I’m Susan Berkley with the Inside Voice Over Video Training Blog, and this week we’re going to talk about your voice over scripts. I’ve got some great tips for you on how to read them better, because the first thing is, you got to make sure you understand what they’re trying to say. You never know what’s going to show up in a script, and sometimes it might not make sense, so don’t assume anything. Call the client or your agent, or look online. Do some research if you’re not clear what it is you’re talking about, because if you don’t know, the listener’s not going to know. Good old Google and even YouTube is going to help you.
Next, you want to make sure you properly pronounce the name of the product or what you’re advertising. Again, we always go on Google, look for pronunciations, and YouTube as well. Often what companies will do is have their product featured on YouTube. They might have a media person talking about it, and you know what? If neither of those is a good solution, just pick up the phone and call the company. You’ll hear the way they answer, how they pronounce the name. It’s really simple and it works.
Third thing you want to do is figure out where you’re going to breathe when you’re reading the script. You don’t want to be grabbing breaths any old place. The proper place to breathe in a script is at the end of a thought, which may or may not be at the end of a sentence or a comma, so plan that out ahead of time, plan your breaths, and mark the copy accordingly.
Next, you’re going to read it aloud several times before you even start to record. That will help you get warmed up. That will help you smooth the read out, and finally load it into your tablet and get ready to read. We love to use a tablet because you don’t have page turn noises, and even though it’s a little more difficult to mark the script, it’s the most cost effective and the greenest way to do a voice over.
