spikizi is a new app which gives performers thousands of authentic accents immediately, wherever they are, using the phone in their pocket. Almost every actor in the entertainment industry has had to quickly pick up an accent; for an audition, a showcase, an ad, a self-tape. Social media is littered with callouts for friends to read a few lines in a desired accent, whether they’re native or not. However, until now, a highly specific and on-demand database of accents was not available; the industry norm has been scouring youtube, apps with 1 male and 1 female voice for limited accents, or dialect coaches, for the very fortunate.
Extending the network and building a community across the world, spikizi will create an ever-growing database of voices and mutual support. This database is unique in its ability to be specific to the nearest neighbourhood, with searchable criteria including age, education, schooling, ethnicity – all aspects that are the building blocks to a person’s voice. Performers will be able to search for accents appropriate to their specific need – constructing the character’s voice with depth and pinpoint accuracy.
spikizi is supported by an incredible advisory board of accent experts ranging from Hollywood to The Globe, who have been a guiding hand in the development and will be sharing articles and video content regularly to help everyone further develop their skills. Performers will also be able to spend and earn additional ‘karma’ within the app community by seeking people with specific accents to read a passage of text, or by responding and recording themselves for others.
Upon joining the app actors will be asked to complete a detailed onboarding process about themselves to highlight their voice history, before moving on to recording a series of words, texts and passions that exemplify all the vowel and consonant sounds they naturally use. This will form the basis of their contribution to the community, adding their voice to the database. From there they can search, request and assist other members as well as create private, public or cast playlists all with the ability to download them and listen offline.
Once the database has reached 3000 people (there are already over a thousand signed up for advance previews), spikizi will begin to identify areas where more voices are needed and take road trips to source clips from local people, really deepening the diversity of the accents available and extending beyond the industry to make this resource truly exceptional.
Founders Henry Regan and Samuel Lawrence are the team behind spikizi. As actors, who also run a creative agency together, the duo was acutely aware of a gap in the market for access to affordable and reliable accent resources, and when dividends were available from the business they decided to reinvest profits into developing spikizi. Using their contacts and reaching out to others they put together a team that combines the best in app development and design with the leading voices in accent and dialect work they’ve created an app that both accurately and appropriately serves the acting community, without compromising the User Experience.
Henry & Samuel said, “We’ve got a team of some of the best designers, experts, developers and agencies in the world, all working together to make something truly invaluable for the creative industry. As actors ourselves, we know how incredibly unique and diverse the arts community is and so we were keenly aware that this app needed to reflect this. In order to truly commit to this community philosophy, we knew that we needed to keep the price incredibly affordable for it to be accessible to everyone.”
Actors can sign up for advance previews in December 2020 here: https://spikizi.co
Full app launches 1st January 2021
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