VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[TLynch]

All,

I was wondering how many of you use a timer in the booth to meet the time limit when reading a piece of copy. I once read somewhere (I don't recall where) that VOs usually have an internal clock in their head where they are able to finish a read within the allotted time limit. Is that accurate for any of you?

I know I've had issues with this on initial takes, especially when the copy has a lot of text in it. I find myself redoing auditions a couple of times in order to meet the time limit for the spot. Then if I still have excess time, I'll trim any spaces during the editing process that make sense, before submitting.

What is your experience?
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Travis Lynch
www.travislynch.net

[todd ellis]

after your 462,781st 30 second ad you start to get a feel for it.

but really ... after a bit, i think most people know when they are close.

i always get a little tingly feeling when i nail a piece of copy at 29.5 seconds in the 1st take.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[heyguido]

What Todd said.... On the money.
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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

[FinMac]

As long as the copywriter does not try to put 45 seconds worth of copy into a "30 second spot"!

Seen too many like that.
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www.scottsvoiceover.com - An American voice in Finland

"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)

[jsgilbert]

I believe that 19 out of the last 20 spots that I went to a pro studio to record wound up having to have copy cut in order for me to get it in on time. That means that the "audition" would be long as well.

Yes, after a while you can develop a strong sense of timing, but when auditioning I wouldn't be overly concerned about running long. You could indeed be doing yourself a disservice. 34 seconds that has life, texture and mood is better than 30 seconds sped through.

So, the copy will almost always be a bit long when it comes to auditions. (almost always).
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j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com

"today is the first day of the rest of the week"

[DougVox]

What Todd and J.S. said.
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Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[Bruce]

A lot of us learned timing from our radio days with countdown timers and overhead clocks, and further from recording studio engineers in the olden days who hated to splice tape, and would rather you do 15 takes to get it right than splice three takes into a good final spot.

Us long-timers can usually just look at copy and guess. It also helps to know how many words are in the copy... for a :60, 150 words is leisurely and 200 words is motor mouth time. And of course today with digital editing we can cheat a couple of seconds either way easily.

Years ago I found a stop watch that doesn't click or beep when you start it (nice to have in front of a live mic), but I only use it these days for timing copy I've written.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Lee Gordon]

What all those guys said. And I'll add that the only time I make a concerted effort to get the timing exact in an audition is when the job specs specifically mention the need for it to be a certain length (in which case the copy is invariably too long or too short).
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[TLynch]

Thanks for all your responses. In my auditions lately, I've felt that I'm usually able to come within 2-3 seconds of the requested time. I usually do editing because I don't want to disqualify myself during audition process due to not meeting spec. I feel as if I'm getting closer to knowing when the copy is running long, but I'm probably going to look at having a silent countdown timer to reduce amount of retakes.
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Travis Lynch
www.travislynch.net

[Scott Pollak]

I seem to have a really good sense of timing in my head and I think a lot of that simply comes from looking at the copy. A seasoned v/o person can almost immediately tell, simply by looking at the copy, if it's going to be long, short, or about right.

This is helpful to use, too, if you need it:

http://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[TLynch]

That's a useful tool. Thanks Scott!
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Travis Lynch
www.travislynch.net

[georgethetech]

Some of my clients rely very heavily on timers, others don't. Joe Cip uses a $10 handheld stopwatch, Rick Wasserman a wall mounted DDS unit for $400.
Bottom line is none of them look at the time while reading, but after they hit stop. In those 3 seconds you can highlight the take and read back the time measurement from your DAW, but they think that is still too slow and clunky.
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If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder

[todd ellis]

right - i never time auditions ... they is what they is.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Chuck Davis]

For the most part I get the time when I'm done recording. As so many others here have said, you get a pretty good feel for a scripts length at first glance. When something does look long, I'll do a quick read against the iPhone stopwatch, and then write the client back if the script is way off one way or the other.
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Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com