The Beat of Promos: Cultivate Your Soul Clock for Perfect Timing and Storytelling

In my online and in-person Promo Masterclasses, we systematically work towards the goal of developing your soul clock.  What is your soul clock and how do we develop it? Your soul clock is almost a 6th sense, but it’s not as mysterious as it may sound.

At the heart of it is the sensibility of feeling the rhythm of the promo as you read to it. The beat of the music and the cadence of the editing, that guide you to tell the story within the time restraints of the promo.

In network promo sessions, you are “reading to the promo” There are 3 beeps at the top of the spot and on the 4th imaginary beep, the music begins and you start reading the script in between the SOTs (Sound On Tape) in the promo.  The SOTs are the dialog from the show that are being used in the promo. Your script has your lines and also the lines of the SOTs printed in the copy.

This is where your soul clock will guide you as you weave in and out of the SOTs throughout the promo. That feeling is a combination of confidence, rhythm, and the musicality of the script and the promo.

We start by working on understanding what timing IS. We get you to feel the difference between 3.5 seconds and 3 seconds…the difference between 4 seconds and 4.5 seconds.  We do that by timing our reads.  One style of promo session you’ll encounter is when the promo is cut and locked and you must read your lines to the specific times allowed. The script is read by the editor or producer in your reference video, that’s called the scratch track. We can determine a lot when reviewing the promo. You’ll hear the music that is being used and that is one clue in determining what our read should sound like. We watch the promo, listen to the scratch, take in the style of the music is being used and then literally time the lines that are being read in the scratch. You time each line in the scratch and write it next to the line on the script.

Once you have the timing for each line, you must record your the script to match the timing of the scratch and space allowed for each line.  We do that by timing ourselves while we read. If for example the time needed is 4.8 seconds, we read the line and time ourselves, calling out the time you’ve read it in.  If the first read is too long, you read it again timing yourself.  Keep repeating the process until you hit 4.8 seconds.