Jack Of Arts

March 23, 2012 – Friday 7 am – South Ouigab – Caluz Records

Richard Caluz, the owner of the recording studio is currently very happy. After a year of his studio in business, this is the first time he is about to make a lot of money from it. The man that made him happy is also the last man he was expecting.

"Hey Kid. Who would have thought that it would not be me who will need your services, but the other way around?" Richard said to Tayaw. "Well. True. And. To be honest? I would never have played for you anyway." Tayaw replied.

"HA! I like the honesty!" Richard scoffed. Last year, when Tayaw was still playing at the ROH Factory, Richard, along with his two professor friends approached Tayaw. Richard approached Tayaw to hire as a session musician; the two professor friends offered Tayaw some school benefits.

The previous night, Tayaw contacted Richard about renting the recording studio. Happy with the price that Tayaw offered, Richard went along with Tayaw's preference of having a talk at this hour in the morning.

"Anyway. What would you need my studio for? And for quite a long time at that?" Richard asked in curiosity. Tayaw just paid him 100000 BGC to rent his studio for a month maximum. Tayaw not only rented the studio's equipment, but also some privileges. Richard and his employees, until the day Tayaw finishes with his work in the studio, would not be allowed to take a look at Tayaw's work.

"It's a secret for now. Anyway. Can I start today? Take a break." Tayaw said to Richard. "Wow. You're in a hurry, huh. Alright. Be careful with the equipment, alright?" Richard replied. "I will. I'm a musician. I know how to value equipment." Tayaw assured him. "Okay. Call me if you need anything." Richard nodded and hopped on his car and went wherever he wanted to go.

Tayaw's purpose of renting Richard's studio is to record the English dub for 'September Ninth'. In case his film gets picked by a big film distributor, Tayaw would not want them to do the dubbing. After all, his film's dialogue is special and the theatric style of voice acting in his world doesn't quite fit.

This is why he also hired broadcasting students from USA and Teungeb. The voice actors he hired from Teungeb are good English speakers too. He recruited them by posting online on different forums of different universities and colleges his need of voice talent. Among those who submitted their voice recordings, he filtered out the ones that suited the characters in the film the best.

Tayaw was also very lucky to find two students whose voices and inflections sounded the same. They will be dubbing Steven's parts, and Tayaw already chose how the two students will divide the lines.

After making sure that Richard really left the studio, Tayaw started familiarizing himself with the equipment of the studio. He also brought out his laptop and his projector where he will play the scenes that the voice actors will watch to match their dubbing.

Speaking of the voice actors, he booked them some cheap but clean and comfortable house in South Ouigab itself. The voice actors, all ten of them, already arrived in South Ouigab the day before and are just waiting for Tayaw to call them and where to go. Tayaw already paid them their first third of their contracted salary and they did not want to run away with the money.

The remaining two thirds of their salary that Tayaw promised will serve as their motivation. After all, the money Tayaw will be paying them will be enough for them to live on comfortably for two or three months. If they keep living on a student's expenses, they can stretch out what they will earn to up to half a year.

Regarding the English version of the dialogues, Tayaw already wrote them up while the Percussive Corrections was recording the soundtrack. It is also close to the English subtitles he wrote. The only difference is that the dialogue to be used in the dubbing will be better synced with the lips of the movie's characters.

Tayaw then called one of the Teungebian voice actors he hired. "Gather them. Come to this address. Let's start recording." Tayaw said.

-

A few hours later - Ironstone, East Ouigab

The members of the Percussive Corrections all arrived to Tayaw's house after they were done with their classes. "Hey guys. What's up with Tayaw? He disappeared again. We haven't seen him for days now." Ramil asked the band after he took out an 8-can pack of soda from the fridge and unpacked it on the kitchen table.

"I texted him yesterday, he told me that he will start working on the English dubbing of his film." Jenna replied and received the can of soda Ramil passed her. "English dub? OH! I want to do it!" Ike said, after overhearing Jenna. "Are you honestly saying that you can speak English? Or pronounce it properly at least?" Jenna replied rolling her eyes.

"What's with the attitude? Can you speak fluent English? Pshh." Ike also rolled his eyes back at Jenna as he picked up a can of soda from the kitchen table. "Well. I'm not the one who wants to dub the movie." Jenna replied and drank a good gulp of soda. Bay-an, being Jenna's best friend in the band, noticed something strange with Jenna. After thinking for a moment, he spoke out.

