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Author Topic: Recording Message James Kulaprathazhe Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Bronxville, New York Registered: May 2008 posted 06-08-2008 09:21 AM                     I noticed many theaters have recording messages (show time) problem that they speak faster, or different accent or not clear voice, pronunciation. Are there any special people we can hire for this? Or any other way (invention) digital or any software-that we can type in words by words and computer will answer in correct voice?  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-08-2008 11:42 AM                        Unfortunately the most common system(s) back in the day used cartridge type tapes that had pretty short lengths and most theatres do thier recording on thursday nights (fri mornings) before they leave for the night and are usually tired and worn out. For an example of a recording done right call this number (336) 226-1488 It's the Graham Theatre in Graham, North Carolina.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 06-08-2008 12:59 PM                        quote: James Kulaprathazhe Are there any special people we can hire for this? Or any other way (invention) digital or any software-that we can type in words by words and computer will answer in correct voice? Yes to both... it's all a matter of money. You can certainly hire a voiceover professional, or maybe an announcer from a local radio station. My question though, is why would you want to? IMO, the vast majority of your customers already know you exist, and are only calling to find out what's playing tonight. These days, additional detail only ties up phone lines. We have some theatres around here that read an entire synopsis about each show they have... auuugh! A web site is perfect for that kind of stuff!  |  IP: Logged Michael Dolan Film Handler Posts: 77 From: Deerfield Beach, fl. Registered: May 2008 posted 06-08-2008 06:30 PM                        WE don't have a recording at our drive in. But we found that if we make a link in our website to have people give us thier email it works alot better and many of our customers love it. We get our customers email either from our website or collecting it while they are at the theater. from there we actual email everybody a weekly line up on wed. between 4-5pm. The line up also shows the new movies we are getting sometimes aweek in advance. at the same time we attach some coupons and some advertisements. Our customers really have commented that they love it. and its great advertisment too. and you never have to wait on a phone line. Give it a try. We started this in March with no emails and now we are up to 986. and our town population is only around 2,000  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-08-2008 06:32 PM                        There is a website online which demos one of these web programs which features an animated avatar (a cartoon image) which has eye movement that follows your cursor. You can type in text and this animated thing will speak it, moving its mouth in sync with the speech. There is any number of different voices you can choose -- male, female, English accent male, and female, etc. The purpose of this site is to get you to buy this module to put into your website and have it speak to your visitors. Nice gimmic, but the thing is, you can easily use it to speak your telephone announcement message. The female voice is very natural and you can make it say anything you want. Of course all the guys around the office were making this female say the most obscene things about our boss (men will always be children when it comes to stuff like that). There is also allot of specific software out there that will do the same thing as well: NaturalSoft - Text-to-Speech and AT&T Labs, Inc Research Put some text (limited amount in these demos)into the demo and you'll be surprised at how natural they've gotten these text-to-speech programs to sound. Only occasionally they have the digital glitchy sound, but by spelling words phonetically you can smooth out much of the rough spots. But they again, why would anyone need to go through all that trouble -- surely in even the most humble operation they can find SOMEONE who can read and speak English! Isn't this taught in school -- isn't it the native language for most people? Just seek out the individual who has a decent enough command of the English language so they can be clearly understood and let them read the Movie Schedule. All of the above demo links do have a limited amount of text you can put in at once. If you don't have the budget to buy the full programs (NaturalSpeech is 50 bucks), then you can patch paragraphs together in any free audio editor. If anyone is interested, when I get back to the office I'll see if I can find the website avatar program link. I believe it allows more text entry than the other two above. And the female voice is very natural sounding in it. Thing is, because it is not just a text-to-speech program but has that animation thing going on, which I am sure is very sophisticated getting it to lip-sync with the voice, it probably costs a bundle.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 06-08-2008 07:37 PM                     What does it take to get a theater express code with Fandango for their 1-800-FANDANGO service?  |  IP: Logged Thomas Pitt Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: May 2007 posted 06-09-2008 01:37 AM                     Since it's rather expensive to hire a professional announcer to read out things for the recorded messages, most cinemas just have one of the members of staff (the one with the clearest voice) doing the recording. Many use a computerized system where once you've done the initial recording, you only have to record the names of the latest movies, and enter the showtimes on a computer. Everything else is done with samples played back from the computer. If it's a huge cinema chain, they may be able to afford a professional announcer to record everything for their centralized booking line. VUE cinemas in the UK do that; they have one central line that allows you to get showtimes and film information for every VUE site in the UK, as well as booking the films over the phone. The VUE line even uses speech recognition techniques to get basic information before putting you through to the relevant cinema booking line! But I haven't had very good experiences with the voice recognition system: "Please say the location of the cinema you wish to book at." Me: "Sheffield." "Dronfield - is this correct? Please say Yes or No." Me: "No." "Now booking at cinemas in the Dronfield area..."  