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VOICE ACTING
Your Homework Assignment For Tonight:
How Would YOU Voice That TV Commercial?

October 4, 2016

By Dave Courvoisier
Voice Actor / TV News Anchor

Does anybody watch TV without the DVR running in the background any more?

Either way, your homework assignment for tonight is to play back pay a prime-time or prime-time access program, and pay special attention to the commercials.

Right. The thing that we all typically fast-forward THROUGH is the very thing I want you to examine with intense scrutiny.

Oh! You've heard of this exercise? You've DONE it? 

Well, when was the last time you tried it? 'Cause if you aren't doing this at least once a month, you might be falling behind trends. 

CHOOSE YOUR LESSON PLAN

Here are a couple of suggestions for your homework:

1. Listen to each ad at least 2-3 times
  • Ignore the gender of the talent (don't dismiss it because of that).
  • How would you do the spot? (same/diff).
  • Is the talent's technique something you could approximate?
  • Give regional/national spots the same scrutiny.
  • Be honest with yourself when the age/approach/ability of the talent is outside your wheelhouse.
  • Pay special attention to timing, inflection, pacing, conversational? and attitude.
2. Pick a commercial you can picture yourself doing, and transcribe it. 
  • Copy it down word-for-word. 
  • Now take that script to your studio and cut it yourself. 
  • Maybe you'll want to try it exactly the way THAT talent did it first, just to put yourself in that space .. .then try it your own way in the second cut.
STUDY THE WINNERS

Why do all this? The spot you see on TV (this works for radio, too), is the audition that won the gig! 

She/he did SOMETHING right. That talent offered the client or producer something different from the other 99 auditions that came in - OR - that talent had the sound that the client was especially looking for. 

That talent booked it!

When you start to hear that sound on enough spots, then you know it's a sound that may be gaining momentum in the culture THAT WEEK. 

CAN YOU DO IT, TOO?


Can you do that sound?  Do you want to do that sound? Should you get some coaching to get that sound?

Well, don't get too married to it, 'cause in a couple of months something else will come down the pike. 
---------------------
ABOUT DAVE
Dave Courvoisier is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, writer, producer, voice actor, and the main weeknight news anchor on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the Las Vegas CBS affiliate. He also writes Voice-Acting in Vegas, a daily blog of voice over adventures, observations and technology, and is author and publisher of the book, More Than Just A Voice: The Real Secret To VoiceOver Success. And to add wonder to when he might sleep, Dave is also current president of the World-Voices Organization (WoVO), the voice over industry trade association.

Email: CourVO@CourVO.com
Web: http://www.courvo.com
Blog: http://www.courvo.biz
More Than Just A Voice: http://courvo.com/more-than-just-a-voice

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Comments (1)
Bobbi Owens
10/5/2016 at 7:21 PM
EXCELLENT article, Dave! I often do this - to the point of course of driving me insane (that's another story!) - especially the Northern Quilted ads - which I auditioned for like 3 times - (still don't get why they picked that VO!) Anyway thanks for the article!
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