Phil

Likewise an actor who can make a phone book sound good.

In some ways one of the best first steps, well it’s requisite really, is to read the whole thing yourself, out loud.

Hopefully you’ll hear the blah blah blahs right off the bat.

And yes, readings are a step, the next one is rehearsal or shooting, the final i guess is when the audience arrives. Then you really hear it for the first time.

However, I did think there was a limit to what acted readings can illuminate. Today I found myself wondering whether there were enough visuals in the script, and if there might be too much dialogue. I’m not sure if the writer found the same thing, but it makes me think that reading would be good for things like characterisation, dialogue, plots etc.

But maybe people who can’t afford the professional service Philip was talking about could consider finding a local cafe that would be willing to host a play reading, then doing a bit of advertising for actors? Hope this helps!

I wouldn’t mind a bit. I would be grateful for being able to hear someone else say my words. Plus, like you said, it would provide an interesting feel to have an accent other than what I hear in my head.

Some scriptwriting programs include a function to read scripts aloud, but it sucked when I tried it. For one thing, it typically includes one electronic male voice, and one electronic female voice.

And then, they read every word on the page — scene headings, action description, parentheticals — when I want to just hear the dialog.

You may not need to get a lot of actors for this. Jim Dale, for example, does dozens of distinct and recognizable voices when he reads the audio versions of the Harry Potter books. Four or five good voice actors might be able to voice the entire cast of a script. Not that it would necessarily be any cheaper that way, though.

And doubling up casts is going to be crucial to keep the costs from spiralling.

I’m liking the idea of these recordings being online at the end to act as a calling card for you - are there any other spins you’d really like from the service?

In what ways would this service be useful to you?

this is a wonderful idea. Tell me, these pro
actors…how young do they come?

My protagonist is seventeen (”almost 18″ she’s clear to remind you.) Will there be actors available to handle that? She is something else…I’m here to tell you.

Rose

What about large cast sizes and doubling and stuff like that to keep ‘production’ costs down? All do-able I presume.

Honestly, I’ve gotten great constructive criticism for my writing over the years in classes/workshops and it’s really helped. I’ve gotten a lot of positive responses as well. As I’ve said above, I’m actually my own worst critic and the reason I have a hard to time sitting at my desk at times is…me. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, which is bad, really. It’s the main cause of my “writer’s block”…that I won’t just sit my butt down and write without “Little Miss Perfect” nagging me in my ear.

To answer your next question: As an American, I wouldn’t find it to be a bad thing to listen to English voices read my script should I take advantage of this option…it would be interesting actually. It would give me a whole new feel to my script, I think.

MLewys - I think getting non pro actors would be clearly cheaper, but slightly defeats the point of the thing - after all, it wouldn’t be too hard to get your friends round in front of a mic. I guess I’m really talking about a premium offering with pro standard acting. That’s what makes it distinct. Or am I wrong?

One thing - how would you people outside the UK feel about your scripts being read by English voices (rather than American English). That’s not going to be great is it? Or doesn’t it matter? I’m sure I can source American accents though anything else might be more of a problem!

Very interesting idea from Iceduck about making the recordings available for others to listen to. Kind of an online portfolio you could point to when you were marketing your script. Also acts as a kind of copyright marker too - if it’s up here first with your name on then it’s harder for people to steal from you. (Though that will wreak havoc with me bandwidth, so there would have to be a small additional charge for that I guess.)

Amz - absolutely - there’s nothing like hearing a good actor battle your dialogue to make you realise you need to rewrite!

Hmm. All part of the mix. Any more thoughts?

Very interesting idea from Iceduck about making the recordings available for others to listen to. Kind of an online portfolio you could point to when you were marketing your script. Also acts as a kind of copyright marker too - if it’s up here first with your name on then it’s harder for people to steal from you. Though that will wreak havoc with me bandwidth, so there would have to be a small additional charge for that I guess. Hmm. All part of the mix. Any more thoughts?

Also, from an actors perspective it’s helpful to be involved in that kind of thing because you gain some more understanding about how scripts work. I’m always going along to local script readings for that reason.

So, yes, the idea certainly gets my vote. Thought, though - would these be made available to all visitors? Maybe as an opt-in option? It could be great for other writers, and also for the paying writer if they want their material heard by others also.

So, in summary, I think the idea has a lot of potential - useful primarily for hearing the dialogue presented by actors, of course, but offering so much more as well.

But it’s a great idea!

Until that opportunity to pay the fee comes up, I’ll stick to playing out my own scripts, no matter how crazy I look.

Also, one might take into consideration the number of writers (pretty much all of them) who hate criticism of their work (especially a work they’ve put a lot of time/effort into). I just had this bad visualization of the actors making fun of a certain line while recording and it ends up on the tape and me crying my eyes out when I finally get to listen to it…

Then again, I’m my own worst critic.