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The Method of Making it in Anime

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Top Anime Casting Director Mami Okada shares some great tips for those who want to make it in Anime

 

Mami Okada
Casting Director and Director of Operations at
Bang Zoom! Entertainment

 

How did you come to be a Casting Director?

To cut a long story short, I came to the States as an International student and secured an internship with Bang Zoom, at the time the company was very small and only had three other people working there. They were just starting out but they had a big series already and I came on as its first intern, then I just stuck around and it’s been 20 years now! I really didn’t know anything about Anime prior to starting at Bang Zoom because I didn’t really watch it when I was in Japan. When I arrived in the States I realized how huge it actually is!

 

What do you enjoy about your job?

There Are so many things that I enjoy. Sometimes even actors who I have been working with for years can still surprise me. I can hear a new voice from an actor that I’ve worked together with for years. It can be different experience every day and often very challenging but that is what keeps me going and my work interesting,

 

How has the industry changed since you started out?

So many changes are happening in the Anime industry. It’s definitely changed dramatically since when I first started the job. It used to be that only a very small group were passionate about English versions of Anime, now it is becoming more mainstream. There is more attention coming from places like video games and it changes the way I think and approach my work.

 

Tell us about the process you use to cast an Anime series…

The casting process is not the same every time. In general, when we get a series from our clients we discuss with our producers to find out what they’re expecting to hear when it comes to auditions. The final decisions will be up to the producers and sometimes the creators in Japan. We’ll discuss the requirements and then we’ll decide which roles we need to do auditions for.

 

How do you choose who to audition?

I select group of actors who are most likely to fit in a role or come close to the range of the character. I will send around 10 characters to each actors so they can choose which one they understand or connect with the most. I will send that out to about 25 actors at most, then I’ll narrow it down to a shortlist and submit them to the producers.

If a character requires something very specific by the producers that I haven’t found, I will reach out to agents. Agents might have someone who would be perfect for the project we are looking to cast.

 

What are you looking for when you are casting an English version of Anime?

We have to be respectful to the original performance when casting English versions. We take the directions from the original voice so we look for the voices that are similar to the original. We are never looking for a perfect fit but they should bring the same energy and emotion to the performance. We definitely focus more on that than who sounds like the Japanese voice. That can be your direction and then you need to make your own character. We still need to make sure that the character performance will fit visually with the animation. Performance is crucial when it comes to casting.

The performance has to come from the heart. I always suggest actors should make sure ti have all the emotions reachable. Keep your emotion within your reachable range stored in mental “drawers”. open the “drawer” and get the emotion. In the next moment, you’re going to open a different “drawer” and get to that emotion.

 

Do you have to have an Anime demo to work in the genre?

I personally don’t think you need to have a special Anime demo. A lot of actors have commercial demos and character animation demos. I’m not sure about the other casting directors but for me, I like to listen to both of them. I love to actually listen to anything and everything you’ve got. As I mentioned, Anime can be cinematic or it can be wacky or cartoony, I love to listen to the range of the actors.

 

Is being able to do ADR essential?

It’s definitely essential to be able to do ADR, which is the process in which you match your performance to the video. It’s not only animation that is a preferred skill for, but also tons of foreign language tv shows that adapt to other languages. All the big steaming services are grabbing good foreign titles and dubbing them into English or other languages so it’s really busy and it’s good for you to learn the skills of how to do it. It might feel a little intimidating at first because you have a beat’s timecode and you have a restricted time that you can perform, but eventually, it will come to you more naturally. It’s a lot like music – when you’re listening to the music, you know when to start singing. It’s a similar concept. I recommend taking classes o ADR because if you book your first gig and don’t know what to do, your nerves about doing the technical aspects will affect your performance.

 

Mami Okada’s Top Tips for delivering a successful lip sync!

  • Practice a neutral American accent.
  • Trust the script.
  • Preview the original language if the studio allows you to watch the original video.
  • Quickly look at the line, then quickly memorize.
  • Pay attention to the actual lift movement so you can practice during the preview.
  • Keep the rhythm.
  • Have a reason for performance choices.
  • Watch Anime in both languages if you can. Stop, rewind, switch the audio channel, and try to perform alongside the original voice.

 

 

 

 

Brand Brilliance

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Celia Siegel is the author of the popular book VoiceOverAchiever, and founder of Celia Siegel Management, widely recognized for developing strong personal brands for voice talent. As an experienced brand building pioneer, certified life and business coach, success strategist and former talent agent turned manager, Celia has advanced the careers of top VO talent for more than two decades. Celia’s multi-leveled expertise and extensive knowledge of the ever-changing voiceover industry has helped voice actors, across the globe, successfully brand and grow their VO businesses.

