VO Studio Performance: Visualization and the Crux Move

Over the past evenings (in August of 2024), we’ve been enjoying Peacock’s on-demand Summer Olympics coverage. The extensive video feeds show events which haven’t been on the primetime show, giving a much more complete experience. The women’s high jump finals provided a fascinating competition, demonstrating technique and artistry combined with amazing athleticism. Even to a reasonably uninformed viewer like me, it was clear that success requires timing, finesse, and – above all – an ability to picture a positive outcome.

It was intriguing to watch the rituals that each of the competitors created for themselves. One tip-touched their fingers and thumb in a complex pattern, while another repeated a slow motion dance move before beginning their bounding run-up. But the competitor we found fascinating was the Australian jumper who smiled. I won’t say “simply” smiled, because their smile seemed to be intensified by the cheers and positive vibes of the audience. It just got broader and more intense until nothing could constrain them.

What followed was pure artistry. While not every jump from each athlete cleared the bar, all competitors focused years of drills, training, and technique into the space of just a few seconds.

Those pre-performance rituals reminded me of a thought I had about a year into my voiceover journey. There was a point midway through a workshop when I realized so much of what we must achieve at the microphone has to do with a crux move, a decisive action that is key to success. That was a bit of a reset for me. In the workshop, someone had used the example of a competitive diver stringing together multiple sequenced movements. Each one depends upon the prior move, either building upon an effective one or correcting an error. Since they all happen in such a time-compressed moment, there’s little chance to recover if things get off the rails at the beginning.

Much of my experience was from the endurance end of effort – a two hour bike race or a 200 kilometer brevet both have many chances to recover. In both cases, things go wrong, energy ebbs and flows, or others just have more gumption when you don’t. In that case, it was a matter of slogging things out a bit and knowing there was time to come back.

That isn’t the case with a 30 second script or high-intensity video game character. There is no time to ease into anything. While we aren’t trying to literally jump six feet in the air, our actions need to be focused and precise. Achieving that result comes from knowing the steps we will take and clearly visualizing that before the start.

I began to focus on creating rituals to support that type of crux effort. Structure can help the process: the way you set up your space before recording, the typestyle used for the scripts, which lights are on when in the booth, etc. Building upon that will depend on your specifics. I like to do a specific vocal warmup (Julia’s is always a good one!), then have a specific set of movements and breaths. I’m sure it looks odd to anyone who might manage to observe it… but it creates that moment of clear visualization that serves the process.

Have you tested your studio’s audio quality to make sure it meets professional standards? For a free review of your vocal recordings, please use the upload tool on my Audio Review page.

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