“The pandemic has seen a huge surge in audiobooks and generally speaking, people find it hard to find the time to read and in terms of focus, audiobooks are more accessible so a lot of people have turned to them”, said Collette.

Colette is expanding her services and is calling local authors who are interested in getting their work published in audiobook format, as this is something, she would be able to greatly help with. In addition to audiobooks, Colette would also like to offer her services to hotels and tourism establishments if they are in need of any voice over for marketing purposes online as she is experienced in commercial work.

When speaking to Colette, what was most striking was her undeniable expertise in the world of Audiobooks. Trained as a professional actress and in musical theatre, the first voice over job that Colette did was for National Geographic discovery. Audio books have happened over the last couple of years but before that she did ADR automatic dialogue replacement, which is basically in blockbuster films group scenes when they don’t use the sound recorded at the time of filming and they reach out to professional actors to re-record the background. Recently in terms of ADR, Colette has done the Elton John film Rocketman and The Gentleman. Other works include “The Windermere Children - BBC Films, Watchdogs 3 - Ubisoft, Sound on Screen and Hope Island – Audible, published by WF Howes”.

She grew up in the Lake District so she is often contacted for her Cumbrian accent. Audiobooks she started doing for a company called WF Howes in England and now she is in Portugal, she is hoping to expand her services to authors.

Furthermore, Colette has the most incredible place to be creative as her studio is in a traditional windmill, north of São Marcos. The setting is really beautiful and her studio is sound treated with thick and insulated walls, making it the perfect place to do her recordings. Colette says she fell in love with the property which ultimately was the reason why they moved over here but she says the Algarve has such an accepting and friendly community so she really wants to be an active voice over professional here. She bought the Windmill home a couple years ago but she has made the permanent move in the last sixth months. What she has also found is that her voice over service also can provide commercial jobs and most positively her job is not Covid affected as she is able to work from her studio.

Before coming to Portugal, Colette was teaching and directing a production in the UK but unfortunately the pandemic caused theatres and schools to shut down. Colette was already part of some author groups in the UK and one of the things she offers is if they want to hear their work off the page she can make that happen. She has worked with author Patricia Dixon who was over the moon with the job that Colette did.

Currently she works with audio authors and the company ACX which is a service for voice overs. Most recently she has been in the studio working on an advert for a Hotel in the Lake District to encourage people to go over when it is possible and she has also been working on two commercial campaigns for an architect based here in Portugal.

If you are in need of a voice over professional or you are a local author who is interested in having your work recorded in audio format, please contact Colette on 968048520 or alternatively her email address is info@coletteredgrave.co.uk. For additional information please see her website at https://www.redgravevoice.com.

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes