The 'Vipo' Experience--So You Thought Voicing Was Easy !?

One thing that always makes me chuckle is when people talk about how "easy" voice acting is. "How tough can it be", they ask. "You stand in front of a microphone, read a few paragraphs at best-get paid and go home. Easy!"
I'd liken voice acting to playing professional baseball--the very best ball players are effective only 3 times out of 10 and that stretches over a six-month period. A lot of training, sacrifice, repetitive workouts-not to mention the psychological aspect-goes in to achieve what a lot of people in other arenas might call mediocre results!
Voice acting is much the same with huge personal investment (both financial and temporal), training, vocal workouts, coaching and development...and you can STILL be turned away for not having the 'right' sound! And when you DO get hired, you have to be consistent, strong in your presentation, not prone to slumps.
On this particular team the 'manager' is Joie Albrecht--owner/producer/director of The Creation Factory, International...a voice casting director with over 20 years of experience and writing and production roots that stretch from Carole King to Disney! Her job was to manage over 50 different voice over characters in 26 episodes--on time and on budget, of course.
One of the many things that Joie is really good at is getting the very best character performance out of each actor she worked with. Her understanding of the way each should be presented and their relationship with each other was key to the cohesiveness of such a huge 'cartoon'. And when it came to the 'Summer King', his performance really had to be larger than life since he was the meanest and most manic of all the villains in the story.
I realized I was in real trouble when I delivered my first line in my most snaky evilness and Joie simply looked at me and said "I don't believe you...I'm not scared"! The rest of the session was a high wire act with no net. Joie pushed and encouraged and milked each line for its fullest effect--milking the actors along with the script! What I thought was going to be a fun-filled stroll in the park was just that--except the park was 'Jurassic' and Joie Albrecht was lizard-wranglin' my character into submission.
90 thrill packed minutes later Joie pronounced herself "very happy" with the results of my session--while I was left to seek oxygen and smelling salts...What a workout!! But as Dave Letterman would say,"It's a GOOD kind of tired..."

Next: The Big Payback...

The 'Vipo' Experience: You Are Cast!

In the hilarious movie spoof "Tropic Thunder", one of the characters (a 5-time Oscar winning Australian who portrays an African-American) gives a strange, but spot on lecture about character research and development. He goes on and on using references to other movies and actors to bear himself out. Beyond this character-in-a-character performance, the point is well made that research is the backbone of any performance. You absolutely have to know something about your character, your co-characters and even the project as a whole. It just simply makes for a more well-rounded, 'informed' portrayal. Improv and imagination also come heavily into play when you are "creating" a character from it's inception.
In my case, I had to learn to think and then 'speak' like a half-man, half-iguana who was a mean, sneaky classic villian.
Now, I already know how mean and villainous some people could be, but I knew absolutely NOTHING about iguanas and so...a google or two later I find out that not only is my character sneaky and hot-tempered (his people skills) but he is also aggressive and territorial--an exfoliating ne'er-do-well who does double duty as a thief AND a king. HOOO-BOY!
I now have a great, well-rounded description of Loverboy but ...alas...no picture. No artist rendering, no stick figure sketch, nada. Remember earlier when I said imagination would come into play? After having seen more than my share of 'gill-men' and other cinematic horrors over the years, a visual image wasn't too hard to mentally construct. That wasn't my gig, anyway. What would he SOUND like? He had to be: articulate yet evil, emperious yet sneaky, regal and possesive yet mad and territorial all at once!
Even though I had one primary voice that came to mind I'd already learned from a Pat Fraley podcast that 2 different reads on the same character provide producer/directors with a choice...and a different view. I did just that! I wrote a 30 second monologue (he IS a villian!) incorporating all of his better qualities and social mores--in two distinctly different voices.
With prayer and baited breath I sent the audition to the casting director. She e-mailed me back with some "More of this and less of that" suggestions which were immediately incorporated into the second take amd resubmitted.
In late November 2008, I received this e-mail..."Dear Herb, Congratulations! You have been cast as the Iguana Summer King..."



Next: So You Thought Voicing Was Easy...?

The 'Vipo' Experience or Hey, Mom...I'm A Cartoon Character!

Hey, all you ProTalkers...

The next few blogs will center around my wondrous, "Gee Whiz" experience with the "Vipo, The Flying Dog" series.

A little background...The 'Vipo' series is an animation and marketing phenomenom that is just reaching American television. Based on the adventures of a dog whose ears enable him to fly, "Vipo"--pronounced Vee-po (and his many friends) is now in over 30 countries around the world including Indonesia, Israel, Turkey, Brazil and now the U.S.

The animation is high quality 3-D and very easy on young eyes. Episodes from the first season of "Vipo" can be seen on YouTube!

Of course, early on I didn't know ANY of those facts about the production. When I responded to the Voices.com audition lead that came through my e-mail I was just answering what I thought would be a good job and a great opportunity--maybe even the fulfillment of a dream. Somewhere in your life there has to be room for dreams. Without dreams, we aspire to nothing. Dreams and aspirations shape our future--and sometimes the future of others!

I received an e-mail in return from Elizabeth that stated..."we do have one role we are still casting...it is the Summer King who is half man/half iguana..."

WOW!

She goes on to describe the characters most endearing traits (sneaky, hot-tempered, classic villian) and since there is no script--"you will have to improv the audition".

HOOO-HAAA! Let the games begin...

God Bless & Happy Voicing!



Next: "You Are Cast"