Comedy, career opportunities, relationships, sex, advertising copy. What do all of these things have in common? Well, they’re all about timing. Or so I’ve heard. Hi, this is David Rosenthal and this week I want to talk to you about learning how to deal with timing specifications that come with most pieces of commercial copy.
Commercial copy is written for specific advertisement slots. :15 seconds, :30 seconds or :60 seconds. Often, this will be displayed in the upper left hand corner of a piece of copy. Obviously, you need to pay attention to this essential piece of information. It’s free advice, and an important clue in finding the proper pacing for your read. The right pace will really make that copy come alive. The wrong pacing can do just the opposite. If you come in at :40 seconds for a :60 second spot or for that matter a :30 second spot, something is definitely wrong. You could be failing to grasp the natural, inner pacing of that script that the ad writers have painstakingly created with just the right number of words and pauses to fill the exact time slot.
Or maybe not. Maybe the ad writers have written too many words for you to possibly read comfortably in 60 seconds. Believe me, this does happen. What do you do then? A lot of people resort to editing their audition like they’ve just finished barber school. Snip, snip, chop , chop, cutting out the natural spaces between words, cutting out breath altogether, so that, yes , maybe they finally manage to create a file that is 60 seconds long but at the same time has lost all of its unique style and natural appeal. In other words, it sounds artificial.
Don’t do this! Read your audition with the proper pacing! No matter what. Leave the natural spaces in. Leave some breath in. Leave in whatever made your read so uniquely right to begin with. If they specify a 30 second spot and, read after read, you come in at 34 seconds, because that’s what works, because you are remaining true to the attitude and feel of the script, then it’s up to the ad writers to notice this and change the script accordingly.
Alternatively, If there are very few words on the page and they’re asking for a 30 second read, to me this signifies a very thoughtful read with deliberate pauses, one in which the words or phrases are to be mulled over with consideration for their innate humor or sarcasm or gravitas. Sometimes, however, a read can get so slow as to lose all meaning, just to hit that 30 second mark. Again, stick to a pacing that makes the script have meaning, purpose and direction. In both cases, use the time restriction on a piece of copy as a significant guideline, but do not be a slave to it.
The last scenario you will come up against is one in which no time specification is given, but because you know it’s a commercial and not narration or a point-of-purchase spot, there has to be an inherent time spec attached to it. Now, what do you do? Easy, just read it with the pacing you think makes sense for the script and I’ll bet you’ll be in the ballpark, if not right on the money, with the spec they were thinking about in the first place but, for whatever reason, forgot to mention on the actual script.
Understand, usually script writers are very good at getting the timing right. If you are coming in at 61 seconds for a 60 second spec, rather than cutting and deleting, just redo your read with a little bit more energy. This will more than likely take care of that pesky second right there. Your audition will still be of a piece, and you won’t have had to resort to your Dr. Frankenstein routine, cobbling together a synthetic monster that’s attempting to walk and talk like the real deal.
Oh geez, that’s it for this week. I’m outta time!
