The Medium Rare Talent – Voicing a medium sell
For this recipe for success you will need:
- One script
- One radio background talent
- One studio set up
- One Professional read
Mix it all up with a need to push the product and sound professional and you have the Medium Sell. While we don’t use the terms soft sell, hard sell, medium sell etc. that often anymore, the styles of reads are still heard today. SO instead of thinking of your deliveries in styles, start thinking of them in terms of characters. You have your professional type characters like teachers, public speakers, bosses etc. for the medium sell.
This once frowned upon recipe is making a bit of comeback these days. In the beginning of my career I was taught broadcasting. The ability to underline copy and find the key benefits to the customer and push or pull back on the delivery. We call this today the Professional read. There is a POLISH and underlying smile in it’s sound and some of you either have too much of this in your reads, where you don’t sound connected enough, or you don’t have enough of this sound to be able to pull it off. There is an overall energy in the read that is necessary to learn.
I find that the talent who have broadcasting backgrounds have the hardest time learning how to act (to be real) and the talent that have acting backgrounds have a really hard time learning how to be professional. It’s not NECESSARY to learn both, but it’s helpful. I’m able to pull off both professional and real at the same time and this helps me for narrations and commercial work. Actually in EVERYTHING I do.
[/column1] [column2]In my opinion, mastering and combining both these techniques is key to reading a MEDIUM SELL in today’s VO industry. Clients are concerned that they’ve pulled back too far and gone too ACTED in their deliveries. As a result we are hearing a bit more of the old school sing song polish, mixed with the realistic actor.
This is a read you need to truly understand to pull off effectively. The medium sell is still as popular today as it when I started over 20 years ago.
Until next time
All my best
VO Chef Deb
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