A script is a bit like a fire to me, the more air you give it to breathe, the more it can have the potential to jump from the pages and come to life. A script has a backstory and a place it continues to even after the words have ended. Voice-over actors are trained to interpret a script, read it and own it, then create a story with those words so that the listener feels a stir of emotions. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, either. It takes oodles of practice, mistakes, and successes to reach that relationship with your voice-over scripts.
As one of the two copywriters at Such A Voice, I get the fun job of writing voice-over scripts! I have the wonderful challenge of creating a backstory in my head, setting the scene, and then contemplating how I can allure the audience with what I write. Even if it’s only a 30-word commercial for a household cleaning product or a narration about polar bears, I apply the same method. If you’re a student at Such A Voice and I’m writing your demo scripts for you, I have the pleasure of hearing some of your takes. While listening to your voice, I think about what words you might naturally say, how you would say them, and subsequently, convince me of something or keep me captivated. The most interesting part? I have no idea what you look like! Everything I’m writing comes from the feelings you’ve conveyed to me with the takes that your coach has shared with me. That’s really something, isn’t it? It’s your voice and your voice’s personality and pizzazz that’s guiding me to write these topics.
There are a couple of things that you can do for a demo script that you cannot do for a hired job. If the producer feels that it’s best, you can change words so that they flow more naturally for you. Also, you and the producer can select sections of the voice-over scripts and splice them together to showcase the best phrases and words that speak to your abilities. You cannot, however, do this, for a job.
Scriptwriters don’t always have the luxury of knowing what the voice sounds like, though. Scripts are often written before a voice talent is chosen. I’m making a tacit connection with the voice actor when I write these of types voice-over scripts. I write them with the hopes that when they are read, the actor would more or less interpret them the way I had intended. This can be difficult since I don’t know the voice-over artist personally and I can’t write to them in order to clarify my intentions. What I can say is that I trust the voice actor and I have confidence in them that they’ll interpret the script in the best way they see fit.
When I’m finalizing my drafts, I read the voice-over scripts out loud. It could be that anyone overhearing me reading off the script thinks that I’m a lunatic who loves to promote shampoo and conditioner in the privacy of my home office. However, what I’m doing is seeing if the words flow. Do they sound right together like words in a poem do? Or do they clash and not complement each other? Think of a script as a room. When you walk in is everything in order, does the energy flow nicely, is the sunlight beaming through the windows, and are there colors that draw the eye? Or is the room full of disorder, are the curtains askew, are there dirty plates accumulated in the corner?
There’s a certain interplay between the copywriter and the voice-over artist. Yes, sometimes a script is actually written specifically for you, as is the case with demos for SAV students. However, you’re often given a script for a job that wasn’t written for you, but rather for the message you are sending or the product your voice is representing. In either case, the copywriter wants you to make the script come alive, to connect to the words, and to make that fire burn. The copywriter is handing you the torch of, “Make This Script My Personal Story.” One of our coaches once told a story of a voice-over student commenting on his love of sturdy garbage bags because he hated when garbage bags broke easily. Now, let’s be frank, garbage bags are some of the most mundane household objects there are, right? However, that student was able to connect with that script for a garbage bag and make that commercial really stand out.
To reiterate, as a copywriter, I have total trust in the voice-over artist. I put the words on the page and then read them out loud to hear how they sound. From there, I know that it’s really up to you, as the voice actor, to make the words leap from the page and entice the listener.
Check out our VO Pro Membership and the Such A Voice blog for more content like this!
We’re also on YouTube. Check out the video for this post:
About the Author
Bekka is a copywriter, scriptwriter and copy editor at Such A Voice. She’s also an English Language teacher forcing fun grammar activities onto unsuspecting students in Barcelona, Spain. She’s currently studying a Diploma course for Teaching English and will be pursuing a Master’s in Linguistics in Fall 2018. When she’s not studying, writing, editing or teaching, she’s sure to be found hiking mountains and eating her way through many European cities.
