Any female north-Americans want to help me with an airhead?!

digitaltoast · Post by **digitaltoast** » July 21st, 2016, 6:58 am

(Sorry, the subject line isn't long enough to fit in a proper description of the request!)

Basically, I'm a British male struggling with the characterization or a Boston - or possibly Baltimore - ditzy airhead from about 1880?

It's about a page of A4; she waffles on non-stop excitedly, but I'm struggling as you can hear from my attempt...

The problematic text is marked up in sort of pink here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w6i2dOFdrDp8IjHQw_TBgL9HIS38MKFpE-NxsWxomHg/edit?usp=sharing
(could be pink, I'm colourblind!)

Would be very grateful - even more grateful if it was someone with quite a "clean" mic so it would blend in.
It's quite a fun read - come on, join in!

Project thread: viewtopic.php?p=1262592#p1262592

kayray · Post by **kayray** » July 21st, 2016, 9:24 am

I listened to your sample. For the first paragraph, I thought, "well, he's doing fine, this is great!" but then you started doing some kind of an accent... :)

If you just go back to your regular accent I think the young lady would sound great, and honestly I don't really like it when a book I'm listening to changes readers suddenly! But that's just me. I wish I could read her for you (I'd love to do it if that's what you really want) but I think my voice is too deep. I might be able to lighten my voice enough to sound young and silly, and I could give it a shot later on if no one else steps up :)

Post by **chocoholic** » July 21st, 2016, 12:40 pm

I completely agree with Kara; I think it sounds great in your own accent! You've changed your delivery style enough to convey her manner of speaking and make it clear who's talking. I also think listeners might find a sudden switch to a different person's voice a bit jarring since this isn't a dramatic work and it wouldn't be expected. I couldn't begin to say what a Boston or Baltimore accent sounded like more than 100 years ago, so I don't think there's any need to try to approximate it.

Up to you of course

but I think you'd do a fine job reading it yourself!

digitaltoast · Post by **digitaltoast** » July 21st, 2016, 1:26 pm

kayray wrote:I listened to your sample. For the first paragraph, I thought, "well, he's doing fine, this is great!" but then you started doing some kind of an accent...
If you just go back to your regular accent I think the young lady would sound great

chocoholic wrote:I completely agree with Kara; I think it sounds great in your own accent! You've changed your delivery style enough to convey her manner of speaking and make it clear who's talking

Well, OK, thanks (I think!). But I'm a bit puzzled about a couple of things said; the first time in that clip that Blanche comes in is with the words "I've been here about 4 weeks..."; anything before that definitely isn't supposed to be her, but it's those words which should start the transition to my lame attempt at a North American accent.

Reading between the lines, it looks like my accent was so weak, it didn't even come across as that!

If you're sure it's OK to have an American in a Brit accent, then here's a quick "rough and ready" hack at it (without the echo protection blanket up!).
Would this do then? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58588671/chapt_3_characterization_sample_blanche_uk.mp3

It's just quite a "fun" book, and I wanted to really give my chapter a good blast and let the listener enjoy listening as much as I enjoy reading it

kayray · Post by **kayray** » July 21st, 2016, 9:15 pm

DigitalToast wrote:If you're sure it's OK to have an American in a Brit accent...

Oh heavens of course it's ok! :) I never never never do accents. All my characters sound like they're from 20th century California. :-D

Your sample sounds great. The way you sort of "lighten" your voice for the female character is perfect. It's the only cue the listener needs. Go forth and record your ditzy young lady with perfect confidence :)

JenniferFour · Post by **JenniferFour** » July 23rd, 2016, 7:09 am

I agree with the others that what you did is just fine and it would be jarring to have a new reader introduced. If you WANT to try it with an American accent, I would be happy to record it for you so you could hear an American reading those words.

Just let me know.

FWIW - you do an American accent just like the Brits I knew when I lived there! Very strong Rs. Bostonians tend to drop their Rs but put some in other places they don't belong:

"I had an idear to pahk the cah in Hahvad yahd"

I grew up in Boston and have lost virtually all of the accent but I still say "idear" - can't help it!

mzmolly65 · Post by **mzmolly65** » July 23rd, 2016, 9:24 am

If you really want to hear the valley girl accent there's many examples on you tube, just search valley girl.

any clip of Alicia Silverstone in the movie Clueless

this video around the 2:36 mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIBg-w6TNLE

It's more about intonation and the breaks in the voice so you could still use your normal accent if you could change the intonation and add the breaks in the right places.

digitaltoast · Post by **digitaltoast** » July 23rd, 2016, 9:36 am

Thanks, all! Well, in the end I dropped trying to do the female American accent.

I won't post the direct link here as apparently you're not supposed to, but I'm sure you can find chapter 3 in the MW here if you really wanted

And I'll bear the offers in mind in case I ever get involved in a dramatic/group work.

EDITED TO ADD:

mzmolly65 wrote:If you really want to hear the valley girl accent there's many examples on you tube, just search valley girl.

The sad thing is, that's just what I did and I STILL came up with that accent!!

mzmolly65 · Post by **mzmolly65** » July 23rd, 2016, 9:45 am

digitaltoast wrote: The sad thing is, that's just what I did and I STILL came up with that accent!!

Ah well ... sorry to hear that.

If you want some pointers I'd be happy to Skype with you. I've been told I do a fairly decent Valley Girl impression but like the others, I think it will be fine in your regular voice. I'd rather hear things in any proper accent rather than a mangled one.

tony123 · Post by **tony123** » July 23rd, 2016, 10:59 am

I think that what you would find is that people of class and with money and people who associated with them in Boston, New York, etc. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries cultivated a pseudo British accent, possibly the kind you hear in many of the American movies with upper class Americans in them. Ditzy or not, they tended to approximate a British accent.

digitaltoast · Post by **digitaltoast** » July 24th, 2016, 12:05 am

Ah, interesting! I got the idea to try accents a bit more after watching a video about recording audiobooks, but it's "unlinked", meaning it's meant for subscribers only, so I'm not going to link directly to it.
But that's not to say someone else might not have it as the third video down in their playlist... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=LL4y3SnCZm879r_2aFs0LiUg

Hope someone might find it interesting...