This would suggest that Librivox narrators might be able to impart additional information by using hand gestures while reading/recording. I have been trying to do more hand gestures during my recordings lately and I believe it improves my emotional intensity, particularly important when I am reading something on the "dry" side.
How about you, do you currently use hand gestures when narrating? Would you consider trying it?
Waving my hands in Tucson, Arizona where you can't see me
Interesting! I don't have time to read the article at the moment, but I surely will!
I do sometimes use gestures while recording, particularly for dramatic readings. Most of the time I don't, for fear of squeaking my chair or bumping my table. And when I do use gestures, I tend to keep them small. But I do find that they often help with the characterization.
Oh yes, I gesture a lot while recording. My mental image while recording is me telling a story to someone, either children or adults. This mental image allows me to free up my voice and seems to shift my focus from reading, to telling a story. so, frequent hand gestures, facial grimaces, etc. I'm not recommending it since there is no evidence that it works in general, but my personal brain seems to get into the flow easily and quickly when it is allowed to do it's thing. And my editing requires eliminating frequent bumps and squeeks but I'll take t he flow anyday
should begin to read standing, then the head movements won't be affected by hand gestures...
cool idea and easy to do!
in callcenters, we were told "the customer can hear when you are smiling" - your voice sounds different, then!
I really get into the stories I'm narrating, so I'm often gesturing (hands, facial, etc.) as I'm reading. It's all part of the experience for me. And, I too, have found that by recording standing up, I can limit the background noises that come from gesturing.
Don
Don (DACSoft)
Bringing the Baseball Joe series to audio!
I'm a bit new to all this narrating and to begin with I tried not to wave my arms around or use gestures for fear of my mic picking up the rustling of my clothes. The thing is, I think my better performances happen when I do use gestures etc, hence the reason I've just ordered a new arm type mic stand that clamps to the back of my table, I got fed up of my gestures knocking my floor mic stand over all the time. You should hear the carnage on my outtakes!!
Anyway, I think a little bit of "acting" helps in the final performance of the audio.
andybeddy wrote: ↑June 5th, 2020, 2:46 am
I'm a bit new to all this narrating and to begin with I tried not to wave my arms around or use gestures for fear of my mic picking up the rustling of my clothes. The thing is, I think my better performances happen when I do use gestures etc, hence the reason I've just ordered a new arm type mic stand that clamps to the back of my table, I got fed up of my gestures knocking my floor mic stand over all the time. You should hear the carnage on my outtakes!!
Anyway, I think a little bit of "acting" helps in the final performance of the audio.
andybeddy wrote: ↑June 5th, 2020, 2:46 am
I'm a bit new to all this narrating and to begin with I tried not to wave my arms around or use gestures for fear of my mic picking up the rustling of my clothes. The thing is, I think my better performances happen when I do use gestures etc, hence the reason I've just ordered a new arm type mic stand that clamps to the back of my table, I got fed up of my gestures knocking my floor mic stand over all the time. You should hear the carnage on my outtakes!!
Anyway, I think a little bit of "acting" helps in the final performance of the audio.
