I’ve just finished recording a voiceover for another on-line promo for TV channel HBO Netherlands. This time my voice-over is promoting the arrival of series three of Treme. It’s the TV drama that’s based on real life experiences of people in New Orleans struggling for survival after being caught up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Of special interest to viewers in the Netherlands is the presence of Dutch actor Michiel Huisman who plays street musician Sonny from Amsterdam.

I’ve done a number of voiceovers for this client – usually providing English versions of Dutch videos. Often there are pronunciation issues – especially with Dutch names for people, places and products. I remember doing one VO for the company that makes Dutch Gouda cheese – I was asked to try and pronounce the cheese name as the Dutch do.  It needs a kind of weird guttural “h” sound instead of a “g” sound.  I think it’s a sound we don’t normally make in English – so it’s hard to do.

Still with an authentic Dutch guy on the line to emulate, how difficult could it be? I had several goes at it and thought I was doing rather well.  However when the guys at the studio at the other end of the ISDN line had finished laughing over the talkback they told me to “stick with the English”. Hmmm.

Not surprisingly there were pronunciation issues in this voiceover too – though it wasn’t the name “Michiel Huisman” that gave me the problem – it was the name of the TV show itself! It’s a good job Michiel at Voxcast sent me a link to the Dutch version of the promo otherwise I’d not have known how to say “Treme” – initially I was thinking it would rhyme with “cream” but (of course!) it’s pronounced “trer may” – though this time the issue was to do with American pronunciation rather than the Dutch!

The voiceover for the Treme promo for HBO Netherlands is being produced by Voxcast