Audiobook Performance Masterclass

[Music] welcome to ACX University I'm Scott Jacobi here at margarita mix Studios in Hollywood where we'll learn how a little bit of performance coaching can go a long way in the booth today we've got Scott brick narrator of over 850 audiobooks working with up-and-coming narrator producer Holly pallets let's meet our players and learn a little bit more about what today's lesson entails I'm skeptic I just celebrated my 20th anniversary of my first audio book in June of 1999 and my 10th anniversary coaching yeah got into it about a decade in a decade ago I'm Hollie Palance I'm an actress and a voice-over artist and a couple years ago I discovered audio book narration so I'm very excited that I've gotten the opportunity to do and I went onto audible I listened I got a couple of coaches PJ Oakland and then Scott brick and I've been producing books on ACX and now working for publishers I think audio book narration is a dance we partner with the text and as anybody who's danced a lot will know if you're dancing with a really strong partner you can just relax and not have to worry about the work just get out of the way and let it happen I've always been a fan of less is more I think the the primary job in narration is can the listener understand who's speaking and anything you want to do after that is gravy but that's job one I would say that maybe half of the books I do are mysteries and thrillers I have a low voice so I can do men's voices and that's fine with me I recently had the opportunity to record the audio book of The Omen which was the first movie I ever appeared in so that was great great fun I would love to extend my range I would love to do romance second chance romance literary fiction just to add other strings to my bow most successful narrators I know get coaching throughout their career beginning middle and end I think it's important because you're learning skills that you that don't fit in your comfort zone I it's so important to be coached throughout your career whether you're acting or voiceover audio book narration the voice is an instrument performance is an instrument it's like going to the gym and working out so for me this is just a must when I work with somebody I typically break it down to the basics it all depends on how much experience they have I have people coming to me who've never done an audio book I've had people come to me who've done 400 audiobooks and I say let's just let's focus on the basics let's look at narrative that's like a dialogue then start getting a little bit further into the weeds first-person narrative the third-person narrative a narrative only how much can you do with just narration rather than dialogue I worked with somebody once who was rushing through the narrative so they could get to the dialogue so they could act I thought oh no he see see that's the job is acting on the narrative as well yeah we start with the basics we identify what they want to get better at and then I meet them there on that road and off we go what I'm excited about learning today is how to break down third-person narration there's number of different ways to do it and know Scott's gonna work on that with me because narration is often the meat of the book not just the dialogue and a lot of character comes through narrations so I'm excited to work on that what I hope Holly takes away from it is it's the ability to always look at just what's in the text and and not stress about the choices that we have to make because really the text determines our performance in many ways there's one very simple exercise that that can break down for every narrator on any third-person narration book ever I hope the newcomers watching today I hope they learned that it's it shouldn't be intimidating whether you're working with a coach or doing the job in the booth a lot of newcomers really stress about the choices that they have to make and I think I think that's my job is to help them silence the inner critic distress and just lent the text beer now that we know our players let's join them for our first lesson where we will learn how to break down different types of third-person narration so newcomers quite often they get paralyzed by the decisions they have to make they're wondering you know what kind of performance should I give how much myself should I be putting into this when it comes to third-person narration you don't need to stress because the decision has been made for you the author has created a narrator the third-person narrator versus us as narrators the author's narrator is typically it's going to fall into three general categories it's going to be a very distant narrator I call it the eyeball of God right it's just telling you what's happening you know historical fiction quite often has a narrator like that but then you have a narrator that gets a little closer to the action why I call it akin to the action they're near the action they're reporting on it they're sharing a little bit more they're invested a little bit more in the point of view character but then you've got a narrator who's right in the weeds with the main character they are mirroring that character feeling what they feel and I work with a lot of newcomers and they say well which one should I do which one would fit which book and I always say it's very simple the text tells you it's a simple exercise look at what the author's narrator is telling you if all they're telling you is what's happening great that's the Obama God be very distant uninvested non invested narrator but if the author's