The VO Meter Episode 30, LIVE From Otakon 2018

The VO Meter, Measuring Your Voice Over Progress.
Hello everybody, and welcome to episode 30 of The VO Meter, our special edition episode, post-Otakon 2018. Woo!
Oh yeah!
Woo!
Very cool. So unfortunately, this year, I didn’t get to go to Otacon, even though I love Comic-Cons and Anime-Cons and all things con, but luckily we had the very talented New Jersey talent, Chris Dattoli, in my stead. So he’s actually joining us to talk and share his experiences from the con.
So welcome, Chris.
Thank you, Sean, and thank you, Paul. Happy to be here.
Yeah, thank you so much for sitting in for me and all the, I’m sure it was, you really twisted your arm to go.
Yeah, you know, I swear, you called me up and said, listen, I really need help. Can you please help me? Sean deserted me.
And I said, all right, I guess. Anime, games, why not? I mean, you know.
Yeah, well, I am a big flake, so thank you for doing that.
That is kind of what happened. And it’s even worse than we expected because I got there and sort of told Chris, by the way, I can only be here for like two hours, so it’s all you. And that’s kind of what happened.
You thought I was acting.
No, that was true. You got the whole experience.
So I only ended up being able to do three interviews and Chris did the rest along with James Brown, who we actually pulled in on the spot to help us out with some too. So the fourth voice you’ll hear that you may not recognize is James Brown, another voice actor from New York, who we interviewed. And then after the interview…
Not the R&B singer. What’s that? Yeah, not that one.
He’ll talk about that. But we interviewed him as sort of an attendees perspective, as opposed to the special guests that we interviewed the rest of the time. And then I said, do you want to stay?
We’ll see if we get you a press pass. And they said yes. And then I left even earlier than I expected and James and Chris took over from there and it was great.
That’s awesome. We’re building our own little troupe of special VO interview forces.
Special correspondents, so to speak.
In the field. We gotta think of a cool name for you guys. Something with special ops in it.
We’ll get to the drawing board with that.
Yeah, it has to be something that has a pun involved given the name of the show. So we’ll work on that.
Something to do with, all right, everyone stare at their audio equipment until something comes to mind.
So we’ll get to the fabulous content we have from the show itself in a few minutes. But before we do that, we want to run through some current events. So let’s start with Chris, our special guest.
What’s been happening in your VO world?
Well, I’m keeping busy. I’m working on two video games right now. I actually just finished a series of new commercials that I actually signed on with the production team.
It’s actually, I think they dubbed it Jersey Baby, where I’m actually speaking as a baby in an Italian voice. It was really hard to bring up that accent to talk about different things. So that’s pretty fun.
New series will be released soon. I’m also gonna be flying out to California soon in a few weeks to work on my new commercial demo.
Very cool.
Yeah, and I actually had just completed because I had a bit of a speech impediment, so I actually spent months fixing that up, and I’m actually happy to say I corrected that, so I’m ready to take off flight with that.
And if you don’t mind, I think that’s, yeah, that’s an incredible story to hear that in there, because sometimes people will get discouraged if they have something like an obstacle, like a lisp or speech impediment. And as you’ll hear in some of the interviews, if you have those obstacles, you just gotta work around them. You just, like, don’t let it discourage you.
Try, and if this is important to you, you will find a way to work around it. So kudos to you for doing so, Chris.
Thank you, thank you.
Who are you working on the demo with, can you say?
Chuck Duran.
That’s not bad.
He actually did my, he did my first one, and I said, hey, I found out I have this impediment, you mind if I come back? He goes, yeah, absolutely, rock on.
I heard he knows what he’s doing.
He does.
Awesome, anything else you want to talk about?
Let’s see, gonna be working on with David Rosenthal soon with working on my characters demo as well. God actually was able to, by going to Oticon, I actually landed three audio books there.
Really?
Yeah, working on that, going to, if you sneak a side and go into like the dealer’s room and everything, just do a little technique that I call, ask about their product and then lo and behold, they mention, you know, hey, we had a voice actor. I’m like, oh, well, you know, I just happened to be a voice actor. And it goes, well, you look like the rock and roll type because I cosplayed Greg Universe from the TV show, Steven Universe.
Oh, nice, nice.
So, you know, it all played out. It goes like, you look like a hard rock guy. And like, I am, it goes, well, I need that type of voice.
And I’m like, well, here we go.
Perfect, man. Now that, like, voice talent and expert marketer. There you go.
And working at its finest.
That’s great. So, Sean, what have you been working on?
Very much same old, same old. Doing a lot of new projects for GVAA. We’re trying to, we’re going to have some cool new social media campaigns.
We’ve hired on some exciting new staff. We have Sarah Sherman for Disney VoiceCaster and voice director, becoming a new character coach for us. So that’s huge.
I just got to sit in on her animation audition technique workshop this weekend. It was a lot of fun, some great performances and some just excellent concise direction from Sarah. It’s always fun to see a great director in their element.
So that’s really cool. Other than that, just lots of cool, like just audition, audition, audition, e-learning, e-learning, e-learning, but the wheels are still turning. So that’s good.
Other than that, what about you, Paul?
Well, that’s awesome. You mentioned working with Sarah now. We’re actually gonna see her at MAVO when we do the episode from there in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully we’ll get some time with her. That reminds me, actually, I should probably talk to these people and ask them ahead of time if they wanna talk on tape, so to speak, or be recorded. I haven’t actually done that.
Yeah, you might wanna get their permission first. Before we bomb like steam, bombard them with microphones.
We know, the last time we were there, we did exactly that. We just sort of jumped in and grabbed people as they walked by, which worked, but isn’t necessarily the best way to prep a show as we’ve talked about.
Absolutely, and we can probably make some posts to the MAVO group. Like, hey, we’re going to have some correspondents there if you guys want to contribute your welcome to, just so they’re like, hey, what’s this big? Oh wait, you guys won’t…
I hope Vocal Booth to go is there because we can steal another thing from that.
Actually, I’ve already talked to them and they’re going to let us borrow one of their new VoMo’s. So I have to eventually get out to the warehouse to pick that up too, which reminds me of another thing I need to do before the show.
Love that, but I love mine so much, it’s starting to fall apart. Maybe I shouldn’t check it as often as I do.
Yeah, maybe.
Those guys have rough hands.
I’m gonna let that go. All right. So as far as…
Throwing you a line. As far as things I’m working on, the thrust of my work right now is one e-learning client who some of our listeners may have seen. I’ve been putting out this series of medical videos on YouTube and the response has been pretty good so far.
I’m not sure what this company does to market them, but several of them have over 1,000 views, 1,500 views, and I’m doing about five a week and they’re on just various topics that might be of interest to people who are looking up conditions they may have or may think they have, sort of self-diagnosing on the web. And I’ve got some traction marketing by basically quipping about them. So whenever I put it out on Twitter or Facebook, I make some ridiculous comment about the content.
So the one example was I did one on atopic dermatitis and I said, there’s a rash of causes of this disease. Make sure you follow the content to find out.
I’ve actually been loving that Paul, so thank you.
And I released one today where it was a play on the old line from Dean Wormer in Animal House where it was for streptococcal pharyngitis, which is a form of strep throat. And I said, swollen, itchy, and contagious is no way to go through life, son. Learn how to cure this disease.
To warm the strepococcal of your heart.
Exactly. But the response has been pretty good. Even just friends and neighbors around the area, when I see them, they’ll say, oh, I love that video you did on gonorrhea.
And I’ll think, is that a compliment?
Hey, people need to know sexual health is important.
Exactly. It is, yes. So that’s been a primary focus.
They’re giving me a ton of content and it’s been a pretty decent gig so far. I’ve done, I think, 20. And I have 30 more just sitting on my computer waiting for me to crank out, but I can only do so many at a time before my voice starts to tire out, but that’s the thrust of my work right now.
So one thing we want to talk about, current events-wise, is our new website. We’ve actually, this week, finally took the wraps off our new VO Meter website from voiceactorwebsites.com.
It’s super mobile-friendly.
Yeah, it’s super mobile-friendly now, and it’s not a pain in the butt, but the URL is the same. It’s www.vometer.com. Check it out when you get a chance.
Let us know what you think. We’ve really tried to streamline the content to make it more friendly for comments and questions, so please go there and follow the link for comments. We’d love to hear what you think about the show, or if you have any questions that you want to have answered on the show, we’d love to help.
Absolutely, questions, suggested topics, or if you’d like to contribute to some of our audio submissions, like the VO Meter shtick, please just let us know. We’d love to hear from you. So, that pretty much wraps up current events.
Before we get to the actual con footage, though, it’s time for…
Questionable Gear Purchase.
For today’s Questionable Gear Purchases, we’ve all got some great stories from in the field. And since you’re our guest, Chris, why don’t you start first?
Yeah, I’ll take the lead on that. So, as I’m all prepped and ready to go for Oticon, I got my Blue Raspberry all packed. I go to my hotel to set it up just to do a test run, and all I hear is a background ssss noise.
And I’m like, what the heck is that? So, I plugged it in. I thought maybe it was my computer.
Plugged in my friend’s computer. Plugged into a pad, into a tablet. Same thing.
So, I thought, this broke. Like, something’s wrong with it. And I’m like, well, this is great.
I guess I’ll just use my good, old-fashioned phone to record everything and no mic. Well, hope for the best. And I think you had the same problem with yours, right?
Sort of the same issue?
So, yeah, I had pretty much the same issue. Only a couple hours later, I showed up on Saturday where you had been there since Thursday night, right? When you got there?
Yep, was there since Thursday.
So, I plug in my Blue Raspberry and say, all right, here we go. And I get…
Kuh-kuh, kuh-kuh, kuh-kuh.
All in the files. And I thought to myself, oh, this actually happened a few weeks ago when I had it at the beach. I thought it was just a fluke, maybe the computer I was using at the beach, because this was a different one I had with me, and realized it was actually dead, because I did the same thing.
I plugged it in my phone and tried it and got the same results. So basically, we had two dead Blue Raspberries that we couldn’t use, and you used your phone for some of the interviews, I used mine for the rest, and that was the way we had a roll. So, did you ever have a resolution to your issue, Chris?
I did not. I actually saw someone posted something similar on one of the groups we were a part of, and they mentioned…
Wasn’t that me?
I think, yeah, it was you.
There’s some other dark-skinned Italian that mentioned having a problem with… So, I put that on the Facebook group, and our mutual friend of all of us, Mariel Nuvall, actually said, do you think it might be moisture in it? And I said, oh yeah, I did just have it at the beach.
So I actually took mine and put it in front of a fan for about six hours, and tried it again, and it did go away. So I think Mariel might have been onto something, that it might have been moisture in mine, and at least that’s cured it temporarily.
Well, that’s the irony of those kind of devices, because I mean, Blue very much markets that as a portable travel solution, but obviously you’re gonna be exposing into the elements more often, it’s gonna be bouncing around in a bag. So that could really affect the durability and shelf life of products like that. I mean, I had an Apogee mic for a while, and pretty early on, it developed this hiss, and I even spent the extra $25 for the travel kit and accessories or whatever, but apparently that’s not waterproof, because I was wearing it in a backpack one day while it was raining, and it totally got through the backpack and the travel kit.
Oh, I wouldn’t have even thought about that, wow.
Yeah, that, oof.
Yeah, so you gotta be careful. I mean, you might wanna put it in some kind of protective thing, or just not, who knows? It could have been a factory issue, or, I don’t know.
So, really sorry you guys had to go through that.
Yeah, well, luckily, I contacted support, and they’re working with me on it.
Oh, awesome, awesome. Yeah. Yeah, like I said, mine’s cured for the moment.
Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. I am going back to the beach next week, and I’ll be sure to be more careful with, or at least leave it out and dry it out before I try to use it.
Put it in like a plastic bag with those little silica things. Yeah. Like the, yeah, the food dehydrators.
Yeah, I was just saying that. I feel like maybe a vacuum-sealed plastic bag or something.
I do have several of those silica packs from various mics I’ve purchased. As you know, I’ve had quite a few.
So Sean, do you have any questionable gear purchases this episode?
Questionable gear, like, well, in anticipation, I guess. As some people know, Centrance has finally released their mixer face, something that has been in development for almost four years. And I was actually one of the contributors to the original, I believe it was on Indiegogo, or like a Kickstarter-esque campaign.
I forget what the actual name for that type of… Crowdfunding, there we go. It was like a crowdfunding, that word.
Yeah, well, you know, you’re trying to put your…
Words are hard.
Words are hard. That’s why we read off scripts. But anyways, yeah, it took about four years to do, like the new device is actually quite different than the original designs.
And I remember, I was actually really looking for it, because it almost kind of had this cradle shape that you could actually put a phone that you were recording to on it, and you could secure it with some kind of Silcon band or whatever. But now I realize that it took so long to create that phones will never be that small again. So it would not actually fit in that space.
So I’m like, ah. So they decided to kind of move the more mixer-esque controls and dials onto the top of the unit and make it more tactile in that way, which is cool. A lot of people complain that they don’t always like the, they would rather have something more hands-on and tactile than always adjusting everything in software.
And of course, if you’re in a VO booth, your mic and your interface might be a couple feet from your computer. So it is nice to have something right there. So as you can tell, I have mixed feelings about the unit.
The people who’ve gotten it so far are pretty happy.
Why do you not have yours is the question. Why do you not have yours, Zach? Because I’ve heard several broadcasts, I think VOBS mentioned it, where they said, so everyone who ordered one, who pre-ordered one, has one now in their hands.
Bo Weaver and Harry Legg actually showed some positive reviews for it on that. They’re both big promo talent. But I had actually asked them to delay mine, because they had mentioned that they had a more advanced unit than what was currently available, because it had an included stereo mic accessory and an internal SD card.
So you could be a true standalone unit. You’d literally just need to plug a mic into it and then record to the SD card, and then like true portability. You don’t even need a phone or a tablet device.
And so I was like, all right, I can do that. And then I wrote to them, I was like, oh, everything’s released. When’s the new one gonna come out?
They’re like, oh, it’s gonna be a couple months. And based on the track record, I was like, might as well just take a bird in the hand.
Yeah, well hopefully you’ll get it soon.
No offense to Sentrence, I mean, they were trying to create a new technology basically, and they all had all sorts of production issues, like with Apple changing the IOS and the hardware and then various companies not wanting to do the production that they asked for, so I don’t know, it’s a struggle. So when I get it, I’m sure I’ll be happy with it, but it’ll probably be the redheaded stepchild of my interfaces.
All right, well we’ll get to our fabulous Oticon content in just a second after these fine words from our sponsor.
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All right, now let’s get to the interviews. I’m gonna start with Masaya first. He was probably one of my favorite interviewers.
It’s really interesting to hear the viewpoint how voice actors record from Japan versus America. So let’s get right to it.
So just a quick introduction. We’re here with Todd Haberkorn at Otagon 2018. Chris Dattoli is joining me, just like last year.
Hello, hello.
And we’re gonna talk about voiceover. So our first question, Todd, if you don’t mind, tell us how you got started in the business.
Well, voiceover was kind of the last thing that came along. It started on stage and then went to on camera and the different variations of that. And then voiceover kind of crept in because I never thought it was an option.
I didn’t know that VO was… My brain was never in that mode and I didn’t know it was a thing. So when I was watching cartoons, I didn’t even think that actors voiced that.
I just thought that they find that mouse and they find that duck and they find it and then they go and they put them in a studio and then they do their thing. So then when VO was an option, I was like, okay, let’s try it out. And then people…
People didn’t hate it. Yeah, and then the rest is… But here we are.
How long have you been at it?
For VO, about 15 years.
And you start out full-time right away? Did you get a gig right away that was a full-time job or did you sort of ease into it?
It was pretty much full-time right away. Yeah, it was just like no voiceover and then I got the first gig, which led to the next, which led to the next, but it very quickly was just like, was what I was doing. And so I just went with it, not knowing where it would lead.
Excellent.
What in your life experience was most helpful to you to become a voice actor?
Well, I think it was my previous experience with the other forms of acting, film and stage work and training, because I had been training since I was a little kid in school and then doing classes outside of that. And I was in honors programs for it and it was my major. And so I think that above all is the most helpful.
I think a lot of people that want to get into voiceover sometimes maybe get into it for the wrong reasons. They want fame from it or they want to work with people that they admire. And that was never…
Fame is nice, absolutely. But it’s not what motivates and drives me and keeps me going for those days that are like 13 hour record days or crazy deadlines or impossible production problems that you have to figure out. It’s just, I just want to…
My goal is always to just make a good living doing what I love. And so if I keep that my theme, I feel like that’ll serve me best.
Excellent, now you mentioned 13 hour days and everything, so that’s gotta be pretty stressful on The Voice. So do you do any warmups or do you take any herbal sprays or herbal tea to kind of help your voice stay in a pristine condition?
I’ll do a lot of vocal rest and then I’ll drink… I mean, I drink beverages that are not in the extremes of temperatures. And so I’ll always kind of keep it, for me, maybe room temp a little bit above, a little bit below.
And so that, and then also in terms of warming up, just, for me, I don’t always warm up. I’ll wake up and get right in the booth and start recording. Because I have a studio, a residential studio, and so I’ll get up and immediately start doing my work.
And so, and some things fit that. Some of the auditions, I arrange them to where it’s gonna work out, to where I start with a certain type of audition and by the end of it, it gets to this type of audition. For me, some people audition at night, some people do it during the day.
