The Hidden World of Loopers: Voices Behind the Scenes

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Get ready. Be history. Get started.
Welcome.
Hi. Hi. Hi.
Hello, everyone, to the pro audio suite.
These guys are professional and motivated.
Please take the video. Stars.
George
Wisdom, founder of Source Elements RobertMarshall, international audio engineer.
And RobinRoberts. And global voice and repeaters.
Thanks to tribal Austrian audio lighting,passionate elements.

(00:21):
George the tech wisdom and Rob IrwinAPIs international demos.
To find out more about us.
Check the Proteassweetcorn line up. Ready?
Here we go.
I'm me and welcome to another proaudio suite.
Thanks to tribals.
Don't forget the new tribals.
The memo and Austrian audiomaking passion heard.

(00:41):
Now todaywe have a couple of special guests.
Ryan Bartley and Justin Shinjiro.
And the reason we've got themis because George was out one day.
I was outside. Concert and heard them.
Talk so loud out of my building,and I was well into that building.
I think it's because the doors are open.
They couldn't stop me from walking in.
No, I was sitting there.

(01:01):
I went to see a client and friendin our industry here.
Debbie Dairy Berryand her really funny, fun acoustic group.
They call themselves honey Pig.
And apparently you guys know Debbie, too,because you were there.
Yes. Yeah.
Well, yeah, I met Debbie, right before that, actually,

(01:23):
at a, convention,like an anime or a guest.
Just a pop culture convention.
That we were both guests at,
and, and I went up to her to meet herbecause she is one of the people
I've always looked up to,and she was so warm and welcoming,
and she gave me, I wanted,like, a one of her, her prints, you know,

(01:44):
with her headshot and her charactersand all that to hang in my studio.
And she was so happy to give that to me.
And I also wanted to tell her
she had, made appearances on the picketline during the video game strike.
Yeah.
And I just thought that was settingsuch a good example.
And, you know,so many of us in the next generation,
we all look up to her, you know,and I wanted to tell her that in person,

(02:07):
that that really meant a lotto see her out there.
And and,marching alongside us and everything and.
Yeah. So.And then she invited me to her show.
So I had to make an appearance at this.
But then it turns out that she's playingwith one of my other friends,
one of the other actresses, because it's, three voice actresses in this band.
Debbie Dewberry and Brenda lasted,and Stephanie Sullivan and Stephanie

(02:30):
and I were friends already.So that was nice.
I got, you know, an excuse to seeall of them play, and they were wonderful.
They did such a good job.How about you, judge? Excellent.
Well, that's a very cool story.
Way more than my story. I loved it.
I've actually known Debbiefor a long, long time.
She was just a guest on my podcast,which you can check out of drops July 4th.

(02:52):
Established in the 90s, were all aboutnostalgia and kind of the 90s decade.
And Debbie and I worked on a cartoonmany moons ago
called life with Louie, which was on Fox.
I played, a bully characterand Louie Anderson's best friend.
It was based on kind of Louie Andersonas a kid, the comedian, who's hilarious.
And Debbie was in the cartoon, too.

(03:14):
So we've worked together for yearsand known each other, and she's
just an absolute love and so brilliantlytalented, so funny and so great.
So yeah, I was just there
like Ryan supporting her and her band and,you know, showing her some love.
Excellent. Nice.
Now the question is, of course,because we were talking George
actually sent us all an email saying,I've met these two guys,
that do a lot of looping.

(03:35):
They've been doing voice acting sincethey were kids and all this kind of stuff.
So I don't know who wants to go first,but what is your background
and when did you start? You.
I feel like you should go first. Me?
Yeah. Oh, wow. All right. Well.
I started at the ripeold age of five and a half.
Wow. And,my first commercial was for Mattel,

(03:58):
and I actually was flying in a harness,which was a lot of fun.
So I got to fly.
And then when they'd say cut,I'd run over to the craft service table
and take as many ChipsAhoy cookies as possible,
which is great.
So yeah, I started backthen as, as an older fella and kind of
did the trajectory of most actorswhen they're starting commercials.

(04:21):
And then I got into voiceoverand then I got into
on camera through guest spots reoccurring.
I did a couple series regularsand TV shows and have done some films.
So been in the businessfor a long, long time.
And also very fortunate to do loopingand just love it.
You know, we as actors,we wear many hats and we direct, we write,

(04:44):
we have podcasts, we do voiceover,we do it all. Yes.
Especially nowadays, you know.
That's right.
I mean, I don't.
Before we get to Ryan,I want to ask you, like,
just from a very personal perspective,
my daughter pretty much bailed on itabout the age you started.
So she started as a baby.
Was she a Gerberbaby? She. Well, she could have been,
Not quite.

(05:04):
We submitted her.
I think she was one and a half.
And then we submitted her again when shewas, like, three, three and a half.
And they accepted her, and she was doingprint commercial,
you know, that kind of stuff.
But it was the
it was the getting shuttled around town,and my mom's on, her mom's unconditioned,
air conditioned car listening to her momcomplain about traffic

(05:25):
and just the the the whole thingof being at that whole process.
What do you remember of that? At that?
Oh, it's a schlep.
I remember exactly what you justdescribed, but, yeah, it was,
but you made it through somehow.
I mean, you're but I. Enjoyed. It.
Yeah, like with my mom and dad. Got me in.
And then, unfortunately,my dad passed away when I was young,
and so it was justmy mom taking me to auditions

(05:48):
and taking me to acting class,and she was amazing.
Wow. And. But it was a schlep.
I mean, we lived in Redondo Beach,which is like an hour
and a half from where all the auditionsare in Hollywood and Burbank.
And so I do my homework in the car,get to the audition,
you know, finish my homework on the wayback, we'd maybe stop at the hard rock
when the hard rock was big and geta burger and a milkshake and some fries.

(06:09):
So it was.
Yeah, right after school,from about 315 on
to getting home at about 7:38 p.m.
pretty much every day.
And, that was at school, sports and acting.
The hard Rock cafe.
You really are a 90s child, aren't you?
Oh, yeah.
Full 90s.
Lots of hard rock it was.
Now, it's not even.

(06:30):
There used to be the Beverly Center in LA.
And now I think it's like a,you know, a clothing store.
Sydney, that used to be a Planet
Hollywood and a hard rock,and they're both gone, so. Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I had some stock in PlanetHollywood that went to stupid.
Yeah. Who gave you that team? Right.
Yeah.
Not notit wasn't Stallone. Let me tell you that.

(06:53):
We did it.
We did the opening wifedid the opening of, Planet Hollywood.
What? Disco planet?
What planet Hollywood, downat the casino in Melbourne.
And still I'm out for it.
And it was so funnybecause he's so freaking short,
and there was a huge crowd.
All you could see was a light light bulbrunning through the crowd
that was filming him. Because you could.

(07:15):
See Sylvester Stallone somewhere.
Yeah, absolutely. That's cool.
Come on, Ryan, give us your story.
Yeah, yeah.
So, I started acting as a kid doing,like, theater productions.
I did a lot of community.
I started with community theater,you know, and I used to take dance classes
and, singing, and I played guitarand mandolin as a kid, and and I just.

(07:37):
I liked performing, you know, so, I,
I kind of started
doing voiceoverbecause I had an agent for on camera work,
and I was I was based in Texas,
and, and I started getting some voiceover
auditions from my on camera agentand thinking, oh, this is kind of fun.

(07:58):
Like, this is, you know, kind of cool.
And I don't think at the time I was yetaware that, you know,
oh, there's cartoons and there'sall these different types of voiceover
because it started with sort of commercialvoiceover work, as I remember.
And I, I auditioned to be on RadioDisney Radio.
I don't even know if Radio Disneystill exists.
I don't think it does, actually.

