Voice or Dialect Coach
A Professional Voice/Dialect coach works with the performers in all aspects of voice including, but not limited to, Voice Production (timber, clarity, and pitch) skills, learning/integrating a specific required accent, foreign language text, idiolect, or aspects of English clarification for their role. Having a good base technique for this, for their vocal instrument, ensures the longevity for the performer's voice and accuracy for the role.
‘Voice Production’ is an industry standard term that can include: breath support/voice resonance quality, speech, articulation, text work, and heightened voice such as voice combat technique for yells/screams/battle cries etc.
‘Dialect work’ can include Speech work; Articulation; Local, Regional and Foreign Accent Acquisition; Foreign Language training for specific texts; and English Clarification (the integration of specific basic English intonation patterns and some phonetic choices to improve clarity of English language while still maintaining original unique accent).
Responsibilities include:
Clarifying/Assessing accent needs and proper terminology for specific accents for a complete and thorough Voice Design.
Clarifying and/or creating an idiolect, which is the way a particular person, group, families or creatures speak, at a specific time, as distinct from others.
Clarifying vocal production needs if a performer’s voice needs change/shift in quality or range for character. In videogames and film fight scenes this can also mean specific support for the safe production of prolonged heightened vocal skills: Eg: screaming, yelling, battle cries, punches etc.
Preparing full learning package for the performer’s use in professional coaching sessions and during personal practice time.
Co-ordinating with production and a language specialist to support foreign language learning, translation and clarification.
Advocating and organizing the necessary training time for the performer to learn/practice and integrate fully for truthful and natural voice/accent speech.
Providing one-on-one remote and in person coaching sessions during rehearsal/film pre-preproduction time.
Providing direct support for scenes that have a required accent or vocal support needs. On set for film and in rehearsal for theatre.
For film, maintaining, if required and requested, a log of voice/accent notes from each on-set take to provide to the on-set script coordinator for their records for and post-production.
For theatre, availability to give post show notes for the upkeep of the actors skills.
For Film, providing direct support during remote and in person Post-production sessions.
Establishing and modelling a culture of safety and consent in rehearsal, on set and in Post-Production.
Principles and Qualifications of Voice/Dialect Coaching and Design
Qualified Voice/Dialect Coaches should have specialized training from a University Post-Graduate, Conservatory and/or a Private Voice Methodology Certified program and/or a varied and significant body of professional on-set work experience.
Voluntarily, they can be members of NVA (National Voice Association, Canada), VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association, USA and International), and AACE (Association of Acting Coaches and Educators).
Hiring a Professional Voice/Accent Coach
Who do you hire? Where do you find them? How much do you pay them?
Professional Voice and Dialect Coaches are full ACTRA union members and work under the current ACTRA IPA contract.
CONTACT
The specific ACTRA Business Representative assigned to each production can be contacted directly for information about available qualified and experienced working coaches.
Dialect Coaches can be contacted directly or via their agent.
ACTRA’s IPA outlines specific protocols and fee payment structures including hourly for rehearsal, on-set daily, weekly, overtime, and out of town details to be confirmed with Voice/Accent coach directly or their agent for a signed IPA contract. Further protocol clarification can also be provided by the specific ACTRA Business Representative attached to each individual production, and directly by the professional Voice/Dialect coach and/or their agent.
Accurate and unaffected accent work cannot be established at the last minute. Doing your due diligence as a producer/engager is to consider the time and budget needed for a Voice/Dialect specialist when the original calendar and budget for the entire production is being created. Consider the time needed in the same way and level of importance as you would for a fight, movement or intimacy specialist. Hurried, last-minute coaching is only detrimental to the the performer’s process and can also inherently negatively affect the quality of production. Appropriate time taken for the right training can save production money.
Of equal importance is hiring the right specialist for the job. Though the disciplines of acting and directing share some common foundations of knowledge of speech and interpretation, this does not inherently constitute qualification as a dialect coach. Also, many hired performers are good imitators but that doesn’t mean they can learn a fully integrated and accurate accent on their own that can be sustained for an entire production. The lines of specialty are drawn very clearly with other on-set specialists, and it is the same with Voice/Dialect Specialists.
When do you hire a Voice/Accent Coach?
Pre-Production and Rehearsal: Consider bringing in a Professional Voice/Accent Coach as early as possible to make sure that the performer has time to learn, prepare and integrate the voice/accent work into their character and text before their first day of shoot or rehearsal.
Beyond time in rehearsal, they also may be able to help in a number of other ways:
Advising on casting notices to clearly manage needs and expectations of accent work for each role
Offering advice and/or assessment of accent quality from audition submissions.
On-Set: the performer needs to be free to do their job, to be in the moment to listen and react fully to their scene partner(s). They should not have the responsibility and pressure to “listen to themselves” while acting to hear if they are on pointe with the voice/accent/language/speech work. The professional Voice/Accent coach is there on-set to listen to every take, to unobtrusively and very quickly, coach the actor between takes, and also to make notes on each take, when required, to provide to the script coordinator for their records for post-production.
Post-Production: Post-production sessions happen months after wrap, therefore, the performer has often lost much knowledge of the accent because of not having worked it in a long time. Time is money and so the professional Voice/Accent coach in the studio (remotely or in-person) can help the performer quickly re-find the accent accuracy of the specific lines to record so that the performer and director can then re-find and re-produce the acting moment fully and realistically.
Do You Want To Train to be a Voice/Dialect Coach?
If becoming a Voice/Dialect coach interests you, then below is a link from VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers’ Association). This is a list of resources for specialized training, internships and accepted levels and types of experiences for teaching and coaching practice.
