more Voice Over Today past issues
VOICE
OVER TODAY
April 26, 2007
This issue contains:
1.) Upcoming Classes at Edge Studio
2.) “Swing the Heavy Bat” An Article By Bruce Bayley Johnson
Read this issue and PAST ISSUES at: www.edgestudio.com/voiceovertoday_past.htm
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Published by EDGE STUDIO
Helping Voice-Talent Build Careers
www.edgestudio.com
New York - 212-868-edge
Washington DC - 202-398-edge
Connecticut - 203-374-edge
Tele-Training - 888-321-edge
SINCE: 1988
MEMBER: Better Business Bureau
RECOGNIZED: Voice and Speech Trainers Association
SPONSOR: National Public Radio, Recording For The Blind & Dyslexic
WHAT
IS EDGE STUDIO?
1) VOICE OVER CAREER BUILDING
• training
• evaluations
• demos
• marketing resources
• audition prep
• guidance
2) AN ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION FACILITY
Recent Productions:
• Pixar
• Disney
• Time Magazine
• Glomobi
• Klaffs
==================================
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monthly basis.
You can learn more at www.sonibyte.com. All interested parties should
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==================================
1.) Upcoming Classes at Edge Studio
No matter what your skill level is, dozens of workshops and seminars are being offered for all levels of voiceover experience!
Just
getting started?
Try our Evaluation Placement Workshop, for a wealth of information on
the voiceover industry, as well as a private, 1-on-1 evaluation with one
of our experienced voice coaches!
Need
audition experience?
Our Act-Up and Ringer Classes offer training and confidence building for
a variety of different types of scripts, as well as actual audition experience!
Do
you have, or are about to finish recording a demo?
Don’t know what to do next? You need a Marketing Foundation class
to learn the basics, and a Marketing Forum for even more information on
how to market your voice, and get yourself work!
Interested
in Character/Animation work? How about Audiobook narration?
Gain a wealth of experience in workshops which deal exclusively in these
specialized fields of the voice over industry!
SCHEDULE THROUGH JUNE 2007
_______________TELE-TRAINING_______________
--------------Call 888-321-edge for details--------------
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
May 7, 6pm- 9:30pm ET with Kerry Miller
*Marketing
Foundation: $79
May 21, 7pm-9pm with Kristin Price
*ACT-UP
Workshop "Take Two": $35
May 23, 7pm-9pm ET with Eric Rath
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
June 4, 6pm-9:30pm ET with Kerry Miller
*ACT-UP
Workshop "Breaking Down Copy": $35
June 13, 7pm-9pm ET with Eric Rath
*Marketing
Foundation: $79
June 25, 7pm-9pm with Kristin Price
*The
Ringer Workshop: $35
June 26, 7pm-9pm ET with Bruce Bayley Johnson
______________NEW
YORK CITY STUDIO________________
------------------Call 212-868-edge for details-------------------
*Marketing
Forum: $79
April 30, 7pm-9pm with Paul Liberti
*ACT-UP
Workshop: $35
May 7, 7pm-9pm with Paul Liberti
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
May 12, 2pm-5:30pm with Kristin Price
*ACT-UP
Workshop: $35
May 19, 3pm-5pm with Paul Liberti
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
May 23, 9am-12:30pm with Kristin Price
*The
Ringer Workshop: $35
May 26, 3pm-5pm, ET with Paul Liberti
*Marketing
Forum: $79
May 28, 7pm-9pm with Paul Liberti
**Audiobook
Intensive Technique Workshop: $99
June 2, 10am-2pm with Bruce Kitovich
**Audiobook
Advanced Technique Workshop: $99
June 2, 3pm-7pm with Bruce Kitovich
*** Both AUDIOBOOK WORKSHOPS (Intensive & Advanced) for $179! ***
*ACT-UP
Workshop: “Breaking Down Copy” $35
June 4, 7pm-9pm with Paul Liberti
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
June 9, 2-5:30pm with Kristin Price
*Character/Animation
Intensive Technique Workshop: $119
June 11, 6pm-10pm with Paul Liberti
*ACT-UP
Workshop: “Breaking Down Copy” $35
June 16, 3pm-5pm with Paul Liberti
*Character/Animation
Advanced Technique Workshop: $99
June 18, 6pm-10pm with Paul Liberti
*The
Ringer Workshop: $35
June 23, 3pm-5pm, ET with Paul Liberti
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
June 27, 9am-12:30pm with Kristin Price
*Marketing
Forum: $79
June 30, 3pm-5pm with Paul Liberti
_______________WASHINGTON
DC STUDIO_______________
--------------------Call 202-398-edge for details--------------------
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
May 7, 6pm- 9:30pm ET with Kerry Miller
*Intensive
Foundation Technique Evaluation Workshop: $159
June 4, 6pm- 9:30pm ET with Kerry Miller
To register for any of these classes, feel free to call our offices at:
New
York: (212)868-3343
Connecticut: (203)374-3343
Washington DC: (202)398-3343
Or toll free at: (888)321-3343
==================================
2.) SWING THE HEAVY BAT
By Bruce Bayley Johnson (excerpted from “Voiceovers and the Art
of Automotive Repair”) Like the Frankenstein monster, a spot produced
by a committee of client reps, ad agency creative types, and suits from
the accounting division, has a tendency to be disjointed, uncoordinated,
and bloated in size. Everybody seems to want to add something, not to
take something away…a few words here, a few pauses there…pretty
soon your thirty-second spot is running close to a minute in length. The
more local the spot, by the way, the more this is likely to happen, but
it can happen everywhere from a phone patch in Podunk to the biggest studios
and the biggest ad agencies in New York City. Whenever a committee gets
together to write some ad copy, they are sure to put in too many words.