(08:18):
But, they used to use real kids to do their on
air promos,and it would be like Radio Disney.
We're all ears.
Like,they're little, like, you know, 98.7.
And they would have these kids,these real kids do it.
And promoting thingsthat were on like like
The Cheetah Girls this Saturdayat the Honda Center, you know, like that,
like promoting those sort of spotslocally for all over the country.

(08:42):
But they had a big office in Dallas.
And so I auditioned a few years in a row.
I remember,like not getting picked several times.
And they would have these open callsat like, like one year it was at a movie
theater, one year it was at the TexasRangers baseball stadium.
So they'd be at like these public places,you know, where you could come out

(09:03):
with your whole familyand try to be on Radio Disney, you know?
And it took me like a couple of yearsto get this job, and I really wanted it.
And then finally I got picked and, and then I kind of fell and I
that was kind of around the time
I decided, like, I want to do voiceover,you know, I like this.
I'm having a lot of fun doing this.
And I'm starting to get jobs doing this.

(09:25):
And I started taking classes, inanimation, like, not to be an animator.
I mean, like voiceover classesfor voiceover in it, in animation. And,
there's a teacher, a coach out here in LA
named Tony Gonzalez that specializesin teaching children voiceover.
And he teaches all the kid starson all the things that kids are stars

(09:50):
of, you know, and, has a lotof really successful clients.
And he was one of my first voiceovercoaches.
And I think he was coming back
and forth between Texas and L.A., like,he would do workshops in Texas sometimes.
And I was coming out to LA from Texasfor pilot season and episodic
to audition for at the time,on camera work as well as voiceover.

(10:13):
But, he helped me,
find my first representationin voiceover.
And, and he then I wasI was auditioning for voiceover.
Even when I wasn't in LA,they would send me these auditions
and I would record myself andand send it back.
Or I think at the time I would,
you know, have to go to Dallasto rent a studio
or something to record myselfbecause we didn't even have

(10:36):
the the home microphonesor anything like we do nowadays.
But anyway, I was basically
doing these auditions from Texas thinking,if I book something, I'll come to L.A.
and do the job, you know?
And I did booked a little bitas a as a, like, as a teenager,
a couple commercials here and there.
You know, it's always slow starting outand, just dreaming

(10:56):
of working in animation,you know, and I just kept at it.
I took a lot of classes for many,many years.
I went to an artsmagnet high school in Dallas,
Booker T Washington High Schoolfor the Performing and Visual Arts.
Really,really great, arts magnet high school.
And then I graduated earlyand moved to LA to pursue acting.

(11:17):
And I took a look like what would havebeen my senior year of high school.
Took it off, tried to tried to auditionand, you know, be on that grind.
You know, like I went to USC film school,like when I would have normally,
if I had gone to high schoolall four years.
So I went to USC, went to film school,

(11:39):
and, continued to pursue acting
and do voiceover auditions,while I was in college,
and it was still really slowto start getting jobs.
But eventually, you know,I just kept at it
and kept making connectionsand taking classes and getting better.
And you're too. Stubborn. You're just.

(12:00):
Yeah.
So now you know,
now I have a career full time in voiceoverand I do a lot of anime dubbing.
I do a lot of,loop group work with Justin,
which I'm sure we'll get into,but I do a lot of video games
and, I'm in the Sonicthe Hedgehog franchise now.
It's one of the latest Sonic games,wrote Doctor Robotnik.

(12:21):
Eggman, Sonic's nemesis,has developed himself an AI daughter.
Her name is sage,so I'm now in the in the Sonic I.
I'm his daughter. Yeah.
Can I make a confession?
When you talk about Sonic the Hedgehog?Yeah,
I was out in the garage on the weekend,and I found my old Nintendo 64.
Do you know what I was doing last night?
I was playingSonic the Hedgehog on my 1992 Nintendo 64.

(12:44):
That is very cool.
You get a lot of GenZ people very jealous.
I also love that,I love that, that's very cool.
Well, now I'm in the Sonic the Hedgehogfranchise, which is a dream come true,
but I'm in also.
I'm in so many thingsthat I'm proud to talk about.
I'm in the hello Kitty friend
I'm pump pumper in, which is one ofHello Kitty's friends is the Yellow Dog.

(13:05):
And we have a series calledhello Kitty and friends
super cute adventures that send.
It's like, I want to say 11thor 12th season or something like that.
Yeah.
And then, and then I'm just so happy to be in
lots of cool things that I'm really proudabout and happy to talk about.
But we're here to talk about looping. So.
Hey. I've got a serious question for you.

(13:26):
Yeah, yeah.
You talked about like,you know, how difficult it was to get in.
And there's a lot of people who listen
to our show who want to be voiceoverartists and want to get more work.
Yeah.
How important is tenacityin terms of never giving up,
never goingoh well look I'm not going to get there.
How important was thatto get you where you were today?
I mean, I have you have to you have totruly believe that you can do this.

(13:50):
And it takes it really does take years.
I remember even when I was training with,the person that I mentioned, Tony
Gonzalez, that,you know, teaches kids even back then,
he told us it takes about ten yearsto get established in this.
And he was right.
I mean,
it did can really take quite a long timebecause the people that do it are so good.
I mean, it's an incredibly competitiveindustry to, to break into,

(14:14):
and there's no egos.
You can't get an ego.Everyone's very replaceable.
Everyone that's working is very,very good.
So everyone's very down to earthand every, you know, you you have to
just kind of be be good to work with,be solid, be good at what you do.
And, you know, just keep at it.
Like it's just that's kind of the thing.
I just saw an interview with Seth Rogenwhere he was saying, you know,

(14:34):
this is an industry whereif you keep at it, you might make it.
If you don't, then you won't.
And that's like, that is that's the bottomline is like given enough time,
if you try really hard,this is a thing that's achievable.
You know, and you also have toI mean, there is the factor of luck,
but I oh, you know, it'sone of those things where the harder

(14:55):
I work, the luckier I get, you know,I mean, that's
so I always try to be preparedfor whatever's coming, but, but
it's a wild West out there, you know, it'sit's it's a pretty crazy industry, but,
you know, I'm thankful to be in it,and I wouldn't want to do anything else.
This is, you know, this is my dream. Oh,there might be might be hope for me yet.
36 years as an audio engineer. I'm like.

(15:16):
Yes, any day now.
Good good good good.
No, it's interestingbecause it is fueling them, isn't it?
You're right.
Absolutely. Yeah.
You just bang,bang, bang, bang into one of them.
But it also never stops.
I mean, you know, like I said, 36 yearsas an audio engineer, I mean, I,
you know, I didn't last that longbecause I didn't sit.
I just sat and rested on my laurels.
It never stops the whole, you know.

(15:38):
And it doesn't get easier.
Like I tell people all the time, like, I'mwe still have to audition all the time.
It's not like
the next job is necessarily easier justbecause you have established yourself.
Finally, you know,
every single time you're going upagainst the best of the best, you know?
So it is something you have to keep sharpand keep proving yourself over and over
and over again.
Yeah.
Even though and. You have toyou have to make sacrifices as well.

(16:01):
Like big sacrifices.
You know, the voices of,like, really like, iconic characters
who you think thesethis is the voice of that character.
You know, I think of Bob Bergen and Porky.
Yeah. He he loses that role sometimes.
He doesn't get that role automatically.
That's not how it works.
Yeah.
I know he still has to auditionfor guaranteed. Yeah.

(16:22):
Nothing is guaranteed.
Yeah, there's a new one.
I think, actually, I forget the.
His name, I.
Believe, is the fellow Eric. Is his nameEric? Yeah.
Eric Bauza.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's kind of become the new one.
Kind of of of, Looney Tunes.
He just has that gift
and they're like, if we can hire one guythat's cheaper than hiring two.

