VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Lizden]

Well....Darren....if she needs a female voice....
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[Bish]

[CarynClark]

Darren, my desire for a little higher rate is that I generally don't do long narrations either. So, if I'm going to do it, I want to make sure I'm compensated fairly.

As someone close to me in the biz says, this attitude of me not looking forward to doing this job is my "ego" getting in the way, and frankly I need to knock it off and do it. Work is work.... and I certainly have bills to pay. So I'm going to shut up and work and be darn grateful to have it.



_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[Lizden]

Long Narration jobs are part of my bread & butter.
It really is, like Peter said, a question of taking the job in chunks, and we all have our method of taking those.

Me?

Here's how I do it:

The first thing I do is re-format the script.
The easiest for me to read is:
14pt Arial,
1.5 line spacing
with .75 margins all around.

Yes, it adds to the page count, but I actually get through a script faster when it's formatted this way because there is enough spacing between the lines that my eye flows to the next line without worry about re-reading a line or skipping a line.

I read about 15-20 pages at a time depending on how I'm feeling.
Drink some tea, stretch, whatever

I take a 5 - 10 minute break between page sets and can get through a pretty large script pretty quickly this way without vocal strain or tiring out.

I also do all my recording before I start editing. I feel as if I have more of a consistent pacing throughout the script this way.

If it's a 50 page or longer script & I've done the recording, but still have editing to do & will probably have pickups, I actually leave my mixer on overnight so I don't have to mess with the levels and don't have to worry about adjusting pickup levels in post the next day.

In terms of my time I have found that for say a 9000 word script:
9000 / 150 words per minute = 60 minutes
I multiply that by 6
2 hours to record
4 hours to edit
It's usually pretty close to what it takes me.

My process there is: Record, Edit/insert pickups AND, here is where an hour is added, I ALWAYS listen back to the entire edited narration all the way through. I have found that I sometimes catch 1 or 2 errors that I missed during the first edit.

That last Quality Control does take "real time" but I can count on less than one hand when a long form narration has come back to me because of an error in my recording of the script. I know that I can put a project to bed on my end with this last step.

If there are changes, that's another issue, but I know that what I send in is correct.

Hope this helps!
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[CarynClark]

Thanks Liz!!! Very helpful!!
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[bobsouer]

Like Liz, long form narration is my bread and butter. For example, this week I'm finishing edits (well, actually Eric and I are working together to finish edits) on one audiobook project, while editing a long chapter of a second audiobook project. I've also finished and shipped two eLearning projects this week and just received another yesterday afternoon that I will record sometime later today or tomorrow. The deadline for that one isn't until next week though.

For audiobooks I record a chapter at a time, regardless of how many pages the chapter is and how long it takes to record. If the deadlines are short I will record multiple chapters per day until I have everything recorded. Then concentrate on the editing.

With eLearning projects I record the entire thing in one session, again regardless of how long it is.

But, the single biggest and most important decision that I made a few years ago, and the one that has enabled me to meet or exceed deadlines consistently, is to have a director listening while I'm recording for all long form projects. Eric, my oldest son, does a lot of my directing. My daughter is helping with the second of my current audiobooks. My wife helps when she can and sometimes I even reach out to (and pay) others outside my family. And as noted above, Eric does a lot of the audio editing for me, too. I pay him a percentage of all the work we do together. It's a wonderful partnership and I'm very grateful for all that he does for me.

By the way, Eric has started directing and editing for other voice talent, not just me, and is very good at what he does. He's a member here, but rarely posts.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[Lizden]

Bob,
You're right.
The fact that you have Eric/someone listening while you record is a HUGE time saver on the back-end.
I actually get hired by a studio in NYC to "monitor" French sessions recorded by other French voice talent....in a lull, it's nice to get into NYC and see friends...who I am often monitoring.

As I've said before: Eric rocks!


_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[EricSouer]

He keeps me busy.

And I prefer to lurk.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

I do something similar with my Audiobooks. Once I'm done recording and editing a chapter, I pass it off to my wife who listens to it and follows along in the book to make sure every word is correct. This is a critical step for publishers like Audible, but is mind-numbingly dull for me. It saves me a ton of time. And who better to point out all the mistakes you made better than your spouse?
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[Bruce]