smallsquirrel

I have done some voice-over work in the past. Nothing too strenuous or top-shelf, but it’s hard work.
You sit with the client, go over the materials and understand what they want to convey. You check things like names to make sure you are saying them correctly. You go over vocal styles, emotion, pitch… all the variables. Then you get into the booth and do take after take of the material just in case the client hears it later and decides to go in a different direction. It’s grueling and takes a lot of concentration.

So I wonder what in the name of professional television is going on over at Discovery Travel and Living. Who in hell is in charge of voice-overs for India, and why do they have seem to have NO GRASP of the material they are covering?

Why do I say this? It seems that every other promo or intro for a show that has been taped for India Discovery Travel and Living has a GLARING mispronunciation. And I do not mean the difference between British English and American English, which is simply a dialect difference. I mean just flat out crap, like:

1. There is a show called “Chic Eats”. The chic part should be pronounced like “sheek” not “chick”. But Nooooooo… there is it… “You’re watching Chick Eats”
To my thinking, then, I need to be either watching a baby chicken eating, or some hot young girl.

2. Recently they were promoing a new series. I forget the whole name. But it had the word tortilla in it. And the announcer said it like “tor-TILL-a” Come on people… it is a show about Latinos, so please… say it with me “tor-TEE-yah”

3. They screw names up like I cannot believe. Names of famous people. Anthony Bourdain. Heidi Klum. And they are running promos for these peoples’ shows! SAYING THEIR NAMES WRONG!

Now I can understand having a mess-up every now and again. But they use the same woman for all the promos, and she’s horrible. Where is the producer? Is the producer a total moron? Has no one checked the pronunciation of any of these words or names?!?!?!? Furthermore this woman has terribly effected speech. It is clear she went to some voice coach to sound less Indian and more… something. The result is that she just sounds weird. The stress is on all the wrong words in a sentence, and it sounds terribly unnatural for either British or American English. And Indian English, for that matter!

So at the end of the day I am left wondering…why not just get someone with an Indian accent? That way it’s not this ridiculous parody of another accent. And it’s a TV show in India, for God’s sake. What is so wrong with an Indian accent? I would rather listen to that than some fake euro accent any day.

And on that account, I notice more and more commercials doing the same.. employing people for voice-over work that have some strangely effected tone and accent that actually doesn’t fit anyone’s real speech patterns. It’s shameful.