(16:44):
Yeah, that's right.
My wife sent me a video last nighton Facebook.
The guy who does the voice of Tiggerin Winnie the Pooh,
and he hadhe had his grandson, like, baby, like,
you know,six months old, sitting on his lap.
And he was talking to him in Tigger voice.It was so. Fun.
Oh, it's one. Of those ones. You just go,oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's Jim Cummings.
Wow, that's really cool.
Yeah. Jim he's he's done okay. Yeah.

(17:04):
All right.
Yeah yeah yeah.
Audition.
I'll tell you I get emails from himI Scarlett doesn't work.
No, I'm not kidding.
He's on it.
Scarlett. Really?
Yeah. Wow. Jesus.
You think he could do a bit betterthan that? Wouldn't there?
Maybe pay too much?
Whatever it takes.
It's sometimes simpler. Is better.
As he always tell me he's Amish,so you have to think like an Amish guy.

(17:28):
Absolutely. So. So you. Got to feel.
Sorry I take out.
What was that I was.
Going to say,if you're Amish, good luck with that one.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got a pedal, pedal, pedalyour bike to power up source connect.
So, guys, you you're you better feel.
I seen the reason you're here is becausewe wanted to talk about looping. So.
So for the uninitiated, give us a 52ndrendition of what looping is all about.

(17:52):
All right, so if you see Spider-Manflying across the sky
and you hear all the pedestrians belowgoing, whoa, what was that?
Did you see that? Look up there.
All of that in every movie,every TV show we're talking,
every group crowd scene, every courtroom,every mall, every food court.
All the noises that you hear inevery movie and TV show is done
in post-productionby voice actors called a loop group.

(18:14):
Because on the set,you know, you've heard quiet on set.
They can't let these extras talk
because they're recording principalaudio of the celebrities you know?
So it's quiet on set.
All the things you hearare done in post-production.
And that is what's called a loop group.
It's voice actors,and we're brought in to fill in all that.
It can also be all sorts of other randomthings, including fight efforts,

(18:35):
kiss noises,because a kiss like the smack,
like a noise doesn't pick up on the micwhen, like when the actors are on
set doing that.
So we're just making out with our hands,making that noise.
They, you know, with a loop group.Not with Foley.
No. They basically vocal Foleyby the sounds.
Yeah, we we do.
Well it can be. Yeah.
That part of it, you know.
But and then I don't knowif Foley artists also

(18:58):
sometimes do it,I don't know I know that we do it.
I know we do it sometimes in loop group.
They, they do the sheets.
And then it's also things like you,like you.
Yeah, they probably do.
It's like they clean. Also things.
I was going to say also for anybodylistening, not watching this because we're
seeing each other on the video,when Ryan's head making out with a hand,

(19:20):
like you said.
In hand. Yes.
Just to be.
Yeah.
Yes. They,But we also do, it can be things like,
PPAs, over intercoms and hospitals.
Yeah, it can be police radio.
Any police radio that you hear in movies,it can be, airline clean up
edits for, say, they're going to put thisR-rated thing on the air

(19:42):
on some airline, you know,and they need you to pick up a line.
So, like, for example,I got into this part of voiceover
by being cast as a voice match for,
on camera, teeny teeny boppercelebrity, basically.
And she couldn't come into do whatever pick up they had.
So they they needed a voice match.
And the person that castthat ran a loop group.

(20:04):
And that's how I got,into into that world.
So it's also the people that would hirethe voice matches sometimes.
Our loop group leaders. So.
About particular stuff like, so like,say there was,
I don't know, like a hostage movie,and you don't you never see the character,
but there's a dude that's always on the,the, the, the two way.

(20:25):
Is that a loop groupor is that someone that
they specifically cast,or is it depends on the director?
How does that sort of.
Stuff depends on the director and dependshow many lines it is.
So if it's not,if it's not a ton of lines,
they might trust the loop group leaderto bring in people on the day that do that
are going to be in the loop group anyway,and they will have that.
A few different men do alts, of that.

(20:46):
So a few different peopletry takes of that.
And then maybe the director wantsto decide who they're going to use later,
when they're editing it.
But if it's scripted in,it's a lot like it's a bigger role then.
Yeah, it could bethen like an actual role that is cast.
And sometimes if it's just a voice overrole, a loop group leader might be in
charge of casting that role.

(21:06):
So but yeah, it's
it kind of depends on the director'spreference sometimes.
And then also,how much are we talking about?
Because if it's more than a couple lines,they have to pay you more to set that up.
At that point
they're probably going to cast someoneand, you know, have auditions and stuff.
Yeah sure.
Okay.
So how many times do you do
you fit in a goofy linethere, like make a conversation?

(21:27):
It's like all this big wallahand then you're like,
oh my God,did you see the zit on her face?
Look at the size of this.My God, that's massive.
Yeah, yeah.
Just do you want to take that? Like.
Not too often because we want. You must.
Yeah.
Come on Justin, you look like our point.
Our our purpose is to blendin, not seek out.
You know what I mean?
So it's like we have to it's almost likeit's it's all improv for the most part.

(21:50):
Every once in a while,there's a scripted line.
They call that a specific.
Or, you know, they might tell youwe have a scripted moment, right?
But a lot of it is improv.
But your job is basically to dounfunny improv.
This is like,don't draw attention to yourself.
Like, keep it neutral, keep it nerdy.
It's nondescript, you know, and blendinto the world so that you don't.
Cause when you you want it, if it's good,you won't notice it,

(22:14):
that it's one of those kind of things.
So it's like if it if it pokes out,then you're maybe not doing it right.
That's what she said.
Like, do.
You almost find that if you literallydon't use real words, you can
you can go more into the backgroundthan if you are real?
Well, they call they havethere's a name for that.
It's called Chomsky.
And it's like where your mush mouth like,well, is here
or mine and I quite like it.

(22:35):
And some peop,some directors actually prefer that.
Believe it or not, there's some,
there's some shows stylisticallythey prefer that sound.
What's, what's it called againChomsky. Chomsky.
What is it?
Justin Chomsky chatter. Chomsky.
So it's more like a wala as opposed toactual specific words that you're saying.
You just kind of mama.
It's like, yeah, it's like,

(22:56):
imagine if you had marbles in your mouth,so you're not fully making out the words.
So it's just really goodto kind of blend into the background.
And that doesn't fight the dialog so much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.It's like speaking in words. Yeah.
But not quite as And I mean,speaking in tongues and tongues.
Right, right, right. Speaking in tongues.Speaking in tongues.
But I was going to say it's speaking.

(23:17):
I don't do that person.
It's kind of like. A mush mouth for. Sure.
We're all, I'm wearing one of our choir.
Or like, it's kind of that thing.
Yeah. It's like talking to my.
Teenage, like me on the weekend.Yeah. Okay.
So fun that the question comes for methen.
Are you doing this in studioor are you doing this in location?
Like if it's Spider-Manon the side of the building,
are you in an alleyway somewhere,

(23:38):
or is it all done in studioand then sort of matched up later?
How do they do that?
Yeah, they're notthey're not paying for this on set.
And yeah,this is like on it on a soundstage.
But I have been asked to go outsidefor certain cues,
depending on the,the editors preferences.
I was going to say as an editor,this like outside stuff recorded outside.
Sometimes they do.
So I worked on, Joker two folly, ladoo

(24:01):
or and we did record a few scenes outside
because we were recording on the loton Warner Brothers and weird.
You know how there's mob scenes and Joker,all these people outside
chanting and stuff. So, yeah,we did a couple cues out.
I don't know if what we recordedmade, made if that version of those
takes made the cut, but yeah,but yes, it's a stylistic choice.
It depends on what the sounddesigner want.