It’s just, you know, how I do it.
Some people smoke in their cars before an audition. Did you ever hear that story about Kiefer Sutherland?
No.
There’s a story about him where, to get into a certain character voice, they can’t remember the exact character, he would close up all the windows in his car and smoke about two or three cigarettes before each session and then jump out and you have that natural raspiness. Well, not natural, like it’s chemically induced raspiness.
Wonder if that was for Solid Snake.
Yeah, I think it was. Yes, it was. Yeah, it was.
All right, so what beyond talent do you think one needs to have to book work and to keep working?
Well, I think one of the mystical things about it that people assign to VO is that it’s different from other jobs. When really, it’s very similar to every other career. You have deadlines, you have a hierarchy of people in the business, you have people you need to be nice to and people that are gonna be temperamental, and you have, it’s a people-oriented job, just like customer service work, just like cubicle work, just like anything else.
And I think that there’s something that happens when people mystify it and give it too much power. Because then what happens, I feel like, is when voice actors get involved with it, they become endangered servants to it. And so then they’ll do whatever any client says.
So if a client says, I know you’re about to go to a funeral, but I really need this copy for ABC, they’ll do it, as opposed to being like, no, I’m a human being going to a funeral right now. I’m not gonna do that. But you have that environment where actors will, if a VO job says, I need you to send me this MP3 and a finger of your choice.
They’ll do it. There are people out there that will do it. And that is the thing that I shy away from.
I will create boundaries and structures for my life that where I make my career a priority, but then at the same time, it’s like, it’s a priority. It’s not gonna be the end all be all. I think that’s something that a lot of, I see a lot of young voice actors doing is that they will do absolutely anything for it.
And that passion is admirable and you need that passion, but when it when it teeters over into obsession, when you make it all about the job, when you get that, then you have no more direction because you’ve hit your mark. So then you’re aimlessly searching, it never ends. Like I heard a story of a guy that he would, he would drive to a certain street, a quiet street because they didn’t have a studio.
And he would record audio books between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. And that sounds like a beautifully romantic story. That’s stupid. Go to a studio and rent the studio.
You have a paying gig, go to a studio, don’t do that to yourself. So when traffic would go by, you have to stop. Then you have to record somewhere.
This isn’t like the 1900s and the microphones first being invented and we’re figuring out how to… It’s like, don’t do that stuff, and then people hear that and they’re like, oh, that’s amazing, and no, it’s dangerous and it’s crazy. Don’t do that shit.
And so maybe that works for some people, done work for me. You gotta, I feel like you have to look at it like any other job, but one that you choose to do, one that you bring passion to, yeah.
It’s a trade-off though, right? We recently had on Christian Lanz, and he spoke about how the fact that he has this job but it is so flexible with home studio and travel rigs is what allows him to go on vacation to the beach with his family. So if he has a paying gig from ABC, for instance, like you mentioned, he can take an hour away from the pool while his kids are playing and knock that session out.
So it is a balancing act, wouldn’t you think?
Absolutely, yes. The world loves balance. We don’t wanna eat too much dinner, we wanna eat just enough.
We don’t wanna work out too hard, we wanna work out just enough. And so it’s absolutely balance. And I think what happens is when, kind of it seems like a little red herring, but I think how we approach social media and interaction like that informs our life choices of extremes.
So in social media, how do you get someone to click on an article? You don’t say, well, there was kind of a little bit of an argument here. Click to see what happens is like, there was an all out brawl, click to see what happened.
That’s how they sell people to get clicks. So then when you get in an extreme mentality of thinking and how we argue and debate online is in extremes, it’s not, it’s never like, that’s a valid point. Well, here’s my response.
It’s always like, you’re wrong, here’s why. I’m right, here’s why. And so that informs other aspects of our life, I feel.
And so that’s why we get into this. Also, you see, you see like The Rock, it has a big social media following. He talks about extremes.
And he talks about push yourself till you bleed, da-da-da, this and that, don’t rest, da-da-da. And that works when you’re an actor that makes $157 million a year. And you can forgo everything else because you have 10 people that do those things for you.
That sends an unhealthy, it’s as unhealthy, I feel, and I love The Rock. It’s as unhealthy as like when you look at the front of a fitness magazine, and you’re like, that’s what a normal man looks like. I need to be like that, that’s an extreme.
And so I feel like there’s cases of that when you see it in the VO. And so it’s careful to, you have to create that balance. Of course, I bring my work with me too.
And yes, you find that time, and you segment part of your day for that. But when it comes to like recording these things in cars at 2 a.m., that’s crazy, you know? That’s what I feel like.
So it’s, that’s, and I wasn’t always like that. I used to be, no matter what extremes, I’m gonna get it done, I’m the guy, because I grew up with Batman, and Batman is obsessed with right there, he’s obsessed with being a vigilante, and he does whatever it takes, and then what happens when he winds up alone, he doesn’t have what Damien he has, but not by choice. And so like, for me, it’s like, it affected my life because of that, you know?
It led to great things, and it led to not so great things, so trying to find that balance is just the sweet spot for me personally.
Well Todd, in addition to acting, you also direct and produce. Yeah. Do you feel the same way when you’re hiring an actor?
Do you look for that sort of person who respects the business, as well as their personal lives?
That’s a good way to look at it, actually. Respecting the business and respecting your personal life. Yes, actually.
I feel like I do, because I find that the people that come in, that are, have a tendency to lean towards the obsessive, that bleeds into other aspects of their life. Their performance is very, they lack technique behind the mic, because they’re just happy to get the thing out there, and they’re not being mindful of mic placement, and proximity, and things like that. So, yeah, I find that there’s an unspoken, ephemeral quality, I think, that comes across when you respect both, I feel like.
Maybe. That’s just me.
What do you do to kinda de-stress between work and everything? What do you kinda…
For me, I just set boundaries. I used to not. I said, like, okay, at this hour, I’m not doing any more work tonight.
On the weekends, I’m not gonna do, very rarely will I do, and you just, and it sounds like, oh, you’re missing out on this opportunity, but it’s like, no, you’re missing out on life. I can’t have to, like, make time for that. And I think we’re getting to a place where these, some of these auditions, VO auditions are like, they come out at 11.30, and then they’re like, need it ASAP.
Get it to me as fast as… Every audition says version.
It’s almost like they don’t even know it exists until they go, wait, what is that? Is that an ASAP audition?
Wait, did you get that out to the…
You know, it’s like, it’s, and I think it’s because people are like, drop the casket, I’ve gotta get this VO thing done. It’s because they do that, the agencies think, oh, well, we can just do this and get it even faster, when it’s like, well, no, guys, don’t let that happen. So I try to de-stress with doing things other than business things, like fitness is a big thing for me, or video games, or watching a movie, or spending time with friends and family.
So I try to do more of that.
That’s good. How much of your time do you find getting work is with agents and on your own time?
It’s busy on all sides. So that’s why boundaries are so important for me, you know? And so a lot of the people that work with me and for me are so crucial to finding that balance, but it’s always a goal to try to find the perfect balance.
So I haven’t found it yet. Working on it.
All right.
Well, Todd, I gotta say, I didn’t expect this to go in the direction of life balance, but I like it. I really appreciate you taking it, Todd.
Yeah, it’s really like, I’m actually pretty inspired hearing that and everything. You gotta find that balance in everything. That’s a lot of things people, a lot of voice actors don’t mention everything, but you mentioned it perfectly.
Or any walk of life. The whole society now is rush, rush, rush, and then wait, and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s like any other business.
It’s like when you look back and you’re like, wow, where did those 10 years of my life go? Yeah, you wanna be able to look back and have those like little light bulb moments.
So yeah. Well, Todd, thanks for being on the VO Meter and enjoy the rest of your time at Oticon.
Thanks for having me. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we’re back at the VO Meter with Johnny Yong Bosch and we’re talking about voice acting and the ways to get into it as a newbie for our guests who are just starting out in the business. So Johnny, how did you guys start in the business?
Well, they can’t do it the way I did it. Basically, I was on Power Rangers, after Power Rangers stunt team, they’re Japanese. They had a Japanese camera, wanted to shoot an action film.
They cast me as the lead. Their audio equipment wasn’t Japanese and so somehow it didn’t communicate, so the movie was all static. I had to go in and dub myself.
As I was dubbing myself, the producer walked in and thought I had a decent hero voice and asked me to come audition for Trigun. I auditioned for Trigun and I booked that role. So it’s kind of a fluke.
If that didn’t happen, then I wouldn’t be there. I wouldn’t be here. So complete fluke, but I guess in all of that, what you can take away from is just going to an audition.
Getting auditions, I think, is key. Having an agent is pretty important to get auditions. Yeah, there’s a lot, I guess.
There’s a lot.
I’m sure you’ve covered all sorts of stuff.
But for someone who has started maybe not in the last five years, it is entirely different. We’ve had that experience or that discussion with most of the people that are here, actually, that don’t do what I do, basically. So what would you suggest for someone who’s just starting out now to get an agent?
Because a lot of people, that’s their ultimate goal, which as we’ve talked about on our show, is not necessarily the right way to do it. But what would you suggest if you’re just starting out?
Not always. It depends on where you live, too. Some people will take advantage of you.
That’s a sad fact. Finding a legit agent is going to be important. But the problem is you do need to have something together to present to an agent, or you’re going to be auditioning in front of them right then and there, which is also fine.
But I guess I would… When I got into it, it was very different. The way I got into it was very different.
More of a fluke. But I would recommend definitely putting together a demo reel. And it depends on what you want to get into.
Commercials or voice over games or animation. And I’ll provide multiple characters and emotions. Nothing that’s already been done.
Don’t do Mickey Mouse. Just do some original stuff there that might be unique. Take definitely your own voice and showcase your acting.
Definitely need a clear speaking voice. So if you have a lisp or something like that, you need to work that out, unless that is part of a character. But definitely acting.
Take some kind of acting somehow. And yeah, put a demo together and try to… You just want to get auditions.
You don’t have to get an agent. You can take whatever demo and submit it to whatever dubbing houses are near you. You kind of need to live where there’s the work.
But that would be my advice. It might not be the best advice, but that’s what I would do if I wasn’t already in voice over.
So that brings up a good point. Do you find that it’s absolutely essential to live in LA or New York in order to do a looping? Or are there looping groups showing up in places like Texas or Atlanta and some of the other hotbeds that are growing?
Yeah, Texas definitely has a place. Even Canada. There are definitely places, but it depends on what you want to do.
Commercial, I think you could be pretty much anywhere. There are now also sites that are online where you can submit and make demos on there and you can get work from there. Having your own little home studio is also pretty nice because you can do the work there and you can submit it online.
I’ve done that plenty of times, a lot of work in commercials and stuff. I have my own studio, I dub my stuff and then I send it out there to them, wherever they are. I do think though, if you want to get into anime, Texas is a great place to be because they’ve got huge anime funimations there.
LA is just acting in general, in all sorts. I think New York as well. I definitely think you need to live where the work is.
If there’s no work, how are you going to get to work?
You think technology will ever change that?
Yeah. I think that it’s changing now. That like I said, there are sites now that you can join.
I don’t recall any of the names, but there are sites now where you can submit your own demos and try to get work that way. Now the pay won’t be as good as some union gigs or something like that, but it’s definitely work. And then it’s up to you to do the work.
There’s book readings and things like that, novels and stuff that you can voice over. That’s a whole different animal too.
Do you do any work in Japan, on the ground?
Yeah, motion capture.
How much of your work would you say is North American based as far as the production being done on site, North America versus Japan?
Oh, you mean anime versus…
Do you have to physically travel to Japan to do work, is what I’m asking?
No, I’ve traveled to Japan, yes, on multiple occasions to do motion capture.
Okay.
For which then I later do also the voice over. I mean, they capture my voice there and then we come back to the States and they’re working on the motion capture and all the animation or whatever. And then I voice the character again on the state side in LA.
But there’s also in LA, yeah, there’s a good number of original animation that I’ve been a part of. Most of my work though has been games and anime. The bulk of it has been.
But I need to live in LA or near Burbank and be able to do that work. A lot of shows that I work, I do dub now, a lot of foreign dubs for Netflix. And a lot of that’s being done in LA.
Okay, great. So you mentioned your home studio. Can you tell us a little bit about what sort of gear you use to record and what’s your recording rig?
I have a ton of gear. And some of that’s because of my band. So I have a lot of analog stuff for recording, but that’s when you want to get color.
So I’ve got Neve and API and Universal Audio.
Oh, you’re a geek.
I’ve got Neumanns, I’ve got Gafel microphones. So I’ve got very expensive microphones. I’ve got very cheap microphones.
I have everything from recording drums and guitars to voice. I have tubes, I have transistors. I have, you know, I’ve got it all, so.
You find that…
This has been years that I’ve put it together, you know.
Do you find it’s absolutely necessary to have top gear equipment in your home studio, at least for you?
For me, definitely. For me, where I’m at in my career, if I present them something, the quality’s not that good, then it’s just not gonna, it’s, you know, it’s who I am then, it’s part of me. Then it’s like, you kind of expect something good to come out of where I’m, my stuff, you know.
But, auditions, it doesn’t really always matter. Auditions, half time, like if I’m at a con, like I have auditions tonight, I’m gonna do them on my phone or my iPad and I edit them there. I do sometimes bring a rig with me, but I didn’t want to carry all that stuff.
I think it’s important to have something decent, you know, a decent condenser, you know, a nice interface.
You don’t want to… And a backup. I actually brought a blue microphone with me.
It crapped out this morning and that’s why I’m using the phone.
Is that right? Yeah, blue microphones are good, though.
Usually, yeah. I don’t want to trash them. They’ve been good to me so far.
Yeah, I think it’s a good idea to have a decent microphone, yeah.
Okay, so before we go, what are some things you’re working on that you’d like to promote?
The only thing I could really talk about is the stuff that they’re releasing, the boxes, and like the box set of Gundam. They’ve got the Digimon Tri stuff is out. Big Fish and Pagonia, Devil May Cry 5 will eventually be released.
I can only mention that it’s coming. The rest of it I’m not sure I can talk about, so I shouldn’t talk about them yet.
Fair enough, that’s a good place to be in. Well, Johnny, thanks so much for your time. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
So welcome back to The VO Meter at Otacon 2018. We are with Lucian Dodge. Lucian, how are you today?
I’m doing great, thank you. How are you doing?
Good, good.
Thanks for meeting with us today.
How are you enjoying the con so far?
It’s great, you know, as a homebody, it’s nice to get out of LA, get out of the apartment, and meet the fans of these projects that we work on. Kind of in isolation, I mean, obviously it’s with a director and engineer, but we don’t really know how this stuff is gonna land until we go out and meet these people and see how it’s affected them, so it’s really cool.
Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re recording for until it’s out. No, exactly.
Sometimes I find out, sometimes my girlfriend has to tell me, hey, you know you’re in this? I’m like, no? Yeah, here, check this out, here’s your voice.
Oh yeah, that is me. You’re right.
It’s better in the alternative. I get calls from friends that say, hey, I thought I heard you on a commercial in LA, and I’ll say, no, sadly not.
If it is, someone owes me a lot of money.
Exactly.
Someone owes me a check.
So can you tell us how you got started as a voice actor?
Sure, well, truth be told, it’s kind of a two-part road that kind of met up in the middle. I was involved in theater in middle school. I was a very shy, introverted child.
Wouldn’t talk much with anybody when I was young. One particular story, I think, I forget what year it is, but during a parent-teacher conference we were doing, I literally hid under the desk the whole time because I was just deathly shy. And so it was interesting.
The school I went to, it was a requirement at the end of each year that your class, and this was a combined class, so it was like first, second, grade, third, fourth, and so on, you put on a play at the end of each year. And I think in the beginning, I was playing small parts, but even then, I found that there was a certain freedom, a certain release in performing on stage. By adapting a character, I didn’t feel shy anymore, and it was really interesting.
And then the last year at this particular school, I actually ended up playing the lead in Moliere’s The Phony Physician, which was a very verbose role. And my mom saw the production, of course, and thought, wow, there’s something to hear. Shy little Lucian is playing this big, vibrant character and lots of lines.
I think there might be something here as far as helping to bring him out of his shell. So she signed me up for more acting courses, and I continued being involved in theater from that point on. Now, meanwhile, up to…
So at about age 13 or 14, I think, I discovered anime. And watching anime, I had the epiphany… I think it was watching Gunsmith Cats, I think it was.
And I recognized a voice from another anime that I was watching, and the light came on. I realized, oh, there are people who do… The voices of these characters had never occurred to me, never really thought about it.
So once the curtain had been parted, so to speak, I had to find out everything I could about this business, who are the people, how does this work, how do you do this. So I started doing a lot of research online. And the more I found out about this little niche of the acting business, the more I loved it.
And started practicing on my own, doing little skits, recording myself. And I thought, this is great. It’s everything that I love about acting, but in some ways it’s even better because you have so much more freedom in a lot of regards.
They don’t see you, so it’s really just about the illusion that you’re able to create with your voice alone that’s really gonna matter. So there’s so much variety and range you can really play with in that field. And from that point on, I said, well, this is what I gotta do as a job, as my life’s work.
And just put in everything I could to making that happen. And very fortunate, fast forward to now, I’ve been in LA about six years now, that it’s been going really well. So I feel very fortunate for that.
