My friend Ross Bagley emails the following, which is too good a story not to pass along.
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Yesterday I got the perfect VO compliment. Let me explain.
As you well know, one of the interesting challenges in industrial VOs is describing in detail a procedure you’ve never seen, don’t understand and can’t visualize. The trick is to not let the audience, who is familiar with the subject, in on the secret that you haven’t the vaguest idea what you’re talking about. Yesterday’s assignment involved an oil rig in Alaska. When we finished, the petroleum guy said: “Great! You sounded like you’ve spent 20 years on The North Slope”
Now THAT is voiceover heaven: pleasing a client who didn’t expect to be pleased. He just might come back for more of the same.
Today’s project should be easier: “How to Clean an Operating Room”. At least I’ve been in one of those. Of course I was asleep at the time and don’t remember much.
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Nice, Ross. Good for you. I had a very similar experience several years ago. I walked in to the studio (so you know it was a long time ago) to record a narration for a new client of a video production company at which I had done hundreds of narrations. Their client was using an outside production company for the first time as was really nervous that everything go just right.
The script was about 60 pages long and described the processes for providing maintenance on the machinery that binds and stitches books together. I sat down with the script, looked over the first several pages, asked for clarification on the pronunciation of one term I didn’t recognize and then said, “OK. I’m ready.”
The client objected, wanting me to read through the entire script before we started. Thankfully, my engineer that day was one of the co-owners of the video production house. He quietly said, “Bob’s done quite a few narrations for us. Why don’t we let him go ahead into the booth.” Reluctantly, the client agreed.
About 3 or 4 pages in to the script we had to stop for our first re-take. The client came on the talk-back immediately and asked “Have you ever worked on one of these machines?” The rest of the session went very smoothly from there.
(Edited to correct typo)
The ability to work through multiple pages of technical copy without a mistake has, through the years, been a hard skill to sell–at least for me. Years ago, I was a radio news anchor. You quickly develop the ability to “rip and read”. Every day, I read literally an hour of copy–live–I had never seen. So you figure out how to read ahead–your mind is always a few words ahead of your mouth. It’s a skill that is of great use in the industrial v/o world. So, today, I can get through page after page without a mistake. My geeky personal record is 24 pages. The recording engineers love me for it, and I’ve had producers look in the booth with amazed looks and mouths agape, BUT…I don’t think that particular skill gets me gigs. And I think I’ve figured it out. Perhaps because I’m union, most of the industrial v/o I get still comes through an agency. And the producers don’t care that much if you get it done fast. They’ve had budgeted for them a certain amount of studio time. If you get it done in half the time, it just means they have to go back to the office sooner. Who wants that? I don’t think my industrial v/o bookings have much to do with anything other than the ability to sound–say it with me–real and natural. That I can do it really fast just means everyone will take their own sweet time when perusing the lunch menu.
Marty,
Good thoughts. And I’m in awe of 24 pages without a mistake. I doubt I’ve ever gone more than 5 or 6.
Be well,
Bob