Every once in a while you stumble across something, doesn't have to be big, doesn't have to be small, but something that gets your attention and reminds you that you're on the right track.
Today I found one. And then I remembered another. Cool stuff, and I'll be honest in that I love the nerd cred.
That said, does it change anything for me? Nope. In life it's not about the destination, it's the journey which defines us. In any career you need to approach things as they were a marathon instead of a sprint.
I can use all the platitudes and self-motivational catchphrases I want to but it comes down to this - it's a small acknowledgement of what's been accomplished in an area of voice over which I do not normally get to perform. One step.
If there's one thing that gets me, it's the lack of love (or so it seems) that the industry has for voice actors.
Bob Bergen makes a very strong viewpoint on this, and frankly I'm inclined to agree with it.
So it gives me great pleasure when I hear about the entertainment industry recognizes one of our own. It doesn't happen often enough from outside of the VO ranks, so when it does I think it's worth lauding.
Voice over legend June Foray took home her first Emmy for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for her performance as Mrs. Cauldron in "The Garfield Show" on Cartoon Network. This is one role in Ms. Foray's prolific voice over career (she's still rocking the mic at 94 years young), and to me this is an award that's been long overdue to her.
Congrats June!!! For those who are interested, there's more info here.
As usual, the House of Mouse has put together a celebrity voice over cast, consisting of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and Mariska Hargitay.
Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of this particular title, but an "average" title from Studio Ghibli is usually better than "good" titles put out by most other studios. That says a lot to me, which is why I've managed to watch this title more than once. Additionally, this is Goro's debut film as a director, and if this is any indication I look forward to his future efforts with anticipation.
Hat tip to the folks at Cartoon Brew for the news.
Swift was the voice of Mighty Mouse, Dinky Duck and, for a brief period, Howdy Doody, not to mention a host of other characters in over 30,000 TV and radio commercials.
What I enjoyed about Swift (and it's quoted in the article) is that he never minded being "unknown" in the public eye. “I’m perfectly willing to be the anonymous man of television.”, was his response in an interview for the NY Daily News. So long as he got to bring life to the characters in the copy, he was content.
I recently stumbled upon an interview at Computer and Videogames, with Mark Hamill on his role in Arkham Asylum, and his myriad of voice over roles in animation and video games.
If you're a fan of Hamill's work, or just interested to get a bit more insight into one of the industry's most versatile and successful talents, it's worth the read.
The interesting and exciting part for me is that the narration is considered to be the last professional recording of Welles, and literally sat on a shelf for over twenty-five years. Quite frankly, it was one of those little legends that turned out to be true.
On the other hand, the use of deceased celebrities in new media doesn't often end well. Just ask folks who thought it was a good idea to "resurrect" Orville Redenbacher and produce one of the creepiest commercials I've ever seen. From my own experience, the first national commercial I was ever in used this same technology to bring back Frank Sinatra from the grave for the NBA's "Live it Live" campaign back in 2002. I still shudder a bit whenever I see that one on YouTube. It was definitely a great PR campaign, but it was just a little too eerie for me.
I'm just thankful that Mr. Welles is merely providing a voiceover for the upcoming production.
As a long time otaku, I had to pull myself out of the booth, work, studies, etc. in order to make mention regarding the passing of Carl Macek.
If nothing else, the man was a controversial figure within the anime community, both for his manner of automatic dialogue replacement and editing of content, and for his pioneering spirit. Carl was one of the first people to take anime outside Japan and distribute it throughout the English-speaking world. His name was synonymous with several titles, but most will probably remember him for his redubbed and edited production of three separate anime series into Robotech. Most recently, Macek added his talents as a producer to titles such as Naruto and Bleach.
On an amusing note, he inspired the fan term "Macekre" (pronounced like "massacre") used to describe anime series which have been drastically "revised" to make them more attractive to Western viewers. While Macek never apologized for some of his more "famous" revisions, he did deter his detractors by pointing out those revisions he was not responsible for, yet were still attributed to him. One instance which stood out in my mind was an interview in which he acknowledged poor revisions within the Robotech franchise, and then explaining in the next sentence that major plot elements which were excluded from the Robotech VHS distribution were not intentional (it was later stated that the edits Macek referred to were done by a former home video distributor after the original broadcast in order to fit more episodes per VHS tape). None the less, Macek was never afraid of criticism or of the opinions of anime otaku. As time proved, he would use that feedback to better provide for future productions he was involved with, as his most recent works have shown. It is that aspect of his personality which made Macek both a loved, and controversial, figure within American anime fandom.
If you're interested in learning more about Carl Macek's life and career, the following articles offer a nice summary of his career.
“I recommend seatbelts in your armchairs as the creator and cast of “Family Guy” assemble on our stage for a hilarious, irreverent look at themselves, each other, their characters and their spectacularly successful show. This is, quite simply, unlike any Inside the Actors Studio you’ve ever seen.”
