Voice-Acting Workshop report: April 23, 2006
Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 1:22 am
Right now, I'm feeling completely exhausted, but I'll type out as much of the report from today's workshop as I can. I made sure to leave the house early enough in order to make it to Bear Studio (in downtown Vancouver BC) early. The minimum suggested time, of course, was 15 minutes before the scheduled start time; I wanted to make it there earlier than that, and I did... about a half-hour earlier. At least this time, I had almost no trouble finding a place to park my car. As usual, Marcy Goldberg, the one in charge of the whole workshop and instructor for the Radio Commercial portion during the first half, was the first to greet me, and she needed a hand in getting some of her paperwork finished up before the start time. So I ended up being something of an assistant in getting the stuff photocopied, both before the workshop and (on occasion) during her portion of the class when she thought she was short some copies.
Gradually, more people showed up, covering just about every age group and vocal style; a full range of stuff was there, from youngsters to grandmothers to accents, including one woman who was born in South Africa and her first language was, in fact, Zulu (oh, Saaaaaapph...!).
We started talking with each other, and I started to gain some attention when some of them overheard me having taken the workshops before, as well as some of my infamous "Scott stories". In fact, those "Scott stories" caused me to meet up with two young TransFans (the older brother was 15, the younger sister named Tabitha will be turning 14 in May), and we started goofing off and talking in Waspinator's voice!
After the casual pre-workshop meet-up, it was time for us to head upstairs into the studio, where we started the first exercise; get into pairs and talk a bit with each other, after which, each pair would get behind the microphones on the opposite side of the big window and introduce our "partners" to the rest of the group. I ended up being partnered with Tabitha, who got over the initial shock that I was 30 and she and I got along pretty quickly.
After that exercise was done, Marcy gave us a look at voice-over work, how it works, etc., and gave each of us a one-page commercial script to work with when we each got our individual turns behind the mic. Now while I was signing up for the workshop, I remembered the previous times I took it, I usually had faster-paced, comedic-styled material to work with, but this time, I requested something different, maybe a little more dramatic or darker. So I got to use a slightly modified version of an anti-drunk-driving script. The original story was to be narrated by a woman who hung out with some girlfriends at a Spanish restaurant, had a bottle of wine... and got pulled over by a routine seatbelt check, and ended up with a drunk-driving charge and a ruined chance to finish her law degree. Luckily, Marcy said that the basic idea of the story didn't have to be gender-specific, and I altered the script so that I was a guy taking one girlfriend out for dinner. I said, "I don't want to seem like a 'playah.'" 
The other radio-commercial pieces gave a range of stuff that I had heard before (including the old department store ads, or a library), and some that I hadn't (like a kid talking about "blasting alien colonies" for a high-speed internet commercial spot). Luckily, this time, no one got the "BBQ Lovers' Pizza from Pizza Hut" ad that semi-traumatized me during my first workshop. Unfortunately... they had a similarly innuendo-themed on what I think was for a hamburger. This was, I thought, was even worse... considering this was read by a student who said she was a waitress at a strip club.
Once the first half of the workshop was done -- and Marcy got into a mild panic that we WEREN'T way ahead of time; nobody set the clocks inside the studio's upper floor for Daylight Savings Time -- we took our half-hour lunch break downstairs, and met up with Scott McNeil who had just arrived! He told me that he got my messages, but he wouldn't have had time for the interview planned for the TF Collectors' Club newsletter; however, he did say that I could try to get a hold of him during the upcoming week to do one over the phone (IF, of course, I can actually reach him). He also recalled that I wanted to do a different style of voice for the Animation Voice portion of the workshop, since I had already done higher-pitched kinds of characters before (like Ransack from Cybertron), and deadpan-joked that I'd be doing one for "Mrs. Claus". At first, I really wasn't sure if he was joking or not, but hey, I thought it'd make another change of pace. (Which, as it turned out, was NOT the script Scott would give me. More on that later.) During lunch itself, Tabitha and I got to talk a little more about voices and acting (and other similarly-related stories), and Marcy was surprised that she and I had never once met before, seeing how we were getting along so well. Finally, lunch was over and it was time to head back upstairs again. Just before we were about to start, as expected, Scott was his usual loopy self while hanging with us before starting time... and I just so happened to have a sample of "Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" recorded on my digital camera... which I played for no real reason at all. Scott stopped what he was doing when he heard the music, and starting acting all authoritatively military and quiet, doing the "Vader mask breath" by breathing into his hands covering his mouth, cracking the whole place up!
