tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12859944542319855322024-03-28T05:36:08.125-04:00Audio Book NarratorsA Grammy award-winning audio book producer/director celebrates the most incredible instrument of all:
the human voice.Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-53008991380654905042016-10-12T14:45:00.000-04:002016-10-12T14:49:36.444-04:00What's In a Coach<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday, Johnny Heller advised audiobook narrators who are considering training to carefully assess a potential audiobook coach. His advice resonated with me. Additionally, Johnny's approach to audiobook narration is similar to mine. That is, audiobook narration is an acting proposition.<br />
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Taking a cue from his post, I'd like to ask narrators who are considering coaching to spend a moment asking themselves, what exactly do I expect from a coach? Additionally, what might be a useful definition for audiobook coach?<br />
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Let me answer the second question first. I'll argue that an audiobook coach (aka acting coach) is one who employs actable vocabulary in order to assist the narrator in performing the subtext in a way that is commensurate with the author's intention.<br />
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What then should emerging or experienced narrators expect from an audiobook coach?<br />
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1. To be treated like an actor. Compelling audiobook narration is, as I mentioned earlier, an acting proposition. If you can't act, you may be able to read, or even narrate, but it's unlikely you'll be able to tell a story. Storytelling requires an emotional response to the subtext that is often intuitive. Actors possess that intuition. Non-actors are generally devoid of that performance property.<br />
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If you're considering coaching and don't regard yourself as an actor, my best advice is take acting lessons, and begin to think and react like an actor.<br />
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2. To be guided to mining the subtext for its emotional consequence. Since the voice can't act, and the words on a page are not actable, what's left that's relevant to the narrator is the feeling beneath the language, in other words, the subtext.<br />
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3. To be advised of the multiple means by which they can match the intention of the text. Those who've worked with me know that, in fiction, I am particularly focused on point of view, the stakes, speaking dialogue like a real person, and using the book as a co-director, which includes paying special attention to the punctuation. In non-fiction, assuming the author's persona, or that of an expert, or teacher, emphasizing the narrative's numerous salient points, and most importantly, focusing the listener on this incredible story.<br />
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4. To prep fiction and non-fiction as an actor. That is, to be in constant touch with the subtext, to know every moment what's at stake.<br />
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5. To focus on learning how to self-direct. Given that most narrators work alone or with an engineer, it's imperative that they develop responses to the subtext that become reflexive. Also, to be able to 'hear' themselves narrate and assess their performance while narrating, or while listening back.<br />
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6. To know that, while audiobook narration is not brain surgery, and doesn't require years, it is still building Rome, and may take multiple sessions before various lessons are fully inculcated.<br />
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7. To love investing yourself in the narrative. Narrators often work on books that are not of interest to them, but then, the job of the actor isn't to be interested in the book's content, just invested in its emotionality.<br />
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-53186742174473169462015-09-13T16:17:00.000-04:002015-09-13T16:23:55.753-04:00How To Direct Your Inner Director: A Narrator’s Guide in Five Easy Directions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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is the non-fiction storyteller’s foremost performance obligation?</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hint</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">: It has nothing to do with
content.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In a previous post, I suggested <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions </i>that can assist
a narrator in becoming a more compelling, more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">employable</i> fiction storyteller. To that end, this post will suggest five non-fiction
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In advance of these directions, some preliminary notions that illuminate why non-fiction’s unique performance challenges
are, in my experience, more problematic for narrators than fiction’s, and in so
doing, brighten the light on why non-fiction narration is too often reminiscent of what it might be like to listen to paint dry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">First: Collectively, these directions seek to
reinforce the non-fiction narrator’s foremost performance obligation: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To enthusiastically engender listeners’
enthusiasm. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Second: Most narrators record solo, or without
the benefit of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storyteller’s director (</i>i.e.,
one who can identify when a performance appears to be incompatible with the
subtext’s demand, and suggest <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actable </i>directions
that can be internalized and implemented by the narrator in order to address
that demand<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">). </i>These actable, non-fiction
self-direction directions help narrators become their own storyteller’s
director. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Third: The singular impediment to compelling
non-fiction storytelling is lack of subtext. Non-fiction is devoid of subtext!
No subtext means that non-fiction’s content is not actable. It is this subtext
deprivation that causes non-fiction to be more problematic for narrators to
perform than fiction. Here's the crux of the subtext-problem:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Most narrators are trained actors; they’re
trained to engage fiction’s subtext demands. Vainly searching for non-fiction’s
nonexistent subtext, these same actors are aesthetically lost. Like reaching
for a black cat in a pitch dark room, they’re frustrated, unable to intuit feeling
that’s not there; which explains why too many non-fiction narrators default to vocally
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">presenting</i> non-fiction, affecting a
newscaster’s emotionally disconnecting reportage, for example, and worse, in
the mistaken belief that all one can do with non-fiction is voice it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To be clear, this subtext-void should never
imply that non-fiction storytelling isn’t acting (except to Aunt Mary). As we’ll
see, no acting, no compelling non-fiction storytelling!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If performing non-fiction is dictated by
subtext, how do narrators discover an actable, non-fiction pathway? Here, it
may be valuable to dig further into subtext-related issues that ultimately
challenge narrators to think appropriately (i.e. differently) about the nature
of non-fiction, and fiction. And remember, we’re always peering at these issues
through a performance lens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Fiction and non-fiction’s syntax is apples and
oranges: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Like fiction, non-fiction may include
characters, bizarre plots, and a broad range of emotional experience. That’s
where the similarity ends. Upon a closer look, fiction writers imbue their
characters with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lived feelings</i> (subtext);
storytellers emotionally connect to these characters’ lived feelings, and that
connection enables their performance of these feelings. The result: Storytellers
engage the fiction-narrative in-the-moment. In summary, fiction’s subtext provides the
storyteller an actable connection to the text. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Non-fiction’s nature is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something only.</i>
It’s syntax may describe torture, and in gory detail, but because non-fiction
is only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about</i> torture (or about the
torturer, or about the tortured one’s feelings) rather than a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lived </i>torture (as if characters and events
are living these experiences right now), there is no actable pathway that enables the narrator to intuit torture, much less connect its experience in-the-moment. And
remember, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about something</i>, no matter
how vivid, isn’t actable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The outcome of fiction and non-fiction is apples
and oranges: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Audiobook listeners expect to be emotionally
impacted by fiction and non-fiction, and that’s where the outcome similarity ends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For the performer, fiction’s outcome is a magic
carpet ride that connects listeners to characters and events in-the-moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In-the-moment doesn't exist in non-fiction. Non-fiction tells listeners <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about</i> something that is, or should be, meaningful
to them (or why bother telling them). Non-fiction’s specific mission may be to inform,
convince, increase understanding of a given thesis or proposition, etc.—from five ways
to color your hair, to the meaning of a great war, to a harrowing celebrity-life,
to catastrophic social and political events. But the author’s bottom line is:
Have I got something important to tell you about!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And here is where the non-fiction storyteller
begins to discover his calling: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Enthusiasm
for this incredible story. </i>Speaking as the author’s surrogate, the
non-fiction storyteller intuits an enthusiasm-bridge that connects the listener
to the author’s incredible story. And that bridge is actable.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Fourth: Enthusiasm is synonymous with
compelling non-fiction narration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Here’s why: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Given that non-fiction’s characters and story
are not actable (no subtext), the storyteller’s only viscerally accessible
option is listener-enthusiasm, emotionally connecting the listener to this amazing story.
And remember, a blasé non-fiction author is an oxymoron. The narrator is
obligated, therefore, to represent the author’s high stakes emotional
commitment to this story, enthusiastically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As the author’s surrogate, anything less than
the narrator’s devotion to listeners’ enthusiasm disaffects, and disconnects
them: If listeners aren’t convinced the author is enthusiastic about this
incredible story, why should they be? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">At this juncture, it’s imperative for narrators
to remember that their level of enthusiasm must reflect the author’s, whose personality is informed by the text’s vocabulary, syntax, and format.
From intellectually staid, to airy and effusive, the narrator’s enthusiasm-obligation
is to accurately replicate the author’s emotive voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Fifth: Non-fiction narrators are especially
susceptible to Aunt Mary Non-fiction Syndrome (AMNFS)—voicing, rather than
acting, non-fiction. Enumeration shortly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">On to creating compelling non-fiction
storytelling in </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">five
easy self-director directions: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction #1</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s
All About the Listener.</i> Content is irrelevant. Because non-fiction is devoid
of subtext (not actable), to whom does the storyteller devote her unwavering
attention? You guessed it: the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction #2</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Engender
Listener Enthusiasm, Enthusiastically!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As the author’s surrogate, and cheerleader-in-chief, the only actable point
of view the non-fiction narrator can reflect is her own enthusiastic desire to
remind the listener with each breath: You are hearing an incredible story! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">#3: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Educate
About, Enthusiastically! </i>Activating this indispensible performance tool is
precisely how the narrator generates the listener’s enthusiasm. At its core, all
non-fiction educates us <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">about </i>something
of great significance to the author.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>And
so the non-fiction narrator may also properly regard himself as the author’s
educator-in-chief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In working with non-fiction narrators, I often
suggest, imagine you’re an empowering teacher, or expert, dedicated to
wide-eyed students sitting before you with their mouth agape, and thinking, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wow!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction #</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">4<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: Emphasize,
Enthusiastically.</i> Non-fiction is replete with myriad words and phrases the
author (the authority; the educator) needs us to heed so that we fully grasp
the story’s gravity. In order to engender listeners' enthusiasm, the
narrator is obliged to intuit, and then emphasize those important words and
phrases, with authority! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Along with vocal punch, emphasis is also
achieved by pausing before, after, even during a salient passage, phrase, even
a word; by raising or lowering volume; by periodically changing cadence (slowing
down, or speeding up).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is imperative to remember that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">helping the words must be achieved
organically!</i> Or the only one clapping will be Aunt Mary, whose modulated
sing-song emanates from her misguided belief that the voice can act, that the
voice can educate; it never crosses her mind that the narrator’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">emotional commitment to the listener’s
enthusiasm</i> for the story is the actualizing agent for organic emphasis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">#5: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You’re
the Author, So Keep It Real! </i>Non-fiction listeners willingly suspend their
disbelief, and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>imagine they’re
hearing the author. And to listeners, the author is a real person, not a
thespian, not even a voice-actor. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Keeping
it real</i>—easier said than done because real is so counterintuitive to the narrator’s
need to sound professional—is achieved when the narrator prioritizes the
listener’s enthusiasm over the impact of their voice. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And that brings us to the non-fiction narrator’s
most egregious misconception: that unlike fiction, non-fiction needn’t be
acted! And it’s precisely this toxic delusion that lowers their resistance, and
triggers the onslaught of Aunt Mary Non-fiction Syndrome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Once felled by the erroneous presumption that non-fiction
isn’t about acting, AMNFS victims succumb to this syndrome’s most virulent
symptom: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">affecting </i>an impressive non-fiction
sound. Impressive, maybe. Engaging, never. Ironically, a vocally affected
performance discourages, rather than encourages, listener and narrator
connection. Ironically, listener enthusiasm has nothing (as in zero) to do with
the narrator’s wonderful, or powerful, or smooth, or distinguished, or
impressive voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For narrators stricken by AMNFS, here’s the self-director
direction antidote: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">One: Stop talking, immediately! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Two: Think, narrating non-fiction is acting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Three: Think, the voice can’t act.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Four: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think,
I’m a storyteller; I’m not here to vocally impress the listener and myself, and
then heave your golden voice out the booth’s door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Five: Breathe, and repeat: My objective is to
enthusiastically tap into the listener’s enthusiasm for this incredible story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If engendering an enthusiastic listener sounds
like a reasonable non-fiction game plan, then I hope this blog post serves as a
template toward that end. If vocally impressing the listener is the outcome,
then I recommend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aunt Mary’s
Self-Aggrandizing Guide to Voicing Audiobooks</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So, there it is! Five <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions </i>that remind us storytelling is acting, and
that non-fiction storytelling is simply acted differently than fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">///</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m looking forward to this September’s NY Narrator’s
Workshop, which is filled, and the January LA Narrator’s Workshop (contact
Michele Cobb: </span><a href="mailto:michele@audiofilemagazine.com"><span style="color: #0000ed; font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: none;">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">)
where several openings remain, and to this week’s upcoming audiobook recordings
with Eileen Stevens, and Nicola Barber, and to working with Johnny Heller and
other talent and audiobook professionals at next year’s Chicago APAC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-89449601973773619442015-05-25T07:54:00.000-04:002015-05-25T07:54:07.618-04:00How Actors Act Fiction: and why authors can’t possibly narrate their fiction as well as actors<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The following is a lecture presented at Spalding University on May 25, 2015. It was part of the graduation requirement for the MFA fiction program.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">How is it possible that a fiction writer who knows her
story inside out couldn’t possibly present a more compelling narration of that
work than a skilled actor, even an actor whose intellectual grasp of the narrative
is minimal? Myriad arguments support the contention that, between the two, the
actor’s storytelling advantage is irrefutable, despite the writer’s superior
appreciation of the work, and its attendant intellectual nuance. Why is this? Essentially,
because <i>acting</i> fiction and <i>writing</i> fiction are as different as,
say, apples and oranges. The writer’s discipline does not address the act of performing
fiction aloud. The pathways to creating compelling storytelling, then, are
located in the actor’s discipline. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Nothing is more indicative of this apple/orange binary
than the actor’s and writer’s unique relationship to the syntax—the words
themselves. This lecture will focus primarily on the actor’s syntax
relationship. The exploration of that unique relationship will shed light on
how actors actually act fiction, and subsequently strengthen the contention
that when authors desire a presentation of their fiction that connects the
listener to the story’s emotional import, their first and only thought should
be: hire an actor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">On the surface, it might seem that <i>the words</i> unite writer and actor in a common
communicative undertaking. Not the case. As we explore the actor’s aesthetic
relationship to the words, we’ll discover that it’s unlike, maybe opposite, the
writer’s, that acting the words wholly differs
from reading them, can I say, <i>dramatically.</i>
Upon explicating this difference, we’ll also discover that the actor who
narrates aloud <i>as an actor </i>is inherently
predisposed to actualize the words’ emotionality, to give the narrative life.
Conversely, the writer, who reads aloud <i>as
a writer,</i> may convey the words’ meaning, but doesn’t possess the
performance tools to actualize the words’ feeling. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And so
we can deduce what’s arguably the obvious: Accessing the words’ emotional
territory is the key to a riveting performance; authors who lack that access are
locked out of the words’ emotionality, which explains why their readings are often
flat, atonal, more likely to elicit somnolence than edge-of-the-seat
attentiveness</span><span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Before specifically interrogating the actor’s relationship
to the words, let’s contextualize his discipline with a brief primer on acting,
and the storytelling process. O</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ne parenthetical, albeit important
caveat: We’re exclusively discussing fiction. Non-fiction’s narration process
is related to, but different enough from, performing fiction to the degree that
non-fiction might be regarded as, say, a tangerine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finally, two brief addendums before getting underway:
Throughout, I’ll use <i>narrator,
storyteller </i>and<i> actor </i>synonymously.
For me, these nomenclatures reflect an identical aesthetic endeavor. Second,
it’s worth mentioning that I’m discussing fiction through the storyteller’s lens, rather than the author’s, and it’s
always useful to remember that various definitions and characterizations
writers understand one way, may be regarded quite differently by the actor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Back to acting, and the fiction storytelling process
(arenas I have some expertise in, given my years as a theatre and audiobook
director, and storytelling teacher). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">First, some definitions. What is acting? What is storytelling?
What is the aesthetic relationship between storyteller and listener?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sanford Meisner, one of the America’s most preeminent
acting teachers, defined acting as a process that connects the performer with
his “emotional impulses,” and that acting itself, “is firmly rooted in the
instinctive. All good acting,” he argued, “comes from the heart, as it were,
and there’s no mentality to it.” (1) While numerous definitions of actor and
acting express various truths about the process, what’s instructive about
Meisner’s definition is that he specifically conflates acting with emotion, and
not with intellect (what he means by mentality). Meisner portrays acting as a
craft predicated on the performer’s ability to connect to her emotional
impulses, her feelings, rather than her cognitive experience—what she thinks.
Which is precisely why an actor never has to have been a king to play Lear, and
why the actor who does play Lear isn’t playing how Lear thinks, but rather, connecting
to what Lear feels. Bottom line, it’s the actor’s simulation of Lear’s
emotions—emotions the actor has surely experienced—that determine how well, or
poorly, he portrays this character.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In a word, the storytelling process can be reductively summarized
as: <i>acting.</i> Storytelling is an acting
process whose primary obligation is to <i>connect
the actor to the text’s emotions</i>. By definition, when there’s no acting, there’s
no storytelling, and the result is reading, or speaking words, often with
emphasis, but—and we’ll explain why shortly—never confuse emphasis with acting.
For now think, readers (non-performers) emphasize words’ feelings, actors <i>act words’ feelings</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In summery, storytelling and acting are synonymous. When
acting fiction, the storyteller intuitively connects his own emotional impulses
to the emotionality embedded in the narrative’s syntax, and never to the words’
meaning. Like a heat seeking missile, the actor is inexorably propelled toward
how the characters feel, rather than what they think. In the actor’s parlance,
all that’s of value is the <i>subtext</i>. Subtext
simply refers to the feeling within the words, rather than their meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In order to move a listener from dazed to engaged, two
aesthetic bridges must be constructed by the storyteller: one that connects him
to the narrative’s subtext (its emotionality); and another that connects that subtext to the
listener. The visceral material those bridges are constructed of is acting. Therefore,
no acting, no bridges, no storytelling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This bridge-building metaphor helps us fathom why the actor’s
cold reading of a novel, for example, is likely to be light years more
gratifying than that of the writer’s rendition, no matter how long, or how
diligently the dedicated writer has practiced, no matter that she’s committed this
hundred-thousand word tome to memory, verbatim. It’s worth noting, too, that
writers who construct the actors’ subtext-connecting bridges stand an excellent
chance of narrating their fiction like an actor. Why? Because they are one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When the storytelling process is proceeding, the actor is
in the midst of fulfilling his most basic promise to listeners: Maintaining
their <i>willing suspension of disbelief.</i>
Listeners know, of course, that the story, written in the past, is being told
by someone standing before them, or if it’s an audiobook, has been pre-recorded
by a narrator in a booth. But that doesn’t inhibit them from wishing, maybe
praying: promise me I’ll be transported my immediate reality, as if on a magic
carpet ride; promise me I’ll be emotionally integrated into unfolding events
that are happening in real time, where I, just like the fiction’s characters, have
no clue as to what’s going to occur next. When listeners willingly suspend
their disbelief, it’s most likely because the actor is just doing her job,
making good on her wish-fulfillment promise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Having briefly examined acting, and storytelling, we’re
better prepared to peer further into the storyteller’s process, and describe some
of its salient moving parts, that when aggregated, help us visualize how the actor
actually acts fiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Earlier, I argued that it
would seem fiction writers and actors share seats in a common communicative
domicile: Words. I suggested that, upon investigating this presumed
commonality, whatever the words may imply to the writer, likely none of those
implications are applicable to the narrator—and so, apples and oranges. In an
effort to deepen our understanding of the storyteller’s process, it’s useful to
explore in more detail what the writers’ words mean to actors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We’ll begin by imagining a
word as a house with two rooms: one is the thinking room; the other, the
feeling room. The thinking room is filled with thoughts, intellectual
constructs: abstract symbols, signs and significations that represent meaning,
ideas, etc.; the feeling room is populated by our emotional states of being:
happy, sad, angry, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Only the feeling room
warrants storytellers’ attention; the thinking room is useless to them, off
limits, verboten!. Why? <i>Because ideas and
meaning aren’t actable</i>. Only emotion is actable. Therefore, we can categorically
assert that to the storyteller, the words’ intellectual value, their meaning,
are irrelevant: dead weight. In effect, actors are not wired to access the author’s
intellectual purposes, nor the characters’ thoughts. In fact, attention to the words’
meaning crosses actors’ wiring, and distracts them from doing their job:
acting. At worst, excessive fretting over meaning can totally short circuit the
actor’s ability to connect the listener to the text’s emotionality precisely
because this mislaid agenda prevents the actor from acting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At the risk of sounding
hyperbolic, why is the actor’s attention to content such a narrative-toxin? Shouldn’t
narrators understand the plot, the story? Won’t that knowledge enhance the
storytelling experience? To a degree. Essentially, the actor should comprehend
the story, be familiar with its characters and ensuing events, but only enough
to be secure that he more or less knows what’s going on. Too much concern for
content, a trap many storytellers fall unwittingly into, reinforces their
misperception that understanding the words will enable them to act their
feelings. It will not! Here it’s important to reiterate that to the actor, the
text (the words) are not actable. Ipso facto, an actor who attempts to act what’s
not actable—the words—will fail to locate what is actable—the words’ feeling. Axiomatically,
the harder the actor works to understand the words, the more likely he is to
fail to appreciate their emotional consequence.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By way of example, let’s reiterate this words-aren’t-actable
storytelling pillar, mindful of the thinking room and feeling room, and also, as
Meisner might say, the stimulus that’s necessary to connect actors to their “emotional
impulses.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If I present this sentence to an actress—“ Katy Smith
walked to her office”—and then said to her, okay, act that sentence, what would
trigger her “emotional impulses,” or the acting response? How would she
interpret the syntax? The answer is, she wouldn’t because she couldn’t.
Essentially, she’s in the wrong word-room. Though the sentence is grammatically
correct, and coherently communicates Katy’s activity, to the actor it’s just
syntactic static. But what if I said to the actress, well, in this part of the
story, Katy’s favorite hat has been blown off her head and then kicked into a
mud puddle by Roy Jones, whom she’s walking beside? Now the actress can act, “Katy
Smith walked to her office!” Now she can intuit Katy’s distressed mood, access
her bereft feelings, and then connect—not the words’ meaning—but their
emotional consequence (the subtext) to the listener. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Getting down to some how-actors-act-fiction nuts and
bolts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We can now turn our attention to several fundamental
storytelling elements that will specifically demonstrate how actor’s actually act
fiction. Three of these nuts and bolts—perhaps first among equals of what I
tell narrators are really storytelling’s ten commandments—are: <i>Point of view</i>; <i>The Stakes</i>; <i>Discovery</i>. And
again, a reminder to fiction writers: these three commandments are being viewed
through the storyteller’s lens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To visualize these nuts and
bolts in action, we’ll enlarge the Katy/Roy example, replete with a surfeit of
adverbs, so that it more accurately reflects most of the best selling fiction
I’ve directed over the years. We’ll assume a female narrator reads: “Katy Smith
walked cheerily to her office with Roy Jones, and stupifyingly gaped as her new
pink hat blew unexpectedly from her head by a gusting wind, into a mud puddle
on the sidewalk, and as if that wasn’t horrible enough, when Roy carelessly
booted it, she angrily grimaced when he seemingly stepped on it on purpose,
though he could have stepped over it purposefully, too.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How then, <i>step-by-step</i>, does the actress act this
sentence? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">First, she intuitively
disabuses herself of the writing’s quality—good, bad, literary or pedestrian;
it’s meaningless to her, and therefore, to the quality of her performance. To
her, there’s no difference, say, between Danielle Steel, and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Why? Because, while these fiction writers may exist on opposite ends of the literary
continuum, their stories reveal identical emotions. Their characters are happy,
sad, distraught, obnoxious, etc. And since only the words’ feelings (subtext)
are accessible, thus actable, their literary merit is inconsequential. To the
actress, there’s no such thing as literary vs. commercial anxiety, just anxiety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Preparing to act the
Katy/Roy example, step one finds the actress internalizing the words’
emotionality: actually connecting her emotional impulses to the words’
feelings. Then on to step two, which requires her to organically (believably)
replicate the words’ feelings, and exactly as the author intends. If the author
writes, ‘she murmurs sadly,’ the actress murmurs sadly. If the author’s intent
is less apparent, she must employ her intuition and training to access that
intent. A daunting process sometimes, which is why we rely on her training and
intuition to organically simulate those feelings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Breaking down step
two—believably replicating the words’ feelings—is where we find the majority of
the actress’s nuts and bolts repertoire, including the three specific
commandments we just mentioned, that serve her effort to organically simulate
Katy’s emotional experience, and as the author intends? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Point of View</span></u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">: In
narrating fiction, among the actor’s most obligatory commandments, is: <i>Tell the story from the point of view of
whom, or what you’re talking about.</i> That directive’s importance is fully
appreciated when we understand that every single word in fiction—including
description—is imbued with feeling, or an emotional point of view. Every person,
place, or thing in fiction comes from an emotional place. A way to further
understand point of view is to read fiction and try and locate a neutral word
or phrase, one utterly devoid feeling, an emotional black hole. Not possible. Imagine
a fiction writer: writing and feeling nothing, then reflecting that nothing in
the words. Again, not possible. And remember, actors can only act feeling, and
so if they can’t locate feeling, activate the words’ point of view, there’s nothing
to act. Their default scenario is a reading, a rendition; think somnolence, or
Sominex.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In our Katy/Roy example, because
the sentence’s emotionality is revealed through Katy’s eyes, the actress
connects to Katy’s feelings, that is, Katy’s point of view. And what is her
point of view? Actually, it’s several. At first, it’s <i>cheerily</i>. And so the actress intuitively connects to a Katy who “walked
cheerily to her office with Roy Jones.” But then, Katy’s pov shifts to stupification<i>,</i> when her hat falls into the mud
puddle, and then to anger when Roy, seemingly accidentally on purpose, steps on
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Despite the gangly, convoluted
sentence, the subtext (its emotionality) is unmistakable, and like a plug in a
socket, the actress intuitively connects to Katy’s <i>cheerily, stupifyingly</i>, and <i>angrily</i>
point of view, in order of their appearance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Stakes</span></u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.