narrator is sharing with you what's happening and what the character is thinking then that's akin to the action then you move in but if the author's narrator is telling you what's happening what the character is thinking and what they're feeling then you could get right in there in the weeds with them it's very simple the author gives it to you and you could read the exact same piece of text three different ways [Music] you could you could start out as the distant narrator he gets out of bed to look through his window and it's true everything in his neighborhood seems slightly drained of color and energy he's looking at a weeping willow when wondering if the tree is Sagar than it was yesterday when a tremendous reality an enormous fact occurs to him not invested right then you get a little closer when a tremendous reality an enormous fact occurs to him that in some sense the world around him just died and he must return to a previous world one that until this moment they had always assumed to be identical to this and separated from it by only the passage of time but then you could get really close especially here when he starts talking about the characters fear in fact Teddy realizes nothing new is ever going to happen to him again he will never figure out what mr. capstone was up to in his backyard and the moon bird truck will go forever unexplained I'm allowing myself to feel what the characters there's a lot more emotion and now right exactly and again I think our choice about how much we invest in the narration and by extension in the point of view character is determined by the narrator the author has written so you know be free of that worry the text will be your guide okay it makes sense yeah good as Scott explained many books are written from the perspective of a third person outside of the action but aware of what's going on now that we know about the different types of third-person narration let's watch Scott show Holly how to bring the character in that narrative to the forefront now that we know the three types of narrators let's look at this first piece of text and now the lesson is well first of all you know what has the author shared with us what kind of in the in this piece right here what kind of narrator has the author given you in your opinion what do you think it is I would say they're pretty down in the weeds yeah right there pretty much way in there yeah now the lesson now that we know what type of narrators since you've made your choice you'll be that invested narrator yeah now the question is can you put character in the narrative this is a selection you'll notice there's no dialogue in this at all no none none but there still is a certain amount of character and you're still allowed to invest yourself in it so let's do this these are three different points of view let's go from the end of the first paragraph okay moving into the second one a different point of view character and then moving into the third the first paragraph this is its progression it's like a follow shot on camera we start off with a young punk sitting out in a car and he's just beat up an old man living inside the apartment building well now he's gone out and he's sitting in the car outside of that building outside of that man's apartment and he's you know he's being a young punk drinking away in his car then we go into the elderly man inside the apartment the one who's been beaten up and from there we're gonna shift into the hero of the book the private detective Frank bear okay cool sorry so let's just focus on the transition from one POV to the other okay and then you'll stop me when we were absolutely cool okay he didn't know what he was doing he had 15 20 more minutes to wait there before Newt would be good and pissed and everyone started calling him on his cell he settled in and drank maybe he'd get lucky now I'm going into the next yeah yeah okay into the next one he was out there that's son of a gun sitting out in his car just sitting out there not in the parking lot like he used to do but across the street where he could still see real good he was out there like some kind of stalker Ezra blancher let his curtains fall shut and walked back and forth around his living room it wasn't a trip that took long cramped as it was between the sofa his car magazines and the hubcaps he'd been collecting for the last little while he wasn't sure if he'd sell them or keep them if he shined them up maybe rechromed them they'd look pretty sharp hanging up in three rows of six he didn't bother picking up junk he had wheels for a night let's let's work that transition again the question I get asked a ton is are you allowed to put character and narrative are you yes you are okay matter of fact I went to the stores Orson Scott Card wrote a book on writing fiction okay called character and viewpoint and he said in it and he's specifically talking about third-person narrative he said I find that when I'm at the keyboard telling a story it's almost as if I'm acting I'm in character improvising the performance of my story using words and syntax that one of the characters in my tale might use which makes sense when I'm using a first-person narrator the narrative voice has to sound like the first-person narrator because if it doesn't it's a flaw in the author's technique but I find myself writing in character even when I'm using third-person even when the narrator isn't a specific person at all I usually write in a voice similar to the voice of the viewpoint character even though that character is not the narrator and I know