Reading Between The Lines Part III: Blending It All Together.
One Script
One Director
One Voice Actor with a very patient and creative imagination
One Studio
Now that you’ve read what the client is looking for in the description and have read over the copy and understand what the client is trying to get across, now it’s time to blend together the clients mind, your creativity and the intended audience. If you use my recipe in part 2 for Reading Between The Lines, and you chose to read with hidden intention, you want to make sure it suits the needs of the client, however you may need to think something extreme to get the feeling that the script deserves.
An example of this would be adding sexual intention to copy that has nothing to do with sex. In your mind you might be thinking that your being flirtatious, but the way it comes out might not reflect that at all. It might just sound confident, or playful or interesting. It’s important that you keep thinking your hidden intention, so that you can maintain that read.
Basically the client doesn’t care what you need to do to get them the read they want, they don’t need to know how wacky our brain needs to work to pull off their direction, they just need you to bring it to life in the way they hear it in their head.
Part of our job is to quickly read into the intention of not only the script, but also the direction. It’s our job to figure out how to bring it to life in the way the client wants to hear it. This isn’t always easy because the client description may not be that clear, or in fact can be extremely confusing. They will say, “We want real and natural” but then when you hear what they really wanted, they just wanted what I consider to be an announcer with a warm smile. Or they might say “Friendly, yet serious, with tons of energy, but not over the top”. We’ve all seen it. Clients are great clients, but that doesn’t mean they know how to direct, so it’s up to us to put all the clues together.
We just have to do our best to make sense of it all and bring it to life. I strongly encourage you to try different things, like read the copy as if you’re talking about sex, or read the copy like it was one of the funniest things you ever heard (to bring in more smile). This will mean a ton of make believe and giving yourself a permission slip to try weird things. Then listen back and you will hear that it might come out a lot differently than you think.
The bottom line is that you need to care about what the client wants, the story that’s being told and what the hidden intention is in everything you’re reading. No matter if it’s an animation, narration, commercial or message on hold. EVERYTHING has hidden intention consider the reaction you are trying to get from the audience and play upon that as realistically as your character can.
Here is my assignment for you:
Script:
It’s on sale for $599
1. Read this script as an announcer would. Big, Smiley and don’t worry about intention, a professional read.
2. Read it as if you were talking about a sex toy or something naughty to you.
3. Read it as if you can’t hold back. This sale is the one you’ve been waiting for. Try it once loud and outspoken, then try again like it’s contained excitement. There is a big difference here and both are worth trying.
4. Read it as if It’s a secret no one else is to know but the person you are telling. That means intimate and secretive, not necessarily whispered. You posess information that no one else knows about!
5. Read – Sarcastic/Arrogant – like ‘oh ya, it’s that good’
6. Read – Confident and straight to the point
Then listen back to your choices. If you did it well, each read should sound unique. You can do this WITH ANY SCRIPT. So have some fun and start looking deeper into the copy and the direction.
If you need any help with understanding this concept, don’t hesitate to send me an email or ask any questions you need. We can also book you in for a session so you can hear it first hand and truly understand how much deeper into your copy you can go.
Until Next Time
All my best
VO Chef Deb