Miranda Plant

So today I spent my day in the studio down in Queen Street East learning how to be an animation voiceover artist under the guidance of the wonderful Melissa Altro. She walks me through the ins and outs of what to do at an audition, how to approach the text, and most importantly, how to interact with the microphone.

And it was so much fun!!!

First I played around with sounds and the lengths of those sounds, and then what different intensities sound like. Next I got to fool around with a script from Grossology where I gave my take on the voice of "Insectiva": the evil insect mad scientist villain, who is locked up in an insane asylum.

Next I lent my voice to a fairy named "Penny" from a show Marfy of Dreams. My take on this fairy was that she was slow, dreamy, gentle, and maybe not the smartest fairy. Her evil master bids her to make people fall asleep, so she sings them lullabies and blows on them with her magic sparkle dust. This was a fun voice to do because its different from my natural inclination to do a wacky or funny voice- my interpretation was very subdued.

Lastly, I got to give'r a go at the voice of "Linda", who is Marfy's mom in the same show. When I was speaking it I thought I sounded like a real mom. But when I listened back to it just now, I sounded really mean! Eep. I guess I just don't have enough practice being a serious and sensible mother figure type. But I got LOTS of time before I need to start thinking about that.

Well that's it for me. A great day with a great lady. If you have ever thought about getting into the world of voice, please check out Melissa Altro and consider doing a class, or a one-on-one.

Peas,

Miranda

PS. Here's a pic from the workshop!

This afternoon/ evening I spent recording a new song for the Pure Pwnage television that will be appearing on Showcase in March 2010.

The song will be featured in Episode 4 of Season 1. Ye-ah!!

The song is a dance song, and it is meant to be like a cover a Lady Gaga song so its dance/ pop genre. This was a totally new experience for me because I have been trained classically my whole life. That means you sing for the stage, with vibrata, and you sing notes in your range.

However, with audio software you can make your voice song like just about anything. There were a couple of notes that I couldn't belt, but all I did was sing them normally and the software made it sound like I was belting (so its a bit of cheat in one specific part of the song!). And then at the end of every phrase I would hold the note, and default into the vibrata, however with the equalizer on it distorts the recorded sound when you do that. So I had to hold vowel sound like "meeeee" with just a whole sound (no vibrata). That was like learning how to walk again- it just comes naturally to sing vibrata!!

The final product sounds pretty hot. So listen out for it in March when the show goes live!

Remember Boy Ballz? Well here, coming atcha is Scott Gorman, photographer and friend extraordinaire. And I got to play his lovely subject.

Check out my pics on my new Flickr page!!