Saul Reichlin
is an actor with extensive experience of reading for audio books. In this
fascinating interview, he lifts the curtain on the recording process and
generously gives away a few trade secrets.
At a party given by an actress friend of mine a few
years ago, I bumped into an old drama school pal I hadn’t seen for ages. We did
the usual thing of exchanging tales of our respective work (or lack of it). He
told me he was narrating audiobooks, and he must have seen in my eyes the same
expression I have since seen many times in the eyes of others, namely: ‘How
difficult can it be to read a book aloud? I wouldn’t mind some of that work. I
can read!’ Hmmm. Anyway, he was generous enough to give me a few pointers, but
I would still have to depend on my voice agent to get me the job – you can’t
approach the companies directly, unless, of course, you’re a star.
My agent said ‘Well they won’t give you an audiobook
unless you’ve done one before’. I said ‘Ok, let’s get past the Catch 22 thing. How do I start?’ She
said I needed a niche. Well, the niche finally came when they needed a narrator
for a book by the South African writer, Deon Meyer. I’m an ex-South African,
and well acquainted with all the character types.
I spent three weeks studying the book, Dead At Daybreak, every day until I could
just about recite it! I was actually in
Cape Town during this preparation, at a favourite café overlooking the sea. One of the main characters in the book was a
black man with a rather long name. I was looking up from the page, wondering
who I should ask about pronunciation, when a waiter came over and asked me if I
would like anything. Thinking quickly (he was black) I said, ‘Yes, can you tell
me how to pronounce this name?’ He looked at me suspiciously, then looked at
the word, and his face beamed a huge smile. He gave me the pronunciation, and after
that almost every time he brought me a coffee there was another word or two for
him. It did his tips no harm at all. Thank goodness the book went well.
I can’t say that waiters have been much help to me
since, although for my Italian words I go to La Gaffe, an Italian restaurant in
Hampstead. The owner is a playwright I’ve known for years, and he is happy to
help me with Italian pronunciation for the price of a Spaghetti Siciliana and a
bottle of house red. My kind of price.
After my second Deon Meyer book, the company entrusted
the wonderful Rome series by David
Hewson to me, and my first Best Audiobook Award followed with The Seventh Sacrament. Later, good
fortune brought me my most popular audiobooks, the Stieg Larsson trilogy of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, one of the highlights of my association
with Whole Story Audiobooks
and White House Sound Studios.
What
kind of preparation do you do before a recording?
To get away from all the distractions of my flat:
phone, fridge, telly, computer, postman etc I do most of my preparation in
cafes. Plenty of coffee and food (and someone to make it and bring it). I am
known as the mad guy who sits in the corner talking to himself. This is because
I start my preparation with a careful, slow reading, aloud (but softly) to myself.
This allows me to pick up rhythms, timing, speed, characterisations and the
general tone of the book, and also identify and practice any longwinded, awkward
sentences, and of course, the tongue twisters. It is now that I mark all the words
or phrases that have to be researched for meaning or pronunciation. Next comes
a second reading, slightly more fluently, but rehearsing dialogue and refining
characters and their voices. All this will have taken about 10 days at 5 hours
a day. Finally, a skim-read the night
before of all the next day’s narration brings to the story a familiarity that
makes recording comfortable and gives a sense of an actor’s work well realised.
For the Stieg Larsson books I had to learn the pronunciation
of 1400 Swedish people’s, place and street names. This took about 5 hours of
tutorials with a Swedish speaker, followed by hours of listening to the
recordings I’d made, and saying the words over and over to get them right. I am
considered quite good with pronunciation, but it is really just a lot of hard
work, and having a reasonable ear for accents.
Can
you describe a typical recording studio?
Recording studios are dotted all over the country,
and it often means a long drive or train journey, and then being put up in a
hotel, B&B, or a flat, usually for 3 or 4 days. I actually like this,
because recording in London, where I live, means rush hour public transport,
whereas an out of town studio means a paid taxi to and from work, and a
subsidised restaurant evening meal.
Sometimes a recording booth is small and cramped,
but most are reasonably sized and comfortable, with the walls covered in foam
egg-box or other sound-proofing. An aeroplane flying overhead or a siren or
road works will always stop the recording, however. The producer and engineer
sit in another room with banks of screens and buttons. There is a monitor or
internal window to give visual contact, if needed. All verbal communication is
through the headphones.