Since I'm currently bombarded with a GSSP certification, I was unable to see Monday's broadcast of the interview. However there's going to be re-broadcast on the 20th, which I definitely plan on watching.
That's the first item of interest for all things "Family Guy" related. The second is this... Karl Rove is making a cameo appearance on the show. Details are a bit scant at the present, but that's the thing which makes this show such a hit with the audience; not only does the show go out of its way to be equal opportunity offender of pretty much everyone at some point (much like "South Park"), but they actually get the very people they're lampooning to take part in the comedy.
I can only imagine what MacFarlane and the rest of the writing staff have up their sleeve for Rove, but I'm sure that it'll be completely irreverent and enjoyable.
I've no idea how everybody in the voice over community missed this one, so let me toss it out there for all to find...
There's a really nice article on TampaBay.com with voice actor Tom Kenny, who plays the voice/role of Spongebob Squarepants. This is one of those "should read" kind of articles IMO for anyone who is interested in voice acting, or interested/curious about the people involved in giving life to an animated character...
The article itself is originally about the 10 year anniversary of the Spongebob Squarepants series, but the reporter and Kenny turn the interview into a lot more than that, talking about some of the controversy that the character has stirred up (yes folks, apparently not everyone is a fan of ole' Spongebob), a bit about Kenny's past, and the correlation of how the survival and continued popularity of the show is akin to surviving a terminal illness (you have to read the article for that one, but I had a good chuckle with it).
Here's a link to the article, and I hope you get the same enjoyment out of it that I did. For anyone who has ever made a living off of the same stuff that got you into trouble when you were younger, this is worth the time.
Disney Featurette from "The Princess and the Frog" - Conjuring the Villan
First off, I shamelessly stole this from Bob Souer's blog. This is worth spreading, but I wanted to make sure that credit is given where it is due.
This is the second featurette from Disney's upcoming animation, "The Princess and the Frog" (I'll admit that I have been eagerly anticipating this production since I first heard of it from a friend working on the production... that the team working on this is so fiercely loyal to Walt's original ideas of animation is very heartening to me).
Here's the thing that I want any readers of this blog to note. If you take a ride in the "Way, Wayback Machine", I spoke about how Keith David used a form of SWOT analysis in how he performed. Pay attention to the clips of his character. Mr. David doesn't do anything that we don't already know him for doing... he just lets those parts of his personality which fit the character come out more so than normal. The result is a very believable and enjoyable Villan.
Regardless of the copy in front of you, you have to have some part of YOU that's performing the read. If you don't, then it just doesn't work. This is a pretty fascinating topic to me, and one which I'll visit again in the future.
PS: when I first saw the clip a day or two ago, I was asked to identify the microphone used (some things never change, lol). Based on the clip, it looks like a Brauner to me. Which one is a bit unknown at this time, but based on the shockmount and popfilter, I'd venture to say that it's a VM1 or VM1-KHE if I had to put money down on it.
A brief description of the book nails many of the same comments found in most voice over writings, but depending on how they choose to do it and to whom Lowenthal and Platt choose to make their audience, they might have a new twist on some of the more traditional rote from other books on the subject. In one recent article, they made it very clear that the goal was to take the information that gets passed around at the usual voice actor panels (both Lowenthal and Platt run great panels, BTW), aggregate that information, and then take it to the next step. The following description seems to follow that line of thinking:
A PEEK INTO THE SECRET WORLD OF THE VOICE ACTOR for those curious, daring or obsessed enough to look....This book offers a comprehensive look at what it takes, what goes on, and what it's like behind the mic from two working pros. In this book, you will discover: * The ins and outs of auditioning * Vocal warm-ups and exercises * Tips for reading copy to maximum effect * Hints to help you stand out * Keys to marketing yourself: demo to agent to job * What to expect when you book the job! Filled with anecdotes from 20 VO professionals (actors, writers, casting, directors, engineers, agents) the book is a fun and comprehensive look inside voice-over.
The book doesn't come out until November 9th (at present... dates can be moved back or forth, depending on things), and I'm sure that it will do well. For a professional talent, it may or may not be a worthwhile read for $20, but for those in the industry who are of the otaku personality, I expect it to be a "must read".
The folks at Mania have a special treat for fans of "Green Lantern", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", or "Angel" in the form of an interview with Juliet Landau, who is plays the role of Labella in DC's next animated film, "Green Lantern: First Flight". The interview gets a little into the voice over work that Landau has done for the film (a quick check of credits shows that Juliet has more experience in front of the mic for animated features than one might expect).
A link to the interview can be found here. For those who work in voice over, it's her response to the first question in the interview really hits home, and should be taken to heart.
