Veteran theatre actor to organise voice-over workshop in Chennai

CHENNAI: The Madras Players, one of Chennai’s oldest English theatre troupes, is organising a two-day voice-over workshop at Surang Studio, Alwarpet on October 14 and 15. The workshop will be conducted by veteran theatre actor and professional voice-over artist PC Ramakrishna.

After having been in the voice-over scene for over 45 years debuting for an explainer video by BHEL in 1976, he has been voicing for documentary films, children’s books, Tourism Department of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, ISRO, and wildlife films among others.

Speaking to DT Next about why he thinks learning voice-over efficiently is necessary, he says, “One of the highest consumed forms of the media is- video. These days everything is shot and a voice is given to amplify the effect of the video. Of course, there are also audiobooks that are seeing a steady growth in audience.

“There are many venues, be it in the public or private sector, for a voice-over artiste to flourish and grow. Another aspect about this profession is that there are not many people doing it.”

Ramakrishna says that voice-over is one such profession that anybody can pursue. “This is best for youngsters and retired people who are looking for alternative modes of revenue. This job pays you well. The reason I’m having this workshop is that I’ve been approached by people numerous times asking me to coach them on how to voice for someone,” he chuckles.

Giving an overview of what the workshop will cover, he says that he will be teaching the basics like how to be mic-friendly, how to bring about modulation in voice and where it is required, how to treat each script and recognise what is required for a particular script and lots more.

“Another thing I will be focusing on is teaching how to breathe during a recording session. Newbies often get breathless quickly and the recording mics which are very sensitive in nature, pick them up. This renders the quality of the audio.

“What people also fail to understand is that not everyone is mic-friendly. You will have to train your voice, or modulate it even, to suit different mics,” he remarks.

He adds that as a part of the workshop, participants will be given reading material and scripts and will be allowed to record their voices in the studio. “The studio will save the attendees’ voices to their voice bank (a series of voice demos shown to clients who are looking for a voice). Through the workshop, the attendees might even land a voice-over project,” he says.

Will there be another workshop? He chuckles, “If the response is good and people approach for another workshop, I’ll definitely do it. I’m all for spreading the craft.”

The workshop is first-come-first-serve basis and is accepting only 15 registrations. For registrations call 9840080783.