Voices & Foleys
In the GDR one of the greatest studios in the world was built, called FUNKHAUS. At that time (built in the 1950s) radio was thought to be the most powerful medium in the world. That’s why the GDR government spent millions on the complex, working like a little city on its own at peak times.
Today some parts are out of use, fucked up, but between broken windows and rubble floors, on the threshold there are modern high tech studios, opening a portal from past to present.
Alexander Parker very kindly recorded Foleys, recording a very smart dog, called Runi, the sound of doors at the Funkhaus as they have a specific 1950s/60s sound, as well as a tape reel sound, clothing, steps representing Olivia’s fast youthful steps and a calm man’s steps for George Martin. Foley artists record sound that belong to movement of characters. For the whole experience of immersion, they are maybe as important as the sound of voices, I realized while listening to what Alex had done.
Before Runi I recorded two other dogs: special thanks to Bossi and her dog owner Maike and to Katerina and her dog Charlie.
The voice actors are a mixture of amateurs and professionals, just as I was. My mind was not focused on perfection but on specialness. I wanted each one to put their own personality in there as well. I searched for the voice of George Martin first and was lucky that the first person I asked had the right person to hand - Megan Hadgraft got me the number of Marcus Haynes. I sent him two short quotes of George Martin, which he recorded for me on Whatsapp:
I asked Megan again if she knew anyone who could speak John Lennon and she said, “yes, my brother.” He is living in Australia, but I sent him quotes of John Lennon and Ringo anyway. It turned out, he was hilarious. It wasn’t just his voice, he also made silly jokes and funny mistakes in the takes he recorded and sent over with no edit at all, just as John Lennon would have done. He acted as if he were the characters, and there is no better voice actor than that.
Megan Hadgraft spoke the role of Delia Derbyshire with no experience in voice acting so far. For the role of Geoff Emerick I immediately thought of Niklas Dahlmann who I’d I met during a workshop on voice acting, who was not a native speaker though, but very passionate about voice acting.
Finding Paul McCartney and George Harrison was the final puzzle piece. I made a poster and ran around Berlin, hanging it everywhere. I got a message from Samuel Flannagan, who became the voice of Paul McCartney, and Billy Irving, who became the voice of George Harrison. Both were from England. Billy was the most experienced one, working as a puppeteer (he was actually just at a casting to play a dinosaur puppet for a kid’s show in England at the time we recorded).
I recorded the dialogues all at once in a circle of mics with all the Beatles speakers, George Martin and Geoff Emerick (only John Lennon was missing as he was in Australia). I thought it would be funny and sound more natural if we all spoke together as a group. It was so much fun playing with the silliness of the Beatles Universe.
Thanks to all of you, you made it all happen.
Special thanks to Fernand Kenzler, Retox Studios, for all the support, help and a wonderful studio environment as well as to Ingo Krauss from CandyBomber Studios for the recordings of the T9 Bandmaschine and diverse switches.