(24:23):
It's just because it's so hard.
It's so hard to make something insidesound outside.
Absolutely.With the best sound stages. Yeah.
But at 99.99999%,you're shooting at a stage.
Yeah. And because it's. Controlled,that's the thing.
You've got your airplanesgoing over old car horns or whatever.
Yeah that's right.
It's fine.
When we do go outside,it's like you're taking a field trip.

(24:46):
It's like,oh, now we're doing something different.
Like,this is kind of exciting and different.
They have to get a boom, you know?
Now bring your lunch, kids,and bring your.
Bring your water bottle. Yeah, yeah.
Do you guys milkbecause of the sun. Yeah. Is it like, oh
no. No
we I mean I think we leave thatfor like the end of the day kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah.
So come on Namedrop both of you.

(25:06):
Anything, anything big that we know.
No, no, not that we heard you in. But what?
You know, where would I. Want to hear?
Yeah.What are some of your coolest ones? Just.
Yeah. Come on, let's go.
I have I have a fun one.
I was in, I actually,this is way back in the day.
I got called to come in to dogood Will hunting, and.
Oh, just because Gus VanSant was directing it.

(25:27):
And I was actually a,you know, a huge fan of of him.
I didn't know the any of the actors in itbecause they were just beginning
and we had to audition.
It was Eric Von Denton who
I don't think works anymore,but he was a very pretty big 90s star.
It was myself and like six other actorswho auditioned on the stage,
which is very rare.Usually you go in, you have the job.

(25:47):
We had auditioned for Gus Van Santand he chose Eric and I,
and we went on the stageand we performed in this scene.
I don't know if you remember the movie,but it's, takes place on a basketball
court, and we played the kids in one endwho run over and are yelling,
you know, with these other kidsto beat the hell out of Matt Damon.
So we had like, Boston accentsand were cursing and yelling.

(26:08):
And Matt Damon came up to me
and I didn't know who MattDamon was or Ben Affleck was.
I thought they were possessedbecause they looked so young.
Eddie.
He came to me and he said, hey, thanksso much for for, you know, coming on.
And I said, yeah,of course, I'm thrilled to be here.
I was 16 and he's like,can I get you anything?
I was like, a cappuccino would be great.
Yeah.
And so Matt Damon brought me a cappuccino.

(26:30):
Oh, wow.
Yeah. That's right.
And then, you know, suddenly,
nine months later,I was watching them win the Oscars.
So that was fun. Wow.
The 40 year old. Virgin was really fun.
I got to work with Seth Rogen.
Kind of going back towhat Robert was saying.
You know, usually 99.9%,just like Ryan mentioned, were very.
And blend in the background.

(26:50):
No cursing. You don't want to stand out.
But Seth, who was in the filmand produced it, was there with us
and he wanted us to go buckwild.
So he's like,I want you to curse up a storm.
I want you to go wild.
And we were just it was like the nastiestbathroom humor you would ever imagine.
One of the most fun days I've ever done.

(27:11):
Looping scene was that.
Oh, it was like half the movie.
Oh, okay.
So movie. The whole bunch of him. Yeah.
We we were cursing.
I'll give you a decent last one.
So can you ever pick yourself outwhen you watch the movie?
Yeah, sometimes because I have kind of,oh, a little bit of a distinct voice
you can hear, but
I did B-movie a lot with Jerry Seinfeld,I did ADR, I'm all over that movie.
But, there was another movie that.

(27:33):
Partially.
And I'll tell me about B-moviebecause that's one of our favorite movies
in the house with the kids.
Oh, really?
So I played one of the beekeepers in ADR.
They got caught in.
Yeah, I worked on it for like, three daysevery day.
Jerry Seinfeld did a differentcourse that he'd show up in.
Of course.
Yeah. He's cool. Yeah, he was cool.
I'll give you a last story,which Frank Marshall directed.

(27:54):
You know, he was a massive film director,and it was one of those movies I forget.
But it was, you know, how they would have,like, the Valentine's Day movie,
and they were all.
They put all these stars together,like the July 4th movie.
And I think it was a Valentine'sDay movie, and it was on a film.
A lot of times,they'll have a lot of bloopers.
They're not so much anymore.
But back in the day,there'd be like 18 of us or 22.

(28:15):
Well, Ryan,
I, you know, typically work on TV showsnow where there's like four people
or six people, maybe eight.
But back then they had, youknow, a lot of folks who would show up.
And there was a kissing scene.
And like Ryan mentioned earlier,you know, you take your your hand and
you kind of kiss into it.
But Frank Marshall's, assistant
and one of the assistant editorsthey threw into the group

(28:38):
because in what we do, it's a lot of like,
we're pros, but you get a lot of friendsor cousins or nephews.
They get thrown into the group with usor must hires, which is always fun.
That's another story.
So what happens isthere's this kissing scene and it's the
and it's these two folkswho have never done looping in their life.
And I yell out, well, really?

(28:58):
Lay one onor you really got to kiss her fully.
And he had no idea.
She had no ideabecause they'd never done it before.
So we hear beep, beep, beep,and he turns to her, grabs
her and gives her a full kiss with tongue.
Tie. Everybody was laughing so hard.

(29:19):
Oh my gosh,that was one of the funniest moments.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's that's a classic.
So yeah, I've told this story before.
I've told the guys this story before,I think.
But talking about like ADRor picking up lines, it was a movie.
Russell Crowe had done a movie,I think it was called Pearls or something.
I've never seen the film anyway,so I get sent in an audition from my agent

(29:42):
and say, we need to do a pick up linefor Russell Crowe.
I'm like, okay, it's cool, I can do that.
So and they sent me a bit of the dialogwith Russell Crowe.
No, it wasn't the go.
Remember that Russell Croweis actually from New Zealand,
but he's sort of seen as an Australian.
So you kind of go, okay,well that'll kind of work
tonally.
Yeah I can do that. Let's say that's fine.

(30:04):
But then I played the dialogthat the actual film
that I was actually dropping intofor the ADR, and it's Russell Crowe,
who's a New Zealander, grew up inAustralia playing an American Irish guy.
You always
I'm like.
I you can.
Yeah, I.
That's a lot of layers. That was. Said.

(30:25):
There's a lot of layers.
Obviously I didn't get that.
But luckily.
Ryan's laid down some of your faves.
Oh, yeah. So,
well, I'm, I'm very honored to have gottento work on a lot of the Marvel movies,
including Infinity War,
all of the the new Spider-Man, movies.

(30:47):
Oh, what is it?
I think far homecoming, far from homeand no way home.
A few of the latest X-Men movies.
Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.
Some really cool,
animated movies like Boss Baby,Captain underpants.
What else?
Oh, I have, a cool little line.

(31:08):
A moment in the new Lilo and Stitch.
Oh, nice.
The new live action. Lilo and stitch.
It's me that's the aardvarklooking alien that says something like.
In 12 hours, he's expectedto land on a planet called Earth or so.
And so on. That I mispronounced Earth.
Typecast in a classic.
Moment that's also in the animated film.

(31:29):
But in the live action,the new live action one, it's me.
And, and, yeah, some TV shows like,
I was a big fan of the original sexand the city I got to work on.
When they rebooted it, as it's called.
And just like that,
and I got to do some of that,which was really cool for me personally.
I love Sex. City.

(31:51):
I love the show.
You know, if similarly,I got to do a little bit of the Dexter
New Blood and I was a big fan ofthe original Dexter, so that was exciting.
And then I also,I also got to do the Gossip Girl reboot.
So, you know, a lot we're in like reboot,you know, sequel ville.
So it's a lot of those.
But it's coolwhen it's like something that
you worked onor that you watched in the day.

(32:13):
It's like, oh, now it's backand I get to work on it.
And then, a couple others are like.
Like I do what the boys and Gen V, so yeah, just like a lot of cool random.
And those are shows that I would watch.
Like these are great shows that I enjoy.
I enjoy the boys is pretty violent,but but like,
these are shows that I, you know,I they're very critically acclaimed.