Exactly <i>how intense</i> are Katy’s
feelings in this sentence? Or, in actor-parlance, what are the stakes? To what
degree do Katy’s feelings reveal themselves? First, the actress senses the stakes
by connecting her intuition to <i>stupifyingly,
angrily</i>, etc. These are all feelings she’s had before, or can imagine
having. She may relate to walking down a sidewalk with someone, though, again,
this scenario isn’t her primary concern because scenario isn’t actable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How then does she believably
simulate these feelings’ intensity? Here, we refer to Meisner, to the actor’s
instinct, the actor’s heart—upon which her believable performance is predicated.
The actress relies on her experience and intuition to vocally match the stakes
she sees embedded in the author’s syntax, to replicate their power, or
intensity, and then connect that intensity (the stakes) to the listener. When listeners
sense that, indeed, her performance replicates those stakes, they willingly
suspend their disbelief, and are emotionally engaged, plugged in, not only to stupefied,
and angry, but to <i>how</i> stupefied, and <i>how</i> angry. Connecting to the stakes is
acting; it is how actors <i>organically</i>
act the subtext, rather than emphasize, enunciate or imitate that which isn’t
felt by them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Discovery.</span></u><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
Our daily lives unfold in the moment, in real time: that is, we don’t
know what’s going to happen next, even if we’re dead sure we do. Our experiences
aren’t scripted; we can’t flip ahead ten years to see what happens. Fictional
characters written as real, sentient beings respond similarly. Replicating
fictional characters’ spontaneous, real time interaction with events, other
character, and themselves, is another fundamental storytelling commandment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Discovery, then, is defined
as <i>activating the here and now</i>: Or <i>real time</i>, or <i>the moment</i>. Discovery maintains willing suspension of disbelief by
convincing listeners the story is unfolding right before their eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By the way, when narrators fail to discover, their reading
sounds like reading—stilted, or rote, pre-fabricated, distant, or reported like
the six o’clock news. Lack of discovery disconnects listeners from the here and
now, from sensing that it’s all happening in real time. When narrators fail to
discover, willing suspension of disbelief ruptures, and listeners become
restless, and bored. When it’s delivered a fatal blow, listeners are no longer
engaged by the subtext, they’ve tuned out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Discovery’s most important
benefit to the storyteller is that it stimulates an organic (that is, believable)
response to the subtext, and at the same time discourages what’s called <i>indicating</i>, or voicing, or emphasizing
what’s not felt. Indicating is really an intellectual choice to represent
feeling, imitate feeling, fake feeling by emphasizing words. Indicating—voicing
rather than internalizing emotion—is the antithesis of acting because it is not
stimulated by the subtext’s emotionality. Nothing separates the listener from
the story’s emotional consequence more than indicating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Discovery can be confounding,
even to experienced actors. The primary reason is because reading aloud is antithetical
to discovery. The very act of reading words that the narrator sees just prior
to speaking them is so counterintuitive to spontaneity. Especially when he’s
already <i>prepped</i> the book by reading
it in advance of the recording, which means he also knows the complete story,
including who-done-it! Additionally, most actors aren’t trained to read aloud.
Their film, TV, or theatrical experiences involve dialogue memorization and
rehearsal, a familiar process that encourages simulation of real life
spontaneity. Finally, the non-dialogue syntax is utterly foreign to the
performer, and almost terrifyingly artificial. While dialogue presents various obstacles,
such as playing multiple characters, including opposite gender, at least trained
actors are experienced in interpreting and simulating naturalistic speech. The
non-dialogue syntax is another story: People don’t naturally narrate their lives
aloud, especially in third person, so humanizing the non-dialogue, and then
spontaneously discovering its emotionality, just like a real person speaking in
real time, is arguably the storyteller’s most vexing challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For the storyteller, the major
discovery impediments—the act of reading, advance knowledge of the story, and the
non-dialogue syntax—are most effectively addressed when, perhaps surprisingly, he
seeks guidance from his number one discovery guide—the text itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Just how does the text earn
the actor’s favor, that is, guide him toward discovering the words’
emotionality? Three ways:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">First the obvious: Feeling-instructions
appear in the author’s dialogue and character descriptions. For example, “I
hate you,” ‘she said, angrily!’” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Second, actors discover less
obvious feelings in the syntax by sensitizing themselves to word order, and word
choice. Such as, “She just couldn’t work at this pointless job another day.” Here,
the actor intuits a particular distress, or anger in the phrases, ‘she just
couldn’t,’ and ‘pointless job.’ As an example of word order’s impact on
discovery, we’ll reverse two words in this sentence—<i>couldn’t</i> and <i>just</i>. Now
the sentence reads: ‘She couldn’t just work at this pointless job another day.’
Here the actor discovers a different feeling, subtle perhaps, but different due
to the word order. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Third, and often invisible even
to trained storytellers, are two fail-safe discovery clues that we’ll call <i>The Discovery Twins</i>, because they’re so
closely related, like twins. Twin One is <i>The
Punctuation</i>. Twin Two is <i>The White Space</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">First, we’ll explain each
twin’s discovery contribution. Then we’ll <i>hear</i>
how they work in tandem, hoping this demonstration will further illuminate
their unique and profound importance to spontaneity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Twin One: <i>The Punctuation</i>. All the text’s
punctuation—the period, comma, semi-colon, explanation point, m-dash,
etc.—serve as a discovery marker. Much like a buoy in a sea of words. To the
storyteller, punctuation indicates the end of one feeling, and signals the
beginning of another feeling. In actor parlance, a feeling is termed a <i>beat</i>. The new feeling, or beat, may
range from sharply to subtly different than what preceded it. But for the
actor, what’s relevant is that the beat is <i>new</i>,
therefore, what follows the punctuation is not part of the previous beat, or feeling.
In short, punctuation signals the actor: Old beat over; get ready to discover
the new feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Twin Two: <i>The White Space.</i> For the actor, the
actual white, or blank, space between the punctuation and next word is a
discovery stimulant: an <i>ah hah</i>, or <i>oooh, </i>or<i>, wow</i> indicator. The white space is a vibrant, emotional territory
that, when inhabited by the actor’s intuition, stimulates his discovery of the
feeling embedded in the words he’s about to say. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An example of how these
twins work as a team to activate discovery may further highlight their
significance to the storyteller:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Let’s focus on the
following sentences’ punctuation, and the white space: “Kathleen perused the
Spalding lunch menu. (Period/white space) Not another day of soup. (Period/white
space) Damn the diet. (Period/white space) She was going to order a bacon
cheeseburger. (Period/white space) No! (Explanation point/white space) A double
bacon cheeseburger, (Comma/white space), and fries. (Period/white) And a
chocolate shake!! (Double exclamation point).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Now I’ll read these
sentences twice: first, no acting: simply to reinforce focus on the punctuation
and white spaces. Then a second time, I’ll narrate as the storyteller who is
directed by the punctuation and white spaces to discover Kathleen’s feelings (and
you’ll excuse my less than award-winning performance).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">First: Again, listen for punctuation, followed by white
space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Kathleen perused the
Spalding lunch menu. Not another day of soup. Damn the diet. She was going to
order a bacon cheeseburger. No! A double bacon cheeseburger, and fries. And a
chocolate shake!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Now, as the storyteller:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Kathleen perused the
Spalding lunch menu. Not another day of soup. Damn the diet. She was going to
order a bacon cheeseburger. No! A double bacon cheeseburger, and fries. And a
chocolate shake!! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I hope you hear the discovery in the second version, and
can visualize how punctuation and white space create spontaneity. Incidentally,
you also sense the stakes, and can tell that this experience is told from Kathleen’s
pov. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If we open the storyteller’s head while she’s narrating, we
can bear witness to the storyteller and Discovery Twins’ at work. Listen to the
first few sentences: (I’m fairly chipper) “Kathleen perused the Spalding lunch
menu (period/white space—Ugh! Now I’m bummed) “Not another day of soup
(period/white space-frustrated, reeeaaallly frustrated) “Damn the diet.” Etcetera, etcetera.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There’s discovery. Discovered
feelings create immediacy; immediacy brings the fiction writer’s words to life.
Discovery is an integral component of the carpet’s magic that transports the
listener’s imagination toward willing suspension of disbelief. Discovery
transforms the listener from passive observer to engaged participant. In short,
no discovery, no storytelling. End of story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When audiobooks emerged in the late 1980s as a derivative
compliment to their printed elder, some readers—many of them college educated—balked
at audiobooks’ legitimacy. Most people casually listened while driving in their
car; cassette decks were becoming standard in newer models. And most audiobooks
were abridged—often by 70%. By the way, unabridged is the rule today. When
queried about audiobooks, readers’ common, pejorative refrain—<i>I read</i>—spoke volumes about the implication
that spoken word was comparable to print. The notion that reading and being
read to could ignite their imagination equally seemed impossible; after all, reading
and being read to <i>were</i> apples and
oranges. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In a very real way, that assumption is accurate. It’s also
fair to argue that reading and being read to are <i>equally viable aesthetics</i>. Rather than apples verses oranges, the
explicit notion that I hope this lecture advances, is that storytelling is by
definition, a performance art, a unique enterprise that deserves to be
considered an artist’s endeavor. How actors act fiction, </span><span style="color: #101010; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">and
why authors can’t possibly narrate their fiction as well as actors,</span><span style="color: #141414; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">is really meant to </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">inform,
and then persuade us to first imagine what it means to be an actor, so that we
can imagine what it means to be a storyteller, so that, then, we can imagine
what it means to be read to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I am looking forward to residing and working in LA next
January/February, and to my September Narrator’s workshop in New York, and
January workshop in LA (for information/registration, contact Michele <a href="mailto:michele@audiofilemagazine.com">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</a>).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finishing the MFA fiction program is gratifying, and will
allow me to put less time between blog posts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com149tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-14702158061193797252015-01-05T12:35:00.000-05:002015-01-05T12:35:13.934-05:00How To Direct Your Inner Director: A Narrator’s Guide in Five Easy Directions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Somewhere in the numbing midst of recording each
of my fair share of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how to</i> audio
programs, I can palpably sense time poking along like a slug, and then onset of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fidgets: </i>torso twisting<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>fingers
tapping, knees knocking; simmering impatience bubbles into roiling incredulity,
followed by full blown perturbation:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Okay,
okay, I get it already</i>! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seriously?
Eighty thousand words to say in what should have been a two-page essay that the
publisher could have still slashed by half, and easily left room for footnotes
and the author’s favorite recipes!</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Faced now with the harrowing prospect of inducing
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the fidgets</i> by succumbing to
redundancy’s trapping allure, this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how to
</i>post challenges me to say it coherently, say it briefly, and believe me, I
know, say it o<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nce! <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So, here goes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<u><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Note</span></u><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">: This post devotes
itself to fiction. Next post, non-fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For narrators who record fiction without the
benefit of a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storyteller’s director (</i>i.e.
one whose actable suggestions emerge when performance appears to be incompatible
with subtext-demand<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">): </i>After
activating your inner director with these simple, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions</i>, you’ll instantly connect to the text’s
emotionality, and—before your very ears!—transform into a more compelling, more
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hireable</i> narrator. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Oh, and these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions</i> come with this incredible guarantee: Upon
activation, if your performance doesn’t dramatically (or comically) improve,
email all five <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions</i>
back, un-friend me on Facebook, de-tweet and linked-out me: No questions asked.
And if retribution doesn’t suffice? On me: Dinner for two with Aunt Mary, that syntax
scintillator, pyrotechnic pronouncer, modulation master, and recent autobiographical
author of, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sell It, Don’t Smell It: I never
met a word that doesn’t need help!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Without further adieu:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction #1</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Act Now!</i>
And I do mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">act</i>! Storytelling is
100% acting, 0% vocalizing. When you prep a novel, when you sit before that
text in your booth, forget the words—they’re non-actable symbols. Remember
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subtext</i>, where storytellers
locate the words’ actable feeling. Bottom line: If you don’t act, you’ll read.
If you read, you’ll emotionally disconnect the listener—Aunt Mary’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spécialité</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction #</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">2: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From
Whose, or What, Point Of View Am I Telling the Story?</i> Before uttering word
one, engage the narrative’s point of view. Does the story begin from a
particular person’s pov, or is there a feeling embedded in the opening event or
description? Hint: Events and description have pov. All words have subtext. Speaking
without engaging pov is reading, and therefore, not acting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">#3: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What’s
The Feeling? </i>Now that you’re prepped to act, now that you’re connected to point
of view, what’s the feeling? Happy, sad, angry, frustrated, etc. Remember, only
feeling is actable. Not story. If you can’t specifically identify the feeling
attached to pov, you can’t act. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">#4: Ah, ah, ah! Don’t speak. Not yet. Not until
you’re certain about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Stakes</i>. Now
that you’re focused on acting, point of view, and the feeling, exactly how
intense is that feeling? On a 1-10 urgency-scale, how scared, how nervous, how
wary, how giddy, how frightened? Hint: Whatever number you assign, double it. Far
too many narrators err on the side of cautious commitment. Trust me. The
chances you’ll over-act are virtually nil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-Director
Direction </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">#5: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stay
Committed! </i>Keep your foot on the emotional consequence-gas pedal. Remember,
the stakes are embedded in every single word. Relax—worse, forget—your
commitment to the narrative’s emotionality, you’re finished acting. Hint: Vocalizing
</span><span style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica;">à la<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Aunt
Mary (including, modulation<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> (singing), </i>non-emotionally-predicated emphasis, employing the voice to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">help</i>
the words) merely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indicates</i> emotion.
And by definition, if emotion is indicated, it’s not organically felt: there is
no feeling to connect. Despite the best of intentions, lifting your foot off
the emotional consequence-gas pedal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>phoning
it in. Remove that foot completely, and you’re phoning in Aunt Mary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Finally, these self-directions are most
effective when given in order of appearance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So there you have it! Five <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Directions </i>that promote immediate storytelling. I
must admit, this advice-giving was fun, and sort of intoxicating! So much so, that,
well, would it really hurt to, ya know, repeat it, albeit, with a new slant, a
different spin? At the risk of reiterating, revisiting, reviewing,
regurgitating, and otherwise reordering, re-shuffling, re-working what’s been
stated as clearly, and as succinctly as possible, it’s worth taking just a few
sentences, or maybe a teensy paragraph, or two...Though, really, now that I
think of it, each <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self-Director Direction</i>
could be its own chapter, or book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">How about a series!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m looking forward to this weekend’s NY Narrator’s
Workshop (Jan. 10-11), which is filled. And also Chicago’s Narrator’s Workshop (Feb.
7-8) where openings remain. (For information and to register, contact Michele
Cobb: </span><a href="mailto:michele@audiofilemagazine.com"><span style="color: #0000ed; font-family: Helvetica; text-decoration: none;">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-32994319132375887642014-10-31T14:19:00.000-04:002014-10-31T14:20:36.654-04:00Never Try To Teach THE VOICE to Act. Doing so wastes the narrator’s time, and annoys the text <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">More
than other creative artists, audiobook narrators seem beset by the most downright
unfair paradox: The most obvious performance tool at their disposal—their
voice—is of no use to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With
few exceptions, audiobooks are performed by a single narrator. Successful storytelling
rests solely with the narrator’s vocal proficiency. There is no visual, no
music, no other performers to compliment, or enhance the voice. Or, so it might
seem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But,
as I’d argue, if reliance on the voice to affect performance is anathema to
storytelling, and the surest way to disconnect the listener from the book’s
emotional import, what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> the
narrator rely on to create a compelling story?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
short answer is: Acting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
longer answer is: Leave the voice outside the booth. Don’t let it in, despite
its protestations. No matter how vociferous and convincing its plea—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m so smooth, so resonant, so, so sexy, everyone loves me, you know
that, so please, trust me, I can help you</i>—do not vainly succumb! Concentrate! Concentrate on mining the subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
more precise, efficacious answer—and what I’ll attempt to enumerate on—is: First,
relegate the voice to its primary function—a sound-delivery instrument. Second,
remember that a voice isn’t sentient; it doesn’t possess cognition; it doesn’t
house feeling, and therefore has none to offer. It can be trained to imitate
(or indicate) feeling, echo what seems like acting, but then, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seems like</i> isn’t acting. Unfortunately
for some narrators, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seems like</i> suffices for acting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Narrators
who reflexively (i.e. unwittingly) employ so-called vocal techniques (I’ll
identify the most troubling to me shortly) to tell the author’s story only
exacerbate <i>seems like</i>, and
the outcome is detrimental to themselves and consumers. And for narrators who consciously
insist on their voice’s veracity, the paradox transmutes to paroxysm, and their
resoluteness becomes like a virulent plague on the emotionality embedded in the
author’s syntax. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ironically,
the more narrators vocally manage the words, the fewer vocal choices they have
at their disposal to shade the story with nuance, the more distant and
uninterested they sound, the less likely they are to connect the listener to
the text’s emotional consequence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Given
what to me is an immutable rubric—the voice can’t tell a story, only an actor
can—why do many narrators continually send in THE VOICE to do the actor’s job?
Additionally, if narrators can agree that the voice is little more than a sound
system (to be sure, some are more ear-pleasing than others), how can they
disabuse themselves of putting their faith in what amounts to a false-note
prophet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Unpacking
the first question, I’d speculate that many narrators secretly understand that the voice can sell, but can’t tell, a story. Especially
if they’re trained actors. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">But, for whatever reason, they keep this secret comprehension in the vault, as they say. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Perhaps it's due to the fact that they’ve been rewarded
by publishers and commercial professionals precisely because of their
exceptional articulation and timbre.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
my speculation that many narrators know the voice is not their ally, when I listen carefully to their narration, I sense they’ve accepted a
kind of performance-doctrine that equates voice quality with talent. And when they prep a book, I wonder what those narrators are thinking (perhaps
subconsciously). I wonder if they focus too heavily on, how will I sound, rather
than, how will I feel? How will I vocally distinguish these characters, rather
than—to coin a phrase I heard recently from Nicola Barber</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">—</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">how will I “dial in”
to what these characters are feeling? How will I make this terrible book sound
interesting to the listener, rather than, how will I connect this terrible
book’s subtext to the listener.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ultimately,
I’m more confident about discussing a few specific voice habits narrators
employ to affect the syntax, and what they can do if they choose to tell, rather
than sell, the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Prioritizing
the Words<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How
emphatically should I render the sound of this adjective, or that verb? How do
I authentically mimic a Mexican accent? What does a nineteenth century Dakota
territory Sioux sound like? The book says, Jane has a throaty voice. How do I realistically portray that quality?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If narrators' hierarchical eyes are primarily focused on word and phrase emphasis, a
foreign or regional American accent’s authenticity, or how to match an author’s
vocal attribution, then by definition, they are less likely to take seriously
the feeling inside these words. And when authentic emotion takes a back seat to
authentic vocalization, the text, the narrator, and the listener, suffer. At
best, narrators who prioritize what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sounds</i>
right over what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i> good, divert their attention from the subtext (where all the performance eggs
rest). At best, they risk imitating, and indicating feeling; at worst, they one-dimensionalize
their characters, as well as their performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pimping
the Words<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
pimp finds customers for prostitutes whose behavior he controls. Narrators who
pimp the words (albeit graciously and with honorable intentions) are effectively
controlling them, vocally gussying them up and selling them to the listener.
