Can you hear me now? My life as a talking pig!

A month ago, we took a week off of lecture and took a “field trip” to the Museum of Moving Image in Queens. It was a bit of a schlep and I got lost getting there, but it well worth my travels. I would say it was an unforgettable experience, the sort of which I can still easily recount months later….and not just because of my self imposed humiliation for the sake of science

I hope you find satisfaction that it was wonderful learning experience. I actually think that it was fortunate that I was able to learn from the experience through interaction with production tools without the immediate pressure to report on my findings.

The Museum of the Moving Image is a truly unique environment for learning about the field. I appreciated the fact that tour guides assumed that the visitor knew some things about movies and pop culture, but no more than the average observer.

Although I enjoy the creation process, I have always been more of a media consumer. I greatly prefer the shows that I watch on Broadway to the skits I pen for Odyssey of Mind. I rather see a big budget documentary or art exhibit to my upcoming film project or the projects profiled below. I think my writing for the Bellmore Life is quite decent, yet it pales in comparison to that put out of the New York Times

Still as a fan of animation and foreign films, I had seen enough “making of” pieces to be aware that voice actors record lines in sound booths while wearing headsets and watching the footage they were contributing to. I did not know that a large portion of action film dialogue is recorded in such a manner, but none-the-less, I was excited when my tour group walked into the sound filming room. Little did I know, I’d get to learn about the media production process first hand.

I was one of three who volunteered to dub over part of the movie Babe. I listened to the words in the headphones, speaking along with them while the titular pig spoke on a screen that was built in to the wall. Voice acting is hard because one has to match lip movements and project oneself to a physical form whose body is uncontrollable and bears no resemblance to oneself. A microphone caught my lines exactly as I said them and the scene replayed, now with my voice. My noises were instantly synced in, although we did get to see how a sound editor might add or monitor sound effects. It was a challenge, but would have involved some physical labor and splicing before the digital age. I would have never been part of such a quick, fun demo.

And I’d be lying if I didn’t personally believe that animated and non-human actors hadn’t appeared better at “speaking” their lines, than they had in years past.