Voice Overs for Disney
Posted on October 12, 2010
Filed Under Voice Over | Leave a Comment
Today is my regular work with Disney. Voice overs come in a variety of
different disciplines, there are commercials, radio commercials,
documentary, narration etc. Today the discipline is continuity. This
is the person who chats to you about the next programme that’s coming
up. The larger channels actually have someone who is there all the
time, and reading live. I have always wondered why this is still done,
as it’s only really needed if for some reason there is a break in
service and they have to intervene and say ” I am terribly sorry,
due to a technical fault we are unable to bring you the next
programme. here is some music. Or, they kill time while all hell
let’s loose in the engineering department trying to fix the fault, and
they fill in talking about everything under the sun from what’s
coming up Saturday, to the lotto results.
To be honest, to do continuity live is quite low down the food chain.
It’s a regular job, normally salaried. And of course there are zero
career prospects. It’s the kind of thing I would love to do, but time
and the volume of jobs means that I would not be able to sit at a desk
in channel 4 all night trying to stay awake waiting for the next link.
and a anyway, programmes don’t break down these days. they just don’t.
So Disney, having realised this have electronically automated the
whole process. So today ( October) I will arrive, and there will. Be a
slab of scripts to read for, say, December. We read them one after the
other, and the skill is in trying to figure out what type of programme
the link will be played over. So if. It’s a break after Simba dies in
the Lion King, it’s totally inappropriate to sound happy and upbeat.
Notwithstanding the fact that the links are set lengths. you might
need to fit 10 seconds into 8, or you’re reading 12’s,15’s. there’s no
stop watch. you get two cracks or you’re basically not up to it.
So we will dig in, get voluminous amounts of tea, and sit with the
producer muck around and crack out about 60 links in an hour or two.
the real challenge is not getting the giggles and trying to stay
professional, as Disney have a habit of being incredibly entertaining
and silly. it’s a great atmosphere.
I have read, I reckon, maybe 5000 links for Disney. All on their
computer. All stored. All me. It’s only a matter of time before the
computer puts me out of a job.
Wish me luck.
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