BEHIND THE SCENES with Frozen's Recording Studio!

More about my trip to L.A. last month! WOO! (When can I go back? Ohio weather is schizophrenic this week! I want palm trees again! Wahh!)

Today I'm going to share my experience in the Frozen Recording Studio with Audio Mixer Gabe Guy!

From my Instagram @TheTVMom

Yes, this was the only person who worked on the film who I had enough sense to ask for a picture with during the whole trip. He obviously happily obliged. (Side note, is EVERYONE who works at Disney good looking like this? I swear I didn't meet someone who wasn't model-level-decent looking while there! I'm thinking I don't have a chance of ever seeking employment there if that's the case! HA!)

Gabe Guy giving his presentation

This was my bread and butter, being that in high school and college, I was a huge sound geek. I did all the sound design and mixing for all our high school productions and events. In college, I was actually an Assistant Producer for a local morning radio show. This is my jam. Also... now you know why during the Oscars, my Twitter account was filled with me whining about sound issues. It's a thing with me. Seeing the huge mixing board really brought back some memories for me!

After we learned a little bit about how voiceover recording works, we were each invited into the booth to do our own recording of a snippet of Olaf's performance. Our group through was the first of the day, and no one wanted to be "that person" who volunteered to go first... so Matt Forbeck (of GeekDad.com, who kindly keeps giving me shout-outs, so hi Matt!) and I took the dive and volunteered as tributes to step up to the mic.

My voiceover buddy Matt Forbeck of GeekDad.com

When you step into the studio, you're greeted with a mic with a breath screen and a monitor displaying your characters and your lines. The lines are synched to the characters, and you're given a convenient  countdown to the cue when you begin to speak. Our experience was a little different than that of the actors, because we had the voices of the other characters already recorded for us. Most of the actors either recorded on their own or with some of their other castmates.

On the other side of the glass

By the way, the breath screen does very little once you put the headphones on. You seriously can hear every breath you take when you put on your headphones thanks to the super sensitive recording equipment. The screen just prevents those breaths from being recorded as fuzz over the actual speaking. I could hear my heart beating too. Being the first to step up to the mic is nerve wrecking!

Image courtesy Matt Forbeck. Remind me to stand up straight!

We were given the choice of recording a few lines of Olaf introducing himself to Anna and Kristoff or the opening lines to "In Summer". Being first to the mic, I did NOT want to subject a whole bunch of people to my caterwauling, so I chose Olaf's introduction. "I like warm hugs!"  Unfortunately, our videos of Olaf with our voices were delayed, so you'll just have to use your imagination for that part right now. My friend Meredith at SuburbanCouponMom.com got to do it when she went last fall for the premiere, so click the link to hear and see her talents!

For fun, I whipped up this little slideshow of some of my other blogger buddies doing their voiceover recordings (all images courtesy Disney) because the photographer was with a different group than mine for the morning, and of course I set it to "In Summer" for effect (music and lyrics copyright Disney). I know I am right there with Olaf wishing for summer weather, only I won't melt, I'll thaw.

Frozen Recording Session 2014 by Slidely Slideshow

Disclosure: I received a trip to Los Angeles in exchange for my coverage of the Frozen Blu-ray release. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.