Yeah, you know, the voice-recording session that I didn’t mention?  That one?  Do I actually have to explain myself, or can you be satisfied with short, cryptic utterances?

 I guess I’d better explain a little.*

 I’m working on a short** animated trailer to promote The Voyage to Ruin (my H.L. Trombley’s book).  I wrote the script, and this last Saturday invaded the home of some voice-actor friends and commandeered both their talents and their sound-recording equipment.

 We were supposed to have three men to do the three male voices, but one of our guys bailed at the next-to-last minute, leaving us in a bit of a fix.  On the other hand we had a superfluity of women.  My first meeting with the joys of casting!

 At first it was pretty difficult to direct.  For one thing I had a hard time articulating what I wanted,***  and my initial diffidence didn’t help matters.  But once we all got warmed up, as it were, it got a lot better.  And I got to give notes like,

Okay, that’s pretty good, but it’s still a little too “What ho, varlet?” if you know what I mean.  You’ve also got your voice up in your nasal passages, so if we could tone that down that would be great.

 
Um, yeah.  Still a little too much with the nasal passages there.

 
Okay, try it again, with a little less Frank Sinatra.

 
It was also my first time in front of the mic myself.  I did all of Captain Drake’s lines, and all I have to say is, “Dude.  Is my voice really that deep?”  It sounded like someone slowed down the (digital) tape!

 Anyway, it was fun.  Maybe I’ll share with y’all the outtakes reel at some point.  The “It’s the Eschaton!” song is not to be missed!

 *Gah, you people have no idea how I labor over these short talking-about-myself journals.  Can’t I just upload things directly from my brain?

 **It’s going to have to be short, as I am the entire production staff.  It’ll look good on my reel, that’s for sure!

 ***Another time the direct-brain-upload thing would have been useful!