We caught up with her to ask her a few of our most pressing questions.

What motivated you to write VoiceOverAchiever?

I have always known I was going to write a book. From a pretty young age, I have been interested in success factors, positive psychology, and the concept of branding. So this book has been wanting to be written for a long time. Because I love connecting with people and building and branding their careers as artists and business people, I decided it was time. I made a commitment to doing it and set aside a bit of time each day. Et Voila, VoiceOverAchiever was born! It felt like the right thing to do — the best way to share my expertise with the whole VO community. What is a common question that people ask you about voiceover branding? A few questions come up again and again. Number one: I don’t think I have a brand — how do I figure out what my brand is? 

When I look at people I can see their brand immediately. It’s so obvious to me — like they are wearing a sticker on their forehead. But of course, it’s harder to see your own brand when you look in the mirror. Yes, you have a brand. It’s not something you create out of thin air. It’s about owning who you already are and what people already say about you. But oftentimes, people spend so much time trying to be what they think they should be, they lose sight of this. It takes some exploring to rediscover the essence of your brand.

 

Another one: What if my brand turns somebody away from me or makes them not use my voice? 

This is the most powerful of all the questions. Going through the branding process, you learn exactly who you are trying to attract and how to connect with the right people. When you find those automatic yeses, you will also find some automatics no’s. Great brands repel as many as they attract. To flip that idea: If your brand is so safe that everybody sort of likes it, nobody will really like it and actually choose you. I call that being a beige wall.

Branding is not bragging — it is simply explaining who you are to your clients. You are the product and it’s important that you can tell them what they are getting.

Another concern people have is that branding is bragging.  

Branding is not bragging — it is simply explaining who you are to your clients. You are the product and it’s important that you can tell them what they are getting. Sometimes I do grounded humble brands and sometimes I do really big bold show-offy brands. Muhammed Ali’s brand fit him like, well, a boxing glove. But that’s because he was being true to himself. When you go through my methodology, the brand you come up with will feel like your favorite pair of slippers and fit like a bespoke suit. It will be uniquely yours.

Vocal Acrobatics

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“…before you run off and join this circus, make sure you
do a little work on your acrobatic skills.

The video game industry is growing exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. But before you run off and join this circus, make sure you do a little work on your acrobatic skills. Working in video games means you need to be a vocal acrobat who can sound like they have been set on fire, but survive to come back the next day. By now most people know that voice acting for video games can be extremely demanding and can leave actors bleeding. Most actors have no idea what being shot at should sound like, let alone how to create these sounds in a healthy way. I’ve sat in sessions where actors make it up on the spot, approach it emotionally (which is also mentally stressful), or hurt themselves, just to please the director.

The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) had a strike about this  issue three years ago and now stipulates that sessions including these extremes can only occur for two hours at a time. Still, two hours of screaming like you are on fire, thrown out of a plane, being electrocuted, or dying in poisonous gas is vocally stressful. Even though the sessions are shorter now, the number of lines recorded is intense. Most sessions record about 90-120 lines an hour. Actors will sometimes get the script a day before, but sometimes they don’t see it until they are in the booth, so there is no time to prepare or know what you are walking into.

Five years ago I was teaching a class at Rapier Wit, a combat school in Toronto, Canada, after Daniel Levinson was kind enough to give me a space to work. I was approached by Ivan Sherry, John Nelles, and later Kim Hurdon, who wanted to know if this voice work could be used to help video game actors. While I was already training actors to do vocally extreme work, this was next level. The challenge was not only being able to create these sounds in the healthiest way possible, but make sure they were extreme, believable and that the actor could sustain their voice through the two hour session – and then recover well enough to record the next day. With the help of Kim Hurdon (Kim Hurdon Casting) and Katelyn Reid (SLPUC Health) I created a methodology called Vocal Combat Technique to help actors create these sounds. We then tested the technique and found it reduced fatigue by 50% and improved recovery time by 60%. They could metaphorically “breathe fire” and come back the next day.

“When should you see a doctor? Most people find that their voice returns to normal after 48-72hrs. Doctors say to see an ENT specialist if you are hoarse after a recording session and that hoarseness persists for two to three weeks.