(32:33):
They're really cool shows and Iand when we work on them, we get,
you know,we get to see it before everybody else.
I so it's, it's cool if you likethe behind the scenes of movies.
I went to film school.
So I love seeing the different stages
of a film, and we're seeing itwhen it's pretty close to being out,
because this is something this is oneof the last things, the last minute stuff.

(32:54):
Yeah, this is. After the audiomix. Is done.
So it's like, you know, it's alreadyfor the most part pitcher locked.
They've made some
some decisions and they're feeling one wayor another about the product.
But you know by this pointthey're either nervous or they're excited.
Sometimes they know they've got goldand sometimes they're nervous.
And and you get to see that, you know.
And so it's just it's fascinating fromlike the behind the scenes perspective.

(33:15):
And then just some like a couple of,you know, moments that stuck with me.
I will say that sometimes
if it's a director that's really handson, maybe it's their first movie,
their first feature, or,they're just young and hungry.
They will actually sometimesbe there in the session.
And that has been really coolwhen when people have made appearances,

(33:38):
like for Y2K, Kyle Mooney cameand he was a delight to work with.
He was so funny and like,willing to experiment and like,
he was just laughingat what we were giving him.
And he loved our improv.
And, you know,he was pitching us things to say.
And we were pitching him back ideas,and he was just cracking up,
and he was just a delight to work with.
And then another onethat really stuck out was,

(33:59):
I don't know if I'm saying her name.
Right, Emerald Fennell, but she, Yeah.
A young female director who did,
I worked with her on PromisingYoung Woman, but I think she also did
Saltburn and some other things that,they're very, highly acclaimed.
And and she was really cool, like,
because you get to see what they're goingfor like this, like,

(34:19):
like if they're really hands on like that
and they care enoughto show up the directors, then it's
because they're using the sound designin a very effective way that they want.
They want to capture some sort of toneor flavor
that's like really importantto their overall theme or vision.
So if they care enough to show uplike that or then, you know, it,
it's, it's going to be a cool experienceto get kind of inside their head like, oh,

(34:43):
what are we going for?
I can give you a really good example ofthat actually.
Just quickly,
are you guys aware of the moviehunt for Red October?
Of course is fantastic.Yeah. Okay. So yeah.
So that if for those who don't know, it'sabout a Russian
submarine that they have developeda silent drive for the submarine.
So effectively the worstpart of the movie, it can, it can park

(35:04):
nuclear missiles,you know, 100 miles offshore of LA.
And no one would know if the.
Captain, the captain of the doctor,they he sees.
Sean Connery. Is a Scottish Russian.
Yeah. That's right.
So anyway, that the story goesand I've had this confirmed
by a couple of people that the moviewas actually pretty much finished.
Right.
But the reshoot
the director had was that obviouslyyou can't have nothing in a movie.

(35:27):
You can't have complete silence.
You have to have a soundfor the silent drive.
And the director was never happy.
Every time they sat him down in a in aseated and showed him the real weather.
The first time the submarine engaged,silent diving was like, no, no, no, no,
it's too noisy or it's, it'snot this or it's not that, blah blah blah.
And this went on for weeks.
And finallythey had a showing for the director.

(35:48):
And again, it was like,no, there's this one.
And the sound designer guys go, fuck this.
You know, this is just bullshit.
So I can storms out of the room, goes upthe stairs and is sitting on the roof
smoking a cigaret, and there's an airconditioning vent next to him
and it's wrestling is going to knowdong dong dong ding dong dong ding
dong dong dong dong ding dong.
He goes downstairs,the director's leaving.
He says, give me 20 minutes.

(36:09):
Just go and have a coffee.Come back in 20 minutes.
He went upstairs with the locationrecorder, recorded this thing,
took it downstairs, spun it around,slowed it down, blah, blah.
Did this, didthat. Threw it into the same director.
Comes back and goes, that's the sound.
Yeah, there's a separation.
There was also the other thing
with remember Red October, that storyabout the submarine

(36:32):
where there was not enough heightto have a boom.
Yeah. So the guy was live mixing.
They just they had mix all three cabinsand they were recording.
Yeah.
So as he's walking,then that's his switch.
He can't do wirelessas much in a submarine or.
No, they. Can't do anything.
I just have to have all these micsall the way down through the cabin.
He was like, was in a submarineor was it a set?

(36:53):
It probably wasn't like an actual medal.
But instead of a submarine.
Yeah. Yeah, it was no real good.
Thanks. Thanks, Lorenz. Anything?
Yeah.
The lunar cowboys when the pandemic.
You guys, that was it.
A freak out moment for the two of you,or did you already have a well-established
home studio?
And you're like, hey, we're ready to rock.

(37:14):
Well, what was that like? Yeah.
I think it was.
Yeah, it was fine for us, fortunately.
I mean, work definitely slowed down
initially because it was kind of like,what is going to go on?
How long is this going to last?Are we going to be back on stage?
And then once they kind of settledin that know this is how it's going to be?
I mean, I'm pretty sure, you know,Ryan's got a pro set up and I had a fine

(37:36):
set up previouslybecause we've been auditioning
for voiceoverremotely for years at this point.
I mean, we used to always goingto audition at our agents for voiceover
auditions, and that's gone away for,you know, quite a long time.
But did you guys consider your studiothough, a audition studio,
or were you doingwork, work at home on a regular basis?

(37:56):
I was not. Yeah, that's a good point.I was not either.
It was mostly auditioning.
Yeah.
I there was like,there was a time where, you know,
when Covid hit where everyone hadto figure out how to do this,
how to do this remotely,something that really benefits
from having all the actorstogether on a soundstage.
So there was like a periodof a couple months

(38:17):
where people were kind oflike figuring it out.
But once we all learned how to do itthis way,
and got used to the new recordings,you know,
different websites that we were usingto log on and some, some editors
actually kind of liked it betterbecause now they have everyone on ISO
and they can they can make itwhat they call, denser or thin it out.

(38:42):
So it's like if we're doing a crowd scene
and there were too many voices,everyone's on ISIS
and now you have a little bitmore freedom.
And there's a problem.
Not everyone's in the same room,though. So.
So you also have this this blending issue.
Yeah. Benefit. And, it's harder. It's.
I think harder work for themto put it all together
and to make everyone soundlike they're in the same room.
But if you'reif you like the control, then,

(39:05):
which I and I'm still working on, a showthat the editor likes, the control.
Like that's how they,they prefer it that way.
So they never, I don't know, they didn'tgo back to in studio for the show.
So yeah. Soit just depends on the preference.
But but before the pandemic, I did have
this boothand I was only using it for auditions.

(39:25):
This was my seat.
And auditioning is a big part of our job.
So I was using it a lot. Yeah, but.
But not I did not necessarilyhave have to have my audio quality.
To audition as a group. No.
For animation,for commercials, for different stuff.
Okay. Yeah.
We just normal auditions for cartoonsand animate
whatever other random auditions,you know. So.
But but that's a lot of our job.

(39:46):
I mean, I auditioned every day, and likeJustin said back, you know, ten years ago,
we used to go into our agenciesfor auditions
and that kind ofwe kind of phased out of that.
And then if anyone was still doing thatduring,
you know, when the pandemic hit, itdefinitely put an end to that
because they were not allowing, clientsto come in in person.

(40:06):
So it was like,figure out how to do it from home.
And those of us that already hadbooths were really lucky because,
you know, we had kind of alreadybeen starting to do it from home.
But,there was an adjustment period for sure.
And, now everyone that like,I feel like if you're
if you're working a lot, you're probablypretty proficient at recording yourself
from home at this point, because nowit's like it's expected, you know?

