Marking your copy to help you read it better on camera

When preparing to mark up your copy, don't use a pen that is running out of ink, and avoid pens with thick lines. Use a fine point pen that writes well.

Of course, sometimes your lines are only part of a story and fairly easy to mark up. If your only line is "Billy ate all the hot dogs again!" that would only be part of a story. Also realize that sometimes what you have to read is written badly and is hard to say properly. (That's actually good news if it's for an audition! That means other people will have trouble when they audition it, and you will do better than average by following these techniques.)

Step 1 to mark your copy is to read it all the way through twice silently so you are familiar with it. Then read it out loud quickly several times and pay careful attention to see if there are places where the words don't come out quite right.

Any place the words don't come out easily, or you miss a word, put vertical lines between the words, like this (you don't need to use a red pen, I've used red just so you can see where the lines are):

dumb | ducks | don't | dance on my | cereal | saying | stuff.

This helps you see each word clearly when you practice. Some actors who do voice-only commercials (voiceover) put a line between every word on the page. It's a good idea to always use some lines; put in as many as you need.

When you are acting in a commercial (and elsewhere) you will always be telling a story, at least in part. For a cold read you will be at least partly reading directly from the page, and not memorizing. Your job is to show us how the story CHANGES from one thing to another thing with a beginning, a middle, and an end. To do it you use your voice, expressions and movements to show your feelings and opinions.

The simplest ways to show your feelings and opinions are by moving your body more or less, and talking louder or softer, faster or slower. When you begin, always practice moving your body MORE, talking faster, and changing between soft and very loud.

It's easier to tone down your performance to be natural and energetic than it is to have to raise your energy. And putting more energy and movement into your performance helps you understand how to emphasize words, which leads us to step two: Circle the words to emphasize, and the words where your tone changes.

You often change your tone at the end or middle of the story. Here's an example commercial script:

My favorite food is Hamburger Helper. It's a good thing cause it all my dad can cook. He says all you have to do is brown a pound of hamburger and then just add water and what's in the box. That's so simple even a kid could make dinner. Just don't tell my dad. It's bad enough I have to do the dishes.

Here's I've marked the changes in the story, and some possible emotions to use.

Beginning: (enthusiastic, excited)
My favorite food is Hamburger Helper.

Transistion to middle: (relief or secretive)
It's a good thing cause it all my dad can cook.

Middle: (persuasive, matter of fact)
He says all you have to do is brown a pound of hamburger and then just add water and what's in the box.

Transition to end: (enthusiasic, disdainful)
That's so simple even a kid could make dinner.

Ending: (sharing a secret)
Just don't tell my dad. It's bad enough I have to do the dishes.

Next you have to decide which words to emphasize -- and how to emphasize them. ALWAYS EMPHASIZE THE PRODUCT OR COMPANY NAME!! You don't have to shout it, but you have to speak it clearly and with adequate energy.

Then find the other words to emphasize, and circle those words. Finally, after some practice, you add up or down arrows before words that you want to move your voice pitch up or down on, and place large dots (like a big period) or double lines (||) in places you want to pause. You can also use a small dash (-) for small pauses. Lastly, put a small wavy line (~) by words you want to color in a special way (circle them too) other than stong emphasis.

So let's look at a little bit of this copy and see how you might want to emphasize it, then you practice on the sections copy we don't cover here. I'm going to use a bold color for words that could be circled (because it's easier to do on a web page like this).

Beginning: (enthusiastic)
My favorite | food | is Hamburger Helper.

Pretty obvious. You could also mark it "My ~favorite food " if you just want to color the word "favorite" without special emphasis. Imagine yourself licking your lips and rubbing your stomach thinking about how much you like Hamburger Helper and that should give you an idea on how you might wan to color the word "favorite." The lines could help you keep the s sound in "is" clear after the "f" sounds in "favorite" and "food."

Transition to end: (enthusiasic)
That's | so | ~simple even a kid could make dinner.

With all the "s" sounds at the beginning of this line, I've included the "|" lines to help keep the words clears from each other. "simple" could be colored by the thought "this is really, really easy -- anyone can do this -- I can't believe how simple it is!" You could instead move the color to the word "so" instead of "simple," for example, "That's ~soooo simple ..."

As you decide how you want to perform, always try it first with extra body motions and energy! It helps you to understand what you're doing and why and keep your energy up. Now try marking the whole thing up by practicing it together with a parent, coach or friend:

Beginning: (enthusiastic, excited)
My favorite food is Hamburger Helper.

Transistion to middle: (relief or secretive)
It's a good thing cause it all my dad can cook.

Middle: (persuasive, matter of fact)
He says all you have to do is brown a pound of hamburger and then just add water and what's in the box.

Transition to end: (enthusiasic, disdainful)
That's so simple even a kid could make dinner.

Ending: (sharing a secret)
Just don't tell my dad. It's bad enough I have to do the dishes.