{"id":76,"date":"2013-04-25T04:14:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T04:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/?p=76"},"modified":"2013-07-24T21:56:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T21:56:03","slug":"watch-what-you-say-before-you-read-that-voiceover-script","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voiceovergurus.com\/guru_blog\/watch-what-you-say-before-you-read-that-voiceover-script\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch what you say (before you read that Voiceover script)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lovely, new <\/span><\/span><\/span>voiceover student<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> of mine brought to the surface for me something that\u2019s been brewing in my subconscious for a while now: How we talk about the script we are looking at.\u00a0 There is much power in our words.\u00a0 Our words connect to feelings, our feelings come through as intentions, and our intentions direct the way we emote the heart of the script.\u00a0 Or not emote.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We were looking at a script for Grape Nuts\u00a0 This is the text:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0A breakfast your heart and taste buds can agree on.\u00a0 Post Grape Nuts.\u00a0 Anything but ordinary.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Simple enough.\u00a0 I asked her what her impression of the script was, what the mood\/style was, how it seemed the writer might want her to read it\u2026and she responded by saying it seems like a campaign to sell you the cereal.\u00a0 It\u2019s written very \u201ccommercially.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps if she had the word, she might have even said that it seemed \u201canncry.\u201d\u00a0 I asked her to read it.\u00a0 It sounded \u2013 false.\u00a0 She was reading with a detached sensibility, talking without passion, a forced smile, and speaking impersonally to the \u201cair.\u201d\u00a0 This isn\u2019t going to work is it?\u00a0 I then agreed with her wholeheartedly (because I actually did) that the script seemed written with one goal \u2013 to sell, and to not pretend it\u2019s doing anything else.\u00a0 It starts off with a positive description or angle on the product, and finished with a \u201cslogan.\u201d\u00a0 Totally.\u00a0 Announcery.\u00a0 I then told her, which is true, which I saw happen all the time when casting commercials, that writers and producers ask for the script to be read CONVERSATIONALLY, NATURALLY, NON-ANNCRY all the time, and even when the writing reflects something totally the opposite from that.\u00a0 Check out this article on homing your <\/span><\/span><\/span>conversational voiceover read<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> if you have time.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to think voiceovers is harder than film.\u00a0 You work with a message that often lives in an emotional vacuum, which asks something of you that isn\u2019t there.\u00a0 Film offers you character background, plot, context.\u00a0 Voiceover doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 No wonder some of the best voiceover artists out there are also the best actors.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the student and the Grape Nuts script.\u00a0 This time I asked her to simply suspend her disbelief, ignore the \u201cway\u201d it was written, especially if the specs are calling for a \u201cconversational\u201d read.\u00a0 No sense in saying it\u2019s not, right?\u00a0 Because someone else will just MAKE it conversational \u2013 and hey, they\u2019re getting that job.\u00a0 Well, the right-brain intentional angle worked.\u00a0 She said it warmly, as if directly speaking to a friend.\u00a0 She pretended.\u00a0 And I believed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lovely, new voiceover student of mine brought to the surface for me something that\u2019s been brewing in my subconscious for a while now: How we talk about the script we are looking at.\u00a0 There is much power in our words.\u00a0 Our words connect to feelings, our feelings come through as intentions, and our intentions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voice-over-gurus-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t