Here I am at work inside a sound booth almost ready to give some sound! The engineer is making sure the mic stand is angled just right for my 5'5" frame, then it's time to turn me up and let me loose!
This was on Tuesday, just 2 days after my move. So, amidst the dust, boxes and construction of my new kitchen ... I got myself together somehow and headed into the city for a voice over, this time, for my very own commercial! Remember I told you a coupla weeks ago about Aida and me shooting a commercial together? Well, things are shaping up nicely and the ad agency and network needed me to go in and do some work. Here's the team I met with ...
The engineer behind the board, the director/producer, and the ladies from the ad agency. These are the people needed in the room to okay all of the voice work I was about to do, plus a Food Network exec on the phone from her office! What a production, huh? Closest I've had to that was when I did the voice over work for the final Destiny's Child release ... I sat in the studio for hours, I mean hours after I was done working. I just waited and waited on approval of my voice and the words I read and how I read them. This was after I got the gig, so it was more like I stayed in the studio to make sure the cut we did worked, if not ... back in the booth. I loved the campaign, it was a countdown to the release date series, so each day was a new commercial ... very befitting of the record-breaking group! Anyway, never since then have I done such an important and "signed-off on" voice over, cuz every one needs to sign off on it.
What did I do this time around do you ask??? Well, basically when the commercial was shot there were things we said just kinda off the cuff and not planned. This was nice because they wanted it in our own words. So, at one point I said "blah blah BLAH BLAH" and they needed me to turn those last two "BLAH's" down a bit lol. Yeah, that's a good way to say it ... I have a big mouth and sometimes things come out loud. This wasn't really loud it was more about the inflection just being too much. At the same time there was a word they needed me to add at the beginning. So, my job was to lessen the volume/inflection, add a word and make sure it allll matched and synced up with my lips. It's tricky cuz saying something loud or fast and matching is easy, but making it look like it came from those lips the first time in that moment and syncing up is hard. Kinda like you can tell when someone is yelling whether you hear them or not ... the face and lips and mandible all look different and are in different angles. So, anyway ... for the difficulty, we didn't take too long.
Here's what it looks like to me from the sound booth ... I'm in here, they are out there and they are all waiting to see what my vocal chords can do!
Many times at a voice over for television, there's no video playback. By that I mean, you are working more to fit things into a certain amount of time and there's no need to see the video. Now, there are times when I've done voice overs that I feel would have been better If I could see the material my voice is to match. For the aforementioned Destiny's Child voice over, there was video playback. There were other groups or artist's I did voice over work for and I'd walk into the studio and see no video set-up and know that either budget was low, or they didn't care or understand what a voice over can do for a project. Like sometimes I think people think it's the last thing to think about, but the voice that is selling a product is sometimes just as important as the product. Like, how am I reading a commercial for a ballad or a cologne and I don't even have the vibe or sound of it? Train wreck ... I can do either voice loud or soft ... just gotta know when. Anyway, I'm such a digresser ... I was super hype when I walked in and asked if we had video playback and we did ... thing is, with the matching lips it was needed, but I gotta tell ya I think it's needed across the board. The little monitor on the right is what I watched and there was a bigger one in the main studio where people that sign-off on everything sat.
Ok, here's a pic of my view in the booth, what I see when I read ... zoom away and get a sneak peak of what I'm saying :-)...
The commercial should begin to run in the next week or so, on other networks like VH1, E! and BET. Can't wait for you to see it, it's kinda funny to me and I hope you like it! Don't forget Aida's show, Ask Aida, begins this Saturday, she's a cool chick and I hope you like her show!!
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4 comments:
Ahhh - this is sooooo cool. thanks for keeping it real and taking us behind the scenes. I had no idea some of this stuff was going on. Really, no idea. When you sit down on Saturdays or Sundays to watch the food network...no idea.
dtdub, awwww shux ... well. i'm take that compliment and raise ya one! i like you blog too, really happy i found ya online, you are good for a laugh and smile when reading! and 4 real i'm glad you like the behind the scenes, it is sooooo what i like reading about other stuff, so i'm just doing some reverse karma and thanks.
Hey Sunny! Sorry - been runnin' around like a crazed chick but figured I'd drop by and catch up.
Voiceovers, commercials - go you! Do you find that your radio background helps when it comes to your new gig?
lys, i know you schedule :-) i'm just happy when you are in the hood you stop by n say hi teeheehee ... and yup, the radio career helps with so much, the technical, the personal, the everything.
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