That’s great, that’s great. Now you do a wide range of characters. How do you develop each character’s voice?
Well, it starts typically with the picture. If there’s a picture, depending on what I’m working on, if it’s an anime, obviously, most of the work visually has been done already. So you can get an idea based on how they look, how they act in the scenes, their body language, things like that, about what kind of character they are.
And then also the script is very helpful. So based on those things, I kind of, in my head, try to envision, well, what voice do I imagine this character would have based on A, B, and C. If it’s a kind of older character or extremely old and kind of hunched over and very, very wiry and maybe based on the script, his brain is working and then a lot of different things at lunch and so he’s talking to this person, but wait, what was I talking about?
I’m sorry. And just sort of a voice emerges and all those things coming together. Just kind of, it’s like an alchemy, if you will.
Just kind of throwing these ideas into a pot and then I kind of feel out what do I think that would sound like. Not unlike if you’re reading a novel or something and based on the description of the character, you kind of think in your mind, so this is what I think they sound like. It’s pretty similar, I’d say.
Sometimes you have other elements to consider, as far as this is their physicality or this is how, cadence-wise, they’re written.
That was what I was watching you do to create that voice. I saw you hunching back and your arms moving a certain way.
Yeah, exactly.
And I guess what a lot of people would assume, because it’s voice acting, that that doesn’t really happen because it’s just the voice.
Right, there is this misconception that because it’s just the voice, in quotations, that we’re standing straight, rigid, in a isolated room in front of a microphone, just kind of saying the words into a microphone, just like that, but this is true for a lot of my peers, and certainly for me, if you ever see what it looks like when we’re performing in front of a microphone, by and large, we use a lot of physicality. I mean, like you mentioned, when I was kind of just creating that old character, just now, I adapted a certain physicality that I sort of visualized him having. And that just kind of helps to just get everything set so that it sounds like it would come out of that kind of body.
In the same way, if I was playing a beastly ogre or whatever and he’s got these large jowls or something and he has huge teeth, I just think it really helps if you just kind of adapt the physicality of that. And as far as what that voice would sound coming out of that figure.
Because it probably wouldn’t sound very clean and like this, necessarily, if you had all of that to work around. So yeah, definitely a lot of physicality. I mean, certainly if I’m doing a battle scene, within reason, there are technical parameters you have to keep in mind as far as addressing the mic and staying in proximity to the mic so that it’s going to give you a good recording.
But as far as, you know, I’ve got that pretty much locked into a general region. But then as far as what the rest of my body is doing, I’m sort of hurling myself around there from getting hit in the gut. I’m kind of doubling over.
Or if it’s a laid back character, I’ll kind of adapt, you know, hands in pocket, kind of, you know, like sort of David Spade, lackadaisical. Hey, man, what’s going on? I’ll kind of, you know, just sort of hold my body in a certain way that just kind of lends itself to that.
Yeah, little tricks like that, I think, just really help to put you in the moment and make a believable impression of what’s going on in the midst of that scene with that character.
Wow, this is like a master class in character development.
Yes, it is.
When you’re performing these days, is it mostly ensemble or do you record mostly alone?
It’s, you know, to my chagrin, it is mostly still just me in the booth, though my favorite way to record certainly is ensemble with having the whole group of kooky, my kooky peers, and kind of bouncing around ideas and getting our energy, you know, just in sync. Someone might throw out a funny improv or something, a little ad lib, someone else might pick up on that and do something based off of that. Just little things like that.
I just think it’s a lot of fun. But at the moment, it is mostly just one actor at a time kind of work, as tends to be the case with most anime dubbing. In fact, there may be an anime project I’m not aware of that has tried to do kind of a full ensemble impression.
That’s in the States. I understand now in Japan, when they record their actors, it is very much like a radio drama. But just for logistical reasons, because everything is really just kind of set into place, all the animation is done, and it’s got to be within, we’re talking like frames as far as timing goes.
So it’s just really hard to get all of that to work together and account for eight different people. So for that reason, it’s typically one person in at a time, which is an interesting challenge, because then you are, of course, with the help of the director, you’re finding the correct context for each individual moment, but it is kind of doing it piecemeal. You’re doing an individual moment, sometimes multiple times to get the timing right, and then you’re moving ahead.
Maybe you’re moving to a completely different scene, and you kind of have to… In your mind, I think it helps to have a memory of sort of what you did before, especially if you’re doing multiple cues, as it’s called, within, say, the same scene, to remember what you did before so that it kind of interlocks in a natural way, because the way it’s recorded is not the most organic way an actor can act for a scene, because you’re doing these little bits, and then hopefully when everything is connected together, it will sound like a cohesive scene, but it takes a lot of work and skill to give off that impression.
You’re from New York originally, right?
That’s correct. Upstate New York. Upstate New York?
Yeah.
It looks like James.
We have New York. New York, New Jersey and Philly here.
I live in New York City now, but I used to live in maybe an hour away from Syracuse.
Oh, great.
Fort Drum.
Fort Drum. It’s funny. You live in a place for so long, and yet there are so many little things like that.
You’re like, I don’t know that place. But in a way, it must have been not too far from my hometown, which is Ithaca, New York. Yeah, that’s really cool.
I did not know that.
Yeah, New York, New Jersey, Tri-State Area.
East Coast represents.
How did you end up making the transition to LA?
Well, honestly, it came out of a necessity to pursue the type of work that I wanted to involve myself in. I did live in New York City for about five years, where I predominantly did a lot of commercials. I’d say mostly.
A little bit of video game stuff and the Western animated projects as well. But mostly, it’s mostly commercials, as far as voice work is concerned. And it was always my dream to do more character work in animation and the big AAA video games.
And the truth of the matter is that most of that work is recorded in LA. So it was always my goal, eventually, to move there. It just was a matter of…
It was a question of when. When am I ready? And I struggled with that for quite a while.
I had a lot of, I don’t know, am I good enough to make that jump? What if it doesn’t work out? Lots of self-doubt.
And it was actually with the help of my agent in New York City, who kind of knew what my aspirations were. And she kind of just sat me down one day and said, hey, I really think you should be in LA. We just had that chat.
And I was like, oh, okay, wow, yeah, I mean, I’d like to, but you think so? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll help you out. I’ll get you some meetings or whatever.
So that was really nice of her. That was very altruistic. I mean, she didn’t necessarily have anything from a business standpoint to benefit by doing that.
It was just like, hey, I feel like I want to do this for you. Just a good person. So that was kind of the starting point where I really seriously considered it, as far as immediacy is concerned.
So I went out for about a week or two, I think, just to feel things out. And then I’m like, okay, I’ve got some ideas, some leads here. And then eventually I said, okay, let’s do this thing and made the jump.
And that’s also something maybe I could say is that it is important to make sure you’re prepared and to do your homework and to train, train, train, train, do your homework. But there probably will still be, there will always be that little doubt, as far as if you’re ready. And honestly, I don’t know if that ever goes away.
I still to this day, and look, I’ve had a decent career and I’m working, I pay the bills doing what I do, which is more than a lot of people can say. And I feel very grateful for that. But there’s still those times, there’s still that self-doubt and questions.
I don’t know if I’m talented enough, I don’t know. Is this going to continue to last? I’m not sure.
And I think at a certain point, if this is really what you want to do, I think, yes, take all the precautions you need. Save up a nice little nest egg to keep you afloat while you’re getting things figured out. But at a certain point, you’ve got to just try it.
Failure, whatever. That’s a scary term, and I think it keeps people from doing a lot of things that they would love to do, because they might fail. Well, then, fail.
That’s fine. That’s human. So, that’s what I’m saying.
Sadly, we’re out of time. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thank you very much.
We’re back again with The VO Meter. This is Chris, and I’m here with the very talented Ray Chase. Ray, how are you?
Hi, there. I’m doing great. Thank you for calling me very talented.
This is the best way to start a podcast.
Thank you. Thank you.
You’ve got to kiss the right butt.
Exactly.
So, how are you enjoying your con so far?
This is awesome. I’m here with my pals Max Middleman and Robbie Damon. We’ve been doing our shows.
The fans are really excited. It’s been fun. Lodocon was my first con two years ago, so it’s great to be back.
That’s good. We’re happy to have you back. I want to ask you, what in your life experience was most helpful to you to become a voice actor?
When I was a little kid, my dad would tell us stories to go to sleep that were really funny, and he would do tons of voices. He grew up watching lots of fun cartoons and always just playing around, and so I grew up mimicking his voices that he came up with. And then, yeah, later on I ended up taking a felon to acting, and then realized, oh yeah, I already knew how to change my voice.
This is great. So I think that’s… I attribute that to my dad, for sure.
Oh, great, great. Fathers really do have an impact. I do the same thing to my kids as well, every night.
You do? You tell them stories?
Yeah, I do. Sometimes I want to hear it, sometimes I don’t. So…
What beyond talent do you feel one needs to book work and to keep booking work?
In order to make a career as a voice actor, you have to have a lot of clients, because one job is not going to pay the bills. And because of that, it takes a long time for you to be able to quit your day job. You’ll have a lot of little jobs from voice acting that it takes years to actually achieve.
So that takes resolve, and I think that’s a really, really important thing. You can be really talented, but in order to actually see it through and put in the years that it takes, even once you’re booking work, like there’s still years before you book work, now you’re booking work, it still takes a few years for you to actually make a career out of it. So keep your resolve on.
Absolutely. Do you have any classes or books or programs you recommend?
Let’s see. There’s a book called Accents, a Manual for Actors by Robert Blumenfeld that I bought in high school, came with two CDs, and it just goes through all of the accents, even through time. And really, he doesn’t use IPA, he uses his own way of writing out accents, and it’s just a really helpful reference.
I spent one summer in high school and just learned 30 of them, just to be able to say, okay, at least I have a groundwork of accents to rely on. Hugely helpful book. I love that one.
Great, great. I hope to check that book out.
Yeah, for sure.
Do you have a home studio?
I do.
What do you have in it?
A microphone, I hope. It’s a Sennheiser 416 with a Scarlett preamp. And that one, I’ve had that set up basically for since forever.
That’s my… Since when I first started out, I had a little USB mic and then eventually when I started doing audio books, I put down the money to get a real good microphone.
That’s great. I have the Sennheiser as well, too. So it’s a great mic.
When you do a lot of your recordings, do you record with an ensemble cast or are you just by yourself?
My career has made me very lonely. I never record with anybody ever for anything. I know so few voice actors, which is a damn shame.
For video games, it’s all by ourselves. And for all my anime, it’s all by myself. I’m starting to do some animation work, but even that, it’s all by myself.
So no ensembles for me.
I was actually checking out your website and I noticed I had a very nostalgia 80s feel to it, and I personally loved it. So do you feel like having a little… I’m assuming you’re a big 80s fan, as well as all the nostalgia.
Do you feel that plays a very good impact on designing your website?
Well, that specifically is early 90s pixel art style, because that’s what I grew up on, on DOS computers. I had a Compaq 386 when I was a kid, and so I played all of those old Apogee software games and Epic Mega games. That was what I grew up on.
So that’s what I made my website on. I found a really cool pixel artist, Ainsley Askew, and she’s awesome.
That’s great. How much time do you find marketing yourself versus your agent getting you work? How much time do you get work?
How much is your time devoted to getting your own work? And how much time is devoted to your agent getting work? Is it a unique blend?
I would say that’s 50-50, and that’s the way it should be. You’re getting stuff that’s coming through the pipeline that your agent’s sending you, your agent’s pitching you on stuff, and that’s half of the work. But yeah, the other half is marketing yourself.
I don’t know if actual marketing works to get jobs in the social media sense, but what really helps is going out to industry mixers, meeting people, going to conventions. I’ve been going to GDC for the last five years. That’s the kind of stuff that really makes a difference, not making a Facebook post.
I don’t think that really makes much of a difference.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Now, you play a wide range of characters, probably most infamously, we, Noctis, from The Farmers Day 15. How do you develop each character’s voice?
It’s a collaboration with any director that you’re working with. For Noctis, the voice I use to audition is different than the voice that was in Episode Dust Guy, which is different than the actual voice that Noctis had. So it takes a long time.
It’s a process for a lot of these characters. But some of them, you audition, and it’s right out of the gate. You’re doing fine.
Like for Puri Puri Prisoner, it was immediately angel style, and you know it’s the real guy.
Absolutely. Now, as we talked a little bit about your career, can you tell us how you got started in the business?
I always did Voice 123, and that’s how I got started doing little low-paying jobs. Started building up a reel because of that over a couple years. And then in 2013, I started doing audio books, and I did about 200 in a three-year period, all by myself.
And that was a good way to get out of bartending, which was what I was doing, but it didn’t really help my voice acting career. It wasn’t until I met Max Middleman and we started taking classes together through Voice Actors Network and Voice Actors Network and Voices Voicecasting that I started to actually start booking some work through that. So I highly recommend those two.
Okay, do you have any current projects that you’re working on that you’d like to share?
Well, of course, we can’t talk about anything, but I can talk about some that are announced. We’ve got Fooly Cooly. Alternative is coming out in September, and at some point, Bloodstained is gonna come out.
I don’t know when the heck that game is gonna come out, but I can’t wait to play it.
All right, great. Well, we’re gonna run out of time right now, but right before we go, where can people find you online and everything?
Twitter, Ray Chase, or Instagram, RayChaseNation.
All right, excellent. Ray, thank you very much for your time. And hope you enjoy your con.
Take care.
Make sure you get that handshake in the podcast. You got it.
And we’re back. This is Chris with The VO Meter. I’m here with Bryce Papenbrook.
Bryce, thank you so much for meeting with me today. I can’t talk.
Happy to be here.
Yeah, all right. You’ve voiced a lot of my favorite roles, Kirito and Sora online, Erin Yeager, actually Kat Noir from the Adventures of Ladybug and Kat Noir. So there are a lot of emotionally draining and powerful roles.
So how do you develop each character’s voice?
Each one is kind of unique and different. It’s really a collaborative process. So first, when you’re cast in a role, you know there’s a whole auditioning process to even get in and to get cast as the role.
But once you’re cast, you work with the team. Sometimes it’s just you, an engineer and a director. Sometimes there’s also a producer there.
Sometimes there’s a team of producers. But what you do is you kind of look at the character and you come up with something, and then the director will adjust you a little bit, and then you adjust it a little bit. And then once you kind of find that role, they capture it.
They record it. And then every time you start a session, they use what’s called a vocal ref, which is just a playback of what you recorded that first session. And that kind of gets you back into the character.
You mentioned that you record with a cast. Do you usually record by yourself or part of an ensemble cast?
So it all depends on what kind of a show it is. If it’s an original animation where they’re animating based off of the audio, it records as an ensemble, almost like an old radio play. If it’s anime, so if we’re dubbing it from another language, which would include Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, and Miraculous Ladybug, those are all dubs, we record one at a time because we’re actually hitting sync.
So you’re looking at a screen, you see your character, the character’s talking and you’re talking at the same time, and the goal is to make it not look like Godzilla. Like you want it to fit the flaps. So it’d be almost impossible to do as a group.
It’s very difficult even to do by yourself.
Do you record a lot at your home? And if you do, what type of equipment do you use?
Sure, yeah, I do a lot of auditioning out of my house. I have like a semi-professional set up. I started with just a very basic mic that I bought at Guitar Center and it worked.
But I’ve reinvested a few times. So I have a Neumann TLM 103. It’s a great microphone.
I have a Universal Audio preamp and an M-Box. And then I use Pro Tools to record all my auditions.
What percentage of your work is North America versus Japan?
You know, it’s a blend of work that I do. Really, I kind of cast my net out as wide as possible. And I’ve done quite a bit of both.
Because on top of anime, I do a lot of video games. I also do radio and TV commercials. And I also do something called Walla, which is recreating the background noises in movies and TV shows.
You might notice my voice is a little beat up because I was working on a movie. When was that? Two days ago.
Screaming quite a bit. So it’s a blend of everything.
Well, so you mentioned now, familiar with that, it’s also called a loop group and everything, where movies and everything. What warmups do you do? Do you take any herbal tea or any kind of vocal sprays that kind of keep your voice in pristine condition?
I don’t. My warmup is yelling at other people in traffic. That’s really what I do.
But I wasn’t traditionally trained as a, or formally trained as a voice actor. I kind of learned on the job. And I looked back at a lot of the things that I did growing up, like I taught martial arts.
So I would just yell at kids and yell at kids and yell at kids, and then their parents would come and take class and I’d yell at their parents. So that kind of was my vocal training. So I have a different approach than a lot of other people.
Yeah, talking about your background a little bit, it’s amazing that for 16 years you’ve been practicing martial arts and you’re a third degree or sixth degree?
Fourth degree black belt. Tongue snow, yeah. I think it’s about time I test for my fifth, but I’ve been a little busy doing some other things.
So what was that crossover for doing martial arts into voiceover? How did you get your start into that?
Well, actually, my dad was a voice actor, so he was working on Power Rangers, and they needed a kid’s voice on Power Rangers, and my dad’s like, he’s a kid, throw him in the booth! And that’s how I got thrown into the booth for the first time. I never thought that I would really be a professional actor.
Actually, I thought I would be a professional fighter first. Then I went to UCLA and studied political science and philosophy, thought I would be an attorney. You know, it makes sense.
