VO Pro Tip: Capture your First Read!

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Capture that First Read!

Hey Reader,

This is a tip I need to start following more myself. If you're like me, you will often open up an audition and read the script or at least part of it out loud to yourself before stepping into the booth. So often, I find myself really liking the way that initial read or parts of it just naturally came out of me. But also often, I don't capture that into the mic!

It’s a natural habit. We like to test out the phrasing, get comfortable with the pronunciation, and get our bearing before we start tracking.

The problem is that your very first pass at a script often carries a unique kind of natural, uncalculated magic. And being unique is what helps your audition stand out from the possibly hundreds the client is sorting through. You’re reacting to the words in real-time, which leads to spontaneous pauses, genuine inflection, and a conversational freshness that can be hard to recreate once you’ve over-rehearsed the lines and know what's coming next in the script.

If you do that initial read off-mic, you leave that energy on the table.

Instead, try making it a rule to hit record before you say a single word out loud.

Step into the booth, open the script, start tracking, and let your very first read happen right into the mic.

Even if you stumble on a word, keep going. You might end up discarding the take entirely, or you might find that the first two sentences had an effortless warmth you can comp into your final audition file.

Capture the initial spark. You can always polish it on take two, and you can always disregard it if it's not right, but you can't go back in time and capture it on mic if you didn't do so.

-Michael

Check out all of the past VO Pro Tips here! VO PRO TIP ARCHIVE

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Thanks so much!

Curious about my own personal VO Work?

www.MichaelLangsnerVO.com

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