If
you can convincingly say "inertial track" and "anime network," then you
can be like Monica Rial and quit your day job so you can become a
more-or-less full-time voice actor. It doesn't take an agent if you
live in a place such as Texas, which has ADV Films in Houston and
Funimation in Fort Worth. Rial said at Anime Detour on Friday that she
doesn't have an agent and prefers it that way. Location is big in
having an acting career, because the dub studios are located in only a
few places (Los Angeles and New York are the other U.S. dubbing
hotbeds). But talent still counts a lot. Rial shows that talent in
recording characters such as Kirika in Noir and Lumiere in Kiddy Grade.
"Kirika was a lost soul," said Rial. "Even though she was a quiet
pitch, she didn't know who she was - and she she had a hesitation to
her voice. Lumiere is very soft spoken, but she does it very elegant
and overenunciated - `a lady should be more elegant.' "
Rial
started as a stage actor who was pushed by friends toward voice acting.
Much the same thing happened with Carrie Savage, voice of Rakka from
Haibane-Renmei, who says she's fallen in love with her voice work in the Los
Angeles area. Savage's friends also encouraged her to try voice acting
in addition to her other roles. "You have to use your voice like in the
theater," Savage said. While agents aren't needed for her anime work,
Savage prefers to use an agent in her attempt to get other roles. The
agent and the demo tape are important in the L.A. market, and those
tapes need to impress casting directors in the first few seconds. She's
learned that actors need to have perfect mastery of a handful of
characters in order to get a casting director's attention.
Auditions
test an actor's ability to create a character voice, notes Kyle Hebert.
He's gone into booths for auditions, been handed a sheet of character
drawings and been told to make up a suitable voice on the spot. Then
the casting director will ask for variations on that voice. So what
happens if you finally get a role? Expect to spend long hours in a
recording booth. Hebert said the easiest role he's voiced is the
narrator in Dragon Ball Z, made simple because it's an off-screen voice
with no lip flaps to match. That part takes hour-long sessions to get
right. But add the need to dub a voice to an existing character, as
happened with Karisu, Hebert's favorite Dragon Ball role, and you can
spend four hours working on your lines. "Go with your gut instinct,"
said Hebert about working with voice directors. "They try to work with
you."
If
you can convincingly say "inertial track" and "anime network," then you
can be like Monica Rial and quit your day job so you can become a
more-or-less full-time voice actor. It doesn't take an agent if you
live in a place such as Texas, which has ADV Films in Houston and
Funimation in Fort Worth. Rial said at Anime Detour on Friday that she
doesn't have an agent and prefers it that way. Location is big in
having an acting career, because the dub studios are located in only a
few places (Los Angeles and New York are the other U.S. dubbing
hotbeds). But talent still counts a lot. Rial shows that talent in
recording characters such as Kirika in Noir and Lumiere in Kiddy Grade.
"Kirika was a lost soul," said Rial. "Even though she was a quiet
pitch, she didn't know who she was - and she she had a hesitation to
her voice. Lumiere is very soft spoken, but she does it very elegant
and overenunciated - `a lady should be more elegant.' "
Rial
started as a stage actor who was pushed by friends toward voice acting.
Much the same thing happened with Carrie Savage, voice of Rakka from
Haibane-Renmei, who says she's fallen in love with her voice work in the Los
Angeles area. Savage's friends also encouraged her to try voice acting
in addition to her other roles. "You have to use your voice like in the
theater," Savage said. While agents aren't needed for her anime work,
Savage prefers to use an agent in her attempt to get other roles. The
agent and the demo tape are important in the L.A. market, and those
tapes need to impress casting directors in the first few seconds. She's
learned that actors need to have perfect mastery of a handful of
characters in order to get a casting director's attention.
Auditions
test an actor's ability to create a character voice, notes Kyle Hebert.
He's gone into booths for auditions, been handed a sheet of character
drawings and been told to make up a suitable voice on the spot. Then
the casting director will ask for variations on that voice. So what
happens if you finally get a role? Expect to spend long hours in a
recording booth. Hebert said the easiest role he's voiced is the
narrator in Dragon Ball Z, made simple because it's an off-screen voice
with no lip flaps to match. That part takes hour-long sessions to get
right. But add the need to dub a voice to an existing character, as
happened with Karisu, Hebert's favorite Dragon Ball role, and you can
spend four hours working on your lines. "Go with your gut instinct,"
said Hebert about working with voice directors. "They try to work with
you."