Fighter, attorney, voice actor, yeah! All leads. But I’ve always been around the industry, and when I graduated college, I booked something and then booked something else and booked something else and thought, I’m gonna give this a real shot.
And went for it and haven’t looked back.
Wow, that’s incredible. So it’s a really inspiring story. So how much of your time do you find yourself doing marketing for VO jobs?
How much of the percentage is by your agents and how much percent is on your own?
I mean, it’s a good blend. I’ve made a lot of contacts being in the industry for a long time, so people know the kind of roles that I play and they send me auditions for those. But the majority of my auditions come from my agent.
Yeah, I mean, there’s just a lot of competition out there. So auditioning is really the job. If you book one out of 100 auditions, you’re doing extremely well.
That is true. I’m very familiar with that. Actually, I heard one out of 200, so half that, so that’s good.
So, you know… All right, so now if you have someone young who says, Hey, Bryce, Michael E. Bryce, I want to be a voice actor.
How can I get my start? What advice do you have for me?
Yeah, I mean, it’s so tough because there’s not one way to become a voice actor. It’s not like if you go and study this, then you’re going to get cast as this role. It’s, you know, it’s totally random.
But I tell people, become an actor. Hone in on your craft. Record an amazing voice demo.
That’s almost like your business card. Get a great agent. Start auditioning.
Get as much experience as you can. And then hope that something hits. You know, there’s just no guarantees.
It’s like shooting darts at a darkboard blindfolded. But when you hit the bullseye, it’s an amazing experience.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Bryce, that kind of wraps up everything right now.
I want to take it easy. I know your voice is a little raspy. I don’t want you to talk and everything.
A little beat up.
So, Mr. Pappenbrook, thank you very much for meeting me today. And I hope you have yourself a great time and good luck on your journey.
Thank you. And I’d love to tell people where they can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Bryce Pappenbrook, on Facebook at actor Bryce Pappenbrook. And they should check me out on the Unlocked app, which is available for iOS, which is an app that I co-founded, and it connects actors and voice actors and creators to fans around the world.
So it’s amazing I can take people behind the scenes and show you what it’s like to record as a voice actor and what it’s like to go to these amazing conventions. So check out the Unlocked app.
Absolutely.
On iOS now and coming to Android very soon.
All right. Thank you very much. Hey, this is Chris.
We are back on the VO Meter. I’m here with Cherami Leigh. Thank you very much for spending time with me today.
So over 20 years of voice actor acting in general, that’s quite a resume. So I got to ask you, what in your life experience was most helpful to you in becoming a voice actor?
Man, I don’t know. I kind of just fell into voice acting. I started out just wanting to be an actor, and my ultimate goal when I started was to be on Barney.
And I was not on Barney, but I’ve gotten to do tons of other things. I have worked at Radio Disney. I’ve been an on-air DJ for them.
I’ve written scripts. I’ve been a copywriter. I’ve done promos for them.
I’ve been in an improv troupe. I’ve been interned at an agency. I’ve done adaptive script writing, directing, producing, and industrials, commercials, all of that.
And so just to say what I think is more impactful than the other, I think they’ve all helped in some way. Seeing the business from all these different sides, getting to experience a recording session from the side of a director or a casting director, that influences how I audition as an actor. Getting to see what it’s like working on the marketing side of things, working at Radio Disney helps me influence how I present myself when I’m helping market a show.
So all of these things have been instrumental to me and that’s one of the reasons why I love when people say, I just want to learn more about the industry. I’m like, yes, you have to learn as much as you can because it’s all interdependent and it’s constantly changing. The more knowledge you have, the more likely you’re going to be able to work because you’re constantly growing.
You’re more, I think, you’re more open to information and people can see that when they want to hire you or when they’re asking you to direct something. I think watching anime, watching movies, playing video games, being aware of what’s out there, all of that stuff is super important because if they’re trying to direct you in terms of a series that’s on Netflix, hey, can you think about this kind of character and you’re like, oh, I don’t actually watch that show or I have no idea what that is, it’s part of your job as an actor to be aware of what’s out there so that you’re involved in the business.
Absolutely, so much like any other career profession, you got to study and stay on top of it. What beyond talent do you feel one needs to book work and keep working? What do you need to kind of stay fresh and everything?
I think the biggest thing is a passion and love for what you do because if you don’t love it, the rejection is going to be so hard, it’s draining, it constantly brings you down. I love this industry so much. If I wasn’t an actor, I would still probably be in the industry in some shape, form, or fashion, but I found I would miss acting too much, that that’s just what I have to do.
But it sucks. I mean, sometimes I’ll not book something over and over again or I’ll be so close on something so many times and they’ll point out everything that’s wrong and I have to remind myself, well, but I got to play that character for five minutes. For those five minutes, I was the only fill in the blank of what I auditioned for.
And I can always savor those five minutes. And I’ve got to go in and have fun with my audition and not go in trying to make them like me. I mean, it’s sort of like when you go out on a date.
When you go on a date and you’re like, please like me, please like me, please like me, they’re going to feel this desperate energy from you and say like, I feel like they’re just not, they’re not present with me. I feel like they’re not showing me who they really are. Whereas if you go, you know what, I’m just going to have a fun time with this person, learn about them, have a conversation.
If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But I’m me and we’re together for this moment. We get to go see this movie and have a great time.
And I think that’s what you’ve got to do as an actor, is keep it fresh, keep it fun, and remember why you started acting in the first place, because the business will try to tear you down.
Excellent advice, I got to say.
Thank you.
Any classes or books or programs you recommend?
Oh my gosh, so many great classes. I think it’s so imperative to take improv. I think it’s so, so imperative, especially for voice acting, to take cold reading classes, because I never get the script ahead of time.
I walk in, this is the first time I’m seeing the script, and I’m previewing the scene in Japanese while I’m seeing those words for the very first time, and then I’ve got to do the next take and try to get it as word perfect as I possibly can. So cold reading classes are really important. I actually think it’s important to work out and stay fit, because it keeps your lungs fresh and it gives you stamina in the booth and keeps you able to work longer and do longer screams and all of that stuff is very important.
Or if you want to do more motion capture, all of that physicalization is really important for you to be able to expand in that area of your career. I’ve read a lot of really great books. One of them that I just read, I think, is called The Dude and the Zen Master, and that was a really fun book with Jeff Bridges, and obviously a Zen Master.
I really loved that one. I love reading spiritual books. There’s a book that Dee Wallace wrote.
She was the mother of ET, and she’s looking at acting from a spiritual perspective, and I feel like it definitely is. I mean, the things that you’re working on as an actor and the things that are coming up for you in a scene and the roles that you’re booking, it’s amazing how much of a correlation it has to you in your life’s journey, and I think if you look at that as a way of kind of doing free therapy, it can only feed your experience as a human being and as an actor, so it challenges me. Some of the roles, I’m like, ah, I don’t think I relate to this character, and then when I read into it, I go, this is exactly what I needed to do.
This is what I was avoiding dealing with in my own life, and this role came to me as a challenge to get over myself and learn and grow, and I’m so grateful for it.
That’s great. That’s great. So now, after part day of voice acting, how do you find yourself distressed to unplug, unwind?
Yeah, I love to work out, just because I have a lot of… Usually I’m doing some sort of fighting game or some sort of fighting something. I’ve got to get all this physical energy out.
I usually like to actually watch documentaries on Netflix. I’m fascinated by human beings, so when I come home, I want to learn about somebody else or read a book. I like to hang out with my cats.
Shopping is fun. I usually like to write scripts. I’m writing a TV pilot and a movie right now, so jumping into another world is really fun.
But then there are some times I’m like, I just want to lay here and play this stupid app game on my phone about interior design. So sometimes it’s that. I’ve just been so emotionally tapped.
All I can do is pretend to rearrange a house.
That’s good. Any little bit helps.
Yeah, any little bit helps.
So you mentioned a little bit about writing scripts right now. Do you have any projects that you’re working on right now that you like to share?
A couple of years ago, my husband and I, he wrote and directed and I produced and gave him the idea for a series called Confessionals about… it’s an on-camera web series about voice actors at conventions and seeing the behind the scenes. So that is going to a web series festival in New Jersey next month.
So that will be really fun to see how people that are not in the voice over or anime community respond to that. And I’m working on Steins Gate Zero. I’m working on about ten video games that I’m not allowed to talk about right now.
I’m directing, co-directing an anime series. And I just finished doing Book Two, an audio book with Todd Haberkorn and Brittany Karbroski for… it’s called Tell-A-World.
It’s part of the Color World series by Rachel Kelly. So there’s a lot of stuff going on. Those are the few things I can talk about right now.
Hopefully we get more sword art. Hopefully we get more fairy tale. We’ll see.
Alright. So how do you find yourself calming down after a whole session of screaming and everything? What techniques do you do?
Do you have any sprays or any vocal tea that you use?
Yeah. I love Singer Saving Grace. That’s great.
I usually try to stay away from sugar. So they come in a yellow bag there. I can’t remember what they’re called, but it’s a yellow bag of cough drops that are sweet and mastivia.
I love them so much. And I drink a lot of throat coat tea. And there’s a Chinese cough syrup that I buy on Amazon, which is so delicious.
And it really can just coat your voice. But the most important thing that I have to do when it is shredded, and I mean like shredded beyond all belief, I have to be quiet. I can’t talk to anyone.
I can’t respond to anybody. I’ve got to write letters around and hope that people can read my lips. But that’s what I have to do when it’s just really, really tapped.
I just have to be quiet. But it doesn’t happen too often. The only time that I shredded my voice this year, I was dealing with really bad allergies.
And then went in to do a session where I had to die 400 ways. One of them, the last one, was we’re going to stab you in the throat, rip your throat up and set you on fire. And I was like, awesome, I think that’s going to be the last one of the day.
And it was, but it sounded real cool. So I guess there’s that.
That’s great. Now you mentioned that Chinese tea, I actually use it as well. I heard it’s been called the Hulk Juice.
It has been called the Hulk Juice.
Yeah, because right after Camp Francis’ last name, Ted Escora, he uses it, and he says it works wonders.
My trainer, and he’s an incredible actor as well, Lou Freignot Jr., obviously his dad is the Hulk Hulk, I should see if I can just drop some off at his house, because when I train in their gym behind their home, I should just be like, this is Hulk Juice. It’s an offering. You should have this.
And see how he responds. See what he thinks. Because we’ve got to get all the Hulk stamp of approval on it.
Mark Ruffalo will be next.
Well, Cherami, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. So thank you so much for your time.
I really appreciate it. You gave such amazing advice. Thank you.
It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
You too. You have yourself a good one. We’re back on the VO Meter with Josh Greeley.
I’m here with James. James, how are you doing? I’m doing great.
So, Josh, thank you very much for meeting with us today.
Absolutely.
How are you enjoying the con?
Fantastic, man. I was telling someone earlier, you know, like 14 years ago when I was still starting out, I hadn’t really done anything yet in the industry. This was the first con that I ever came to as an attendee from Texas.
It was the first time I’d ever really flown out of state by myself to go to anything like this. And it changed my life, changed my world. And I decided from that point on that, you know, one of the milestones, one of the goals I wanted for my career was to be a guest at this con and took me 14 years, but I did it.
So yeah, it’s been, it’s literally been a dream come true all weekend.
That’s amazing goal. And I actually have like a similar goal to that, I can’t talk either.
We talk for a living. That’s the thing.
That’s always the curse.
We talk for a living, we can’t freaking do it at the time.
Yeah, so we’re 14 years in voice over. So mind sharing, how’d you get started?
I, well, in voice over, I started just because I got the phone number for ADV Films and said, I want to be a voice actor. And so, but I started in theater. I started as an actor when I was five years old.
And I did nothing but community theater from, you know, that point, you know, upwards. My little podunk town in Texas didn’t offer theater in school at all. So it was, community theater was really the only game in town for me.
And that’s where I started and where I really kind of found my life love as early as five years old. And then, you know, I’d loved cartoons growing up, fell in love with anime, you know, from a very early age, you know, Pokemon, you know, when it hit was definitely huge. But then discovering less mainstream stuff on my own and then, you know, like Slayers and Ranma One-Half and stuff.
And then eventually to and Dirty Pair and Dirty Pair Flash and all those good like in old school ADV stuff like Evangelion and then Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and all those, you know, the Toonami stuff from my childhood. Everything was just it all kind of culminated individually was just like, well, I love cartoons and I love acting. Maybe I should marry these two loves.
And so I decided to pursue it. And a buddy of mine through an online forum that went to school with a girl that had done some voice work. She was the voice of Nadia and the 90 dub, the 90s Nadia Secret of Blue Water.
And she gave me the she gave me the phone number for ADV. And I just called them up. It was like I’d like to do this.
And they put me on a waiting list for auditions and stuff. And January of 04, three months before I graduated high school, I started I did my first professional gig. And it’s they liked me enough that they kept using me.
And, you know, sometimes, you know, that particular branch of ADV shut down. And so I had to, you know, you know, I thought everything was over, you know, before it even started. But then a director I’d worked with there was moved down to the main branch in Houston.
And he brought me in on a year and a half long project. And other directors found me as a result of that. And then Funimation people discovered me through Monica Rial.
And then it is just one thing led to another. And, you know, here I am 14 years later, still riding the train, man.
That’s a great journey.
Yeah.
So you talked about, you know, you said it’s a life experience. What in your life experience was most helpful to you in becoming a voice actor or an actor in general?
What life experience was most valuable? Becoming an actor first. Because acting not only, you know, gave me the tools that I needed to, you know, actually, you know, go in with, you know, my guns blazing for my first audition, my first official professional audition, you know, I was already comfortable with myself as a performer.
But becoming an actor also taught me how to put on a confident face, even in my most frightful moments. And so, like, every time that I had a crippling self-doubt or something going into the booth or to an audition or anything like that, I would just start acting like a confident person. And that got me through it.
And so, yeah, acting literally is the thing that made me become a professional actor and not just because of the craft itself.
Absolutely. That’s great for job interviews, right?
Right, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. You go in and you’re just like, I can own this. Like, I’ve got the script, you’ve got the script in your head.
And you’ve been trained in improv and stuff, so you can roll with the punches for whoever’s interviewing you and everything. So yeah, it’s a great set of tools to have in your kit.
Awesome. You mentioned Monica Rial earlier. So she moved to Funimation long before you did.
What was the first project she brought you in for?
Kenichi.
Kenichi.
Yeah.
We had ADV films. I had had my first lead role in a show called The Wallflower. Had a couple of parts after that, and then Matt Greenfield cast me as the lead in Gurrenlagen when we first brought it to the States.
And we did the first five episodes of it, and this was going to be my first breakout role. This would have made my career back in 2006, 2007. But I lost it within a month of having it, and it was heartbreaking, and I thought I almost gave up on all of it after that.
And then Monica had, because ADV was about to fold as a result of losing the title, she moved up to Dallas. She’d been working for Dallas for a long time, but she officially moved up there. They made her a director, and the first show they gave her was Kenichi, and I auditioned for it out of a closet in Houston.
And she, I guess, you know, after just from some of the times that we’d worked together at ADV, and from my audition, she thought that I had what it took to give Kenichi what she was looking for, and she literally changed my life. Brought me up there, and with all the funny people discovered me because of it, and because of Kenichi, and most of my work at ADV had been villains, because that’s how they knew me for, for the most part, and it was fun, but I didn’t get to, you know, I started getting stuck in just doing nothing but that, and then Funimation saw me, the first thing they saw me on was the young hero, and so I played young heroes ever since, and without that, I probably would never have been Armin. I probably would have never been the Grand Minister, you know, in Dragon Ball, the show that solidified my love of anime, and like, it’s, it really, like losing that role was the biggest blessing in disguise that I ever could have hoped for on my journey, and you know, it took me four or five years to actually realize it, and so like, it’s, sorry, I’m not even sure if I’m answering your question.
No, you are, you are.
Yeah, it’s so weird how these little things that you think, these things that come along and punch you in the face and make you want to give up, and just the fact that you stick with it, and it finds out that that wallop to the face was actually the wake-up, exactly what you needed to happen. Yeah, it’s a hard lesson to learn, but it’s so worth it if you stick with it and you learn it.
Yeah, so how did you manage to stay positive and unbeaten and not give up and say, oh, this is… You have a huge role like that being taken away. How did you manage to work through that?
Really, it was just the fact that I just wanted to keep pursuing the dream. I wasn’t ready to give up. I had so many goals set for me that I had set for myself beforehand, and the thought of not finishing those, even if it was through no fault of my own, still felt like if I didn’t finish them, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
It would feel like a failure. And while I don’t want to be afraid of failure, I would rather think of failure as the great teacher, as the thing that you need to go through in order to learn. That was one thing of like if I lost and was not able to at least do the things that I had set out to do initially with this, I had set so much of my own self-worth in that goal that I wasn’t willing to give it up yet.
And thank God I held on even for just those few months because then, you know, Kenichi came along and that was a two-year-long process after doing that whole show. It helped me pay the rent. I moved up to Dallas as a result of it and more and more people started using me.
It was just like, all right, well, I guess life’s moving on. I’m moving out of another place. I moved up even closer to home than I was before.
So yeah, it all worked out in the end.
That’s great. You have any classes or programs you recommend to anyone who wishes to pursue in the field?
