3 Voice Over Script Pointers
- April 1, 2008
- Comments (3)
Join Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger as she discusses "Three Script Pointers". Learn how to see the big picture and then break it down into separate individual parts, phrases, sentences and words to unlock the writer's direction between the lines. It's your job to figure the script out and follow those bread crumbs to the right interpretation!
Download Podcast Episode 42 »
Tags:
Connie Terwilliger, Voiceover talent, Coach, Script Pointers, Interpretation, Reading, Scripts, Voice Overs, Voice Acting
Transcript of 3 Voice Over Script Pointers
[Opening Music]
Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.
This week Voices.com is pleased to present Connie Terwilliger.
Connie Terwilliger: Hi, Connie Terwilliger and this is another in a series of short presentations about the basics of voiceover. What are the key things that you need to do know how to do as a voiceover person is to understand what the writer of the copy intended when they wrote it. They only have the script to communicate with you in most cases.
So, you have to be adopt at digging at underneath the words, around the words, through the words to figure out what was in the head of the writer as they wrote it and writers are human, they make mistakes. They don't say what they mean to say all of the time and in many cases sometimes they don't have a read it aloud, so they don't know how the words are jocks oppose and how they really going to come out when face with eyeballs, a brain and a tongue. So, you have to be able to look at the script from their mind set in order to understand the basic message and then any other of the verbal tricks that they maybe using to communicate with you and let's face it, we're in a self-directed world. You need to know that you can do this kind of analysis on your own. That's one of the things that's going to set you apart a voiceover person.
I'm going to make this case using three points for the purposes of this podcast. The first is, ask yourself if the copy sounds right. Read the copy carefully. Writers are human beings and they may have made a mistake on the script when they were typing the copy. If something doesn't seem right to you, you're going to need to ask, this maybe over the phone, this maybe in person, this maybe over e-mail. If the script is right maybe they can explain it so that it makes sense to you. It maybe wrong though and then corrections can be made so that it make sense to everybody when it's finally verbalize.
Sometimes you maybe attempted to embellish the copy by adding a word or two or more. If the spot is very conversational this maybe okay, in fact they may have hired you because of your acting skills and your ability to embellish the copy and make it more real. Remember though that in many cases the copy has been approved by a dozen people or more before you ever see it. It's been stamped and stamped, approved, approved, approved.
So, in those cases you have to read it pretty much as it was written but you check with the producer to see if it's okay before you start to adlib completely around the script. The bottom line here is that is maybe wrong. A word may have been left out. A word may have been misspelled. A word may have flip-lap or transposed. If it doesn't sound right, it maybe wrong. Writers are human. So, you have to step back and look beyond the words to the meaning of the words in order to figure out if it was a typo or if it was intentional.
The second illustration I'm going to use to make this case about really digging under the words and into the word is that writers love to play with words. That shouldn't be surprising to any of you, they're word myths. They love to put the words together and make something pop-off the page. One specific example that writers do frequently is to repeat a series of words or themes to drive their point home. You need to look for this and try to figure out how the words work and why they should be said slightly differently each time. Always listening for the delivery that's going to get the writers intended point across to the audience. If you understand what's going on, you have a better chance that the audience will understand it. So, if you see a series of repeated words, recognize that they're doing something with that word and they want you to do something with that word in order to communicate the basic message.
Let's say the writer use the word somebody in the script, they repeated a couple of times and then they added a third time in a slightly different way and you need to be able to communicate the saddle differences between those three words. So, let's say here's the script, "Somebody gets promoted. Someday moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department", somebody, somebody, somebody. "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department". "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department". "Somebody gets promoted. Somebody moves down the hall or maybe several somebody's get hired in the sales department".
That was three slightly different ways of saying all those somebody's and some of them were more meaningful than others. This example may seem pretty obvious especially since I verbalized it but this is the kind of thing that is up to you in own self-directed environment. You have to be able to figure out what he writer intended just by reading the script. So, look for those kinds of repeated words, other words that are repeated a lot in script particularly price and items scripts are percentages and numbers prices. If you find a repeated price, 10 percent off, 20 percent off, 60 percent off. The important thing there of course is to make any percent off sound wonderful.
The other repeated word is in prices. Let's say for example you have men's socks at 66.99 a pair that means that everything in that store is going to be something 99. Well, we know it's going to be 99. That's not important. What's important is the first part of that word. So, if you have a series of prices 2.99. 3.99, 4.99 and 5.99, the emphasis is on the first part of that. You wouldn't want to say, "2.99, 3.99, 4.99 and 5.99 because the 99 is basically a throw away at this point. The more important part is the first part of that, you have to understand that on your own. If you're doing it on your own and you send it in that way, they're going to ask you to redo it. If you're in a session and you do it that way, they're just going to think that you have no experience.
The third example using to make this point is something I call, Look for the Clues. Writers always have something in mind when they create the spot but since they're usually not at the recording session, they only have the words and the way that they are written on the page to communicate with you. That means you as the talent have to interpret the copy as close as possible to the way that they writer and or the producer or the director are hearing it. So, that means you need to look for the clues in the way the spot is written.
