VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio Episode 715 “How To Read Copy”
John: [00:00:00] All right. I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina. And
John: this is Voice Coaches Radio. Today we have an, I think an interesting episode. We're gonna do-
Tina: Like everything else isn't interesting?
John: Every... Well, yeah, I mean, it all is. But this is unique. We haven't done this before- ... anything like this before. Yeah. And, uh, we're gonna call it...
What should we call this? Reading the
Tina: script? Reading the script.
John: We'll, we'll call it, uh... Yeah, we'll just call it, uh, how to read copy. How about that?
Tina: Yeah. Right.
John: How to read copy.
Tina: Right.
John: And it's just gonna be, not gonna be a long episode, but we're gonna show you what the difference is between just reading-
Tina: Mm-hmm ...
John: copy and then reading copy when someone gives you direction.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Right?
Tina: Yes.
John: And what the difference can be, and, and what the difference can be once you learn how to actually be a voice actor. Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. There's a difference between- Mm-hmm ... regular people and, and the elite.
Tina: Okay.
John: Voice actors, you know?
Tina: I shouldn't be here then.
John: All right. So let's d- we're, we're gonna do [00:01:00] something called angry customer, okay?
Which is- Mm. It's a narrative, and it's, uh, it, there's supposed to be some humor in it, and it's about- Mm-hmm ... um, I'm not even... So what, what, what's the point? This is...
Tina: I, oh, sorry. So this is under our industrial and training- Yeah ... the, the categories. We have an, we have our script library, and we have a bunch of categories, commercials categories, narration categories, industrial and training.
So this would be one of those, um, HR videos.
John: Okay.
Tina: You know? So your on- the onboarding process where you're, you have to watch all those videos. And you can tell on this one, it's a little different than your typical, um, HR video. It's a fun company, and it- Yeah ... but you have to deal with customer service. And so they're basically saying that, "You know, we know that some customers can be jerky."
"And we would love to do certain things to them, but we can't." Right, right. But this is just to say... A- and when I look at this script, I say, "Okay, this is a fun company," and they just wanna make sure that their employees understand, [00:02:00] "We get it, and we stand behind you."
John: Right.
Tina: So that's how I usually, when I talk to students and we pull this copy out- Okay
this is what I tell them.
John: All right. All right. So you wanna, I'll be the producer, and you'll be- Okay ... the voice actor. Okay. So just go ahead and read it.
Tina: Okay. So would you like me to just, just like- Yeah, just
John: read it like a
Tina: normal person ... no, no emotion, no nothing. All right, just a normal person. Mm. "In its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature.
However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. Notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce." And I'm gonna... There's a long- Yeah ... do you want me to read the whole thing? No, that's good. That's good. Yeah. So that's just a straight, no emotions- Straight read
no nothing. That's me being normal.
John: Right. Okay. So now, um, let's do it, and, uh- Yeah, do it your way and let's see, and I'll give you direction after that. Okay. Do it how the hell you do it.
Tina: All right. So, in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in [00:03:00] large groups and become very dangerous.
Notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
John: Cool. All right. So, what, now what I'm gonna have you read this, and I want you to think of those, um, you know, you're gonna think of this as one of those, uh... Actually, remember, uh, what was his name? The, um, crocodile hunter?
Tina: Yeah, that David Attenborough? Is that his name? Well, no, no, the crocodile hunter. Oh, oh, the, the, the, uh, Australian guy.
John: Yeah, no. Yeah. You're, you're not gonna do an accent. 'Cause I can't. You only do an, only do an accent if you do an accent, right? But I want it to be really like, uh, and when you recopy, you always want to, your words to sound like what's happening, right?
So, in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. [00:04:00] I want you to be really over the top on it.
Tina: Okay. Okay?
John: Okay. And that, by the way, is called demonstrative direction.
Tina: That one I like. Yeah. I like demonstrative- Yeah
and that's the one I usually give. Yeah. All right, so in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. How's that? Good.
