100 words? 30 seconds? Are you mad???

[Jon Morss]

Originally Posted by Mike Sommer

So what happens when you get a corprate spot that's gone through rewrite after rewrite, lawyers and god knows want all, and it's set in stone? Do you just say, I can't do it?

Personally, if I felt that I could not perform the spot as written in the amount time that was expect, then I would have to be honest with the client and let them know I was not capable of doing it. I would rather be upfront with them instead of wasting their time in a session trying to pull it out of my rear.

Interesting spot you posted. Let's hear your take on it.

[Lee Gordon]

Just for fun, I decided to take a whack at the Pac Bell spot and was all set for a challenge, but it wasn't that tough. I did not have to resort to any of the usual tricks such as editing out breaths or digitally speeding up the audio and managed to do it in 58 seconds in a style I believe is close to what they were looking for and, although brisk, it didn't feel particularly rushed.

[Mike Sommer]

Nice job Lee. It's not the toughest script but it does move along at a nice clip, especialy if you want to finesse the lines for emphases or add a word or two like I did.
I'll see if I can dig up some real chop busters.

Here's my take.

[Scott Pollak]

Piece 'o' cake. This was honestly easy. Here's one quick take (sorry for the popping plosives, but I'm at the radio station right now using their mega-compressed system with no pop filters). This actually comes in at 58.4 secs including music bed. The v/o alone was around 57 or so secs.

[davidnagel]

What a surprisingly hot topic! And many thanks to you all for the input! Well, over 10 seconds on each of the three I've been working on and fortunately the client is ok with it, since they know me and its their radio show these ads are played in, so yeah, sort of safe for the moment.

I might be tempted to give the Pacific Bell thing a try myself but that within a minute, like some of you have demonstrated its perfectly possible.

Though what do you guys make of this, this is actually one of the ads I've had to voice, and unfortunately I ran over 30 seconds by say 5-8 seconds averagely.

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Just glancing at this here just makes me think what I was whining about.... though am convinced I would still over run - but I'll try again though (not that it matters though but like you all say, it would be good to get under my belt).

[Scott Pollak]

David, the script you posted is ridiculous. It's 144 words once you spell out the phone number (twice) since each number is a word.

90 words is a comfortable :30 read, 100-110 is a fast read, and 144 is humanly impossible.

Why do clients do this?

[JoeActor]

Originally Posted by Scott Pollak

David, the script you posted is ridiculous. It's 144 words once you spell out the phone number (twice) since each number is a word.

90 words is a comfortable :30 read, 100-110 is a fast read, and 144 is humanly impossible.

Why do clients do this?

Did someone say "Humanly Impossible"???

(what do you want me to put in the left-over 2 seconds?)

Not quite human,
Joe J Thomas
Joe J. Thomas Acting Portfolio
SoundsGoodToYou.com - Joe J Thomas - Voice Actor

[davidnagel]

Originally Posted by JoeActor

Did someone say "Humanly Impossible"???

(what do you want me to put in the left-over 2 seconds?)

Not quite human,

LOL!

Oh dear.....

[Scott Pollak]

Well there ya go. Joe proved me wrong. And what a delightful spot it is, Joe, and no doubt would just be hugely effective if it were to air.

One gripe though... you seemed to stumble a bit over the word 'designed'.

Can we get another take, please? And this time what we want is authoritative, yet friendly. Professional, yet autistic, and maybe a little bit of an Asian accent and yet keeping it strictly British-sounding.

Thanks.

Check's in the mail.

[JoeActor]

Hee hee! Funny, Scott...

Needless to say, unless it was legal copy, I'd probably never read a spot like that. It might work if it were a TV spot, with words to backup the VO, but a radio spot would end up being more of a curiosity than an effective ad.

Or not.

I just read what's on the stand,
Joe