With the help of Kim Hurdon (Kim Hurdon Casting) and Katelyn Reid (SLPUC Health) I created a methodology called Vocal Combat Technique to help actors create these sounds. We then tested the technique and found it reduced fatigue by 50% and improved recovery time by 60%. They could metaphorically “breathe fire” and come back the next day. If you haven’t been able to train with someone in vocal combat or voice for video games, here are some top tips to help you to stay healthy before entering the big top tent.

  1. Get and stay hydrated. It can take anywhere from one to four hours to hydrate your vocal folds so make sure you are hydrated before and during the session. The folds are not a muscle, they are a membrane and the mucosa that covers them protects them. Drink water during the session.
  2. Ask for a break. Most directors/ designers would rather you take a five minute break to rest and come back than have you keep pushing through and have to cancel the session. If you need a break, ask for one.
  3. Guide the session. You can ask to have more extreme lines come later, especially if they don’t involve words. 
  4. Warm up and rest afterwards. Make sure you vocally warm up before the session and take time to cool down and have time for vocal rest afterwards.
  5. Prepare for the session by doing your homework. If you are a video game player you will have an idea of what it sounds like when you get shot, if you don’t play video games, that’s fine, but listen to some game play.

“The power and exhilaration of screaming and shouting can be thrilling: just like walking a tightrope. Make sure you have trained for the moment and have a safety net, because this circus isn’t for everyone!

When should you see a doctor? Most people find that their voice returns to normal after 48-72hrs. Doctors say to see an ENT specialist if you are hoarse after a recording session and that hoarseness persists for two to three weeks. The power and exhilaration of screaming and shouting can be thrilling: just like walking a tightrope. Make sure you have trained for the moment and have a safety net, because this circus isn’t for everyone!

 

D’Arcy Smith
Vocal Coach & Voice Actor

Pixing Your Best Performance

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How does the casting process work at Pixar Animation Studios?

Kevin ReherFirstly we create animatics (a preliminary version of a film, produced by shooting successive sections of a storyboard and adding a soundtrack). The animatics are updated every 16-24 weeks. Essentially, the movie is made up and then torn apart many times! During this phase of development we use scratch actors to voice the characters. We have many Pixar players that we use for our characters’ voices and we use the recordings to build the animatics.

Natalie LyonAll of our movie ideas are homegrown and we don’t accept external pitches. Some of our directors come with ideas about who they want to cast – and others don’t! We take ideas from anyone on the crew, in the studio, basically anyone from within Pixar Animation Studios. We also have a casting database. Whenever we audition an actor, we pull clips and add them to our database of 1000+ actors.

KRWe look for good actors who can evoke and create characters through their voices. Appearances are not important to us – it’s all about the voices. We like natural sounding voices and rarely ask actors to make up a voice. When we’re presenting an actor to a director, we’ll often do interviews because that gets you as close as possible to the natural voice. As director and voice actor, Andrew Stanton says, “Funny is money!” And, when characters don’t have a lot of backstory, humour is particularly important. Vocal getability is really important in animation and your voice needs to be instantly identifiable as a type. Animators love a textured voice – an undulating voice is much more fun to animate than one that is more steady. 

I like this quote from Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Pete Docter, he says “As your character grows and changes, you’ll by necessity need to start them in a flawed place. The key then to great casting is to find an actor who can play that flaw with appeal, so you can camouflage the flaw as being fun to watch…you’ll want to make sure your actor can play the character in a way that makes us totally charmed by them – and then their strength and depth will be a rich surprise for us as an audience.”

NLWe take ideas from agents and directors – it’s not always the case that Pixar movies are easy to cast – you might think that everyone jumps at the chance, but there are often conflicting schedules and commitments, and also, in animation, actors might only ever voice one leading character – so they want to make sure it’s the right one.We send scenes to agents and their talent will self-record. A lot of the time it is simply on their phones – at this stage we don’t expect them to have perfect audio quality. Once we hone in on the auditions that are potentially right for the part, the director and producer will pitch the film to the actor and have a discussion to make sure everyone is on the same page. There will sometimes be a working audition where the director gets to work with the actor on the character, or an animation test to make sure that the voice and the animation of the character is a good fit.

KRWe also need to ensure that the cast fits together. It is amazing how many people actually sound like each other! We cut all of the voices and the animation into one clip, so that it’s really clear who all the different characters are. We have to avoid casting too early – or too late. Some animated films take four years to make, but they can easily take seven years and over that time the characters evolve. In the end, we just hope that we get it right!

 

How has animation casting changed over the years?