John: Yeah. Better, better, better. Um, yeah. And then, uh- And then when you say the pounce part too, so notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
Okay. Yep. You wanna really make it intense.
Tina: All right, so notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
John: Yeah, there you go. Very good. Um, this is when they become the most dangerous. Like again, I, this, this piece should be over-exaggerated, right? Yes.
Tina: It's
John: [00:05:00] supposed to be funny,
Tina: right?
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So this is when they become the most dangerous.
John: Yeah. And then, then you're gonna switch out, and you're, and you're gonna almost be like, it is a customer service thing- Mm ... in my opinion, for the next line, which is, usually the angry customer can be placated with just a small effort on the part of the associate, but sometimes drastic measures must be taken.
Tina: So us- yeah, th- that, you, right in that spot you can tell the turn-
John: Yeah ...
Tina: of the copy. Yeah. Yeah. So usually the angry customer can be placated with just a small effort on the part of the associate, but sometimes drastic measures must be taken.
John: I like it. Good, good. Um-
Tina: Do I get, do I get the job?
John: You get the job.
All right,
Tina: good. You got it, you got
John: it. There we go. I think we've done enough. So y- you can see the difference between, right, just reading the copy.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Um, and so i- I think there was a few things demonstrated there, which is, um, your interpretation. [00:06:00] So you interpret the copy right away. Mm-hmm. And that is what you should do as a voice actor, and then the producer coming in and then giving you some pointers here and there.
Tina: Yes.
John: And I mostly used... Well, I did use some, um- And I mostly used demonstrative direction- Demonstrative, yeah ... during it. Uh, but I did use some descriptive in the beginning. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yes.
John: Which is kind of, uh, or actually motivational is what I used- Mm-hmm ... t- the very beginning where I, I said, "I want this to be like this."
It was more motivational. Mm-hmm. Right? "Here's where you are- Mm-hmm ... and here's what's gonna be happening." And then some descriptive, of course. But, um, so I used three types of direction there.
Tina: And that's somet- that's what you usually will get. Yeah. Something, something like that. They, some, some directors or producers will use just descriptive.
Some will just use- Yep ... demonstrative, or they will get in there and go kind of like what we did line per line-
John: Yeah ...
Tina: to pull it out. Because, and I, I do ha- have a lot of students who are worried about that, and I'm like, "It's okay." Yeah. Because one, everything's digital. They highlight, if they're recording this, highlight, delete their part, that's, it's gone.
Yeah. The words come together. [00:07:00] It's all behind this, you know, all editing part. But some will do something like that. Don't think it's because y- you're doing something wrong. They are, you're, you're already in there 'cause they like your voice. They just wanna make sure they get the best of what they're looking for.
John: And not only that, the, if you noticed, um, when I did demonstrative, Tina didn't do exactly what I did. Mm-mm. Right? And I don't want you to. You have your voice.
Tina: Yes.
John: So you heard what I did, and then you modified it to your own- To, yes ... to the way you would do it-
Tina: To me, yes ...
John: while taking my direction. Mm-hmm. Like, "Okay, I need to slow this part down.
I need to use this tone." Mm-hmm. But you didn't sound like me.
Tina: Yeah. And
John: that's important. And that's, and, and, and I think that's also something producers can learn from. A lot of producers are, "Do it exactly like me." Yeah. It's like, eh, but then I sound like you, right?
Tina: Yeah.
John: So you wanna hear the direction, and you wanna, you wanna obviously listen, and you wanna do as much as you can towards that direction- Mm-hmm
but still sound like you.
Tina: Be yourself, but yes- That's
John: what makes a voice actor ...
Tina: but take the, yes, absolutely. Right?
John: So yeah, that's, that's cool. I think that's a cool exercise. I, I'd like to do more things like [00:08:00] that. In fact, let's see if I can get any listeners to send us a read.
Tina: Okay. Yeah, that'd be
John: good. How about this?
