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Mel Hulm

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🙋🏼‍♀️ hands up who remembers:⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 1️⃣ waiting forever (approx 3 mins) for your mixtape to rewind back to the start of side A⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 2️⃣ your fave song playing in super slow mo as your AA batteries started to die⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 3️⃣ tape tangled worse than your hair that time you tried to use your mum’s heated curlers (or just me?)⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 4️⃣ threading your headphone cord up through your sleeve and strategically leaning on your hand to listen to music during your maths class⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 5️⃣ a clunky play button that actually required a degree of thumb strength to push⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 6️⃣ sitting up the back of the bus, sharing an ear bud with your bud, silently praying it would be returned sans ear wax⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ If you’ve got your hand in the air, you were probs the proud owner of a Walkman. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Hard to believe those belt-clipped boxes of musical delight are 40 years old this year.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ The music-streaming youth of today will never fully appreciate the joys of being wired for sound...⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Now excuse me while I go rewind Mel’s Mix 7 with a pencil (I’m trying to save battery).⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Pantone has just announced their 2020 colour of the year—Classic Blue. 2154 C for those fluent in PMS.⁣ ⁣ And I must admit it’s got me feeling a little Eiffel 65-ish.⁣ ⁣ When will the good folk at Pantone give us audio-types a colour we can get behind?⁣ ⁣ Here’s some suggestions to chunk into your 2021 focus groups Pantone powers that be:⁣ ⁣ 🦠 Pop filter fungus green⁣ ⁣ 🗣 Talk til you’re blue in the face⁣ ⁣ 🔈 Acoustic foam grey⁣ ⁣ 💎 Crystal clear audio⁣ ⁣ 📣 Golden tonsils⁣ ⁣ 🗯 White noise⁣ ⁣

Here are 4 bells-on-bobtailingly basic ways to give your script an Xmas makeover.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 1. Wrangle a festive character voice over. An elf, reindeer, snowman, Mrs Claus... Or the big guy in charge himself. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 2. Sprinkle some Christmas ambience. Chuck in your fave Xmas carol. Add some on-brand SFX like sleigh bells. Maybe a few hos here and there.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 3. REEEEMIX a Chrissy classic. Parody a Christmas carol. Re-write an Xmas story or poem (like this one I voiced for a radio promo).⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ 4. Whip out your best Christmas puns. Maybe a clichè or 10. It’s the one time of the year Yule be able to get away with it.⁣ ⁣⁣

⁣ 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞 /prəˈnaʊns/ 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ There’s the correct pronunciation. And then there’s the particular—depends where you’re from or how you roll—pronunciation.⁣⁣ ⁣ While I’m a stickler for the rules, I also respect grammatical life choices.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ On any given day you can find this voice actor hanging at Pronunciation Hub, Forvo, Howjsay and the online dictionaries with audio guides (cause I’ll be stuffed if I can figure how the symbols, upside down letters and that horseshoe thing sound IRL).⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ I’ve also been known to scour local business websites, Facebook ads and local news coverage to get location and biz names just right.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ But if you have a specific pronunciation preference or a particularly pesky proper noun, include a guide with your script. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Bonus points if you provide an audio version.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ And chuck your 𝘥𝘢𝘩-𝘵𝘶𝘩 or 𝘥𝘢𝘺-𝘵𝘶𝘩 pron pref below 👇🏻⁣⁣ ⁣

⁣ 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭: Mix 106.3⁣ 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭: radio imaging⁣ 𝐒𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞: sultry, enticing⁣ ⁣ From recording Doctor Dave’s Hot 5 at 5 on a TDK SA 90...⁣ ⁣ To voting for Bart Simpson’s Deep Deep Trouble in the Top 8 at 8 and winning Danni Minogue’s Love and Kisses on record for my troubles...⁣ ⁣ To co-hosting the Hot 30 Countdown and writing down every single song vote phoned through...⁣ ⁣ Radio request shows have always had a special place in my ears.⁣ ⁣ And obvs I was naturally honoured to voice the radio imaging for Rock Song Dedications with the Love God.⁣ ⁣ Might just give Mr God a buzz and whack in a request for some Poison, Bon Jovi and Scatterbrain...⁣ ⁣

⚡️script hack⚡️5 easy peasy ways to keep your script crystal clear (spoiler: use of ‘easy peasy’ is not one of them).⁣ ⁣ Whether you’re scripting a commercial, corporate explainer or eLearning modules, here’s how to keep it clear. And keep people listening.⁣ ⁣ 🙋🏼‍♀️ stick with familiar, everyday words⁣ ⁣ 🐝 kill the buzzwords and jargon⁣ ⁣ ✂️ keep your sentences short⁣ ⁣ 🤸🏼‍♀️ use active voice and personal pronouns⁣ ⁣ 📞 have a clear call to action⁣ ⁣ And if you love a good stat (god who doesn’t?) there are tools to measure and improve your plain Jane-ness. ⁣ ⁣ Check out: ⁣ 🖊 Hemingway app⁣ 🖊 Visible Thread⁣ 🖊 Readable.io⁣ 🖊 Grammarly⁣ 🖊 Word’s built in readability stats⁣ ⁣

⁣ 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭: how would you feel about playing an aggressive customer character? There’s some swearing. Wanted to check if you would be comfortable having a crack at it. Or is it not really your thing?⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ 𝐌𝐞: where do I fkn sign?⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣

👉🏻reminder👈🏻⁣ ⁣ Fresh off the back of my first festive voice over for 2019, consider this your friendly prod to start thinking about your Christmasy slash end-of-yeary voicey needs🎅🏻⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Hit me up if you need a voice over for your:⁣⁣ ⁣ 📞 telephone system holiday messages⁣⁣ ⁣ 📺 Boxing Day sale commercial⁣⁣ ⁣ 📸 social media Christmas content⁣ ⁣ 💻 year in review corporate presentation⁣⁣ ⁣ 📹 Christmas video message for clients⁣⁣ ⁣ 🎤 in-store seasons greetings⁣ ⁣⁣ Just don’t hit me up on the big day—December 20 to da 5. I’ll have a few Xmas Day shandies under my belt. And that does not maketh a quality voice over. ⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Unless your script direction is a ‘tipsy, little bit sweary, full of fruit cake, Mrs Claus’. ⁣ ⁣ Then I’m your fkn woman ⁣ ⁣ $&@!%#<¥📢🤶🏻⁣ ⁣

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Mel Hulm