Director: Chuck Kourouklis
Length: 10-hour weekend seminar
Class Notes: This course includes a pre-class homework assignment. Students must have home recording capabilities.
If you want to be a musician, you must learn how to play the instrument. If you want to be a rock-star voice actor, the microphone is your instrument, and you need to know how to use it. Yes, mic technique includes the technical basics: minimizing plosives, controlling distortion, and keeping your levels clean. But real mic technique goes far beyond that. It’s about using the microphone to help tell the story. Are you speaking from across the room? Are you leaning in to share something confidential? Are there words you’re muttering to yourself that no one else is supposed to hear? Those choices affect how you work the mic. Distance, angle, and proximity effect can subtly shift your authority, warmth, intimacy or conversational tone. Explore how script analysis and performance choices translate into physical mic technique. You’ll practice creating believable moments and then using the microphone to support those choices rather than fight them. And, of course, the real trick is remembering to apply all of it while you’re auditioning. Developing strong mic technique alongside your acting, script analysis and self-direction skills is a savvy move because sometimes the difference between booking the job and not booking the job is how well you play the instrument.