I highly recommend looking up any sort of classes first that are actually done at colleges or any sort of theater courses or if someone’s still in high school or something, if their high school offers that, do that. It’s really, it’s kind of a, it’s a hard process now, these days, to find teachers that are actually worth their salt. I think there’s a lot of people that are starting to see classes as just money farms and people that aren’t actually qualified to teach aren’t actually, aren’t the ones that are, you know, and then the market’s being saturated with these people.
So I would just say for anybody that was gonna do that, if you’re gonna pay something along the lines of $600 for a course, which I have, I paid $600 for a full weekend workshop where I worked 12 hours a day with one of the industry’s most well-informed and most experienced voice directors and voice casters in the history of voiceover. That’s worth it. If I then paid that same $600 to be in a class with, to be in a one-day class for one hour with only, with like eight to ten people, and I’m only getting like five, maybe five minutes in the booth, and we do that for like maybe just a couple of weeks or whatever, it’s like, you’re not learning anything.
You’re not getting any experience or any exposure. You are literally, it’s just a money farm. It is a ripoff.
And I, so like just be wary of exactly what it is people are offering, because it’s getting dangerously close to pay to play. And that’s, if that starts, it’s gonna hurt everyone.
Absolutely.
So yeah, just find teachers. Find teachers. That’s the best thing that I can tell someone.
Now, like I mentioned in regards to rates and everything, as you mentioned, pay to play sites, there are a lot of, one that won’t be mentioned, you know, will charge a large fee and then pay the actor very minimal.
Yes.
So, how would you feel to kind of like, actors who really want to get this gig, they feel it’s a big opportunity, but the price isn’t what they want, and what do you have to, what advice can you give them for that?
Are you talking about Voices 123? Because I will say that name out loud. Yeah.
voices.com and Voices 123, this was strictly something to bring in amateurs with a dream that did not know, that do not know the industry, do not know what their time is worth or what a commercial booking is worth. And these websites rip them off. And they make them think that, oh no, you’re living the dream, you’re getting paid exactly, you’re getting paid the big bucks, like the big professional things.
No, they are being ripped off in order for this website to make the majority of that money that I would make if my agent had booked it for me instead. And using that to build their website so that they can rip more people off. So like, yeah, I have no problem saying those names out loud and accusing them and calling them out on their BS because they are also part of the problem.
Absolutely, yeah, it’s very hard.
So yeah, that’s another thing I would say to look out for. Because they’ve already oversaturated the market with so many people that just, you know, sit around at home after their job and from their couch just think, you know, I think I’d like to try to do voices. And they actually, and they give them that opportunity to come in and, you know, think that they’re going to get an extra form of income or something.
And it literally is just a way to give other, you know, commercial companies a way to pay less. And again, that’s another thing that will damage everyone. It will damage the entirety of the industry at every level, and this will not be a job that anybody can do to actually make a living at anymore.
And the profession will die. The profession will die. So…
It’s a small, small ripple that will affect everyone.
Quick question. I would like to hear your opinion on, based on what you’ve heard from young amateur voice actors, what’s the number one error you see them make as they’re going about their career?
This idea that they need to seek out the advice of people like me in order to take that first step. I had no idea when I was doing, when I started this. Absolutely none.
I had nobody that I could turn to. The internet was still a fairly new thing. Facebook wasn’t even around yet, or Twitter.
There was no big social media way for anybody. Like, everybody just had their own private email. If you didn’t know somebody’s email, you didn’t know how to get in touch with them.
So, like, it really was just like, I just had to figure it out for myself, and I carved my own path. And the great thing and the hard thing at the same time about this industry is that you don’t have to. There is no one way.
It is literally a… This is the type of business that is kind of a frontier, like a wild frontier type thing. If you can figure out a way to get in and how you…
What you have to offer and how you can use what you have to offer to get yourself into the industry your own way, that is the best way. Yes, is it smart to ask for advice? Absolutely, and I’m willing to give it.
But the biggest mistake that I see people make is this idea that, no, I’m not ready yet. I can’t be ready until I’ve gotten all the information, until I’ve asked every single actor or anything like that, and then they never move on it. They never actually do it.
Just do it. Just go. And the other thing that I think is a big mistake is this idea of only becoming an anime voice actor.
Yeah. Pigeonholing yourself. Or only doing voices on YouTube.
And they want to make a living doing this. They want to make a career out of it. These are not sustainable.
There is no possible way I could stay just an anime voice actor and pay my bills. And only do that. And keep my schedule open for whenever I would have the next anime gig.
I assume that means a lot of commercial voiceovers.
Lots. You take everything. Take everything.
You audition for original animation, industrials, commercials, narration, audiobook narration, industrial narration, video games, political.
Anything that you can do.
This idea of… Greg Ayers, a very popular voice actor, has one of the best ways of explaining this that I’ve heard. Saying that you want to become a voice actor and only work in anime is the same idea as saying, I want to run a car dealership, but only sell 1967 Camaros.
Yep.
You’re not going to make a living off that. It’s unrealistic. People, I think, need to realize that this is not a job…
The reason, the stereotype of the young working actor that also works as a barista or a waiter or a waitress or something is so prominent to the point of being a stereotype. It’s a stereotype for a reason. It’s because we all do it.
We all have something. Most people that I know that started in theater and that are chasing after some sort of career in this field have a second job. For a very long time, the only reason I couldn’t, I didn’t have a second job, was because I shared a one-bedroom apartment with four people.
And so our rent was extremely cheap. And we lived like animals, basically, but we paid the rent. We had all of the free time and stuff that we could want, and that allowed me to be only open to acting.
But eventually, at one point, when I was working for Funimation, and only funny for a while, before I became a writer, I delivered cookies. I worked for two years, almost two and a half, three years for a company. And I did it full-time hours, but in order to make full-time hours but still keep myself open during the week, I only worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
So I would work three 12-hour shifts back to back, and then I’d have the rest of my Monday through Friday open for any sort of voice work that I might potentially get. And thankfully, they were all so willing to let me go take time off on those weekends to go do conventions whenever I had conventions as well. So I was insanely lucky and fortunate to find a job that was even willing to have on a part-time or semi-full-time employee that they would also let go every other week end or something.
I mean, insanely fortunate, and I did not appreciate them as much as I should have when I had them. But people need to realize that they need to have some sort of backup or some sort of other form of income in order to make this work in the initial stages. It is very rare that someone comes in and blows people out of the water and immediately gets the first lead role that then becomes like the next big thing and it makes their career overnight.
Most… No, it is so incredibly rare that it’s… that I would almost say that it never happens.
So, yeah, that’s the other. That’s the other. Those are really the two biggest mistakes I hear.
Other than that, people looking for a backdoor. The people that consistently ask the question, how do I become a voice actor? How do I get in the industry?
And then you give them the answer and there’s so much work involved with that answer that they are not willing to listen to it. They want the instant gratification. They want the, oh no, how do I come into this right now?
What’s the backdoor? There is none. I had to make my own and I kicked it down until they let me freaking do what I wanted to do.
Obviously, I was professional about it. I was never a jerk or anything and I never tried to force myself on anybody. You know, I let my work ethic and my ability speak for themselves.
And really, I think that’s the best approach is you go in, you kick ass at your job, and when you’re done, you shut up and leave. Absolutely. They remember you because you’re good and you’re fast and you’re professional and then you get out of their hair and you let them continue working.
So yeah, those are the three biggest issues that I think I hear all the time consistently at almost every convention. And from people online and emails that I get and letters that I get and stuff like that, it’s… I wish and I hope that every single one of those people, if this is something that they absolutely cannot see themselves being happy unless they are doing this, I hope that they find their way in and I hope that they find the courage to actually just say, you know what, maybe I should just try this.
Maybe I should just go ahead and do it and see where it goes. And I hope that, you know, I would hope that they all, you know, find their dreams and live it, but as long as they keep this mindset of, no, I need the back door or I just want the instant gratification or anything like that, and yeah, sure, you might succeed. You might get it, but it’s going to be hollow and it’s not going to be fulfilling because then you’ll always just be expecting the rest of your career to be just as instantly gratifying as that, and that is not the nature of this business.
Absolutely.
You’ll be told no a hundred times before you’re told yes. And if someone can’t handle that, they should not be doing this.
That’s right. Overnight success takes 20 years. Hey, this is Chris for The VO Meter.
I’m here with Mr. Matsukaze. Thank you very much for meeting with us today.
Nice to meet you. Thank you, thank you.
So, can you tell us a little bit how you got started in the voiceover business?
So, I started out in a hero, like a hero, like Power Rangers style show called Denshi Sentai.
In the movie, the sound and the video were filmed separately.
So, that was filmed using film. So, the visuals and the audio tracks were recorded separately.
After that, I shot a game.
At that time, I shot motion capture and CG.
So, after that, I was actually headhunted to be in a game called Shenmue, where I did the motion capture and the voice over work. So, it was another one of those jobs where I was doing the visual, physical side of it, and then doing voice over work as well.
So, I was introduced to the Shenmue sound director for an audition for an animation.
So, I started out as just a straight, plain actor, but because my debut was the type where I was required to do the overdubbing, and then I moved into another job where I was doing overdubbing with Shenmue, the voice director for Shenmue actually introduced me to some auditions for anime work after that.
Wow, it’s amazing.
It’s amazing.
Do you think this career path is only for you in Japan?
This kind of career path that other people in Japan, aside from me, don’t necessarily have.
People tell me it’s a very rare type.
It is, it is. You’re very skilled, very talented.
Lucky, lucky man.
So, how do you develop each character’s voice?
What is it like to develop each character’s voice?
There are those who speak normally and are interesting, and those who aren’t.
I’m not that type of person.
So, you could probably divide the types of voice actors in Japan into two categories. The type of person who their normal speaking voice is very interesting and original, and then there’s the type of actor who has to create a voice, and I’m the type that is voice creation type.
So, I try and do is strengthen the traits of the character that I associate with, and try and really bring that closer to who I am and my empathy with that character. And then on the other end of it, I try to take the parts that I don’t necessarily associate with and bring those closer to what I can do with the character. So, I try to create a voice that is as much of me as I can, and bring the character closer to what I empathize with that character.
Great talent. Very good. Do you record mostly by yourself or as part of an ensemble cast?
How much work do you find doing by yourself and how much work do you find doing with the cast?
I hear that it’s kind of a Japan-only type of approach, but we try as much as possible to gather everybody and do all of the voice work at the same time.
So, there’s usually about four mics, and then everybody stands around the mics, and when it’s your turn to talk, you step up and do your lines, and then you try and make as little sound as possible as you move away and kind of step out of the range, and then come back around and wait.
In line for your next turn and do the next line.
So before they have to do some really energetic like screaming style acting or something, you have to stand up extremely quietly and approach with making no sound, and then you do your yelling, and then you have to also leave without making any sound, so I hear that it’s a very Japanese talent that people outside of Japan don’t necessarily work in those kind of conditions.
Absolutely. From what we do here, we usually record separately. Very artists, because their schedule and conflicts are doing many different projects, they’ll record separately and then paste it all together.
Very few projects.
It’s hard to do it alone in the US.
Do they record at home sometimes too, right?
Yes, we do. We have our own home studios at home. That was like the last question.
Do you primarily go to your own studio, or do you go to a studio from whatever production company you’re working for?
That leads to the next question. Do you have your own studio at home, or do you work there?
We have a sound recording studio in Tokyo.
So there’s a multitude, like many tens of studios around Tokyo. So we have to go around to the different studios.
So all of the voice actors have to meet at a specific sound studio at a specific time. So everybody meets at the studio, and then meets at a different studio for the next… There’s probably not even a single voice actor in Japan that has their own home studio.
Really?
The reason for that being that there’s no director at your house, so you have to go to where the director is.
There are musicians, but there are no musicians who go to their homes to record.
So of course there’s musicians who do that sort of thing, but no matter how famous the person is, there’s probably nobody who does their recording at home and sends it in in Japan. That kind of doesn’t exist.
Wow, that’s a lot of different. There are some production companies that we will have to go to the studio, but a lot of times if we’re doing a quick commercial or what have you, we’ll usually do it through Skype or through a phone patch and record the lines that way.
We’ve heard a lot about this, and we’ve heard that when a Chinese client is doing a script, the director can’t come.
So we’ve heard rumors that the director is doing a script on Skype.
I’ve heard rumors of productions that are based in China, where you talk via the director in China via Skype. I’ve never experienced it, but I’ve heard rumors.
Yeah, I’ve actually done that.
In Japan, there are actors, directors, Japanese directors, and Chinese directors on Skype.
In that case, usually, there’s the Japanese voice actor, and then the Japanese director, or the production director, and then the Chinese director. So they are the ones who are doing Skype, and then the production manager is the one who’s giving the directions from China to the voice actor.
Wow, a lot of work for the director.
The director must be very busy.
Do you, in the ensemble cast, rehearse beforehand, or do you get the script usually as soon as day of, and then you just kind of improv beforehand? Do you just kind of, everyone meet at an agreed time, rehearse, and then perform, or is it all just sort of improv and acting in the moment?
Do you rehearse in advance, and then everyone rehearse, and then you gather at the scene, and then you record the script, or do you go a little earlier, rehearse, and then record the show?
This is also one of the reasons why other actors are said to be quite special in voice acting.
In the old days, we would gather together and watch the script and watch the video together. Then we would say, I’m going to do the test, and then we would go into the microphone. Then we would do the show.
We would do it in real time, and then we would do it as we saw it that day.
So the traditional flow of things used to be that you would show up as a team, and there would be the rough of what’s finished, and so you watch where all of the mouth movement goes, and kind of everybody just mutters their lines, and then they say, okay, test, and everybody runs through the test rehearsal of it, and then they would take the final take, and that’s like everybody in the room for the full process, and now what’s kind of becoming more of the industry standard is that the company will send you a DVD of that footage, and so you can kind of do your practice at home and get what you’re going to do ready, and then you meet at the studio and do the test, and then do the final record.
So it’s a little similar how a lot of dubbing is done in studios such as Funimation and what have you. We won’t get a DVD sent home. Well, sometimes go to the studio, then they’ll do the test run, then we’ll kind of voice, you know, mutter our lines, then we’ll do action and record a take.
To get it delivered first.
He’s a great guy from the past.
So that’s similar to the Japanese classical style, where people who have tremendous talent would be able to show up and look at a character, for example, Nozawa Masako, who does Dragon Ball Z, is famous for being able to have no prior knowledge of a character and just see what they look like and look at them moving on the screen and come up with a funny voice that works for the character. But in modern times, it’s really difficult for somebody who’s slow in creating their character to keep up with that fever pitch at the recording studio and be expected to ad-lib that heavily. So it’s kind of shifting towards get the DVD at home and do a little bit of pre-recording.
When you’re developing a character that is getting really emotional in the moment where they have to cry and scream, how do you brace yourself for that? Do you kind of think of any emotional thoughts or do you just kind of get lost in the moment of performing the character that you just go with it and get lost in the moment?
When you’re developing a character that is getting really emotional in the moment where they have to cry and.
Moment is the moment.
It’s like the moment you create.
I really feel like explosiveness, what comes out is the most important thing.
So, like, in a play, you have the time to be, like, in your outfit, and you can remain in character, and then there’s the buildup. But when it comes to anime, everything is what’s done and what’s ready, so it has to be very in the moment.
So, I do end up kind of feeling ill, like sometimes I end up even feeling like I’m going to throw up, but I feel like when that happens, it means I’m getting closer to where I need to be, the things that I’ve got to answer.
A good voice over, just doing a very normal character, and you have to remain within the frequency of normality, then there’s no risk being… But when it comes to the protagonists, you have to be able to hit those highs and then hit those lows like super elated, like super heartbroken, very angry. All of those things, you have to be able to hit the apex and the zenith pretty repeatedly, and also in real time.
And so that’s very emotionally trying. It can be exhausting.
Yeah, you feel completely drained afterwards, almost.
So that’s what I mean when I’m saying that if I feel sick, I feel like that I’ve hit all of the points to make that protagonist interesting.
Wow, good, good. Do you do any warm-ups before going into the studio? And if so, what are a few, be able to share a few examples?
Ah, ah. Pretty much, it’s been a long tradition of, since for about three hours before you go into the studio, wake up and you do voice inflection training, ah, ah, ah, things like that.
So, like…
So, in my case, I like sometimes, I’m required to do a very husky type of, gravelly type of voice. So, if I’m doing that sort of thing, if I warm up, then I can’t get the voice that I need. So, I won’t say a single word until I get to the studio, and then I’ll get ready to have that very…
So, I just woke up, very gravelly type of voice. But in the case where they need a high-pitched tone, and if I’ve used a high-pitched tone, then I can’t get back to the low pitch, so I’ll have to stay in that tone. And same thing for a low tone.
So if they need a low tone, then I’ll spend the whole morning talking in very low tone so that I don’t betray that idea, so that when I’ve been doing the voice, it doesn’t…
Okay, so you sort of spend, for every character, if it’s a higher tone or lower tone, you just spend the entire session in that high tone or in that low tone.
And if it’s a low voice, then you’ll be using that low voice all the time?
Basically, it’s usually middle, high, low.
It’s pretty much only three. There’s middle, high, and low. So a little bit of in-between, so…
All right. Well, we’re getting close to the end right now. So do you have any advice for anyone there who wished to get into voice acting or anyone who wants to pursue anything in the creative field?
So, if you have anything to say to someone who wishes to pursue voice acting or wants to become an actor, please do so.
I was able to talk to Chris today and Andrew.