As normal in Scott's part of the voice workshop, he gave us the big shpiel about voice acting, citing Mel Blanc, and telling us the difference between "doing a voice" and "performing a character". He also tossed in the "sugar is your friend" bit, as well as the recording studio being our "monkey bars" for doing a cartoon recording session. Except for me, he said, who would need to be restrained. (Yep, even now, Scott still pulls a chance to razz on me whenever he can.
) With the basics finished and out of the way, he gave us our script copies to work from, which also had a good range of different characters, including a tentacled-alien schoolteacher, a femme fatale, a grandmotherly-sounding tree (which the South African woman even did with a Zulu accent... with us wanting to hear it), a Marilyn Monroe-sounding cowgirl and a bunch of others. Good ol' Tabitha got to do a character from My Little Pony... delivered in a completely mocked-up Caribbean accent, which sent all of us in hysterics! Another of my favorites was a woman playing a rabbit character, and in her second take, she adopted some rabbit-like characteristics to make her delivery seem even more convincing. A number of TF Cybertron characters also got used; Red Alert, Scattorshot, Landmine and Override.
As I requested before the workshop started, I didn't get a character with a high-pitched voice or a goofy or casual attitude. If I had specified a little more when I said I wanted someone different, I might have gotten away from the TF stuff. But I ended up getting copy for another TF character, which Scott did on purpose.
Vector Prime.
Now those who've seen TF Cybertron and heard my real voice would know that my vocal range simply doesn't go deep enough to sound convincingly like Vector Prime does on the show (considering it's the same voice actor for Rhinox, Richard Newman). But I drew some inspiration from the character description on the page, indicating Vector Prime is an emissary of Primus, something of an "ancient prophet"-like figure (citing Moses or Mohammed), as well as comparisons to the voice style of -- get this -- Gandalf. Yes, that Gandalf. Grey, white, whichever; it said "Gandalf." While my voice is a lot more youthful-sounding -- Scott says he'd easily give me the role of Hot Shot if he could do it -- it was still in the ballpark of what I wanted: something different. So while I didn't think I was going to nail Gandalf or a perfect imitation of Vector Prime on the cartoon, I just went in, used an accent, and made myself sound more noble and knightly, while TRYING to talk slower. After my first take, Scott said I did a better job with the lines than he was expecting, and because this was a different kind of character I was working with, he also said that this was his chance to finally tell me something that he'd been wanting to say for a while.
With a silly smirk, I asked, "I suck?"
He said, "No. Sloooooowww doooowwwn."
I got to do a couple other takes before wrapping it up, and Scott seemed to think that I've been getting better while trying to work with different material, ever since he "found me on the streets all wrapped in swaddling clothes", and all that hilarity.
Finally, it was time to wrap up the workshop with some last bits of paperwork to give out, and we got to listen to Marcy's old voice demo. We probably would have listened to one from Scott, if it weren't for the fact that -- unusual in the business -- he doesn't have one.
We ended up running overtime by about 45 minutes, so we had to clear out of the studio and head outside (thankfully, it was still sunny and tolerably warm), where we got to talk with Scott a little bit more (Marcy had to take off). During our sidewalk yaps, we talked more about getting into the industry, as well as the story of me and Scott on the plane ride back home from the OTFCC '04 from Chicago when we were driving each other (and everyone around us) crazy. "And now," he added, "we love him", as he goofily pinched my cheek and I put on a shy look... before I followed up by pretending to stick my finger down my throat, causing everyone to laugh again.
