More on voices

I was listening to This American Life Saturday with a story by Welsh writer/journalist/humorist Jon Ronson reading from his book about the Psychopath Test (I’ve heard it before – it first aired a year ago) and I was captivated by his voice. I didn’t recognize the accent, and had to look him up, to make sure I knew who was actually reading. (Turns out he’s the guy who also wrote Men Who Stare at Goats.) There’s a devious but anxious/wincing tone to it – although that might have to do with the subject matter: interviewing someone he thought might be a psychopath! Great voice!  I’m still not sure how I want the voices to work in the film – narrator, farmers giving depositions…  I should try to firm up the script this week so I can go collect some voices again, but this time, I think I’ll try to direct the people a little more – there was such a wonderful quality in Ronson’s voice that added so much to what he was reading, it may not matter as much about WHAT they say, but HOW they say it.  I will probably have much shorter things for them to say, besides, so I can have them read the lines with different inflections.

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