Voice acting

• 1. Defining The Profession

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  The cast of the Sierra Leonean radio soap opera Atunda Ayenda performs a role that defines an entire industry. Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice alone. Performers in this field often carry titles like voice actors or voice actresses alongside other professional names. Examples of their work span animated films, off-screen characters in live-action movies, and dubbed foreign productions. They provide voices for television shows, video games, documentaries, and commercials. Their work also fills amusement rides, theater productions, puppet shows, and audio games. Non-fictional voice acting appears through pre-recorded announcements in stores, elevators, waiting rooms, and public transport systems.

• 2. Character And Narration Types

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  Voice actors provide the sounds for animated characters while live-action productions use them for computer programs or radio dispatchers who never appear on screen. Audio dramas offer more freedom because there is no need to match a dub to the original actor or animated character. Producers look for booming voices for dramatic productions and cute, young-sounding voices for trendier markets. Some voices sound like regular, natural, everyday people when used correctly in the right context. A narrator serves as a personal character or non-personal voice that delivers story information to the audience. The voice actor playing the narrator performs scripted lines assigned by the creator of the story. Traditional literary narratives require narration as a required story element while plays and films treat it as optional. Commercial advertising represents one of the most common uses for voice acting today. Television commercials tend to be voiced with a narrow flat inflection pattern whereas local radio commercials often use a very wide inflection pattern in an almost over-the-top style. Marketers use voice-overs across television, radio, online adverts, and other media channels.

• 3. Technical Production Methods

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  Dub localization involves voice-over translation where voice actors alter a foreign-language film or television series. Voice-over translation records actor voices over the original audio track which can still be heard in the background during documentaries and news reports. Automated dialogue replacement allows re-recording dialogue by the original actor after filming to improve audio quality or reflect changes. This process known as looping or a looping session also clarifies context improves diction or timing. In the UK this technique is called post-synchronization or post-sync. Voice artists record individual sample fragments played back by computers in automated announcements. The mind the gap announcement introduced on the London Underground in 1969 remains currently voiced by Emma Clarke. A speaking clock re-assembles announcements from fragments like minutes past eighteen and p.m. Automated announcements include on-hold messages on phone systems and location-specific broadcasts at tourist attractions. Voice-over used in commercial adverts had traditionally been the only area of voice acting where de-breathing was used. Artificially removing breaths stops the audience being distracted from the commercial message that is being put across. Removal of breaths has now become increasingly common in many other types of voice acting.

• 4. Artificial Intelligence Disruption

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  Software to modify and generate human voices became more popular since the late 2010s. AI startup Dessa created the computer-generated voice of Joe Rogan using thousands of hours of audio from his podcast. Video game developer Ubisoft used speech synthesis to give thousands of characters distinguished voices in its 2020 game Watch Dogs: Legion. Google announced their solution to generate human-like speech from text in the same year. Most voice actors and others in the entertainment industry reacted negatively to this development due to the threat it poses to their livelihood. The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike included negotiations between the union and Hollywood studios about the regulation of AI. Discussions with video game studios covered new terms that would protect voice actors who specialize in that field. Although SAG-AFTRA heralded the deal it struck with AI company Replica Studios as a breakthrough, the deal received backlash for its actual lack of protections from prominent voice actors such as Steve Blum Joshua Seth Veronica Taylor and Shelby Young. The use of AI voices in video games and animation has also been criticized in general by voice actors such as Jennifer Hale David Hayter Maile Flanagan and Ned Luke. AI voices have caused concern due to the creation of believable audio deepfakes featuring celebrities or other public figures saying things they did not actually say. In October 2023 an audio deepfake of Labour leader Keir Starmer was released during the start of the British Labour Party's conference in Liverpool. That same month an audio deepfake of Slovak politician Michal Šimečka falsely claimed to capture him discussing ways to rig the upcoming election. In January 2024 voters in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary received phone calls featuring an AI-generated voice of U.S. President Joe Biden.

• 5. Global Industry Landscapes

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  In films television and commercials voice actors are often recruited through voice acting agencies within the United States. The UK banned broadcasting of the voices of people linked to violence in Northern Ireland from 1988 to 1994. Television producers circumvented this ban by simply having voice actors dub over synchronized footage of the people who had been banned. Japan hosts approximately 130 voice acting schools and troupes of voice actors who usually work for a specific broadcast company or talent agency. Many Japanese voice actors frequently branch into music often singing the opening or closing themes of shows in which they star. They become involved in non-animated side projects such as audio dramas involving the same characters in new storylines or image songs sung in character that further develop the character. Most of the films in theaters are dubbed in Portuguese and most Brazilians tend to prefer watching movies in their native language. To become a voice actor in Brazil one needs to be a professional actor and attend dubbing courses. Some celebrities in Brazil have also done voice acting. Voice acting in Iran is divided into three categories including voice over Persian films, voice over Iranian animations, and dubbing of films related to other countries. In the first category due to the lack of facilities for simultaneous recording of sound while filming a film, the voice actors spoke instead of the film actors. Although this type of voice is related to years ago and now with the increase of facilities it is possible to record the voice of the actors at the same time.