VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Deirdre]

I have the best job in the world, I really do. I'm a staff announcer for CBS Radio.
But it wrecks my day when I am forced to read overwritten copy— stuff that is far too long for the time allotted on the air. I can do a lot of things well vocally, but reading FAST isn't one of them.
I FEEL BAD when I have to blast thru a commercial that is too long.
I don't serve the client, I don't serve my listeners, and I don't serve my station.



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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[heyguido]

You would think, wouldn't you, that as you rise up the ladder, things would get better.... that the bozos wouldn't be able to follow you, that the quality of the product would get better, that the hard things would get easier....

Sadly, no...


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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[Ed Gambill]

Years ago before Radio, TV and Cable Ad Insertion, I worked for Piedmont Airlines in the reservation office. Southern Bell did a training session for effective use of telephones in a call center situation.

I will never forget what they said about speech rate. Their research showed that a rate of "140 WPM" was the optimal rate for best comprehension by the listener. Yes most of us can listen to a faster rate still the best communication rate is 140 pre min.

I all way wrote long and did editing to get it to 140. Still yet folks want quality over quality.
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Esse quam videri "To be rather than to seem"
www.SaVoa.org No. 07000 Member AES

[ccpetersen]

Which prompts me to bring back our old favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXA-89TmEs

and the lovely and talented Jonathan Kydd playing a hapless VO and a sadistic "director"...
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Charter Member: Threadjackers Local 420

[Lee Gordon]

[Yonie]

Ditto on the fast talking, DB. I just can't do it without having stuff sound messy and inarticulate.

[Lance Blair]

I'm so sorry, it's not a good feeling when a spot has to be just lousy and no fun because the copy is so poorly crammed.

I had a refreshing session for an old colleague today where the couple of times I stumbled (always on overwritten copy) the writer/director immediately struck it from the script saying "Ya know, I didn't fully consider what it would sound like for voiceover. It's too much. Take it out." Each time I would offer to give it a clean take, but they realized that the copy was just wrong.

If you and I can't say it with precision, how can the listener absorb it effectively? They can't.
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Frank F]

I just received instructions for an audiobook read which says the speed to read the audiobook is 175 wpm.

I contacted the "agent" and she indicated this is standard commercial read speed. I gave her an example of a 175 wpm read and this woman had the gall to say that it was good for an audiobook. Sorry, but no thank you, I said.

The insanity doesn't go down when you reach the upper echelons, it increases exponentially.

Frank F
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[bransom]

[Mandy Nelson]

That sux. I have a client, a regular, wonderful client, who sends me stuff like that all of the time because I can read fast. One day I noticed they were cramming in even more for :15 spots so I said enough is enough. I sent him "this is what you get, it's :18 and I can't do it any faster. He completely understood and sometimes, when he sends me prompts, he encourages letting it run over because, fortunately, he can take it back to his writers and give them a hard time about it.

OH, and I so forgot to tell you that last week I heard you on an ad. I can't remember what now but I got all excited and explained to my girls who were in the car with me that it was you. "My friend D.B." "Mom, don't you mean Deebs?" heeee, awesomeness.
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006 member of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Mic. Bonded by sound.

Manfillappsoc: The Mandy and Philip mutual appreciation Society. Who's in your network?

Have you seen my mic closet? ~ me to my future husband

[Diane Maggipinto]

less is more, isn't it though?

last year as emcee at my daughter's big fundraising auction, i was given a sheet of paper with information about and thank yous to a main sponsor.

i probably sprouted 5 gray hairs before i was done reading -- it was THAT long. yes, cold read. edit on the fly.
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[Lee Gordon]

The worst is when having to cram all that copy into a too tight space possibly costs you a client. Last year I did a ton of tags for a school's TV ads. Depending upon the spot, I had between 6 and 12 seconds each. Invariably, I was given copy that ran between 9 and 15 seconds to fit into those places, and different mandatory wording changes to satisfy different states' regulations created different timings for the same base spots.

To make matters worse, I had the producer listening in on a phone patch so she picked the read she liked and I then had to make the determination if I had read it quickly enough to "make it fit." Every tag -- and there were dozens and dozens of them -- had to be edited to shorten pauses to their minimum possible duration, take out any semblance of breathing, and time compressed to squeeze them to final spec. And that's after the producer agreed on what copy could be eliminated.

In the end, they were all passable, but certainly not the best showcase of my voiceovering talents. But just the other day I saw a spot for this same client and the tag was voiced by someone else and seemed to have much less extraneous crap in it than the ones I did. I can only wonder if they decided to switch to a different talent because they blamed me for the less than stellar sound of the previous batch.

Or maybe they just found someone cheaper.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Mike Harrison]

As Frank did, I would politely decline, as well.

However, I would also add, "If you were a listener or viewer, would YOU listen to this crap?"

Somebody has to say it. You've shown me your cards, here are mine.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[Lee Gordon]

Unfortunately, when you are a staff announcer and are given a spot or promo to read, you rarely have the option to "politely decline" the job unless you are prepared for your employer to politely decline to continue offering you work.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[heyguido]

This. Sad, but true.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"