him and I asked him I really want to share this with narrators you know do I have your permission he said yes absolutely and then I went further I said you're talking about the authors narrator but I'm talking to audiobook narrators as an author is this what you want and he said as a listener because he listens all the time a passionate listener he says as a listener it's what I want to listen to and as an author it's one I'm asking for okay so absolutely you have permission everybody's got permission to put character in narrative and now that you know that let's hear more of it okay I'm at the old man well let's get let's go that transition again okay you've got a young punk out and he's getting drunk because that apartment house yeah it's where he beat up old Ezra but his old girlfriend used to live there and he's out there lovesick mooning over her because he's just he's praying that he'll see her again because she understood him okay he's out there getting drunk you can slur a little bit okay oh okay all right he's a set there in the drank I mean don't get don't get caught I want give it a give us a hint without getting caught okay and then this this is a POV this is something that every narrator is going to deal with at some point the old man this is an elderly black man and at this point that's when we you know this is the dilemma we face do we play it the way it's written you know without insulting anybody obviously okay but look it I mean the the word choice it doesn't say that he's sitting out in his car this is he setting and sometimes what new narrators they look at that and they'll switch it just sitting out in that car I said no no it's a setting and he does it twice so I know it's another type of that it's written that's essentially not not necessarily so much a dialect as it is just that's old man talk right that's who he is is this character yeah exactly okay so we and this is the first time in the book that we are introduced to him okay so invest yourself in that just a little bit more okay and you know when he starts going off on a tangent the way elderly people do you know he's got a guy outside her just beat the crap out of it right and yet it's like yeah you know what I think if I rechromed them anyway never mind where's that card you know give us that you know okay that's senior moment all right excellent so take it again far from that transition from the top of this Punk paragraph yeah okay he didn't know what he was doing he tasted the whiskey again he had 15 20 more minutes to wait there before Newt would be good and pissed and everyone started calling him on his he settled in and drank maybe he'd get lucky he was out there that son of a gun setting out in his car just setting out there not in the parking lot like he used to do but across the street we could still see real good he was out there like some kind of stalker Ezra Blanchard let his curtains fall shut and walked back and forth around his living room it wasn't a trip that took long cramped as it was between the sofa his car magazines and the hubcaps he'd been collecting for the last little while he wasn't sure if he'd sell them or keep them if he shined them up maybe rechromed them they've looked pretty sharp hanging up in three rows of six does that feel good rice smoother it feels natural whiskey I like the weight thing but if it feels natural yeah then that's what we can be doing well it's giving yourself permission to go there that's the fun of the ocean you know and yeah you know Orson Scott Card gave us permission but I give you permission thank you I take it and you really threw out your audiobook career that job becomes yours right you have to give yourself permission if it feels right to go that far great and this is this is written that far yes then you give yourself permission next one thank you of course that's not a great every book has a turning point where there's a clear shift in the tone of the writing now we'll learn how to draw out that difference for dramatic effect something new narrator's deal with all the time is how do you how do you embody a change in tone how do you illustrate it right how do you make it clearer for the listener how do you identify and how do we in our job know when the tone changes my rule of thumb is well when do the stakes get higher and it's not just the physical sticks if it's an action-adventure scene it's a lot easier in those circumstances you'll have I was doing a book one time and you had two guys escaping a mall that was under attack by terrorists and their car was outside in the parking lot they said okay we'll split up well get outside we'll escape we'll meet up at the car and we'll drive away and as this guy is escaping he looks and he sees his buddy outside the window and he's run into the car and he goes this is great looks like it's gonna work out and then the author said in a new paragraph something wasn't right Oh got Joseph this is too easy they want us to get to the car and as he opens his mouth to scream the car blows oh wow right now that's easy easier to determine when the tone changes because the author gave you something they usually do set it apart in a new paragraph something isn't right something wasn't right it's harder in an emotional context but nevertheless tone changes they could be a love scene somebody calls out the wrong name Wow stakes just got higher you know how's that other person gonna react sometimes it happens two characters in the absence of other characters I brought this piece about somebody who is dealing with grief she's there's