Voicing All Over It...

Well this was more fun than you could shake a stick at!

Last week I had to go to Illuma Studios to record some voice overs. (Those of you who have done voice overs etc might want to go file your nails or something, for the rest of you, its a kinda cool little behind the scenes deal...)

Illuma is a full service television studio. They shoot TV programs, commercials etc in there. They also have a completely fabulous makeup room.
I hadn't been in the audio room there before, so it was fun getting to scope it out.

Behind me you can see the recording engineer, Jeff Ocheltree. He is sitting at the sound board, and that big window infront of him actually looks into the studio itself. That way the engineer can be watching the goings on on set while twirling all those fun dials.



The pinot colored squares behind my mike are tiles made of this absorbant stuff that stops my voice from bouncing off the walls. It feels really odd & porous. (I probably shouldn't have been touching it, but couldn't help myself.)




If I'd known there'd be pictures involved I would have done something about the hairdo...

Kelly Capelli and I had client meetings to go to immediately after this, so she came along with her camera and sat in, and we were able to head out afterwards together. And going anywhere with Kelly is always great fun!

I think this studio only does voice/speaking-type audio. I dont think they record music there. Could be wrong though...
There were big headphones for me to put on, but in all honesty, I find the sound of my own voice nauseating and would have been way too distracted.

I didn't get my script until it was time to record it. Like most scripts it was being re-edited and re-written right up til the last minute. There wasn't even time for a read through before we started tracking it.

I absolutely love doing things like this, but I don't get to do them very often. I have an unusual accent, and that gets in the way of most voice opportunities. I don't sound like other Kiwis, don't sound like a Brit, don't sound American. I just kinda sound like me. Which, for the most part precludes me from lots of advertising, and which also means lots of people dont necessarily understand me that well. Especially if I'm speaking fast. (so I mess with people at every opportunity!)




Anyway, here is Jeff hard at work. He has all kinds of cool stuff at his fingertips, and that screen that he's looking at shows the audio patterns as I'm speaking. The green lines are my voice. Its cool watching him at work. His hands are flying all over that board doing things, and he's not even looking at them.





I only read through the script about four times, then picked up key phrases and said them a few different ways, so that the client had some options. The whole thing was very quick.
I had my back to him, and couldn't see if Jeff was paying attention or not, so I threw in some naughty words here and there just to keep him on his toes! haha! (of course he had to edit them out later).





Oh wow! Naughtier than I had originally thought...!
It was pretty cool watching the playback on the screen, and seeing the patterns that voices make when they're just speaking.

Oh, and the t-shirt? I told you I'd end up wearing it a hundred times over!
I just love it. I got it from Elusive Cowgirl and it says: "Love Comes Without Warning". Its got what looks like a tattoo heart on it and some bling too.
No doubt you'll see it again soon - I've been wearing it to death.

I've got some cool stuff to tell you about this week, so make sure you keep checking in.

Hope you're having a gorgeous day,

xo

C