How about this? I want a listener, okay, to send either Tina or I a read. This will be the rare instance-
Tina: Okay ... where
John: I will let you send me an audio file, because I don't like large files in my email.
Tina: Yeah.
John: I always tell people to send links. Yeah. But in this case-
Tina: Yep ...
John: if you are someone who can record, even on your phone, this doesn't have to be high quality, by
Tina: the way.
No, no, no. We just- Don't
John: worry about that. Mm-hmm. I'd like you to record yourself reading a script And we'll do, uh, what we'll do is we, we won't, I'm, I'm not, we're not gonna critique it. That'd be weird. Mm-hmm. What we'll do is give you direction on it. So if you d- if you, uh, we'll give you direction here on air.
Yeah. So if you send us a read, we'll play it, okay? All right. And then we'll tell you what we love about it- Mm-hmm ... and what you can improve about it, and give you some direction on it. So, uh, and I, and how about this, if, unless it gets overwhelming, I'll- Mm-hmm ... we'll do as many reads as people send us-
Tina: Yeah,
John: that would be good
as long as it's not 100. Yeah,
Tina: yeah. And not, and, and we're not looking [00:09:00] for pages.
John: No, this
Tina: could be- Paragraph. In fact- This could be, this could be- ... couple sentences. Yeah ... yeah.
John: In fact, yeah, make it 10, like a 10-second clip. How about that? Mm-hmm. 10 seconds of script.
Tina: Yep.
John: And then we can basically go, "Okay, here's what we like about it."
Yeah. "Here's what maybe you can improve, and here's the direction we would give on that." And I think that would be really helpful for people. Right. Not just the people who are sending us the, the read. Mm-hmm. I think it'll be helpful for people listening.
Tina: Yes, and then they'll be able to see exactly how direction is given.
John: There you go.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Awesome. That's good. That, that, that's a, it's, we're doing something unique now. Yes. We're evolving. We're evolving.
Tina: It's taken a little bit, but we got there.
John: Yeah. By the way, we are gonna do some interviews coming up. We're just, um, we're not quite set up for that, but I, by the time- Mm ... we come back, I believe, um, we should be ready to do.
Ooh,
Tina: that'd be good.
John: I think so. All right. We're gonna do interviews. Well, I, I don't know if we have anyone, we, I don't think we have anyone set up quite yet.
Tina: Okay.
John: We might have the [00:10:00] person that we talked about during the holidays maybe come in, but we'll see. Okay. We'll, we'll see who we have come in. I know we had a few people that wanted to come on.
Yeah. We just hadn't had this quite figured out. So what we're gonna do is put them up here on the screen, I believe, is what we're gonna do. Oh, good.
Tina: Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
John: Yeah. And, and we'll, they'll be able to hear us.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And we'll be able to hear them. I don't know if we'll have to wear headphones.
Tina: Okay.
John: I wonder if that'll be the case.
Tina: That's all right.
John: We might have to wear headphones just because I, I, I don't know how the audio would come out of there- Yeah ... and might get into the mics.
Tina: All right.
John: But we'll figure it out. There we go. Yeah, we got it. That, and, and when I say we, not me. Yeah, not me. And not you.
Tina: No way.
John: No, no. Clement will figure it out.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Clement is our, is our, uh, podcast producer.
Tina: Yes, he
John: is. He's a hero.
Tina: Yes, he is.
John: That's what everyone says around here.
Tina: Yeah. They never call us heroes. Absolutely not.
John: All right. Well, thank everybody very much for listening. And, uh, again, I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: Don't forget to come to my, if you haven't been yet-
Tina: Mm-hmm
John: come to my webinar.
Tina: Yep. And you get the 50% off
John: pod. Pod, you got it. There we go.
Tina: Write pod in [00:11:00] there.
John: Yep. Right. Okay. All right, we out.
Tina: And I'm Tina. And
John: this is Voice Coaches Radio. Today we have an, I think an interesting episode. We're gonna do-
Tina: Like everything else isn't interesting?
