If you got such a gorgeous torrential downpour of rain like we did here in Portland, I hope you're enjoying it. It's been like this most of the week and after the several months of bone dry weather we experienced it's giving a pluviophile (someone who loves rain and finds peace in rainy days) like me life.
Last weekend I hit Kumoricon, mostly for the voice panels. In attendance were Monica Rial, Keith Silverstein, Justin Briner, Erica Mendez, Lucien Dodge, Jād (jade) Saxton, Lauren Landa, and most likely more I have forgotten -- but these were the voice actors, directors, and ADR scriptwriters in the panels I was able to attend. And I'm just going to talk about a few points from the most interesting ones -- the ADR Scriptwriting Panel, the From Fan to Professional panel, and Justin Briner's Q&A panel.
ADR, or Automated Dialog Replacement, is the process of taking a foreign language script, translating it, and rewriting it so that the English matches the mouth flaps of the animated characters on screen -- mostly used for anime shows. Monica Rial, Lucien Dodge, and Erica Mendez were there to give us a rundown on the process as well as answer some questions. One thing I hadn't considered about ADR was that they're not just doing a straight translation, or even trying to adhere 100% to what the literal translation from Japanese would be. They're sticking to the intent more than the actual words, because a straight translation into English doesn't often make a whole lot of sense. They're also adjusting it by characterization in order to translate a specific character's personality into English as well as the dialogue. An ADR script adapter has to deal with things like long pauses ("Shatnerisms"), lengthening or shortening a line to fit the time frame and mouth movements, the Japanese switchup with the letters "L" and "R" that sometimes happens, and especially any time there is a sign written in English or a person speaking English in the Japanese version which they'll either have to go with, adjust slightly, or ignore depending on how bad it looks or sounds.
The "From Fan to Professional" panel was interesting because Erica Mendez and Lucien Dodge were basically telling their own story about how they got into the industry. Erica especially was a fan first, no classic theater training, went to school for something else, but was able to get into it with sheer hard work and passion for the craft. It's honestly very inspiring because in a whole lot of those ways I'm in the same starting position, only she was able to figure it out when she was five or ten years younger than me. What it boils down to, basically, is be tenacious and driven but don't be a dick. The more friends you make, the more people have your back, the more people will see you helping yourself and want to help you. I like that. It's still really, really, really, really hard work but it's nice to have a hand to help pull you back up off the ground when you fail. You'll also burn fewer bridges if you're just a nice person. It seems very obvious, probably, but a lot of people conflate being driven with being ruthless in the entertainment industry. Don't.
Strangely enough, I got my most useful answer to a question from Justin Briner's open Question & Answer panel. As usual, I was the guy in the front row taking notes, probably making him wonder if I was part of the press or just an obsessed fan, but he answered my question about getting into the character's headspace on a short time frame really well. I'd love to have just let him talk about it for the entire hour and a half, but I wasn't the only one with a question, so I'm glad he went on about it for as long as he did. The question, basically, was "How do you find the character when you're given a script a day, or hours before having to audition?" Voice actors often don't get a lot of time to prepare, so I wanted to know what Justin's process was when he was handed a new character.
- Theater training really helps here -- helping you make a strong choice, especially in the audition; vocal control and technique; cold reading and quick decisions; physical movement and projection.
- A healthy back and forth with the Director can help you tweak your performance to help you give them what they want.
- A focus on what your character wants in that moment. What is the purpose of the scene? Keeping that always in the back of your mind in order to serve the flow of the story.
- Experience and practice, practice, practice. Having read enough scripts and done enough acting that you can recognize the cues in what you read nearly instantly. The character is all there -- the delay comes in the speed at which you process it from the reading.
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