Back to the Booth: A Thread.

So... today I tested the waters and went back for my first in-studio session. I want to share my experience and talk about it because I know other VAs are reassessing their risk aversion all the time. Perhaps this will provide some anecdotal insight.

I confess to this; inhaling aspirated viral particles is by far my biggest fear. It also seems to be the most serious scientific threat for contracting COVID at this point in our understanding of it.

Sidenote: This why I’m a huge proponent of wearing masks in all indoor/public spaces. It’s the smallest act of courtesy for the greater good and according to the research, it could actually make a huge impact on the pandemic as a whole.

To clarify, this thread is not really about all work scenarios, but our unique work as VAs specifically. The very nature of voice over itself requires us to be unmasked and spew more droplets than normal conversation/breathing and all into a small, shared space.

ANYWAY, back to it. Here’s what went down. This was for a AAA videogame in a studio I know well. They were proactive in discussing safety pre-booking. What we agreed upon was 3+ hours between me and the actor before me (ended up being 5hrs) and full sanitization in-between.

They also included 30 minutes of UV light treatment in the recording space directly before my session. Only myself and the engineer were the only ones in the building (all clients/producers via zoom) and there was no in-house paperwork to sign. How did it go? Excellent.

I didn’t touch a single thing in the studio including the door, mic’d myself and was always socially distant. In fact I was never even in the same room as the engineer. I was in and out and it was like any other session pre-covid that just smelled a little more like disinfectant.

What does this mean? I don’t know yet. Is it a reasonable safety standard for all studios to meet? I think so. Is it a reasonable business model for them? Most likely not. Ultimately I think things will stay very much the same for a while.

Perhaps the studios will do more of a mish mash of in-house recording and remote engineering to fill their days. And that’s okay for now. Until this is truly over, things won’t be as enjoyable as they were when we could head to the studio worry free, but we’ll get by.

Whatever you decide, don’t be ashamed if you want to stay home OR go in. Just do your very best to be as safe as possible within you own limits. Not only for yourself, but for your loved ones and our VO community. I won’t lie, it was nice to be back... but I can live without it.