Drop the mic!

I have the rule of never changing a script, sent by the client or the studio, when I’m doing a voice-over. Sometimes there are errors. At other times, the way some sentences are written don’t have a natural style. But I never change the texts alone, without the consent of whoever hires me.

The scripts were written by someone I assume is a professional. Sometimes they are translated by someone I assume, again, is a pro. Many times, the scripts are even proofread by a third person. And, if the texts came from a communication agency, most likely, they were seen and revised, read and reread, over and over again, by various elements in the hierarchy of the client’s company, from the communication office and its managers, and, afterwards, by professionals in the communication agency. I have worked in one. I know this process can take months, sometimes half a year! So… Who am I to question those scripts?

The texts went through a copywriter, directors, translators, proofreaders and even by someone at the voice-over studio that hires me. I, at the end of the line, cannot, nor should I, compromise the work of many other professionals! I have no legitimacy to say that a sentence sounds better differently or to doubt there are no spelling errors. I’m human. I also make mistakes. Maybe I’m the one who is wrong.

But…

It has happened to receive texts with clear and serious errors, or sentences that don’t make any sense!

In these cases, I say, in advance, that it seems to me that there are supposed mistakes in the text and I point them out. I never say openly that there are errors! I just leave the suggestion. In 99.8% of the cases, the studio and the client agreed with me, they thanked me for my initiative, and the script was corrected.

0.1% of the other cases concern medicine voice-overs! Some sentences are awkward but, apparently, they make perfect sense to anyone who knows about medical science. For the rest of us, common mortals, they are really strange…

There’s still the 0.1% where the studio mentions it’s best not to mess with the client-approved script, even if it appears to have mistakes. That’s ok with me. Even more ok some weeks later when I’m asked for a budget to re-record because, after all, the script had to corrected!

It is also true that, sometimes, very small errors appear in the scripts, clearly distractions, which I change on the spot. They tend to be simple things, like having a plural verb after a singular subject or a masculine noun being preceded by a feminine article.

Now…

There are also cases of scripts that are poorly written from start to finish! There was clearly no line of professionals handling the text. Possibly the original script was badly written and, to make things worse, an online translator was used to get the Portuguese script. Who am I to say that the script has to be completely rewritten? Happened to me, fortunately, only once or twice. In these situations, I limited myself to doing the work I was hired for, even if it didn’t have a clue about what I was saying…

Oh, well… This text is long… 

(Could it have errors!?)

Anyway… In Portugal we usually say that “errar é humano”. In english: “it’s human to make mistakes”.

Or, as we say, jokingly, in Portugal: “herrar é umano”.

In English it would be something like “hit’s uman to make mistakes”!