Who’s this Fitzrovia Post Production, then?
I’m very glad you asked! Fitzrovia Post Production are a fabulous studio based in London, offering a variety of services such as (deep breath): ADR, voice recording, sound design, mixing, and picture finishing.
I’ve been lucky enough to work at Fitzrovia a number of times now on various projects, and I’ve never found the folks at Fitzrovia to be anything other than lovely and super supportive. Voice acting is all about the human connection- so to find a group of people who are so obviously passionate as you are, and be on their wavelength, and get to spend time with them doing what you all love? Voice actor’s dream (especially for video game work, where you sort of get poured out of the booth at the end).
And they do workshops, too?
When you’re a working voice actor, it is imperative that you continuously hone your skills, and expand your acting toolbox. I love to learn from directors, from casting, from other voice actors. It’s like school, but it’s fun! (Sorry teachers- I know you do your best.)
Fitzrovia’s day-long workshop offered the chance to try four genres of VO: ADR, documentary narration, looping and animation.
Whilst a lot of my work is video game related, because I absolutely love video games- my first gaming experiences were on a Windows 98 PC that took six and a half minutes to load a glitchy Barbie game- I love just about any area of VO, and narration is maybe the one area I haven’t had the chance to try yet! I’ve made and been in documentaries, but never narrated them… until now.
Getting hands on with that mic
The day consisted of four hour-long sessions within a group. I was an exasperated mother, a cheeky bully, a guide to Heathrow Airport, a fickle Simpsons audience member and even a confused worshipper in Monty Python. All guided by the fabulous Fitzrovia crew and the directors and actors brought in to show us the way!
My takeaways from Fitzrovia
What a fabulous day.
Narration was a whirlwind of lights and cues that just got more fun the more I explored. I’ve always loved documentary, but this behind the scenes glimpse was far too gleeful! I learned how important it is to regulate tone, to ensure you’re supporting your voice with breath to make it all the way to the end of a long sentence, and- like with a lot of voiceover- getting absorbed in the visuals and just telling the story was the biggest help of all.
Animation and ADR brought their own challenges, and I loved exploring characters, timing and musicality within both of them. (Did you know Bill Nighy does his ADR with his eyes closed, relying entirely on his musical skills and timing to match his dialogue with the mouth movements on-screen? What a legend.)
And the loop group- was this the craziest, dizziest and loudest hour of the day? OH YES IT WAS!
The importance of a good studio around you
(To clarify: Fitzrovia doesn’t know I’m writing this, I just really like working at Fitzrovia.)
Voice acting is a very collaborative skill. We are there as part of a huge team- from localisation staff to animators to mocap technicians to casting directors to intimacy co-ordinators. It’s imperative that you have supportive, confident people around you to get the best performance out of you. And that’s why I love Fitzrovia: because everyone I work with is talented, highly skilled, professional, and at their core, just really lovely people.
Thank you to Fitzrovia for a brilliant day (and a delicious lunch), and if you’re a voice actor looking to test your skills and learn something new, Fitzrovia are running more of these weekend workshops, so I highly recommend them!
Written by : jasmineyates
