Elocution

[Jim Feeley]

Interesting thought about meds, social media, and everything. I guess in addition to newer drugs often used to treat ADHD, there's also caffeine. And nerves. IME, people speak faster and less clearly when they're nervous about what they're saying and how it will be received. I think of some witnesses at some court cases I've covered; I'm no lawyer or psychologist, but seemed like enunciation and truthfulness weren't necessarily connected.

 

Anyway, three things that seem to help in my corp/doc world (where these days I'm usually/also a producer/director rather than just a mixer):

 

1) Set the tone by speaking clearly and at a reasonable WPM from arrival, through setup, and esp. during an interview (or scene).

(Not a given 😞 ) 

 

2) Don't ask, "Can you say all that more succinctly and briefly?" 

This gets to the interviewer's craft; there are better ways to get to what you need without making interview subject self conscious.

 

3) Increase the distance from the interviewee and the interviewer.

I see interviewers closing in on interviewees to, they feel, create a feeling of intimacy. But a bit more distance seems to get both sides of an interview to speak a bit more clearly. Too far, and there's yelling... But sometimes I'll set the interviewer's chair a little behind the camera. Seems to help.

 

4) No ice cream just before the interview. (Bonus tip!)

This was years ago, but I still feel it. Was interviewing a big-deal public figure (a professor) who was a good public speaker, both in terms of content and delivery. Of course, he was running late and had missed lunch so as he arrived at the interview location, he bought and ate an ice-cream cone. Lots of sticky mouth, throat clearing, and kinda muffled speech. Sigh.

 

As for making suggestions to a producer, correspondent, or interview subject, depends on my relationship and history with the person. I try to read the room (and the people). I'll sometimes say, "We're getting a little mouth noise. Can you drink a little water and swish it around?" That's not about elocution but anecdotally (and only anecdotally), that makes the speaker pay a touch more attention to how they're speaking without tightening them up.

 

No great insight, but that's all I got. Bob, thanks for sparking this conversation.

[The Immoral Mr Teas]

13 hours ago, Bob K said:

Regarding my original question:

 

7 hours ago, Olle Sjostrom said:

if an AI gives me an answer like that I want to make sure myself..

 

such as,

"Do people speak slower than before?"

"Do prescription medications make people talk slower?"

and, ... "becoming less popular?"

 

Three more yes's I expect. Information, like good sound: you get what you pay for!

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

25 minutes ago, The Immoral Mr Teas said:

if an AI gives me an answer like that I want to make sure myself..

Lol, I second that.

Have uppers become more popular than downers?  There's way too many imprecise questions with unknowable answers being thrown around here.  This is an interesting topic, but I worry this thread is at risk of becoming a demonstration of how misinformation gets created.

[Olle Sjostrom]

Language changes as well, and I guess those changes happen faster these days. My language, Swedish, is very front of mouth heavy, as in all the sounds we make are very much in the front of your mouth. English is farther back in the throat and more like in the middle of your mouth. 
My son does a lot of YouTube videos and his English is great, but now he speaks Swedish with his voice like all in the back, which makes him harder to understand, because he doesn’t  produce the sounds in front of his mouth. And when I was growing up we weren’t mixing Swedish and English as much, but nowadays younger people can speak whole sentences in English, switch back to Swedish and back and forth, but if your pronounciation in English isn’t perfect (because as you know no one can suck anymore, everyone needs to be an expert in every field)  then you’d get laughed at or picked at. So therefore, in some ways, talking Swedish with your voice farther back in the throat is more common. Because of English’s influence. 
not sure how this may apply to native English speakers , but I guess also the influence of different accents affects the language too. And that people speak faster because that’s what they hear online, so they want to sound just like that. 

[Bob K]

Responding to The Immoral Mr Teas comment that Google has a confirmation bias, I did a test.
 

I asked Google "Do people speak slower than before?"
 

AI Overview: "No, people do not speak slower than before."
 

I asked Google "Do prescription medications make people talk slower?"
 

AI Overview:  "Yes ... sedatives, tranquilizers, certain antidepressants, and some antipsychotics are known to slow speech..."
 

I asked Google "Are prescription medications becoming less popular?"
 

AI Overview:  "No, prescription medication use is not becoming less popular; in fact, it has reached historic highs in the United States."
 

The result: There's no confirmation bias.  As to the answer about "sedatives, tranquilizers, certain antidepressants, and some antipsychotics" slowing speech, I would presume those medications may also lead to word jumbles.  

[Mungo]

Sometimes I work for that network news presenter standups and yes, I am often asked if everything was fine und understandable as I am the only person in this small crew who is supposed to hear/listen properly.

If there's too much mumble, false grammar, word missing or so I tell them and usually they are very thankful. I offer them to listen in - and either they say you're right or they find it ok anyway.

But almost never in interview situations and never on documentary and fiction. It's the director's job then.

[Bob K]

This is a little off the topic, but related.

I was once on a corporate shoot, and the corporate president was delivering a speech while reading from a teleprompter.  There was no audience.  (If I recall, the video was to be presented later at a conference.)  Besides the president, there were just his producer, the cameraman and me in the room.

After the first take, and each subsequent take, the producer asked me "how's the sound?"  (That was unusual.)  I replied each time "sound is good," and the producer would say "let's do it again."

After the fourth go-round the president was getting flustered.  He wanted to know why.  The producer wouldn't say.  He looked at me for help.  So, finally, I told the president "it sounds like you're reading it."  I then volunteered, I'm sure you're an experienced public speaker, and you know what you need to say, so we could try turning off the teleprompter.  The producer and president both agreed.

On the next take his delivery was excellent.  I looked at the producer and asked "did he get everything?"  He was scanning his script, and then said "he missed one thing, but ... it wasn't needed."  So, not only was this president a good public speaker, he was also a good editor.

 

We wrapped, and on the drive home my cameraman told me I shouldn't do that.  I agreed, but said "when they're struggling like that, it's difficult not to help."

I should also mention that, before I was recruited to become a soundman, I had years of experience as a cameraman, editor, writer, producer, director, production manager and "creative director" with a variety of different employers.

[daniel]

Wensleydale! Recording a 5 minute corporate piece with check out staff and 1 of contributors just couldn't get this word right. Director rolls a few passes hoping the situation clears itself up without having to draw attention to the word. NG. We can all see this i/v is never going to make the edit. So right at the end, just as we're about to power down and move on, i ask the contributor to say the hitherto unspeakable word: "WENS-LEY-DALE" Next day got a very thankful call from the editor. We all knew the contributor was not going to nail the word in the course of a sentence, but there was still a chance to make it work. The take-outs being: It is usually worth trying something, especially if everyone else has failed. Being born south of Watford can be perilous for your pronunciation of regional cheeses. Never underestimate 'Wallace & Grommit'.