So, when you, the hapless voice talent, are standing in that padded cell
with your headphones on and a Neumann U-87 microphone hanging in front
of your nose, and you look through the glass and see four or five people
sitting at or near the engineers console…well, the trouble is about
to begin. Fasten your voice belt, baby, because it can get a little bumpy
from here on in.
A word of caution, recording engineers may have fixes for everything from
long copy to mouth clicks, but it is the callow and unwise talent that
suggests such things to cover up his or her own under-performance. Don’t
be saying: “Yo, hey, can’t you just speed it up a few seconds
with the wiz-bangy time compressor?” It won’t make you very
popular and might well make you unemployed. The best cure for a long piece
of copy is a cold-eyed editor with the proverbial red pencil. A good copy
editor will find whole phrases, even whole sentences that can come out
without harming the flow and meaning of the spot. After three decades
in the voiceover business, I can tell you that the chances of coming across
someone in a recording session who is willing to cut copy in that fashion
are next to nil. Typically the huddled group behind the glass will remove
the “and” from one sentence, the “when” from another,
and a “maybe” from the last paragraph (or graph, as they like
to say…so if someone says to scratch out the third word in the second
line of the last graph, don’t look for colored bars or pie charts).
After several minutes of scratching out, erasing, and penciling in, they
will then undoubtedly add a couple more words to make up for the four
or five they’ve taken out.
So what’s a poor VO talent to do? There are a couple of tricks that
can help.
First, try swinging the heavy bat. No, I don’t mean mayhem in the
studio, though you may have that urge on occasion. I mean doing as baseball
players do in the on-deck circle. They typically swing a heavy bat, or
two or three bats, which makes the single bat they take into the batter’s
box feel that much lighter, and—theoretically—increases the
speed with which they flail at the oncoming fastball.
Most VO talent are not permitted to bring baseball bats into the little
padded cell with the microphone…which is just as well. What you
do have is the script. If it’s a commercial read (and long copy
is usually the problem with commercials, there is usually much more flexibility
in narrations) you will usually get the script when you arrive and have
a moment or two to look at it. This is the time to use your finely-honed
sense of timing (or better yet the second hand on your watch). If you
find the copy is several seconds too long, it’s time to develop
a strategy. First, the heavy bat comes into play. Simply read the copy
as fast you possibly can, like that guy, John Moschitta in the Fedex commercials
from the eighties. (If you haven’t seen them, google it, great commercials,
great performance.) I’m talking really fast. By the way, that’s
a great exercise in and of itself…I find that to read copy really
fast, I have to sight read each word very closely, you’re “playing
the notes” the instant you see them, no thought, no interpretation
really, just speed. Read extremely fast, but get every word out as precisely
as possible.
Do that ultra fast read two or three times, and you’ll find that
when you slow down and do a “normal” read it’s a couple
or three seconds quicker—and it doesn‘t really sound faster.
So that’s it. Swinging the heavy bat. Just like the home run champs,
only you don’t have to use any steroids. Just a little coffee maybe.
Another trick is to use less projection. Within limits, you can often
get away with this technique. For one thing, when you reduce projection
(I mean the amount of air pumped through your vocal cords when you speak,
i.e. loudness) it can have the effect of seeming more natural, more “one
person talking to one person.” That is normally very desirable.
In fact, the softer the delivery the more personal and more important
the message can seem. Think “this is a secret, just between the
two of us.”
The second big advantage of less projection on ad copy is that you use
less air, and tend to take fewer breaths. Fewer breaths mean you can move
smoothly through longer phrases without stops or pauses. It can sound
better, and it can be faster. So one way to go faster without sounding
like you’re in a vocal race is to project less. Softer sometimes
means quicker.
Of course, if the copy calls for more projection, a high-energy retail
spot for example, and it’s still too long, you are going to have
to “fess up” and ask for some copy cutting. It isn’t
doing anybody a favor to read too fast and sound unconvincing and rushed.
Your job is to make the client’s job easier, but you owe it to them,
the product, and yourself, to give a great read at an appropriate pace.
==================================
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==================================
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==================================
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