We couldn't stay for much longer, though, because Scott already had some plans for later that evening. So as I said before, Scott and I wouldn't have the interview for the TF Club Newsletter as previously suggested/planned, but we can try for something later on. And I also couldn't get everyone's hellos to him because he was in something of a rush, but I did manage to give him at least some of them, to which he said he had to respond with a generic "you guys rock, man!" with the added "rock-on" hand gestures.
So that wrapped it up for another workshop, and hopefully, this time, I won't lose that momentum I've been wanting to keep in making sure I can finally break into the business after such a long delay...!
Outtsyder
Gradually, more people showed up, covering just about every age group and vocal style; a full range of stuff was there, from youngsters to grandmothers to accents, including one woman who was born in South Africa and her first language was, in fact, Zulu (oh, Saaaaaapph...!).
We started talking with each other, and I started to gain some attention when some of them overheard me having taken the workshops before, as well as some of my infamous "Scott stories". In fact, those "Scott stories" caused me to meet up with two young TransFans (the older brother was 15, the younger sister named Tabitha will be turning 14 in May), and we started goofing off and talking in Waspinator's voice! After the casual pre-workshop meet-up, it was time for us to head upstairs into the studio, where we started the first exercise; get into pairs and talk a bit with each other, after which, each pair would get behind the microphones on the opposite side of the big window and introduce our "partners" to the rest of the group. I ended up being partnered with Tabitha, who got over the initial shock that I was 30 and she and I got along pretty quickly.
After that exercise was done, Marcy gave us a look at voice-over work, how it works, etc., and gave each of us a one-page commercial script to work with when we each got our individual turns behind the mic. Now while I was signing up for the workshop, I remembered the previous times I took it, I usually had faster-paced, comedic-styled material to work with, but this time, I requested something different, maybe a little more dramatic or darker. So I got to use a slightly modified version of an anti-drunk-driving script. The original story was to be narrated by a woman who hung out with some girlfriends at a Spanish restaurant, had a bottle of wine... and got pulled over by a routine seatbelt check, and ended up with a drunk-driving charge and a ruined chance to finish her law degree. Luckily, Marcy said that the basic idea of the story didn't have to be gender-specific, and I altered the script so that I was a guy taking one girlfriend out for dinner. I said, "I don't want to seem like a 'playah.'" The other radio-commercial pieces gave a range of stuff that I had heard before (including the old department store ads, or a library), and some that I hadn't (like a kid talking about "blasting alien colonies" for a high-speed internet commercial spot). Luckily, this time, no one got the "BBQ Lovers' Pizza from Pizza Hut" ad that semi-traumatized me during my first workshop. Unfortunately... they had a similarly innuendo-themed on what I think was for a hamburger. This was, I thought, was even worse... considering this was read by a student who said she was a waitress at a strip club.
Once the first half of the workshop was done -- and Marcy got into a mild panic that we WEREN'T way ahead of time; nobody set the clocks inside the studio's upper floor for Daylight Savings Time -- we took our half-hour lunch break downstairs, and met up with Scott McNeil who had just arrived! He told me that he got my messages, but he wouldn't have had time for the interview planned for the TF Collectors' Club newsletter; however, he did say that I could try to get a hold of him during the upcoming week to do one over the phone (IF, of course, I can actually reach him). He also recalled that I wanted to do a different style of voice for the Animation Voice portion of the workshop, since I had already done higher-pitched kinds of characters before (like Ransack from Cybertron), and deadpan-joked that I'd be doing one for "Mrs. Claus". At first, I really wasn't sure if he was joking or not, but hey, I thought it'd make another change of pace. (Which, as it turned out, was NOT the script Scott would give me. More on that later.) During lunch itself, Tabitha and I got to talk a little more about voices and acting (and other similarly-related stories), and Marcy was surprised that she and I had never once met before, seeing how we were getting along so well. Finally, lunch was over and it was time to head back upstairs again. Just before we were about to start, as expected, Scott was his usual loopy self while hanging with us before starting time... and I just so happened to have a sample of "Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" recorded on my digital camera... which I played for no real reason at all. Scott stopped what he was doing when he heard the music, and starting acting all authoritatively military and quiet, doing the "Vader mask breath" by breathing into his hands covering his mouth, cracking the whole place up!
