To be a part of the film industry means that the biggest part of your job description will be anxious uncertainty. You are never certain if you will be hired, and even if you land a job, you might not get another one.
Carol Solomon (Lake Bell), an underachieving vocal coach, remains in a constant state of anxious uncertainty. Under the constant dismissal of her famous voice artist father, Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed), Carol struggles with her work because of his arrogant shadow.
He and his protégé, Gustav Warner (Ken Marino), an uprising and equally arrogant voice artist, try out to be the voiceover for the trailer of an upcoming film series, “The Amazon Games.” Carol throws herself in deep water as she competes with her father and Gustav to be the first voice artist to re-emerge the famous Don Lafontaine voice over, “In a World…”
Written, directed, and produced by its lead actress Lake Bell, “In a World…” won 2013 Sundance Film Festival “Best Screenplay” as well as 2013 Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards “Breakthrough Movie of the Year.” I account this to Lake Bell’s abilty to write a realistic perspective of the hardship of searching for a voiceover job as a woman.
It’s true that the film industry makes it hard for anyone who chooses to pursue a career in it. However, for a woman, to seek out a film industry occupation also means to be taken seriously in that profession. Whether it’s because of our supposedly ‘soft’ or (dare I say it) ‘feminine’ nature, it becomes a test of strength for women to compete for the same role as a man.
Curious about the voice artist side of the industry, I tried looking up trailers with woman voiceovers. Most of the deemed ‘popular’ woman voice-over trailers were for movies categorized with two words that every woman of film industry cringes at: Chick Flick. It was the Romantic Comedy films which were considered too ‘soft’ for a deep, masculine, male voice to advertise on the big screen.
In this portrayal, Lake Bell manages not only to focus on the societal issues for the independent woman, but also on an occupation that the public tends to overlook in general.
“That’s not sexist, it’s just the truth…” says Fred Melamed’s character Sam Sotto. What happens when someone you care about says that to you? A person’s ideals and goals should never depend on their gender, race, or ethnicity.
Not only does Lake Bell focus on the public’s attention of a woman’s struggle of professional identity, she also sheds light onto a normally disregarded occupation. Most of the time, all the attention is focused onto the actors and actresses who star in the films, but what about the people behind the scenes? The individuals who polish the footage until it’s ready for the big screen?
Being the Director, as well as the writer, Lake Bell manages to bring a new perspective to the audience by showing what it truly means to be a woman in an equally important occupation in the film industry.