(40:30):
But it wasn't like that before, for sure.
I got a couple of questionsI was going to ask at one one.
Firstly, who were your agents?
Justin? Who was your agent that you.
Oh, well, I've had a few.
I used to go in all the time at ICM.
And then I was a WME
and then during the pandemic,WME shut down.
So then I switched over. I'man innovative.

(40:51):
Wow. Right now.
So yeah, I've been an innovatorfor probably six years.
But yeah, there's,
you know, there's a handfulof really good kind of voiceover agents.
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah.
I'm with Atlas talent.
I won't take youthrough the whole history
because I've been with a lot of agents,
over the years, but,but I actually, believe it or not,

(41:11):
have never physically been into Atlasbecause I signed with them.
I think maybe 2020, early 2023or something like that.
I want to say I forget, but
but it was after I was alreadyused to recording my auditions from home.
So when I met with them,
about representation, I think it was justa short conversation over the phone.

(41:33):
And then I sent them all my demosremotely, and we never had a face to face.
Conversation.
And it has been fine.
Like, they know what, they know whatI sound like, they hear my auditions,
they know how to pitch me. They book me.
It's all good.
Like, I just, I have never had togo over to their office, and,
who knows if I ever will.

(41:53):
You know why?
Like we handle
so much of our business over emails,and I'm recording my own auditions.
But, yeah. Yeah, we.
But this is, I think,
the first agency I've been with thatI that I have that relationship
with where I have never been into itbecause before I was,
I was recording auditions from agentsfrom all my other agencies.

(42:14):
And then the last one before,
Atlas,I was the one where I stopped going in.
I, I was going in,and then I decided, it's
a long drive, and I'm getting betterat using my own microphone in my own,
you know, home setups.
I'm just going to start recording myself.
And then you never go back.
Once you start doing that,you learn, you're comfortable,
you get into the grooveand you know your own process.
And yeah, then you kind of fallinto auditioning only remotely.

(42:39):
Is funny with Atlas because, Atlas moved a few years ago.
See, I would not know.
Yeah, they're old building was funnybecause I'm friend of mine, lived
just behind their old building.
And, in that building on the topfloor is a nightclub called Soho House.
And he said, do you want to let'sget this out of the house for a drink?
I'm like, okay.

(42:59):
So we walk up the back line from his houseinto the car park with Lyft. Is
around.
And I said, I've been here before,
and I couldn't work outwhy I'd been there before
is because Atlas used to be in that.
Now, the right over hereon the west side there.
And he said, here we go. Yeah.
And they had a booth and they didn't.
They moved the buildingand they put the booth together

(43:20):
and they never used the boothand they sold it.
I probably, Dean Pineroprobably keeps his dogs in the booth now.
Yeah. So so here I have a question.
Do you ever have to do accentsfrom within the crowd?
Yeah, yeah, it comes up okay.
Sure.
Even though you're blending, there'sstill that that kind of detail or that.

(43:41):
Well, usually it's done separately.
Usually you'll do like, like, kind of a, an accent track separately.
So I mean, I was just working on a showlast week.
We were doing Chinese and Russian.
So, you know, they're going tothey're going to not typically
do the English pass in the same way.
That way they can I show it outor mix it the way they want it.
But yeah, we doEnglish accents and, accents

(44:02):
from all around the worldall the time and languages too.
I mean, as a looper,
I speak a couple of languages,a lot of Looper speak many languages.
Okay. Wow.
Yeah, I was I was going to say,because sometimes I've found this trick
and so I, I do commercials andI never have the luxury of having a group.
So I'm always rummaging through the soundeffects library.

(44:24):
And one of the tricks I use isI will like I love like a Dutch crowd
in an English spot, because then there'sno words that pop out.
It's all like, what?
What? It'sbasically what you were talking about.
Yeah, right.
So I'll specifically go like, hey, give melike some other language here because.
We're going to lose just in one minute.

(44:44):
Just, Oh, sorry, Liz,before we go, anybody who wants to
who would like to become a looperor thinks they could do it,
a bit of advice and and should they.
Even should you move to L.A. to. Do it?
I mean, we're very fortunate to work inlooping.
It is an incredibly small niche,
group of of improvisersand voiceover actors to do it.

(45:08):
But kind of I wouldI would go back to what Ryan said earlier.
If you're passionateand hungry about something
and you really feelthat you have the talent,
you want to do it, then I wouldI would say it's absolutely possible.
There are some, looper loop group leaderswho have classes that they teach,
and I would highly recommendif you are a total novice, that
that would probably be a good wayto try to get your foot in the door.

(45:30):
But it's it's definitely a small groupof actors that do most of the work.
And it's it's very hard to break in.
It would have to be age diverse,though, wouldn't it.
Like, yeah,
you'd have to have a huge age groupbecause, I mean, you could be very
specific in terms of what you wantedin terms of your loop too, right?
Yeah.
I always tell people to,

(45:51):
to take their voice matching auditionseriously because that's how I got in.
And it's not it's not necessarilya glamorous job to be the airline
version of an edit for a famous person,you know what I mean?
But like, that's how I, that's how I,
I met made those connectionswas, was book booking a voice matching job

(46:11):
for a live action moviethat no one will ever know that I did that
one line, you know what I mean?
But it it led to other things for me.
So just taking every opportunity,seriously and trying your best and,
you know, being pleasant to work with and,reliable and,
you know, that's that'show that's how it happened for me.
So that's what I tell people.

(46:32):
That's a great answer.
I got to pop because I'm, you know, I'mtaking the standup comedy class
because I'm not funny.
But it's justwe always got to be studying
and adding more tools to our toolkit.
This was great.
Ryan is amazing.
You know, you continue with her.
I'm. I'm in the back seat anyway.
And thanks for having me on.
This was a lot of fun. Just choose me.

(46:52):
So, Ryan, I'm interested to know.
Obviously they have ideasabout what they're looking for,
but at a very specific in termsof what they'll ask for.
Or is it some of it left up to you guys?
Yeah, I mean, it it depends on the movie.
It depends on the team.
But, most of them care very deeply about what
they're doing, and they're very specificabout what they're looking for.

(47:13):
That's why, you know,they're they're spending money and time,
on this part of post-productionspecifically.
And this is a serious thing like this.
They want the best of the best,
and sometimes they have very specificthings in mind that they're looking for,
and they're not going to like.
Phone.
Them in on a multi, multi,multi-million dollar movie like this.

(47:36):
You know,like every stage of this has to be good.
They're not going to fumble
that close to the end zone.
You know when you're talking about likeone of the last parts of post-production.
So they're pretty preciousabout some of these depending on the,
high profile ness of the project or,
you know, I've, I've even had cues where

(47:59):
something very secretive happensin one of those really big movies
like that, the Marvel type movies whereit's like this really secretive project
where they actually won't show youthe picture, they tell you
what, they tell you a vaguedescription of what's happening
because they can't even literally tell youwhat's happening, because it's so
NDA and it's such a high profile thingthat they give you just a description

(48:22):
of something similar enoughto get to get from you what they want.
And that would only happen in caseswhere it's like,
this is the twist of the movie.
This is the climax. Like,this. Is why I'm your. Father.
Yeah.
Like those really and those really,really important moments where they cannot
trust to get to let this out at allbecause like, the, the whole.

(48:43):
Franchise. Like.
Turn your cell phone in. Oh, yeah.
When you walk into the place. Yeah.
They have detailthat they will wrap around it.
No I haven't seen some studios so. Yeah.
So so that's happened before.
So they take this all very seriously.
Like they definitely,want a certain vibe.
And this is not like phoning it
in, even though it sounds likethis is background noise.