So, the world is expanding, and good works are expanding from our own world. I hope we can create great works together and enjoy them together.
So, it’s all thanks to being involved in anime that I’ve been able to come here and meet people like you, Chris, and me, and been able to meet all kinds of people that I never thought I was able to meet. And that’s all the power of anime and working hard in the industry to realize your dreams. So, I really hope to continue to do works that will help connect people and inspire.
And I hope to meet everybody else on the world scene from here on out.
I hope the same. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.
And thank you for meeting with me. And I hope best of luck on your journey and everything. And hopefully get to see each other soon.
Thank you for taking the time to come.
It’s nothing.
It’s an honor to meet you.
See you again. I’ll do my best to keep my name on the Teropi of the one I thought was a masterpiece.
I’m gonna keep working hard so that whenever you’re watching something that you think, oh man, this is a really good piece of work that my name is in the credits somewhere.
Oh, I know. I know.
Well, thank you again for your time.
Thank you very much.
Hey, this is Chris and James. We’re here with Erika Mendez. How are you, Erika?
I’m doing really good.
It’s been a great weekend. Good, good.
Thanks for meeting with us. So I just want to jump right in. Excuse me, jump right in.
I can’t talk. It’s Sunday. Tongue-tied and everything.
So how did you become a voice actor?
I have always been interested in cartoons and video games, and I’ve also always wanted to do some creative expression. I did drawing and stuff like that. That was my creative outlet for a while.
But I’d always had an interest in acting, but I was a very shy kid growing up, so it wasn’t the easiest thing for me to get into until I finally pushed myself to start doing acting in high school. When I found out about voice over, it felt like the natural progression I could do, like acting and not have to be on stage. But I knew I still had to get that acting skills within me, so I took some classes and stuff like that.
But it wasn’t until I moved to California from Chicago that I had done audio dramas and stuff like that online beforehand and met a lot of people. And I knew people that were already working in the industry and people who knew what I could do. So when I moved to California, people would every once in a while throw me some opportunities.
And for about the first year, nothing super landed. But I started taking classes with Tony Oliver at Bang Zoom. And after taking two of those, he apparently really took a shine to me and was like, I’m going to recommend you.
So they started sending me auditions and it took a little bit before I finally booked my first role with them. But that was Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. I did a voice match for that video game.
And then they’re like, you do little boy voices. All right, this is what you’re going to do for us for the next year. I’m like, cool.
So that was my way of jumping into Bang Zoom and eventually doing as much stuff as I’ve done with them and a lot of other studios.
Okay, excellent. Now you mentioned that you were in Chicago. Now Chicago is actually a very big voiceover market.
Yes.
For commercials and other things. So what was it that brought you to move from Chicago out to California? Was it a wish, desire to pursue more animation?
Actually, I have a degree in animation. I have a BA in animation specifically. I went to school for that.
Which one?
DePaul, DePaul University, yeah. So I’ve got a degree in everything, paid $20,000 for that schooling and have done nothing with that. But that was the plan, though.
I actually am dating Lucian Dodge, which I believe you spoke with him. I don’t know when our interviews are going up, before or after each other. Yeah, so he was from New York, and I was from Chicago.
We did long distance for about two years, and eventually he’s like, I want to go to California. And I’m like, all right, well, I have a degree in animation. That’s the best place, I think, to go for animation.
And I’m going to follow you, follow your dream. We’re going to do this. We’re going to go to California.
And it just kind of so happens that, you know, the voiceover stuff came up. I’d always wanted to do it, but I wasn’t sure that it was going to be anything that I could do professionally. And lo and behold, it just kind of worked out.
So I feel like it was the right move for me, you know.
That’s great. It’s always good when couples who just have both been voice actors, you know, kind of align, everything aligns a certain way. Yeah, yeah.
That’s really cool. I’m curious about something because you are a graphic designer by trade. Well, you were when you went to college.
So I went to Art Institute. So could you tell me a little bit about… Did you do like character design?
Did you get some illustration? Or did you do just…
I was looking into storyboarding and stuff like that, yeah.
I was wondering if anything from that path helped you in terms of voice acting, maybe developing characters.
Yeah, I actually… Well, it helps for… Because I had to do like my own animations and stuff for some of the classes, and I would actually…
As far as getting voices for characters go, I would just do the voices, and Lucien would do the voices for me. I’d get some other friends and stuff if I needed them. It was actually pretty good practice for me, I think, at the time, just to kind of be like, oh, hey, I did this thing.
Let me just throw my voice in there and see what happens. It was kind of a two birds with one stone kind of thing for me.
Now, just having to review over your website has a very simple, clean, and effective look. Is that sort of like the look you’re going for? I’m sure, you know, we’re agents.
Is that sort of like, they want your simple and clean right there, or do you feel like they need all the bells and whistles?
I think everybody has their own preference and stuff. I prefer really simplistic pages. I actually…
Thank you for complimenting my website, actually. I don’t touch it as much as I probably should. I’ve actually been looking into doing just kind of a one page kind of thing, because I know a lot of people have been doing that lately.
Whereas, you know, as opposed to having to click links and stuff, you just have everything right there, all the information, and people can look at it, check out your stuff, and then go on their own way, you know. So I’ve been looking into streamlining it a little bit more. But I do think, kind of like with demos in general, I think people just have short attention spans and just want everything right then and there, so.
Absolutely, absolutely, nowadays especially.
Yeah, yeah.
So a wide range of characters that you do, a wide range, excuse me, a wide range of characters that you do. How do you develop each character’s voice?
I, pictures help me a lot, a lot. Especially for when I’m doing anime, or just in general when people give us voice references, which, you know, especially for anime, that happens a lot for video games. Not so much, but every once in a while.
If they play an audio reference for me, I find it tends to help if you kind of like mimic a little bit. Like, you can always do a take, because you can do multiple takes, usually up to like two or three. I tend to err towards mimicking the Japanese, just because a lot of the clients, I feel like, want something that matches.
I don’t know why, but it’s worked out for me more often than not. But if I do have another idea, I, you know, just send another take, and they’ll choose between the two, and I’ll find out if I get cast, like which one they chose. Because that happened to me with Aladdin from Maggi, The Labyrinth of Magic.
I submitted two takes. One where I was like, this is the voice that I would use for Aladdin. Here’s the voice that I want you to see, like, my range of boy voices, like what I can do just in case you want something a little bit older.
And they actually picked the older one, which I thought was strange, but I eventually moved it down to what I had preferred, and they didn’t say anything, so I was like, okay, well, this is what it is.
So when you started off doing voice over in California, they had you do a lot of young boy voices, like you said, but it looks like it was kill a kill where you started shifting to more female characters, protagonists, powerful characters. Yeah. What did you appreciate about being able to do more characters like that?
Because I’m certain you appreciated doing more young boy characters, but you definitely wanted to do more.
Yeah, I love just being able to expand my range in general. I think it’s good to have a lot of range, especially being a female. It’s good that you can play both genders to an extent, so it gives you more job opportunities.
But in general, I just like playing characters with, not just kind of stretch my vocal range, but my emotional range just because it makes me feel like a better actor if I can kind of throw more feeling into something. And if I can get myself to cry during a recording, like that’s a win for me. So I really appreciate when a character has a lot of depth to kind of get to play a little bit more with different aspects of them as a character.
Always good to fun. Speaking of crying, you’re lying, April. I still haven’t finished you yet because I don’t.
You don’t want to cry.
I don’t with the feels.
It’s pretty feelsy.
It’s always good to play around with the characters.
Yeah.
Well, Eric, unfortunately we ran out of time, but thank you so much for being with us. I really appreciate it. Any projects you’d like to share?
Yeah. There’s my website that I should update more. It’s just ericamendosvoice.com, and I’m mostly…
I have a Facebook page, but I feel like I’m more active on Twitter and Instagram, which you can find me at Soon Derica, which is T-S-U-N-D-E-R-E-R-I-C-A. That’s what I meant to say, but yeah.
All right.
Erica, thank you so much.
Enjoy the rest of your con.
All right.
So we’re back at the VO Meter, and we are talking with James Brown, who is a voice actor that’s attending, as a general attending this year.
That’s right. Incognito.
Yeah. That’s the way to do it, sneak around, don’t let anybody know what you really do. So James, tell us how you’re enjoying the conference so far.
This is probably the largest panel I’ve been, I mean, largest con I’ve ever been to. Well, actually, you know, New York Comic Con is pretty…
That’s right there.
Yeah. But I’m pretty much enjoying it. The whole thing is I came down to meet a couple of friends I haven’t seen in a very long time, which is part of the reason why I’m down here, visit family, and so I said, you know, I might as well come to the panel.
I keep on saying panel. But I go to the con as well, and it’s been pretty great.
Awesome. What were you hoping to get out of the con once you signed up?
This has been for a few years now, but any time I go to a con now, I still come to have fun, get the merchandise and stuff, but a lot of it’s going to the voice actor panels and asking questions and seeing their experiences in the industry and finding out what I can glean from that, from my own.
And you are a voice actor yourself. What kind of work do you specialize in?
Animation or character voice over is what I’m really mostly for, whether it’s in games or animation, but I’ve done some audio plays in the past. I’ve done, like I said, video games, animation, YouTube, a little bit everywhere, except for commercial and audiobooks. I haven’t really done those two as much, but kind of spread out.
What panels did you go to that were about voice acting?
I went to see Lucian Dodge and Eric Mendez’s voice over panel. That was very interesting because Lucian Dodge is also a native of New York. So I didn’t even know that.
So I definitely went to, after the panel, I had a chance to talk to him real quick and just, you know, see, I just want to know if he still, you know, worked in New York area. He looks like he’s just mostly in LA now, but it was good just to connect with another fellow from New York.
What did you learn most about the panels?
I just really wanted to just hear how they felt about playing, portraying certain characters at that point. I think that’s the thing that stuck out the most for me. I asked about Erika’s involvement in a Gretzko, which is something I recently watched and it was very, very interesting because it was obviously a cartoon and it was satirical, this explanation of just harsh work life in Japan, but it can also apply here, which is why it translates so well.
I just wanted to see if it had any impact on her. When you play a lot of characters, some tend to stick out for certain reasons, whether it’s the character’s backstory or what have you. I want to see what she would say about that.
One of the things Chris and I are here for, maybe even the primary thing, is to network. Have you found that when you go to this or any other con, you’re able to actually find work? Not necessarily right away, but in the long run?
Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten any work yet, but that’s definitely the case. That definitely will happen for a lot of people. I would suggest anyone who’s serious about voiceover work to, whether it’s at a con or a workshop, to consider networking.
I know for me in the beginning, it was difficult because I was more of an introvert, but as I got more into voice acting, you kind of get forced out of that shell. So interviewing became more and more, or just networking became more and more part of my life. So I went to Anime Central this year, too, where they have the Bang Zoom auditions for one of their contests.
So I didn’t win, but that really wasn’t the point. It was to network, make a proper impression, and just have a good time. So I keep that in mind every time.
Well, I’ll give you a little secret. You know what a great way to meet people at a con? Is to host a podcast.
Oh, like this one. Oh, that’s what we’re doing right now, actually.
Actually, what I’ve been doing is I’ve been going up to the game room and everything, and since I have that first aisle of independent games, I will go up to them. I’ll say, oh, what’s your game about? And I’ll play for about good 10, 15 minutes.
Then I’ll talk to them about it, how the design. I go, oh, hey, by the way, are you looking for any voices for the game? They’re like, well, we haven’t thought about that, but we’ve been really intrigued.
I’m like, oh, well, you know, I usually have my business card. I’m like, I’m Chris. I happen to be a full-time professional voice actor.
This game is amazing. Can I have your card? I really want to sign up for your mailing list.
Make it like you’re not trying to sell yourself. It does stuff like, oh, you know, I do like, hey, I do voices. I talk for a living.
Pretty much, yeah. You know, we met Microsoft, because Microsoft has those events in New York.
Yeah, I was over there talking with them, too.
Playcrafting. Did a lot of that.
What do you think is the hardest part about meeting someone at a con?
Hmm. I think just getting over the initial jitters of, oh my god, it’s Josh Greeley or Max Middleman or Vic Mignana and just, you know, realizing that they are people. They are people just like you.
They probably went through the same struggles as you. And a lot of… I have not met one person that is like a jerk or anything like that.
You know, even if you’re a little nervous, I really think that it’s just more self-inflicted. There’s no reason to be nervous. Just talk to them and, you know, let them know you appreciate their work especially, you know, because they always appreciate that.
Yeah, that’s true. You have any other questions?
Yeah, I just want to kind of follow up with that. It’s amazing. You think, oh my gosh, here’s the guy who voiced so many shows I’m a fan of.
I’m really like… You kind of get the nerves and everything, but you go up and you see they’re very chill. They’ll come in, shake your hand.
They just got a big smile on their face, and they talk to you like they’re your best friend.
I got over that really quickly, Young, because when I was early in school, I was living in Georgia near Fort Gordon, and James Brown came to my school.
Yeah.
To perform? I guess just to say hi to kids. I really don’t remember.
All I remember was…
You had the whole entourage and the cape?
Ladies and gentlemen…
I have to tell you, remember I said that super introvert and my name is James Brown, the last thing I wanted was to meet this guy because I knew I would have to go in front of a lot of people because it was the assembly hall, and tell this man that my name is James Brown, and I did not want the audience laughing. I was very like, I hate my name and all that kind of stuff. Every time someone says my name, they go, I feel good.
Because everyone is a comedian, right?
Everyone is super funny and hilarious when they are kids. I hate kids.
I was 44 and I almost did the same thing when we started.
Those flashbacks. But I ended up getting his autograph as a result, and got over that really quickly. So, when I meet someone famous, it doesn’t really bother me as much.
Unless it’s Morgan Freeman, and I will freak the heck out. But outside of that…
Well, James, thanks for joining us here on the VO Meter. Where can people find you if they want to hire you?
Find me on my website at www.jamesbrownjrva.com. That’s also my Instagram and my Twitter, JamesBrownJRVA. And I also stream from time to time.
Art streams, but also voiceover streams on my Twitch.
Alright, thanks again. Enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thanks a lot, man.
Have a good one. We survived.
Great weekend? Same here, man. This was a great year.
How many years now has it been at this location? Is this the second year here for it, too? Cool.
I like this location.
It feels a little bigger than the Baltimore Convention Center was. Just a little more space for everything. This has been really cool.
It’s definitely not subtropical like it is in Baltimore.
So, yay for that.
Oh, there’s a Sebastian.
Nice Sebastian cosplay.
Oh, all right.
Yes.
Oh, thank you.
Great, pal.
Take off that ridiculous tailcoat.
You look like a crow.
You can’t do nothing.
Yeah, there we go.
Thank you.
Oh, cool.
So, guys, thank you so much for coming. I see a lot of familiar faces. Thank you guys so much for coming to the other panels over this weekend.
This one is a little less educational, and well, maybe not so much, depending on the questions. I do this panel mostly because, kind of for the same reasons that I do the creating voices panel that I did on Friday, because I find so often, you know, we go to and we do general Q&As, and so many people have questions about voice work and stuff, and we spend so much time answering those that a lot of people who might have questions about other aspects of the industry, like the writing process, the directing process, casting, and just really anything about it. And I have been very fortunate in my career to, aside from acting, also work for about 10 years as an ADR script writer.
I’ve been trained by Funimation to be a director for them, and I’ve assistant directed and end directed a couple of shows for them, but it’s definitely the one I have the least amount of experience in. But that said, because of my involvement with all three of these, I know how they all work fairly intricately. And I also have a pretty good knowledge about the rest of the aspects of the industry.
So, with that in mind, if you have had at any point any sort of burning questions that you’ve ever wanted to know about the writing process or how we go about deciding dialogue, or if there’s an aspect of it that confuses you, or you want a clarification on it, this is the chance to do it. I would just ask if at any point you do have a question, please just get up and form a line at this lovely, lonely little microphone. And we’ll do it that way.
I’ll also, in the interim, just talk. I’m not going to stare at you and just wait for questions.
Or will I? It is Sunday.
It is Sunday.
I think most of us are ready for a nap at this point. Hey Shane, I think this might be a little hot.
Is there a way to turn it down just a little bit?
Much better, thank you sir. Alright. So, voice acting, writing and directing for anime.
Does anybody here not know at all the process that goes from an anime being made in Japan and then the entire process of it coming over to the States? Does anybody here familiar at all with that? One or two of you?
Alright, cool, cool.
What is your question? I have a question about if you were to, say, write an anime, how would you go about pitching it?
Oh, I’ll rephrase. Not writing an original anime because that’s all done over in Japan. I’m talking about writing the scripts for the dubs.
This is mostly about writing, directing and voicing for anime dubs.
That should be at the end of the title.
I’ll change that for the next con. But yeah, no, very sorry. Okay, so we have a few people who are fairly familiar with it.
So I guess just for now, I’ll talk about the process of bringing over an anime from Japan to the States. If at any point you have a question, just line on up and I’ll get to you. So let’s say we have an anime that has just been made.
For example, we’ll say a fairly popular one, like something that was in Shonen Jump. Those almost always get some sort of anime adaptation eventually. And they’re generally known as safe bets.
So back in the 90s and the early 2000s, many of the major industry leaders for the American side of the industry would go to Japan sometimes throughout the year or at the beginning of each new season. And there was one or two… There was a convention in Japan that was dedicated just for industry people.
