Voice over
The voice over went well. The boss said that it should take about 2 hours when I arrived at about 6pm, but I knew it would take longer than that.
I love public readings. I love documentaries. I like to read out loud when I'm alone sometimes. Just to try the words. Sometimes a text gets even better when read out loud. Sometimes not.
Anyway, she said it would only take a couple hours but I knew it'd take more than that. Because I have a high opinion about how good documentaries narrators sound and also because I know that I'm not the kind of guy totally immune to fits of uncontrollable laughter.
I can't even undergo a medical examination without having to resist bursting out laughing after the first two minutes.
So I hoped for the best and started reading my translation in front of the mic, and everybody in the middle of the company's office main and only room — they don't have a recording studio yet.
The first two hours were OK. I had to redo the first sentences a couple of times because I had to find a volume level that would satisfy the sound engineer (i.e. loud enough to cover the boats' horns and Fire Department and cops sirens 21 stories below,) and be able to keep it with as little ups and downs as possible.
After two hours, the exercise proved tiring, though. Especially since it involved more than just read. Being the only French speaker in the room, I also had to make sure I just hadn't mispronounced something, that I hadn't missed a line, that the tone of my voice was in accordance with the text. That's a lot of things to do in public over more than 20 pages of single spaced text. I hadn’t seen the video yet, I had no playback. So I had to simultaneously read a sentence, then make sure I had pronounced it right while reading the next etc.
Also, the guy who was going to do the audio-video sync late, had put some marks on the English text. When I arrived I was told to transfer them on my translation, since the guy couldn’t read French, but still needed to know what sentence went with what image. Since the text was so awfully written that I had had to edit it a lot, some sentences that were just useless or way too corny or inaccurate never made it into the French version. The problem was that the guy had marked them. All of a sudden some of these sentences became important because they were triggering a new image or sequence and I had to improvise a couple of translation… Yeah, I know. It doesn’t sound very professional… But really, those sentences I’m talking about, they shouldn’t have made it into the final version…
Also, at some point the boss left to be replaced by a bigger boss. I supposed he had to stay to close after us and maybe make sure we weren't going to steal the material. Anyway, he was always fidgeting and loudly turning the pages of magazines right in the middle of our recording. At some point he fell asleep in his chair and started snoring. I knew it wasn't loud enough for the mic to pick it up. And I really tried to ignore it. It was maybe just ten minutes after my big uncontrollable laughter and I didn’t want to antagonize the sound engineer with whom I had a great feeling so far. But I felt that he was getting tired and wanted to go home. I could tell that by the way he would launch the recording, then weakly wave at me before resting his head on his arms crossed on the desk. Maybe the snoring was not loud enough for the mic, but that was enough for me. I tried to finish my sentence without letting the incoming laughter change the tone of my voice. And then I just gave up and burst out laughing in the mic which had two simultaneous consequences: wake up the snoring boss and making the sound guy jumped too (he had headphones on.)
Earlier, I had had two sentences I thought I’d never be able to read. We did the take maybe 20 times. Probably more. It’s because the text was about flame balls — flammes en boules, in French. So, yeah, “balls” and “boules” also have the same connotation, but on top of that “boules” has this weird, funny sound when you pronounce it. The kind of thing that you only notice when, really, you shouldn’t. I almost made it to the end of the first sentence where the word occurs. If I had, it would have helped a lot, because the engineer could have cut after, and then I’d just have had to do the other sentence. But I didn’t make it so it took me a looot of time to be able to read the first sentence without laughing. And then some more to be able to read the second sentence.
So yeah, I was done by 2 a.m. Home by 3. Reading stuffs till 4:30. Then wake up at 8 to prepare to go to work for the brunch at the restaurant.
I love public readings. I love documentaries. I like to read out loud when I'm alone sometimes. Just to try the words. Sometimes a text gets even better when read out loud. Sometimes not.
Anyway, she said it would only take a couple hours but I knew it'd take more than that. Because I have a high opinion about how good documentaries narrators sound and also because I know that I'm not the kind of guy totally immune to fits of uncontrollable laughter.
I can't even undergo a medical examination without having to resist bursting out laughing after the first two minutes.