They sing the words, modulate them, accentuate and emphasize them; their vocal
mastery shows off their words (and them) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">to the impressed listener.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
the narrator vocally takes charge of the words, the rightful boss (the subtext)
is deprived of the opportunity to direct them, to cause them to organically react
to its emotionality, and the opportunity for authentic interpretation is lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pushing
the Words<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Push</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> asserts itself as a result
of the misinformed dictate: more is more. When the story, or the
characters, just aren’t big enough, present enough, the way to sell them is to activate what sounds to my ear like some glottal, thrusting-lever
that literally pushes out more air, more volume, that growls, grunts, heaves,
and gasps, all to make the point: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’m
really mad, really hostile, really happy, really in love, really a Chinese bad ass, really gonna kill you
dead.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Voice Antidote: Acting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It
may not be easy (though I’d argue it’s a lot more fun and aesthetically rewarding
for consumer and narrator), but when narrators treat storytelling as an acting
process, only then do they have the opportunity to build an organic connection-pathway
between themselves and their listener. Only then do they encounter an acting
lens that asserts: The actor, not the voice, acts; the subtext, not the voice,
controls the words; when the narrator acts, there is no push, because the actor,
not the voice, is running the show. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Summarizing
this essay’s theme, Aunt Mary does a mean Australian accent; actors connect
that Australian’s meanness to the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
looking forward to tomorrow’s NY Master Class, and the next NY Narrator’s
Workshop (Jan. 10-11), as well as Chicago’s (Feb. 7-8). (</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For information and to register, contact Michele Cobb: </span><a href="mailto:michele@audiofilemagazine.com"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.) </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And,
with some trepidation, looking forward to being Johnny Heller's quiescent guest at his narrator’s
workshop on Nov. 9<sup>th</sup>. And finally, to the upcoming publication of my
short story, “An Actress Prepares,” that will be narrated by Kathleen McInerney
at the end of November.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-59610978695354157432014-08-20T13:51:00.000-04:002014-08-20T13:53:58.479-04:00Bob and Debra <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">I am thinking about Bob and Debra Deyan. Bob lost his struggle with ALS yesterday. I wish for Debra, and for their families and friends, as much peace and comfort as is possible while they mourn Bob's passing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">I am also thinking now of my time with these wonderful friends and colleagues, and how I've felt being among them over the years, especially when we met in New York or LA.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">There are people in my life—particular people—I feel as if I’ve known forever, kind of like a <i>forever presence </i>by my side. Bob and Debra fit that <i>forever-presence</i> bill. Since I met them twenty years ago, or maybe a zillion—can’t recall now—I have always regarded the Deyans as a kind of <i>forever presence</i> in my life. That <i>forever presence</i> is enriching, and rewarding; it’s a comforting feeling born of a shared connection and shared empathy for each other’s experience as producers trying to navigate the vicissitudes endemic to our tiny audiobook universe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">This <i>forever presence</i> that simmers beneath my skin now is similar to how I’d imagine perpetually sitting in front of an ingratiating fire on a winter night, in the midst of a howling blizzard, the flames’ palliating heat binding, and bonding, a salve for what ails you. Hmmm, what a glorious feeling!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">Where I think I am going with this is an effort to express not only the meaning of this <i>forever presence</i>, not only how it feels, but from where it emanates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">In the past, I mostly saw Bob and Debra in New York, when they were attending an audiobook related function, and hunting up work (like me). Often, we’d get together at the cavernous Westway Diner on 44<sup>th</sup> and Ninth Avenue, near JMM Studios, where I worked. Three themes repeated themselves almost each time we met. Them complimenting me: <i>Oh, Paul</i>, one or both said, with the identical avuncular intonation, which made sense to me, as I regarded them as a kind of collective spirit, <i>you know the narrators all like you, all speak highly of you</i>; me complimenting them: <i>I want to be as successful as you both when I grow up</i>; and then industry chat focused on our common experience as audiobook producers, including requisite gossip about what publisher is hiring what producer, what narrators we liked, which ones drove us nuts (don’t worry, it was mostly celebrities). And all this palaver as congenial competitors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">Routinely, I’d walk from these informal confabs and always, always feel, well, really good. The Deyans accepted and valued me, and respected me, as I did them. Just how specifically good did that make me feel? Special-good, and happy-good; proud-of-myself-good; welcomed-good, and included-good. Sharing the gossip, the ups and downs we encountered as producers, with them, was, in a sense, a kind of breaking bread, though at Westway, the bread was occasionally unbreakable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">I remember now those silent, recognition-moments after one of us said something about something or someone that equally disgruntled us: usually a comment that hit some gnarly or vexing nail on the head. And we’d gaze at one another quite wordlessly and nod in a way that said,<i>Yeah, tell me about it, </i>or,<i> I know, I know; </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">or, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i>me, too</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">I found those silences connecting and bonding and warmly transcending. As professionals engaged in the same enterprise, we were, as Kipling’s Mowgli said, “of one blood.” Acquaintances, yes. Friends, yes. And also empathetic compatriots—respectful of one another—who traversed the same rutted path.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">More than anything, right now, if you asked me, how long have I known the Deyans, still I’d have to say, “You kidding? I’ve known them forever.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-84828729792805707492014-08-17T16:53:00.003-04:002014-08-17T16:53:48.146-04:00Commitment-of-the-Self: How Elizabeth Ashley Greets the Subtext and Why Narrators Benefit From Engaging This Essential Storytelling Process.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If
Elizabeth Ashley’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of-the-self</i>–a
transformative, all-in embrace of the narrative’s emotional import—could be
liquefied in a science lab, I’d request they bottle it, and then insist as
mandatory that narrators guzzle multiple swigs before uttering word one of the
book they’re about to perform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
recently directed Ms. Ashley, who recorded the abridged and unabridged version
of the biography, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tennessee Williams:</i></span><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, by John Lahr. Within
the first several seconds, it was evident that I was in the presence of an
actress for whom devoting even 99.9% of her aesthetic temperament to the text is
not an option. And when that temperament was unleashed on the story’s emotional
consequence, I sensed that her very survival depended on decoding and
connecting those feelings to the listener. While telling the story, Elizabeth
Ashley never negotiated with the emotional stakes, as if not awarding each
scintilla of feeling its due was debatable. Her rather forward-gear-only
approach to the subtext was simple and unabashed: Plunge in; consume it; no
leftovers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Returning
home that first night, I thought a bit about Ms. Ashley’s career as an award-winning
actress, notably her stellar performance in the Broadway revival of Tennessee
Williams’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cat</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On a Hot Tin Roof</i> (considered by many the definitive portrayal of
Maggie the Cat), for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Obviously, her
aggregate performance attributes propelled admiring critics and the public to
favor her work with lavish praise. Further contemplating those attributes, while
fresh from having spent a day in the studio with her, it occurred to me that
among the most outstanding—whether or not specifically articulated by her
admirers—had to have been this actress’s penchant for consistently plunging
every iota of her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self</i> into the
text’s actable marrow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">From
my perspective, it is precisely because of the causal relationship between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>commitment-of-the-self </i>and the listener’s visceral
experience of the story, that this fundamental acting process deserves the
narrator’s serious attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
hope that—beyond encouraging narrators to visualize an essential storytelling
obligation in 3-D—these metaphorical characterizations of Ms. Ashley’s approach
to the subtext (complimented by immense talent, to be sure) will illuminate a
prickly, and sometimes unrecognized, challenge that confronts emerging and even
experienced narrators: valuing the need to commit, and then prioritizing a
process that encourages them to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actably</i>
translate that value into compelling storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Before
interrogating this storytelling obligation, some perspective on the recording
with Ms. Ashley that might be distilled to: every narrator’s dream! John Lahr’s
erudition, the fact that the book’s unimaginably conflicted—perhaps tragically
flawed—subject is one of the twentieth century’s greatest playwrights, that
Tennessee Williams was a southerner, and that Ms. Ashley is a southerner who
understands every nuance that particular sensibility implies, that Ms. Ashley performed
in many of Williams’s plays and knew him well, and that she is also a good
friend of John Lahr, no doubt fueled her enthusiasm for the narration.
Mercifully, she did not have to endure inept writing, an obfuscating storyline
that moves with the deliberate speed of a cadaver, or worse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">John
Lahr’s immensely engaging biography (due on audio this fall from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brilliance</i>) observes the life of its
subject with compulsive objectivity. Equally, Mr. Lahr locates the reader (or listener)
inside the head of Tennessee Williams. Throughout the story, we remain inextricably
connected to, and palpably feeling for, this deeply troubled man. For Ms.
Ashley, this biography was a seductive gift that, with each bite into the narrative’s
emotional core, kept on giving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How
then do we understand <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of-the-self</i>?
And why is this special commitment so important to narrators, especially those
who aspire to elevate their craft, and move from reader to storyteller? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When
viewed through a storytelling lens, we can define <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of-the-self</i> as: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the
immersion of the actor’s temperament in the narrative’s subtext</i>. Note that
I’m essentially regarding self and the actor’s temperament as identical. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
first assertion narrators should deduce from this definition is that if they
don’t feel comfortable identifying themselves as actors, they aren’t
storytellers. And if they aren’t storytellers, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of the-self <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>process
will elude them, as it eludes all non-actor narrators, who may sound good, but
are not intuitively wired to connect feelings to the listener.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Axiomatically,
a narrator who is unable to commit the self is incapable of creating a
compelling performance. Always, and forever! (Certainly a compelling performance
requires multiple storytelling acuities.). In fiction, without<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> commitment-of-the-self,</i> the emotional
stakes that motivate the characters cannot be internalized by the narrator,
much less actualized, and subsequently, the listener cannot be fully engaged by
those stakes. In non-fiction, without<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> commitment-of-the-self,</i>
the emotional stakes that implore the narrator (the author’s surrogate, if you
will) to grab listeners’ attention with this fantastic story cannot be
internalized by the narrator, much less actualized, and subsequently, as with fiction,
the listener cannot be fully engaged by those stakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">While
a facile, or smooth, or beautifully-voiced performance may sound good, or good
enough, if the narrator’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self</i>
retreats from the subtext, or ignores it (the moral equivalent of a parent
abandoning a child) then by definition, the opportunity for emotional fruition
is lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">C<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ommitment-of-the-self</i> is an essential
constituent of the storyteller’s (actor’s) ethos. C<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ommitment-of-the-self</i> wills the actor to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">authentically</i> engage (rather than in-authentically indicate), and then
respond to, the subtext, because it is in commitment’s nature to revel in every
emotional nuance that can possibly be felt. When I hear a committed performance—and
I enjoy demonstrating this when playing back a portion of what’s just been
recorded during a session or in workshop—I’ll suggest to the storyteller, or
class participants, listen very carefully to the subtle inflections, and
intensely flavored pauses that heighten discovered feeling. These
interpretative moments cannot be directed by me, or consciously by you, because
they emanate from a far, far more instructive director: the moment (aka, the
here and now). And because you are committed, all-in connected to the narrative’s
emotionality, you are, ipso facto, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">in
the zone, and intuitively open and available to the emotions that scintillate
the story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">C<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ommitment-of-the-self</i> is oddly
problematic for some narrators. I often wonder, what’s preventing them from
diving into the subtext? Isn’t the immersion of self into fantasy what actors
do? What’s causing this half-baked, phoned-in narration that is often
attributable, not to lack of talent, but lack of commitment? There may be
numerous reasons why. I’d argue the following is applicable in some cases, if
not many:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For
the artist, actor, and storyteller, commitment is an especially high-risk, high
reward proposition that is particularized by its relationship to this
sensation: vulnerability. When commitment—along with myriad performance attributes
and circumstances—produces applause, huzzahs, and awards, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self</i> is acknowledged and celebrated.
When this commitment is critically (as in bad review, etc.) received, the
attendant feeling is somewhat akin to root canal sans Novocain. When the
actor’s performance fails, the actor’s self fails (as opposed to a misfiring
rocket, where culpability and blame may find many co-owners, and even then, those
responsible don’t equate their being with the errant rocket). All to say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of-the-self</i> may not be easy;
it is, however, imperative!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
exactly why is c<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ommitment-of-the-self</i>
such a crucial storytelling muscle? Simply, c<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ommitment-of-the-self</i> induces emotional connection. Unpacking this rubric
immediately reveals the narrator’s fundamental obligation to listeners:
connecting the self to the narrative’s emotional consequence. And if the
storyteller fails by one percent to engage the subtext, then full realization
of the words’ feelings is, by definition, impossible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To
be sure, compelling storytelling requires more than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment-of-the-self</i>. That said, when—and only when—actors
consistently commit their emotional (rather than vocal) selves to the subtext,
do they, like Elizabeth Ashley, encounter the possibility of authentically and
completely engaging the narrative’s feelings, and satisfying listeners’
expectations, one-hundred-percent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What
to Expect From Upcoming LA, NY, NY Master Class, and Houston Narrator’s
Workshops When You’re Expecting <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
looking forward to working with narrators in upcoming LA, NY, and Houston
workshops. In preparing for them, I continue to recognize this fact of audiobook
life: Increasing numbers of narrators are competing for increasing employment
opportunities. Many of those narrators (especially people with home studios)
have never worked with a director, and likely never will. Therefore, my primary
obligation is advocating actable techniques that assist talent to direct
themselves, and then practicing them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Upcoming Narrator’s Workshops: LA-Sept. 13/14;
NYC-Sept 27/28; Houston-Oct. 25/26. NYC Master Class Workshop-Saturday, Nov. 1.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At
this posting there is one slot available in the NY and LA workshop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For information and to register, contact
Michele Cobb: </span><a href="mailto:michele@audiofilemagazine.com"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m looking forward to working this week with former
workshop alum and busy storyteller, Caitlin Davies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-32460018341498232702014-05-21T15:15:00.004-04:002014-05-21T15:27:02.931-04:00APAC: what to expect of you’re expecting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">APAC is rapidly approaching. If
you’re attending this year, or wish you were, or happily aren’t, or—like the
narrators who’ve solicited me because they’re uncertain if this conference’s
promise is sufficient compensation for their travel, room and board—you are
still undecided, it might be useful to interrogate your APAC-expectations in
order to parse the probable from the possible, the wishful from the downright
magical.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Arguably, however a narrator
judges APAC’s fundamental worth, the determination to attend, or not, is also
likely to be arbitrated by uniquely personal concerns. Ultimately, what’s
efficacious for one narrator may be misguided for another. That said, I can
certainly investigate my reasons to attend, and hope that what I deduce—albeit
anecdotally and less than rigorously—has at least some application for others.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Reflexively, I begin with
self-interest. And maybe that’s where I should end. Or maybe not.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And as I delve into that
somewhat tiring cliché, perhaps self-interest is worth examining in order to
arrive at a more precise and coherent definition, at least for me. After all,
self-interest is the first reason that came to mind.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Self-interest: a kind of
definition</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’ll define my <i>self</i>—who
I am—as an unknowable source of mystery to me that houses, among other enigmas,
an opaque agglomeration of subconscious and conscious desires. I’ll suggest
that at least some of those desires could be regarded as <i>interests </i>(maybe
needs). Thinking reductively about next week’s conference, I believe that my
interests are twofold: professional and social.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Professional</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My professional interests are
served by networking with publishers who may employ me, and engaging narrators
I may eventually have the opportunity to direct or teach. Clearly, money is a
significant component of, or even a euphemism for, professional self-interest.
Therefore, attending a gathering of people who may be predisposed to solicit my
professional services is one meaningful measure of APAC’s appeal.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Aside from money, interacting
with peers, colleagues and industry professionals at APAC fulfills a
professional yearning to be recognized and appreciated by those very people.
I’ll be speaking on a panel this year, and that privilege (despite my pique at
being compelled to fork over a discounted registration fee for that
privilege—seriously?!) permits me to share my experience and expertise with
attendees. Professional recognition is rewarding; it engenders in me a feeling
of appreciation, self-esteem and self-worth. I am truly flattered that the
people I work with deem my thoughts about audiobook performance worthy of
public dissemination.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Social</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Since my well-being is not
wholly dependent on or dictated by what I earn from producing/directing and
teaching, the benefit I accrue from schmoozing publishers who might employ me,
or actors who might solicit me to teach, isn’t enough to ensure I’ll attend.
But connecting to narrators (many of whom I have an un-abiding affinity for)
and industry professionals (many of whom I deeply respect and have known for
what feels like a century) is more than enough to keep me from missing this
annual conference.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The more I contemplate social,
the more I associate my existential eggs with engaging narrators: They are the
heart, the soul, the reason audiobooks exist. I feel a shared sense of purpose
with narrators, especially those I’ve directed and coached. I am aware of their
aspirations as performers; I enjoy being privy to their hopes and desires that
emerge subtly, bubbly, deferentially, often with aplomb, and sometimes with the
nuance of a police siren. I am sensitive to a performer’s solicitous discourse,
whose surface language shrouds oscillating vulnerability, but evinces passion
and humanity. I percolate in front of that humanity. I revel in the often
brief, but coalescing encounters that communicate respect, commonality and,
yes, self-interest: a quick hug, a too-hyperbolic resume review, forced
admiration proffering, jocular barbs meant to bond and reflect appreciation.
It’s all good: I get it, and I enjoy the exchanges.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The more I evaluate these duel
self-interests, the higher the priority I assign to social, which sounds kind
of like a squishy pejorative: ephemeral and vacuous. Too close to socializing
for comfort. But socializing works for me, especially the particular kind of
socializing I’d call <i>Johnny Hellering</i>: high-octane, verbal twerking on
helium. Of course, I am rewarded by more prosaic palaver with familiar
narrators and those newly introduced: It’s never enough of a good thing. The
sum of these interactions—even while I feel like a hurtling pinball bouncing
from one networking attendee to another—more than compensates for the discount
I’m compelled to pay this year.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Oh, sure, there’s a bunch of
things that annoy me about APAC. I have complaints—maybe not galore, but I have
‘em. Serious misgivings. But obviously, they aren’t keeping me at home, are
they.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Stepping deeper into APAC, and
what’s-in-it-for-me, I’m more certain now than when I began this post that when
I greet the first of the many narrators that have rewarded me with their work
and kindness and friendship over the past couple of decades (Sorry, Aunt
Mary—always the exception), the primary reason I attend APAC will clearly
reveal itself.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">***</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I recently finished working
with the talented narrator (and former workshop participant) Sandy Rustin, and
will continue in June with Elizabeth Ashley, who is narrating John Lahr’s meaty
and fascinating biography of Tennessee Williams. And coming up, a book with
veteran narrator and former workshop member, Caitlin Davies.</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Future Narrator’s Workshops: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/workshop/paul-ruben-la/">LA-Sept. 13/14;</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/workshop/paul-ruben-nyc/">NYC-Sept 27/28</a>; </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/workshop/paul-ruben-tx/">Houston-Oct. 25/26</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Master Class Workshop in
NYC –tba, but thinking Saturday, </span>Nov. 1.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For information contact</span>: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Michele Cobb: michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<br /></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-52146624237112349422014-03-08T16:07:00.000-05:002014-03-08T16:07:21.743-05:00“Understated” Matters to Dramatic Storytelling, And How! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">I try to refrain from discussing specific books or narrators.
But a review I already had prior interest in caught my additional attention because it provides (albeit anecdotally) an opportunity to focus on a larger
proposition that, if confidently welcomed by narrators, will enhance their
performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">For the purpose of clarity and context, it’s important to note
that this post's thesis refers specifically to dramatic fiction (as
opposed to humor, or satire, or some permutation of non-realistic fiction).
Also, it’s important to emphasize in advance that dozens of very talented
narrators win awards, many without a director or engineer, and deservedly
so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">I recently directed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Kept</i>, featuring the actress and storyteller, Kate Udall, for Harper Audio.
Ms. Udall received a flattering review from <i>Audiofile Magazine</i>, along with an </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Earphones Award ©</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. But beyond flattering
sentiments, there’s a particular characterization by the reviewer that captures the heart of at least one of dramatic storytelling’s aesthetic demands, and illuminates a fundamental difference between reading a narrative and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storytelling</i> it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">First the review, then the characterization in question, and
then I’ll suggest that this particular reference to Ms. Udall’s performance is
indicative of the storyteller’s overall obligation to vocally match performance with the text's dramatic demand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">THE KEPT<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">James Scott<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Narrator Kate Udall makes James Scott's disturbing
debut novel choice listening. In northern New York in the late nineteenth
century, Elspeth Howell and her 12-year-old son, Caleb, set out to find the men
who brutally murdered their family. While the two are motivated by revenge,
this textured story offers much more. Udall's performance slowly peels away
carefully concealed secrets whose revelations leave no one unscathed. Udall
captures the characters' moral wretchedness in an unforgiving world, the rage
and pent-up emotions of mother and son, and the human capacity for cruelty. Not
for the squeamish due to some explicit raw descriptions, Scott's controlled
prose and Udall's understated narration make this an experience that will stay
with you long after you remove your ear buds. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile
Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2014]<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">The salient quote: “</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Scott's
controlled prose and Udall's understated narration make this an experience that
will stay with you long after you remove your ear buds?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Understood through a performance lens, what am I deducing?</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> First, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">“</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Scott's
controlled prose…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">If you believe <i>Audiofile's</i> reviewer, and
various print reviews,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> The Kept</i> is a
high-stakes drama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Scott’s controlled
prose” tells me that how the author has constructed his narrative's syntax is commensurate with the relentless tension and graphic descriptions of killing
and physical abuse that occur throughout the novel. I assume that “controlled prose” compliments the author's successful effort to keep readers on the edge of their seat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Second, “…Udall's understated
narration make this an experience that will stay with you long after you remove
your ear buds?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">As it applies to the
storyteller’s craft, let’s define “understated” as, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a performance tool whose aesthetic purpose is to match the stakes
(tension embedded in the subtext) while maintaining listeners’ willing
suspension of disbelief. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">I think “understated” is alluding
to, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the actor’s performance response
to the demand of the narrative’s “controlled prose.”</i> In other words, round
peg (“controlled prose”) fitting precisely into round hole (“understated”
narration). The reviewer is saying that Ms. Udall’s “understated” performance
connects listeners to the subtext in a way that matches the text’s dramatic expectation.
