It’s About Time
Trivia time. What classic science fiction movie ends with the line, “He has all the time in the world”? Hint. It has something to do with time. Give up? The Time Machine.
So what does that have to do with audio production? Hint. It has something to do with time (there’s a pattern here in case you haven’t noticed). Time’s up.
The time you spend timing your script before a recording session, will save you time in the studio. And as we all know, time means money.
If I can have a little of your time right now, I’ll share with you a few hints based on my
(insert time here) years of experience producing audio that will save you both.
1. Buy a stopwatch. The twenty dollars you invest will pay incredible dividends when you use it to time your scripts. This is especially critical for radio commercials where you are limited to thirty or sixty seconds. It’s important for longer formats, too, such as video scripts. If you “guesstimated” your piece will run 6 minutes, and your budget is based on a six-minute video, you had better be darn sure your script can be read in six minutes. The only way to do that is to time it with your handy stopwatch.
2. Use your stopwatch exclusively for timing. Second hands on a wristwatch don’t cut it. Word counts may have been acceptable for high school English essays, but they’re worthless in the real audio world. “Conceptualization” is one word; so is “fox”. But the former takes longer to read than the latter. It goes without saying you should never use line-counts as an indication of timing.We all know we can cheat by using a smaller font. Another example is the use of numbers. Write “154” and it doesn’t take up much space. But say “one-hundred fifty-four” out loud and it’s six syllables.
3. Read aloud. Scanning a script and mumbling to yourself isn’t the same as reading it out loud. Find a quiet place and read your script, with stopwatch in hand, as though you were performing it in front of an audience. Don’t worry about how weird it might look to your co-workers. Believe me, it’s nowhere near as weird as talking on your cell phone in a restroom stall.
4. Pay close attention to difficult-to-pronounce word combinations. Some phrases or combinations may look okay in print, but saying them out loud may prompt you to find more reader-friendly alternatives. Remember, if your tongue gets twisted while reading your own words, think how tough it’s going to be for someone, even a professional, reading it for the first time.
5. Have a fairly clear idea of the kind of read you want. This tip is less mechanical than the others, but I’ve included it here because it can be a tremendous time saver. Your interpretation doesn’t have to be carved in stone (hopefully you’ll get some creative input from your production team that may improve upon your original concept), but you should know the overall tone of your script. If not, valuable time can be wasted trying to figure it out. (This is known as the “I don’t know what I want but I might recognize it if I hear it” scenario).
6. Make sure your scripts are easy to read. Keep in mind that a living, breathing human being will read what you’ve written (the voiceover robotics are still in the experimental stage). When you finalize your script
• double space
• use font size no smaller than 10
• maintain clean borders
• avoid page breaks in the middle of a sentence or paragraph
By taking a little extra time in the preparation stage, you’ll be saving a great deal of time, and money, in the recording studio. Unlike the Time Traveler in the H.G. Wells classic, you don’t have all the time in the world. So use it wisely.