Back to Blogging: To WaterMark or Not

Hey everyone,

I wanted to do a quick little blog about Watermarking. For those of you who don't know, Watermarking is adding a little beep during your audition, rendering the audition unusable but still good enough to hear.

This is your own little security blanket. What do I think?

I don't really use it, for all I know my stuff could be stolen a million times over, but I have a little bit of trust here or there.

Alternatives to Watermarking:
1) Don't do the whole script

Clients sometimes have an extremely long script and your audition is just a sample. In that case, watermarking may just annoy a client, so if you look at the details of how long the script is and if it's obvious this is just a part of the script, then no need to watermark.

2) Slate your name

It's the smallest thing you can do to secure your script. It means the client has to edit a TINY bit. I make it a priority to slate because it gets you into a script better, plus if you end up doing union auditions or bigger commercial auditions, EVERYONE SLATES.

3) Pay attention to the script

Some scripts use ACME or OUR COMPANY inc or some generalized term for the company which implies that they can't use the name for the auditions or that they don't know what the company name is yet. In this case, you can just read it, since it isn't the real thing.

HOW TO WATERMARK!!

Here's how I do it, I use a video editor, (sony vegas video), so I'm able to add an audio track ABOVE the track itself. Visually, it would be one bar over the VO bar.

I do a quick google for a Beep sound, it can be like the sound that bleeps a curse word.

I then add one or two beeps above  (not inside) the track, if you put it onto the track itself it messes with the VO, you want the client to be able to hear what you say under the beep. Two tracks seems to work best.

Bleeping around the company name and maybe a mid sentence once or twice should be good.

REMINDER:

You will have a small percentage of jobs that require this, but better safe than sorry.

Take care,
Justin