(49:03):
This is mumbo jumbo in the background,doesn't it?
Doesn't matter.
I promise youit does matter for Spider-Man.
Yeah.
Homecoming.
He goes to a, science magnet school.
He goes to a tech high school technola technology high school.
So they and they they eventhey told us before the session, they said
when he's in one of his classes,

(49:23):
they're teaching Bauhaustheory of the atom on the board.
So look up that.
So we had to be in his classroom sharingnotes about Bauhaus theory of the atom.
It's that specific.
It's not like it's they don't tell you.
They don't say, you know, classroom stuff.
They tell you what subject,what is actually on the board
in the background,and they want you to research that.
They're a bunch of nerds.

(49:44):
Bring it content for nerds.
You got to be accurate here.
I mean, something you would never noticeif you watch the movie, right?
You know, you barely notice.Next time you watch it, check it out.
You know, that's really that. Oh, yeah.That's what they're studying.
And that's what that's what the loop groupwas talking about in that clip.
Even if it's just little whispersto someone next to you in class, you know.
But wewe had to be like referring to that.

(50:05):
That was what was happening in that world.
So it gets really specificand they want it to be as accurate to what
what it would would be really happeningin that moment as possible.
Did you watch have you watchedany of the studio on Apple TV?
I have, yes.Yeah. Did you want to watch it?
Laughed you watching cringe do you think?
Oh I love it, do.
Love it,
I love it, I love it, but I also have onlyseen the first I think 3 or 4 episodes.

(50:27):
So if they.
Yeah, if it gets into sound design,I haven't gotten there yet.
No, not really,but it's just you know Warner.
The Warner. Yeah. Yeah.The one I mean it's great.
And a lot of thoseeven notwithstanding that
episode, a lot of the scenes are very,very long shots.
It's beautifully shot.
I mean, as someone that went to filmschool, I'm eating it up.
So like, I'mso digging the cinematography on that.

(50:49):
So inside.
Baseball, it is, it is.
But it it makes total sense to us.
You know, it's likethis is the life that we actually live in.
We you know, but it's it's the beats,the comedy beats are so great too.
It's just a really tight show.
You guys haven't seen.I find a clip of it.
So if you're going to watch an episodebecause you just want to dip in,
just what's the one called the.

(51:10):
One or the one or.
Just watch the. Studio?
What's it on Apple studio TV?
Yeah, it's Seth Rogan's new show.
Yeah it's great.
I would like to loop on that.
I don't, I have never worked on that one.
There you go. You need to put your head.
Yeah I would, I would love to be a P.A.
you know because it's likeand one of the things that I did
get to work on was, being the Ricardos, and, Yeah.

(51:33):
Which was nominated for Best Picture.
My, my dream is truly to loop on somethingthat wins Best Picture.
I worked on a couple thingsthat got nominated.
I worked on a complete unknown,and I worked on, Being the Ricardos
and Being the Ricardos is cool becauseit took place in that Hollywood era.
It took place in that, in that,
that, that same erathat I studied a lot in film school.

(51:53):
And I got to actually use that and usethose sorts of terminology and stuff.
So that was really cool.
But, but working on the studio would belike, oh, that would be really neat.
Is there an Academy Award for best Looper?
Yeah. No there's not.
No. So you need to put your hand up.
Most most unnoticed. Thank you. Yes.

(52:14):
It was
sound design, which, like I said,I worked on a complete unknown
and that was actually nominatedfor Best Sound Design last year.
So that that's the closestwe'll ever get to.
Where we're in there. We're part of that.That's pretty good, though.
That's awesome.
You consider the loop grouplike part of part of like sound design.
And it's kind of in this like.
Very, very.

(52:34):
Slowly more sound design realm.
Yeah,yeah I agree. Yeah, yeah. Ryan. Yeah.
It's been amazing.
Yeah.
It's definitely something I was like,I knew it happened, but I never realized
how deep it actually went.
I just thought like grabbed him,
walked around a lot,grabbed a bunch of people
and threw them on the soundstageand said, right, we need you to do this.
This beats me.So I never realized it was so involved.
Such a specialized. Thing.

(52:54):
I thought they used more, more
the sound effects,like you and I suffer through,
and they only bring you guys in
when it's kind of absolutely precisethat they need to get.
But as you said,
they have multimillion dollar budgetsand they're not going to the that close.
Yeah, they're serious about it.
It's funny.
So now so now when they say
like Hollywood sound effects library,we know it's total B.S.
right. Like that's right.You're always using. Those.

(53:15):
These are yeah.
These are live groupsand and I have a big bite.
Like, we all have to researchso many different things.
So I have a big binder fullof every all the rules of all the sports.
That's a given.
You know, every sport, like fakesitcom scenes, because they always have,
like a TV on in the backgroundwhere they need a fake sitcom.
We have every, like, subject.

(53:36):
Of course, you know, Bauhaustheory of the atom is in there now.
But I looped on, for example, I looped ona show about girls skateboarding.
It's called Betty.
Betty or Betty's a Betty, I think on HBO.
It's all skateboarding.So I have the anatomy of a skateboard.
I have like I have dissections of like,
every animal, frog, cow, you know, worm,
because they always do dissectionsin movies, especially horror movies.

(53:59):
They love to dodissection scenes in high school.
So I think that one was frommaybe Slenderman or something.
I think it was Slenderman
that that I had to research,you know, in my first dissection.
But now I have every animal and it's like,
so we have this just giant binder,basically of research of like,
incredible, crazy amount of random thingsthat you would that come up in movies.

(54:19):
And there's some things,like I said, dissections,
sitcoms on TV in the background.
There's some things that come upall the time
prison police, radio cop, police,you know, police radios,
emergency responders on site,you know, EMTs,
all that kind of stuff comes up in, like,every TV show and every movie.
So we have a lot of that.
But it's a lot of research.

(54:40):
Like that's that's part of our job is.
Look, so do you.
What do you watcha lot of cops to research.
Yeah. Police.
Police right. Yeah.
Sort of stuff.
Is that how you do it?
We even we were like one ofmy coaches is like,
you know, listen to police radio scannerso you can listen to it's a public,
you know, there's an app.
So we are expected to literally be
getting accurate stuffthat would really be said on the police.

(55:03):
Troop decision.
Even gets down to like, we have to knowthe codes ten for whatever.
You know you're being and andand we also know like it's some
there's some specialty thingsfor different major cities.
So it gets us specific I have mapsevery borough of New York City.
I have maps of so that I can say,you know, he's in midtown,
right now, like so like.Names and stuff, pull out.

(55:24):
Street names, pull out,you know, areas and stuff like that.
And they'll tell you, they'll say,
this is GreenwichVillage Village in this scene,
and we'll flip to our Greenwich Villagenotes, you know, so
it's it's that it's that specific.
So it's a lot of researchand this is they're.
They're relying on you to do a lot. Yeah.
That's incredible. Give you.
Yeah.
Tell you say a bunch of these words withinhere like make it up and here's your

(55:47):
that's interesting.
Yeah I yeah it's a lot of them.
You find. That true.
It's like like weathermanand it's like sometimes trying to find
the right little piece of nothingthat's on
the TV inthe background is really annoying.
And I've done it a bunch.
I've gone into the boothand just said whatever it is,
like trying to be like a littlebecause it's like,

(56:07):
you know, you're you're searching throughthe sound effects library for 40 minutes.
You're like, what is going right.
Right, right. And it's easy.
We haven'twe haven't been a slide into oblivion yet
because, yeah,
it's still harder to dig around and findjust the right library thing than it is to
just get your fresh thingfrom a real actors
that are going to make it customfor your movie or film or TV show.

