Friday, January 14, 2011

Follow-Ups

A lot of folks on the 'net are disagreeing with Farhad Manjoo's essay on why one should never insert two spaces after a period. Manjoo insisted his point was inarguable but it's being argued by many, especially Tom Lee. He has reasons other than mine but I still agree with him.

In this piece, I noted that Rocky & Bullwinkle fans were irate because the fifth season of those wonderful cartoons was only going to be released as part of a box set of all five seasons...and many of them have already purchased the first four seasons. Well, it's now been announced that Season Five will be marketed as a standalone DVD set that you can purchase without having to pay again for the other material.

In this piece, I embedded an audio player that plays the voice demo of announcing superstar Mark Elliott. Apparently, some of you have browsers that cannot see that audio player. You can download the MP3 file directly from this link.

That's all the following-up I have at the moment. Thank you.

• Posted at 9:17 PM · LINK

Space Problems

Farhad Manjoo gets almost hysterical at the idea that anyone who was writing something would put two spaces after a period. He seems to feel it's worthy of the Death Penalty at the very least.

I'm undecided on whether it's wrong to use two spaces but I have decided that if you do, it's not as heinous a crime as he claims...and I think he's missing one key point. He's correct (apparently) that typographers are pretty unanimous in insisting that there be but one space after a period...but at least in some cases, I believe it's because it gives them more control when they set type. If the size, leading and font selection in a given piece of type seems cramped at the ends of sentences, it's easy for them to add spacing or just tracking there; not as easy to take it away. They're not claiming that type never reads better with a little extra spacing between sentences...just that it's preferable to make it controllable.

Then there's this: Manjoo is correct that the idea of putting two spaces after a period is a leftover from when we worked on typewriters with non-proportional spacing. He says...

Today nearly every font on your PC is proportional. (Courier is the one major exception.) Because we've all switched to modern fonts, adding two spaces after a period no longer enhances readability, typographers say. It diminishes it.

I think it depends on the font but let's get past that. Let's say it's wrong with a proportional font but right with a non-proportional like Courier. Well, guess what: We haven't all switched to modern fonts. A very large percentage of my work is in screenplay and scripts and the custom there is still for Courier.

I put two spaces after a period. There. I admit it. I've been writing professionally for more than four decades and I've always done it that way. This site is written that way, though it doesn't show because the software usually takes out the extra space. It's a habit I could probably break but then when I worked on a screenplay that uses Courier, it would look wrong...and I sure don't want the distraction of trying to remember to space twice after a period in some of my work and once in other projects. I have to do it one way or the other and I say I'd lose more from putting one space in after a period in Courier than I would by putting two in other writing...especially since the two don't always show up.

So I've decided not to try and break the habit and to go on inserting two spaces after a period when I type. If Farhad Manjoo doesn't like it, I don't care. He doesn't read this site.

• Posted at 1:28 AM · LINK

Voice Over Matter

Those of you (and I know you are many) interested in a career in voiceover might want to read Ken Levine on the success of Mark Elliott. Mark is in a very tiny group of folks in this area who work constantly because, among other reasons, he's really good.

I hired Elliott once when I produced a prime-time kids' special for CBS. Two rules were then in force at the network...and if they still are, I don't think they're as strict as they were then. One was that on a show for younger audiences, there had to be a clear separation of program content and commercial content. When you took a break for ads, a voice had to say something like, "We'll return to our show right after these commercial messages." And then when you came back, that voice had to say, "And now, we return to our program" or words to that effect. It was to make sure every kid knew when the show stopped and the commercial began.

The other rule was that the voiceover had to be by what they called a "Network Quality Voice." This is sometimes a concern at some networks. Someone believes that a voiceover that talks about their shows or says, "Stay tuned for [whatever]" represents the network and is part of their image. So they don't want just any old voice in there. They want someone whose voice reflects the branding of the network. I was handed a list of the currently-approved announcers and told I had to hire one of them. There were six or seven names on the list and I picked Mark Elliott.

He came into the studio where we were editing the show. We put him in the booth and had him read, "We'll return to our show right after these commercial messages." Then we had him read, "And now, we return to our program." Then he signed the time sheet and left. Total time he was there: About three minutes. He was such a pro we only needed one take of each line but we recorded them three times, just for protection.

One of the crew guys grumbled a bit and said, "You paid him all that money for three minutes work?" Before I could say anything, the director said, "No, we pay him all that money because it only takes him three minutes."

In case you don't know the voice, here's Mark Elliott's demo reel. You do know the voice...

• Posted at 12:40 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Say, just how do they make potato chips?

• Posted at 12:33 AM · LINK