Voila. Great audiobook review.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">What caused me to unpack this
particular review was the reference, “understated.” It reminds me that so many emerging
and even experienced narrators seem reflexively suspect of understated, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">less</i>. When in fact, it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i> that often removes listeners’
interest because more disconnects listeners from the story’s dramatic import.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Axiomatically, if narrators want
to diminish listeners’ involvement in a dramatic narrative, they might speak at a
kind of normal volume. If they really want to deaden listeners' involvement, they
should speak louder and Aunt Mary-modulate. To be sure, emphasis, effusiveness
and yelling occur in drama, and more voice is sometimes required. But these heightened
moments are generally rare. Few narratives—unless they take place in an asylum
with no meds—are about crazy people who constantly shout.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">If “understated” is a preferred dramatic
performance tool, how then is it actualized? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">In three words: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Less, less, less!</i> Less voice. Less vocal
emphasis. Less tick-tock, rhythmically similar pace (This is achieved by the storyteller’s
attention to the point of view of the character being talked about, staying
inside the head when the character’s thoughts speak, and discovering events as
if they’re unfolding before the character’s eyes right now, because to the
listener, they are.).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">And why might this understated
narration “stay with you,” as it did the reviewer? Perhaps because the storyteller
focused on connecting the roiling emotions beneath the narrative’s words,
rather than concerning herself with how those words should be enunciated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">If I had a ruble (not worth so much
these days, to be sure) each time I suggested to an actor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Less voice, less emphasis, just get inside the head of the character,
work your way through the events confronting that character</i>, and heard, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Really, Paul? Seriously? No one will hear
me. No, I can’t speak that softly, and there’s just so many plum words for me
to emphasize</i>, I wouldn’t be rich, but I’d have a boat load of rubles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-50664422316707848782014-02-18T12:09:00.000-05:002014-02-18T14:39:27.368-05:00Just The Facts: A Storyteller’s Guide to Narrating Nonfiction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>Before continuing: </i>If youʼve just emerged from hibernating in a cave the past century, or recently touched down on Earth from outer space, youʼre likely unaware of the iconic television series, Dragnet. In order to address this serious pop culture deprivation, please visit YouTube and listen a moment to Jack Webb, and perhaps one of twentieth century televisionʼs most enduring musical signatures.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
And now...<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Just The Facts</i>: <i>A Storytellerʼs Guide to Narrating Nonfiction </i></b></div>
<br />
MUSIC: Dragnet Theme</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
FADE IN: A NONFICTION BOOK COVER—a memoir, how to, biography, autobiography. You name it.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>Featuring:</i></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>The Announcer: </i>Announcer </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>The Director: </i>Joe </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>The Asst. Director: </i>Bill </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>The Nonfiction Narrator: </i>McGuffin </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<i>The Engineer: </i>Tony</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
ANNOUNCER </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Ladies and gentleman, the story youʼre about to read is true! It is, after all, nonfiction. The names have been changed to protect the modulators.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
INT. RECORDING STUDIO CONTROL ROOM. TONY is sitting at the console in front of the Iso booth.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
DIRECTOR JOEʼS VOICE-OVER</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
This is the studio. New York, New York. I work here. Iʼm an audiobook director. Narrators record books here. Sometimes I hold auditions. Like this one, for my upcoming job. Itʼs nonfiction<span style="font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue';">. Here comes the next narrator.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue';"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
A NARRATOR strolls into the control room, smiling, iPad in hand. He enters the booth. He sits.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
DIRECTOR JOEʼS VOICE-OVER</div>
<div style="font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Name’s McGuffin. He’s like a lot of hot-shot, nonfiction narrators Bill and I run in to. <span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica;">They come in: eager, prepped. They think, I got this gig. Itʼs in the bag.</span></div>
<div style="font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">Tony nods and we can read MCGUFFINʼS lips: <i>Chapter One</i>. We silently observe him auditioning.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
DIRECTOR JOEʼS VOICE-OVER</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
And why not! They figure, whatʼs there to narrating nonfiction. Read the book in advance. Look up a few pronunciations. The rest? A snap. Piece of cake! McGuffin here is one of those narrators! Or was...</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
CLOSE ON MCGUFFINʼS FACE. He abruptly stops reading. He looks up from the mike. Heʼs scared. Plenty scared. Sweat rains from his face as if each pore was a hydrant.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
INT. CONTROL ROOM. McGuffin is seated in a black, swivel chair. JOE, and his partner, BILL, are both standing in front of McGuffin, so really, he never has to swivel. Tony is calm and collected; heʼs seen it all before.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
(Oh, and no more stage directions. You get where this is headed). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Read McGuffin his rights, Bill.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Youʼre a narrator, so you <i>donʼt </i>have the right to remain silent. Anything you inorganically say can and will be used against you. You donʼt have the right to an attorney. It wonʼt help. But you do have the right to an acting teacher. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
And based on your audition, maybe you better get one.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Hey, whatʼs this all about? </div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Weʼll ask the questions. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Careful, Joe. I think heʼs carrying.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
Hey, I ainʼt armed.</div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Doesnʼt mean youʼre not dangerous.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
Did you carry that melodious voice of yours in the booth with you?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Yeah, but the voice is my secret weapon.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Told yaʼ he was carryin.ʼ<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The way you modulated your voice, son.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Yeah?</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
Shoulda kept it a secret.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
Whatʼs that supposed to—<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Before you walk in that booth, deposit the voice outside the door.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
Thatʼs the law at this studio.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
But Iʼm a voice actor!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
Easy. You can keep your voice.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
We just donʼt want you to hurt listeners with it.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
So, McGuffin, youʼre a narrator.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Voiced thirty books.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Voiced?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
You mean acted, performed, right?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Performed! Acted! Whatever!<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Heʼs incorrigible, Joe.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Tell me what that means, later. McGuffin, we assume youʼve narrated nonfiction books before.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
My specialty.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
How so?<br />
<br />
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
My voice has the perfect combo fellas—bass and charm. <i>Bellissimo</i>, eh!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">JOE </span></span></div>
</div>
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Watch the salty language, son!<br />
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BILL</div>
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Letʼs get started. Did you just read the nonfiction bookʼs first two sentences?<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
Iʼd have read three, but you guys interrupted me!<br />
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BILL</div>
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Heʼs recalcitrant, Joe.<br />
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JOE </div>
No salty language, Bill. Remember, weʼre role models.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
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Whyʼd you stop me?<br />
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JOE</div>
Iʼm a director. I stop narrators.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
Maybe you shouldnʼt.<br />
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JOE</div>
Youʼre not the first actor to tell me that. Now, back to your specialty.<br />
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BILL </div>
Son, what do you mean, specialty?<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
Like I was tryinʼ to say, Iʼm authoritative, resonant, pleasing, smooooth!<br />
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JOE </div>
Techniques your Aunt Mary taught you, huh.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
You know my Aunt Mary. Hey, sheʼs innocent—<br />
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BILL</div>
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If he only knew, Joe.<br />
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JOE </div>
Ever occur to you that nonfiction narration is about acting?<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
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Yeah.<br />
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BILL</div>
And?<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
I let it go. Itʼs nonfiction. Whatʼs to act?<br />
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JOE</div>
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You donʼt mean that.<br />
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BILL </div>
I think he does, Joe. Maybe you do need a lawyer, son.<br />
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JOE </div>
Okay, McGuffin, we got another narrator cominʼ to audition in ten minutes.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
So let me finish.<br />
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JOE</div>
Not until you get straight about the facts.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
Huh?<br />
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BILL</div>
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Nonfiction. The facts. How to narrate ʻem.<br />
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JOE</div>
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Relax.</div>
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BILL</div>
Weʼre on your side.<br />
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JOE</div>
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Now, pretend youʼre a listener.<br />
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BILL </div>
You wanna hear ten hours of vocal sing-song?<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
Never thought of it that way.<br />
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BILL </div>
Or you wanna hear a storyteller?<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
I thought storytelling was fiction.<br />
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BILL</div>
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It is. Nonfiction, too.<br />
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JOE </div>
With a few differences. Big ones.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
I donʼt know what youʼre tellinʼ me.<br />
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JOE</div>
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You will.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
I listen to you guys, do I get to finish my audition?<br />
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BILL</div>
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Depends.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
On?<br />
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JOE</div>
You.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
Huh?<br />
<br />
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BILL</div>
Your secret weapon.<br />
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JOE</div>
The sing-song.<br />
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BILL </div>
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Itʼs a story killer.<br />
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JOE</div>
Give it up.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
But itʼs what I do?<br />
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JOE</div>
Did.</div>
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<br />
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BILL</div>
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Think of the dazed listener, son. The sing-song. Have you no mercy?<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
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Alright, alright!<br />
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JOE</div>
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Letʼs start at <i>Chapter One</i>.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
Howʼs that?<br />
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JOE</div>
When you narrate nonfiction, whoʼs saying <i>chapter one</i>?<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
Me. McGuffin.<br />
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BILL</div>
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Gonna be a long ten minutes, Joe.<br />
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JOE </div>
No. The author. Thatʼs who is telling the nonfiction story. Thatʼs who listeners think theyʼre hearing. So, thatʼs who you are.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
But Iʼm a voice...Iʼm an actor.</div>
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BILL</div>
Then <i>act </i>like the author.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
So, I gotta act like a real person. Hey, somethinʼs fishy here.<br />
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JOE </div>
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Weʼre givinʼ it to ya straight.<br />
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BILL </div>
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You gotta sound like an author, who is no actor.<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
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Just how do I pull that off?<br />
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JOE </div>
Authors aren't in possession of your snazzy cadence.<br />
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BILL</div>
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Or the smooth tone.<br />
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JOE </div>
They donʼt turn words into wavy music. You dig?<br />
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BILL </div>
Listeners wanna hear a real person. No characters, either. No character voices.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
But I gotta make the book sound interesting.<br />
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BILL </div>
Not your job.<br />
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JOE</div>
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You gotta make the listeners interested in <i>you</i>!<br />
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MCGUFFIN</div>
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Me?<br />
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BILL </div>
And this amazing story you are dying to tell them.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
So, I canʼt make the words interesting.<br />
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JOE</div>
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Unless youʼre a magician.<br />
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BILL </div>
The bookʼs the book. Canʼt juice the words. Not possible, son.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
Thatʼs it? I canʼt do characters. Canʼt use my voice to make the book sound interesting. Have to act like the author who canʼt act! Thatʼs boring, fellas.<br />
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BILL </div>
Only boring when your amazing voice interferes with your enthusiasm to tell this amazing story.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
So, youʼre sayinʼ my m.o. should be, listen to this amazing story?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Job one.<br />
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MCGUFFIN </div>
How do I interest listeners in hearing about five-hundred ways to get a job promotion when I canʼt emphasize nothinʼ? Stumped ya, huh?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
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Threw us a slow softball.<br />
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JOE </div>
Letʼs get this <i>emphasis </i>idea straight, once and for all.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
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Itʼs about time!!!<br />
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JOE </div>
Youʼre the author telling this story, right.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
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Enthusiastically.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Exactly how enthusiastic are you?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Over the moon. This book is my baby.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
What do you want listeners to understand about your baby?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Everything.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Just the way you do, right.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Think a listenerʼs understanding requires a lot of emphasis?<br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Think the ideas, concepts, language they gotta understand in order to be as enthusiastic as you, as smart as you, is gonna take a lot of emphasis?<br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Yeah, ʻcause Iʼm the expert, but theyʼre just gettinʼ started.<br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Youʼre the expert, McGuffin, the teacher, the majordomo, and all you wanna do is educate, inform, and convince us listeners to be as excited and informed about this topic as you are.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Then I <i>can </i>emphasize.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
Now youʼre cookinʼ!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
So long as the emphasis helps your listener understand this subject.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">MCGUFFIN</span></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">
</span>And dig it as much as me.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Emphasize till the cows come home.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
But remember, McGuffin.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
Caveat, huh.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
This is a family show, son.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Look, Joe and I here. Our beat is modulation patrol. Twenty-four-seven.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Sing-song that comes from your swanky voice is a crime.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
Yeah, on what grounds?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Vocal jive.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Emphasis that comes from a passion for listeners to be as enthusiastic about this story as the author is keeps the narrator on the straight and narrow, son.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Youʼre repeatinʼ yourself.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Iʼm a director. Occupational hazard.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Yeah, yeah. Do I get to finish my audition?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
We're all yours.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
First, I gotta confess somethinʼ.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Figured you would.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
When Iʼm narrating nonfiction, I never really picture my listeners, who Iʼm speakinʼ to. Iʼm just sorta yakkinʼ at the page. So, how do I imagine my listeners, like you guys right now, huh?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Wide-eyed. Weʼre your students. Eager to learn from you.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
To absorb your brilliance.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
To be wowed.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
And remember, weʼre taking notes.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
So, donʼt rush it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
Meaning?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Weʼre here to <i>think </i>about what you have to say, so you say it like you <i>want </i>us to think about it. </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Not forget about it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
And that will slow me down?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
Unless you believe we can take notes like Superman.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
And if youʼre talkinʼ a mile a minute, or makinʼ us woozy with the vocal sing-song... </div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Weʼre sleepinʼ, not thinkinʼ.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
One last thing. You love havinʼ us listen, donʼt ya?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Sure do.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
When you speak, remember, we wanna feel that love from you.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
We listeners canʼt always concentrate. So you gotta love us, tickle us with your enthusiasm.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Make us putty in your hands. Now, get in there and audition.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
We forgot the oath, Joe.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
Huh?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
Canʼt audition for nonfiction without takinʼ the oath, son.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Raise your right hand.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Iʼm a southpaw.</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL </div>
Heʼs got moxie like his Aunt Mary. Okay, raise the left and put the other one on this how-to book.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
When you record nonfiction, do you solemnly swear: to tell the story, the whole story and nothinʼ but the story, as if youʼre the author?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
I do.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
To speak as if to a small group, like a classroom?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
I do.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
To remember that every word in this book is gold?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Worth a kingʼs ransom.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
That your enthusiasm for the facts—and not your swell voice—will cause you to emphasize words?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
What voice? I left it outside the booth.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
To never forget your nonfiction m.o.?<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
MCGUFFIN </div>
Devotion to the listenerʼs enthusiasm for this amazing story.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
I like his moxie, Joe.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE </div>
Okay, itʼs storytime.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
BILL</div>
Give us the facts we wanna hear.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
JOE</div>
The way we wanna hear ʻem!<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Music: Dragnet Theme</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
In silence, we peek through the booth and observe McGuffin narrating. We also see JOE and BILL. Theyʼre nodding, impressed. Tony is calm and collected; heʼs seen it all before.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
DIRECTOR JOEʼS VOICE-OVER</div>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of audiobook narrators—in this city, in LA, and in home studios from Pittsburgh to Peking—who know that recording nonfiction is a tough job that demands concentration, stamina and true grit. Sometimes, these narrators all sound like plain vanilla. But sometimes, when they get nonfiction right, get what the listener wants from ʻem, get how to give listeners what they want, and deserve, these narrators distinguish themselves; theyʼre proud of themselves. Damn proud. Iʼm damn proud, too!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
the end</div>
---</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
Iʼm eagerly looking forward to working with Seattle narrators in March and during a soon to be posted April 12/13 narratorʼs workshop in New York (for information, contact Michele Cobb: <span style="color: #243afc;">michele@audiofilemagazine.com</span>). And September in LA (tba). Additionally, looking forward to participating on the <i>Cracking The VoiceOver Code </i>panel, Feb. 27<span style="font: 7.9px Helvetica;">th </span>at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, and on an APAC roundtable with some truly sublime storytellers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-85546185142417703972013-12-29T15:59:00.002-05:002013-12-29T16:02:20.726-05:00Falling in Love and Other Resolutions for a Storyteller’s New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">While any time is the right time to commit to becoming a more
compelling audiobook narrator, the new year may be an especially appropriate
occasion to do so. After all, the stroke of January 1 represents a recycling of
sacred time that momentarily frees us from guilt over the past year’s failings, presents
an unfettered opportunity to wipe our unfulfilled promises from the slate, and
reimagine a renewed dedication to practices that we somehow couldn’t sustain,
despite our implacable resolve to do so exactly one year ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Along with self-correction, year’s end also pauses time for
introspection and reflection. In that palliating spirit, before itemizing
resolutions that I regard as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">transformative</i>—meaning
storytelling notions that, when consistently practiced by talented actors, can
elevate their performance from mundane (and worse) to sublime (and
award-winning)—perhaps it’s worth briefly asking: Why should a narrator resolve
to enhance their storytelling prowess in the first place? I’d suggest at least
three reasons: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">First, we humans identify with our occupations. The work we do
is a significant indicator of who we are. We existentially conflate
identification of the self (worthy, valued, etc.) with feelings about our
professional endeavor (worthwhile, valuable, etc.). Wherever our identity is
located—within our soul, or maybe science will someday discover the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who we are</i> gene—if it’s fair to argue
that what we do is intrinsically indicative of who we are, it may be equally
acceptable to rhetorically and forcefully assert: Why the hell wouldn’t we wish
to do what we do well!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Second, and more prosaically, audiobooks are increasing in popularity,
while at the same time being taken more seriously by mainstream media,
including venerated publications such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wall Street Journal</i>. Additionally,
audiobook publishers appear to be increasing their lists and I can attest,
albeit anecdotally, to an expanding pool of emerging and established narrators
seeking coaching from me—all of which suggests more competition among more
narrators. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Third, there’s a reason why publishers and producers audition
narrators and listen to demos: They’re seeking to hire those on the desirable
side of the talent bell curve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">So, maybe there really is no time like this New Year’s Eve (or
sooner) for narrators to value consistent engagement of a process that places
them in confident possession of the storytelling tools necessary to be
considered a hirable, desirable and distinguished storyteller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Clearly, there are numerous performance resolutions that narrators may
rightly care to prioritize this coming year. But if there is a first among equals, it would be<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>to<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
fall in love with the process of being a great storyteller.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">There are at least ten additional storytelling principles that
warrant serious consideration from experienced professionals and aspirants. As a
director and coach, and faithful trumpeter of the belief that the human voice
remains the most powerful communicating instrument of all, I hope that at the
stroke of 2014, narrators will resolutely resolve<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: I am committed to falling in love with</i>: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Acting.
</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Storytelling is an acting proposition and I am a storyteller.
Therefore, I am an actor. Therefore, I’m wedded to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acting</i>—not reading, not narrating, not emphasizing, and not my
fabulous voice—only acting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">The
subtext.</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> Henceforth, I say to the text’s words, feh! You mean nothing
to me. To the author, yes. Words, listen up! I promise to pronounce every one
of you as intended. But, since you aren’t actable, move along while I immerse
myself in the storyteller’s preeminent calling: your emotional import.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Feelings</i>. I am a feeling conduit, primed
to locate and then connect each word’s emotional consequence to the listener. I
feel, therefore, I am a storyteller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Point
of view</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. Every word’s feeling emanates from someone’s or something’s
point of view and when I engage that point of view, so does the listener. I </span><b><span style="color: #151e37; font-family: "Menlo Regular"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">❤</span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Here
and now</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. I narrate in the present because the storyteller’s world has
no past, no future. What occurs in the author’s story is happening right <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vavoom</i> now!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">The
stakes</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. I’m already salivating in anticipation of confidently
embracing what’s oscillating beneath the emotional skin of my fictional
narrative’s characters, and expressing that emotion exactly as they would! And
I cannot wait to seize my non-fiction author’s need to tell his or her
incredible story! Seriously, if my narration’s intensity isn’t commensurate
with the emotions of my novel’s characters, or doesn’t match my non-fiction
author’s demeanor, well, I’m just not in love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Discovery</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">.
Introspectively speaking, suppose I knew what was going to occur in advance of
every event. Other than becoming incredibly wealthy and the paparazzi’s most
prized photo op, really? Seriously? No surprises in life because I already know
what’s going to happen? How boring is that! I wonder how a consumer would
respond while listening to me read fiction in a way that sounds as if the
characters aren’t surprised by events and people they interact with. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How boring is that</i>, they might say. So, if
I don’t discover, how will my characters! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Less</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. Meaning, less voice and often,
less voice than I think. Less, less, less. Why? Because I remember that in
dramatic fiction, volume tends to negate intimacy, especially when the dramatic
stakes are elevated, and an intimate storyteller is crucial to the scene’s
believability. If I remember one thing this year, it will be: volume is
dramatic fiction’s nemesis. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">More. </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Meaning, when narrating
comedy—which demands I take my characters seriously, just in a big,
presentational kind of way—I will up the volume, literally louder, and
exaggerate the characters’ heightened sense of urgency, seriously.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 22.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Exorcising Aunt Mary</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">. I
realize that Aunt Mary is an agglomeration of emotionally disconnecting vocal
habits. AM lives in me and in all narrators and thrives on non-organic affect.
She is an emboldened manufacturer of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indicated</i>
feeling whose devilish ways bamboozle me into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">modulating</i>, into vocally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pushing
</i>the words (as if they require help), and into forgetting that my wonderful
voice adds nothing (as in zilch) to the listener’s enjoyment of the author’s
story. Fie on you, AM! You may have snookered me in the past, but not this
year. Not in 2014. Because I am no longer in love with you, you devotee of
artificial inflection! I’m outa here. You’re yesterday’s kisses, get me, AM. I
am in love with a process, one that promises to make me a great storyteller.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">///<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">I’d previously written, “Next post: Non-fiction.” This time, I
mean it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">This past month I had the pleasure of directing NICOLA BARBER
(and will again in January), and FRED BERMAN; also RICK ADAMSON, who narrated,
“The Underdog,” a short story of mine that will be published this January in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pennsylvania
English /35</span></i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m happy to announce that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Audiofile Magazine</i> will be sponsoring
and coordinating my future Narrator’s Workshops. Upcoming will be in Seattle on
March 16, 17. Details forthcoming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This week I’ll be conducting an
audiobook directing workshop with several participants, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>including </span><span style="color: #3e003f; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Juliana Rueda Gutierrez</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, who is
in New York from Barcelona, Spain, where she directs bestselling audiobooks for
major Spanish publishers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, I’m building a list of
experienced and Earphone and/or Audie award-winning narrators who’ve discussed
a master class workshop with me and I'm considering format as well. Interested narrators please let me know (paulalanruben@gmail.com) and I’ll pass your name to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Audiofile</i>,
who will arrange dates and provide further information. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-4008152815069526932013-11-01T13:14:00.000-04:002013-11-01T13:14:45.116-04:00The VOICE: when a narrator’s trusted ally becomes the public’s enemy number one.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Arguably,
there’s a<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> reason for everything</i>.
However, this widely accepted cliché opens a dubious eye when one discovers
that what lurks beneath its simple assertion—that all human experience is
explainable—are problematic assumptions. That is, when a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reason</i> emanates from a non-sensible or invalid or even irrational
pre-supposition, its acceptance may breed far more harm than good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Lets
fasten this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reason for everything</i>
aphorism to a discussion of the audiobook narrator’s voice (more accurately,
its particular sound). Let’s assume that, indeed, there are multiple
explanations for why the sound of the voice has come to be venerated and
regarded as a narrator’s most valuable asset. That said, (and what this post is
primarily concerned with) there is at least one glaring non-sensible, invalid
and irrational assumption about the voice that lurks uncomfortably beneath
these various explanations. And belief in this wholly unfounded assumption is
at best: the narrator’s Achilles’ heel. At worst: it is the listener’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worst</i> nightmare. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">The
most inaccurate and deleterious assumption about the voice—and one that
generates irrational explanations about its efficacy in performance—is that the
voice can act. It can’t, period. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Inaccurately,
it’s assumed that timbre and volume and presence and mellifluous fluidity are
somehow conflated with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genuine emotion</i>.
Once it’s erroneously assumed that the narrator’s voice has the capacity to
generate even a scintilla of authentic feeling, explanations about the
relationship between the voice and narration are simply wrong, especially those
that equate vocal acuity with compelling storytelling. How so? Because when
Aunt Mary uses the voice as an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acting
tool</i>, it vanquishes any possibility that she’ll organically discover
feeling and replaces that process with empty-calorie, facile delivery that’s
devoid of real emotion: her specialty! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">The
voice can always phone it in; it can never connect. Said differently, when the
voice acts on behalf of the narrator the way Brutus did Caesar, well, we know
how that relationship ended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Why do
we (defined as modern, western society) pay such homage to the voice box? Often
to the point of idolatry. It’s as if this relatively uncomplicated mechanism,
this creator of audible noise, also possesses an emotive gland that, when
activated by the fortunate few, imbues them with mesmerizing authority and
preacher-like, persuasive power. (FYI, check out </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">5 Guys in a Limo</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"> on YouTube and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hear</i> what I mean). Interestingly, there is no 5 gals in a limo, but
women’s voices are most certainly valued by society as well as men’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">In
contemplating the many hyperbolic attributions—e.g., he has the voice of God—to
this tiny sound generator, I’m reminded of my son’s high school friend who, by
age 16, was nearly six-feet-four inches tall. His mother <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bragged</i> about his height with such pride, as if being tall endowed
him with advantages that implicitly condemned my relatively shrimpy teenager to
a life of average Joe-ness. And perhaps the sad truth was, she was right. After
all, if one believes something to be true, isn’t it? All of which propels me to
wonder further, what is so special about a gravelly or husky voice that propels
employers to pay (sometimes a fortune) for its use?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">As
neither a social scientist nor a historian, I’m not capable of addressing the
roots of our voice adoration or discussing why we seem to zealously fetishize
certain vocal characteristics as if they were divinely acquired. But as an
audiobook producer/director and coach, I can attest to our infatuation with the
voice and our misconceptions about its relationship to performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">The
truth is that the voice—especially when it’s construed to be smooth, cool,
resonant, powerful, sexy, etc., etc.—does palpably tap into our emotions. So,
does the voice make us feel? Yes. But the salient question for the storyteller
is: feel what? And for whose purpose? And to what end? In interrogating these
questions, the operative notions are: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">convention</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comfort</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">manipulation</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organic</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">When I
listen to a film trailer, or a perfume voice-over, or a political ad, custom
(convention) has conditioned me to expect a professional vocal rendition that
attracts me, grabs my attention, seduces me, persuades me, and leads me to the
promised land: spending money on whatever commodity is being advertised or
aligning myself with someone’s cause or proposition. I’ve come to expect (and
therefore will be dissatisfied when my expectation isn’t met) a particular
vocal quality that’s commensurate with the experience it’s voicing. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Conventionally</i> speaking, that means:
sultry female for perfume; macho man gravel for a movie thriller; authoritative
for political ad, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">When
my ears are infatuated by a vocal presence, I am, in effect, happily <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">manipulated</i>: I willingly gulp the
smooth, articulate, commanding Kool-Aid. Yes, I feel something, but what’s
necessary for the narrator to remember is that my aesthetic expectation is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to feel emotionally connected, but
rather, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comforted</i>. I am comforted by
a confident voice I conventionally expect to excite me about an enterprise
whose bottom line is usually the exchange of my money for a product or my
fealty to a given proposal. Offer me a voice I conventionally relate to
(revisit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">5 Guys in a Limo</i>), I’m
thrilled (aka, sold); conversely, eschew convention and proffer a voice that
does not match my aesthetic expectation, I am uncomfortable and less likely to
be interested in the bottom line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Is the
audiobook narrator’s outcome different than his so-called commercial voice-over
counterpart? Totally! Ipso facto, the voice that works for the commercial isn’t
relevant to book narration (fiction or non-fiction). The voice-over voice
delves into and manipulates listeners’ feelings in order to satisfy someone
else’s desired outcome. The storyteller’s voice is in the service business too,
but its master is the subtext: feelings the author hopes to convey to
readers and listeners. In order for the audiobook narrator’s voice to effectively serve the narrative, it cannot manipulate feeling, it cannot generate a call to
action, it cannot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">act</i> on behalf of
the text. The storyteller’s voice can speak, but only when spoken to by the
subtext. Then, the vocal emphasis that emerges is predicated on the narrator’s
having <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organically</i> connected to the
story’s emotional consequence, not what the voice thinks it must indicate in
order to represent a given feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">This
post’s thesis bears repeating: the voice can’t act. Therefore, a narrator who
desires to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>interpret a book can
logically assume that how the voice sounds should be as a result of how the
narrator feels based on what the text demands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">To be
sure, a narrator’s voice can enhance performance by varying pace, volume,
pitch, etc. But only when those techniques serve the text. I often direct
narrators who are working on dramatic fiction to, in effect, demote their
voice: less volume—less, less, less. No emphasis, none—flat, flat, flat. (FYI,
the opposite for comedy). These are very counter-intuitive directions for those
who believe in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">power </i>of their
voice. It’s as if I’m telling them to remove their winter coat in the middle of
a blizzard. But when narrators relegate the voice to servant rather than boss,
when they empower themselves to focus on the given feelings the text is begging
them to connect to, they suddenly find themselves telling a story more
powerfully; they reflexively discover and organically emphasize feelings that
could not be directed by anyone other than their own intuition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Is
commercial voice-over work acting? Not if one characterizes acting as an effort
to truthfully portray real emotion. Affecting a feeling with the voice is not
acting; it’s imitating. Is audiobook narration acting? Yes. Otherwise, it’s
voice-over acting. And that’s not acting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">Viewed
through an acting lens, the audiobook narrator’s voice is incapable of creating
real emotion. That’s perhaps its greatest limitation. For those who do regard
audiobook narration as acting, the primal sound of one’s voice while engaging
the story and then connecting those feelings to the listener is an asset beyond
words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">Next post: Non-fiction. I received an email from an
award-winning narrator who has not yet recorded non-fiction and when she
listened to a friend’s effort, she was mortified. “</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;">She's a good actress and she makes her living doing
voiceovers and audiobooks. But she was absolutely terrible!” One person’s
opinion, to be sure. But I’ll offer mine and how I think narrators can best
serve the non-fiction author.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: no;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: no;">I
recently directed Adam Grupper—a passionate and connected storyteller—in my
first published short story. I look forward to working with Christian Baskous
in another published story that’s included in the same collection as the one
featuring Adam. Additionally, I look forward to working with Kate Udall next
week, and conducting an audiobook webinar for John Florian’s VoiceOverXtra on
Nov. 11<sup>th</sup>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-17006093483544897322013-09-17T14:55:00.000-04:002013-09-17T14:55:06.062-04:00How Lee Daniels’ The Butler Serves Audiobook Narrators<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">While
observing Forrest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey in the film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lee Daniels’ The Butler</i>, it occurred to me that each performance
offers the audiobook narrator lessons that are applicable to storytelling. One
performance is indicative of what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">works</i>,
the other a work in progress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is
fair to argue that for as many people as have viewed this film there may be as
many valid opinions about the quality of its co-stars’ performances. In
proffering my clearly opinionated notions about these performances, my larger hope
is that audiobook narrators will regard the notions (as opposed to my opinions)
as viable lessons that can assist them in their effort to become more
compelling storytellers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For
me, Forrest Whitaker’s performance worked; Oprah Winfrey’s worked sometimes,
and sometimes it didn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Actors
and their show biz brethren are particularly prone to critique performance on the
basis of what worked or didn’t, especially while conversing with their peers,
as if only creative types really get what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worked</i>
means. How do I define <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worked</i>? My baseline
definition—one that applies to audiobook narrators as well as all performers,
whether its film, theatre, TV, dance, music, etc.—is: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organically connected emotion</i>. I’m certain this definition is no
surprise to anyone who’s read this blog. Simply stated, when the actor (or
storyteller) organically connects the subtext’s emotionality to the viewer or
listener, the performance works. Conversely, when the actor fails to
organically connect the subtext’s emotionality, the performance doesn’t work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lee Daniels’ The Butler</i>, Forrest
Whitaker organically connected the subtext to the viewer and Oprah Winfrey was
far more challenged, and ultimately, not consistently successful in her effort.
