Jamie
McGonnigal represents the New York wing of anime dubbing, which draws
its talent from the deep pool of stage performers. New York has dozens
of theaters on and off Broadway, and people with extensive experience
on stage usually have an advantage in auditioning for dub roles.
There's a group of a few dozen actors who tend to get the main dub
roles over and over again because they're fast and reliable Stage
acting and dub acting skills and techniques are nearly the same, he
said. "It's always how I've learned to approach acting in any
way; you create the character and story in whatever seems feasible,"
said McGonnigal. "Yes your voice makes a difference and your voice has
to represent what your body is saying, but what you do have are the
face and the body and the hands of the character on the screen. In some
ways it's even easier, because you're adding a voice to the character
that's already on screen. That makes it more fun. You get to adapt a
lot more skill in trying to make it work. It's a lot more black and
white in a lot of ways."
Getting
a dub acting job can be tough, but getting credit for the job can be
tougher. Not all dub producers give specific role-by-role credits
during the end-of-episode credit crawls. That makes it hard for fans to
learn which actor handles a specific role, but it also can make it
tough for potential producers to learn who's responsible for a good
performance. McGonnigal said that dub actors pay attention to those
details, but the point that they really dislike is the handling of
credits at the end of TV episodes. A few years ago, frightened by the
chance of losing viewers to end-of-show channel switchers, TV
programmers started shrinking the credit sequence to a small part of
the screen and using the rest of the screen for program promos. "It's
not like we're making millions of dollars," McGonnigal said about the
tiny credits. "Getting your credit out there is about all we have going
for us to help us to get other jobs, and its tough."
Jamie
McGonnigal represents the New York wing of anime dubbing, which draws
its talent from the deep pool of stage performers. New York has dozens
of theaters on and off Broadway, and people with extensive experience
on stage usually have an advantage in auditioning for dub roles.
There's a group of a few dozen actors who tend to get the main dub
roles over and over again because they're fast and reliable Stage
acting and dub acting skills and techniques are nearly the same, he
said. "It's always how I've learned to approach acting in any
way; you create the character and story in whatever seems feasible,"
said McGonnigal. "Yes your voice makes a difference and your voice has
to represent what your body is saying, but what you do have are the
face and the body and the hands of the character on the screen. In some
ways it's even easier, because you're adding a voice to the character
that's already on screen. That makes it more fun. You get to adapt a
lot more skill in trying to make it work. It's a lot more black and
white in a lot of ways."
Getting
a dub acting job can be tough, but getting credit for the job can be
tougher. Not all dub producers give specific role-by-role credits
during the end-of-episode credit crawls. That makes it hard for fans to
learn which actor handles a specific role, but it also can make it
tough for potential producers to learn who's responsible for a good
performance. McGonnigal said that dub actors pay attention to those
details, but the point that they really dislike is the handling of
credits at the end of TV episodes. A few years ago, frightened by the
chance of losing viewers to end-of-show channel switchers, TV
programmers started shrinking the credit sequence to a small part of
the screen and using the rest of the screen for program promos. "It's
not like we're making millions of dollars," McGonnigal said about the
tiny credits. "Getting your credit out there is about all we have going
for us to help us to get other jobs, and its tough."