John: Every... Well, yeah, I mean, it all is. But this is unique. We haven't done this before- ... anything like this before. Yeah. And, uh, we're gonna call it...
What should we call this? Reading the
Tina: script? Reading the script.
John: We'll, we'll call it, uh... Yeah, we'll just call it, uh, how to read copy. How about that?
Tina: Yeah. Right.
John: How to read copy.
Tina: Right.
John: And it's just gonna be, not gonna be a long episode, but we're gonna show you what the difference is between just reading-
Tina: Mm-hmm ...
John: copy and then reading copy when someone gives you direction.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Right?
Tina: Yes.
John: And what the difference can be, and, and what the difference can be once you learn how to actually be a voice actor. Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. There's a difference between- Mm-hmm ... regular people and, and the elite.
Tina: Okay.
John: Voice actors, you know?
Tina: I shouldn't be here then.
John: All right. So let's d- we're, we're gonna do [00:01:00] something called angry customer, okay?
Which is- Mm. It's a narrative, and it's, uh, it, there's supposed to be some humor in it, and it's about- Mm-hmm ... um, I'm not even... So what, what, what's the point? This is...
Tina: I, oh, sorry. So this is under our industrial and training- Yeah ... the, the categories. We have an, we have our script library, and we have a bunch of categories, commercials categories, narration categories, industrial and training.
So this would be one of those, um, HR videos.
John: Okay.
Tina: You know? So your on- the onboarding process where you're, you have to watch all those videos. And you can tell on this one, it's a little different than your typical, um, HR video. It's a fun company, and it- Yeah ... but you have to deal with customer service. And so they're basically saying that, "You know, we know that some customers can be jerky."
"And we would love to do certain things to them, but we can't." Right, right. But this is just to say... A- and when I look at this script, I say, "Okay, this is a fun company," and they just wanna make sure that their employees understand, [00:02:00] "We get it, and we stand behind you."
John: Right.
Tina: So that's how I usually, when I talk to students and we pull this copy out- Okay
this is what I tell them.
John: All right. All right. So you wanna, I'll be the producer, and you'll be- Okay ... the voice actor. Okay. So just go ahead and read it.
Tina: Okay. So would you like me to just, just like- Yeah, just
John: read it like a
Tina: normal person ... no, no emotion, no nothing. All right, just a normal person. Mm. "In its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature.
However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. Notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce." And I'm gonna... There's a long- Yeah ... do you want me to read the whole thing? No, that's good. That's good. Yeah. So that's just a straight, no emotions- Straight read
no nothing. That's me being normal.
John: Right. Okay. So now, um, let's do it, and, uh- Yeah, do it your way and let's see, and I'll give you direction after that. Okay. Do it how the hell you do it.
Tina: All right. So, in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in [00:03:00] large groups and become very dangerous.
Notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
John: Cool. All right. So, what, now what I'm gonna have you read this, and I want you to think of those, um, you know, you're gonna think of this as one of those, uh... Actually, remember, uh, what was his name? The, um, crocodile hunter?
Tina: Yeah, that David Attenborough? Is that his name? Well, no, no, the crocodile hunter. Oh, oh, the, the, the, uh, Australian guy.
John: Yeah, no. Yeah. You're, you're not gonna do an accent. 'Cause I can't. You only do an, only do an accent if you do an accent, right? But I want it to be really like, uh, and when you recopy, you always want to, your words to sound like what's happening, right?
So, in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. [00:04:00] I want you to be really over the top on it.
Tina: Okay. Okay?
John: Okay. And that, by the way, is called demonstrative direction.
Tina: That one I like. Yeah. I like demonstrative- Yeah
and that's the one I usually give. Yeah. All right, so in its natural habitat, the angry customer is usually a solitary creature. However, they can cluster in large groups and become very dangerous. How's that? Good.
John: Yeah. Better, better, better. Um, yeah. And then, uh- And then when you say the pounce part too, so notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
Okay. Yep. You wanna really make it intense.
