Voiceover Acting and the Battle of the Blowers

Female Voiceover Acting Talent Debbie Grattan shares the challenges of recording in a Home Voiceover Recording Studio when outside the leaves are a-fallin’!

At last we are nearing the time of year when the leaves have almost all fallen safely to Mother Earth and the roaring chorus of leaf blowers and lawnmowers has reached its climactic finale.

What does this have to do with being a female voice actress, you ask?

Well, here’s the connection. I live in the Midwest now, where they actually have a season called Autumn. Being born and bred in southern California shielded me from events such as this. I used to think the seasons had more to do with location (you go to the beach for summer, to the mountains for winter) than the tilting of the planet and extreme changes in temperatures.

When you make your living as a voiceover actress, working out of your home recording studio (even a well sound-proofed one), you need to pay attention to things like this because all it takes is one landscape crew on a mission to rid somebody’s yard of every earthbound leaf remnant… Well, you get the picture. It can really mess up a full schedule of voiceover acting recording projects.

I’ve been pretty fortunate this year. The Leaf Gods have been very cooperative with the timing of the “the fall” so as not to interfere with my often jam-packed recording schedule. I live in a neighborhood that has many folks who really like to take care of their property (which is a good thing) and somehow some way, we’ve all managed to co-exist quite peacefully. Sometimes just in the nick of time, with John or Bill (keeping this anonymous) finishing up their cleanup just minutes before I am set to do an ISDN voiceover session. It can get a little nerve-racking at times! Not that I escaped these types of scenarios when I lived in California. I can remember more than one occasion when I sent my husband out to “pay off” the landscaping crews so I could complete a phone patch with a very high profile client.

Last year, my husband (he’s a Lifecoach btw) taught me a little saying (or prayer perhaps) called The One Command, and it can be used anytime you are trying to get a specific outcome and it seems like a bit of a stretch to achieve it. I admit, I used this command few times this fall.

“I don’t know how it is that I have total peace and quiet for this voiceover acting session at 2pm today, I only know that I have that and I am grateful and fulfilled!” Then I would relax and take a few deep breaths feeling the way I will actually feel when that reality shows up just as I requested it.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how well that statement worked most of the time.

So, now I’m breathing a relaxed sigh of relief knowing that the worst of the “noisy season” is behind me. At least until the snow flies and the snow blowers come out of hibernation!

Be sure to also check out a more updated article about this topic, “Voice-Over Actor vs. Leaf Blowers: This Year the Actor Wins” for my present day solution to those pesky blowers.

Debbie Grattan is a professional female voiceover actor who has been doing voice over work for more than 20 years. She’s been a “go to” artist for many production companies and recording studios across the US for several years. Check out Debbie’s Voiceover Acting Demos and request a Custom Voiceover Audition or Quote for Upcoming Project.