Fullcast Podcast Episode 22
- March 27th, 2011
- Posted in Acting . Podcast Episode
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Bryan and Abbie discuss voice acting with L. “Scribe” Harris of The Pendragon Variety Podcast and James Baxter of the upcoming Googies story which occus in the HG World universe. Find Scribe’s voice in Like Cat and Dog and Plague Birds over at the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, as well as in Kachikachi Yama on Escape Pod. Jim can be heard in the Googies Preview.
Show notes:
Audiodramatalk – for audio drama audition calls
The Story (by Dick Gordon)
The I.d.e.a. – for english accents
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Interesting show! I was thrilled to learn of the accent website. Super helpful!
One possibility for people who aren’t writers, and want to get started doing voice work in podcast fiction, is to do solo reads of stories and novels that are in the public domain. There are a few on podiobooks, and I believe librivox is all public domain books and stories narrated by volunteers http://librivox.org/.
Virtually all of the voice work I’ve been asked to do was because the producer heard me somewhere. The more I do, the more I get asked. So finding something to solo read, would be a way to get heard. Plus, I think solo reads are a lot of fun, and provide great practice with all kinds of characters since the person doing the read gets to be everyone in the story.
Please pass along to James Baxter. I wanted to send a casting request, but I cannot find a website or blog. A blog on Blogger is free and easy to set-up. Be easliy available!
Re: auditions in which you only have a few lines to read and audition from (I think James Baxter was making that comment)–in my voicover workshops for characters, when we practice with audition lines, often we’re only given a brief description of the character and a few lines. Maybe two or three. Maybe four. That’s it.
It’s up to the actor to take what’s on that paper and make it come to life. That’s where your apply your skills as an actor. You inhabit that character description on the page and make their lines seem as if they’re coming from a real flesh-and-blood person. You make the choices for that particular character on the spot, commit to those choices, and perform.
The shows I’ve done for Pendant Audio, Dream Realm Enterprises, 19th Nocturne Blvd, Misfits Audio, and others, first began with a quick description and a few lines for the audition. It was up to me make that character mine.
(Hope that didn’t sound too egotistical. But really, that’s our job as actors.)
The issue as I see it comes from the exchange between auditioner and auditionee. While I want the actor to breathe their own life and personality into the character (and to surprise me!), I want them to embody my vision of the character as well. Simple audition lines can still give an impression of an actor’s ability and sound quality, but if the audition lines and description are too meager even a talented voice actor may not hit on what I want only because they had to make up stuff that didn’t fit with the actual description of his/her character in the story. There might be some difference between full cast audiobook and audio drama in this regard, but the main thing is that you want the actor to have the information they need to give it their most on-target shot at the part.
@Bryan
(Since I don’t have the experience from the other side of the table, I’m coming at this from the actor side.) Isn’t the audition simply trying to find the actor who can best embody a particular character? And once said actor has been cast, won’t there be further direction for the production?
Or maybe you’re right. Maybe this *is* the difference between a “full cast audiobook” and an “audio drama.”