0609 – What Is Not In Your Briefs

2022.09.01 - 0609 – What Is Not In Your Briefs

·        Context is important for the style of the read. Words on a page describing a family of tigers, their lifestyle and diet could be read one way if the visuals are of them all playing on the savannah, but another way if the shot is of the dominant male stalking prey.

Context may also refer to whether the recording is part of a series, either under the same title, or by the same producer or the same production house. It may be that what’s wanted is a commentary that fits with their ‘sound style’ or ‘audio branding’, and if so this should be made clear to you, probably with edits of previous shows where such a sound is evident.

Guide tracks (or ‘scratch track’) may also be provided. This is when a non-professional voice artist has provided a recording of the script so that the visual edits could be created and pronunciations given. In this situation, your job is to replace their dialogue with yours.

·        And the Brief may also say what is not wanted!

o  The style is “conversational and informative but not preachy and stuffy” – you can see how ‘conversational’ could be ‘preachy’ but that’s not what’s wanted, and ‘informative’ could otherwise be interpreted as reading in a bit of ‘stuffy’ style

o  “Thrilling and suspenseful and not casual and conversational” – this balance is a bit different as what is wanted and what is not are quite different. Here the director is making quite sure you understand exactly the requirements, not by pointing out the nuances of the words (as above) but by deliberately pointing out their virtual opposites.

Adjectives useful when writing a Brief:

Warm, friendly, concerned, emotionless, comic, serious, quirky, hip, sassy, trustworthy, calm, slapstick, cool, booming, sassy, movie-trailer, compassionate, soothing, confident, light-hearted, concerned, dry, emotionless, authoritative, straight-forward, sultry, not sultry, quirky, believable, engaging, clear, bright, mature, young, classy, excited.

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