A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Disney Animation Studios for Planes: Fire & Rescue event. While there, I did something that most people will never get to do in their lifetime, I recorded a voice for a Disney character, I voiced Dipper and I loved every single moment of it!
Last month when I visited again for the Zootopia in home release event I was extremely lucky to once again record a voice from the film, this time I did Fru Fru, Mr. Big’s daughter. You might recall her voice from the movie, very Real Housewives of New Jersey meets Jersey Shore, right? Let me back up for a moment and tell you about Paul McGrath. Paul is a Dialogue Mixer for Disney Animation Studios. The dialogue mixer is a type of sound editor who assembles, synchronises, and edits all the dialogue in a film or television production. Usually they will use the production tracks: the sound that was recorded on the set.
I met Paul during the Planes event and he was super welcoming, just as he was on this day. I was super nervous that first time, but because he made us all feel welcome and like we were indeed the talent just coming in to do a days work, I was more relaxed. It helped that I also knew what to expect, well most of what to expect.
Once in the soundproof room you are given headphones to put on, and are placed near the microphone. You have the words from the line written down in front of you and you also have a large screen playing the scene in front of you. He wanted us to listen to the line a few times and when we felt comfortable enough, we would jump in and say the line. My line was “What did we say, no icing anyone at “my” wedding” but I got flustered and said “our” wedding instead but they kept it in. It still came out cute, what do you think?
It’s definitely not as easy as it looks and sometimes the actors have to say one line over and over several times to get the right take. Even after doing it twice, I still think it would be awesome to do it in real life.
Visit the official ZOOTOPIA website here – http://movies.disney.com/zootopia
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