‘I have not forgotten your advice about  practising reading aloud on a daily basis. Wondering how best to fit this into a sometimes rather full day-to-day translating schedule, it suddenly  dawned on me that reading one's 'final draft' of a
translated text aloud  might be a useful final check before sending it onto a client. It's phenomenal!! I now find I'm picking up usually tiny typos in small words - of/or if/is, and the occasional word omitted altogether. You can easily overlook these when reading through silently (and I must have done that often  in the past!), but reading aloud allows nothing to 'hide'!! So, many thanks for this marvellous additional 'check'.

Margaret Collier’

“First of all, I would like to thank you for the great
workshop on Saturday. I  thoroughly enjoyed it and I can't
wait for Phase 2!

In any case, I certainly didn't expect your workshop to
prove  useful so early, but on Wednesday they offered me my first
voice-over job.  What a coincidence! I agreed straight away, because I
was so excited to have my first opportunity already!

They had estimated we  would take 2 hours to record my part,
but we only took 45 mins. They liked it  so much that they couldn't
believe I had never done it before. They even said they would like to
work with me in the future!

But I must say that I  owe it all to you. It's all those
little tips you shared with us that helped me so much. Also,
I think I was well prepared, because I knew what to  expect
and that helped me not get too nervous.

Anyway, I thought you'd  like to know that my voice will soon
be in a museum in the isle of Skye! “

Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza

“Held on the 14/1/06, this voice-over workshop organized by the MAT network and delivered by Daniel Pageon, proved to be an extremely successful event. It took place at Actors World Production Limited, Daniel’s recording studio, and seven of us attended.

Daniel Pageon began the workshop with some breathing exercises that would help us before a voice-over, to relax, open up our chests and let us project our voices properly. He also taught us other exercises that one can do with a pencil, placed horizontally in one’s mouth, and biting it with your back teeth while pronouncing vowels and other sounds at the same time. It looks silly but it’s apparently very effective.

I found Daniel’s comments extremely useful and constructive, because he said very plainly and clearly what you had or didn’t have, and how you could sound much better. Besides he had a good sense of humour and that always helps to create a relaxing atmosphere and loosen inhibitions.

After that, we moved on to the real test, which was to record our own voices in the recording room! One by one we went into this cubicle, put the headphones on and recorded our own readings. Outside Daniel manoeuvred and adjusted the recording in his computer and the rest of the group listened. I think most of us found this very interesting and useful, because one can learn a lot by hearing others and discerning what makes their performance right or wrong. Many of us rehearsed a couple of times, changing the pitch of our voices, the pace of our readings, or even the text read. It was interesting to see how voices were recorded and stored on Daniel’s computer and how they ended up looking like vertical lines on an electrocardiogram!

Daniel gave us many good tips about the profession, such as how to read with a smile on your face (although they will not see your face it will come across in your voice), how to modulate your voice and even flirt with it if appropriate, how to avoid drinking coffee/tea with unfiltered water before a job as it will affect your voice; he also instructed us on rates, on the physical posture to adopt, on what exercises to do at home, on how to approach work providers, etc.

We also had the opportunity during a break to get together and exchange information, while enjoying the coffee and tea (with filtered water of course!) that Daniel’s wife had kindly prepared for us. In summary, this voice-over workshop turned out to be a very informative and enjoyable experience. “

Elena Horas San Martin