The drastic tale of Little Red…

Introduction

Voice Acting is a medium of performance I never thought I’d enjoy as much as stage acting. Opening to new skills to learn and new ways to change my voice, I found this project quite experimental and playful! Charlie Barnes, a team member of a famous applied theatre company called ‘Dead Earnest’, visited into a lecture to inform us on some tips and tricks on constructing audio-based performances! Keep reading to find out!

The Task

The task Charlie gave us was to group up in twos to fours to create a piece of audio based on one of five stimuli: a partnership breakdown, a World War Two scene, a health issue advertisement, a witness to a crime scene or recreating a classic fairytale. Being in a group of four, we collectively decided to create a fairytale, as we thought that we could have a lot of free creativity and we all had a generous amount of knowledge on classical fairytales. The Little Red Riding Hood was a choice we collectively made as we were all familiar with the storyline. Before Charlie directed us to two main media sites that are accessible to construct an audio track such as Audacity and Band Lab. I had the luxury of already knowing the basics of Band Lab as I have previously used this to manufacture some of my own audio reels.

Apps and CHaracterisation

Charlie tutored us on both apps’ software and skills, giving us tips on what to consider when producing content: the setting, considering narration, manipulating our characterisation, and planning out a script. My group and I took these pointers into consideration and began producing!

Writing a script, we picked out our characters with ease – I knew that my voice type would fit Red Riding hood extremely well due to obtaining a more high-pitched soft voice, bringing up a soft but energetic persona. Pushing my voice even further in terms of characterisation, I referred to one of my favourite musical films. In 2014 Into The Woods, Lilla Crawford experimented with Little Red’s voice, adding a lot of ‘Twang’ in her voice. Twang ‘is typically associated with loud and high-pitched singing as is used to create an impression of energy an expressivity’. Johan, S. (2010, November). What Is “Twang?” Science Direct.

In the future

Due to little time to record and with light equipment, we were limited to phones and AirPods as recording devices and microphones. In the future, would intend to use a condenser microphone with a figure of eight polar pattern. This would allow a cleaner take with less background noise and feedback. Also, this would ensure a one-take record as every actor could be facing each side of the mic to speak into.

Editing process

I took charge in editing, making sure there were no large gaps in between each track of recorded lines, as Charlie described this as unprofessional and less engaging for the listener. I worked on automating the volume of each track, allowing a balance in the mix and points in the project where lines needed to be purposefully louder or quieter.

Charlie stated how backing tracks are extremely useful for setting the scene for the listener. Adding a fairytale like melody on a harp playing in the back of the first section of the project helped create a woodland adventure for little red riding hood. Drastically changing later, the slow reveal of the grandmother being the wolf had dark strings playing long legato dark notes to build on the suspense. She described Backing tracks as ‘layering a cake’ – and I love that way of describing it! Although, it makes me hungry…

Conclusion

To conclude, voice acting is now a strong skill that I’d like to work on even more in the future and I definitely plan to utilise this type of acting style in the future! Charlie Barnes’ tips and tricks were extremely helpful to producing audio tracks.

Why don’t you listen to the final product?