(56:28):
And another thing thatcomes up all the time is QVC.
I don't know what.
Yeah, yeah, like
like selling watches on the, on the TV,you know, it's like someone.
Someone. Yeah.
Someone falls asleep in
front of the TV that it happensin, like, every horror movie.
It's like, well, you know, sound effectsguys can only use the Wilhelm screen
so many times. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

(56:49):
I find a way to put on everything, like.
Yeah, but it's never going away.
Yeah. Thingthat will always be around there.
Yeah.
Yeah, well I won't,I don't think I'll ever watch a TV show
or a movie the same now I think. Yeah.
Listen closely.
So much for your time.
You guys know.
Real education is. Such a delight.Thank you for having us.
We we had so much fungetting to chat with you guys.

(57:10):
And I love seeing itfrom your perspective too.
It's fascinatingand I'm glad to know that it takes
you time to dig through those libraries,because we don't want to be unemployed.
We are.
You know, I,
I would say it's it's not just a luxury,but actually it would save time.
But one question I had is, asyou guys are on a flat rate, there's no.
Residuals. There are. I'm assuming. Yeah.

(57:32):
Oh cool. Wow. That's cool.
Yeah. Like there.
So so all the TV and all the films.
So, Let's see whywhy don't sound designers get residuals?
I know, that's right. I totally.
Know. And we're very grateful for that.
I mean, it's a scale day rate.
And we get residuals.
So, this is how a lot of us qualifyfor our health care through the union.

(57:53):
And, we feel very blessed.
That's why we're scaredthat we're going to be replaced.
And, you know, that'swhy it's such a tight knit community.
Is because this is going.To be a long time before that happens.
This is a thing that we feelvery, very blessed and grateful to have.
And we really hope it doesn't go away.
But, you know, we'll see.
We do not take it for granted.
I think that we,we kind of think that they're going to try

(58:15):
to ai us out of existence,but I think they're going to fail.
Like, it justit seems like they're going to try
and then they're going to realizethat took too much time.
And that was harder than just hiring.
People like the sound effects library.
Yeah, it's going to be more expensive.
So much time, and you're going to getbetter results faster.
With artists than you are.
I hope so, I hope so,from your mouth to God's ears, I hope so.

(58:36):
That's the hope.
And I think so far,I mean, look, AI is not new.
And I still I had a loop groupgig this morning today remotely.
We're still doing it remotely.
And I did it from home,with a group based in New York.
And, and, you know, that's it.
So it hasn't replace us yet.
It still is not there.
But we don't know.
I mean,we are not taking anything for granted.

(58:58):
We feel very thankfulto be still doing it.
But of course, we're very awarethat that could end.
We just don't know, like,is I going to get that?
Get that good or not?
I don't think so, because I haveI have to think that.
I'll say this.
It's been good at multiplying you.
So there's like for instance, the they'll do this already.
You have like a stadium full of people.

(59:20):
But really, you know, the stadiumis only filled with like the first ten,
ten benches and then softwareis, like able to like, replicate it.
So I think that they'll be able to useAI to double up
and to create variations.
But there's going to be a needfor initial, like setting the stage
and getting the basic kind of soundof whatever environment it is,

(59:44):
and that'swhere you guys are going to come in.
But there's going to be toolswhere you're not going to be doing like,
all right, let's layer that eight times.
The software might layereight times for you in the in the future.
And just yet.
I mean hopefullybecause that's like one of the harder
and more tedious parts of our job.We'll see.
But I mean, there's so many thing,there's so many cues
that we're talking about thatwe also cover that are so specific.

(01:00:06):
Like I said,
my my line in Lilo and Stitch,I mean, that was done in a loop group day.
Like, that's not that's a line,you know, in, one of the Spider-Man,
Spider-Man Far From Home.
There's a moment where he passessomeone on the street and the lady
says, knocked monkey,knocked monkey and runs off into.
And he's visiting Germany.
That's me saying knocked monkey.
So and so.

(01:00:27):
It's like there's so many little momentsthat it's like, this is not like we are
talking about group noise and crowdsand stuff like that, quote unquote wallah.
But we're also talking about very specificthings
that need to be in basically verbal jokes,like jokes that are like off camera from
or just like someone ordering or the QVC,the, the, the radio on and the,

(01:00:48):
the radio on in the car, the cop radio,the announcement in the hospital.
These are all like very specificthings still.
And that's also done in the loop group.
So it's like it might Imaybe will get rid of
some of our Wala tracksthat are just crowd noises.
Maybe.
But so much of our job is more detailedand more specific.
And yeah, you know. It's.

(01:01:10):
You know what?
Like the video game side, the what I hear
from the video game worldis, first of all, game is expensive.
It's a big investment to produceand to buy.
It's not something you can just downloadon Netflix, right?
It's a big deal.
And the fans are extremely ravenousabout quality.
And if they they will detect fakery,believe it or not, you're thinking,
what's a game?

(01:01:31):
But if they hear fake voices, theythey hate it.
They know it.
They want authentic voicesin these made up world.
So yeah, I mean, it's very importantto them. And they want to
know and they want to go to Comic-Con
and they want to meet the voiceof that voice, that thing.
And they want to take a picture of that
person, get a signthat's extremely important to them.

(01:01:53):
You cannot replace that with, I hope
they'll be novelty or very unique thingsthat are built.
You know, that the AI is ais a thing I look at,
you know, but I mean, it'snot going to replace the human element.
I keep saying that. It'sjust not it's not.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm really hoping I sometimeswonder, do these producers, whoever's
owns the content, the license holder,do they know

(01:02:15):
that the that the actors themselvesare so important to the fan experience.
That's good I don't know.
Do they care?
I don't know, but I hope I have to hope.
I'll tell you.
There's directors and I tell this storyand it just warms my heart.
My friend was trying to do a ADR lineand the actor couldn't hit it very well.
At the end of the day, actor's goneand my friend, the engineer

(01:02:36):
basically like goes in and fixesit, comes up with an option using AI,
and he calls up the director and he says,I got it fixed.
I don't think you're going tolike how I did it, but I got it fixed.
And the director says,I don't want to hear it.
I don't want to like it.
I don't want to hear it.
And don't just forget itlike we got what we got that day.
It's good enough.
And that that was you know, they, likesome people don't even want to have any

(01:03:00):
anything to do with itwithin their productions at all.
So it's. Yeah.
Well that's good.
I mean, like I said, I had a gig today.
So as of this momentI am not personally experiencing,
you know, necessarilya slowdown or being replaced yet.
But I am also acutely awarethat that could happen at any moment.
So, you know, I'm I'm grateful.

(01:03:21):
From my perspective, it has not happened.
The things I'm
working on or high enough profileand they have the big enough budget
where they still want the real deal,they still want real humans, you know.
But he knows.
I mean, I'm not going to hold my breathbecause in other words, I'm
saving my residuals,you know, like, yeah, we just don't.
And thank goodness
for those, you know, but,we just don't know where this is going.

(01:03:42):
And we have to sort of plan for the worst,hope for the best, plan for the worst.
But, but, you know, I'mgoing to enjoy it while it lasts.
I'm grateful to be here for now.
If anything could could end,you know what I mean?
Like, so I'm just going to enjoy itand try to be as good as I can at this
while I can.
And I always say in terms of voiceover,if this is going extinct, who knows?

(01:04:03):
I'm going down on this ship.
Bottom line, like this is it for me.
So, I will be one of the last voiceactors standing if that's what happens.
But as you say, I haveyou have no other marketable skills.
Yeah, exactly.
Completely. I know that I'm a total bum.
Yeah.
I don't know about the skills whatsoever.

(01:04:25):
Yes, well, that was fun.
Is it over the pro audio suite?
Thanks to Driver and Austrian audio.
Recorded using Source Connect, editedby Andrew Peaches and mixed by Robo Go.
Do your own audio issues.
Just ask RoboCop and tech supportfor George the tech wisdom.
Don't forget to subscribe to the showand join the conversation

(01:04:47):
on our Facebook group to leave a comment,
suggest a topic, or just say,could I drop us a note at our website?
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