So I hoped for the best and started reading my translation in front of the mic, and everybody in the middle of the company's office main and only room — they don't have a recording studio yet.
The first two hours were OK. I had to redo the first sentences a couple of times because I had to find a volume level that would satisfy the sound engineer (i.e. loud enough to cover the boats' horns and Fire Department and cops sirens 21 stories below,) and be able to keep it with as little ups and downs as possible.
After two hours, the exercise proved tiring, though. Especially since it involved more than just read. Being the only French speaker in the room, I also had to make sure I just hadn't mispronounced something, that I hadn't missed a line, that the tone of my voice was in accordance with the text. That's a lot of things to do in public over more than 20 pages of single spaced text. I hadn’t seen the video yet, I had no playback. So I had to simultaneously read a sentence, then make sure I had pronounced it right while reading the next etc.
Also, the guy who was going to do the audio-video sync late, had put some marks on the English text. When I arrived I was told to transfer them on my translation, since the guy couldn’t read French, but still needed to know what sentence went with what image. Since the text was so awfully written that I had had to edit it a lot, some sentences that were just useless or way too corny or inaccurate never made it into the French version. The problem was that the guy had marked them. All of a sudden some of these sentences became important because they were triggering a new image or sequence and I had to improvise a couple of translation… Yeah, I know. It doesn’t sound very professional… But really, those sentences I’m talking about, they shouldn’t have made it into the final version…
Also, at some point the boss left to be replaced by a bigger boss. I supposed he had to stay to close after us and maybe make sure we weren't going to steal the material. Anyway, he was always fidgeting and loudly turning the pages of magazines right in the middle of our recording. At some point he fell asleep in his chair and started snoring. I knew it wasn't loud enough for the mic to pick it up. And I really tried to ignore it. It was maybe just ten minutes after my big uncontrollable laughter and I didn’t want to antagonize the sound engineer with whom I had a great feeling so far. But I felt that he was getting tired and wanted to go home. I could tell that by the way he would launch the recording, then weakly wave at me before resting his head on his arms crossed on the desk. Maybe the snoring was not loud enough for the mic, but that was enough for me. I tried to finish my sentence without letting the incoming laughter change the tone of my voice. And then I just gave up and burst out laughing in the mic which had two simultaneous consequences: wake up the snoring boss and making the sound guy jumped too (he had headphones on.)
Earlier, I had had two sentences I thought I’d never be able to read. We did the take maybe 20 times. Probably more. It’s because the text was about flame balls — flammes en boules, in French. So, yeah, “balls” and “boules” also have the same connotation, but on top of that “boules” has this weird, funny sound when you pronounce it. The kind of thing that you only notice when, really, you shouldn’t. I almost made it to the end of the first sentence where the word occurs. If I had, it would have helped a lot, because the engineer could have cut after, and then I’d just have had to do the other sentence. But I didn’t make it so it took me a looot of time to be able to read the first sentence without laughing. And then some more to be able to read the second sentence.
So yeah, I was done by 2 a.m. Home by 3. Reading stuffs till 4:30. Then wake up at 8 to prepare to go to work for the brunch at the restaurant.
posted by Cecyl at 2:49 AM
3 Comments:
Wow, that sounds painful.
I've read that it helps to have a juvenile sense of humor if you're a copyeditor--you have to be able to spot double entendres in headlines and such--but apparently it's an enormous hazard if you're doing voiceovers.
I'm just wondering why there wasn't another French speaker there to make sure you didn't mess it up. Because, really, that would have been the smart thing to do.
BBRUG: Double entendres is a huge problem when doing voice over!
Especially when a shuttle crashes a few lines later and you have to redo it because you think maybe it shows in your voice that you're still smiling from the stupid "boule" occurence.
Thank you for the link. It really is a fascinating blog. I'm going to learn a lot about English grammar etc. (hopefully, I'll rememeber what I learn long enough to put it in practise.)
ANGRYGRRFACE: I suppose that they didn't want to pay a French dude to listen to some other French dude while he was reading a text... They are just starting and have a limited budget. But I should go there again on Monday to help the tech girl mix the audio with the video so I'll be able to listen to my performance (I hate to hear my voice so I suppose it's going to be a great moment) and eventually make some changes.
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