Thursday 10/24/02             First Time in a Recording Studio

 

Thursday morning I left Dave a voicemail and he called back, sounded OK and I asked if he was still mad at me and he claimed he never said he was mad, and that it was a combination of things I’d mentioned in the email plus our communication problems.  No specifics.  Things were OK then and he said he’d call me at work.  I rushed straight to work with a lunchbox from off the street and as I waited for him and checked my overflowed email box (finally Yahoo working), knocked over the lunchbox onto my lap and it went everywhere.  Naturally, just then he called and I explained the lunch mess so we hung up and I cleaned. 

 

I had to leave early to go to CyberFakeName’s recording studio.  I had problems finding the lane since her directions were so vague and when I called her, lost, she repeated she’d been here over a year ago, which she’d said when she first gave me the directions, implying she couldn’t be more specific.  But aren’t you there NOW?  Meaning, can’t you give me better directions now that you’ve just walked them yourself?  And couldn’t she have found me better directions since this appointment was set over a week ago?  And sent the loong ass scripts earlier if she wanted me to read them?  But Debby met me on the street and led me there, asking me if I had any recording experience.  Didn’t we already go over this, and wasn’t it a little late to be asking now anyway?  Trying to be light, I said not professionally, mentioned doing video group projects at school, laughing and saying they were fun, but she didn’t laugh. 

 

The studio was in someone’s house.  I was led through the living room where the TV was blaring and stepped over their big dog, dubious.  But we went to a back room where there was a tech guy with computer, speakers and input/output wires and cords and receivers and microphones.  We could hear the voices of the two professional actors and saw them through the thick soundproof glass in front of us, wearing headphones reading the script.  They sounded REALLY good and professional, like the voices you hear in radio commercials.  Now I was a little nervous--how could I do this and compare to them?  I had to keep telling myself, how hard can it be, and Nicole had still asked me here knowing about my zero experience.  After they did their part I joined them, sitting across the table facing them so I couldn’t see the glass, which was good because I nervous.  With the headphones on I could hear our voices very loud and clear.  He tested me and said I had to be louder, to match theirs.  I started reading my part and when I waited during their parts (which were much longer) I tried to slide my script pages along quietly but the mike caught the “swish” sound and everyone stopped.  The actors patiently explained we have to hold the pages in the air and place them down silently, or lay them out in front beforehand, because the mike picks up EVERYTHING.  I felt dumb, and laid out the entire script in front of me so that I had to strain and twist my eyes and head to see the very start and end of the script.

 

It was a little nerve-wracking, to hear your voice that loud and clear, and to read without stuttering/stammering at all or letting your voice crack or bubble, and to speak very clearly, while still sounding natural, and not to laugh or make any noises during other people’s parts.  The male actor did a lot of different funny voices, and sometimes the lines were so cheesy, so it was often hard not to laugh.  We did a series of skits about a girl who was calling about a job opening, so the lines went like, “Amy is about to call X Technologies about a job opening!  She needs to give a good impression without sounding pushy or rude!  She needs your help in choosing the right things to say to the secretary!  Otherwise, he’ll hang up the phone!”  The exclamation points weren’t there, but we had to read even the most mundane lines with enthusiasm.  The woman actor gave me the tip to smile while talking, to make my voice sound more cheerful.  And sometimes I just had to recite vocabulary words, like “Assertive.  Advertisement.  Experience.  Marketing.  Communication.  Self-starter.  Initiative.”

 

I was only supposed to stay from 2-5PM, but the woman had to leave early and Nicole asked me to stay longer.  The man and I recorded until a little after 6.  I’d originally wanted to go back to work after 5, but I was having fun and getting the hang of it at the end, and it was earning me good money, so I didn’t mind staying and called XiangJiun to tell her I wasn’t coming back in.  Nicole sounded happy with my work and said she can refer me to other companies who are always looking for female voice actors.  She said she’d call when they’d need me again. 

 

I was pretty psyched as I got ready to go.  Debby gave me the envelope of payment and I looked; it was only for 3 hours of work.  Still a lot of money and I could have let it go, but I felt I’d definitely stayed over an hour longer and was getting paid by the hour; besides they’d taken my time away from the hospital.  So I politely asked Debby about it, who said she’d “[go back and ask]”, but either way couldn’t give me any more money today since she didn’t have the cash.

 

Niclas called to see if I wanted to get dinner at Shintori/People with some friends.  I met him there with his roommate Rich and a friend who went to his Beijing program, Mike.  Shintori snootily told us it was a 45-minute wait since we didn’t have a reservation, even though it was a weekday and the place empty.  So we went to a nearby Beijing restaurant which was pretty good. 

 

His friend Mike worked for Reuters and was a tool.  At first I found him only mildly annoying, somewhere between him asking, “So what is YOUR Fulbright project about?” and straightaway giving me his business card when all I said was, “Oh, you work for Reuters?”  But nothing really bothered me until he suggested we share a cab since we lived close to each other.  He lives right near Breeze Center and asked me, “So, how can you afford a place at ChungHsiao Fuhsing?”  I explained the discount Juling was giving me.  Right back at him, I asked, “And how can you afford a place at Breeze Center?”  He said it’s his mom’s, so he just helps out with the mortgage.  We got to my place first and the meter read 90.  I had either 40NT in coins, or a 100NT bill.  Not wanting to be cheap with coins, even though he was literally around the corner and the meter wouldn’t be going up much more, I gave him the 100NT bill, half expecting a “Oh that’s OK, whatever” to which I would’ve said, “No it’s OK, whatever,” etc etc., but he grabbed it and said, “Thank YOU,” and got out for me to get out.  A little dazed, I stood for a moment saying, “OK, well bye”;  he put his hand in his pocket as if thinking to give me some change, but thought better of it, got back in and said cheerfully, “Bye!”  What a loser!  It wasn’t the money but just the gesture of grabbing my bill that bugged me.  No matter that I was on a poor-ass government scholarship, he had a full-time job and looked several years older than me and wasn’t paying rent (oh, but MORTGAGE).  Walking back home pissed, I remembered that we’d all split the dinner bill evenly, even though he and Niclas had had several huge beers.  Niclas I didn’t mind, but now I had just subsidized this guy’s beers AND paid for his cab ride.  I decided to keep his stupid business card, in case I ever wanted to sign his email up for spam lists on topics like “manners—common knowledge” or “why you aren’t getting laid.”

 

        Friday stayed at work the latest ever, almost 11PM, doing my journal/website, yes I a nerd.  Stayed in that night too.