Now, sometimes their clues may actually end up distracting you from the ultimate interpretation but use their clues initially to help you figure out what is it they intended and then you kind throw all of that stuff away and put the markings in on your own to help you read at the way you want to read it base on the way that you understand that they think it should be read. I'm going to give you an example of that to help clarify what I just said. Writers will underline, they'll italize. They'll make things bold. They'll put things in quotes. They'll start a new paragraph to indicate a new thought perhaps. They'll often use ellipsis and maybe not in a grammatically correct way of using ellipsis but they're using the ellipsis to try to communicate something with you. They're hearing it in their head. You need to be able to hear it in your head as you're reading the breadcrumbs that they have left for you in the script.
So, you need to know if you can actually read these hidden signals. They're trying to help you understand what they're hearing. If a writer underlines a word, they want you to do something with it. It may be that what you do with that underline word is stress it more than other word but the underline word or bolded word or the italized word does communicate that there is something important about that word. You as the talent have to figure out how to approach that word in order for it to be as important as the writer thinks that it should be. Very often they will underline the word "you" and in most cases "you" is not a word that you really do want to stress, unless of course it's appropriate for the context of the script with of course as the talent you're suppose to be able to interpret and figure out if the emphasis should be on the "you" or should be on other word in the sentence, look for those clues.
Using ellipsis usually incorrectly is another way that a writer communicates with you. If a writer uses an ellipsis and just suddenly stops the sentence, you need to know that in most cases they're expecting you to basically interrupt yourself. They don't want you to just stop. They want to be searching for words perhaps. If it's a conversational script, you can almost be guaranteed that, that is what writer intended if they put an ellipsis and don't finish a sentence. You as the talent are suppose to have the rest of the sentence in your mind or perhaps you've run out of breath or perhaps you've just run out of things to say and you just can't continue, so there an ellipsis right there. If you see an ellipsis or you see a paragraph draft or you see underline or italized words, you as the talent have to analyze the big picture and understand what's going on in the script, so that you can figure out how to inflect those words.
These are just three examples of the kind of things a voiceover talent faces when they're staring at a script for the first time. You need to see the big picture and then break it down into separate individual parts, phrases, sentences, words, so that you can figure out if a word is missing, if there's something special that a writer wants you to do with the series of words or if there are certain words that need to be stress more than other words. This is your job as a voiceover person, to figure the script out and follow those breadcrumbs to the right interpretation.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.
[Closing Music]
Links from today's show:
Connie Terwilliger
Connie Terwilliger Voices.com Website
Your Instructor this week:
Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger
Connie Terwilliger is one of the most well known names on the Internet when it comes to female voice talent. She's been online with an Internet presence since 1996. Connie did her first official voiceover work on air at KCOE-FM while in college in Cedar Rapids Iowa in 1972. After getting her Masters in Radio and TV at Indiana University, she started a long career juggling many hats - Producer, Writer, On and Off-camera talent. Over the past several years Connie has been able to "retire" as a Producer and Writer and concentrate on full-time voice work for clients around the world out of her home studio and the studios in San Diego and Orange County. She teaches one class a semester - Acting for Radio/Voiceovers - at San Diego City College.
Her session on Self-Evaluation presented at VOICE 2007 was well received and has led to invitations to speak at media performance schools across the country. She has made the 3-hour live recording available on a 2 CD set, packaged with a 14-page workbook. Visit her website for information on how to buy the set. She is also the immediate past President of Media Communications Association-International - MCA-I, a networking and professional development group for media communicators that she joined when she was producing.
Did you enjoy Connie's episode? Leave a comment with your thoughts!
Self-Evaluation for Voice Actors
- September 11, 2007
- Comments (9)
Join Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger as she teaches you about "Self-Evaluation". Take the bull by the horns during the "Gold Rush of Voice Over" and learn more about who you are as a voice talent, what you have to offer and identify who wants what you have to sell.
Download Podcast Episode 14 »
Tags:
Connie Terwilliger, Voiceover talent, Coach, Self-Evaluation, Self-Assessment, Gold Rush, Voice Overs, Voice Acting
Links from today's show:
Connie Terwilliger
Connie Terwilliger Voices.com Website
Transcript of Self-Evaluation for Voice Actors
[Opening Music]
Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It's never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won't find anywhere else.
This week, Voices.com is pleased to present Connie Terwilliger.
Connie Terwilliger: I think the thing we first need to consider is that we're experiencing the gold rush of the voiceover business right now. We have to constantly be on our vocal and mental toes to keep up with the changes. It also put us first but in a way those getting started right now are already a little behind. If you're not online now for example with the web presence that stand outs in the search engines, you're knot going to be easily found. But services such as Voices.com help level the playing field a bit because they do so much internet marketing. You can't buy the kind of internet placement and promotion you get with Voices.com elsewhere for the money. So in a way it's a no-brainer to have a membership if you're looking for new contacts and audition opportunities.
But opportunities don't necessarily translate into work. I've listened to the earlier podcast from Mark and Bob and Debbie and my talk today will cover a few of the same basic rules if you will, of the voiceover business from another perspective. You have to know what you're bringing to the table. This takes self-evaluation and you have to know who you are inviting to dine. I must be hungry at the moment but the metaphor is this, if you make a thick, juicy, delicious medium-rare steak for dinner and you've invited a vegetarian then you just spend a whole lot of money on something that you can't get the other person to eat.
