During my first year as a Production Manager, I had a project that was going to take less than a week to record. I cast it, scheduled it, got things going in the studio. But a couple of days in, things were finishing up earlier than expected. We weren’t making good time, we were making great time. I’d scheduled the actors and studio time based on line count estimates but it seemed everyone was flying along in session and we wrapped the actors early. Files went to post production. And I began to wonder.
I went back to the client’s original Excel-based script. And was hit by a realisation: there was a second tab in the spreadsheet. Every single actor had a set of Barks to do and I’d missed them. I hadn’t transferred them into the studio script document. Oh no.
Now, this was a few years before we had a script tracking document that might’ve caught it. Before we had a line count document that could’ve been compared to the client’s initial line count estimates. I’d taken the data from Worksheet one, put it into the template we used in-studio, which helped the engineer and director track what had been recorded and any line changes. I’d just missed Worksheet 2. Human error.
I had to bring every actor back in and pay them for another hour of recording, because even though they’d all finished early in their initial sessions, you can’t bring actors back in for free pickups. They come back in, you pay them for their minimum hourly fee. This of course resulted in additional costs the production company I worked for had to cover. Post production had to then crunch to stick to the original timeline. It wasn’t good. (This is for a standard UK studio-based session)
We made the delivery deadline and the client was delighted with the results. Files went into the game and we were wrapped. Phew. And I must mention that my managers were very understanding. I didn’t get into trouble. But I felt awful anyway and I never made a mistake like that again.
So, what did I learn that I can share with you for your recording session prep?
Cross-check data: try to find two sources of truth. In this case, I’d scheduled based on line count estimates (e.g. 50 dialogue lines and 20 barks per lead characters, 15 dialogue/50 barks per secondaries) provided to me by the client as the script was getting finalised. It was from these estimates that I knew the recordings were meant to take about 4 days. Once I’d transferred the script from the client’s spreadsheet to our in-house studio document, I should’ve double-checked it against the line count estimates. This would’ve likely raised the first red flag.
Reduce human error: one of the things a new Production team member did soon after joining us was figure out how to move data from spreadsheet to spreadsheet without cutting and pasting. She was in fact horrified to see how much searching, highlighting, cutting and pasting I did on the rather large Witcher II scripts. Thank goodness she built us a script management tool before Witcher III came along!
It’s the dirty truth that most game voiceover is still tracked, displayed, and QA’d using spreadsheets. It’s just a reliable way to move data from writer to dev producer to voice production manager to engineer and studio to post production.
The good news is that there are a lot of formulas that can help reduce the opportunities for human error. Simple commands for searching, copying and moving data that will prevent errors and make things more efficient. If you have someone who can build these into a tool with a bit of automation, even better.
If you’re working with a production company, ask about their script management tools. Many of the experienced teams now have really good bespoke programs that can handle script updates, tracking, and multiple inputs, as well as provide data to help with efficient scheduling which also helps with keeping costs under control.
Check in with humans: I’m assuming I checked in with the performance director when actors started to wrap early, but as they were working from the studio script I’d prepared, they would’ve thought everything was getting covered. But a more experienced director may have asked why an action game didn’t have any barks. The engineer may have done the same. Or if I’d chatted with one of my production colleagues, they may have asked to see the original client-prepared script sooner. When you’re new or in a junior position, it’s tempting to try to do everything yourself. You don’t want to show uncertainty. But a good team will create a safe space where everyone can question and help each other.
Take it on the chin and remedy ASAP: if a mistake is discovered, don’t try to hide it or waste time trying to fix it on your own. A recording session can rack up costs very quickly, so the sooner you can alert the studio team to the error, the quicker it can be remedied, even if it means just printing off a rough version of the script for them to work off manually while you fix the proper document.
Ask for help. I’ve never been very quick with formulas – I can’t hold them in my head and have had to look up my list of handy ones every time I’ve needed them. In an urgent situation, it’s better to ask an Excel whizz to fix things, especially as they may use something you’d forgotten even existed, and then get a refresher lesson from them when things have calmed down.
To err is human: As mentioned, my managers were kind to me that day, there was no reprimand or punishment. They trusted I’d learn from my mistake. Their compassion made a lasting impression, and I’d like to think I grew into an understanding manager myself. No one needs to be a pushover, but there are ways to course-correct without taking a colleague down in any way.
I started in VO production without ever having used Excel before. I now plan my holidays with them. I have a whole set built for my next trip to Finland. And you better believe I’m not going to miss the Shopping tab reminding me to buy some Fazer chocolate before I head home. But I might ask someone to remind me, just in case.
