What Reporting on the Vatican Taught Me About Recording
In 2018, I started working in Spanish and English at a bilingual TV news station covering the Vatican, the Catholic Church, and Rome. This experience taught me so much about journalism, writing, interviewing, and of course recording.
During my time abroad, I had a couple of different roles, one of them being an English translator for news script reporters who wrote in Spanish. Also, I did a weekly Vox Pop where I had to interview strangers in front of St Peter's Basilica. Finally, I would record voiceovers for the stories in English that would go on top of the B-roll footage.
I have plenty of stories about my time in Rome, the Catholic Church, and what that was like as someone who's not super religious, but today, I want to focus on the three big recording lessons I learned there from doing the voiceovers.
When I got there, I had never really done voice-over work before. My background was in print journalism, and all my previous experience was strictly writing. But here, a huge part was video.
To record, they would have us go in this little recording booth with a music stand to put our script and a microphone. You'd press record, close the door behind you, and go. The first few times I went to record, my nerves took over, shaking the paper and making noise.
The comments were terrible when the first video with my voice went out to their YouTube. It did not receive many views, but it got a couple of comments. They were like "I can't even understand this girl" and "Please hire another reporter" and "Slow down, no one can understand you."
Let's just say their comments were justified. It was TERRIBLE. Looking back, I sounded so monotone and talked at a hundred miles a minute. The next 5 to 10 videos probably sounded the same. Reading from a script and sounding somewhat natural is a SKILL.
Like any skill, the more you do it the more you improve. I was doing this for a news station, but now my work with podcasts isn't much different.
So now let's jump into the key things that helped me improve my script reading and recording and how you can apply it to your script reading.
Getting Familiar With Your Script
If you are winging reading the script, you are going to ramble and it's nearly impossible to do clean takes without filler words. At the news station, winging it wasn't an option since everything needed to be thoroughly fact-checked anyway.
If I was reading the script for the first time INSIDE the booth, it was a disaster. Because I didn't know what was coming next, my whole focus went to figuring out the next word. That meant I was monotone and stressed, or even worse, my voice would sound like a question mark because I was literally wondering what the word I was reading was.
Reading the script multiple times beforehand allows more focus on getting the energy and inflection of your voice right. Since you already know where you're going, you can make sure to put the emphasis in the right place or change up your voice with a word.
Keep On Moving While Reading
Next tip I learned. You will mess up, and it's okay; just start the sentence over completely and keep it moving. Even on my 100th recording, I stumbled over a word or misread something, so it's completely normal.
At the beginning of my journey, I had not normalized that yet. Which got me in trouble with the editors. I got pulled aside one day by the lead editor who, of course, had to listen to all my takes to put the video together.
After reviewing my takes, he told me, “So we are going to need you to stop dropping f-bombs every time you mess up. It's making us uncomfortable. Instead, just take a breath and start the whole sentence over.” I was mortified. I was dropping F-Bombs down the street from the Pope! These people were super religious.
I immediately apologized and said I'd work on it. I had to bite my tongue to keep from cursing when I messed up because I would get so mad at myself.
Over time, I was able to integrate the advice. If I messed up, I slowed down, took a breath, and took it from the top of the paragraph. This helped me keep my cool while also making it easier for the editors because they could get a clean take and keep the video sounding natural.
Slow Down When Speaking
Remember I said the YouTube comments said I was talking so fast they couldn't even understand! When you're reading text, you need to slow down so people can understand you.
When I say slow down, I mean really slow down. You will naturally speed up a bit, especially if you are nervous. You'd be surprised at how the final result still sounds normal even when you think you're talking slowly.
By going slower, you give yourself more time to see the words coming up next. Plus, your listener is going to be able to understand you more clearly. Remember they are usually doing something else while listening to a podcast, so this will give them time to hear the words, even if they are listening at 2x speed.
Podcasts are listening experiences. Slowing down and enunciating your words cater to their overall enjoyment of your episodes!
Lessons Learned and Moving Forward
I had to learn these lessons the hard way. And besides that instance with the editor asking me to stop cursing, I didn't get a ton of feedback from the people working there. But I wish I had; it would have helped me grow.
That's why I prioritize preparing my clients to record well and then giving them live feedback on their recording day. They don't have to face a mean YouTube comment or a cringe-worthy look-back moment.
I share what I learned and make sure they sound and look their best on their recording days with my Hands-Off Production package.
I loved this opportunity to go down a little memory rabbit hole. I hope you enjoyed it too. If you want more stories about Rome or my time in journalism, drop me a DM on Instagram at @IsaMediaInc.