KRPixar’s commitment to diversity is the biggest change I’ve seen. The opportunity for diversity starts with the story; if the script is written by a story artist who draws diverse characters, then it can be cast that way too.

NLTechnology and self recording has really changed the people we can reach out to, and in turn, the voices we get to listen to – so it means there are more opportunities for more people.

 

Where do you find actors for your database?

NLThe database is pulled from clips of previous auditions. Just because someone hasn’t been right for something in the past doesn’t mean that they won’t be right for something in the future. When agents submit demos, we always put the demos on the database. So we keyword those: ‘French,’ ‘Funny,’ etc.

KR In general, if people do send a demo they often send an animation reel – which is exactly what you need if you’re into video games, but for animation we want to hear your natural voice and personality. To that effect,  narration demos are more useful to us – less animated but not too dry.

 

What is the best way to break into animation voice acting?

KR You can’t get in unless you’re hired and you can’t get hired unless you’re in! So, get an agent.

NLGet into theatre and improvisation, because you’ll be working on your voice and getting exposure to other actors and people within the industry where you can network. You can gain some really valuable insights on what casting directors are looking for by simply listening to other peoples’ experiences. Meet and learn from as many people as you can.

 

What do successful animation voiceover actors have in common?

KR They are great at doing repetitions (repeating one line of script in many different ways). They have voices that really pop and they give us confidence that if the director hires them, they are going to be able to perform.

NL They are great improvisers, can play with a script and have fun while still being able to hit the lines. Flexibility is super important and always being prepared!

 

Can you tell us more about Loop Groups?

NL A Loop Group is when a group of actors go into a recording booth to fill the landscape of sound for all the extras, crowd scenes and sometimes actors’ dialogue. Loop groups are made up of a group of voice actors who are capable of voicing multiple characters with just a few lines each. This highly collaborative team are local voice actors who work together to bring to life these few lines of script and are often credited as additional voices.

 

How can voice actors make the casting process easier for you?

NL Be prepared and be open in the audition. New ideas are great, but you must be able to deliver the lines as written.

KR Too weird doesn’t land with the directors, neither does anything that is too boring! Show your versatility, capability and humour! If you have been asked to audition, your audition must reflect your best performance, and that should also be reflected in the quality of your recording.

 

What’s your favourite thing about your job?

NL We’re privileged to work with so many people, with so many great ideas, all the time! Unlike other departments that might be working exclusively on one film for four years, we get to work on all of them!

KR For a lot of people, being in a Pixar movie is a dream come true – making that happen is really cool!

 

Show your versatility, capability and humour! If you have been asked to audition, your audition must reflect your best performance, and that should also be reflected in the quality of your recording. We look for good actors who can evoke and create characters through their voices. Appearances are not important to us – it’s all about the voices. We like natural sounding voices and rarely ask actors to make up a voice.

 

Kevin Reher
Pixar Animatio Studios
Casting Director

Natalie Lyon
Pixar Animatio Studios
Casting Director

Interviewer:
Rachael Naylor
Voice Actor, Editor of The Buzz Magazine
and Founder of The VoiceOver Network

Dubbing in the Cloud

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In 1987, inspired by the exploits of my hero Bruce Springsteen, who five years earlier had released his album “Nebraska” – produced on a 4-track cassette recorder: the famous Tascam 144 – I bought Tascam’s “Porta Two”, which was an improved version of “The Boss” mystical recorder. I started playing around with it and then producing multitrack recordings of some quality from my home. I made music and voiceover demos and, in fact, even made a radio show that way, but I was still far from having producers accept a home recording. They wouldn’t even accept castings recorded in this way.

A short time passed, and we started digitizing. Goodbye, tapes – long live Pro Tools! And we all know how the story went on. Digital technology, which was prohibitively expensive in the beginning, became more democratic, and we started to set up our home studios, and we all became true Alan Parsons. Remote connection with elitist ISDN codecs arrived, but this was superseded by Source Connect and more economical options such as ipDTL, ConnectionOpen and, if not, at least Skype. Long live connectivity! But… what about video synchronization for dubbing? One small problem: latency. During my last year at Disney, I supervised my projects using Blue Jeans, the video conference system, connecting the studio console to the computer to listen to my actors’ performances in real-time, and also supervising the dialogue editing. But the video component was still missing. Latency! That’s when someone told me about a crazy method for recording on the cloud. What? Recording using my browser with a USB microphone? Ha!

The dubbing industry, I’ve said it before, is an industry at odds with itself and reluctant to change.