How
does it work once you are in the studio? Do you record in long stretches that
are edited later, or do you stop and start every time there is a stumble or
glitch?
I like to read for an hour at a time followed by a
10-15 minute break for a cuppa, usually fruit or peppermint tea. I save the
caffeine for after lunch. Others read for longer stretches, and I could too,
but I like these shortish sessions as I get tired in the mid to late afternoon
otherwise, and this leads to mistakes. We still get 6-7 hours recording a day,
which is about regulation. Some studios stop every time there is a mistake or a
glitch, and go back, while other studios work without an engineer at the
recording, and the editing is done later. It’s possible to work with both
systems quite easily.
At the studio, they laugh at the state of my desk,
with all my paraphernalia. I have water bottle, mug of tea, fruit (bananas and
oranges), honey, Rennies, tissues, pencils, eraser, pages of pronunciation
notes, phone (switched off), wrist watch, loose change, eye drops, my fruit
teabags, chocolate, and I don’t know what else. Well, I’m there for days on
end. I don’t know how some people manage to be minimalist. With some narrators,
if it weren’t for the pages on the lectern at the mike, you wouldn’t know
anyone was working there. My desk looks like a refugee’s emergency supplies!
Can
you describe the roles of the producer and the sound engineer? Is there anyone
else involved in the process?
Some producers leave it mostly to you, while others
are quite controlling. I don’t like a lot of interference, but good guidance is
very helpful sometimes. A positive working relationship with the producer is
vital. With the Stieg Larsson trilogy this was going to be critical, with about
130 hours studio time to record the 65 hours of listening, coming after
hundreds of hours of preparation. I was lucky to have Gus Gresham, one of the
best producers, expert, patient and easy to work with, and he made it a real
pleasure. We worked very hard, for longer hours than usual, but we had fun
doing it, and we remain friends today.
In my experience the sound engineers that the
studios use are lovely guys, laid back and highly skilled, even if some of them
have trouble getting to work on time!
How
do you go about finding the right voice for a character? Is it totally your
decision, or do you have someone who functions as director might in a stage
performance?
Although suggestions are welcome, I like it when decisions
regarding performance and voices are left to me. A producer with a good ear
might point out anomalies in what you’re doing, though, for example if your
accent is starting to drift. One of my rare non-fiction books is Playing The Enemy, by John Carlin, later
made by Clint Eastwood into the film Invictus.
I think this is one of my best audiobooks, and actually more exciting than the
film. Half way through the recording, the producer, Carolyn Oldershaw, with whom
I’ve worked many times, and who has an excellent ear, told me that my voice for
Nelson Mandela was starting to sound like a Chinese waiter! After I finished
laughing, I managed to ‘get him back’.
In my vocal ‘store’, I have a few favourite people that
have stood me in good stead, especially when I need a voice for a baddy. One of
these is the art critic Brian Sewell. He has a wonderfully superior,
patronising tone and delivery. He crops up benignly in The Seventh Sacrament and later, in all his pompous glory, in The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.
A fabulous opportunity came my way in the book The Fatal Touch by Conor Fitzgerald. As
I was rehearsing the dialogue, the voice and speech patterns of one of the
characters started to sound familiar. ‘Who does that sound like?’ I said to
myself. ‘Ooh, I think it’s a bit like Sydney Greenstreet!’ It was, indeed, my
version of the marvellous Sydney Greenstreet in his performance as Ferrari, the
sleazy owner of The Blue Parrot cafe in the film Casablanca. Even though he’d probably deny it, I’m absolutely sure
the author based the character in the book on Greenstreet - his expressions seemed
to come right out of that great film. After listening to me ‘do’ him for a
while, the studio producer (Carolyn again) smiled and said ‘You know who you
sound like? That fat man in Casablanca!’ I was a bit afraid that she would
object, but she said it was fine. And I loved doing it, so I went all the way
with it. It remains one of my most enjoyable characters to do, even though he
was an evil sod in the book.
Don’t want to give too many secrets away now, but
Richard Burton has made the odd appearance!
Have
you had characters that have been particularly hard to get right? Or ones that
have 'come right' unexpectedly?
Sometimes at the first time in front of the mic, the
character’s voice comes out just right, as if by itself, but if someone is just
too difficult, it’s best to do a suggestion of something, and hope the listener
will be tolerant.
