DeepFake Boris Johnson
12/11/2019 By Darren Altman
I've impersonated Boris Johnson in lots of radio adverts and for lots of different companies, but when I was contacted by the guys at Future Advocacy for this project, I knew that it was a bit special. It was to be a DeepFake Boris Johnson!
The brief was to impersonate Boris, but they wanted me to go into a studio in London to be filmed while performing the impression as they had to capture my exact mouth movements. The weren't interested in capturing anything else, except my mouth!
A camera was positioned in the voiceover booth and I had to face it, while holding my script. Normally when I work on a celebrity impression, I try to capture all the facial expressions and mannerisms of a person in order to get as much detail of their personality as possible. However, for the DeepFake Boris Johnson my eye and facial movements were not relevant. When studying Boris, It's interesting to note that he has a particular was of annunciating his "S's" and when mimicking this, the mouth shape alters, so this was a great help in making the character real. I've also noticed that Boris has a slight underbite in his jaw, so his bottom teeth tend to protrude slightly. Again, highlighting this adds to the essence of his character and adds more detail.
We must have read the script 10 times, as the producers took notes on each take and we found that the one used had great spirit and captured Boris' personality the best! I was also free to make a couple of silly noises and add some random latin at the end, so as as the piece progressed, the viewer would become aware that this may not be real!
Here's the final piece.
While in the studio The BBC sent their own film crew to capture the whole process for the Victoria Derbyshire Program. It really is fascinating. Click on the image below to watch the incredible behind the scenes footage of how it was all created.
If you would like any more information about my Boris Johnson impression, or my impression or voiceover work in general, do get in touch and let me know how I can help.
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