Sound for Spec Commercial

[jigaluc171]

Hi ,

As a new filmmaker I’m still floating in some areas of the field. I need to download the sound (V.O.) from an American Express Commercial, is it possible? Where can I find that?

If it is not possible I would like to create a VOICE OVER for a spec commercial like the ones that we hear on TV. Which program should I use and where can I find a tutorial to learn that?

I appreciate your help! Thanks

 

[SMuir]

Downloading the audio from an AmEx commercial could be simple or complicated, depending on the format (youtube, Quicktime, MPEG4, DVD, broadcast, etc.) of the commercial. You'll need to provide a lot more information before anyone will be able to reccomend a course of action. Of course, using other people's intellectual property (eg. voiceover) in your own work is a practice that is generally frowned upon, and could wind up tagged "Exhibit A" in a lawsuit.

As for recording your own VO, that's really the least of your worries: there are plenty of software packages out there, and many of them will produce tracks of identical quality. ProTools is something of an industry standard there, manly due to its ubiquity among post-production facilities. However, before we can reccomend a specific application, we'll again need more information regarding your overall post-production workflow. For example, are you cutting the sound in Final Cut Pro, or are you taking it into another application for more detailed audio post? Will you be mixing in an editting suite, or will you be taking it to a mixing theater?

As for tutorials, there are plenty of books out there that deal with home studio recording. Many of the technical and theoretical aspects of music recording are directly applicable to VO recording. If you really want to learn all about VO recording from one source, you could always intern at a recording studio that handles a lot of VO work.