How this translates into the voiceover business is that you not only need to know what you have to sell but you need to know who wants to buy it. No matter where you are in the voiceover spectrum, wannabe, newbie, part-timer or full-time pro, self-evaluation can help you in all aspects of the business.
I guess step one is figuring out what you have to sell. This means a detailed, realistic analysis of your own voice and your potential at creating a signature sound that people want to buy. This not only means understanding your own voice but understanding what other voices are out there that are currently being used. It also means understanding the different types of markets that hire voice talent. Just where does your voice fit? It is tightly-niched or does it have broader appeal?
The formula is really very simple. Eventually you have to find the people who want to buy what you have to sell. This means, knowing what you have to sell, having demos that showcase your abilities and then getting that demo into the hands of the people who have the money. Bob Bergen's podcast was spot on in my opinion about demos. Most people do them too early in their career and now with the ability for nearly everyone to record and edit in their home studios, that temptation to create your own demos from scratch without any input from a producer is really great. Resist it, please if you want to compete in a small local market for small local jobs than whatever you put together should be fine but if you want to compete at a higher level than your demo must compete. It must be ready for prime time.
So, in this particular podcast that's step two, understanding what is good and what is well, not so good. And there really is a difference if you can hear it when you listen to actual recorded material but can't evaluate your own material with the same critical ear, you're not ready to put together that demo just yet and you're not ready to start auditioning just yet. Everyone can use self-evaluation skills when auditioning. The same process happens when you audition.
Debbie Munro talked a bit about this in her podcast. You must understand what the producer is expecting before you hit the send button on your audition. Before you even decide to audition actually, go ahead and verbalize it but critically analyze whether your voice and or your read is right before you spend a lot of time recording, editing and sending something that will just waste the producer's time.
Producer's have a sound in their head when they send out the audition notice. They may not be able to articulate it exactly but if there's a script and some sort of description of the project, you should be able to get a general feel for the kind of delivery they are expecting. For example, if the voice age is listed as young then don't send an audition that sounds middle-aged and if you don't know the difference between young and middle-aged, then you haven't done your self-evaluation yet. If the description says real or conversational then you need to know that you can get into that kind of delivery and you're not being an announcer.
As a producer in a former life, I would listen to the first four seconds or so of generic demos in order to get a feel for the general sound of the voice. If the voice was in the right ballpark, I would listen just a little bit longer to get a feel for how the person interpreted copy and then I'd go back and I'd listen to all the ones that I starred. A little bit more depleted, just make my final decision. Just what was it about their delivery that brought the words off the page? That's what I was listening for. If I wasn't able to decide by just listening to the generic demo, I would consider holding a directed audition with some of the actual script with a few of those people that I had pre-selected.
Today at certain levels of voiceover work that still happens and for some talent their demos, their agents, their experience, their referrals are so good that they don't do a lot of cold auditioning. But when you're auditioning in a vacuum, you not only must understand what the producer maybe wanting and whether or not your voice maybe generally suited for that project but you also need to know whether or not you've actually recorded what you think you've recorded and it's going to strike some sort of cord with the producer preferably not a cord that makes them delete your audition and remember your name forever as the person who sent in the really, really, really inappropriate audition. Those kinds of things can haunt you for a very long time.
So, this is where self-evaluation techniques work for the pro and for the newbie and don't forget, this business is not just about having talent. You also need to clearly look at the realities of the business, things like book keeping, marketing. Am I going to market by self? Do I need an agent? Should I join the union and then there's the technology. Should I have a home studio? If so, what kind of equipment should I have in there? Should I market my services as an editor and a producer. All of these things you really have to know critically about yourself before you can really progress as a voiceover artist. There's lots more to talk about of course but for right now, I think I'll sign off. I've a got a bunch of auditions to review to see if I'm right for them.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
If you're a first time listener, you can subscribe for free to this podcast in the Apple iTunes Podcast Directory or by visiting Podcasts.Voices.com. To start your voiceover career online, go to Voices.com and register for a voice talent membership today.
[Closing Music]
Your Instructor this week:
Voice Over Expert Connie Terwilliger
Connie Terwilliger is one of the most well known names on the Internet when it comes to female voice talent. She's been online with an Internet presence since 1996. Connie did her first official voiceover work on air at KCOE-FM while in college in Cedar Rapids Iowa in 1972. After getting her Masters in Radio and TV at Indiana University, she started a long career juggling many hats - Producer, Writer, On and Off-camera talent. Over the past several years Connie has been able to "retire" as a Producer and Writer and concentrate on full-time voice work for clients around the world out of her home studio and the studios in San Diego and Orange County. She teaches one class a semester - Acting for Radio/Voiceovers - at San Diego City College.
Her session on Self-Evaluation presented at VOICE 2007 was well received and has led to invitations to speak at media performance schools across the country. She is also the immediate past President of Media Communications Association-International - MCA-I, a networking and professional development group for media communicators that she joined back when she was producing.
