Emma Hignett

Female British Voice Over

I’m Emma Hignett

…a female voice over artist, based in North East England.  Would you like to know more about me?  How I work, what influences me and what I’m passionate about?  Well this is where I share some of my musings, ideas, experiences and generally anything that excites me.

Please enjoy my blog posts, and if there’s anything you would like to know more about; me, my career or any aspect of my work, drop me a line and ask the question.  I’ll do my best to respond.

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The most frequent question…

What is the most frequent question I get asked – it’s not going to surprise you.  It’s how did you end up voicing the Elizabeth Line (until 2022 it was London’s buses).

So here’s the answer.

In 2005 I was going for a career change.  I wanted a lower profile, I’d done radio breakfast shows for the preceding 6 years and fancied a behind the scenes role in radio, rather than presenting.  I was looking for a radio programming job, but in the meantime I was freelancing in a few places, one of which was a company that did radio advertising and S&P for loads of clients, they were sort of like an advertising agency specialising in radio.  One day, someone from TfL was given the job of finding 10 voices to test for the new iBus system which was going to put voiced announcements on London’s whole fleet of buses.  Whoever this person was, they had in a previous job, dealt with the company I was working with so called up, explained what they were trying to do, and the person who answered the phone said ‘yeah we can help you get the voices’.  After the call, they turned to me and said ‘put your voice tape in’.  To be honest, I didn’t have one at the time, but I did have access to a studio, so I recorded a few mock bus announcements and sent them in.

And heard no more for months.

Until that person in passing said to me … ‘oh by the way, you’re the favourite’.

One other voice (male but I don’t know who) and I recorded bus Route 149.  And then in January 2006 they tested my voice on the route for 6 weeks, and loads of stakeholders were asked their opinion.

And from that came London Overground Trains (much recorded when I was about 38 weeks pregnant) … London Riverbus … and most recently the Elizabeth Line.

And from the buses job, I decided to build my own studio at home, and become a voiceover proper!

It was never on the plans … but an opportunity that has led to a career I love.

Every now and then …

Sometimes I get too busy and I don’t take the time to track down the work I’ve voiced.  It can be fun googling clients and their projects and finding the finished project … live… out there … and getting reactions from people.

Am I self-critical?  Yes!  Do I take the chance to sit back and listen properly and learn what I’d do differently next time? Yes!  Do I share the projects for my clients? Yes!

So please have a listen to this one, one I’d consider a little different from the norm of what I voice but one I’m quite chuffed with, and let me know what you think.  And if I can bring a voice to your project, then please get in touch.  I’d love to ‘talk’ to you about it.

Normality? Sort of …

In the last few days a few hints of normality have returned to our lives.

My ‘other business’ is Public Relations – I do the social media, pr and other bits for Durham Markets Company, and all the markets have been well and truly closed since mid March.

Until Saturday.

On Saturday, so many people defied the early downpours to come into the city centre as the Outdoor Market returned for the first time, all social distancing and hand sanitising.  All smiles and positivity.  All enthusiasm to get back to normal … or at least near to there.  Such was the success the Farmers’ Market returns this Thursday!

The other bit of normality was that the 11 year old was back at school today.  All 2 metres apart, staggered arrivals, staggered collections.  But it was a step in the direction we want to be going.

I stopped to chat with two parents I’ve chatted to in the school yard for best part of 7 years.  We stood 2 metres apart and caught up, after 3 months of no school run.  It was good.

How come no-one else has gone anywhere near as grey as me?

Time!

So it turns out, normally I have barely any spare time. I normally am getting done what I need to do, but not getting the stuff I’d like to do accomplished too.

Like creating new demos. Or finding videos of work I’ve voiced in the past and updating my YouTube Channel. updating social media. Or blogging.

I know I should blog more … so here goes.

It’s short and sweet.

It’s just to tell you that yesterday and today I created a new demo of phone system work. I created one yesterday, and decided to edit it again today to add/ take away etc etc.

You can find it in this playlist here – https://soundcloud.com/emmahignett/sets/emma-hignett-voiceover

And you can find my YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLeIL9jQVZTz9M1Ro01hUnQ

I thought I’d be better at ‘lockdown’

I’m a voiceover, I work from my own home studio 5 days a week! Every day it’s just me and the dog …

So surely I ‘self-isolate’ already. This should be a breeze for me. Shouldn’t it? Very little has changed. I still speak to people down the line from the studio. I still work away on my own during the day at home, away from everyone as my home office is 2 floors above ‘husband’s make-shift office’ and ‘home school’.

But I confess the novelty has now well and truly died!

I just want to sit and chat with a friend without a video screen and delay. I want to clink glasses, drink from the same bottle of wine. I would love to be back in the school playground to pick up at the end of the day. I would love to be driving to and fro between home and the swimming pool daily to work away at the laptop while my little one enjoys his swimming training.

That said, can I be a bit selfish and have the best of both worlds after this? Can I have mealtimes with my husband and son? Can I walk the dog daily with my family? Can my husband and I cook together daily (in harmony … until now we’d been useless at cooking together)? Can I get plenty of time to experiment making breads (and not worry about eating them as lockdown weight increase is par for the course)?

And can I have a bit of time to play with my camera too … I’m trying to get a great back window picture for Facebook’s View from my Window group …

View from my window!