13298: PSAs vs Commercials And The Power Of Art

Raw transcript:

I just got off a Zoom session with a
client doing a private coaching session
with them. Uh they were offered an
audition on a PSA, a very powerful PSA
and some things surfaced
that I think are really worth talking
about. I got really emotional during the
session and I want to tell you uh what
happened and we’ll do that in this
episode of the VO Heroes podcast.
I got an email from a client saying they
wanted a private coaching session for a
PSA. And uh so we started the session.
We’re looking at the PSA and it was
clear to me that the client was looking
at this as though it was any other
commercial.
uh similar to uh a car sales commercial
or a pet food commercial or
not a powerful mind-changing PSA
uh with the message of being
anti-racist.
And the session ended up being not only
a session on how to hear the motivation
in the lines, how to draw uh energy and
emotion that was appropriate with the
lines, how to get the message across
with the lines, which was all about
don’t look at me the way you normally
look at me, look at me as uh any number
of different things that don’t pop into
your head when you’re when you’re
inundated with racist tropes.
And I said, you know, you have an
opportunity here to change the world
with this PSA.
And this was news to the client.
And so much of what we did during this
session was talk about the power of art.
And it became emotional for me because I
once did a spot uh for pedigree dog
food. It wasn’t about the flavor of
their dog food or the convenience of a
big bag of dog food or how happy their
pet would be.
They committed uh dollars behind what
would essentially be a PSA. Uh you can
see it on my casting website.
I’m in a cage in a kennel with a whole
bunch of other human beings in a cage
and a dog walks through the kennel
looking at everybody and we’re all like
really pick me pick me. And the message,
the one voiceover line in the message
is, “Sometimes our dogs pick us.”
And I got really emotional during the
the coaching session. I said, “It isn’t
always about selling [ __ ] It isn’t
always about uh, you know, getting 40
seconds of content into a 30-se
secondond spot. Sometimes it’s an
opportunity to change the world. And I
pointed out the uh think different spots
from Apple uh which don’t show their
computers don’t show uh how great their
computers are or how fast their
computers are. It shows how very famous
people throughout history if they had
had computers back when they were alive
likely they would have been Macintosh.
That’s the you know the point of the
spot is think different. Here’s the tool
to do that.
And I think the biggest success of this
session that I was just in
was getting across the message that art
and voice over is art.
Art can really change the world. Art can
make you think. Art can bring you to a
different viewpoint.
Art can be
life-changing, lifethreatening.
Uh it can be revolutionary
and we should never ever give short
shrift to the opportunities that we are
occasionally given
of a really awesomely written well
well-designed
piece of voiceover work that can change
the world. I just wanted to make that
statement because if you ever doubt that
what you’re doing as a voice artist or
as a as an actor on camera or as a
writer isn’t going to affect somebody,
think again. Think different.
Yeah.
And I had so much joy in having this
session. Uh, and I’m hoping that they
move forward the client with this stuff
that it was it was powerful for them. I
could see the change happen through the
sess through the session. It was just it
was lovely to watch.
So, break a leg. Um, tell me what your
thoughts are on this. Leave me a comment
below on vioheres.com. Just scroll all
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you’re down there if you want to. But
leave me a comment. Tell me what you
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Share this with another actor or voice
talent who sometimes forgets maybe how
powerful we can be.
I’m David H. Lawrence 17th. I thank you
so much for watching and for listening
and I will see you in the next episode
of the VO Heroes podcast.

(from YouTube)