As normal in Scott's part of the voice workshop, he gave us the big shpiel about voice acting, citing Mel Blanc, and telling us the difference between "doing a voice" and "performing a character". He also tossed in the "sugar is your friend" bit, as well as the recording studio being our "monkey bars" for doing a cartoon recording session. Except for me, he said, who would need to be restrained. (Yep, even now, Scott still pulls a chance to razz on me whenever he can.
) With the basics finished and out of the way, he gave us our script copies to work from, which also had a good range of different characters, including a tentacled-alien schoolteacher, a femme fatale, a grandmotherly-sounding tree (which the South African woman even did with a Zulu accent... with us wanting to hear it), a Marilyn Monroe-sounding cowgirl and a bunch of others. Good ol' Tabitha got to do a character from My Little Pony... delivered in a completely mocked-up Caribbean accent, which sent all of us in hysterics! Another of my favorites was a woman playing a rabbit character, and in her second take, she adopted some rabbit-like characteristics to make her delivery seem even more convincing. A number of TF Cybertron characters also got used; Red Alert, Scattorshot, Landmine and Override.As I requested before the workshop started, I didn't get a character with a high-pitched voice or a goofy or casual attitude. If I had specified a little more when I said I wanted someone different, I might have gotten away from the TF stuff. But I ended up getting copy for another TF character, which Scott did on purpose.
Vector Prime.
Now those who've seen TF Cybertron and heard my real voice would know that my vocal range simply doesn't go deep enough to sound convincingly like Vector Prime does on the show (considering it's the same voice actor for Rhinox, Richard Newman). But I drew some inspiration from the character description on the page, indicating Vector Prime is an emissary of Primus, something of an "ancient prophet"-like figure (citing Moses or Mohammed), as well as comparisons to the voice style of -- get this -- Gandalf. Yes, that Gandalf. Grey, white, whichever; it said "Gandalf." While my voice is a lot more youthful-sounding -- Scott says he'd easily give me the role of Hot Shot if he could do it -- it was still in the ballpark of what I wanted: something different. So while I didn't think I was going to nail Gandalf or a perfect imitation of Vector Prime on the cartoon, I just went in, used an accent, and made myself sound more noble and knightly, while TRYING to talk slower. After my first take, Scott said I did a better job with the lines than he was expecting, and because this was a different kind of character I was working with, he also said that this was his chance to finally tell me something that he'd been wanting to say for a while.
With a silly smirk, I asked, "I suck?"
He said, "No. Sloooooowww doooowwwn."
I got to do a couple other takes before wrapping it up, and Scott seemed to think that I've been getting better while trying to work with different material, ever since he "found me on the streets all wrapped in swaddling clothes", and all that hilarity.
Finally, it was time to wrap up the workshop with some last bits of paperwork to give out, and we got to listen to Marcy's old voice demo. We probably would have listened to one from Scott, if it weren't for the fact that -- unusual in the business -- he doesn't have one.
We ended up running overtime by about 45 minutes, so we had to clear out of the studio and head outside (thankfully, it was still sunny and tolerably warm), where we got to talk with Scott a little bit more (Marcy had to take off). During our sidewalk yaps, we talked more about getting into the industry, as well as the story of me and Scott on the plane ride back home from the OTFCC '04 from Chicago when we were driving each other (and everyone around us) crazy. "And now," he added, "we love him", as he goofily pinched my cheek and I put on a shy look... before I followed up by pretending to stick my finger down my throat, causing everyone to laugh again. We couldn't stay for much longer, though, because Scott already had some plans for later that evening. So as I said before, Scott and I wouldn't have the interview for the TF Club Newsletter as previously suggested/planned, but we can try for something later on. And I also couldn't get everyone's hellos to him because he was in something of a rush, but I did manage to give him at least some of them, to which he said he had to respond with a generic "you guys rock, man!" with the added "rock-on" hand gestures.
So that wrapped it up for another workshop, and hopefully, this time, I won't lose that momentum I've been wanting to keep in making sure I can finally break into the business after such a long delay...!
Outtsyder