"Hosting" a recording session – 3 things I learned from Garry Marshall

Recently, I was re-reading Wake Me When It’s Funny,¹ the 1995 memoir by Garry Marshall, famed sitcom creator/producer (Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Mork & Mindy) and movie director (Pretty Woman, The Flamingo Kid, Beaches). Along with anecdotes from shows and films throughout his career, Marshall dispenses little bits of pragmatic advice on working – and surviving – in show business. 

But I’ve found his advice often applicable to working – and surviving – in advertising, too. Especially when it comes to recording voices for commercials and videos.

 

Tip #1:  "Host" the recording session

“I want everyone to get along while they're working because I hate tension while I'm working,” Marshall wrote. “One way to do this is to make each person feel as if he's one of the most important players on the team.” That’s why Michael Eisner, former Paramount and Disney CEO, said that "Garry Marshall doesn't direct a movie. He hosts a movie.”² 

I’ve tried to bring Marshall’s attitude with me to the recording studio – “I’m not just directing the voice talent, I’m hosting a recording session.” 

 

What this means in practice is that, like Garry Marshall, I’ll try to set a tone where everyone feels comfortable, especially the voiceover talent. I’ll encourage a little chit-chat to keep the atmosphere loose. I’ll give the talent a lot of encouragement and praise so they know I’m on their side and have faith in their ability, especially when the scripts have complicated passages in them. 

 

Though I’ll start with an idea of the type of read I’m going for, I’ll be open to suggestions from the talent, my creative partners, and the sound engineer. I rely on my sound engineers in particular, not just for their technical expertise, but for their keen ears and judgement. (They’ve saved spots, and me, more times than I can remember.)

 

At the same time, as Garry Marshall says, “just because I listen to everyone doesn't mean I always take that advice. Ultimately, a director must of course make his own decisions.”³

Tip #2: Take the blame

Of course, the downside of making decisions is sometimes making the wrong decision, usually asking for a specific reading of the script that turns out to be not at all what I was going for. Or bringing in a script that has an awkwardly worded sentence that can’t be read smoothly. Or choosing a wrong take in editing. When that happens, I am quick to take the blame and own up to my bad direction, hoping that buys me enough good will to keep everyone on board while I scramble to fix the issue.

 

That’s a version of this Garry Marshall insight, going back to the first TV show he worked on in the late 1950s: “On The Joey Bishop Show, whenever anything went wrong I would say, “My fault," just to move things along. Joey once said, ‘You're just saying that to move things along.’ And I said, ‘You're right.’”⁴

 

Setting aside ego and making everyone comfortable has enabled me to get through hundreds of recording sessions over the years, usually leaving with the voiceovers and music I needed. 

Tip #3: Keep self-pity to a minimum

Despite my best efforts, once in a while, sessions go awry – the script was flawed and I didn’t realize it in time, the talent was a mismatch for the project, I missed a glitch or mispronunciation, I picked the wrong music. Usually, I can see the problem in time and get to a solution – but if it slips by me?

 

Well, Garry Marshall had a solution for that, too, drawn from how he and an early writing partner dealt with rejection: “We would devote one half hour of each day to self-pity. We pledged to sit in our cold fifth-floor apartment for thirty minutes each day and say things like ‘No one will hire me. I will never work. I will fail. I am sad.’ However, at all other times, we had to maintain an air of supreme self-confidence.”⁵  

 

I’m going to close here, because I have another voiceover session coming up and I’ve still got to get in that half-hour of self-pity before I put on an air of supreme self-confidence. 

 

* * *

¹ Wake Me When It’s Funny: How to Break into Show Business and Stay There, Garry Marshall with Lori Marshall, Massachusettes: Adams Publishing, 1995

² ibid, p.184

³ ibid, p. 184

⁴ ibid, p. 125

⁵ ibid, pp 47-48