VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[voice of vicki]

Hello gang,
I am in the process of writing a short article on improving communication between clients/directors and voice talents. I'm still refining the focus, so I thought I'd gather some input from ya'll.

2 questions:
1) What is your pet peeve in VO direction? (Mine is getting a 30 sec commercial with 40 seconds worth of copy, with the direction "caring and compassionate")
2) What types of direction work well for you? Key words? Phrases?

If I wind up quoting you, I will contact you to ask permission to use your name or keep you anonymous.
Thanks!

[mcm]

Peeve: When they tell me after I've recorded and edited a short narration that it has to be :60

[dhouston67]

Pet peeve? Directors who don't hire me.
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[Philip Banks]

Good direction is a collaborative, creative process. Anything that doesn't add to the production is not direction.

"Oh by the way it's a 30" is not direction. That's a bit like a film director saying "oh by the way we're shooting in wide screen". Technical imformation is not direction.

Good words to help a voice are ones like - Bigger, smaller, brighter, languid, any that paint pictures. More sell! Is a useless phrase. More sell than what?

I once had a TV director ask me to use a Boris Karloff voice, I did.

"No that's not right!" It was but the problem came from the fact she had no idea how Boris Karloff sounded. I went into a sort of Vincent Price sound.

"Perfect! That's him". Far be it from me to argue, I'm just the hired help.

[mcm]

[Philip Banks]

[voice of vicki]

I hear you!
I have already written a section on how difficult it is to pull "sound like Roz on Frasier" out of my memory stick. You have to send us a sound clip of what you want!

Now, what else?

[asnively]

Overwritten copy is the thing that drives me crazy nearly every day. It's hard to bring copy to life when I've got to squeeze an audio book down to :27 (to leave room for the poor guy who's doing the tag).
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[bobsouer]

[audio'connell]

Hi.

I don't know if it’s a pet peeve as there could be peeves on both sides and likely equally justified.

However, I think there are three areas that producers and directors could improve on to help make the voice session more effective for all parties.

1. Copy timing: One doesn't have to be a VO to read a piece of copy with the second hand on their watch to know that an average read for their copy will NOT likely fall within the prescribed time they need it to. (i.e. two pages single spaced does not a sixty second spot make.) And these changes need to be made BEFORE the client sees the spot. Now I will grant you sometimes the client, not the producer or director, tries to jam in the extra phrase(s) and no amount of reasoning will work with the client. But just as often the producer/director should be making copy cuts and has the authority to do so. They just can't be bothered which leads to a second problem....

2. Copy grammar/accuracy: I'll grant you that our ed-u-ka-shun system (globally speaking) has its problems but I think this problem has to do with our go-go-go, “good enough” society/mentality. Its like driving 60 when the speed limit is 55....you physically don't get there much quicker at the higher speed so what’s the point of speeding? Taking a moment to REALLY proof read, or even better have a second set of eyes read your stuff is a step stupidly not taken often enough (but VO’s can make the same mistakes…we all do it).

3. Time for discussion/Knowing what they want: Again possibly falling under the go-go-go mentality, the "Here's the copy, go!" procedure leads to some shitty reads (can I say "reads" on here?) If a producer could articulate what they want ("I'll know it when I hear it" only means somebody might be too lazy to do a bit of homework) the voice will likely get "there" faster and with more variations in the "general vicinity" as it were.

Hope this helps. If not, well, at least I feel better!
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audioconnell Voice Over Talent
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent

[dhouston67]

[Deirdre]

[voice of vicki]

In reading the responses so far, I am struck by two things.
First, how basic our needs are as talents. In my article I have mentioned the necessisties of a clear, clean, proof-read script, good descriptive words, allowing a few extra seconds for that 'something extra' sound, and other simple requests. I kept thinking-- this is too basic, I must be missing something.
We really don't ask for much.

Secondly, I am struck by how we place a great deal of importance on doing a good job. I hear a lot of pride in what we do-the good kind- the kind of pride that produces high quality work.

[Drew]

Timing the copy is my peeve.

Just today I had this exchange over phone patch with an ad agency prod. director and A.E.

After motoring five takes, I said, "No disrespect, Julie, but you do understand you've got me stuffing 40 seconds of shit into a 30 second sack."

Then through my phones I heard all this muffled laughter and then, "That's a good one. I've never heard that expression before. Can I steal it?"

"Sure," I said. "I stole it myself."

"Well, great. Now do your voo-doo Drew and stuff that 40 seconds of shit in my 30 second sack so we can all go home."

I stuffed it. PayPal arrived 20 minutes later.

Was that direction?
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[Deirdre]

Yep.

They directed you to stuff it.


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