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-09-2008 02:20 AM                        Unfortunately we are not big enough to justify an expensive system, but we do have a 4 line digital system. The system has enough memory that I can make a 5 minute recording which gives me plenty of time to take my time and not rush it. One of the biggest issues is you want to answer many of the most common questions so that you don't receive as many calls to the cinema, but doing so causes the recording to be extra long. What I try to do is just tease things like Friday openings at the beginning and then give full info toward the end. I also list our web site first. I used to record the message on the computer and then output it to the machine. I would do it in pieces so I only had to actually do the new showtimes and ratings info each week. This also allowed me to do the recording at a time when I was more fresh and made it so I didn't have to talk for 4 minutes straight without making a mistake. Now I will sometimes use one of the digital voice recorders so I can make the recording at a more convenient time.  |  IP: Logged James Kulaprathazhe Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Bronxville, New York Registered: May 2008 posted 06-09-2008 08:01 AM                     Justin: "....I used to record the message on the computer and then output it to the machine. I would do it in pieces so I only had to actually do the new showtimes and ratings info each week...." How you do this in computer? Do you have any special software?  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-09-2008 09:23 AM                        I used Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio. I would record the message in a number of little pieces - making a separate file for each. Then I would select-copy-paste each of those and drop them onto a new file in order to create the full message. That way I only had to change several pieces each week. For example •Intro - this stays the same •Starting Friday tease - recorded each week •Showtimes - recorded each week •Prices - stays the same •Pass restrictions - recorded each week •Additional info (no CC, Hollywood Movie Money accepted, sound formates, etc) - stays the same •Starts Friday movies/times - recored each week •Ratings info - recorded each week •Closing - stays the same This way I never had to record more than about a 90 second bit at one go. After assembling the full message, I would apply Process>Volume to get the volume level right.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 06-09-2008 10:11 AM                     One of the theaters I'm associated with is in a neighborhood with a lot of older residents who are loyal movie-goers but who lack computers. Suggesting to them that they visit the theater's website brings blank stares or a lecture on the evoloution of progress. That theater has adapted a small voicemail system box, made by Panasonic. It's a solid state thingy about the size of a cigar box which is mounted on the wall in a store-room and is set up as an announcement-only device which has a simple menu tree to allow users to select what specific info they are looking for without having to listen to a very lengthy message. Something like- "Press 1 for showtimes; Press 2 for ticket prices; Press 3 for parking and public transit info; Press 4 for handicapped access info" -etc It works for us.  |  IP: Logged Sean McKinnon Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1712 From: Peabody Massachusetts Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-09-2008 10:39 AM                        When I was a youngin I worked for a dollar theatre in Salem, Ma. I started doing the recording there. We had the machine (I forget the model) but its the real common one with the small beige one with cartridge tapes and a digital counter. It can take like 2 or 3 phone lines and has a green button on it and a counter reset button, if you dont use all the tape and it has to fast foward it it plays this awful electronic song. Anyways we only had real short tapes so I would put on my best over board top 40 radio dj voice and run through it at least three times before I got it to fit. Anyways the owner of the theatre heard it and was so impressed he demanded that I work every thursday so I could do the recording and was even thinking of having me record the messages for the other 5 theatres he owned. There was no good way to get the tapes out to the other locations though so that got scrapped.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-09-2008 12:07 PM                        Sean, you're talking about a Takacom (or Takachiho) system. They have new ones that are digital and give you like 5 minutes. What's really nice about the digital systems is each caller starts at the beginning of the message rather than jumping in at the middle and then repeating.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 06-09-2008 04:02 PM                       This is one of my pet peeves. The kid making the recording talks just like he or she does when they answer the phone: very unenthusiastic and lip-lazy. They absolutely cannot enunciate. Further, they sound like they want to get it over with quick and go home, which makes it worse. Consequently, the recordings are useless. A typical one here sounds like: (very fast) Thank you for calling the zubba-zubba zub. Our bleet bak bau zubba zoo, if thank kornic zuba-zub. Feature andid blat zornit blazza zab... I always hang up at that point because I'm not even gonna get the office phone number through all of that drivel.  |  IP: Logged James Kulaprathazhe Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Bronxville, New York Registered: May 2008 posted 06-09-2008 07:31 PM                     Frank: Can you post this information. It is very intersting. "....If anyone is interested, when I get back to the office I'll see if I can find the website avatar program link. I believe it allows more text entry than the other two above. And the female voice is very natural sounding in it. Thing is, because it is not just a text-to-speech program but has that animation thing going on, which I am sure is very sophisticated getting it to lip-sync with the voice, it probably costs a bundle.'...'" Thanks  |  IP: Logged

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