Tina: All right, so notice how our subject is eyeing another group of customers, deciding whether or not to pounce.
John: Yeah, there you go. Very good. Um, this is when they become the most dangerous. Like again, I, this, this piece should be over-exaggerated, right? Yes.
Tina: It's
John: [00:05:00] supposed to be funny,
Tina: right?
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So this is when they become the most dangerous.
John: Yeah. And then, then you're gonna switch out, and you're, and you're gonna almost be like, it is a customer service thing- Mm ... in my opinion, for the next line, which is, usually the angry customer can be placated with just a small effort on the part of the associate, but sometimes drastic measures must be taken.
Tina: So us- yeah, th- that, you, right in that spot you can tell the turn-
John: Yeah ...
Tina: of the copy. Yeah. Yeah. So usually the angry customer can be placated with just a small effort on the part of the associate, but sometimes drastic measures must be taken.
John: I like it. Good, good. Um-
Tina: Do I get, do I get the job?
John: You get the job.
All right,
Tina: good. You got it, you got
John: it. There we go. I think we've done enough. So y- you can see the difference between, right, just reading the copy.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: Um, and so i- I think there was a few things demonstrated there, which is, um, your interpretation. [00:06:00] So you interpret the copy right away. Mm-hmm. And that is what you should do as a voice actor, and then the producer coming in and then giving you some pointers here and there.
Tina: Yes.
John: And I mostly used... Well, I did use some, um- And I mostly used demonstrative direction- Demonstrative, yeah ... during it. Uh, but I did use some descriptive in the beginning. Mm-hmm.
Tina: Yes.
John: Which is kind of, uh, or actually motivational is what I used- Mm-hmm ... t- the very beginning where I, I said, "I want this to be like this."
It was more motivational. Mm-hmm. Right? "Here's where you are- Mm-hmm ... and here's what's gonna be happening." And then some descriptive, of course. But, um, so I used three types of direction there.
Tina: And that's somet- that's what you usually will get. Yeah. Something, something like that. They, some, some directors or producers will use just descriptive.
Some will just use- Yep ... demonstrative, or they will get in there and go kind of like what we did line per line-
John: Yeah ...
Tina: to pull it out. Because, and I, I do ha- have a lot of students who are worried about that, and I'm like, "It's okay." Yeah. Because one, everything's digital. They highlight, if they're recording this, highlight, delete their part, that's, it's gone.
Yeah. The words come together. [00:07:00] It's all behind this, you know, all editing part. But some will do something like that. Don't think it's because y- you're doing something wrong. They are, you're, you're already in there 'cause they like your voice. They just wanna make sure they get the best of what they're looking for.
John: And not only that, the, if you noticed, um, when I did demonstrative, Tina didn't do exactly what I did. Mm-mm. Right? And I don't want you to. You have your voice.
Tina: Yes.
John: So you heard what I did, and then you modified it to your own- To, yes ... to the way you would do it-
Tina: To me, yes ...
John: while taking my direction. Mm-hmm. Like, "Okay, I need to slow this part down.
I need to use this tone." Mm-hmm. But you didn't sound like me.
Tina: Yeah. And
John: that's important. And that's, and, and, and I think that's also something producers can learn from. A lot of producers are, "Do it exactly like me." Yeah. It's like, eh, but then I sound like you, right?
Tina: Yeah.
John: So you wanna hear the direction, and you wanna, you wanna obviously listen, and you wanna do as much as you can towards that direction- Mm-hmm
but still sound like you.
Tina: Be yourself, but yes- That's
John: what makes a voice actor ...
Tina: but take the, yes, absolutely. Right?
John: So yeah, that's, that's cool. I think that's a cool exercise. I, I'd like to do more things like [00:08:00] that. In fact, let's see if I can get any listeners to send us a read.
Tina: Okay. Yeah, that'd be
John: good. How about this?
