13169: Measure Twice, Cut Once

Raw transcript:

you’ve heard me mention probably a
gazillion times that my grandfather my
great-grandfather were plumbers and I
often mention this when I compare how to
run your business as an artist to how
people who may not be considered artists
but rather Artisans or craftsman uh
Craftsmen run their
business and one of the aphorisms that
my grandfather always said as most most
people in the construction business do
was measure twice cut
once and I want to talk about how
artists can do that with their auditions
with their work on set and in
studio uh and do so in a way that really
helps you make sense and builds your rep
and we’ll do that in this episode of the
vo Heroes
[Music]
podcast
I remember like it was yesterday getting
up at 3:30 in the morning to go uh to
the job with my grandfather every so
often we’d get up at 3:30 in the morning
head out from Lakewood Ohio go to the
Olympic restaurant for breakfast and
then head to the job site and be ready
to go at 5:30 in the morning and I would
spend the whole day like you know
cutting copper rings off of pipes and
you know eating lunch and and just sort
of watching my grandfather put gas tanks
into into gas stations that’s the kind
of plumber that he was most of the time
and I was always interested in why and
how the pipes were exactly the right
length to get to and from the pumps down
to the tank and how did that
happen and the phrase that he and you
know Carpenters use and and you know
tyers use pick your pick your course of
art uh in the world of constru
instruction was measure twice cut
once uh if you’re sloppy about your
measurement in the beginning or you’re
not as exact as you need to be you’re
going to have to cut it again if it
doesn’t work right so measure measure
again just to be
sure and
then cut your cut your pipe or cut your
your your line your your electrical wire
or your board or whatever now how does
that apply to us as voice Talent
and on camera
actors well if we draw a
parallel our
material is a script a commercial an
audio book uh an on camera scene a set
of sides that’s our material how do we
measure that not just once but twice how
do we measure
that both of them are moments of
research both of them are moments of
Discovery you want to see how long it is
you want to see how wide it is you want
to see how deep it goes and we can do
that with our scripts and our sides by
instead of rushing through the process
of saying okay who am I talking to what
is the problem they’re trying to solve
what do they want who’s trying to stop
them uh what is the problem that a
commercial listener is trying to get
taken care of all the things that we
teach in vo Heroes and a x master class
and all the other uh things that we do
uh you know when we’re getting set up
before we actually hit the record button
and execute a take on the
work I submit to you that if you spend
just a little more time a little bit
more time than you may have been
spending so
far
your your execution your performance is
going to be so much better if you take
the time to really dive a little bit
deeper into the charact even if the
character is a is a a homemaker you know
a salesperson it’s pretty obvious what
they’re trying to do just you know just
how about one more time not another
take but another moment of going through
the script maybe you missed something in
the sound effects or in the stage
directions or in
the uh setting of the scene if it’s
audio only if you’re doing voiceover
work take a moment and give it a measure
one more
time just to see if it makes it easier
for you to execute the performance
you’ll probably end up doing fewer takes
having a clearer idea of how you’re
going to present the character to the
casting entity how you’re going to
produce it how it’s going to sound what
your pace is going to be how you’re
going to use the language that’s done
even that can be another moment of
measuring your lines your language what
is the writer the copywriter or the the
dramatic writer trying to trying to get
out of your character
right so this notion of measure twice
cut once is not just for blue collar
workers who are building houses and
putting in gas tanks and gas stations
it’s also for us as artists the more we
prepare to a degree the more we prepare
the better prepared we’ll be measure
twice cut once how does this land for
you let me know if this is something
that maybe well I didn’t I didn’t even
think about that let me know you can hit
the like button uh you can hit the
Subscribe button to the channel you can
hit the notification Bell and we’ll tell
you when new episodes are out I’d really
appreciate it if you do that you want to
forward it to another actor or voice
Talent who might be measuring just once
go ahead just forward the link you see
in the address bar I’m David H Lawrence
the 17th I thank you so much for
watching and for listening and I will
see you in the next episode of the vo
Heroes
[Music]
podcast

(from YouTube)