In focusing on why this was so, I again want to insist that whether one
specifically agrees or disagrees with this assessment of performance, the
larger lessons remain important for any narrator who regards him or herself as
an actor and storyteller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The three
performance issues I’ll interrogate are: the stakes; less-less-less;
indicating. Appreciating their impact on performance is central to appreciating
why one of the film’s stars connected and the other misfired. Additionally, I’m
hoping that as narrators consider these issues, they’ll appreciate why one
audiobook performance is compelling and another is uninspired, boring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I was
engaged by (connected to) Forest Whitaker’s performance throughout the film. In
terms of the three issues I’m raising, that’s because: his emotional response was
always commensurate with the stakes; he vocally and physically matched the subtext’s
demand (he never <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">helped</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pushed </i>the words<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">; </i>never inappropriately physicalized a feeling); his response to the
script’s words and the other characters appeared reflexive, suggesting that it emerged
from his visceral connection to the subtext and therefore was organic, and
real. He was, so to speak, plugged in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Ms.
Winfrey’s response to the stakes didn’t always satisfy their intensity; she
seemed not quite as mad, not quite as sad, not quite as happy, not quite as
frustrated: as if the stakes weren’t quite as high as I imagined the subtext
was telling her they were. At times she seemed to vocally and physically overwhelm
the words, as if we (the audience) might not get what she was feeling so she
had to vocally jump-start or kick the words. And she had to over physicalize
the feelings the language suggested as well. Finally, she sometimes appeared
emotionally uncoupled from the words’ feelings (albeit impossible to know for
sure) and that left her no choice but to, in effect, imitate or indicate an
emotion because she simply wasn’t grasping it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I am
hesitant to offer too many examples of instances where what’s mentioned above
occurred because that’s liable to create an argument that, in turn, forces the
conversation towards who is right and who is wrong. How can Paul say this? He
doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Or, I agree with Paul. He’s absolutely
right. That said, it seems disingenuous to offer no examples, so here’s a
couple:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Towards
the end of the film, Cecil (Forest Whitaker) confronts his estranged son at an
outdoor protest. It is, arguably, one of the most powerful, emotionally
consequential scenes in the film. Having banished his son from his life, Cecil
realizes he’s made a catastrophic error, and comes to make amends, to apologize,
to re-connect to him. The stakes are through the roof! In that heightened
moment when the two meet, the son asks, what are you doing here? Cecil speaks
not much above a flat whisper; he is more subdued than overtly charged; his
body and physical persona quiet, oddly weak. In this still moment, Mr. Whitaker
had pulled me inside him (or perhaps the other way around) and it was as if I
was that father, paralyzed by grief, yearning to be forgiven by my son. I was
connected. The performance worked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The
scene between Howard (Terence Howard) and Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) in which she
wards off her neighbor’s provocative sexual advances found Ms. Winfrey somewhat
uncomfortable and unfocused, as if she was aware of herself trying to find the
proper reaction to Mr. Howard, who, by the way, appeared laser-focused and
confident. Specifically, when Howard physicalized his advances and made plain
with his language that he wasn’t surrendering his sexual pursuit of Gloria, I
asked myself while watching, what are the stakes on a scale of 1 – 10? While
Mr. Howard pursued at a ten, Ms. Winfrey—whatever she may have been
feeling—seemed to be waffling, unable to committedly attach herself to that
feeling. And what exactly was that feeling? Was she insulted, aghast, tempted,
angry, seduced, all or none of these? It just wasn’t clear moment to moment, at
least to me. But what did emerge was a less than one hundred per cent, focused
grasp of whatever state she was trying to evince. Ms. Winfrey seemed to be
flailing about a bit, like an overwrought puppy digging for a bone, trying to
unearth the subtext oscillating beneath the words, but just not discovering it.
Unable to organically connect, she was left no choice but to manufacture the
feelings, vocally and visually. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As I
viewed this high stakes scene between Howard and Gloria, what appeared to be
working fully for Mr. Howard wasn’t working for Ms. Winfrey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It’s
important to reiterate that my interpretation of these performances—informed or
uninformed—is subjective and based on my perceptions, not immutable fact. But I
hope that the larger performance issues that have been raised—the stakes,
less-less-less, indicating—are not only applicable to audiobook narrators, but can
act as takeaways the narrator can consider when thinking about what constitutes
compelling storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Looking
forward to recording tomorrow with Nicola Barber, whose performances work!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-85225523539701971932013-07-29T11:38:00.000-04:002013-07-29T12:18:38.635-04:00Becoming a Confident Storyteller: step one to mastering the craft of audiobook narration<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">In an effort to master the craft of storytelling,
confidence isn’t preferable, it’s imperative. In basketball there’s a universally
accepted truth: no D (defense), no W (win). Axiomatically reimagined in the
audiobook narrator’s parlance: no C (confidence), no S (storytelling).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What does confidence mean? Specifically, what do I
mean by confidence when it’s connected to storytelling? Why is confident
storytelling so crucial to mastering the craft of audiobook narration? And if
confident storytelling is a prerequisite for mastery, exactly how do narrators
cultivate this confidence process? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Defining the Confident Storyteller<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Confidence is a state of being, a mind set, a belief
in one’s self, often associated with one’s behavior or ability to perform a
given task. From there we can define the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">confident
storyteller</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one who faithfully
believes in one’s self as the sole interpreter of feeling</i>. And where is
that feeling located? The subtext. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What this definition implicitly takes for granted is
that the subtext, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>the text, is
the emotional pool from which the narrator accesses the feelings he or she
connects to the listener. Beyond that implication is a grander, slightly
transcendent, notion that indicates just how aesthetically critical the
confident storyteller is to the listener’s experience of the narrative: without
the narrator’s committed and focused devotion to the subtext, there is no
possibility of involvement because the narrator hasn’t connected listeners
emotionally. There is no emotion for the listener to be involved with</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">A narrator who is disengaged from the subtext is effectively
asking the listener to passively hear </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">the text’s
words read aloud. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Addendum: emphasized or modulated words that don’t
emerge from the actor’s organic connection to the subtext</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">no matter how
confidently evinced</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">are indicative of Aunt Mary’s style, not the storyteller’s. Non-organic,
vocal thwacking suggests (even if the intent is sincere)) a kind of hubris that
implies the narrator will arbitrate emphasis because clearly the subtext can’t.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Faith and the Subtext<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When narrators fail to consistently respect and
prioritize the subtext’s efficacy—as if connecting to the emotional stakes
isn’t always and absolutely necessary—they deprive listeners of the story’s
full emotionality. No matter how vibrant or unique the actor’s voice, no matter
how well or how often the actor animates the words, a narrator who doesn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faithfully</i> engage the subtext all the
time can hope at best to create a non-committal, lukewarm version of the
narrative’s emotionality. At worst, disregard for the subtext disconnects
listeners; it bores them. Narrators who do not engage the subtext are, in
effect, asking listeners to pay full price for a half baked story. And here’s
the resulting irony: no matter how confidently the actor proffers his or her
vocal chops, what is revealed to the listener is a tepid, tentative rendition
or indication of feeling. Listeners are hearing a narrator who is not in
possession of emotional confidence: arguably a disservice to the listener, not
to mention the audiobook publisher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The First Step<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Becoming a confident (and commensurately, a more
compelling) storyteller begins with the narrator’s first step: the belief that
the yellow brick road to mastering the craft of audiobook narration is located
in the subtext, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the words. This
step’s greatest challenge</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">especially for emerging narrators</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">is that it is so counterintuitive
because as the metaphorical foot is raised, it admonishingly cries out: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t act the words; engage their feeling</i>!
And this admonition applies to drama, comedy, fiction and non-fiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m not sure if there’s a suitable <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acting</i> definition that would satisfy all
performers, let alone academicians. But what I’m more comfortable asserting is
the following: for many audiobook narrators, acting means consciously <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">helping</i> the text. Acting means don’t
just sit there, vocally highlight or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">push</i>
the words, like a lion tamer snapping a whip and cracking demands at the
nonplussed cat: do this, now do this! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Engage the subtext and each individual word’s
emotional consequence will direct you to emphasize it (or not) organically:
that’s storytelling. FYI, narrators are often surprised at how vocally
non-demanding and aesthetically satisfying this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">engage the subtext</i> process is to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Confident storytellers dive, not so much
unconsciously, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">without conscious
agenda</i>, into the first word’s subtext and intuitively connect to it</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">not as
something to pronounce, but to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i>.
Confident storytellers eschew meaning and chew feeling because the intellectual
story in front of their eyes is irrelevant to them</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> as actors: only feelings are
actable. Engaging the emotion embedded in the words and connecting that feeling
to the listener is the narrator’s only responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Once narrators have faith</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">that the
subtext is the straw that stirs the narrative’s emotional drink, they can
begin, if I can conjure this image, sucking the subtext as if they’re parched
vampires who’ve got thirty seconds till the crack of dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Confident storytelling is the result of myriad
performance practices that become second nature over time. But these collective
techniques are subsumed by the storyteller’s job-one: don’t act, don’t act,
don’t act; connect, connect, connect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Becoming a Consistently Confident Storyteller<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">If Rome was built in a day it likely wouldn’t have
become the most dominant world power of its time. Confidence isn’t achieved
overnight. Narrators who, often bravely and against their intuition, determine
that flexing untried performance muscles in order inhabit the subtext is in the
listener’s interest, must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consistently</i>
flex as if each word they say demands this focused commitment from them: it
does. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Believing in the subtext and engaging it are
separate and unequal endeavors. In other words, believing is easier than doing.
But before you can do, consistently, you gotta believe, consistently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">How can the narrator be certain their best effort to
consistently build confidence is paying off? I’ve never met an actor who isn’t
hyper aware of themselves as they work, who isn’t tuned in to the nuances of
their performance as if their entire body was an oscillating antenna. Listen
back to your performance. Listen often, particularly when you detect vocal
slippage (loss of faith), when you sense movement away from organically
connecting to the subtext and towards the dark side: modulation and other vocal
schtick. Listen to yourself as if you’re a consumer and determine whether what
you’re hearing sounds good or feels good (feels good wins). Who more than the
actor can truthfully critique whether what’s emerging from that actor is a rose
or something akin to a beautiful, albeit, synthetic flower. If you think, hmmm,
sounds a little forced, a little pushed, a bit sung, or hit, don’t sit for it!
Rewind! Go back and confidently believe that your obligation as a narrator is
about confidently letting go of the words and grasping their feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">/// <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m eager to soon be working with John Keating (If
you haven’t seen him off-Broadway in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Weir</i>, currently playing at the Irish Rep., I thought the show and John were
equally sublime.) and Caitlin Davies. Additionally, these posts are coming a
bit more slowly as I am continuing to write fiction during my MFA creative
writing program (I think of this process as grinding away with an ax in my
head.). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I will be posting narrator workshops on my website
(Tribecaaudio.com) shortly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-80524596094002620932013-05-29T06:54:00.000-04:002013-05-29T06:54:59.582-04:00Figuring APAC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Today is APAC day. A perennial question related to the event seems
to blossom around this time of year as well</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. I</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">’ve heard it intimately murmured by
conversing narrators, mostly as an unplanned aside loosely interjected and then
loosely dismissed during conversations about other things that matter to them</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. The </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">perennial </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">question i</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">s, does APAC represent a worthwhile experience for narrators? Does
its perceived value measure up against the registration fee</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">and for those
attending from out of town</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">the additional travel and lodging expenses? (FYI, Aunt
Mary has informed me that APAC is awesome if you know how to work it and she will
be utilizing her unique “escalator” job acquisition strategy she conceived and
has perfected. No gigs yet, she reported in her last missive, but her strategy
is, she assured me, “foolproof.”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Aside from AM, whose opinions appear to me to be reflexively triggered
by something inherently unrefined, a more considered unpacking of APAC’s value
might include asking narrators what they most desire from this event and then
looking to the participants most capable
of responding to that desire for their take on APAC. In lieu of a survey that
specifically addresses narrator expectations, let’s invent a prototypical narrator
and invite him (I’ll reverse the gender for my second prototype) to tell us
what he’s most hopeful for upon entering the Javits Center.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Meet Pat. Pat has some pretty solid credits. Pat recently moved to
Phoenix where he works out of a home studio. Before leaving New York, Pat
recorded several audiobooks for major publishers at JMM and CDM. He was even once
lucky enough to have worked with the awesome director, Paula Parker. He has an
agent who, mercifully, <i>gets </i>audiobooks,
but sadly, not Phoenix. Pat now seeks work independently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">PAT: Thanks, Paul, for this opportunity and for saying you’ll
listen to my demo</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">oops, did you drop my card? Here’s another</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">—a</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">nd for references to
other publishers and for telling me really useful stuff, like, there’s a lot of
work out there for good storytellers. Totally inspiring. And did I tell you I
just love reading stories to my kids? Later. Okay, so, what do I want from
APAC? A JOB, A GIG. AN AUDITION. SHOWCASE MY STUFF. ASK HOW TO GET A RESPONSE
FROM PUBLISHERS AND PRODUCERS I’VE EMAILED, CALLED AND REELED PROSTRATE IN
FRONT OF, ALL TO NO AVAIL. Now, is there anything about what I want most from
APAC that you don’t get? Oh yeah, I also like the panels. I’ve learned neat
stuff over the years, like how to liquidate mouth bubbles with an apple and how
to create a more boffo sound with more boffo equipment and of course, reuniting
with friends, peers and fellow beseechers</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">But really, succinctly, categorically,
I JUST WANT TO WORK!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Thanks, Pat. I hear you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">To be sure, Pat may not precisely represent every narrator’s
outcome. But I’ll argue that if you’re a narrator attending APAC today, you
will relate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">What about participating publishers and producers who do the
hiring? Do they envision APAC as an employment “combine” (used as a noun, as in
a place to <i>scout</i> talent)? I created a
prototypical publisher who speaks unguardedly (my imagination was cranked up,
eh!). She’s attending the conference for the umpteenth time and definitely
hires talent. I asked, is hunting for narrators at APAC your priority?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Samantha: Well, funny you should put it that way. There are a few
narrators my publisher has regrettably employed and I did feel like hunting
them down when I got here, but I don’t think that’s capturing the spirit of
your question. APAC provides me various opportunities, including the chance to
meet new narrators, renew old acquaintances with those I already employ, and forget
about others as soon as I can cordially relieve myself from yet another
narrator palaver-fest I didn’t solicit but understand I must patiently endure.
Except that out of control Aunt Mary who once got me on the escalator and then,
I swear, had it turned off. The longest fifteen minutes of my life! Anyway, besides
working with my colleagues and attending to various job-related directives issued
by my superiors, am I actively seeking to employ narrators, even those with no experience?
Sure. Will I retain the card or demo thrust into the palm I kindly opened for
the sake of protocol rather than my sake? Absolutely! Would I hire a narrator I
met for the first time at APAC? Why wouldn’t I! What are the chances I will? I
once did. More than once, actually. Well, let me think on that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Thanks, Samantha. I hear you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">Well, that’s Pat’s take on APAC and Samantha’s take on Pat, or
APAC’s Pats. All to suggest that if securing the next gig (or first one) is a narrator’s
priority, does APAC</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">along with its ubiquitous panels, occasional mini-audition- and numerous
schmooze-opps</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">meet the narrator’s fundamental need? Let’s assume Pat and Samantha
feel reliably close to attendees (including ourselves) we’ve all witnessed
distractedly skittering nonstop around APAC. If they do, might reflecting on
their commentary stimulate new insights that address whether forking over the
bucks required to attend APAC should be regarded as</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 200%;"> </span><i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">de rigueur</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">, or merely whimsy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: 0in .5in 49.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 200%;">The eye of the beholder may be the location for life’s most
salient truths. Through that lens, when assessing APAC as a value added
proposition, might one argue that narrators should consider not only what’s in
their eye but the eye of those they behold?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-43593342696628580432013-05-01T09:08:00.000-04:002013-05-01T09:08:15.958-04:00Care For The Storyteller-Self: Exercising Storytelling Muscles by Redefining the Purpose of Book Preparation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Whether
I’m coaching emerging or experienced narrators, my outcome is to assist them in
becoming compelling storytellers. My challenge is to suggest and then direct
narrators to employ various performance tools that locate them in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storytelling </i>ballpark.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In order
to act like storytellers, I’d argue that narrators must <i>become</i> storytellers, not only while recording, but before, while
prepping their book. Consistently and correctly narrating like a storyteller
means: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prep the book like one</i>, so
that once the recording begins, narrators have become their<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>storyteller selves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">How
does the narrator prep as a storyteller? The question argues for a redefinition
of book preparation’s purpose by moving away from focus on the words and
towards focus on the words’ feelings. And what’s the larger implication of
prepping this way? I’ll argue, care for the storyteller-self. And that care’s
direct consequence: Compelling storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Whatever prepping the narrative may imply, for storytellers, it must be no less
than caring for (or exercising) the storyteller-self. This care prioritizes identifying
storytelling muscles and then creating a routine, or practice, that literally
exercises (or strengthens) them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’ll
argue that when book prep is envisioned as a storytelling practice, the result
is powerful, reflexive responses</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">while recording</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to the narrative’s emotional demands, and a more consistently compelling
and employable narrator as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m
characterizing this book preparation process as: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Care For the Storyteller-Self</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">First,
some definition. And then I’ll identify individual storytelling muscles and
practices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Let’s
begin with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">care</i>. And then unpack <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storyteller-self</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Care
should be regarded in two fundamental ways: the first is from the dictionary; and the second is outside
a traditional understanding. Care has numerous definitions. One (from my
MacBook) that seems particularly applicable to narrators is: “Serious attention
or consideration applied to doing something correctly.” The non-traditional
definition I’d suggest is: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Consistency</i>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In
defining care I’m arguing that, along with the first definition, if whatever is
practiced isn’t repeated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consistently</i>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it cannot be regarded as care. Working
out at the gym, perfectly performing every routine you’ve learned, sometimes, or
whenever, even if you’ve never missed a membership payment, isn’t qualification
to say: Yeah, I work out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For
the purpose of this essay, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">care</i> is
defined as: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Consistent, serious attention
or consideration applied to doing something correctly</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">What
is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Storyteller-Self</i> ? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">First,
what is self? Back to the dictionary: “A person’s essential being that
distinguishes them from others.” Place <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storyteller</i>
(the aesthetic narrator) before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">self</i>,
hyphenate it, and I’ll propose an added term to the lexicon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My
definition of<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Storyteller-Self</i>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A performance consciousness (or soul) that committedly
inhabits the narrative’s emotionality</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">(And,
FYI, we are officially above Aunt Mary’s performance pay-grade). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is
worth repeating that<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Care For the</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Storyteller-Self </i>is a practice whose
objective is to strengthen narrators’ sense memory so that they can reflexively,
and committedly, respond to the subtext (or the narrative’s emotionality).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Prepping
the Book, Caringly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">From
a performance point of view, the words’ intellectual meaning is secondary. Why?
Meaning is not actable. Yes, you must understand fiction’s story and the
characters. You must be familiar with non-fiction’s intellectual purpose.
But content is the performer’s low hanging fruit. Connecting to the narrative’s
emotional consequence is what transforms reader to storyteller. Therefore, the subtext</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">all that’s actable, ever</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">must be the narrator’s dominant
concern.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1 1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Feeling Lifts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Correctly
prepping the book means imagining the feelings inside the words, intuiting
them. Feeling lifts involves consistently hoisting each word to reveal its emotional
consequence. (And parenthetically, feeling lifts include the title and chapter
headings.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
PRACTICE: Notate feelings in the margins, rather than words you’ve
pre-determined to emphasize or modulate (that’s Aunt Mary’s bailiwick). Stop
when you’re uncertain about a section’s emotional consequence, hoist the words,
and peek beneath them: Highlight what’s going on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">emotionally</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">2.