been a separation and she's dealing with it and something happens basically halfway through I'd like to know let's let's read through it and tell me when you think the tone changes and I'll she and and and then we can talk about how we can make it clearer for the little listener okay so whenever you ready she'd stopped looking for his face he only showed up when it suited him capriciously in her waking dreams and the lonely nighttime hours when she could believe the lies she told herself like when she been walking to work from the bus stop and she'd seen the guy with blond hair in the leather jacket walking in front of her and for that one heartbreaking moment her grief convinced herself it was actually possible that it was him then she's seen that guy's hair was red not blond and that the jacket was actually denim and he was smoking a cigarette Silas hated cigarettes loathed them ever since he lost his mother to smoking at such a young age Silas standing just over his shoulder until she turned her head sleeping in the bed beside her until she woke up hiding in plain sight and ruining her life with the memory of his perfection Silas convincing her the fight hadn't happened and that he hadn't stormed off in the car Silas lulling her into believing the accident hadn't occurred Silas gone she stopped looking for his face that's nice when does the tone change well I went for and he was smoking a cigarette which was the trigger to her because Silas had hated them right what do you think well I I think I think that is the trigger I think it's at this moment let me ask you a different question that first paragraph if you had to ascribe one feeling towards it what would it be I put hope you put okay that's exactly what it is yeah she's holding out the hope that this guy even though she knows he's dead let it be him let it be him it's it's way our mind tricks us right when we're when we're susceptible to that okay if that's hope then the very next paragraph that's the change again the author usually offsets it usually they offset it with a new paragraph and Silas hated cigarettes this you know he was smoking a cigarette the line that you saw that's the clue right he hated cigarettes that's the moment of acceptance so it couldn't be him she can't keep lying to herself that's the moment where she loses hope okay so now the thing about this is if that's hope then what's the rest of it well acceptance vain grief more yes all of those what we the way that we can illustrate the tone change make it clearer for the listener when the tone changes give them a little bit of the opposite right before that example I gave you about the people escaping right right the author it's not a coincidence that the last line the author gave me right before wait something wasn't right was well it looks like it's gonna work out after all okay - giving them a false sense of security right I think so but it was actually possible that it was him yeah okay I think if this is hope let's hear that okay throughout this whole thing okay you know yes the guy right in front of her ya know um and then when that when the tone shift comes if you want to listen her to pay attention give them two things silence and a reduction in your pace like I just did right I have been speaking of this cadence yeah the listener gets used to it the person listening to the audiobook is accustomed to this pace that you're gonna use the other quicker pace on that first paragraph so when the tone changes you pause and you say that line Silas hated cigarettes when the listener hears you slow down hears you pause it is a signal to them and it happens every single time every time that happens in an audiobook the listener thinks this must be important I'm gonna pay attention okay so you draw them in exactly yeah and what you're doing is you're using a technique and you're wetting it to the truth the emotion that you're feeling the emotional shift in tone you're using a technique a trick basically to to illustrate that at the same time it winds up reinforcing it so take it again remember ever think remember think so this has to be set up as more hopeful in order to make the shift exactly okay and it has to be read just certainly faster than then you're gonna do after accepting okay she'd stopped looking for his face he only showed up when it suited him capriciously in her waking dreams and lonely nighttime hours when she could believe the lies she told herself like when she'd been walking to work from the bus stop and she'd seen the guy with blond hair in the leather jacket walking in front of her and for that one heartbreaking moment her grief convinced her but it was actually possible that it was him then she'd seen that guy's hair was red not blond and that the jacket was actually denim and he was smoking a cigarette Silas hated cigarettes loathe them ever since he lost his mother to smoking at such a young age Silas standing over her shoulder until she turned her head sleeping in the bed beside her until she woke up hiding in plain sight and ruining her life with the memory of his perfection Silas convincing her the fight hadn't happened and that he hadn't stormed off in the car Silas lulling her into believing the accident hadn't occurred Silas gone sheets looking for his face okay how'd that feel I wanted to I know yeah I've heard this before I wanted to cry too did I it was love okay it was lovely it's using a technique wedding it to the to the emotional change you feel you changed your speed and you changed the emotion when you do both at the same time it reinforces