There is an actress who is interested in doing a script I want to produce/direct, and she does a good job, what I have seen, acting wise.

However, even though she is good at acting out in emotion, and playing a character her voice unfortunately, does sound very I guess you could say...Fran Drescher-ish, even more so.

I read how for the movie Haywire, how Gina Carano's voice was altered as she put it, and if you watch the movie, it sounds very convincingly altered.

So I am wondering if I could do the same since good actors can be hard to find, and if it's just one thing you want to change, maybe it's worth it. But how would I go about doing this, like they did for Haywire?

I looked it up. As far as I can tell no one actually says HOW it was done... there’s speculation that it was completely redubbed by a different actress, or that they rerecorded Gina in a studio and dubbed it in and changed pitch or whatever else, but no one seems to KNOW (or be willing to say).

Anyway I dont see how you can get rid of an accent (if thats what you mean by Fran Drescherish) or a nasal quality with filters or whatever youre thinking. If there is a way, and this is for a major role in a feature length project, youre probably be looking at a syllable by syllable operation for every word. That is pretty insane, especially considering in real funded films they have a person or several people who exclusively work on this stuff, and youre probably going to try to do it yourself in addition to your myriad other roles.

Oh okay. It's not an accent I meant that's the problem, just a real nasal quality. I tried changing the pitch in her audition recording as a test, but it sounds unnatural though when I do that.

I mean, how much work are you willing to put into this idea? My years of recording and (attempting to) mix my own stuff have taught me there are certain things that are essentially baked into recorded sounds, and IF they can be altered, it's an insane amount of work and the result will sound heavily compromised.

Oh well in Haywire though, it doesn't sound compromised at all. It sounds completely natural with no problems.

As to how much time to spend it well that totally depends on what they did. But whatever they did, worked it seems though, so I thought I had a shot therefore.

I tried a couple of tests, at different pitch levels just as a start. Do these voice tests sound bad or too unnatural at all?

voice test 2 - YouTube

You've told us a few times that audio is not your thing at all, so while it could be possible to do this, it's sheer folly. You don't have access to cheap studio time do you? Think how long it will take and cost, AND you need to make sure none of the dialogue overlaps or cut offs otherwise you need to rerecord the other person too. You want the actress because she looks good? Or cheap? Or available? What attributes does she have you find essential? If her voice is out, that's probably 70% of her whole in acting terms.

I've spent some time trying out ADR recently now my equipment can do it and it's nowhere near as simple to do as it appears to make it believeable. You need to record in a studio with. Dry good acoustics if you want to match every scene you shoot. The audio perspective is critical, and the room sound in mine is nowhere near good enough for a convincing medium to wide shot, mic distance wise. You will have real sound for one actor but need to recreate that for your problem actress.

Do not use her, getting a new one will be far easier and keep e wage bill down. Can you afford and extra actress, let alone hours of studio time at a good sounding studio.

What on earth is happening in that clip? I hope that's not the after version? Sounds like a robot

Its called Auto-Tune. You should try it.

https://youtu.be/i09V6SkVkz8

You've told us a few times that audio is not your thing at all, so while it could be possible to do this, it's sheer folly. Youndontbhave access to cheap studio time do you? Think how long it will take and cost, AND you need to make sure none of the dialogue overlaps or cut offs otherwise you need to rerecord the other person too. You want the actress because she looks good? Or cheap? Or available? What attributes does she have you find essential? If her voice is out, that's probably 70% of her whole in acting terms.

I've spent some time trying out ADR recently now my equipment can do it and it's nowhere near as simple to do as it appears to make it believeable. You need to record in a studio with. Dry good acoustics if you want to match every scene you shoot. The audio perspective is critical, and the room sound in mine is nowhere near good enough for a convincing medium to wide shot, mic distance wise. You will have real sound for one actor but need to recreate that for your problem actress.

Do not use her, getting a new one will be far easier and keep e wage bill down. Can you afford and extra actress, let alone hours of studio time at a good sounding studio.

What on earth is happening in that clip? I hope that's not the after version? Sounds like a robot

Oh I want the actress cause I felt her acting was good in what I've seen and she is really interested in the script, that is why.

As for what is happening in the clip, I tried changing the pitch in her voice, that's all.

So 50% of her acting is great! It's like that old movie where talking movies come along and the silent movie queen's voice is just horrid.

