13117: What To Do The Moment You Hit Record (Hint: Nothing)

Raw transcript:

over the years in coaching voice Talent
both in person and online
I get this sense that sometimes we are
very concerned
about starting our auditions starting
our work as soon as we hit the record
button it’s as if our fingers are
hovering over that button we click it
and Off to the Races we have to go
immediately well I’d like to give you a
permission slip in this episode of the
vo Heroes podcast
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you know it used to be that when we were
working with recording tape or when we
were working with a film on set it was
very expensive the media was very
expensive the reels were several dollars
per real the the film was more than
several dollars per pancake of film and
so there was an incentive
to begin the work as soon as possible to
waste as little of the physical media as
possible now in the last 20 30 years
that’s become a complete bit of nonsense
because all we’re doing
is recording on reusable no cost other
than the initial cost of purchase no
cost uh digital media
and so the electrons don’t cost us
anything and this is can this can be
helpful in terms of our performance
because instead of having our finger
over the over the record button and
getting ready to go right away I
remember doing this when I worked in
radio is like you know I’d hit the
record button on the reel to reel and I
had this sense of I didn’t want to waste
time I wanted to get on with the
recording but now we don’t need to do
this
and this can make us better actors
better voice Talent better on camera
people when we’re doing self tapes
but certainly with voiceover I actually
can sense when somebody is like chomping
at the bit champping at the bit as as my
friend Michael costrov corrected us all
in a recent session thank you uh
champing at the bit to get going
that can affect
how
we bring energy to our work if we have
that nervous energy of we’ve got to get
going as soon as we hit that record
button or or we’re going to get prepared
we’re going to get ready to go hit the
record button and then go you know we
don’t need to do that
hit the record button take your time get
set
understand your sense memory your prior
moments your emotional recall whatever
it is you’re going to be doing with your
acting
and again you’re using acting in all
forms of voice over aren’t you yes
whether it’s audio books or commercials
or animation it doesn’t really matter
it’s all still acting but the point is
you can get yourself set you can take a
moment
if you need to breathe if you need to
use a lead-in line if you want to just
take a moment and change your facial
expression just to get into your
character take that time
get yourself set up for Success without
jumping right in and thinking you have
to go because you’ve hit that record
button you don’t you absolutely do not
because you can always trim off whatever
time you spent getting ready to actually
do the work when you do the work think
of it as though
you’re an artist who’s about to draw a
circle on a page right you’ll see
artists sometimes who draw circles who
will kind of like give themselves some
practice moments they’re not actually
touching the paper with their charcoal
or with their pencil or whatever they’re
just kind of getting the the the the
sense of the circle and then they’ll
move in and then they’ll they’ll start
to do the actual work take a moment
don’t don’t jump right in the moment you
hit that record button you’ve got all
the time in the world you’ve got plenty
of space on your hard drive you can
always trim off the stuff that you don’t
need leave all that so that the casting
entity that you’re sending your audition
to or your work to uh doesn’t even know
that you did any of that that that
momentary prep work after you’ve hit the
record button give yourself a moment you
can take it you don’t have to like Jump
Right In the electrons are free
does this make sense for you have you
felt this urge to like get on with it
when you’ve hit the record button let me
know in the comments below and in the
comments below I mean on voheros.com
that’s where the conversation is sane
and and comfortable and polite we love
that sort of thing there not that it’s
not polite elsewhere but you know and if
you want to hit the like button you can
hit the Subscribe uh button to the
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that you can hit if you want to know
when new episodes come out I’d love for
you to do any or all of that 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 podcast
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