Hello again!
Here is a link to my most recent interview. Today’s guest was Mandy Fisher – a voice-over artist. I’ll include a copy of the transcript here and a link to her audio reel that we listened to.
Enjoy!
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Transcript from interview:
Hey.
This is Talkin to Strangers – an audio story written and produced by Nicole Lenz. On this show, I – your host – interview strangers and make art about them afterwards.
On today’s segment-
Mandy: red leather, yellow leather
Nicole: I spoke to Mandy Fisher –
Mandy: I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream
Nicole: – a voice over artist.
We matched on Bumble Bizz.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Bumble, it’s a dating app. There’s also a “Bumble Bizz” setting where you can match with people who want to network.
Anyways
When I saw Mandy Fisher’s profile, I thought it would be interesting to get an audio interview with someone whose field of expertise revolves around how they sound.
Mandy: “My name is Mandy I am 31 and I live in New York City and I’m a professional voice-over artist”
Nicole: Mandy has over 15 years of experience in her field.
Mandy: Last year in 2020 I did 87 commercials. I did 51 audio books. I did 22 different E-learning videos. Some of my favorite clients were Crayola, Facebook, Pepsi, Floor Traders, Weight Watchers. I did a really fun campaign for Hallmark.
Nicole: Mandy was willing to let me play a video from her website of a voice-over reel during our interview. The video is stock footage she found of a dog lazily lounging on a couch. The script she made herself.
Mandy (voicing-over for the dog):
[yawn]
I’m so tired.
But it’s okay. I literally have nothing to do today.
Wait.
Did I eat that bone I found? [gasp] Did they? Th-they wouldn’t, right? They’re humans.
Should I go check? I mean, just because I would eat it doesn’t mean they would.
Nicole: So how does she prep and get her vocals ready?
Mandy: Usually in the morning I start recording around 9 ‘o clock because your voice in the morning… it’s not ready. And if you ever wake up and start talking to somebody, you probably sound really groggy. Your voice is deep and you sound like you’re not really awake and it’s because your voice isn’t awake yet. It takes a while for your body to wake up and your vocal cords to wake up.
So, I drink hot water with lemon and a little bit of honey, and then I do some vocal warm-ups. I do some singing warm-ups and I do some tongue twisters.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. Red leather, yellow leather. I say that over and over, and over again.
Nicole: I was really appreciative of Mandy’s time and for her vocal training. Also, for allowing me – a total stranger – to make art about her. I’ll be posting the finished portrait once it’s done.
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- Who was your interviewee? Where and when did the interview take place?
- Mandy Fisher. We conducted our interview over video due to distance and the pandemic.
- What is your natural sound? What were the reasons that led you to decide on those sounds?
- My natural sound was the video of her performing and doing a voice-over.
- Where and when did you gather the sounds?
- I gathered the sound by playing the video during our interview.
- What equipment did you use to record your audio? What program did you use for editing?
- I used my laptop’s voice recorder and then edited in Audacity
- How did you go about finding your interviewee?
- We matched on Bumble Bizz – the business side of Bumble. I immediately asked her to do an interview before we had time to really get to talk and I’m thankful she was so cooperative.
- Reflect on what you learned from this project, and discuss your challenges and successes. Was there anything that didn’t go so well? What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to redo the story?
- I had a really hard time finding someone to interview in-person. I originally wanted to interview someone while they did screen-printing but nobody was getting back to me. I also wanted to try interviewing someone who was in a band but that also fell through. This was not an ideal situation for something which needed a lot of natural sound but I tried my best. As for successes, I think we had a really fun interview and I’m starting to get more comfortable with this concept of interviewing people and asking to make art about them. If I were to do it over, I wouldn’t have made the interview as long but it was difficult not to.
JRN 340: Blog Project 