This post is part of the Jingles of Christmas series. In this post, I discuss the lessons I learned about recording the dialogues. Read on!
Shooting a moving target
As I discussed in the post before this one, I didn’t have a concrete script. So, there were a few modifications made into the skit plot. A few of them happened after the recording was over. So, I had to record the dialogues again for the changed parts. I also had to add/modify music for these parts and it took extra time. Half the time doing these things was wasted because I had to set the timings of all the other scenes following this one again. which was a repetitive task which could have been avoided if I had the dialogues 100% ready before I started the recording. So, that’s a lesson to learn.
I sound like the GODZILLA!
Well, nobody told me that they sounded like the Godzilla after listening to their own voice in the recordings however, there were a few occasion where the voice actors asked me to improve their voice using some editing magic. Problem was, I was a toddler playing at a wizard’s game. This was my first attempt at recording and editing things. However, there was a particular role in the skit that was the longest.
And as I heard the recording of that character, I could make out the difference between the things that were recorded the first and the things that were recorded the last. The latter was better than the former. So, If I could have given the actors a little time to practice on the mic, I think a lot of these complaints could have been avoided and also, the actors would have been much more comfortable, and the quality would have been much better.
Godzilla ate a cat!
Hmm, sit down. I’ll tell you the story. Godzilla ate a cat. However, the cat was very brave and stubborn. It wouldn’t go down easily. So, when the Godzilla was trying to devour the cat, the cat struck the vocal cords of Godzilla with a tremendous blow. However, that was not enough. And to the courageous cat’s dismay, the Godzilla devoured it. Godzilla was proud and when it tried to announce it’s monumental victory to the world with the help of a grand battle cry, it was a moment of a startling surprise. “Meow” It said. The blow to the vocal cords of Godzilla had changed it’s voice and the Godzilla now sounded exactly like the cat. On that day, the cat had slain the Godzilla!
Well, that’s what happened. In one particular scene when I was recording, the voice of the actor between to consequent dialogues changed as if it were spoken by two different people. But it wasn’t. So, how was this magical feat achieved? Simple. The mic was changed.
So, the lesson is, let one actor use only one mic and record their dialogues on the same mixer settings. If there is any change in between, the voice will change.
Go red if you see red
This is a basic. When recording anything, don’t let the signal turn red. It means it’s clipping the audio. Meaning it’s not capturing the whole thing but it’s loosing some audio information. It will be a real trouble when editing and applying effects. How do you solve it? Don’t keep the mic so close as if it were an ice cream and you were eating it…
If it still doesn’t help, then turn down the gain.
Noel’s law of dialogue recordings
Here’s the law: When you record the dialogues of a skit, the length of skit shrinks to half of it’s approximate duration of performance.
A little bit of data: About 12 pages of dialogues printed on an A4 paper with 10pts font size takes about 17 minutes when recorded.