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Some Thoughts On Reading Inspirational Copy

Aside from all the regular corporate narrations, voiceovers for How To Videos and commercials, there are Inspirational Narratives. We spend a lot of time pitching, talking and explaining everything from healthcare benefits to how not to get your arms ripped off while using certain machinery.
All of those voiceovers serve a necessary function. An even more important human necessity is inspiration.
There is a vast market for reading inspirational copy. The source may be religious, new age, leadership, communication, relationship, or success. The important thrust is always inspiration to live a more spiritual life, a more fulfilling life, a more complete life, a better life and whatever that means to you personally.
When we receive the copy for one of these projects it's important to really think through who the audience will be. How do they view life and their own hopes and dreams. No one likes to be lectured or talked down to, we all want to feel like we are in it together and the ideas are being shared. The tone of voice used in sharing great ideas is never condescending or patronizing. It is always warm, friendly and very personal.
In order for the message to be "heard" we have to be the story teller who is devoid of any affect. Everything must be "idea driven" and sound like it's the most reasonable conclusion.
There is hardly anything more important or a voiceover job that is more satisfying than inspiring or comforting people with uplifting text that contributes to their spirituality and peace  of mind while they navigate their lives.

- Reducing the Amount of Editing Time by Rehearsing Before Recording

I've had a number of inquiries from VO Artists regarding how to reduce the amount of editing time on long voiceover projects. This was interesting to me because it has a direct relationship to how much money can be made. If it takes a person 6 hours of work to deliver one hour of finished narration/voiceover, that isn't as good as spending, say 3 or four hours, to get one finished hour of narration. Now of course, everyone has their own way of working and there are a million ways to prepare and finish a project.
Here is my process that I use to minimize editing time and get the best reads from myself.
When the script comes in, lets assume its a 20 minute read ( approx 2800 to 3000 words), I lay on my office couch with a large glass of juice and cold read it out loud. I circle the spots where the cadence isn't right and/or I have handled the phrasing incorrectly. When I have finished the first read, I then go back to those trouble spots and work out the phrasing issues. Then I go for a walk on the property and read it out loud while I'm walking to make sure I have the phrasing, cadence and tone of voice the way I want it. Then and only then, I go into my booth and record. I do this with the intention of taking the time I need to try and read it perfectly the first time. I don't start recording while I'm figuring out what I want and how I want to read. In other words, I don't do my rehearsing while I'm recording. I figure out what I want first and then record. This really minimizes the amount of editing time I spend and maximizes how much I can make an hour. Have fun out there folks.

- The Importance of Voice Exercises

Everyones voice is much more responsive when it has a regular workout routine. We are much more able to illustrate with nuance when our voice receives regular workouts. Tone painting and using different cadences to get our point across is much more natural when the voice is put through it's version of Yoga. Communication skills are improved by respecting and taking care of our voice just as we do for our bodies in general.

- Very Real Sounding Is Often Very Dull. It Still Has to be Compelling.

People will rightfully tell you that you have to sound more real, more like the person next door. Well of course that makes sense. The person directing the project wants the voiceover artist to sound sincere and honest and authentic. But there is a funny flip side to all of this. I hear a complaint from many pros that I coach, that people will say to them... “No its gotta sound more real!” and then they tell me about their frustration that when they try and sound more real, they then often get criticized for sounding lackadaisical or uninspired, or unenthusiastic about the topic.

So what the heck is going on? On the one hand a director says be more real, more conversational, on the other hand they then seem to be complaining about the tone of voice when the person follows the directions that are given.

The answer is this: Often when a person backs off to become more conversational or more real, the energy drops so much that the pace is a little too slow... the cadence looses its bounce... and the melody a little too flat...

Because it’s a wholesale drop in energy it really just does sound unenthusiastic. So it seems like the read has lost all of its life.

When a person tries to be more conversational, not hard sell or not announcery, the effort should focus on smoothing out the delivery and tumbling the speech more so it feels a bit more like a stream of ideas. 

This makes the energy in the vowels and consonants more even and that is exactly what makes us sound MORE REAL AND CONVERSATIONAL.

When we try and become more conversational we are often just backing off on the energy we are using. This usually flattens the amount of rise and fall in our voices, which is what happens when we aren’t passionate about something. 

So the proper approach is to talk at low levels but to maintain a slight urgency. There is a greater rise and fall in the melodies we use when we are excited about a product or story. This will usually restore the rise and fall of the voice.

- How To Figure Out The Length of a VO Script

Voiceover artists tell me quite often that a client will ask for a price on a narrative that they say is a half hour long. They then discover that it's much longer. Yikes! Here's the easiest easiest way to find out the length. Ask the client to send you the narration as a Word Doc.  Open the document and select all. Go to tools and select word count, this will tell you how many words there are. The general rate of speech is about 120 to 150 words per minute depending on the material of course. Simple divide the total number of words by 150 (or whatever number represents your rate of speech) and that will give you a rough idea of how many minutes or hours of finished audio there will be. Do this before you quote a price:)