There was no attendees of any kind. It wasn’t a fan gathering. It was strictly for people who work in the industry.
And this is where shows and different pilot episodes and stuff would be viewed in a big room with a lot of producers and directors and investors. And they could all see what the new ideas and concepts were or what the new shows that were coming out were going to be. And they could decide for themselves, okay, we want to bid on that, we want to bid on this, and we could probably…
And just figuring out what they want. And then, by the end of the weekend, there would be a bid war between all of the major American distribution companies for who would get the rights to dub and release the shows.
And at that point, it’s a fairly straightforward process. You get a contract, you figure out all the… exactly how stuff is supposed to be dubbed, or if they even require you to do a dub, which it’s universal now.
Most studios absolutely want you to do a dub for an American release.
The others, they’ll create the contract, they’ll set a date for when they will expect this thing to be available and streeted in the United States, and figure out a schedule for sending over all the materials for it and everything else. And back in the late 90s and the aughts, they would send it to us on a boat. Like these hard drives, huge hard drives, and sometimes several hard drives, and VHS tapes with the original files, with the original reels and everything on them.
They’d be, you know, sent on a boat, so sometimes it would take a very long time for us to get the materials, come to the states, and then we begin the process of localization. The first process, obviously, is translation. And Funimation has an entire department dedicated to translation.
They have like three or four full-time translators, most of them born in Japan, that then learned English and we contract them, or they move to the states and then they work for Funimation. And they go through it. One person does it, and then the person above them checks it, and the person above them re-checks it, and makes sure that everything is as close to the original intention and all of the information that the Japanese were trying to convey.
What they were trying to get across is there. And then from that translation, it is given to a subtitler who has a… Oh, sorry, is that answering your question there?
Okay, yeah. I’m going to go through the process, but I’ll stop real quick. Yeah, what is your question?
It’s no rush. Okay, cool. Appreciate it.
So this is then handed over to a subtitler who has to deal with… Now, there’s a program out there called Aegisub, which it’s life-saving, because originally what you would have to do is basically do this really convoluted code to tell the computer that would produce the subtitles, where the subtitle will begin, what the subtitles were, when the subtitles should stop being on screen, and then you do it for every single line, every bit of information. And one of the big challenges for that, too, is whenever you’re producing any sort of media that is going to be released in the States, it has to meet certain regulations.
And there are even regulations for subtitles. For example, have you ever on an official show, like a DVD or something, ever seen subtitles that were not white or yellow? That are not white or yellow on an official DVD?
Not a subtitle, not a fansub, because only fansubs ever used…
Well, Animaco would sometimes use green subtitles, when someone said something with a yellow subtitle, and then they need to put another subtitle on there quickly, they put it at that green.
Like a solid green? Oh yeah, like if someone else is talking and they need to put that over that or whatever, that actually, you can’t do that anymore. At least as far as I understand it, because the regulations for subtitles are, first, they must be either green, they must be either white or yellow, because those are colors that are easily seen even by colorblind people.
And those are two colors that are very easy to pop, no matter what the background image might be. You’re not going to wash out pure white or pure yellow in most situations, so it’s easy to see. You can also only have so many characters on screen at one time.
Think of it as like, each line of dialogue on a subtitle can’t not be any longer than a tweet. Like the original Twitter length, like 120 characters or something. So like, yeah, not the new length, which is just liberating.
But yeah, you can only have a little like 120 characters worth at any time, and they can only be on screen for a certain amount of time before you put the next bit up. So the challenge at that point becomes, how do we get across all of this sometimes vast amounts of information that are being given in the Japanese dialogue when we can only have this much stuff information on screen at one point? So anytime you ever watch a subtitle, you have already watching a truncated version of the original translation.
Subtitles are not accurate translation. They are bite-sized. They are all that information and all the nuance and the subtlety and everything shrunken down to just the bare information that is important enough for you to know so that you can follow along with the story.
And back when I first started out, ADV Films, when I was first collecting… When DVDs were first the new thing for anime releases, some companies like Animanga and ADV experimented with adding separate layers of subtitles. They actually…
ADV would have one part of subtitles, you could turn that on and it’s just the regular subs, and then you had two or three other forms of subtitles you could switch between that would give you all the information that you weren’t getting in the subtitle. Which was, if there was a word that you may not necessarily be familiar with, or a historical figure that’s being referenced that you may not be familiar with, those subtitles would pop up and give you a brief synopsis of exactly what it is they’re talking about. Even down to, like, if you were walking…
If you had a character going down, let’s say, Akihabara, and there’s all of these signs and stuff up to see different shops and everything else like that, they would have subtitles to pop up and show you, this is what this is, this is what this is, this is what this is. I mean, you’re getting all this information, but it became… It got to the point where there was so many subtitles and so much information on screen, you couldn’t see the picture.
You couldn’t see the animation. And that’s not fun for anybody. So we…
originally it was said, you can’t do that anymore. And so the industry standard now is certain amount of characters, only in that section on the bottom, and they can only be on screen for a certain amount of time, and they can only be white or yellow. So then, after we have that subtitle version up, this kind of truncated, bite-sized bit of information, it is then the job of an ADR scriptwriter to take that translation and those subtitles and all the time codes that go with it, and then try and bring back some of the nuance and the characterizations and stuff that were lost in the subtitles.
Does that make sense? So, more often than not, with subtitles, because we have to focus so much on just the bare bones information, you lose a lot of the subtlety, and you lose a lot of the… Sometimes, there have been plenty of times where I’m reading a translation for something, and it sounds like a character is being insanely kind and very complimentary to someone, but then I found out actually reading the translation and talking to the actual translator about the scene, and they’re like, no, this is all underhanded.
Like, everything this character is saying is actually very, very mean. She’s just slipping it in under the veil of all these very nice, kind words, and if you don’t speak Japanese and you’re just reading the subtitles, you’re gonna completely miss that, because all it says is just from reading it, it just seems like, oh, she’s being very kind. So the whole point, then, of the dub is to try and, for the English-speaking audience, bring those nuances back from that point, and when I first started writing scripts, I would be given roughly for one 25-minute episode, I’d be given anywhere from a week to two weeks to go through the entire thing with the subtitles.
I find every single character, mark them in the script, write a time code for every single instance. Anybody not know what a time code is? It’s totally cool if you raise your hand.
Okay, just for brief explanation, time code is something on a video, any sort of video. You never see it in actual broadcast or anything like that on DVD, but the time code is used for production purposes. In the terms of anime, each number represents an hour, minute, second, and frame of the animation.
And for anime, the frame always caps out at 24, 25, something like that. So you will always have 24 milliseconds basically, or frames, before you get to the next second of time code. Your job as a writer is to go in and find every single instance down to the frame of where someone’s mouth does this.
Or if somebody is throwing a punch, or does this. Like, reactions in Dragon Ball are what we call Foley. So anytime Goku does a big, haaa, power scream or whatever in the script, I would mark, okay, his mouth starts to open at exactly this time code, and it is an O-M power scream.
O-M, open mouth. If someone is, like, Vegeta’s powering up, and he’s being like, haaa, C-T, power up, clenched teeth. C-M, closed mouth.
M-N-S, mouth not seen. The character is on screen, but their mouth is not actually in the shot, or off, the character is talking, off screen. And you just kind of have to guess as to where that frame is that they actually start talking or making a noise.
And you go through the entire 25 minutes of an episode and find every single frame where someone starts to talk or make a sound. And then you go through with the subtitles and you then start the localization process for the dub, which the majority of the job and the majority of the time that is spent is trying to make sure that the words that we’re typing both get across all the information in the subtitles while also not sounding truncated and not sounding awkward or not like someone would talk normally. Like we don’t want to sound like we’re reading something.
It needs to sound like a very natural thing. And so the words need to flow in a very natural cadence. But we also have to make sure that that natural cadence is not screwed up by random flaps just stopping in the middle of a word and then starting again.
Because so often with the Japanese language, our syntax is different. It’s completely reversed. They sometimes take much longer to say certain amounts of information than it would for us.
So very often we’ll have times where the translation is this long, but the line is actually that long in terms of the amount of consonants and vowels and stuff that are being used. So you have to figure out a way to get this little amount of information to fit in all of these flaps and sound natural. And not give false information.
And not just willy-nilly add words that absolutely have nothing to do with the story or the character, because that’s going to make stuff very messy, very quick. So the majority of the time is spent just making sure, okay, does that fit? I would literally sit while watching and yell out as if I was recording in the booth every single line at least six or seven times to make sure that they fit as close to perfect so that when they then are sent to the booth and the director is going over the show and they are reading it as well, they can see right away that the script is working, that it will fit the mouth flaps.
And there is always going to be a little bit of error there because my read speed might not be as fast or as slow as another actor’s read speed. So sometimes my dialogue, they will have to take out a word or two or add a word or two just so that actor can speak at their normal pace. But for the most part, it’s pretty much already locked in.
The script won’t change from that point unless the director is just like, this line is stupid, what was he thinking? It’s like, anyone fixes it. And then from that point, the director watches the whole show, the episode, checks the script, makes sure they’re happy with it, that they’ve been researching the show at the same time that I’ve been researching and watching and writing it.
And then they go around casting, and from there, eventually, actors come in, we record the show. What we used to do was, a writer would be given six episodes at a time, six chunks, back when DVDs were the new thing, four to six episodes. And it’d be given roughly a month to write all six of those episodes, and then the director would have roughly a month to two months to record all six of those episodes, cast people, and really make them perfect.
And then it would go to mix, and the mix engineers would do their magic and make stuff for the nice 5.1, 7.1 surround sounds for those audio files that we are. And within another three to six months after that, the DVD with those first six episodes would be out and on the shelves. So roughly from the time of a Japanese show coming out, running its course, being bought, brought over to the States, written, directed, cast, recorded, mixed, and streeted, was roughly as short as six months to as long as a year and a half.
It was a long wait time for a lot of people. It was really hard to be an anime fan in the late 90s, early aughts. You had to wait a long time for stuff.
And those of you that have been anime fans since the early 90s and the late 80s, you had it even worse, because you were going for laser discs and VHS and stuff. Did anybody ever collect laser discs back in the day? Oh my god.
Okay, for those who did not, let me just kind of paint a picture for you. Imagine loving the show so much that you wanted to go collect it. So you buy your laser disc that big, like you could kill someone with this disc, and you get two episodes with subtitles only, no extra features, no nothing.
You dropped anywhere from $80 to $110 per disc for those two episodes, and you had to wait about a year for the other two episodes, the next two episodes to come out.
It was horrific.
It was horrible.
So when VHS came along, we were getting like, holy crap, I can get three new VHSs of Dragon Ball every three months. We were so happy about it, but nowadays, it’s dang near instantaneous. Anybody watching My Hero Academia this season?
With the exception of the last three episodes, because there were some snafus in the scheduling and with some materials, we kind of fell behind. But for the first eight to ten episodes of this current season, we released the dub the same day as the subtitle came out. We get our materials two weeks ahead of time.
Now, instead of the script writers having two weeks to write maybe one script or just a week, which is the norm, one week, one script, that’s absolutely doable. Now, those of us that were really good at it and very fast, now, ever since Space Dandy, which was the first simuldub that we did, Space Dandy, if you watched it on Toonami three or four years ago, you were literally watching it before the Japanese even saw their own version because of time differences. Because they’re literally a day ahead of us in terms of time zones, so we released it before they even released their own version.
The English came out first for Space Dandy. Ever since then, Funimation was like, okay, we’re going to try to do this for everything. For the last three years, every season, roughly 12 to 18 shows, every three months, we simul-dub every one of them.
It’s becoming the new industry standard, trying to get it out as fast as possible. Now, DVDs still come out within a year after it, but you get to see the dub at the same time now as the sub online on whatever service you have, like Crunchyroll or Funimation or Anime Network or whatever, any of the legal ones anyway. But now the writers have 48 hours to 14 hours to write their scripts.
Within a day of getting the material, within a day of the episode coming out, if we didn’t already have the materials, we would get it the day that it came out. Someone, sometimes a time code or a translator would wake up at 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock in the morning to start translating because of the time difference. The show aired in Japan during mainstream time, but it’s 2 a.m. over here.
They had to translate it, send it off, and it was time coded, then it was subtitled. So within that same day, then the day after that, it’s handed over to the writer, and they have 48 hours to write the script, send it on to the director, who then has to cast from it without holding auditions very often because we don’t have time for the auditions anymore. We want to make sure it has to get out as fast as possible.
So they will start to use people that they will consistently cast people that they have worked with before, that they know can do this work fast, efficient, and make it sound like we have been spending hours and hours and weeks making this show. The amazing thing is we did it right. Funimation did it right anyway.
I say we. I’m a contractor for Funimation. I’m not an employee of Funimation.
This is all opinion. But I feel like Funimation did it the right way because the first company to try to do this super fast thing was Sentai Filmworks, which is kind of the remnants of old school ADV films. And they tried several years ago to do a thing where they were telling the Japanese, hey, you give us the rights, we’ll have your entire show out in a month.
And we would get scripts. They would have me write a script. They would send it to me and they’d say, we don’t have time for you to write it.
Just time code it, mark the foley and send it in. The director would have to rewrite the script on the fly. And their dubs plummeted in quality as a result of it.
It looked like bad 70s live action dubs all over again. It was just like we took a massive step back in quality when doing that. Animation, on the other hand, found the sweet spot where we can have it fast but still keep the quality.
And that’s what we’ve been doing now for the last three or four years. And that’s kind of a very bare bones what it takes from an anime made in Japan to it being released for you to watch and enjoy here in the States, so you’re dubbed. We’ve come a long way.
We’ve come a long way from when I was a kid. We’re just a step away, I think, now from beaming it straight into your brain. But we’ll see.
Can you imagine? The moment they invent that technology, people will be watching Hentai in public places. It was just like, what are you watching?
You don’t want to know. I see fan service behind your eyes. Yes, your question, sir.
Thank you so much for your patience.
No worries. So this isn’t directly about anime. It’s an appropriate question to ask.
And I was wondering if you had any tips about voice acting or any resources I can use.
Actually, if you look up, because I think people have filmed and put up videos of my creating voices panel that I did on Friday that covers exactly what you just asked. It’s all about the safety, like the safe ways to, on your own time at home, practice coming up with new voices and characters and how to get comfortable with that and with performing and stuff. And yes, absolutely, I think that can help in dungeon mastering, especially because it’s so much fun to get to come up with all those different voices for all the NPCs that you’re going to be in control of.
So, I mean, look that up, just Josh Greeley creating voices. I try to do the panel now every con, but I can only do it once. But that will answer your questions, I believe.
Great, thank you.
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. And thank you again for your patience.
Yes, sir?
Okay, so I know that usually you can take more leeway with comedic shows because of different senses of humor. Yes. What’s the non-comedic show that you’ve taken the most leeway with, and what was your mentality behind that?
That I had a lead in?
You’ve been as a scriptwriter.
As a scriptwriter, non-comedy.
Tokyo Ghoul. That was my favorite that I had, like non-comedy. I mean, every show in some form, especially super dramatic shows, are going to have some form of comedy, because you’ve got to have a break from all the super crazy stuff.
But, I mean, unless it’s Attack on Titan, because that’s just sadistic. But, for Tokyo Ghoul, the approach to that was just, for me, because I wasn’t the lead writer, I would write every second or third episode. Monica Rial was the one who was writing the majority of the scripts for that show.
But I got to do the first couple of episodes of Tatum’s character in that show.
Tsukiyama, thank you.
Yeah, the cannibal, the epicurean.
And my big thing for him was, I just had this idea of his character after watching the subtitles and then watching the Japanese version first and just the way that he speaks, the way he uses language and everything, I knew immediately it was going to be a Tatum role. And I was like, he’s the only person who can make this work. And because Tsukiyama is very much about books and literature and stuff as well, and that’s kind of how he works his way into a friendship with Kaneki, I wanted very much to capture that well-read, intelligent, epicurean, make him sound like just a very charming, very educated, smart, artistic person.
But play with the language in such a way that it could very easily be construed if you know the character as manipulative and evil and all this stuff. It was a very fun challenge to take the subtitles and take the information that they were giving us and that character. And we didn’t change anything about the character.
We didn’t change anything he said or anything. We just changed the way he said it. Made it a little more palpable to an English speaking audience.
And because we were able to, kind of like what I was talking about earlier, because we were able to kind of play with his language a little bit more and work that nuance in of like you’re not sure as you’re listening to him if you can trust him or not. I feel like a lot of that stuff is lost in just the straight up subtitle information. So the fact that we were able to do that and it worked and we pulled it off and Tatum’s performance sells it 110%.
I’m really proud of my writing for that character and on that show. But to kind of talk about, once you also brought up about comedic writing, yes, we have a lot more freedom when it comes to comedic shows. Case in point, I just finished recording E-Safe or High School DXD Season 4 a few, you know, about a week or two ago.
And that’s the type of show where so much of the dialogue is not important to the overall story. There’s actually no information being, you know, like no real information or anything being said or given most of the time. It’s just reactions basically to the ridiculous situations that are happening.
We do have a lot more freedom to really localize and to bring in more of modern American humor into some of the lines. Like, oh god, what was it? Like, one of Issei’s lines this past season was, You made me feel weak like there was nothing I could do.
