WINDHOEK-Hailing from Rundu in the Kavango East region, Hidipo Katewa, might have been the gentleman you heard on your radio or seen on your television screen without knowing who he really is.
He calls himself the “VoiceOverGuy,” a man with a credible and charming voice, which is compelled by talent, dedication and smile. He believes in taking his voice-over artistry to the next level. Hidipo is working as a voice-over artist. Voice-over is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. The talented Hidipo has so far worked on various major projects in different local languages such as Waka-Waka Moo, a programme that screened on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC 1). He was also a voice-over during the anti-corruption campaign commercial, as well as at the 066 Summer Music Festival.
Currently he is working as a part-time voice-over artist at NBC Rukwangali radio language service recording adverts in his mother tongue, Rukwangali. He started as an online radio presenter where he learnt the importance of radios. While on holiday visiting his father in South Africa some years ago, Hidipo got an opportunity to visit North-West University and met “Nkokheli”, who was a presenter on the campus radio. He inspired him after showing him more than 150 voice-overs recorded in different South African languages, which was aired on the university’s station, local radio stations and television in South Africa.
He got an opportunity to enter the studio to read an advert for 30 seconds. After that Nkokheli said to him “you have a voice to do voice-overs use it!” “To be a voice-over artist doesn’t just require you to go in the studio, be on the mic, read and record, but there is much more to it,” says Hidipo, adding that It’s all about an art and a way of acting out a positive role, which is bringing it to life and passing on the heart and soul of a client’s message to all listeners. “I love my voice-over work. To me, voice-over and animation is such an art because you focus solely on your voice. You do not focus on how to speak, combined with facial expressions, movement, etc. You as the actor [are] in to convey all those things with only your voice making the listeners smile and customers happy at the end of the day,” says Hidipo.
He adds that words mean more than what is set on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.