the change for the listener okay they notice it a lot more it makes it so much clearer the stakes just got hired this story changed right right there and I have to as the narrator I have to feel it in order to act it and give it to the listener exactly and here's the thing your first reading of this was great your first reading of this will get you work but if you can illustrate to a publisher anybody who's casting an audiobook to an author if you can illustrate that you are adept at recognizing the tonal shift and reinforcing them a little bit for the audience inhabiting it demonstrating it for the listener boy that's gonna get you return business I certainly hope so Scott coming back that was beautifully done thank you for that direction that is Wow okay cool one of the most important things a narrator can do to stand out in the booth is bring their own personal style to their interpretation of the text we'll close out today's lesson with a look at how to do just that earlier we talked about putting character in narrative right but now this is an opportunity to do it with dialogue as well we'll take a look at this piece this is page 1 of chapter 1 you are setting the scene before for the listener letting them know who these people are for the first time and tell me just by looking at it what you think the author what decision is the author made about what kind of narrator you should be is it the distant narrator the intermediate errs that really invested I'm gonna say intermediate are you okay what is that the wrong answer well I was I was like I I just look at the the last line in this opening paragraph there's irony dripping off of that like hot fudge off of Sunday well okay I was definitely going for the irony I get the irony well that puts it up to the first part well but let's do this you know everybody gets to make their own decisions let's try it read it as the intermediate narrator okay first time and then we'll see how that feels and if necessary we'll go back and make a change okay chapter one penny Jackson knew that it was probably wrong to be so excited to see her ex-husband come crawling back but she was willing to live with the character flaw you know he's gonna want to hire you her friend Naomi said oh yeah the sweet smell of validation penny leaned back in her chair and considered the possibilities I want him to beg not in a vicious I hate your guts way but more as a show of support for divorced women everywhere Naomi asked penny laughed exactly I suppose that makes me petty and small maybe but you're looking especially fabulous today if that helps a little penny smooth the front of her loose sweater and glanced at the clock we're meeting for lunch downtown a neutral location no memories good or bad stay away from the good ones Naomi warned her you were always a sucker where Cal was concerned okay that's the intermediate narrator definitely has that intermediate feel how does that how does that feel to you it feels fine how did it sound it sounds fine we have an opportunity with a narrator like this though given the context of the scene I'd like you to think of adding yourself make yourself this narrator I'm assuming you've had a moment or two like this in your life where you've sat around with friends several Scott okay all right don't need the details but you know but you know how that feels Yeah right at because here's the thing that that opening paragraph that opening sentence there's a judgement going on there almost every third person narrator makes a judgment about the P of U character positive or negative this is really positive right she's the narrator is joking with us so try being Holly in the scene okay okay and yeah just go ahead take it again and let as much of Holly come out on the narration as possible okay penny Jackson knew it was probably wrong to be so excited to see her ex-husband come crawling back but she was willing to live with the character flaw you know he's gonna want to hire you her friend Naomi said oh yeah the sweet smell of validation penny leaned back in her chair and considered the possibilities I want him to beg not in a vicious I hate your guts away but more as a show of support for divorced women everywhere Naomi asked penny left exactly I suppose that makes me petty and small maybe but you're looking especially fabulous today if that helps a little penny smooths the front of her loose sweater and glanced at the clock we're meeting for lunch downtown a neutral location no memories good or bad stay away from the good ones Naomi warned her you were always a sucker where a cow was concerned oh that was so three years ago I'm completely over him I've moved on right Naomi didn't look convinced don't think about how great he looks in his clothes or out of them instead remember how he broke your heart lied about wanting children and trembled your fragile dreams easy enough penny thought a flicker of annoyance muscling in on her good mood know that you there's true real okay yes all right yes that's there's something very interesting happened there I don't know if you noticed it when you sat down in the booth with him uh-huh those two women got a lot bigger they became a lot more real yeah I'm watching you speak with your hands my hands are coming look when you have a three when you have three friends you're all encouraging one another right when you add yourself to the narrative it makes the characters around the narrative much more realistic okay it's just this it's axiomatic you know when you put yourself into the narration you're allowing people to