In my years of booth directing, the quality of the final product always came down to the quality of the read. Once you get the acoustics of the room down, the placement of a good mic, the skills of a good editor, it’s up to the actor and director to make the copy sing.
In the booth, it always hinged on how I, the director, felt about the focus of the speaker. Was the artist just reading copy, addressing a room full of people, or rather, talking to ME?
In real life — well, the life we lived pre-masked — we instinctively reacted to someone looking
us in the eye, watching their mouth as they spoke. Sometimes the connection could be too
intense and one of us might look away or blink or flit from eye contact to a bit of lint on our shirt,
then back again. But regardless of HOW you listen, nothing beats the impact of someone
interested in speaking directly to YOU, focusing their energy, their attention, their effort at
making a connection.
That’s what we’ve always strived for in the booth. My most oft repeated mantra: “Don’t READ it,
TELL it to me.” Tell me what you want to say. Tell it to me like we’re two people alone in a living
room, a bar, a foxhole, on the phone. I don’t care if others are listening, as long as you’re talking
to ME.
It’s a conscious flip from simply reading copy. Here try this: Close your eyes for a moment,
picture someone you know, put the two of you in an imaginary room or situation that’s easy to
envision, get a feel for that virtual moment and then… Talk to that person. Not a roomful of
people. Not unless you’re a sports announcer. Tell me your story.
Tell me about that great deal on the SUV you’ve got in mind, that new product intro, the sale
with only a few days left, the cool movie recommendation you want to share or the description of
the soap factory you just toured.
If you’re interested and want to tell me about it, if this is something you think I’d like to hear and
want to share with me. With me? Then talk to me. TELL me.
OK, now you’ve got my attention. Tell me more!