If
you are doing a reading that requires multiple voices, how do you ensure they stay
consistent through a long reading?
Occasionally I have to think back to get the sound
and rhythm of someone back in my head, especially if there’s been a long gap
since their last appearance, perhaps in an earlier book of a series. If it’s
‘gone’, the engineer will sometimes play back a bit of the last time that
character spoke to remind you. I’m happiest when there is an identifiably
different quality to people. Then it’s lovely playing a scene with a few
characters, especially if the writing is entertaining.
What
are some of the biggest audio pitfalls to avoid?
Make as few noises as possible. Every breath or
swallow or start of speech can make a sound that has to be deleted later, and
this makes editing laborious. Keeping still is vital too, as moving about in
the chair makes sounds, and even the ticking of a watch can be picked up by the
mike, and cause a break in recording. Once or twice I’ve made the table lamp
vibrate with a particular vocal pitch, and it’s possible to imagine how some
singers can make glass shatter.
A slightly weird problem arose once when a producer (yes,
it was Carolyn) stopped the recording and said, ‘Saul, your nose is whistling’.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel insulted. It was like being called an
old codger who couldn’t control his nose! I’ve tried, but I still don’t know
how to whistle through my nose.
An unexpected danger is in not having the right
breakfast! If you’ve eaten too little or too fast, tummy rumbles will cause
stoppages because the microphones are very unforgiving, and pick up absolutely
everything. Hence the Rennies that are always close by, in case, and a banana
for elevenses.
For me, going into a recording session under-prepared
is the most awful danger, especially in a long book. Thankfully, this has only
happened once or twice, and it wasn’t deliberate. Either I didn’t realise what
still needed to be done, or because of other commitments it wasn’t possible to
devote the amount of preparation time to the book that I usually do.
With
software now offering authors the opportunity to record their own audiobooks,
or at least to record extracts for podcasts on their websites, what advice
would you offer them before they tackle such a project?
Most authors are happy to leave it to a competent
professional, but some insist on doing it themselves. Some authors sound ok,
but others change their minds after listening to themselves.
Technology is making it possible for narrators to
equip themselves at home now, and this might be the future. It’s catching on
with audiobooks in America, and more and more voice work is being done this way
in the UK too, but home recording can never match studio quality for
audiobooks, I don’t think.
An unexpected pleasure has been in participating, on
behalf of Whole Story Audiobooks, in talks held at libraries about the making
of audiobooks. These talks include reading extracts from some of the books I
have narrated. Recently, on one such occasion, on World Book Night, the
bestselling crime writer, Donna Leon, was there as ‘the main event’. After my
talk, I had the honour of interviewing her at the invitation of High Wycombe
Library, who put on a superbly conceived and presented affair, and the 200 strong
audience were most positive in their appreciation. Beats sitting in a
soundproof studio!
Gradually replacing CDs and cassettes, downloads are
making audiobooks quick, easy and cheap to buy, or borrow from the library. In
their reviews, so many people say they have become avid audiobook listeners, whether
in the car on the daily commute, on the bus or train, or walking the dog. They tell
of their car journeys across America or Australia, when they could not wait to
start the next leg of the journey to continue the book. A long distance lorry
driver emailed me to tell me his days were completely different now that he
listened to audiobooks. This is most gratifying, because it is a corner of an
actor’s working life when he is never in the same room as his audience, and
can’t know how he is being received. After all, applause and laughter are what
sustains a performer, and on a cold night it can warm the heart when someone
somewhere has been moved to write to say how their life has been affected by
your work.
I know. All together: Ahhh!
Happy listening,
Saul
Reichlin
Saul Reichlin a South African
born actor, trained at the Central
School of Speech and
Drama. He is the winner of the 2010 and 2008 ‘Sounds of Crime’ Best Unabridged Audiobook Awards for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg
Larsson and The Seventh Sacrament by David Hewson, and 2009 Best
Audiobook Of the Year Award for The Girl Who
Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. Saul is the narrator of over 50 TV
documentaries.
You can listen to samples of any of Saul Reichlin's audio books by visiting his page on Audible. (Just click on the little green arrows underneath the thumbnail images.) Or you can visit his own website: http://www.saulreichlin.biz/voice-over/index.html
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