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Monday, July 28, 2014

Guiding Your Success with Guided Imagery

B'SD

1 Av, 5774

All of us have had moments (even years!) of doubt about something or other. Some people seem to be gifted at overcoming doubt. The rest of us have to work on the skill.

Guided imagery is one terrific way of dealing with fear, lack of confidence and other negative thoughts. An interesting way to ease you into full functionality, Guided imagery can be lots of fun. It's much cheaper than therapy, too.

Care to peek in on a recent online conversation I shared, about the topic? Read on!


Anyone have any tips on how to make less mistakes in long form narration?

Owner of LinkedIn Group w/19,000+ Members, Ace Voice Over, WebinarFair & I'm a Certified Digital Event Strategist
Hi everyone, I just joined this wonderful group! Do you have any words of wisdom you can share on how to make less mistakes?

Comments


  • Victoria Feinerman
    Victoria
    Voiceover Talent / Narrator
    If the text is just a few thousand words, I skim it ahead of time. This helps me identify where the proper breaks should be.
    If the text is longer, and it's not practical to skim it ahead, I try to read ahead to see where/how the current sentence will end.

    On the whole, I think a certain number of mistakes are unavoidable, and it's more a question of damage control. If I start recording a paragraph in a long text and make a mistake, I don't stop recording. Instead, I make a double click (ie a clacking sound with my tongue), and I record a new version of the problematic paragraph. Later, when I have finished recording, I can look at the waveform and see the distinctive double peak created by the double click I made. This indicates to me that before the click is something to delete, and after the click is the corrected version. It helps a bit during editing.
  • Abraham Venismach, DES
    Abraham
    Owner of LinkedIn Group w/19,000+ Members, Ace Voice Over, WebinarFair & I'm a Certified Digital Event Strategist
    Hi Victoria! I do that clicking, but am wondering is that really faster than Punch and Roll? I worked with someone that is how they did it and he said that he can do 1 hour of recording with editing in 1 1/2 hours. I'm new so for me 1 recorded hour takes 4 hours... What is the average for an experienced VO?
  • Victoria Feinerman
    Victoria
    Voiceover Talent / Narrator
    I don't know what the average is, but it certainly takes me more than 30 minutes to edit 1 hour of VO. (I don't have punch & roll in my DAW.)

    Since I get wrapped up in interpreting the script, I may not notice something wrong with the audio during the recording - a pop, mouth clicks, etc. And so I listen to *everything* I recorded, to ensure maximum quality. Therefore, the minimum it could take me to edit 1 hour of VO is 1 hour of listening. And that's assuming there was nothing to fix. (Ha ha, that does not happen frequently.)

    I don't time my work, because I know that I'm going to sit and work till I have decided that my work is as perfect as can be - but my guess is that it takes me up to 2 hours to edit 1 hour of audio, so that's a total of 3 hours.

    I recall there was an article on Voices.com many years ago, in which they gave a breakdown of the amount of time it takes to record. I wish I could find it, but I recall it saying that 1 recorded hour can take 4 hours.

    Things take even longer if the audio has to be cut into a whole bunch of files. I use software to do that automatically, but then I go and check each file's end, to make sure that the audio was cut correctly, as the software *may* cut off t's, d's, f's or v's at the end of a file.
     Abraham Venismach, DES likes this
  • Byron Wagner
    Byron
    Media/Tech Savant & Startup Jockey
    The simplest answer - work with a talented director or other second set of trained ears if you can, and research the proper names, pronunciations, foreign phrases, and colloquial expressions beforehand.

    When you get to the point that with their feedback (and the slightest bit of healthy dissociation) you start catching all your errors before they do, you're halfway home.

    If you can't, practice by listening a lot, and try reading a complex book along with the audiobook version and note where your pronunciation or understanding of the author's intent diverges from the recording (doesn't necessarily mean your version is to blame, LOL).

    Read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on Flow (getting in the "zone"). What we do is (or should be!) like any other highly skilled art/craft/practice. It's about focus, looking (reading) ahead, and staying connected to the material while not crossing out of your own lane.

    If you're just transliterating from the written page to the audible domain you may be mechanically or even technically playing your instrument, but the real challenge is informing your interpretation with your own experience and turning it into a work that truly services both the author and listener, just like any genuinely talented improvisational performer. :-)
     Abraham Venismach, DES likes this
  • Yocheved Golani
    Author, Content Provider, Public Speaker, Researcher, ICD-10CM/PCS Coder
    Honestly, my best suggestions for making fewer mistakes are to prepare for the recording session with guided imagery (I imagine myself as the 1-take wonder I often turn out to be), to review the intention of the text, to sip water quietly (a dry mouth is a pronunciation problem) and to scan the text. I even scan it as I speak.
     Abraham Venismach, DES likes this
  • Abraham Venismach, DES
    Abraham
    Owner of LinkedIn Group w/19,000+ Members, Ace Voice Over, WebinarFair & I'm a Certified Digital Event Strategist
    Hi Yocheved, what is guided imagery?
  • Yocheved Golani
    Author, Content Provider, Public Speaker, Researcher, ICD-10CM/PCS Coder
    GI is the same thing as using your imagination, just with intense focus on the goal you want. Imagine yourself doing the desired action in the mood that is most appropriate to the situation. Imagine accompanying sights, sounds & smells involved with the above, to make it seem "real" to you. Do some practice runs in your mind, speak to the mirror if that helps, and remind yourself repeatedly: I'm doing it! Once you own that sense of pride/recognition, go out and do it for real.

    This is a principal I teach in my public appearances and book http://tinyurl.com/mycrisis-book.

    If y'all don't mind, please let me know if I may do a screen-shot of this conversation and share it at my book-related blog http://tinyurl.com/itsmycrisis-blog.













I've narrated medical video content, children's film, commercials and a general audience movie, among other projects. I am able to sound like someone of different ages and ethnicities, too. Here's an informative link What is Guided Imagery?

Even WebMD says it is safe, harmless and relaxing.

 


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