Answering Machine Copyright?

[Brad S.]

Hey Folks,
I'm cutting dialog for a scene that involves the main character listening to her answering machine and I'm wondering if there are any copyright issues with the voice on an answering machine? It's the generic female voice that tells you how many messages you have, the time the messages were left, etc. All of the voiceover messages are married to the onscreen character's reactions, so I can't split anything out. I'm probably going to cue the whole scene for ADR, but I'm just curious about the whole copyright issue.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Noiz2]

I'm pretty sure you can assume it's copyrighted. The bongs on computers and the beeps on cel phones are.

 

[Brad S.]

Thanks for the quick reply, Scott!

Good. This gives me another reason to loop the scene if the director doesn't mind the noise from the answering machine.

 

[dre83]

Solution: let someone speak that kind of voice. Just record in normal voice a phrase like "message after the beep" or something.

Then, EQ hard cut low and high, little bit distortion

 

[Richard Crowley]

All of the voiceover messages are married to the onscreen character's reactions, so I can't split anything out. I'm probably going to cue the whole scene for ADR, but I'm just curious about the whole copyright issue.

But just because the actor is reacting to/with the recording doesn't mean that the original sound from the answering machine has to end up in the final track. It is pretty easy to "lip sync" to an answering machine which has no lips:happy:

OTOH, unless it is a very distinctive voice and/or you can see the make and model of the answering machine on-screen, I wouldn't be all that freaked about it.

 

[Brad S.]

But just because the actor is reacting to/with the recording doesn't mean that the original sound from the answering machine has to end up in the final track. It is pretty easy to "lip sync" to an answering machine which has no lips:happy:

OTOH, unless it is a very distinctive voice and/or you can see the make and model of the answering machine on-screen, I wouldn't be all that freaked about it.

When I said the actors reactions, I meant their audible reactions; things like heavy sigh-ing and exhales. A couple of the lines are right on the tail of the voice on the machine so I can split them, but I'm a big proponent that if you cue one line in a scene you cue the whole scene just in case it's impossible to match the ADR to production.

 

[Noiz2]

...
I'm a big proponent that if you cue one line in a scene you cue the whole scene just in case it's impossible to match the ADR to production.

Me too, though the tools have gotten good enough that it's often not an absolute must anymore.

If you want, for the answering machine VOX, you can come over and run it through Speakerphone. It does great with those kinds of tasks.

 

[Brad S.]

Thanks for the offer, Scott, but I'm not actually mixing this one so I'll leave the futzing to the re-recording mixer. The guy shooting the ADR is pretty inexperienced at it and I'm a bit concerned about how it will fit into the scene, which is yet another reason to cue the whole scene just in case.