Some years ago I was called down to Madison Avenue to audition for a voice over for a candy bar commercial.
There was no script.
All they wanted me to say was “Oooo!” “Ahhh” as many different ways as I could.
I didn’t get the job.
And although I was a failure at expressions of delight, I managed to build a successful voice over career anyway.
As you grow your voice over career, one thing you can count on is that you will rarely, if ever work without a script (also known as copy).
But scripts can be frustrating little buggers.
Sometimes they are formatted weirdly or the punctuation doesn’t make sense.
Other times the English is just plain bad. But before you re-write a single word (I’ll explain why you should NEVER do this in the video)…
Watch It Here Now
After you watch the video, I want to know your thoughts. Was this helpful? Write to me in the comments box. I want to learn what’s on your mind so I can support you and share your best practices.
To your voice over success,
Susan Berkley,
Founder, The Great Voice Company
PS
We’ve still got one or two seats left for our next Voice Over Accelerator Bootcamp June 10-12 at the Great Voice Studios . People tell us this weekend was the best investment they ever made in their career. Interested? Contact us at 800-333-8108 or talent@greatvoice.com.
It’s pretty common for me to get poorly written scripts in English as I live in Mexico and many of my clients live here. When they say no to me correcting their script (for extra $) if it’s the first job for them I go ahead and do it their way, and then also send my corrected version as a thank you for the first gig. They always go with the corrected version,and always pay for the service on subsequent jobs.
I got the idea to do it from you!
Great advice Susan! In many situations, I will ask the client if I can rewrite a sentence or section that may sound awkward to me and rewrite it like I would say it. Most of the time, they are open to that – thank goodness!
Before retirement I was a legal and medical secretary/transcriptionist. I was/am used to correcting copy as I go along because I was told it was okay. As far as voice over – I will have to train myself to hold back and ask the customer first because I do understand that some things are probably intentional. Was also a court stenographer’s transcriptionist; this particular copy is verbatim and you correct nothing, ever. So this info you’ve shared is very important to me – I’ll have to learn to ASK before editing. Reading Andy’s comments, wasn’t aware that you can be compensated for the editing.