There are many questions about minimizing the risk of coronavirus infection in audiovisual production. For us at Power of Babel, the most relevant one is: how do we record audio safely for our dubbing and voiceover projects? How do we minimize risk for our voice performers and audio engineer?
We started researching this months ago, because requests for dubbing and audio production didn’t stop when Toronto went into lockdown. Of course we’ve tried as much as possible to work with performers who have home studios. But with dubbing work, that’s not always possible.
So what’s the solution?
For us, it’s been relatively easy: we are lucky to be working with Marco Furgiuele’s 528 Recordings, a small studio in the basement of a private home, with its own entrance. The distance from the studio’s front door to the recording booth is about 10 feet. And once in the booth with the door closed, the performer is completely isolated.
So we figured we could make this space safe, and worked with Marco on a straightforward safety protocol:
All work surfaces in the booth are disinfected before and after each performer.
Performers each get a brand-new disposable mic cover, and are encouraged to bring their own headphones.
There is no one else in the studio except the engineer and sometimes the voice director.
And of course, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes are provided at all times.
After a few sessions, we decided we had to go further, and today we take even more precautions:
We leave an hour between sessions, which gives us time to ventilate the booth.
The studio acquired a Winix PlasmaWave air purifier, with a true HEPA filter, which, among other things, traps airborne droplets.
I looked up the recommendations for best practices at voice studios published by ACTRA Toronto and SAG-AFTRA, and was happy to see that we are 100% on the same page about performer safety.
So if you need dubbing or voiceover production in any language, please get in touch. We take safety seriously, and we’ll get it done right.
