This week I got to have fun recording a handful of non-verbal characters. Monsters to be specific. Scary ones.
Check out some of it here: https://youtu.be/vA2NdChi6AY
In these cases, it’s really nice to have some cool artwork to look at while doing it. Which I did. Art which I, of course, can’t show you, or tell you anything else about because the project is not released yet. But, you know, trust me. It was cool.
Making weird noises is fun, yes. But I think the most enjoyable part is finding the character’s physicality on the way to discovering that noise. If there is anything working all these years as a feature film CG animator has taught me, it’s that you need to make decisions about how a character uses every part of their body in order to make informed performance decisions. The same is true when figuring out how to get a unique and believable sound to come out of your face that really brings a character to life before someone even begins to animate it. How do they hold their spine, neck and head? How is their jaw set? What are their teeth like? Are they fat or thin? Tense or relaxed? Are they even humanoid?
And this, of course, lead us to the almighty “context”. Where are they? Where have they just come from? Where are they going? But then, or course, the true holy grail (at least it is for animators) is what is the “subtext”? What do they want or need? How do they feel about that desire? How do they feel about who they are communicating with? Do they have an inner dialogue, and what might it be? All of these things shape every bit of pitch, texture and intensity that you put in to this voice you are creating.
But I’m totally not thinking of those things while I’m doing it. I’ve internalised it all (hopefully) and then I’m just having fun. Just being the character or creature. In fact, getting lost in it all is, I think, what I like most about voice acting right now. Figuring out the technical side of recording is pretty great, yes. Taking what I know about running a business and applying it to this business is really challenging and rewarding too. Meeting other VA’s out for coffee to share stories and learn from them is a cool bonus too. But ultimately, being lost inside a performance for a bit is where the real fun is. Dian Perry, an amazing voice artist who recently helped my create my animation reel, gave me a great nugget of advice recently. She told me to that my own ‘delight’ with the character I’m creating will be contagious (as well as, you know, hitting the brief.)
I definitely found ‘delight’ in voicing these monsters this week. Can’t wait for the next bit of delight to cross my path.
/ken