Discovery Reps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Like
real life, the author’s story is about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discovered</i>
feelings that occur in the moment. And discovery maintains the present.
Axiomatically, no discovered feelings, no here and now, no storytelling! At
best, indicated emotion. At worst, emphasis-fakery. (For more on how to
successfully inspire non-organic emotion, you can sign up for Aunt Mary’s
post-APAC seminar: Word Whacking).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
PRACTICE: Highlight punctuation, not for a breath or a pause (don’t worry,
nature will see to it you inhale and pauses without intent are merely dead air)
but for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ah-hah moment</i> when a new
feeling</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">from a significant to a subtle
point of view shift</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">occurs.
Remember, while point of view shifts throughout the narrative, it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> occurs after punctuation (a
comma, semi-colon, colon, period, exclamation point, etc.). As you read the
punctuation, do your reps: Discover, discover, discover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">3.
Weight the Stakes-bar and Pump It Up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If I
donated a nickel for the following interaction I routinely </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">have
with narrators, I’d put a dent in our national debt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Paul:
So, on a scale of 1 to 10, what are the emotional stakes in the line you just
read?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrator:
Oh, big. High.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Paul:
Give it a number.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrator:
A ten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Paul:
And how intense did you just sound?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrator:
Oh, ah, a six.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Paul:
The truth?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrator:
Four? Three? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
PRACTICE: Vocally match the narrative’s emotional stakes! While prepping, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">weight the feelings</i>. Ask yourself: How
intense is this scene? How intently does this non-fiction author want to
educate or instruct me? And then, read aloud, a little or as much as is
necessary to insure that your intensity is commensurate with the intensity
embedded in the subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Hint:
Too often narrators err on the side of too little intensity (or energy) so
weighting the stakes and then pumping them up should be their valued practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Pet
Peeve: I’ve repeatedly heard: Well, see, I was actually saving myself for
later, ya know, when the story really gets going. Note to storyteller-self:
Make life easy and act what’s in front of you, what’s occurring now.
Storytelling has no later; only now!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Speak Nutritiously: Eschew Empty
Emphasis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">While
prepping, narrators hear themselves speak. But what actually are they listening
to? If it’s the sound of their own groovy voice, they’re likely ingesting the
performance equivalent of empty calories. Writers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> expect their words to be organically energized. How else can
listeners become emotionally involved with them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
PRACTICE: Dramatic Fiction: While prepping drama, it is useful to literally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">flatten</i> each word as you read it, as if
it had died. This counter-intuitive practice deprives the narrator of vocal
sugar (modulation). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flat</i> permits the narrator
to locate the word’s emotional
consequence, intuit its import, and then emphasize it, organically. In dramatic
fiction, flat, flat, flat nutritiously produces real, real, real. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Comedy:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Organic exaggeration</i> is comedy’s
performance vitamin. It’s important to remember that exaggeration <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i> means commentary. Why? Commentary
(comedy’s empty calorie sugar high) deprives comedy its own reality that the
actor must honor. Caring for the comedic storyteller-self is practiced by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">organically exaggerating</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what is felt and discovered</i>, not
commenting upon, or reporting, emotions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To be
sure, there are other performance muscles the narrator can prep in advance of
their recording. I haven’t touched on dialogue, for example. But the themes I
have explored seem central to addressing the narrator’s fundamental prepping
obligation: Care for the storyteller-self.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’ve
addressed all these individual performance issues in the past. But I’ve never
regarded them as muscles. And I’ve never thought of exercising or strengthening
them by way of a correct and consistent practice. And I’ve never conflated this
practice with something holistic: Care for the storyteller-self, as if it were
a narrator’s wellness program.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I am
grateful to my son, who introduced me to a philosopher named Michel Foucault.
In his book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ethics:</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Subjectivity and Truth,</i> Foucault
discusses care for the self in several essays, including, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Technologies of the Self</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom</i>. Foucault’s essays
instruct me that by focusing on daily practices that literally care for our
physical being, we actualize our potential as a human being. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As I
apply Foucault to care for the storyteller-self, I realize the following
possibility: The narrator (actor) who correctly and consistently practices engaging the subtext while prepping will organically actualize his or her storyteller-self.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">With
APAC a month away I’m looking forward to our pre-APAC, self-directing confab at
John Marshall Media. And also to working with the talented (and this year’s
Audie finalist) Nicola Barber.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-58480062178680489292013-03-13T13:48:00.003-04:002013-03-13T13:48:30.705-04:00Prioritizing the Messenger & Don’t Say It at APAC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> <b>Prioritizing the Messenger</b></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As a
matter of practice, I never discuss narrators by name in my posts (other than
to mention those I’ve directed) or specific programs I’ve worked on. But here,
an anecdotal exception: In order to raise a larger concern regarding an audio
book reviewer’s priority, it feels useful to identify a narrator I recently directed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Below
is an <i>Audiofile </i>review that cites the
text as the primary fouler of the reviewer’s critical mood. To be fair, the
narrator isn’t criticized, much less vilified. The reviewer’s vilifying flak is
aimed at the message (the narrative). That said, the messenger (narrator)
manages to suffer</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">albeit collaterally</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">from the reviewer’s pot shot at
the text. That’s too bad and, in fact, shouldn’t occur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1616; font-family: Helvetica;">COLD CITY F. <i>Paul Wilson,</i>
Read by Alexander Cendese • Unabridged • MARCH 2013
Brilliance Audio •
Trade Ed.
Brilliance Audio • Library Ed.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1616; font-family: Helvetica;">The first novel of a trilogy about
the early days of a character named Repairman Jack is an exciting whirlwind of
adventures involving a child slavery ring, cigarette smuggling, Mafia
shakedowns, Muslims with insidious plans, con men, and a love story. If that
sounds like too many plots, it is. The novel ends with no resolution for any of
them. Cruel, but it guarantees the sale of the next two parts of the series.
Narrator Alexander Cendese gruffly performs the book, which details Jack's
early years as an adventurer. His accents get a workout-- Arab, Southern,
German, Puerto Rican, and an over-the-top Jewish man --and all sound authentic.
It's impossible to turn off, but the unsatisfying ending is a disappointment.
M.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To be
clear, reviewers must be <i>tenure-free</i>
to critique as they wish, so this interrogative essay shouldn’t be construed as
a grievance over the reviewer’s autonomy. I do, however, want to argue that the
storyteller’s performance should not be subsumed by the text’s literary
efficacy. The audio book reviewer’s mandate should be to disaggregate narrative
from narrator and then prioritize the storyteller’s performance. Critiquing the
narrative should be secondary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Audiofile</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> isn’t Bookfile. Meaning</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">, </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">difficult
as it is for anyone</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> including audio book reviewers</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to
separate narrator from narrative, I want to implore reviewers to consider the
storyteller’s primary task: Emotionally connecting the listener to the author’s
words. That performance obligation should be the reviewer’s fundamental
priority.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrators
have no control over the book. They should be immune from conflation with it. Narrators,
who cannot rewrite or edit the narrative, must</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> as best they can</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> <i>faithfully serve</i> the author’s intent.
Sometimes this includes believably crying out, “I hate you,” she said angrily!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As
the narrator and I began to work on <i>Cold
City</i>, we devoted our efforts to creating a performance that faithfully
responded to what the text presented us. Did we have our opinions about the
text? Naturally. Did they matter? No. Do they ever? From a performance
perspective, never! I’m positive that the audio book publisher</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">who
never solicited my opinion or the actor’s</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">is not remotely interested in
our literary observations. Their concern is the best possible performance the
storyteller can give them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It
may be fair to argue that there’s an axiomatic relationship between an audio
book reviewer’s assessment of the text and the performance. And it may, indeed,
be difficult to <i>hear</i> a compelling or
even good performance when the text is screaming at the reviewer, <i>I stink</i>. But it’s also fair to argue:
Why review an <i>audio</i> book if you’re
not going to reserve the majority of your kudos or disdain for the audio?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The <i>Cold City</i> review’s penultimate
observation is an acknowledgement of the actor’s believable foreign accents.
They “all sound authentic,” it says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is
an audio book reviewer’s prerogative to briefly mention an actor who authentically
creates, “</span><span style="color: #1a1616; font-family: Helvetica;">Arab, Southern, German, Puerto
Rican, and an over-the-top Jewish man”</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1616; font-family: Helvetica;">as if creating such disparate characters and still maintaining
the listener’s willing suspension of disbelief is no big deal. I’d argue that a
narrator who can vocally pull that off is worth more than, “His accents get a
workout.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><b>Don’t
Say It at APAC</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Over
the past few months several experienced narrators I’ve coached have grimaced uncomfortably
and half whispered at one point during our session, “Sorry, but I’m really not
an actor.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I
hope that all narrators</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">and especially those attending APAC</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> will
proudly regard themselves as actors. Storytelling is performance! I’ll bet that
all publishing professionals attending APAC who employ narrators desire people
that can act, as opposed to recite or read, or disconnectedly modulate. Indeed,
they may prefer a great voice but what will get their long term attention is a
compelling storyteller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If an
actor isn’t required to narrate an audio book, then who is? Why not employ the
high school kid working at the 7/11. Narrators who attend APAC believing that
the actor</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">that
is, the person who intuits the text’s emotional consequence and connects those
feelings to the listener</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">is the publisher’s best candidate for the job are
thinking smartly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">NEXT
POST: An exploration of what <i>care for the
self</i> might imply in regards to compelling storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This past month I was delighted to work on a multicast
book with these talented storytellers (in alphabetical order): </span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Alex Cendese, Chris Delaine, Lauren Fortgang, Emma Galvin, David Ledoux,
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Daya Mendez, and Karen
Murray. Upcoming: the author, Eve Ensler and narrator, Carol Monda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My LA Weekend Narrator’s Workshop in April is almost
filled (1 opening remains) and the NY weekend workshop later that month is over
half full. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My goal for these and future workshops is to identify
and practice self-directing techniques that will quickly improve performance
and create compelling storytellers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For more information or to register, visit:
Tribecaaudio.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Finally, my MFA fiction writing program, while
demanding, has been productive. After May I’ll be able to increase the
frequency of my posts</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">until the fall. For now, urged by the mentor I’m working
with, I’ve begun submitting one of my short stories for publication. I can
relate to any performer who may have had a similar thought while soliciting:
It’s true! Everyone thinks they can do this!</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-66601313917721033522013-02-01T11:22:00.001-05:002013-02-01T11:24:17.124-05:00Writing & Narrating Is Apples and Apples: Green and Red<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m allowing myself an hour to assert an aesthetic bridge between writing and
narrating, to connect one to the other with the hope of better understanding
what I suspect writers and narrators share.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’ve
been at it 4 minutes, and after having carefully thought about what I’d like to
say while taking a shower, as I dried myself, the thoughts that seemed so
resiliently clear under the driving water, have evaporated. And maybe here’s a
relationship already: The writer thinks, wow, do I have an idea, brilliant,
insightful, I can’t wait to get going and the narrator thinks, oh, I’m so, so
right for this book and then, maybe it all comes to fruition, maybe it doesn’t.
Creating is a bitch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So
far, this feels more like a blog, randomly meandering around thoughts not
baked. My past blogs take me forever to write: Often over a dozen hours each.
Here, with 49 minutes left</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">guilt already plaguing the back of my
mind, as I’d planned to work on a short story this morning and for reasons I’m
certain many writers share (all fitting into a bowl labeled procrastination),
I’m now finally getting to what I’d planned to do when the time to do it was
right, which it isn’t really now, or I wouldn’t feel guilty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">My goal for these writing and
narrating relationship posts is to create a dialogue</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">with myself and narrators and writers who understand
storytelling</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">that ultimately would like to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">uncomfortably</i> suggest commonalities shared by these disciplines. I like
uncomfortably because that word indicates a reflexive openness to critiquing
myself and others, always with the purpose of digging deeper for insight rather
than criticizing for the purpose of asserting right or wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">In the shower I still remember
thinking: What is the aesthetic core shared by writers and storytellers? And
that caused me to wonder: What is a writer? What is a storyteller? And then,
are Philip Roth and Danielle Steel both writers? Are Aunt Mary and</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">fill in your favorite</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">both
storytellers?</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">(I resist naming names of narrators I am close to because it’s
simply exclusionary of narrators I am not close to but who are equally talented
and that feels uncomfortable).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">Before diving presumptuously into
defining <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">writer</i></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">an act of banal conceit begging for insight that I imagine is
similar to someone who, say, jumps off a high diving board into cement as a way
of illuminating the meaning of life. But whatever, I’m down to 27 minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">By way of backtracking</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">I use too many em dashes and can’t ever seem to say what I mean
without a preface (ever wonder why writers write a preface? I do. Why not just
write the damn book)</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">it feels important to suggest that,
for me, when discussing writing and acting, terms like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I like</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I don’t like</i>, are aesthetically useless and oddly dangerous
because personalizing a feeling and then reifying it, as if this abstract, now
concretized, in any way works towards discovery of what’s aesthetically
salient, seems misguided. At least to me. In short (and here, I like the F
bomb, I use it liberally in my fiction, but for this blog’s purpose I’ll just
use F), who F*****cares what I like or what you like? Who cares what I or you think
is good or bad? Those notions entertain at the dinner table, cocktail party,
bar, but really, they’re intellectual conversation stoppers. Meaning, Oh, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I love your work</i>. What actually does
that imply? Who cares???<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">Fifteen minutes to go and,
mercifully, my point: Philip Roth is an artist; Danielle Steel is a hack. Aunt
Mary is a hack; you know who is an artist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">When I write fiction, I (Paul, and
whoever Paul is, thinks he is) employs form (craft) and intellect (brought to
me by language) to create a story that resists conventional certainty about who
and what we are. When Danielle writes, she embraces conventional certainty; she
already knows what we already know about ourselves: The result, a hack
regurgitates what we know and feel we already know we should feel,
conventionally. When Aunt Mary narrates, she modulates as a way of emphasizing
what we already know we should know about how we should feel: The result, we
feel what we already think we should feel, conventionally speaking. AM is a
hack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">What do I aspire to as a fiction
writer? I think, in a very particular way, the same as what the storyteller
aspires to. We both uncomfortably interrogate a story about people and events
we blindly discover we know only to the degree that we don’t, and we insist,
uncomfortably, that’s okay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">Time is up. Next post a very little
background about my MFA writing experience. I meant to get to that in
this post and would have if I rewrote it. I also would have cut down on the em dashes and
colons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-58876657215643501682013-01-14T15:15:00.000-05:002013-01-14T15:15:00.256-05:00A Narrator’s Quick Fix Cheat Sheet. Part 3: Interview with Co-Director,YOU.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I
began my search for </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Text’s co-director</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">, You, at John Marshall Media in
New York. I’d interviewed some promising candidates but finding the right You proved
to be</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> an elusive and exhausting endeavor: Aunt Mary showed up under
thirteen aliases. Often, I observed even articulate Yous struggling to
coherently express their function as the narrator’s significant other
co-director in succinct, actable vocabulary.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Finally: A minor miracle. My last You of the
day wafted into the studio. After minimal pleasantries, a perusal of You’s
Narrator’s award-winning audio book vitae, I was treated to an itemization</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">proffered
with seminal clarity</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">of You’s co-director responsibilities. You’s
actable directions immediately convinced me</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">and
here transparency compels me to note that my condition for acceptance was that You’s
views on technique be commensurate with those I espouse and teach</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">—that I’d found the narrator’s </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">quintessential
co-director: You. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I said, impetuously: “You, I want you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Surprised, You said, “You?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“No, You!” I repeated. “Not me.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“You,” said You, raising a congratulatory fist
in the air. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This interview was going to be a pronoun
nightmare. I</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;"> sputtered: “You</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">,
I’ll head into the booth-”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“But, what about You?” said You.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">At that point I sprinted out the control room
for our engineer, Tony Van Hoorn. I beckoned: “I have You.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Me?” said Tony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“No, You.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Who?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Having worked with Tony over a decade, he
politely and typically nonplussed, ignored my obfuscation, and trundled into
the control room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Take You into the booth,” I asked Tony. “Please.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Me?” Tony said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Oy. Sorry, Tony. I pointed. “You.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“Oh,” said Tony. “You!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Settled in the booth in front of two mikes, I tentatively
began.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You, welcome. Ah, this is gonna get
syntactically tricky. Can you, I mean, we, can we sort of try and figure You out?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: You is an open book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I noticed Tony’s head had disappeared in his
hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So, you are You only. No me or I? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: You does prefer You. But let’s go
grammatically conventional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: I thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: I</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">ugh!</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">thank
you. I! So </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">déclassé</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I exhaled prayerful relief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Okee-dokee. You. Remember what you
initially told me needed definition before you could enumerate a single actable
direction for narrators?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: You do. Sorry. I do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I felt identity-secure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: That my directions are techniques. And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">technique</i> is defined as an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actable performance tool whose purpose is to
cause compelling storytelling</i>. My job-one is to provide the narrator with an
actable, self-directing roadmap that compensates for what appears to be the
irreversible trend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Working either alone in a home studio or
with an engineer.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Directionless
storytelling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: How about I specify various narrator acting
challenges. You then tell me how You, as the storyteller’s
co-director, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actably</i> address them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Glad <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actably</i>
was used. That’s vital. Only actable directions transform performance, and
quickly I’d add. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Narrators don’t have all day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Amen!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Some narrators sound emotionally
uncertain, whether it’s about what a character is feeling or the narrative’s
mood. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Because they haven’t emotionally connected to the text and therefore
can’t help reading or announcing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Problem noted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Now the actable antidote. While looking at
the text in preparation to record, Direction #1: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Verbalize your emotional state, silently or aloud.</i> Don’t utter the
first word till you know how you feel: Happy, sad, frustrated, angry, etc. Whatever
the subtext is telling you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You are directing your narrator to hit
the page emoting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Precisely. Too often, I’ve tapped my
narrator’s psychic shoulder in mid-sentence and whispered, ‘hey, what are you
feeling? Right now?’ Silence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: And why was that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Because my narrator wasn’t acting, just
speaking words unfelt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: And your narrator’s eventual response?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Something like, ‘Well, I’m just painting
the picture, setting the scene, or the character you know, comes from a bad
home.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: But what if the text isn’t emotionally clear?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: The narrative’s subtext</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">where
emotionality quivers</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">may not be immediately recognizable or obvious
or, arguably, evident. But, think of it this way: Does the author ever intend
for the listener to be disengaged? Ever? Besides, emotionality is inherent in
language. So it is incumbent upon narrators to dig into the subtext, like a
crazed ferret if necessary, locate feeling, reveal it. Trust me, an emotionless
word is an oxymoron.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Okay, so assuming the narrator
immediately connects to the text, what other actable directions can they employ
to maintain that connection?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Meaning, what specific techniques can
narrators physicalize, like a switch!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: If you say so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Name the challenges, I’ll name the switches.
Oh, and these techniques are all modulation eradicators. Just thought I’d
mention that perk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Okay: Point of view, the moment,
characters that speak like real people and most importantly, emotional
commitment to the subtext. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction #2 covers all those bases: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hold back, hold back, hold back; don’t let
the words out easily. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You have some explaining to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Well, that’s what You, ah, I am here for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Hold back suits all genres, comedy and
drama?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: One size fits all. And it’s physicalized
like a switch, flick! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So, axiomatically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Hold back, you’re in the ballpark; pour forth,
you’re out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You’ve got my attention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: When I catch my narrator la-dee-da
modulating in a syncopated, smooth, or sing-song rhythm, where the micro spaces
between each word and sentence are identical, I direct: Hold back! Don’t let
those words come out easily, metronome-like, as if you know what you’re going
to say in advance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So you’re directing the narrator who is speaking
one word behind the other at the same pace to pause non-rhythmically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: More like choke off the next word or sentence,
and do not speak it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Until?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: The subtext is discovered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: And literally holding back flicks that
discovery switch?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: That’s the technique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: What triggers the emotional discovery?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Ask a neurologist. I only know that this
physicalized technique forces narrators out of their inauthentic (because
they’re merely rhythmically vocalizing words) comfort zone, and in those micro,
held back moments, guess what pops through the text?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: The subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Voila! And in those hesitated,
non-articulated moments lurks point of view, the moment, discovery and a rhythm
that more accurately represents the way real people speak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: That’s storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: You would say so!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You did. So, let’s narrow our focus to drama.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction # 3: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flat, flat, flat.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Not applicable to comedy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: No. It is a dramatic narrative’s best
friend direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Best friend?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Because, whether fiction or non-fiction, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flat, Flat, Flat</i> simultaneously
liberates organic emotion and eliminates PBES.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: PBES? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Phony Baloney Emphasis Syndrome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: You mean non-organic modulation. How so?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: First book my narrator recorded, all the
words were reported, as if their emotionality had been surgically removed. Oh,
myriad voice-over special effects, but no feeling. Psst! Try this: As you
narrate, no emphasis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Not a single word?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Nada.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: But-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Boring? The absolute opposite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Really?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Flat, flat, flat deprives the narrator his
reflexive lurch to PBES. And when the narrator is reeeaaally flat, it’s as if a
trap door opens, revealing?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: The subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Begging for connection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: But what about emphasis?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: See, flat, flat, flat isn’t an outcome
whose endgame is speaking in a monotone. It’s an actable, storytelling
technique that switches on organic subtext discovery and is simultaneously
lights out to PBES. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Bottom line: Each time narrators
literally flatten the voice? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: PBES scoots and the luscious subtext is
revealed to be intuitively felt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So long as we’re on dramatic threes-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction #4: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Less, Less, Less!</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Less what? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Volume, voice! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Axiomatically.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Caution: Axiom risks one size fits all.