see not just the listener the casting people at the various publishers are trained the publishers around town you know you're allowing them to see that you're you're not afraid to put yourself in the story and that's appropriate can't we can't overwhelm this story but that's what makes us who we are right you and I could do the same piece and we would sound totally different because we have different personalities right and unless you share that with the listener and with the publishers how do they know we're not gonna stand exactly my god that was a lot of great info in a little bit of time let's check back in with our narrators to get their closing thoughts so I'm curious after all this what are your biggest takeaways well that there are three different kinds of narration I think the biggest one for me was being in the weeds actually being totally committed and and lifting up those characters right throughout the narration amazing and the change that gets the changes that get made to those characters by getting close to that absolutely takeaway that I hope that you get from all of this is that you have permission and again this is me giving you my permission but you're gonna be alone in the booth a lot and you have to trust your own storytelling instincts we all tell stories in very unique ways and trusts your way and let more of it come up well can I tell you something yeah um to that point it feels more fun it feels more invested when I'm being me and I'm being Hollies that we yeah exactly and you know what this is a fun job and it should be it should be so if it feels it did it came alive it's got it came alive thank you I'm curious when when you're working on a very emotional scene like that that tone shift that we had a woman who had lost Silas is it at all stressful getting feedback is it intimidating having somebody nearby who is you know maybe encouraging you to make a different decision well it's a little nervous making because you want to get it right but I think the point of the exercise is not to get it right to make it me yeah and so you gave me the freedom to let go I'm really glad because here's the thing you know nobody is ever going to become really good at something unless they're willing to be bad at it and I understand the whole performance anxiety we want we want to be perfect the first time through but it's okay if we're not what's it's almost like you stand in your way if you want to be perfect right yeah really there's a great saying the perfect is often the enemy of the good excellent I mean I I will write that down as soon as I keep it in my burger yeah t-shirt Scott I'm interested because you're so busy but you take a lot of time to coach how does that affect your performance does it keep it fresh what do you you know that's a great question it's it's a cliche to say you learn more when you teach than you ever do when you're just learning but it's true because I've had to look at it from a different perspective I've had to look at it from a different perspective that kind of third eye and looked at my natural instincts my choices okay why do I slow down there you know I know that's my instinct to do that but what does it what does it do for the listener and when I'm working with someone I can actually see it happen and realize oh yeah that's why that works okay moving on cool helps keep me fresher - it makes me more comfortable and more secure and confident and interested I make I'm interested do you feel like even though you've done so many audio books that you're continually learning do you feel good yeah I took a class I think I had done 600 books and I and I took a class I've worked with somebody I'd never worked with before and they said they looked at me they said why are you here and I said because I want to get better you know I want to expose myself to styles to coaching to choices that I wouldn't make myself if I can see other people's choices I see that there's a lot more possibilities other ways that I could be doing things well that's inspiring I want to continue this because you do grow yeah thank you Scott pleasure it's privilege so the three different types of narration I want to build on that what do I where do I go from here what do I concentrate on or focus on well yeah if you want to become let's say more well-rounded you know look at the type of work that you've been doing thus far look at it is it at those narrators and say am i doing a lot of work that's more distant that's maybe akin to the action but I want to do more work that's really invested well look at what you haven't been doing thus far and and and work on that you know I'm I'm a big fan of saying you know look we're all weak and strong in various areas if you can see yourself look at your own strengths and weaknesses or get a loved one get somebody that you trust who knows your work to tell you their input identify where you're strong and then start working on where you're weak excellent thanks for joining us for today's edition of ACX University if you enjoyed today's lesson Scott brick is available for audio book workshops and individual coaching at brick-by-brick audiobooks calm you should also check out performance perfection available on the ACX youtube channel thanks for watching you

Channel: AudibleACX

Views: 70,438

Keywords: acx, audiobook, make audiobooks, audiobook creation exchange, audible inc, scott brick, holly palance, audiobook performance coaching, audiobook narration

Id: booccER-4yo

Length: 39min 11sec (2351 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 05 2019