“Suuuuuuuuurrender you pitiful cur!”
On Friday the Wooden Swordsman was endowed with his true voice – courtesy of Mark Heap, perhaps best known for his role as Dr. Alan Statham in Green Wing. Recording took place at the SAE Institute in Dalston, who kindly gave us one of their very swanky suites for a couple of hours. Carl and Henning kindly provided their very swanky selves for the session too.
After a brief chat, Mark launched into the recording, quickly finding exactly the right manic, over-the-top tone which I was after. With several good takes in the can, I encouraged him to improvise a little, and I soon found myself in stitches. How much of this can be used – given that the Swordsman’s voice is supposed to be pre-recorded rather than responsive – I don’t know, but I hope we can get some of it in. It reminded me of The Labyrinth, where incidental puppet characters can often be heard muttering hilariously in the background.
When Mark was done, Kate Burdette arrived to briefly reprise her role as Isabelle. As well as some minor ADR work (re-dubbing some lines), Kate’s job was to deliver a “story so far” voiceover which can be used to introduce the pilot.
Towards the end of the month Henning and I will start the mixing process, the final leg as far as the pilot’s audio is concerned. On the video side, Aidan and Joe are currently taking a break (using the word “break” in its broadest, downright lying sense) from the VFX to write their dissertations, but will have the Dark Side work complete by the end of February.