But it also provides a palpable measure the actor can at least use to
concretely regard the concept.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Okay, then. Axiomatically!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Less is more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Kind of trite, no.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: I stand by trite! Take a third person
description of some unsuspecting lamb of a character about to be slow-mo sliced
and diced by the scythe-wielding serial killer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: There’s a ten on the dramatic stakes
scale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Ya think!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So you, I mean You-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Yeah, yeah, I know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Right. You direct your narrator, how?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Les, less, less! Stage whisper if the
stakes are threatening, painful, gruesome or just plain horrifyingly gross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Doesn’t less volume remove dramatic
choices that demand volume?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dead</i>
opposite!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Less voice opens more vocal
choices, not fewer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Explain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Remember, audio book narration occurs in a
booth where the technology can tolerate limited volume. You can scream your
brains out in a stage whisper, but not in full voice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So, listeners’ willing suspension of
disbelief means that they will emotionally connect to a viscous,
stage-whispered howl, even if the line says, ‘She screamed at the top of her
lungs’? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Yes. Audio book storytelling is an
intimate medium: So, you scream intimately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Full blast would disconnect the listener.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: And deafen the engineer. Finally, less
voice imagines drama’s aesthetic soul: Fear, suspense, anger, etc. Less voice
is an actable technique that instantly warns: Uh-oh, something is up here, and
it’s gruesome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: What about comedy? Since time is short,
your </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">most potent comedy direction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: In threes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Natch!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction #5: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big, Big, BIG</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Opposite of less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Of course. Humor is predicated on
intellectual <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">recognition</i></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">of
an event, human characteristic or foible, etc.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">rather than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">empathy</i> for what’s occurring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">big</i>
comes in where?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big</i>
alerts us that even if a character is talking about murder, the author’s
aesthetic request is an associative recognition that will hopefully tickle our
funny bone, rather than cause us to empathize or feel. And, axiomatically-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: What else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Broad means big, broader means bigger. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Now translate in actable parlance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: The more exaggerated the narrative’s
syntax, axiomatically, the more license the text gives the narrator to vocally
exaggerate: Long, melodramatic pauses; heightened energy, exaggerated emphasis,
etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Non-fiction. What’s the fundamental
actable direction that addresses this genre’s unique performance challenge? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction #6: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dispassionately teach passionately.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Sounds cryptic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: I’ll open the crypt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Uh-huh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Fiction emotionally connects character and
story to listeners. Non-fiction connects only the author’s feelings<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> about </i>his narrative to listeners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: How do you account for non-fiction’s powerful
events and characters?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Right, but the non-fiction narrator’s only
performance obligation is matching the author’s feelings about characters or
events, not becoming the actual character or internalizing the event as fiction
demands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: So, is the non-fiction narrator still
emotionally involved?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Absolutely! And here’s your actable
trigger: Involved with the author’s </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;">need</span></i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">to teach </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">this amazing story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why teach?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU:
Because that’s non-fiction’s performance purpose: Whether it’s 50 ways to leave
your lover, the rise and fall of an empire or the next disruptive technology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Where’s the emotionality then?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU:
The non-fiction narrator’s job-one is to imbue the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>narrative with the author’s passion to tell
his story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Kind of like that great teacher we all
had or wished we did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Yes, and to be clear, dispassionately
teach passionately directs the narrators’ passion away from involvement with
the story and its characters and to the author’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">need</i> for this important story to be understood and appreciated by
the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: That’s it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Oh, no!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: One last, all encompassing, ballpark
direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: For the turnstile to move</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">whether its comedy, drama,
non-fiction</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Drumroll!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Direction # 7: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up the stakes.</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Up, up, up. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
</span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This is about performance commitment to storytelling, eh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: When my narrator fails to commit to the
emotional stakes embedded in the narrative, we have a situation: WNA</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">—</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Wet
Noodle Acting. Trust You, nothing emotionally disconnects listeners more than
WNA. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: The antidote to WNA?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: If the stakes look like a 5, make ‘em an
8, an 8, make ‘em a 10, and a 10: Drop your socks and grab your-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Hey, this is a family blog!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Then swing on the chandelier! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: What about over-commitment: Over-acting?</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Over commitment occurs at about the same
rate as having quadruplets. Too often WNA visits and stays like an unwelcome
guest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Okay. How about a wrap-up tweet-count of
actable directions? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Verbalize feeling; Hold back; Flat; Less; Big;
Dispassionately teach, passionately; Up the stakes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: Whoo-hoo! Thank you, You.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">YOU: Isn't that redundant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m
looking forward to my upcoming NY and LA Narrator’s workshop and, despite the
demands of my MFA creative writing program, to trying to keep up with regular blog
posts. In the future I hope to explore possible relationships between creating
narrative fiction and performing it: Some interesting similarities, I think.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-40150382916825610272012-11-22T10:53:00.002-05:002012-11-22T11:12:19.287-05:00A Narrator’s Quick Fix Cheat Sheet. Part 2: Co-Director Interview with The Text<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In
order to satisfy the increasing consumer demand for audio books, audio
publishers have accelerated their search for more competent narrators. This
trend may explain why, as a producer/director, I’ve received a rising number of
narration demos the past few years as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For
me, the quality of performance isn’t keeping pace with the increased
solicitations. Sometimes, after briefly listening to a voice-overish demo, I’ll
think: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hmmm, not in the ballpark. </i>And
I’ll wonder<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: Who directed this narrator?</i>
The lingering impression is that no one did. Though I’m mindful of the fact
that many experienced and aspiring narrators, especially those residing outside
New York and LA, may have little or no access to credible supervision, I also
wonder: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why haven’t these narrators
collaborated with the two directors that are always with them?</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Are they even aware of their presence</i>? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If not, would an introduction be beneficial</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Introducing:
The Text<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Speaking
from within my aesthetic location – storytelling – I’d argue that even without
a traditional director, narrators can and must – if the intent is to
emotionally connect the listener to the narrative – employ the two directors to
whom they are inextricably linked: The Text and You (the narrator). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This
post will focus on The Text. I’d planned to unpack the narrative’s directorial
function myself, but on a whim I thought, why not query the source. So, I
channeled The Text and to my surprise received an immediate reply. The Text
happened to be recovering from EDS (Editorial Deletion Surgery). The author was
on break, but the patient was conscious, albeit woozy from word loss. The Text
explained it would soon be consumed with rewrites, so I figured best to jump on
this opportunity in case of additional surgery, or worse, contract termination.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And
now, direct and in writing, my interview with: The Text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Welcome. How are you feeling?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Long winded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Still? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: I’m afraid I’m in for additional red penning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Hurts, huh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Ah, well, the pain caused by my author’s expansion of me from novella to tome was more excruciating. Oh, my aching paragraphs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I see. So, how’s the revision going?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Don’t ask. The publisher still hates me. She canned the author. The ghost
writer is howling, ‘It needs a page one rewrite.’ But, hey, you’re not here to
talk about my literary nightmares. Proceed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Right. Well, let me first mention that I’d like to consider you, The Text,
strictly through a performance lens. I’m specifically asking how The Text
directs audio book narrators to bring its words to life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Glad you asked because, and I hope it’s okay for me to speak for all my
fellow Texts, fiction and non-fiction, and say that we love it when
professional talent narrate us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Not the authors?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Fie on them, especially my ex. Vocally, his readings are strictly from
Planet NPR, like he’s on a mega dose of Sominex. But I also have a pet peeve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Which is?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Some narrators use their voice to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">speak
for </i>the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>words rather than just
react to the feelings we’ve injected into them. Know what I mean?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I do. In fact, let’s begin by translating this pet peeve into your fundamental
directorial mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Okay. The Text’s Direction Number One- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
And this applies to fiction and non-fiction?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Of course. Here it is: The Text directs the narrator towards feeling and
away from meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Really. Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Because inhabiting The Text’s feeling, its emotionality, and then
connecting that feeling to the listener, is the actor’s primary responsibility.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
And that feeling is located-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Inside my words, where the subtext breathes its life into them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
That’s it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yeah. But I could go on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
No, I’ll go on. Please suggest more specific directorial clues that you reveal
to narrators.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: First, value actable clues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Meaning?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Can we concentrate on Brother Fiction. I’ll get to Brother Non-Fiction’s
unique challenge later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Okay. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Woo-hoo!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, let’s imagine the
narrator learns she’s got the job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Time to prep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yup. Reading me, she focuses on the characters and plot, and highlights
questionable pronunciations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
So far so good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Actually, not so good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Because that’s not PP!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
PP?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Priority Prep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Explain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: May I address narrators in first person?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why not. They know the mode.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Narrators, The Text here. Okay, Priority Prep. Read me thoroughly. Best
you’re not surprised on p.120 that Katie has a thick Irish accent, right. So
definitely know my story. Look up words you can’t pronounce. But as you prep,
remember, intellectual familiarity with me is the low hanging performance
fruit. Your PP is to discover my emotional directions, my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actable clues</i>, as we Texts prefer to call them. And they’re
ubiquitous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Ubiquitous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Like that word?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I do. Where’d you learn it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: From my author’s best friend, the thesaurus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Right. So, let’s enumerate these ubiquitous directorial clues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Point of view, The Stakes, The Now,
I’m Only Human, Punctuation, Word Choice, Word Order</i>-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Paul:
Wo! Can you explain each-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: One more. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duh</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Duh?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Like, yeaaahh!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I don’t get it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: You will when I explain how these clues direct the narrator. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Let’s start with Point of View.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Narrators, as you’re prepping me, notice that each word you see, each
sentence, phrase, dangling participle, run on sentence, reflects someone’s or
something’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">point of view</i>! As you’re
recording me, I need you to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inhabit that
point of view and connect it to the listener</i>. It’s essential to understand
my words’ meaning. But remember: Emotion injects meaning with an actable point
of view. Meaning alone isn’t actable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
How about an example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Take this line from my author’s upcoming novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Four Star Peccadillo</i>, about a wayward CIA director: “At the water
cooler, he whispered to please call him Dave.” Until the narrator imbues those
words with feeling, they are emotionally fallow. Only when the narrator
recognizes the author intends the character to be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">flirtatious</i> CIA director can the narrator inhabit and then
emotionally connect flirtatious to the listener. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flirtatious</i> is inhabitable point of view, and therefore, actable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Great, now-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: And that brings me to The Stakes. And, excuse me. Ah…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You seem distraught.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: I feel an oncoming peeve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Okay, about what? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Some narrators don’t fully commit themselves to The Stakes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You mean to a particular heightened moment?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Right. Or their emotionality doesn’t match the scene’s intensity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
So, The Stakes are the intensity of feeling and you’re telling narrators-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: When you prep and then record, visualize the SS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
The SS?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: The Stakes Scale. Narrators, as you prep and record, first ask what's emotionally at stake here? Say it’s danger. Then, how intense is the danger? Is it a 2, a
5, a 10? If it’s foreboding, love, or hate, or anger or sadness, what’s the intensity number? I once had this torrid sex scene, a middle aged couple, and the
narrator gave it a 2. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Maybe he was thinking pre Viagra?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Can I continue!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
My bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Here’s my point: Narrators, you may understand The Stakes, but when the
author and I hear the recording we don’t always feel them. Sounds sometimes like you swallowed a
phlegmatic pill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
A phlegmatic pill? Really!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: You buy that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
No. Just give me problem/solution, succinctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Gotchya. Problem: Not acknowledging a scene’s stakes. Solution: Engaging
the emotional stakes and then committing to them. And fyi, authors are all
about heightened emotions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Imagine a chill author writing a chill narrative. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL: There’s always
stakes!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: And they’re often higher than the number narrators assign them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why do you suppose some narrators don’t see that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Because they’re too focused on performing the non-actable words. The Stakes
are in the subtext, where they can be acted, or engaged, and then emotionally
connected to the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
How does the narrator actually engage The Stakes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Isn’t that your next post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Oh, yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Jeesh!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Excuse me. Let’s move on to The Now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: I’m in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Huh?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: I’m peeved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Again?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: That’s my point. I’m peeved now. I’ll explain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Succinctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Narrators, as you prep and record me, think: The Text is all present
tense. No past, no future, only The Now, this moment. As you narrate, I need
you to experience The Text’s emotional consequence as if that feeling is
affecting you right now. Succinct?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
For you, yes. So, where is The Now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE TEXT:
My subtext. Where else!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I assume that engaging The Now is critical to storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: No Now, no Storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Just reading or reporting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Ahhh. Reporting. My worst nightmare. Red pen me! Plagiarize me.
Mispronounce me. But report me? A fate worse than abridgment. Next question. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Sorry, I’m having a moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Good! Are you in it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Yeah. See, I’m confused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Nice. You sound it. About what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Well, when you said earlier, “I’m Only Human.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why is that a ubiquitous text direction?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Has this been bothering you the whole time?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Kind of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Poor guy. Do you need a hug?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Maybe later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Deal. Well, follow my logic. Who is speaking in my novel? Who are the
first, second or third person narrators?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Humans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Congratulations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
And your point?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: If my author’s human, and my characters are human, and my narrator is
human…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Yeah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Then why don’t all narrators <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">talk like
humans</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Uh-oh. You’re peeved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Ya’ think! Look, some narrators read like a metronome voice-over unit, in
a rhythmic pitter-patter, or lickety-split, like they’re in a race, or
sing-song like I’m a musical. And what really burns my semi-colon is when their
dialogue sounds like reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
They are reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Brilliant. But guess what? The listener doesn’t think so. Listeners – and
this jargon I know – willingly suspend their disbelief-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Impressive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Can I finish here?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Succinctly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Okay! Meaning, the listener imagines the narrator is speaking off the
cuff, like us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
In fairness to narrators, what about authors who can’t write dialogue the way
people speak? Like yours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: That’s hitting below the syntax. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Unfair. Continue, please.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: With all due respect to narrators, get over it. You’re actors. As you
prep, hear yourself speaking my words like a human, then record them like one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
So, relate this to ubiquitous clues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Narrators, above each of my words is this invisible thought bubble: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pretend you never saw me</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
I’m lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: All my words supply this single word emotional direction: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surprise</i>! Meaning, speak me like it’s
the first time we’ve met, as if you (as storyteller and characters) have no
idea what emotional revelation is coming next. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Instead of?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Succumbing to an artificial cadence that aesthetically implies you
already know what’s coming. Just like real life, words don’t necessarily emerge
easily, quickly, or in predictable rhythms. Discover the thought and feeling
before you say it, please.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Good direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: And that brings me to The Text’s related performance clues. Think of them
as cousins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You mean Word Choice, Word Order and Punctuation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yahtzee!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Oy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: First, cousin Word Choice. Here’s an example. My author wrote this line:
“Jenny was saddened by her mother’s death.” So, Jenny’s pov: She’s sad. The
Stakes are maybe a 5. But then my author re-wrote the line: “Jenny was
devastated by her mother’s death.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
“Saddened” was changed to “devastated.” And your point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Those words conjure a different feeling, and in this case, higher stakes, like a 10, right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
So-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: The word itself, often a verb or adverb, is a performance clue that
directs narrators to organically alter their volume, pitch, and pace, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Okay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Consider another rewrite; you know authors, never satisfied: “Jenny was inconsolable,
devastated by her mother’s death.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
“Inconsolable” ups the stakes, huh!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yes, and notice the punctuation. A comma. What does that comma portend?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Portend?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Just tell me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You tell me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: That comma, viewed through a performance lens, portends the birth of a
new thought and simultaneously directs the narrator to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discover</i> that new feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
The comma will also alter the pace, pitch, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: A+. And that’s why, narrators, when<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> you're </span>prepping me, if you highlight anything,
choose the punctuation. Why? Because the periods, commas, colons, exclamation
points, etc. direct you to a new feeling that, if storytelling is to occur,
must be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discovered by you in that moment</i>.
And once that feeling is discovered, ipso facto, your pace, rhythm, tone,
volume will be altered, organically. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
And you say Word Order also directs the performance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Here’s yet another change my author made. From: “Jenny was inconsolable,
devastated by her mother’s death.” To: “Devastated by her mother’s death, Jenny
was inconsolable.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Still one comma, same words, ordered differently. Changes the meaning slightly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: And therefore the emotional consequence of the line. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
The first version focuses on “inconsolable” and the second, “devastated.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> And since that shift in word order indicates an altered feeling, it requires an
altered vocal attack.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Bravo! You get The Text. Now, before I forget, Brother non-fiction. The
only directorial issue unique to this sibling is point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Non-fiction directs the narrator to engage <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> the author’s point of view, her enthusiasm, her desire to tell
her story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
What about characters that have dialogue?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Non-fiction does not intend for listeners to hear fully drawn
characterizations, accents, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Surely a character’s intention may be reflected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Yes, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> the intention.
Non-fiction’s performance vision is about the author’s desire to
enthusiastically tell his story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
And not portray its characters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Spot on. Oh, I almost forgot, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duh</i>!
My unsubtle reminder to play the obvious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You mean, The Text’s clearly revealed emotional direction that narrators can
still miss?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duh!</i> Yes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
We’re waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: “‘I hate you,’ she said angrily!” How am I directing the narrator to play
that line?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Um, angrily?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duh</i>! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Well, you have been illuminating, if not wordy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Hey, my author is king of the run-on page! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
It just occurred to me. I produced his last book. Twenty-one hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: Oh, the short story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Right, well, let’s recap the The Text’s directorial role.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: I’ll summarize.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Succinctly!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE
TEXT: But-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
You’re limited to a tweet count. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE TEXT: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The text directs narrators to engage <i>Point of view, The Stakes, The Now, Punctuation, Word Choice, Word Order, I'm Only Human, Duh</i>!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">PAUL:
Well said. Thank you. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Next post is my Interview with </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">The
Self-directing Narrator: You.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Happy
holidays and I’m eager to begin December by recording with Barbara Rosenblat</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-15549044146754279552012-10-12T11:21:00.000-04:002012-10-12T11:21:48.354-04:00A Narrator’s Quick Fix Guide to Improving Performance - Part 1: The Ballpark <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"I've found when I don't live in the moment, it doesn't work out
for me.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">R.A. Dickey:
Pitcher, New York Mets</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #353535; font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">“The
notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the
notes--ah, that is where the art resides!” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: #353535; font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-<i>Arthur
Schnabel</i>, <i>composer & pianist (1882 - 1951)</i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Kindly sent to
me by Kathe Mazur)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Like all creative
artists, storytellers intuitively sense when they’re in the moment, between the
notes, or in the zone. Palpably centered, as if on a copasetic high, their
performance clicks along powerfully, confidently. They are, as I’d describe it,
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ballpark</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Conversely, when their
performance cylinders sputter, they’re out of it, unhinged, as if their groove
has been derailed. Unable to get on track, they are frustrated by the
irrefutable awareness that they’re performing outside of themselves and just
can’t find their way into the ballpark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Every creative
person’s DNA is susceptible to a kind of bedeviling performance irritation that
inexplicably subverts their best intentions. It happens. The vexation for
storytellers is exacerbated by their particularized fact of life: Unlike most
performers who, when they misstep, can rely on a director to identify their errant
choices, then collaboratively guide them through the turnstile and back in the
ballpark, today’s narrators are increasingly on their own - home alone or in
front of an aesthetically non-reactive engineer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Perhaps, as our
lifetime’s future nears, narrators will be able to summon an advisory voice
merely by flicking the feedback lever: “Computer! You think I made Marla
selfish enough?” Or, “Okay, okay, my Russian accent’s not working, but can you
just, ya know, mention it once and be more encouraging!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">For now, if narrators
desire another ‘ear,’ more than likely it’ll be their own. And that current
reality is the progenitor of this quick fix guide to improving performance, or accessing
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ballpark.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The obvious and most
detrimental ill resulting from this director-less new normal is CDS: Critique
Deprivation Syndrome. With no trustworthy third party to consult, it is, at
best, difficult to address creative concerns in a way that serves the author’s
intent. Perhaps more troubling: Without corrective guidance narrators rely on
unchallenged performance habits that, aesthetically speaking, may be the moral
equivalent of self-inflicted wounds. Or worse: When these performance habits
(egregiously favoring vocal acuity rather than the text as the primary acting
vehicle, for example) aren’t interrogated by an outside source, they come to be
viewed as not just acceptable but preferable, even valued. And why not. If
there’s no authoritative party to suggest an alternative, these vocal habits calcify
and become the mojo standard, as if they’re deified performance commandments to
be aspired to. And finally, there’s always the most understandable reality, divined
from the publisher, that insistently blocks reevaluation: “Hey, you’re hired,
get it done, got a problem you figure it out, do a good job and you’ll get
another book.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Given the new normal,
do narrators merely do their best, and willingly (or unwittingly) accept the
concomitant risk of codifying habit merely because it’s unchallenged? Or are
there alternate feedback possibilities - albeit less immediately recognizable -
that are accessible when working solo? I think the latter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My experience as a
director, storytelling coach and teacher, suggests to me that there are at least
two directors present during every recording session: The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">text</i> (the following post’s focus) and you, the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> narrator</i> (object of the third post and where I’ll detail a variety
of ‘how to,’ ‘quick fix’ performance techniques called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Emotional Connectors</i>, whose purpose is to rapidly place performance
where it belongs, the ballpark).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Because the ballpark
is the narrator’s destination point - where the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">text</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> are headed
to, where listeners await, huddled beside their ‘money’s worth’ – it’s
important for me to decode the metaphor with the hope of asserting its
aesthetic authenticity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">THE BALLPARK<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Metaphorically, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">storytellers </i>pass through the ballpark’s
turnstile, where they organically work and where ‘indicated,’ non-organic
narration propels hasty egress. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Readers</i>
(sorry Aunt Mary) disseminate syntax - rhythmically, mechanically expelling
words they may know but do not feel - often blissfully unaware they’re outside
the ballpark and looking in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The ballpark is a
sentience zone that tightly embraces text, actor and listener as they actively
engage one another in the moment, as if their interaction was just conceived
and in a perpetual state of happening to them right now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The ballpark is that
Zen-like, dissonant free zone actors inhabit when the story they’re telling
occurs from the point of view of whom or what they’re talking about. It is the
performance locale narrators are directing themselves towards when they
intuitively <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">get </i>that their
performance is off site. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The ballpark is a
communion, really, between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">text </i>(the
author’s words<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">),</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">narrator </i>(the text’s voice), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">listener </i>(whose emotional connection to the words is the sole
responsibility of the narrator). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">SUBTEXT: Turnstile to
The Ballpark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrators enter the ballpark
through the subtext. When they inhabit it, the welcoming turnstile moves
frictionless, as if on its own, needing no external (vocal) push. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">No subtext, no ticket.
Entry denied. Regardless of how beautifully the words are expressed, or how
emphatically iterated or pronounced, whether they’re delicately lilted, joyfully
fashioned, effusively modulated or spoken in streaming cadences whose tick-tock
sing-song liberates each word from any resemblance to how people actually
speak, when the object of the narrator’s attention is the words rather than the
feeling, (you hate, AM, I know) the turnstile jams, the ballpark darkens, game
over.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Simply argued,
storytellers<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>play the subtext (the
feeling or emotional consequence embedded in the narrative’s every word).
