Work Experience: Talking Issues

About Talking Issues

‘Established in 2006, Talking Issues revolutionised spoken word audio download by producing and offering the first ever word for word audio download of the worlds leading business newspaper - The Economist.’

So far, I have spent two days at talking issues in Bath. (And I think I’m going back this week)
Talking Issues is located at the Locksbrook Trading Estate in Bath. It’s a very small company but professional nonetheless. They have three studios and editing suites to manipulate the recorded material. They have photos on the wall from some of the celebrities that have lent their voices to various projects. (Mine’s going up next week) There is a cute little green room as well.

Lesley (My lecturer) managed to set up this work experience for me by suggesting I go audition for a part in one of their productions. After communicating via e-mail with Julia (a producer at TI) I went along not quite knowing what to expect. I assumed I would audition for the role (a middle eastern man) and then be told whether or not I got it. It turned out that I pretty much went straight into the studio and recorded the voice. I was nervous at first I’d like to think obviously, then I felt more comfortable as I went on. There was another producer (Sue) who was very nice to me and reassured me that I was doing ok.

I spent about an hour in the studio and it take quite a few takes for me to get comfortable with the lines and the accent. On a separate occasion I provided American, Australian and UK accents and I believe I am due back just before I go back to London to provide one more set of voices.

I’m not especially interested in the sound side of production, however, as a career, voiceover is certainly appealing. I enjoy performing and I’ve always thought that being the voice of a cartoon character could be cool. It’s certainly something I’d look into and talking issues gave me a great credit towards my CV.