Sometimes unusual vocal timbre can be an asset. In a comedy for instance. In a drama, it's just a diversion. The audience start to look forward to the next line to see how it gets mangled. My local BBC station has a nice girl who has a very strange voice when she reads autocue. If you see her do a live report on location, her voice is nice and normal, but in the studio, she's a nightmare. Reads the wrong words, and has awful intonation - usually at the end of sentences, the last word or syllable goes down, but her's goes up - and every number gets enunciated really oddly and loudly. As in "Every TWENTY minutes, ONE THOUSAND - TWO HUNDRED and SIXTY boxes of chocolates are produced by the TWO factories near Norwich" Just odd. Do not take on an actor with 50% of their artistic output compromised. Is she cheap - cheap enough to pay for the studio time, and the success of course far from guaranteed.

ADR! .. Of course that generally requires skills by the ADR VO actor and the audio post folks. There are quite a few movies where <i>most</i> of the dialog is ADR. The most infamous probably being Sergio Leone's 'spaghetti westerns' w/ Eastwood.

Trouble is in low budget production, the cheapest solution is to choose the best actors, not try to fix their performance in post. Crazy to need to dub every line not because of location noise or technical faults, but just because they have rotten voice! To be honest, if an actor has a terrible voice, they could be in the wrong career.

Okay thanks. Well maybe im being too hard on her voice then. Do you think it sounds ok enough and i should just use her normal voice then?

How would we know? Is that her voice in your pitch tests?

Okay thanks. Well maybe im being too hard on her voice then. Do you think it sounds ok enough and i should just use her normal voice then?

Without hearing it, that's still a "yes" from me. To me your pitch altered version sounds like a man trying to sound like a woman. Whether to try ADR might depend on how much dialog you're dealing with.
Edit: you might want to have a look at the automatic ADR panel in Resolve.

Okay, here's her original voice, in the clip. It's the first voice you hear, the second is altered:

voice test - YouTube

Should I just accept the first voice for what it is then and not change it if I go with her?

Totally fine, go with.

It really depends on the character she's playing how acceptable the altered voice is. However, I wouldn't cast her for a major part, perhaps a small part in one scene or two scenes.

Alternately, you could get her to come in again and try to play the part differently to see if the voice changes. It's generally a good idea to do this anyway at an audition to see if they can take direction.

Just being a good actor isn't the reason to cast someone. it's if they're right for this particular role in the film as you're telling it. They may not even be the better actor overall in career terms, but for this part they're bringing something extra that the others aren't, so, in this case, they are the right one for the character. In doing this, everything is important.


.

Oh okay thanks. Are you saying that you would only cast in her in a small part because of the voice though?

I talked to her about it, and she said she was nervous which is why her voice sounded higher than usual perhaps, and she can try to work on it.

Having been involved with hundreds of auditions over the years - you are totally missing the point. It is NOT a personal thing, it's business. If you want a friend to be in your project because you like them and want them to be in it, then you overlook their deficiencies. If you are auditioning actors, singers and dancers - something I hate doing, but have to every year, then you develop blinkers and prejudices. You see people you have worked with before. You have either labelled them mentally as good to have in the production, or a pain. That makes the decision easy. For strangers, it's down to you gut reaction and skills. You must not think about the benefit to them, but to you.

Here comes the unspoken problem. In today's society, some prejudices are now just plain bad, and some illegal. However, others are VERY relevant, but probably best kept to yourself.

I'll share a few rejections - people who were determined to not be suitable - and this is not their acting, singing or dance ability - that's a separate 'test', with different criteria.

Rejections for being:
Too old
Too young
Too pretty
Too ugly
Ginger
Wrinkly
Spotty
Too short
Too tall
Too thin
Too fat
Voice too high
Voice too low
Voice just not nice to listen to
Voice annoying
Can't sing
Can't dance
Can't act
Abrasive personality
Horrible big nose
Warts
Tattoos
No eyebrows
knobbly knees
huge feet
horrible legs
huge arm muscles
huge chest and no neck
bad teeth
sticky out ears
nose studs or piercings

Probably plenty more if I had a think.

All these just make them unsuitable and nobody would dream of revealing you didn't give the job to somebody because they were ginger! Good it's in the head and the panel, if there is one are all on the same level.