And like, and it completely, like it sells. People get it, like, you know, an English speaking audience is immediately going to get that reference and get that humor. And so often, and sometimes people don’t want that, they want, you know, I just want it to be as pure and true to the Japanese as possible.
But if we do that, we’re doing the majority of the people that aren’t hardcore Japanese anime fans, like anime fans or someone who knows Japanese culture and language and references, whether they’re political or pop culture or whatever, intimately well. Those people are very rare in this fandom. People that actually do know all that stuff.
And so if we’re just catering to that small group instead of trying to make jokes and stuff that the broad audience can appreciate, then we’re just doing the majority of the fandom a disservice. The main point of Japanese comedy is to make you laugh. But so often, their jokes and our jokes don’t cross.
Because the syntax is reversed and there’s cultural differences, and so much of their jokes are based in puns. And there is literally nothing in our language, no pun that exists, or really anything that is an equivalent. That is like a direct translation.
Anything that we can give you, like we can only give you a bare bones… Like exactly what they’re literally saying, but unless you know the joke that’s within that literal translation, you’re not going to get it. It’s just going to be this, what is he talking about?
Why is everybody laughing? Then you’re just lost, and you feel like you’re not in on the joke. And that makes you feel ostracized.
So it’s so much more… At that point, we have to think of ourselves more as caretakers of the creator’s original intention. Does that make sense?
His intent is to make you laugh, so we’re going to give you the best joke that we can that the broadest audience will understand. And that way, we’re doing you a service, and we’re doing the creator a service. Does that make sense?
Awesome, thank you very much. Yes, sir?
So this is going to be sort of related to the topic, but also answering one of my own questions I had about background tests in general. So when Akihisa’s sister comes in to the series, was it very difficult for you to get into that, to be able to go through with what was going on, knowing Carly’s character?
The thing that made it hard was the fact that I know Carly. She was like a sister to me at that point in time, literally like a sister, so for this person that I look up to as like a big sister, to be playing my big sister in a show, but she really wants me?
That was awkward.
That was a little awkward. But I mean, I’ve done, again, I’ve been an anime fan since I was nine years old. I grew up seeing fanservice and stuff like that too.
You can’t shock me with, like, anime does not shock me, you know, anymore. So it’s just, at that point I was just like, okay, this is the joke we’re going with, and I just, I roll with the punches. You know, I tried to react exactly as I felt Aki would be reacting in that situation.
It came out very fun. It actually wasn’t very funny. They handled it in such a way that it wasn’t obscene.
It was actually just very funny. So yeah, I appreciated it for that. If it had been a little more, if they had pushed it just a little bit further though, then it would have been uncomfortable.
I’m glad that they did it though.
And to sort of go in line with that topic, is situations like that really difficult for some people where if it’s with someone that they know, is it hard for them to do the performance because they know the person, and they can’t get into, I can’t feel this sort of relationship with that person because people are close friends.
I’m sure there are. I can’t really speak for anybody else other than my own experiences, but I do know that there are many actors and actresses that are very uncomfortable with a lot of the material that happens specifically in fan service shows because there are so many of them lately, especially, that have moved more and more towards trying to do stuff that’s more and more extreme. Like, the joke is that it’s offensive type thing.
And using obviously children as the result of, as the focus of these sexual situations and everything. And just there’s a lot of us that are very uncomfortable with that. And I get that there’s cultural differences and things like that, but you can’t expect people that have grown up in one culture and see that as offensive or disgusting or something and expect them to just be comfortable with it because it’s a job.
So there are many actors and actresses that just will not do those roles. Or if they have to, because we all need to work. We’re starving artists, every one of us.
They’ll use pseudonyms. And there’s plenty of actors and actresses who do that too.
Thank you guys so much. You asked such great questions, and you really were just expert interviewers in your own right. So thank you for going out into the field and picking the brains of some of these incredibly talented people.
I’m super jealous because I’m huge fans of some of the guests. Todd Haberkorn, in recent years, the voice of one of the main characters from Fairy Tale, and of course, one of my all-time top favorite anime voice actors, Johnny Yong Bosch. You might have known him as the second Black Ranger from Power Rangers, but he also had an extended anime career doing such voices as Vash the Stampede from Trigun.
He was Albert in Gonkutsuo, which is a wonderful re-imagining of the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, so I highly recommend that. And he’s just got an incredible voice, and of course, Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. Just so, so amazed.
I just wish I could have been there to nerd out about audio equipment. I was so jealous when you brought up that question, Paul.
Out to Johnny?
Yeah, with Johnny.
Yeah, that was a funny story about Johnny, actually. I wandered into that completely unknowing it was going to happen. We actually tried to schedule him, so the way these interviews work is they ask for requests for guests’ time months in advance.
So I put in applications for pretty much everybody, and they sent back the ones that we could get, and they told us, unfortunately, Johnny’s not available for your show. So we said, okay, great, we have plenty of people to talk to. So we did, I guess it was Todd Haberkorn, who we had just finished up, and we had a big break, so we separated.
And Chris, I think, went up to the room. I went to get some coffee. As I came back from the Starbucks, the staff at the show grabbed me and said, do you want to interview Johnny?
And I said, uh, sure. And at this point, I was still kind of half asleep, having the coffee in my hand. I had no idea who they were even talking about.
Couldn’t remember. So I said, sure. Right now?
And they’re like, yep, you got to go right now. So apparently it was a cancellation or a no-show. So they shoved me in the room, and I turn on the phone and I’m like, hi.
I don’t… I wasn’t prepared for this. I actually told them, I was honest.
I said, they just pulled me in here. I didn’t know I was going to be here, so I’m kind of winging it. And I started asking those questions.
I was just making up as I went along. Luckily, I remembered as he was answering the questions who he was, but it took me a while.
Thank goodness they’ll appreciate that if you know who they are.
If you listen, you can tell by some of the questions that I was kind of pulling it out of my you-know-where, especially the gear one. But like you said, that turned out to be a great answer because he is a total gearhead, just like us.
That’s perfect. And you do find a lot of voice actors who are musicians as well. And when you have that level of audio nerd, I don’t know, it’s match made in heaven, except for your wallet, of course.
Yeah, I just wish I had asked that question earlier so I could have really geeked out, because that was the last question, and they only give us a certain amount of time. And then the people came in and gave me the hook right after I started to answer.
Gotcha, gotcha. But all of them gave such incredible answers. And one thing that was interesting to me is just hearing how the possible ways of getting into voice over have changed so much, even from the people that we followed, like who were successful as we got interested in voice over and stuff like that.
But even though their experience may not be as relatable or as replicatable as it is now, or as it could be, they still had such, there were still so much nuggets of wisdom that they gave. And you can tell that just some of the some of the mantras of succeeding in any business, like trying, trying again, if you fail, being willing to fail, and working through it, and being a good person to work with, and honoring deadlines, and just working your tail off to succeed in your dream. It was just incredibly helpful and inspiring.
You know, my biggest takeaway was the dedication that everyone seemed to have nonstop drive to complete what they wanted to do, like you said, follow their dream. And that’s a theme that I guess resonates, like you said, with any business, but especially for people who are our listeners that may be just starting out, that maybe haven’t had the success they thought they would right away. Keep at it, keep plugging ahead, and eventually you’ll get there.
Absolutely, yeah. And it’s difficult because you either don’t get feedback or you get straight up rejection. Lots and lots and lots of rejection.
And you can’t let that affect you too negatively because it will suck out your energy and your drive. And as we have established, that is the one thing that will help you succeed more than anything, is the drive to keep going.
So Chris, what was your biggest takeaway?
My biggest takeaway was just hearing everyone’s experience, how they record in Japan versus America. And honestly, just as Sean touched base on, the dedication. Erica Mendes said that she just didn’t want to have anyone tell her what to draw, so she decided to do her own thing and then went into voice acting.
Just a lot of passion people have. And really honestly, I want to touch base on what you and Sean said about if you don’t get feedback, but if you do get feedback, take it to heart and try to look into the good of everything. Not to talk forever, but when I got a phone call about hearing from an agent that I have a speech impediment, I stopped and thought, wow, this guy took time out of his day to call me and let me know that.
So that’s a really good thing. So maybe I also thought, so in one way he likes me a little bit, or I made an impact on his life.
Yeah, definitely. Sometimes no news is worse than bad news.
Absolutely.
And don’t be deaf to criticism, like Chris is saying. So it’s important, like if you’re getting negative feedback, maybe you do need more training, or you need vocal training, or whatever. So there might be more work involved, but if this is that important to you, you gotta rise up to the task.
So you were mentioning that you were fascinated by the differences between Japanese recording and American recording. Chris, can you talk a little bit more about what was surprising to you?
Absolutely. How they refuse to record unless everyone’s there. A lot of times we have our own home studio set up at home, and we don’t really record when anyone’s in the room.
Sometimes it’s one person or not many. So what they do is they just basically sit like an old-fashioned radio play, and they have all the voice actors set up, and one person stands up, says his lines, and they get back up, and the other person, his or her, say their lines. So it’s really cool in how they feed off the energy of one another, and it’s really impactful.
It can make a much more better show, radio play, what have you, just by doing that.
That is so cool. I mean, you hear over here, they do that occasionally, but it used to be far, even just a decade or two ago, it was far more prevalent. And I wish it was like that more often, but I understand the logistics of coordinating everyone’s schedules like that can be really difficult.
Now it’s only really top-notch film productions that do that, it seems. Yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
So you have the budget for it, but it’s just so cool that they put that cultural importance on it.
Yeah, Masaya said that basically home studios don’t exist in Japan.
Yeah, it was really difficult. I mean, I’ve talked about this a little bit, but it’s very difficult to break into, like, or as a non-native resident, to break into Japanese voiceover, because you do need a certain level of bilingualism to communicate with, like, the producers and agents and stuff like that, and you have to be there. Like, you have to be in Tokyo.
You have to be in a large city to record, because they will not accept it, like, otherwise.
Yeah, I was surprised that some of the… Maybe it’s because of the level of success they’ve achieved, but I was surprised that some of the other voice actors we talked to didn’t have to make more trips to Japan. It seems like once they’ve made those inroads, they can still do the bi-continent recording.
Like, I asked Johnny that question, expecting him to say, yeah, I’m back and forth all the time, but he said not really, unless he’s doing motion capture.
Well, so much of that is they’re working with the companies who buy the distribution rights rather than the original creators.
I guess that’s true, yeah. Last year, we talked to some actors who were still working with the actual originators of the content, like Jamie McGonigal and Mike Rosenthal-Nicholas. They were doing some recording with the actual creators of the content, and in that case, I think they did have to travel some more, so different styles and career paths, yeah.
One thing that fascinates me while we’re still on the topic is that apparently, they actually record the… it’s almost like native language dubbing, because they will actually do the animation first, and then they will have this sort of ensemble come in to record to their, like, to lip flaps. And, like, it’s just such an interesting difference in the way that they produce animation versus how we do it here.
So Chris, what was your favorite question?
My two favorite questions would have to be what skills aside from talent do you need to exceed in the business, and how do you maintain that level of talent and maintain work? So hearing different people’s, like, viewpoints on that, saying, like, well, what I do is… Bryce Papenbuck, believe it or not, he’s, I think, a fourth black belt, fourth degree black belt, and he kind of uses that to…
He mentioned outside, he uses that to kind of, you know, keep himself calm and everything, get some frustration out. And, you know, how all these talents, Eric Amendez, is an art, and all these fields of talent used can lead into voice over.
Yeah, I actually like that question a lot. I was listening back to the interviews I wasn’t present for, and yeah, some of their answers were really insightful into what makes them who they are, and then how they can bring that to their work.
Actually, now that you mentioned martial arts, I know a lot of, especially anime talent, Kara Edwards mentioned that at MAVO, or the last time we went, because she’s in, like, a black belt as well in karate. And she’s just like, yeah, it’s one of the most relevant skills I have, because she’s fighting, her characters are fighting so often. So she knows how to sound like she’s fighting.
And of course, the meditative and, like, the exercise, and all good benefits. But if I may, one of the things that really stuck with me is when you were talking with Todd Haberkorn, and you’re talking about the work-life balance. And you see this in a lot of the people that we, like in Our Voice Over Idols and stuff like that, they never really thought they’d get into voice acting, but they like to perform or they like to act.
So for them, this seemed to be the perfect way to express themselves and to, like, to do that, to harness their artistic creativity. But they’re not obsessed with it. They don’t let it take over their lives.
They pursue other jobs. They pursue other projects that are interesting to them. And they have families and lives that they try to cultivate and nurture.
And the more life experience that you have, the more you can draw from as an actor. So I think it’s really important, yes, you do have to work very, very hard, especially to get your foot in the door in this career. But you can’t let it dominate your life and get you to lose focus of why you got into it in the first place.
You have to love what you do.
You do have to love what you do, for real.
Yeah, you’re right. Todd had some fascinating thoughts on that. He was talking about the audiobook narrator who recorded in his car and had to wait for traffic to drive by in order to get takes.
That’s just insane.
That’s not a Cinderella story. I loved when he said it. He was like, no, that’s horrible.
You know what’s funny? A guest from last year, Dick Mignana, had a similar sort of discussion with us about life balance. If you remember the episode from last year’s Oticon, he actually stopped us in the middle of it because his phone alarm went off to celebrate his moment of thankfulness that he has every day at noon.
So it happened right in the middle of our interview, and we just stopped and all had a moment of silence so he could sit there and reflect. It wasn’t lost on me that he and Todd are good friends. There’s this video out there you may have seen where they had a swimming competition, and over the footage of them swimming in a pool, someone had done some anime drawings, some anime footage of them as characters racing each other, and they would flash back and forth between cartoon animation and then the live footage.
But it was a real race in a pool, and Vic actually sort of kicked his butt. So then at the end, they’re actually doing fake synchronized swimming, like that old SNL skit with Martin Short and Harry Shearer, where they’re a team, but they’re doing basic moves like touching their elbows and nose. So it’s a great video if you get a chance.
Check that out with Todd Haberkorn and Vic Mignana.
And what’s interesting is that if you listen to their voices and see some of the projects they’ve done, like Edward Elric for Vic from Full Metal Alchemist and Todd’s character from D. Grey Man, they actually have a very similar vocal type, kind of like very youthful and slightly higher pitched male sound. But they’re best friends, so there you go.
Be friends with your competition.
So yeah, to touch base on that, Sean, I know Max Middleman, Ray Chase and Robbie Damian, they have a little group they formed together called Lava, which is loud, annoying and very annoying. And it’s really funny what they do. They may be like…
They just talk about their nerd side of everything, and they’ll post videos where they’re having like a nerf competition. I think there was one time where Ray Chase and Robbie Damian and the other two voice actors of Final Fantasy XV all dressed up as their characters, cosplayed them and went to a con together. And they were actually like…
Robbie Damian was Prompto, Ray Chase was Noctis, and they were acting as their characters the entire con. And it’s… You guys check out their videos.
They’re really funny.
Just so you can get it, it’s an improvisational, like I-M-P-E-R-V, improvisational anime and pop culture variety show. So I think that gives you a fairly good idea of what kind of show it is. But it sounds like a lot of fun and very funny.
I’ll have to check it out.
All right. So that pretty much wraps up our discussion on our experience at Otakon. I want to thank Chris Dattoli for joining me again and James Brown for joining me last minute or joining Chris more accurately.
He picked up for me when I skipped town and went to a fish concert. It wasn’t exactly pressing business, but it was fun. So I want to thank both of them.
I want to thank the staff at Otakon, especially Alice Wilson, who actually when I walked in the door this year gave us a huge compliment. She said, Oh, I listened to your show and it was really good. She said, she probably shouldn’t have admitted this to me, but she said, Normally, I just kind of spot check these things, but I listened to your entire show and really was impressed with the questions you asked the actors.
It was different than everyone else’s content. And I said, Thanks, that’s really nice. So I want to thank the staff at Oticon, and hopefully we’ll be back next year.
So coming up next, we have our interview with the incredible Pat Fraley. Pat has been doing voices for characters and animation, audiobooks, and just about every other VO genre under the sun for more than 20 years. So I’m super excited.
He’s also a personal voice acting hero of mine, so I can’t wait to have him on here and to pick his brain about his experience and the various. His work is both a voice actor and one of the premier voice acting educators available. So other than that, Paul, tell us about MAVO coming up.
Yep, we will be broadcasting live. That’s not true. We’ll be recording live from MAVO 2018, November 9th, 10th, and 11th.
And I will be joined this time by special guest Ken Foster, because Sean’s ditching me again.
Sean, what a flake.
Hey, I told him no from the get-go.
We’re happy to have Ken. He’s a good friend of the show. He’s done our VO Meter stick before, and I’m sure he’ll fill in nicely the large shoes of Sean Daeley.
He’s already interviewing replacements, guys. We’ve got to do something. Just please, just like hashtag keep Sean or something.
Keep me alive, man. Keep the lights on.
So with that, we’ll sign off. Chris, thanks for joining us on this part of the show.
Always a pleasure.
Yeah, thank you so much, Chris. It was great to have you both as a correspondent and on the show.
It’s always an honor to be here. Love it, guys.
Thank you, sir. We’ll hope to have you back soon. Thank you again, Chris, for being with us.
Why don’t you take it out for this episode?
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages, thanks again. Stay close to your dreams and take care.
Thanks for listening to The VO Meter. Measuring Your Voice Over Progress. To follow along, please visit www.vometer.com.
Thank you.