Earlier this year I had the pleasure of recording ADR for a really funny short film by many-talented director/writer/musician J Lee. Naked Eye is one long, well-told R-rated (or NC-17-rated?) joke that just knocked me out of my chair. And it stars Nelsan Ellis of HBO’s True Blood. Recording him and the rest of the cast for ADR was a treat. Visit my newly updated Sound For Picture page.
There’s certainly no sure-fire way to “make it,” and really, your definition of success might be quite different from mine. But while you can’t force success, you also can’t wait around for it to happen. There are variables you can control, and if you do the right things you can make much better odds for yourself.
I found this article, “Analogue Warmth: The Sound of Tubes, Tape & Transformers,” in Sound On Sound from a few years ago. It’s a technical explanation of all the factors that appear to combine together to create that “analogue warmth” so many people talk about missing, and different ways to go about recreating it.
A table full of top-notch V.O. artists reading the original Star Wars screenplay in character as Pinky, Brain, Bender, Yosemity Sam, Poof, Cartman, Batman, Inspector Gadget, Bill Cosby, William Shatner, Kramer from Seinfeld, and tons more.
If I ask you to think about the song “Happy Birthday,” your brain can probably recall it for you and you can hear it playing in your head. This is called audiation.
Well, what if I asked you to hear “Happy Birthday” in your head… and at the same audiate “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as well? Can you do it? I can’t either. Suddenly we’ve dropped off from a nearly universal, inborn ability to a very rare skill.
Now that you’re thinking about that… you HAVE to hear the Radiolab piece called “A 4-Track Mind” about the stunning and unique gift of ragtime pianist Bob Milne.