Storytellers connect that feeling to the listener. That’s the ballpark. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Aunt Mary (Oy!, am I
going to hear it from her), who cannot resist speaking from the outside in –
inorganically singing or swatting the words as if they required a vocal whack
to wake up – reports feeling without locating feeling (hint AM, feeling is the turnstile). AM deprives listeners of the very experience they crave from the
storyteller: An authentically performed journey beneath the author’s words
where the emotional life that invigorates them oscillates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">NEXT POST: How To Gain
Entry to The Ballpark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Earlier, I mentioned
that two directors are on call 24/7 to every narrator whether or not they’re
home alone, with an engineer, or even a director (yes, everyone needs help,
including the helper). So the purpose of the next post and the following one is
to describe specific performance techniques that are designed to organically
actualize that turnstile so that it permits fast, alluring entry into the ballpark,
the authentic performance ground that rewards honest creativity with a genuine,
nuanced emotional connection between listener, author and narrator, the sort
they all richly deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’m grateful to John
Florian for providing me the opportunity to participate in my first </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">VoiceOverXtra
webinar on Oct. 16<sup>th</sup>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For info go to: </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://bit.ly/PaulRubenAudiobookWebinar"><span style="color: #003ac3;">http://bit.ly/PaulRubenAudiobookWebinar</span></a></span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Since mid summer I’ve
had the pleasure of working with Kate Udall, Caitlin Davies, John Keating, Pete
Larkin, Xe Sands, David Pittu, Scott Brick and several authors, including Chris
Elliot, Tony Danza and Andrew McCarthy, along with participants in my San
Francisco, Atlanta and New York narrator’s workshops. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
finally, my first day (Nov. 9<sup>th</sup>) as an MFA candidate in Spalding
University’s low residency (meaning I’ll mostly be working from home) fiction
writing program nears. And I’m counting on Tavia Gilbert’s inspirational
accomplishments to keep me focused. </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-20814175037582248842012-08-24T14:56:00.002-04:002012-08-24T20:34:04.382-04:00WHEN ‘BAD’ BOOKS HAPPEN TO ‘GOOD’ NARRATORS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">An award-winning
narrator and friend emailed me last week and recounted a distressing
conversation he recently had with some of his colleagues concerning the
plethora of crummy books they must endure narrating while hoping a literary (or
at least semi-literate) story will mercifully come their way, at least once in
a blue moon. Speaking for everyone, he confided that continually investing
their talents in poorly written, hastily produced, and/or gratuitously smutty books
hamstrings their creative purpose, leaves them disgruntled, aesthetically disfigured
and regularly muttering: “Why should I care? How can I do my best work in these
circumstances?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Exploring rich
characters and mining the subtext is what all storytellers aspire to, in theory,
my friend suggested. But reality finds narrators mostly asked to record terrible
books, “...riddled with </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">cliché</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">s, cheap metaphors, and too often an
overwhelming lack of subtext.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">To be fair, he
suggested that, yes, narrating bad books is commensurate with his occupation’s
mandate: Record what you’re handed. “The truth is,” he added, “that we all take
jobs from time to time for the paycheck, and not the love of the material. We
have bills to pay, and much as we'd love to stand on artistic principle,
we…can't always pick and choose.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">His email concluded
with a request for any insight I might have, specifically regarding how to
emotionally navigate what he described as “real turkeys” in a way that
maintains his integrity as a storyteller and, as he suggested, his artistic
principles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Though no coherent answers
or insights immediately come to mind, I do suspect that all creative people,
including narrators, suffer a kind of psychic damage - personally and
professionally - when they engage in non-creative work they deem, at the very
least, diminishing and aesthetically meaningless. Assuming my characterization accurately
reflects narrators’ concerns, I think there’s value in unpacking this particularly
unsettling dilemma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">The Bad Book/Good
Narrator Conundrum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">In my experience,
virtually all creative artists (sorry Aunt Mary, you’re free to take a break) identify
with their aesthetic, as if it were a vital organ. Additionally, they possess a
moral compass that conflates their self-worth and integrity with the quality of
their work and its artistic merit. Said prosaically, creative types ain’t in it
for the bucks. Not that they’d turn good money down, but it’s the aesthetic
reward (located perhaps in a momentary connection to a transcendent, higher calling)
that fuels their desire to perform. All the creative people I know, including
storytellers, axiomatically co-mingle their feelings about ‘the work’ with
feelings about ‘themselves.’ It is this co-mingling of feeling that, at least
in part, propels storytellers to reflexively recoil at yet another “turkey
book.” It is this co-mingling of feeling that represents the heartbeat of what
I’ll call: The Bad Book/Good Narrator Conundrum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">How then does the
storyteller/artist, who I’ll argue will be fortunate to record one good book
for every 50 turkeys, address this distressing fact of artistic life? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">My initial response
is to deconstruct this Bad Book/Good Narrator Conundrum by suggesting: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There’s no such thing as a ‘bad’ book without
a ‘good’ narrator</i>. (I’ll explain further shortly). Then, in an effort to
wed critique to solution, I’ll propose an aesthetic antidote, a storyteller bromide, or a conundrum cure, as in: Take two of these before starting a “turkey book”
and you’ll get through the next six hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">‘BAD’ book/‘GOOD’ narrator<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Let’s begin with a
particularized lens through which we can define ‘bad’ book/‘good’ narrator. That
lens is: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Me</i>! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">As producer/director of
more than 500 audio books, believe me, I know from ‘bad’ narrative. I confess
truthfully and categorically to having guffawed, cried and agonized over what publishers
call books but to me are income generating commodities – little more than page
after page of stupefying, banal, gratuitous manure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">And there you have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my </i>definition of a ‘bad’ (turkey) book -
income generating commodity - and thus, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i>
definition. Do I mean that I am the arbiter of what’s good and bad, literary
vs. crapola? Yes. But who am I to say what’s ‘bad?’ Precisely! I’ll explain: I
am an educated (MA degree), middle-class (income well above the national
average), white (majority race), Jewish and irreligious (not an oxymoron) male who
lives in the bluest of blue states. Ask me to recommend a book, I’ll suggest
one by J.M. Coetzee, Philip Roth or Jhumpa Lahiri. I possess a literary
aesthetic that easily permits me to instantly conjure a ‘bad’ book/‘good’ book
binary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Uh, hold on there,
one could argue. What if I wasn’t who I am? Suppose I was less educated, barely
graduated high school, and my primary reading experience was the headline
banner on Fox News. What if I never heard of Proust, or Roth, or Joyce, much
less Henry James? Suppose all I ever wanted in a book was sexual titillation, and
bullet riddled bodies graphically spewing gooey pools of crimson blood? Drop
Joyce Carol Oates in front of me and I am not only uninterested but suspicious
of you: What the hell is this? Probably some lesbo, lefty crap. But a thriller
that exposes threateningly accented, towel-headed evil doers for the world
dominators they are! That’s something I can relate to. Hell yeah, that’s a
‘good’ book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Hoping to avoid the
clichés and cheap metaphors that plague the books narrators are complaining
about, I’ll reductively summarize my proposition: While you can’t tell a ‘bad’ book
by its cover, you can tell one by the ‘bad’ person who reads (or listens) to
it. In other words, what’s a bad book to me (to the person I am) may be
reprehensible precisely because it’s so appealing to people I am contemptuous of,
or frightened of, people who definitely don’t share my values and aesthetic. A
fast paced, gratuitously violent beach read may be someone’s definition of
‘good,’ but to me, it’s meaningless drivel: “Bad book! Bad book. Yuk! Get away.
You gross me out!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">In effect, I am
suggesting that an important measure of an audio book’s ‘badness’ (or
‘goodness’) is narrators’ very understanding of themselves as well as their
listeners’ understanding of themselves. Additionally, once the good/bad line is
drawn, there may be a non-rational tendency to absolutize, to reify what this
abstract line represents: Those who stand on the opposite side are not me or
people like me and I should regard them suspiciously and contemptuously. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">THE ‘GOOD’ NARRATOR’S
PECULIAR CHALLENGE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Is it fair to suggest
that virtually all audio book narrators are highly educated, at least when
compared to the national average? Culturally and politically similar? I’ll bet,
yes. Certainly narrators represent a geographical cross section of America,
otherwise they are a rather homogenous lot. And this speaks directly to the way
I understand ‘good’ narrator. Not good, as in, talented. Not good as in, nice
guy/gal. But aesthetically good, and perched high above the bumpkin masses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">Since most narrators
are literate, educated, culturally and politically similar, they are driven by
an aesthetic vision of themselves that is anathema to those who would
listen to, not to mention enjoy and actually prefer, the ‘bad’ books they’re
compelled to narrate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">The aesthetic by-product
of who I am vs. what I must narrate is: The Bad Book/Good Narrator Conundrum. So,
how might good narrators respond more positively to these “turkey books” that
mock their creative purpose, suck their performance juices bone dry and are
deeply offensive to them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>THE CONUNDRUM CURE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">First, what qualifies
me to prescribe an antidote to an aesthetic dilemma that, arguably, is
profoundly troubling to narrators? I’ve already mentioned my “turkey book” experience.
But I’ve also been fortunate to produce and direct aesthetically rewarding
fiction and non-fiction as well. Since I regard myself as
culturally/intellectually ‘good,’ I’d like to think that I share a common bond
with anyone who’s narrated a “turkey book.” I can relate. And as I'm still directing, I still feel your pain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">It is impossible for
me to even vaguely suggest to a storyteller how they should emotionally mediate
a “turkey book,” or what the line is and where to draw it when considering,
after having been made an offer, ‘how aesthetically low do I go.’ Providing a
moral and psychological blueprint that leads to an answer far exceeds my pay
grade. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">But I am a creative
type, I can relate to this conundrum that distresses narrators because I’m
bombarded by it as a director, and I can introspectively question what confounds
and troubles me. In that spirit, I’ve chosen to examine ‘good’ and ‘bad’
through this particular autobiographical lens. In doing so, my hope for storytellers
is that they might revisit their fundamental aesthetic claims in a way that
permits them to feel better about their professional choices and themselves as
well. Finally, I hope that interrogating ‘good’ and ‘bad’ leads to other,
perhaps far more illuminating ways, to address these concerns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">I have avoided prescriptive
advice so far. No more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Audiofile Magazine</i> features commentary from narrators whose audio books
are highlighted in their monthly Editors Picks section. A narrator – as sublime
a storyteller as I know – whose Earphone Award winning audio book was recently
recognized in that section sent me his contribution:</span><br />
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">Occasionally I’m
given a book that’s either so beautifully crafted, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">or so wonderfully
observed, or that I connect with so deeply, that </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">recording it is pure
joy.</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The Revised Fundamentals of
Caregiving </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">is all three.
Benjamin, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">the protagonist, is so sweetly damaged, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">and his coming to
terms with a tragedy of which he was the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">principle architect
is so believably wrought, that while prepping </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">the manuscript (a
process too often more about vocal choices </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">and vocabulary lists
than about emotional investment) I was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">reduced to tears
repeatedly. Both a pleasure and a privilege </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a;">to perform</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>-Jeff Woodman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">For me, Jeff Woodman
imagines a worldview that soothes this Bad Book/Good Narrator Conundrum’s
aesthetic heart, and stimulates me to rethink the relationship between who I am
and the work I do, feeling okay about myself along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial;">I am happy that my September
weekly and October weekend, New York narrator’s workshops are full.
Additionally, I’m looking forward to conducting my first workshop in San
Francisco this September.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-4656921068527093812012-07-16T10:44:00.000-04:002012-07-16T10:44:13.875-04:00To Prep Or Not to Prep? That Is The Question: but perhaps not the relevant one<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Several weeks ago the
proposition - should narrators ‘prep’ their book before recording – surprisingly (from my perspective) provoked a flurry of divergent opinions
among a dozen or so Audio Book Crowd participants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Why surprisingly? As a
director/producer, I imagine querying a narrator soliciting employment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">“So, when you
prep-”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ya know, Paul, really, prep/schmep? C’mon,
what’s the diff? Just, like, hire me, okay.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Really</i>,
I’d be thinking: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hire you? Ah, no thanks. But I will have the vegetable plate.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Grover Gardner (Studio
Director for Blackstone Audio in Ashland, Oregon and an award winning narrator)
spoke succinctly for me when he unequivocally urged narrators to ‘prep’ before
entering the booth. I’d echo Grover’s instructive advice for what seems to me
to be the obvious: There is an axiomatic relationship between preparation and
confident storytelling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If it’s fair to argue
that prepping the book is a must (Is there really a downside to confidently
knowing what you’re talking about in advance of saying it?) the emerging
salient concern for narrators, and the thesis of this post, is: What exactly
should the narrator be prepping? Additionally, what’s preppable, what isn’t
and, importantly, what shouldn’t be prepped (because some prep may be hazardous
to the listener’s experience).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">M-W defines
preparation as: “The action or process of making something ready for
use…getting ready for some occasion.” Let’s localize this definition by
determining how it applies to (cover your eyes, Aunt Mary) the narrator, or, to
substitute my preferred nomenclature (an aesthetic, and more accurate and
respectful characterization of this performance artist) the storyteller. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Prepping Process:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Sort of like Spock’s
mind meld, as storytellers read the book in advance their purpose is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">emotionally engage</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the subtext</i> so that when they enter the booth to record they can
confidently tell the story because they’ve already been in touch with what’s
coming emotionally. And the more confident the storyteller the more opportunity
he or she has to accurately reveal the subtext’s emotional nuance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So, if<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>emotionally engaging the subtext is the
process (which I’ll discuss further), what, ultimately, does the process seek
to accomplish? My answer: Connecting the narrative’s emotionality to the
listener. That’s the storyteller’s bottom line: evoking listeners’ willing
suspension of disbelief so they can uninterruptedly be emotionally involved
with the story as if it’s happening in real time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The Process: defining,
locating and actualizing the subtext<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The storyteller
understands subtext. Still, it always feels useful to briefly define it in
advance of prescriptively suggesting where to locate subtext, and then how to
‘prep’ it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The author’s words –
the text - are not actable because their sole preoccupation is intellectual,
that is, meaning. So, looking through a performance lens, a word or a sentence
is not, itself, actable. The word becomes actable only when its subtext (its feeling,
its emotional consequence) is construed. As storytellers prep the book, what
they are actually doing is discovering and engaging the feeling and the emotional consequence that is embedded in every single one of the author’s words
so they can confidently reveal those feelings during the recording.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Simply stated: Subtext
is preppable. Text isn’t. Try, as a storyteller, to get a handle on how to say
“She eats carrots” without first investigating their emotional intention. Impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To be sure, it is
important for storytellers to intellectually grasp the text, to literally get
what’s going on in both fiction and non-fiction, to know who are the good guys,
the bad guys, and to generally understand the intellectual issues the author
may be posing and/or grappling with. But intellectual acuity is, from a
performance point of view, the low hanging, tasteless fruit. Why? Because, as
I’ve suggested, you can’t act intellect. At the risk of redundancy it’s
important for the storyteller to remember that, strictly speaking, just because
he understands the Civil War better than anyone doesn’t mean he can
compellingly tell its story. Authors who read their own work are living
examples of why, if they value storytelling, they’ll always leave their book to
a storyteller. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If it’s fair to
suggest that acting is largely intuitive, as narrators prep the book, they must
intuitively focus their eyes, as if they are dual X-ray ovals, on the ‘feeling’
(subtext) buried inside the syntax. And feeling is buried there, under each and
every word, oscillating unhappily, as if it were a lonely, fallow soul,
anxiously waiting to be discovered and plucked from inside the (non-actable)
syntax, so that it can intentionalize the words with its emotional consequence.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As their eyes pass
over the narrative, it is every storyteller’s task to reflexively ask: What’s
this character feeling (not thinking)? What are the emotional stakes? And then,
as only an intuitive performer can, the storyteller must inhabit and engage
that feeling with the sole purpose of vocally transferring it, as the author’s conduit,
to the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Until the subtext has
been identified (happy, sad, morose, elated, etc.), engaged, and internalized,
there is no opportunity to liberate that emotionality and then deliver
feeling’s consequence to the listener. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Prep Hazard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Narrators who prep the
book by underlining or highlighting or drawing curvy lines above words and
phrases for the purpose of remembering to emphasize them may, albeit unintentionally,
aesthetically compromise their best intentions, sometimes damagingly so.
Why? Because emphasis that occurs non-organically (that is, when it’s not the
result of in-the-moment sub textual revelation) is an emotional disconnector,
the dead opposite of what the storyteller wants to create.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I would argue that
narrators who are intent on engendering interest by vocally
imposing emphasis or modulation, risk the unintended consequence of compromising their emotional connection to the listener. If severing willing suspension of
disbelief, removing listeners from the narrative’s emotional consequence - as
if it were occurring right now - is the outcome, all that’s necessary is to
vocally Aunt Mary the words, that is, impose emphasis. Non-organic emphasis may
catch the listener’s attention but only because he or she has disconnected
emotionally in order to intellectually consider what should be felt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Process, it seems to
me, is meaningful when it dutifully serves its correctly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>understood outcome. If prep’s outcome is
emotionally connecting the listener to the narrative, then, like Spock, the
subtext meld should be the storyteller’s primary 'prep' objective while reading the
book in advance of recording.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">///<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Over the past month I’ve
enjoyed working with Tony Danza, Andrew McCarthy and, on a separate multi-cast recording, a group of talented
storytellers, including: </span><span style="color: #141413; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Eliza
Foss, Vinnie Penna, Carol Monda, Richard Ferrone, Cynthia Darlow, Emma
Galvin and... more to come on the next post.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #141413; font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I’m also looking forward to upcoming narrator
workshops in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta (<a href="http://www.tribecaaudio/">www.tribecaaudio</a> for details), to completing
a non-fiction memoir (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hairpin Turn:
Raising Myself Through My Son’s Teenage Years</i>) and beginning a
low-residence fiction MFA program (which will allow me to write at home while
continuing to direct and produce audiobooks) in November.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-50962041030697072122012-06-03T15:29:00.002-04:002012-06-04T05:31:11.872-04:00If An Author Had Just One Wish For Their Book’s Narrator…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">If Lisa Scottoline, Philip Roth, Ben Coes, Tui T.
Sutherland, Ron McLarty, Maggie Stiefvater, T.C. Boyle, J.M. Coetzee, Franz
Kafka, Jhumpa Lahiri, Neil Gaiman, and Henry James (or any author from any
century, regardless of merit or popularity) were seated around a table and were
permitted the opportunity to speak with the narrator who’d been hired to record
their book, but limited to only one sentence - so they’d better make it count –
what might they say? I’m certain they’d plea in unison: “Recognize the stakes
and keep them upped, organically.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">As experienced and hopeful narrators cruise the Javits
Center during APAC, 2012, searching for employment, garnering the attention of
publishers and producers so they’ll be favored with the opportunity to record a
book for them, it is worthwhile, I hope, for them to step back and consider
that, as storytellers, their obligation
is to fulfill the narrative’s performance demands that are located in the subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">From the author’s point of view, as I imagine it through a
performance lens, nothing is more compelling within the subtext than the
‘stakes.’ The stakes are the ‘degree of consequence embedded in the subtext'.
The stakes aren’t the emotions - whether its anger, happiness, melancholy,
confusion, nonplussed disillusionment, or any feeling, from subtle to palpable –
but rather the degree or amount of consequence narrators assign them as they
literally speak the words. And parenthetically, every single one of the
author’s 100,000 word book is impregnated with emotion, so there’s always consequence, always stakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Organically upping the stakes means heightening the consequence
assigned to them as the narrator allows the subtext (where organic - that is,
authentic – feeling is located) to direct him emotionally, rather than him
directing the subtext by modulating or emphasizing or vocally indicating
feeling, as if indicating in order to create emotionality isn’t oxymoronic - in other words, Aunt Marying the subtext. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Narrators who intuit the stakes and are committed throughout
the recording to keeping them upped, organically, should have authors clamoring
for them to narrate their book, as well as potential employers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">There are, to be sure, myriad assets narrators can bring to
a performance but I’d argue that none – from the most sublime voice to the
sweetest mic to the best Boston accent – match, even when packaged together,
this most pressing performance demand: playing the stakes, and keeping them
upped, not just now and then, not in passages where it appears obvious, like
when the victim’s tongue is surgically removed while he’s awake, but
continually, no matter what’s being described. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Axiomatically, loss of consequence, or its diminishment,
renders the narrative’s emotionality less consequential, less urgent, even
unimportant sometimes. When consequence deprivation lowers the stakes it’s an
author’s worst nightmare because authors never, never regard the
emotionality embedded in their words as, “ah, whatever.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Ironically, many narrators are dogged (to be sure, some more
than others) by consequence loss, more commonly and euphemistically known as,
lack of energy. Though no narrator would purposefully tell a story with low or
insufficient energy, that is precisely what often occurs while recording a
book, more with emerging narrators, yet with experienced storytellers as well.
Why? I’m not sure. But when the consequences sound to my ear unaddressed, as if the author had written undeserving, lukewarm, lazy syntax
(and remember, we’re not judging quality, only intent), I often suggest to the
narrator: “Up the stakes.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">So, what’s the stakes-slip antidote, especially if you’re an inexperienced narrator and uncertain about just how committed, or intense, or
passionate you should sound, and especially if you’re working in a home studio
or only with an engineer? How are the stakes upped? And where are
they, again?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">First, it’s essential for the storyteller to be mindful of
the stakes, and to remember that they’re ubiquitous. Second, to regard, from a
performance point of view, a work of fiction or non-fiction as about one thing
only: feeling. Third, to remember that you’re not playing the words, you’re digging
the subtext, responding to and then connecting the listener emotionally to whom or
what you’re talking about. Last - whether at home or with an engineer or even a
director – to sit back occasionally and interrogate the subtext by literally
imagining the emotional consequence oscillating inside the words. And then listen
to the author implore you: Recognize the stakes, keep them upped, organically.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Over the past week it was my pleasure to have worked with
Jeff Woodman and Elisabeth Rogers. During the coming weeks I look forward to
working with Barbara Rosenblat, Chris Delaine and Nicola Barber.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1285994454231985532.post-30606823476741413542012-04-30T11:16:00.000-04:002012-04-30T11:16:40.371-04:00Interrogating The Schmooze: a note to narrators mining for work at APAC, 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">If the
sole priority of each narrator attending APAC this June isn’t to secure
employment, it would interesting to know what is. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Given
that you’ll likely find yourself assuming the schmooze position when
encountering potential employers, a question that arises is, how do you truly
distinguish yourself vocally? What could potential employers possibly hear from
you that hasn’t been proffered in a hundred iterations a thousand times before?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">(FYI,
in a wholly unsolicited email Aunt Mary assured me, “I will be there schmoozing
the socks and nylons off publishers with my hot new demo that’s gonna blow the
author’s words off the book!”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">To be
sure, a substantial resume featuring award-winning work for major publishers
couldn’t hurt. It’s fair to say, too, that given economic reality, a facile,
prepared narrator is an attribute worth emphasizing. That said, what’s special
about you? My bet would be that because most narrators are actors or have a
performance background, they’d like to assert that their ability and passion to
tell stories not only distinguishes them, but actually means something to the
listener. The problem is, employers are ahead of you: they get the enthusiasm
and they recognize that the person in front of them isn’t about to discredit
their skill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">So, as
a narrator seeking to pique a potential employer’s curiosity, what to do? You
can always follow AM’s lead: “I’ll be squeezing their cheeks with my pointy
nails screaming, hire me, till they either nod yes or pass out.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Or how
about an equally unique, albeit more nuanced sell, one that proposes to directly
link your abilities to the listener’s storytelling experience by
‘particularizing’ them through a performance lens. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Let me
explain by first suggesting that, in my opinion, though audio book employers
value great narrators, many may not possess the performance vocabulary to
sustain a conversation about acting, much less storytelling. Hopefully, they
will find a dialogue that seeks to tangibly clarify what you do fascinating,
different. Arresting? I’m getting carried away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In
contemplating how to initiate your performance schmooze, I’d argue, don’t think
of potential employers as publishers or producers, but rather, listeners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">As a
listener, consider: Where should they be, emotionally, the moment they hear
your voice? What should their experience of you be throughout the audio
program? How might you introduce (respectfully, deferentially, of course)
terminology that assists them in articulating their opinions (hopefully raves)
about your performance? And how should they congratulate themselves for hiring
you in the first place?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Let’s
suppose that you suggest, your demeanor matter-of-fact, breezy, “Ya know, in
fiction and non-fiction, my job-one is to emotionally connect you to the author’s
story so that we are both engaged in the narrative’s action as if it were
happening right now.” I wishfully see the employer taken aback, thoughtful,
contemplative: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ooooh, yeah, that’s like,
so cool. Tell me more</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Well,
assuming he hasn’t been yanked away by a long lost colleague, why not add, as
if momentarily propelled by an inspirational gust, “In fiction, imagine
locating each character’s point of view, feeling it, as if you were inside
their head? When that occurs, I’ve succeeded as a storyteller. I’ve connected
you to the text, emotionally. Oh, and in non-fiction, I expect you to feel
connected to the author’s passion, her point of view, because it’s as if I’m
that passionate author, you can believe that.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I
envision - inching wondrously toward ‘best case scenario’ - the potential
employer’s tantalized visage as he reconsiders audio books through your
performance lens, thinking to himself, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yeah</i>,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this is totally awesome</i>. He’s primed
for the bottom line: what distinguishes the storyteller from Aunt Mary, who is
lurking behind him, fingernails battle ready? “By the way, I’m the author’s
emotional conduit. I connect the feeling embedded in every single word of the
narrative to you. Actors call that feeling subtext. Oh, hey, happy to unpack
the jargon during cocktail hour. Anyway, I know you gotta bounce, but,
remember, connecting emotionally is how I keep you in the garage finishing the
last CD when you should have been in the kitchen chopping the salad, right.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It’s
never easy to schmooze a potential employer. Few people enjoy selling, even
fewer can tolerate selling themselves. That said, it may be fair to argue that
attempting to create a performance dialogue with an employer – one that
particularizes the narrator’s responsibility to the listener - might introduce
a new and meaningful lens through which the employer can regard the narrator’s
relationship to the listener.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Yes,
the proof is in the storytelling. Ultimately potential employers must be impressed
by the narrator’s work. But I imagine them thinking sometime later, wow, I had
this conversation with a narrator who really gets his craft, knows what he’s
talking about. Yeah, really interesting; Oh, I’ll remember the conversation. And if I hire him it's because he connected me to that book, end of story!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">--<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I’ll be
hosting a panel discussion at APAC: Casting the Voice. Check online for update
on panelists.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Paul Alan Rubenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996191947465715580noreply@blogger.com1