About Emma
Emma Clarke is a leading female voiceover and comedy/drama writer. She voices all kinds of things from advertisements to radio identity packages – but is best known as the ‘voice of the London Underground’.
Archives
October
The power and prejudices of received pronunciation
Friday Nov 2 2007
When I first started voicing, I felt embarrassed to use Received Pronunciation (RP). It felt false, fake, as if I was ‘putting it on’…and I was. The RP accent was nothing like my normal northern-accented speaking voice and it didn’t feel comfortable, it didn’t feel ‘me.’ I found it really awkward to say ‘ah’ instead of a hard ‘a’ sound, a cutesy ‘u’ instead of a flat ‘oo’ as in ‘book’ in words like ‘cut’ and so on. But I knew that any hang-ups I had about my personal identity being challenged by becoming a confident RP speaker were largely irrelevant – the choice was stark: get used to doing RP or forget being a voiceover.
One of the most bizarre ads I’ve ever voiced
Tuesday Oct 30 2007
Today I had to voice one of the most bizarre ads I’ve ever done, ever.
The girl In the office
Thursday Oct 25 2007
Here’s a glimpse into a conversation I have many, many times a month.
Scams
Tuesday Oct 16 2007
Today I was asked to record something for a ‘mystic phone line.’ I declined to record it.
Dodgy translations
Wednesday Oct 10 2007
My overseas customers are great. They’re a fab, (mainly) easy-going bunch of people to work for who send me scripts with clear pronunciation guides and plenty of lead-time. But sometimes, just sometimes, they send me some really dodgy English translations.
Sound effects
Thursday Oct 4 2007
Radio copywriters – don’t we just love ‘em! – really, really like sound effects. And who can blame them? After all, radio’s the theatre of the mind. But sometimes copywriters forget they’re writing for radio, or seem to. Here are some of my very favourite sound effects, as suggested by copywriters.
Why I’ll never do porn
Monday Oct 1 2007
Why I won’t do voiceovers or audio for porn. Ever.