How about this? I want a listener, okay, to send either Tina or I a read. This will be the rare instance-
Tina: Okay ... where
John: I will let you send me an audio file, because I don't like large files in my email.
Tina: Yeah.
John: I always tell people to send links. Yeah. But in this case-
Tina: Yep ...
John: if you are someone who can record, even on your phone, this doesn't have to be high quality, by
Tina: the way.
No, no, no. We just- Don't
John: worry about that. Mm-hmm. I'd like you to record yourself reading a script And we'll do, uh, what we'll do is we, we won't, I'm, I'm not, we're not gonna critique it. That'd be weird. Mm-hmm. What we'll do is give you direction on it. So if you d- if you, uh, we'll give you direction here on air.
Yeah. So if you send us a read, we'll play it, okay? All right. And then we'll tell you what we love about it- Mm-hmm ... and what you can improve about it, and give you some direction on it. So, uh, and I, and how about this, if, unless it gets overwhelming, I'll- Mm-hmm ... we'll do as many reads as people send us-
Tina: Yeah,
John: that would be good
as long as it's not 100. Yeah,
Tina: yeah. And not, and, and we're not looking [00:09:00] for pages.
John: No, this
Tina: could be- Paragraph. In fact- This could be, this could be- ... couple sentences. Yeah ... yeah.
John: In fact, yeah, make it 10, like a 10-second clip. How about that? Mm-hmm. 10 seconds of script.
Tina: Yep.
John: And then we can basically go, "Okay, here's what we like about it."
Yeah. "Here's what maybe you can improve, and here's the direction we would give on that." And I think that would be really helpful for people. Right. Not just the people who are sending us the, the read. Mm-hmm. I think it'll be helpful for people listening.
Tina: Yes, and then they'll be able to see exactly how direction is given.
John: There you go.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Awesome. That's good. That, that, that's a, it's, we're doing something unique now. Yes. We're evolving. We're evolving.
Tina: It's taken a little bit, but we got there.
John: Yeah. By the way, we are gonna do some interviews coming up. We're just, um, we're not quite set up for that, but I, by the time- Mm ... we come back, I believe, um, we should be ready to do.
Ooh,
Tina: that'd be good.
John: I think so. All right. We're gonna do interviews. Well, I, I don't know if we have anyone, we, I don't think we have anyone set up quite yet.
Tina: Okay.
John: We might have the [00:10:00] person that we talked about during the holidays maybe come in, but we'll see. Okay. We'll, we'll see who we have come in. I know we had a few people that wanted to come on.
Yeah. We just hadn't had this quite figured out. So what we're gonna do is put them up here on the screen, I believe, is what we're gonna do. Oh, good.
Tina: Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
John: Yeah. And, and we'll, they'll be able to hear us.
Tina: Mm-hmm.
John: And we'll be able to hear them. I don't know if we'll have to wear headphones.
Tina: Okay.
John: I wonder if that'll be the case.
Tina: That's all right.
John: We might have to wear headphones just because I, I, I don't know how the audio would come out of there- Yeah ... and might get into the mics.
Tina: All right.
John: But we'll figure it out. There we go. Yeah, we got it. That, and, and when I say we, not me. Yeah, not me. And not you.
Tina: No way.
John: No, no. Clement will figure it out.
Tina: Yeah.
John: Clement is our, is our, uh, podcast producer.
Tina: Yes, he
John: is. He's a hero.
Tina: Yes, he is.
John: That's what everyone says around here.
Tina: Yeah. They never call us heroes. Absolutely not.
John: All right. Well, thank everybody very much for listening. And, uh, again, I'm John.
Tina: And I'm Tina.
John: Don't forget to come to my, if you haven't been yet-
Tina: Mm-hmm
John: come to my webinar.
Tina: Yep. And you get the 50% off
John: pod. Pod, you got it. There we go.
Tina: Write pod in [00:11:00] there.
John: Yep. Right. Okay. All right, we out.
John directs Tina through a piece of copy to give an example of how a session could go with a producer and voice actor.
