Hello guys, following Tuesday’s Booth Chat VO workout, in which we tried the new structure, a few of us stayed behind afterwards to discuss how it went and to see if there was any room for improvements. It was a really interesting and helpful discussion (thank you to those who got involved) and I think we were able to take a few more steps towards creating an even better structure for the sessions!
Below is a summary of how we intend to structure the sessions from now on (it might take a while to get used to but we think it has potential)…
In Summary
- A 1 hour session each week
- Anyone can attend whether they read or not, you do not need to let me know if you’re coming but of course it does help 😉
- The first 5 minutes will be a meet and greet
- I will ask for a show of hands to see how many want to read (there will be a maximum of 9 reading spots available)
- We’ll use the alphabet to select who reads from the attendees with raised hands and divide the remaining time accordingly (I’m hoping to use a Zoom timer that we can all see)
- 9 readers will have 6 minutes to read/feedback/read again
- 8 readers will have 7 minutes to read/feedback/read again
- 7 readers will have 8 minutes to read/feedback/read again
- 6 readers or less probably won’t require a timer
- The next session will start on the letter of the alphabet that we finished on the week before, and the process starts again.
- Obviously the one drawback is that there’s the possibility that you won’t get to read, but I think it’s slim and the following week you definitely will!
This might all sound insanely complicated but I have faith that it’ll solve all the problems we’ve been trying to work on! Feel free to contact me privately to discuss it further, or leave a question or comment in the comments section below.
Sounds good, Tom! As ever, thank you so much for all you put into this! Brilliant!
Hi Tom, many thanks for your update. Will get back into the swing of things once back from Rhodes
It’s a tremendous achievement, Tom, and you should be extremely proud!
Good plan on the revised format; looking forward to joining the rush to be among the readers😉
See you next time…
Second attempt
Yes Tom 100%
I’m a waffler.
And for next guest read I’ll not go in the hatas I’ve won twice in a row.
Bot would not let me submit off my mobile last go.
Nice one John, I appreciate that!
Great plan, Tom! 👍
Thanks Emma, we’ll see how it goes!
Sounds great!
Hi Tom, congrats on creating and running this group and making it popular. Thank you for sharing your proposed new format. I love the idea of keeping it focused and giving each reader 5-6 minutes. My only concern is that we need to rush to book and be in the first 9 to read that week. That’s great for people who check their emails frequently and can book quickly, but not for those who don’t check frequently.
For me, the best session was a couple of weeks ago when we split into 2 rooms. We had 6 in our group and we all had a go at reading the first script which took 30 minutes. We all then had a go at reading the second script which took about 30 mins. I felt satisfied as I had a go at reading 2 scripts and listening to all the others reading the 2 scripts. It was focused and there was variety, and the small group felt safe. That’s my feedback.
Look forward to the new style of VO booth chat. Thank you
Romi thank you so much for your encouragement and for sharing your thoughts on the new format.
I absolutely hear what you are saying about the ’email checking’ and it’s something I was hesitant about myself and have discussed with other people. Unfortunately I think this is one of those “you can’t please all of the people all of the time” situations!
Given all the other factors that need to be taken into account it was agreed that this was a pretty good approach, so we’re going to try it for a while and see how it goes. But I do understand your position entirely and I’m more than happy to discuss the matter in more detail with you if you want to have a chat, we could both stay on a little longer at the end of the next session?
Thanks again and see you soon
Tom