Santa’s Apprentice – ADR

I was recently fortunate to be invited to participate in an ADR session for an animation feature, Santa’s Apprentice, currently in production by Flying Bark.

ADR (also known as looping or walla) is in this scenario, automated dialogue replacement (not alternative dispute resolution!) where dialogue is recorded for a pre-edited version of the animation. So I got to play various elves and produce general background noise with quite a bit of impromptu dialogue. I’ve always wanted to find my inner elf!

And what does walla mean? Apparently in the old days of broadcasting when the sound of a crowd was required in the background, if a group was recorded saying the words ‘walla, walla’ it produced a sound similar to that of a buzzing crowd, with indistinguishable words. Click here for more info.

Santa’s Apprentice, Flying Bark