Chapter 218: Voiceover Demo
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Director Chen, why didn"t you tell me you were coming?!"
Charlie saw the party of people enter and immediately stood up, warmly greeting the chubby person walking in the front.
"Bro! I"m in a rus.h.!.+"
Chen Da Ming wanted to cry. "If you don"t find a voice actor, our producer is going to find their own company. Bro, it took me a lot to give this job to you, I"m under so much pressure, you can"t screw me over like this!"
"Ai ya!"
Charlie tapped his brain and smiled. "If you want to blame someone, blame me! I"ve already found the proper actor and wanted to tell you about it yesterday. Only, something happened yesterday and I forgot about it. I was going to call you later, but I didn"t think you"d come so soon."
Chen Da Ming didn"t care for Charlie"s justifications, and asked, "Did you really? Then can I get a demo today? We have to figure this out before the producer finds their own voiceover company!"
Chen Da Ming really was in a rush. He was the a.s.sistant director for his animation, "Forest exploration", and naturally hoped everything went smoothly after receiving the prestigious task of finding a dubbing company. But Charlie had been dragging the order, up to the point where the production team had stated they were going to find their own dubbing team. Chen Da Ming had no choice but to make a run personally.
Post-production dubbing was a big job for an animation. It had taken him so much work to get the job of finding a company, how could he let it go to someone else?
Although this "Forest exploration" is a preschool cartoon or an animation that was suitable for preschool students, the production level and budget were both very high.
And there were people among the crew that had already begun discussing broadcasting rights before it was even complete. The incentives in this animation were much more lucrative than one could imagine.
"Yes, of course. I"ve already received several demos, and I"m only missing a few that should arrive within the next hour." Charlie laughed as he spoke, "Director Chen, don"t worry, even if you didn"t come, I would have sent you the demos anyways. Since you thought of me and was willing to give me this commission, I have to do a good job after all, don"t I!
"Really?" Chen Da Ming was still anxious.
"One hundred percent."
Charlie gestured for Meng Fan to wait a minute and headed out of the studio with Chen Da Ming towards the living room. Once arriving, he asked someone to bring in the tea and to take out all the demos he"d been collecting. "How about this, director Chen, you and the others listen to the demos, I have a job on hand and should be done in an hour at most. Once it"s done and all the other demos have arrived, we can talk. How does that sound?"
"Okay."
After receiving the demos, Chen Da Ming let out a sigh of relief.
"Li, take good care of director Chen."
Charlie instructed, before returning to the recording studio. He rubbed his hands and explained this animation, "Forest Exploration" to Meng Fan. "I really am missing a few demos for some minor characters, and all-male too. You know it"s easy to find female dubbers for animations, and all roles can be replaced by a woman"s voice if possible too. It"s too hard to find suitable male voices. I originally found you to test out one of the roles, but just now, I discovered you can demo the rest too."
If Meng Fan hadn"t been present, he really had to find a few more people, for Charlie really wanted to earn this commission as well.
Afterward, Charlie explained a bit more regarding the popularity of preschool animations evidently because he was worried Meng Fan would feel prejudiced towards dubbing for a kid"s movie.
To be honest, the market for preschool animations was much larger than a lot of other animation genres. For example, the most recent animations from this year. Regardless if you rank by highest popularity or most-watched, there were bound to be several preschool animations among the ranks. Like "Peppa Pig", and "Paw Patrol"…
Meng Fan interrupted him, "Director, I can try them all."
As a student in animation, Meng Fan, of course, knew the influence preschool animations had on the market. In terms of economic benefits for animation, they were much more profitable than teen animations and even adult animations. The peripherals alone weren"t even comparable to other age groups.
Of course, this didn"t really affect Meng Fan. To him, as long as it was a role, he was willing to dub it.
One, he really loved the process. Two, he wanted to complete his task.
"Okay, then I"ll explain this film and help you dissect the roles you"re going to play."
"This "Forest exploration" is an animation that personifies animals and plants. It mainly tells the story of a group of small animals exploring the forest. The core of the film is about family and friends.h.i.+p and encouraging children to experience life. The other core we can take from the film is teaching children about the forest, including educating them on some common knowledge regarding several animals and plants."
"The main roles for this animation include…"
"There are a few roles you have to demo for. Although none of them are lead characters, they are still very important. There are five: Grandpa Pine, Professor Duck, Uncle Elephant, Uncle Crocodile, and Princ.i.p.al Tortoise. There are still some more suitable characters in the follow up that don"t currently require a demo sample. You only need to record demos for these five important supporting roles."
"Grandpa Pine"s specialities are…"
After a.n.a.lyzing all five roles, he instructed Meng Fan to look over the script. The story was simple. Every episode was a short story, and each episode was very short; about 5-6 minutes.
Five or six minutes was just right for a preschooler"s attention span, as many preschool animations were this length.
"Then let"s go ahead?"
"No problem."
Meng Fan once again entered the recording room in a happy mood.
The first demo was of Grandpa Pine. Meng Fan looked for his tone. Grandpa Pine had an elderly temper, and loved to shake his body to rustle leaves and prank others—Meng Fan couldn"t understand as for how he could sustain losing so many leaves—and although he was an old jester, he was very wise. Many characters will go to him for advice when they were upset.
He pa.s.sed in two tries.
The second role was Professor Duck. This was the most important role out of all five characters, and a character that appeared every second episode. Since it was a duck, Meng fan tried to flatten his voice. But Charlie didn"t agree, telling him he didn"t have to force an adult"s impression of a duck. This dub was meant for children, so a teacher"s voice had to be warm, and must have had a touch of certainty to convince the children.
This was the original role Charlie had prepared for Meng fan.
This time, it took four tries before they could continue.
Since this was an important role, its voice demo was a key player in securing this commission.
The three remaining demos all pa.s.sed with flying colors in two or three tries.
Looking at the time, only 40 minutes had gone by! Most of the time had been spent understanding this animation and the characters. How efficient!
Charlie thought for a moment, then spoke, "Why don"t you try narrating?"
Originally, the narrations were supposed to be completed by Charlie himself, and he"d already prepared a demo as well. But thinking about it, Meng Fan felt more suitable, and they had the extra time, too.