever unsure of how to pronounce those difficult place names, please come to me as my pronunciation is fabwlas! 

 

I'm still doing roleplay work when offered.  Having sold my roleplay business two years ago to concentrate on voicing full time, I did manage to stay out of it for a while but missed it so much!   I love playing a patient for medical training, exams and assessments, also playing doctors, angry relatives, shy teenagers (yes, you do have to suspend belief sometimes!).   It's great for honing and toning improvisational skills, and over the years it's helped me overcome an almost 20 year fear of going back on the stage.  So after spending August at The Edinburgh Festival, I've agreed to do the spring tour of "Fragments of Ash" (in a small role but vital to the plot, as they say).  Bound, gagged and blindfold.  Well, you've got to come and see it just for that, surely? 

 

And a little postscript.  At the time of writing I've had a provisional booking to voice my fourth audio book, hopefully at the beginning of March.  I hope I get it.  It'll give me the chance to put some of my new accents to proper use.  Fingers crossed! 

 

 

7 November 2011

 

After a busy October, I was looking forward to starting the month of November in a whirl of voiceover frenzy but, alas, things have been pretty slow so far!   That'll teach me for sitting back and waiting for the work to come in rather than ringing round to remind producers of my unique talent for…. well, actually up until recently I wasn't sure I had a unique talent for ANYTHING in particular - although I can do any number of Welsh regional accents (still finding North Wales a struggle but I'm working on it).  And that's my problem - my voice only really gets a look-in when a Welsh accent is needed. 

 

Time to diversify!  First and foremost - practice, practice, practice!  Time to brush up on my RP.   Lesson No. 1 with Emma Stevens-Johnson, a great voice and dialect coach.  I was dreading it to be honest.  After 20 years living back in Cardiff, my Welsh accent was more and more pronounced and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do straight RP reads without loads of practice.  I think I surprised myself - and Emma hopefully - at how quickly I got back into it.  I loved learning a bit about phonetics and voice placement and have enjoyed practising at home.  Lesson No. 2 - today - was all about London accents and thankfully I've discovered that I pick things up really quickly.  Next week we'll be working on neutral…. yes, it IS different from RP.  But what has surprised me more than anything - and which has been a huge confidence boost - is that the accents I've done in the past, believing they were "cod" accents and not very good, actually weren't bad at all!  Oh well, onwards and upwards…

 

As well as working on dialects - which I will continue with until I get every accent covered as I'm now hooked! - I have been putting together a character voicereel, again with the aim to show that I can do more than just a "corporate" style Welsh accent.  I'm just waiting for the production side of things to be finished and then I'll post it on my website - constructive feedback will be gratefully received!

 

I'll never lose the Welsh altogether though - far from it - in fact after years of threatening to learn Welsh I have FINALLY bitten the bullet and gone for it.  With a Welsh-speaking mother and a daughter doing a BA in Welsh at Swansea University, I've been feeling a bit like piggy in the middle!  I've only just started, and I've got a long way to go, but I'm determined to become a fluent Welsh speaker in my old age!  My pronounciation has always been okay - I do the odd tag lines on radio ads and the occasional "Croeso i…." and "Diolch yn fawr" for onhold clients - but I've had to turn down a lot of Welsh language work over the years - in fact, so much so that I'm determined one day soon I will be able to do the work myself rather than have to pass it on yet again!

 

Bye for now.  Hwyl.