| This author rode from the airport to the convention
hotel with actor, director, sound producer and writer Taliesin Jaffe. A
couple of hours later, Jaffee was spotted hanging out in the halls
and chatting with fans about his recent efforts. He had just finished working
with Amanda and Jason Lee's Gaijin Prods. on the English-language dub of
the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies. "I think you'll be pleasantly pleased
with the mix," Jaffe said, noting that the production was heavy on booming,
deep-bass sound effects that would take a powerful subwoofer to properly
appreciate. |
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| Only part of the work on a complex show like Evangelion
goes into the acting. There's probably more time spent on the audio mix,
getting the right balance of the actors' voices and sound effects. Much
of the Eva movie dub will use the original sound effects, but Jaffe there
will be scenes where new effects had to be invented, or created from sounds
found in other parts of the movie. "We just did the scenes with the multiple
Reis and we had five Reis laughing at once. It was awesome," Jaffe said.
Of course, it's the job of Jaffe and the others working on the show to
make sure that fans hear only a coordinated sonic assault during the battle
scenes, and aren't left thinking that the scenes were "engineered." |
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| A chance meeting with a Niea Under Seven costumer
led Jaffe to chat about that series, for which he produced the English
dub. Jaffe was enthusiastic about the lead actors in that series, newcomers
J-Ray as the oddball alien Niea and Tricia Dickson as the long-suffering
roommate Mayuko. "They're the spitting image of the characters," Jaffee,
adding that J-Ray is so much like Niea it's frightening. "She's about 80
pounds and has spiky hair...she's a surfer." While Jaffe liked the Niea
cast, he admitted it took them a few episodes to really get into the characters,
which was just in time for the later episodes which turn more serious than
comedic. And Jaffe said Niea took less time to produce than the Eva movies
because "They're just talking - nothing's blowing up." |
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