VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[anthonyVO]

Recently I've been called in to audition for villains in cartoons. The first one (which I bombed) was for a guest spot on Nickelodeon's "Avatar" (love that show and yeah that's the name). The second one is for a pilot (my new avatar). In both cases, I was given just specs and no sketches of the character. Since this has just started happening recently, I'm going to put together an animation demo targeting these villains and other "not-so-innocent" characters. Because this seems to be another avenue for me that has started knocking on my door.

Anyway - for those that do animation, how do you deal with the handicap of not having visuals?

-Anthony

EDIT: By the way - once i got back to my studio after the audition, I looked up the character online... uh - I would've made a different choice had I seen him previously.

[Philip Banks]

I've done both with and without. Without is difficult even with a detailed character brief. The process appears to be 3 steps.

1 - Come up with a sound that fits the brief. For me this has never ended up as the voice used. From this you will be cast, but only as "him we can work with".

2 - Dialogue with writer, director, animator to get a better feel for how the character behaves.

3 - Preliminary sketches add something to the sound and during the recording sessions the character is fine tuned, then comes to life.

Anyone who wants to, try this. His name is Tobius Learnicus, mentor and trainer from the Gods to mere mortals. He's very old but not frail, fit and healthy, an enthusiast, an eccentric, loves everyone, everything and couldn't be happier.

Out of breath as he's doing his morning work out "Hoolar and hurrah! Another great day to be alive. 1,2,3,4 shake that body, move some more. 5,6,7,8 looking good and feeling great!

[Deirdre]

Pat Fraley has a great story about creating the audition voice for Krang, one of the bad guys on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Le'me see if it's in print somewhere.
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[anthonyVO]

[Deirdre]

The Making of Krang
Patrick Fraley

Fred Wolf, an animation producer, had recorded an actor doing a cartoon voice and he wasn't happy with it, so he called me and told me to meet him at B&B studios in Burbank. He handed me the character description:

"Krang. Brainy villain for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Show. Krang is an evil undulating blob of a brain. Krang is thoroughly disgusting…but funny."

Fred says to me, "Whaddya got?" I asked him if I could have some time to work up the character. He said, "Sure. We record in two minutes." No need to panic. Here's where my cataloguing system sprang into action. Any given character voice is made up of the following Elements: Pitch, Pitch Characteristic, Tempo, Rhythm, Placement and Mouth Work. What do I have to go on? Character Traits: A Brain, Villain, Evil, A Blob, Undulating, Disgusting, Funny. I'll create vocal choices that reveal those character traits and plug them into each Element, one by one-

Brain: I'll give him a nice wide Pitch range so he can be calculating.

A Villain: I'll give him a strident Pitch Characteristic.

Evil: I'll vary his Tempo so he can be sneaky.

A Blob: A Blob. Blob blob blob blob. I'll do some Mouth Work - and give him a soft, cottony, puffy sound, and I'll place the voice in back of the throat!

Undulating: That's easy. I'll give him an undulating Rhythm by varying his breath support.

Disgusting: Disgusting. More Mouth Work. (Laugh) (Breathes in) (Burp). "Excuse me."

What if I gave him indigestion when he gets upset? "Just do as I command? (belch)" No time to burp between words. Maybe I can burp on them. "Just do as I command." Good. Oh! Funny! Thirty seconds to go! Underneath all this I could get away with murder. How 'about I make him a long-suffering mother? Time's up! Roll tape. Krang Test. Pat Fraley, Take one!

200 plus shows later, I live in the house that Krang built.
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[anthonyVO]

that's PERFECT!
Great story and very helpful in terms of approaching specs w/out the image - exactly what me needz

thanks, deirdre.
-Anthony

[dhouston67]

That Pat Fraley story is priceless. Many thanks to DB for sharing it.

I watched the Ice Age DVD yesterday; on the second disc, John Leguizamo talks about creating the voice for Sid. True, he had the benefit of sketches and even early animatics, but he wasn't quite coming up with anything he or the producer liked.

He decided to watch old National Geographic footage of real sloths. He came back with an earnest, higher pitched lispy voice that nailed it.

Not as compelling as the Krang story, but interesting nonetheless.
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[anthonyVO]

John Lequizamo is really talented - i've seen him perform his one-man show a couple times on and off Broadway.

Gotta pick up that DVD.
-Anthony

[PJHawke]

I love Leguizamo's voice work. In "Ice Age" Romano and Leary were primarily doing their own regular voices, albeit with a certain character attitude slant, but JL really is a versatile voice actor. I like his whimsical Peter Lorre-esque twist on professor Gune in "Titan A.E." and his voice(s) for the Clown in the live action "Spawn".

I've got Fraleys animation voice tricks CD and when he demonstrates the "reverse breathing" trick behind the Krang voice he mentions "this one paid for my house". I thought he was being whimsical but there's the second mention of it in that interview....TMNT musta been one shweet gig.

Pam Lewis also has a very good woodshedding system for finding the voice behind an animated character description in her "Talking Funny for Money" course; a few differences but very similar to Fraley's. It seems like a lot of work to me, but they go through their checklists in a few seconds to come up with the result. I guess that's why they're on the A list.