WEDNESDAY

We resume work early, another cloudy day. The fake smoke smothers the surface of the faux swamp, making a horrible odor, but a lovely scene. Rays of morning light criss-cross a moody, bayou tableau.

After the new ritual of triple-adhesive to stabilize my mustache, I’m ready for more adventures in the water.

Today, we have to cover a lot more action in the swamp.  Michel’s character, Rodrigo, requires special wound effects and a lot of fake blood. I have to help Samantha cauterize the wound in his shoulder using my pocket knife and an emergency flare retrieved from the wreckage.

One of the props team takes me to a dry area to teach me how to fire up the flare, but just when I’m about to try it, I’m needed on set, so I don’t actually have time to drill it on land.

I eventually get to fire up some flares in rehearsals, but the Maltese fellow charged with giving the instructions doesn’t express himself with a lot of accuracy, and I nearly burn myself with the red hot flare.  I had observed him doing it a couple times, and avoid any serious burn, but it was a near thing; the heat on my knuckle was a good warning.

We run that scene six or eight times without incident. It looks amazing.

Tonight I have double duty; I booked a voiceover job that will record after shooting is done for the day.

Luckily, the nine hour time difference with LA works in my favor and are were able to schedule a session for an animated film that I can do from my hotel room after work. I submitted a sample recording a few days earlier which was approved; I just used my laptop, an external mic (my AT2020) and a foam sphere that creates a nearly perfect “studio”(the indispensable Kaotica Eyeball.)

After a quick dinner I rush upstairs, take a fast hot bath and set up my make-shift recording studio. I use my iPad and laptop to do a Zoom call with production while simultaneously recording on GarageBand.

The mic is inside the “eyeball”,  propped on an upholstered chair for more sound deadening, and I  kneel on the floor. I’ve been kneeling all day, so it’s nothing new. I do put down a pillow after a while.

The session goes very well. It’s for a new animated movie of The Cat in the Hat, starring Bill Hader. I create four different characters for some small bits of additional dialogue, and the director and producer are pleased with my choices. I’m released after forty minutes. I can hear the hoarseness in my voice, but I manage to control it well enough and no one mentions it.  I know I’m pooped and am grateful that the session is so short. It’s been a demanding day.

I want to make sure the sound quality is up to broadcast quality, so I send the tracks off to them immediately, and wait a bit for their approval.

I stay up as long as I can, but after talking to Tamra on the phone I have to pass out and get ready for the next morning on the water.