It's your movie - why would you take somebody who won't fit normal clothes used as costume, who needs an hour in makeup, or needs expensive wigs. Why consider somebody with a strange voice. The fact we're even having this discussion screams you want her and want us to agree, and frankly, actors are ten a penny. If you want a pretty girl in a role, would you seriously consider somebody older, less pretty, with a dodgy voice, who needs serious makeup and wig skills to make look younger and attractive? you'd just find somebody who looked like that without all the effort. If you want a Superman character, then somebody with muscles who fills the costume is your first thought. You wouldn't consider somebody who was skinny and weedy and then tell them to go to the gym for six months. Auditioning for cast is not pleasant, but it's a skilled job. With HD and 4K, every little skin blemish is visible in closeups. Can your makeup people handle HD airbrushes? Will your lenses make their cheeks look like the surface of the moon - can your lighting people soften the lights enough to make their complexion good?

You need to look, listen and decide if they are suitable. Starting with somebody who already has been identified as having a strange voice seems a question that doesn't need asking. Funny voices and all the above 'defects' don't stop actors working. Think about all the old, fat, ugly people in movie roles - they're often very busy actors, but they don't get cast in the leading roles, do they?

On the basis of current information, I personally would only cast her in a small, character part.

You need to know her voice won't prove to be a distraction, so it needs to be demonstrated during another audition. Casting her on the basis she's going to "work on it" isn't the way to go, it needs to be solved before she's cast. It may as simple as her delivery being changed.

Having been involved with hundreds of auditions over the years - you are totally missing the point. It is NOT a personal thing, it's business. If you want a friend to be in your project because you like them and want them to be in it, then you overlook their deficiencies. If you are auditioning actors, singers and dancers - something I hate doing, but have to every year, then you develop blinkers and prejudices. You see people you have worked with before. You have either labelled them mentally as good to have in the production, or a pain. That makes the decision easy. For strangers, it's down to you gut reaction and skills. You must not think about the benefit to them, but to you.

Here comes the unspoken problem. In today's society, some prejudices are now just plain bad, and some illegal. However, others are VERY relevant, but probably best kept to yourself.

I'll share a few rejections - people who were determined to not be suitable - and this is not their acting, singing or dance ability - that's a separate 'test', with different criteria.

Rejections for being:
Too old
Too young
Too pretty
Too ugly
Ginger
Wrinkly
Spotty
Too short
Too tall
Too thin
Too fat
Voice too high
Voice too low
Voice just not nice to listen to
Voice annoying
Can't sing
Can't dance
Can't act
Abrasive personality
Horrible big nose
Warts
Tattoos
No eyebrows
knobbly knees
huge feet
horrible legs
huge arm muscles
huge chest and no neck
bad teeth
sticky out ears
nose studs or piercings

Probably plenty more if I had a think.

All these just make them unsuitable and nobody would dream of revealing you didn't give the job to somebody because they were ginger! Good it's in the head and the panel, if there is one are all on the same level.

It's your movie - why would you take somebody who won't fit normal clothes used as costume, who needs an hour in makeup, or needs expensive wigs. Why consider somebody with a strange voice. The fact we're even having this discussion screams you want her and want us to agree, and frankly, actors are ten a penny. If you want a pretty girl in a role, would you seriously consider somebody older, less pretty, with a dodgy voice, who needs serious makeup and wig skills to make look younger and attractive? you'd just find somebody who looked like that without all the effort. If you want a Superman character, then somebody with muscles who fills the costume is your first thought. You wouldn't consider somebody who was skinny and weedy and then tell them to go to the gym for six months. Auditioning for cast is not pleasant, but it's a skilled job. With HD and 4K, every little skin blemish is visible in closeups. Can your makeup people handle HD airbrushes? Will your lenses make their cheeks look like the surface of the moon - can your lighting people soften the lights enough to make their complexion good?

You need to look, listen and decide if they are suitable. Starting with somebody who already has been identified as having a strange voice seems a question that doesn't need asking. Funny voices and all the above 'defects' don't stop actors working. Think about all the old, fat, ugly people in movie roles - they're often very busy actors, but they don't get cast in the leading roles, do they?

Oh well this actress is not really a friend I just met her, a few weeks ago, when working on someone else's project with her in.

But I liked her performance and audition for me so far. I thought maybe I am being to hard on the voice or too picky maybe, but will it be a distraction?

If you like her, that’s usually a good reason to give her the job, then wait 20 years and get slagged in the press! You’re the boss. If you like her voice, it’s fine.

I say Give her the part! Some of the best performances can be had off screen. (perks of being a casting director) ;-)

Oh no you didn’t