The dubbing industry, I’ve said it before, is an industry at odds with itself and reluctant to change. After I departed from Disney, I found myself face with that dilemma and my own lack of appetite for change. Then that crazy idea from months before came back to me, now with a job proposal, and I fell in love with the possibility of starting the change by combining innovation and experience. Finally, a platform that allowed us to connect in real-time with the director to record lip-sync projects with quality, and without latency: ZOODubs. I started inviting the best and most avant-garde colleagues I knew, and they initiated the change. ZOODubs represents the democratization of dubbing also, because after meeting some technical requirements and passing some simple tests, the actors get in touch with the best dubbing directors in different languages without having to go through the long period of visiting studios to get a chance to record. Today I record with my best talents regardless of their physical location, opening the doors that previously were not available to actors living outside the big cities where the industry traditionally operates. Of course, there were (and still are) those who do not believe in things like that (such a thing).

Today the dubbing industry is living a historic moment thanks to the amount of content available. In the face of the current pandemic, the industry came to standstill, and content producers and distributors began to focus their attention on dubbing done at a distance. The actors and directors who believed in and developed this option have not stopped working, and today they are recording all day every day. Other content localization companies are trying to develop their own platforms, and that benefits all of us voice talents and invites us to change, giving us options for work in the future and in these times of involuntary isolation. If you want to approach ZOO Digital, follow this link: https://www.zoodigital.com/work-with-zoo/voice-talent

And yes! I still have my “Porta Two” in the glass cabinet where I keep all the gadgets that made me who I am.

 

By: Raul Aldana
Voiceover Artist, Director and Casting Director

Let your work speak for you

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Back in the ’90s, we often had to run from one studio to another at opposite ends of the city to get to our next session -quite a feat when you had more than three recording sessions in one day. Happy times! Once, on a morning call, I met a fellow voiceover known for his arrogance and deliberate tardiness. The producer, a nice and very talented man who could, on occasion, be over-zealous in his attention to detail, took his time to decide what he wanted for his commercial. Nevertheless, in the end we were all satisfied. And I ran, like everyone else, to the next session. I just managed to arrive there on time.

The producer for the second session was a brilliant woman who projected great competence whenever she conducted a recording. She was already in the control room, ready to go…but we had to wait for another artist yet to arrive, so she apologized several times to the engineer and I for this delay.

Finally, more than an hour later, the second artist casually sauntered into the studio. Oh, surprise – it was the same artist with whom I had recorded the early morning session! He didn’t notice that I was already there, and on greeting the producer, he began to excuse his delay by bitching about the session we had done together a couple of hours earlier. He complained bitterly that the producer for that session had no idea what he was doing.

The expression on the second producer’s face changed as she listened to these allegations. A tense silence ensued. She settled down on her chair, leant her elbows on the desk, and directed her gaze towards the booth, where I was, to exchange a glance with me. Then, in a dry tone, she replied: “I can see why yesterday when my husband and I were preparing our recordings for today, he warned me not to call you for this project because you had to record for him too.” At that moment, the artist finally realised that I was already there, cringing in embarrassment on his behalf. The magnitude of his screw-up then dawned on him. The producer he had just bitched about was the husband of the producer he had just forced to wait so long! Crash… Bang… Boom…!

The people who hire you as a voice talent, be it directors, producers or creatives, place their trust in you, but they don’t always know what they want in advance. Nor do they have to. They hire you because you are a professional with sufficient talent to interpret what they seek for their project. Yes, it can be frustrating to be in a studio sometimes with ten people who have come to supervise the recording, but contradict each other’s direction and seem only concerned with their laptop and the WIFI password. But they are still your clients, and you are the expert who has to show that they’re not paying you for the 30 seconds that the commercial you are recording lasts for, but for your years of experience and your professional attitude instead.

When someone approaches me to offer their services while criticizing someone else, they are automatically disqualifying themselves. Do not speak ill of anyone. Don’t knock the work of others in front of anyone. Be on time. Let your work speak for you!

Your behaviour with a client can determine whether they’ll consider you for their next project or recommend you to other clients. When someone approaches me to offer their services while criticizing someone else, they are automatically disqualifying themselves. Do not speak ill of anyone. Don’t knock the work of others in front of anyone. Be on time. Let your work speak for you!

By the way, the two producers are still married, and I still record for both of them more than 20 years after that infamous incident. Every time we meet, they laugh when they remember that artist and his embarrassing act of professional suicide.

 

By: Raul Aldana
Voiceover Artist, Director and Casting Director