What I learned in my latest speech tracking session....

[Matt Kern]

I record a lot of speech for our games. A LOT of speech. I am probably up to about 10,000 lines or so over the last 5 years.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to record Jim Nantz (CBS sports) for our golf game update.

We had originally recorded him 5 years ago (in person - with some video, also) and it was time to update the audio. He is the nicest guy to work with.

This time we were doing a remote recording so we only had about 2 to 2.5 hours with Jim and we had written a script that was 170 pages long. There was really no fluff in it so we knew we had to keep a pretty good pace to get thru the whole thing in our given time period.

There were 4 of us that wrote the script and to get that much variety, at some point you start putting in lines that might not be appropriate. We have to write lines that Jim will want to say, but also lines that will entertain a bar crowd. That is a fine line to cross sometimes.

Here is where I messed up.

At the beginning of the session I failed to say "Jim, we all pitched in writing this huge script and there is a lot in there but if there is something you are uncomfortable saying, please just skip the line".

There were some double entendre lines that in hind site, were not fitting for Jim to say, but when you are feverishly writing a 2000 line script, you sometimes miss that stuff.

Anyway, since I didn't give him my speech up front, we got to a few of those lines and he read them, but we could tell he was uncomfortable and he eventually said "Guys, I don't want you to use those lines".

Obviously, I felt like an idiot for having put him in a position to even have to say that.

Everything turned out fine, but I really did feel deficient for not addressing that issue up front.

So there it is: When you are tracking talent that you know has a high value brand, always start the session by giving them the option to skip the lines that are not in alignment with who they are.

I won't make that mistake again.

[Jeff Powell]

Matt, that reminds me of the OCC Pinball video shoot we were on back in '04 (on my most surreal of birthdays). Remember when Mikey backed away from reading lines about his dad? Of course, with a pop like Paul, Sr., who wouldn't worry a bit?

[Matt Kern]

I totally forgot about that Jeff. Thanks for reminding me.

Seems I should have learned that lesson 5 years ago, eh?

[Joe Griffin]

Good thing to keep in mind, Matt. Thanks for sharing the story. Since I tend to record some high-profile folks from time to time, that's important advice.

[Matt Kern]

I figured I would share so I have that much better of a chance of remembering it myself the next time it comes around.

You know how these things are, for 2 weeks you feverishly work on something and its all you think about, but once its done, its out of site out of mind....

[John LaMantia]

That's a ton of lines, were you tracking the whole commentator for a golf game or something? And what does a Jim Nantz get paid for 2.5 hours of 170 pages reading? Just curious.

[Matt Kern]

Yea, we basically have 2 guys talking at each other during the golf game so we recorded all of Jim N. at one time.

I actually don't feel comfortable talking about his payment on a public forum (sorry....) but as you can probably imagine, one of the top network sports commentators makes more than you or I will ever have to worry about!