"Jenna. Are you sure you didn't ask Tayaw to dub?" Bay-an asked, smirking. "Huh? N-no.." Jenna replied, obviously lying. "Yep. Tayaw blew her off." Ike said smugly. "Fine! Whatever. I'm still better at English than you!" Jenna said to Ike. "Ohh. Okay, cowboy. I surrender." Ike said as he retreated to his room, giggling, and his can of soda on his hand.

"Anyway. How is the songwriting thing going, man?" Ramil asked Bay-an. "It's f.u.c.kin tough. Since January, I've already written what.. 7 songs? If we didn't record for Tayaw, maybe even more." Bay-an replied. "Isn't that still good? You made 7 songs." Jenna asked. "Not a single one of them is any good, though." Bay-an shook his head.

"Really? I thought that one you had us listen to sounded good?" Ramil asked, confused at Bay-an's expression. "Well. It's alright. But if I compared to Tayaw's songs I still have a long way to go." Bay-an replied. Ramil and Jenna finally understood, but rolled their eyes anyway.

"It's Tayaw we're talking about here. Duh." Jenna said. "True. And! He's basically your teacher, right? You only started writing for two months. Two months man! There's no way you can catch up to Tayaw who's been making songs since who knows when." Ramil said.

Considering Ramil's words, Bay-an suddenly felt embarrassed. "You're right. What was I thinking comparing myself. Hahahaha." Bay-an said, feeling better about his songs. "I'll have you listen to them later." Bay-an said and picked up a soda from the kitchen table.

"Hey you two. Are you really fine drinking something cold? Don't you have vocal lessons later?" Hoon, who popped out of nowhere, asked Jenna and Ramil. "Oh. I'll be fine. I'm singing rock. Jenna on the other hand…" Ramil deflected Hoon's question to Jenna.

Hoon then looked at Jenna with a cold eye. Jenna, looking at Hoon's eyes, felt intimidated. Even though Hoon looked at Jenna coldly, Jenna knows that Hoon, for some reason, is just being protective of her.

"I-it's for you. Here." Jenna said as she offered her half full soda can to Hoon. Jenna didn't dare quip back as her snarky comments don't work with Hoon. Hoon would always brush her comments aside or analyze them to her annoyance and embarrassment. "Thank you Jenna. What were you guys talking about?" Hoon, to Jenna's relief left her alone.

"We were talking about my songs." Bay-an said. "Oh… Yeah." Hoon said mysteriously, which Bay-an nodded at. "Huh? What does that mean?" Ramil said, obviously missing something. "Well. Hoon is probably frustrated as well with his songs. Same with Inson." Bay-an said.

"Hmm. Well, Bay-an already played us his song once. It sounded good. Can you play your songs too?" Jenna asked. Hoon then looked at Jenna and raised the soda can Jenna gave him. "Why did you give me a half-filled can?" Hoon said, which made Jenna want to retreat again.

"Here. It's warm now. Give me a new can." Hoon said as he passed back the can to Jenna. Jenna could only take it and hand Hoon a can of soda. "I'll play it for you guys later. I'll ask Inson too to show you his songs."

"Where's Inson, by the way?" Jenna asked. "He's in his room. Listen." Hoon said. The four stayed silent for a moment until they heard a faint sound of an acoustic guitar being strummed coming from Inson's room. "Yep. He's written more songs than me." Bay-an said. "Same here." Hoon also said.

"Why don't you share with us? You always hear us three singing, and you guys just keep hiding your songs." Ramil said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Hey. We're just not that confident sharing, okay? I would have you guys listen to my songs eventually once I polished them." Hoon said he opened his soda.

"Hey Hoon. Why don't we just show them all of our songs now? Ask for their feedback? Maybe it will help." Bay-an suggested. "You're right. Maybe we can make a song better than Inson's." Hoon chuckled, accepting Bay-an's suggestion. "What? Inson wrote better songs than you?" Jenna could not help but say in surprise as Inson wasn't that active when the band was arranging songs.

"What's to be surprised about? Inson wasn't that active in our arrangements, yes, but when he adds something, they're always good. Remember?" Bay-an said. His words enlightening Ramil and Jenna.