Fandub voice accuracy?

[Fernie]

I think I have a few interesting questions for you all, brought about by something I just saw in a audition thread. How well should somebody know the character they are voicing? Do you think that to audition for a fandub or radio play based on an existing work that you should have watched or read it in the first place? Or do you think that any good actor should be able to get a grasp of a character with a small description and will fill in the blanks him/herself?
I probably lean towards the second mindset, it lets the voice actor be a bit more creative and inject a bit of their own personality into the role instead of just trying to be an imitation. However I can see why some producers would strive to be accurate as possible to the original. So what do you all think?

[Anonymous]

Personally, I find the person should have at least some form of knowledge of the character or show before they audition.

It's like trying to sing a translated song, without knowing how the original sounded like.

Descriptions are only part of it, but if you've never heard, say, Sailor Moon's introduction before, a person's rendition of it might screw them out of a part.

I guess it's a matter of knowing how it'll flow together in the end. :)

[Matt Alan]

There are a LOT of animes/mangas out there that I've never seen/read. So I rely on the character description to give me a brief bit of info on the character, then I fill in the blanks myself. Knowing their Japanese seiyuu helps alot if the producer wants a voice similar.

I find I have an easier job of getting into character when its like that, instead of trying for a character that me, and the rest of the world knows about, and have a set idea on how they sound.

[Sukisho]

Well you might want to know something about the characters you're trying for or at least find out something about them if the person hasn't written out infromation on them already.

Well as said before, there's thousands of animes and/or mangas out there that not all people have read or seen, so you don't really have watched/read them if you're trying our for it. It would just give you more knowledge on the seires/characters if you have seen/read it, over someone who hasn't.

Well the size of a description doesn't always make it better or worse. Somethings may only have very little info given on them in the first place in the sieres. So you should just be able to work with what's given, no matter the size. But if you really want more info on it, you should just ask the person holding the auditions(or whatever for that matter) for more info and see if they can give you any more.

[Liana]

I don't think one needs to have read/seen a fanbased production before auditioning. The production might seem interesting, even if you're not a fan. However, if you LAND the role, I do believe it's the actor's responsibilty to do research on the character. It's what a responsible person would do. It's like how a lot of professional actors will get cast in an 18th century movie- and then research the 18th century.

So, no, I don't believe that one has to be the biggest fan over of anything in a production, but I DO think that reading up on your character and learning about them and the series beyond what the producer wrote for their audtions IS the smart thing to do.

But one's acting skills aren't really effected by being a hardcore fan or not. Like, pretend my speciality is sarcasm. I get cast as a sarcastic character in an anime I've never heard of, but sparked my interest. I do research on the character, and I turn in the lines. My lines are going to have my same sarcasm backed with the same knowledge of the character whether I was a fan or not. I just might care about the production more- but a good actor wouldn't like how much she cares about her production effect how she portrays her character. And stuff.

End novel.

[sparf]

Well, I say it comes down to producer's personal preference.

If I cast a fan based radioplay, I might prefer to have voices that are noticibly similar to the existing voice actors, for the sake of making sure people can understand what is happening and who the characters are.

On the other hand, people can knock your socks off with character interpretations. I got a lot of positive comments about my Sephiroth voice for Mizura's short*coughcough* clip. Many of them consisted of "Wow...that was just....cool. Not at all what I would have expected him to sound like, but your performance was really good." or things to that effect. Granting of course that the original HAD no voice actor, that type of interpretation can be very handy. One project both Lioncourt and I auditioned for (a Gundam Wing fandub) had him cast as Treize and myself as Zechs. Now, my Zechs is generally passable. I tend to be proud of it. Lioncourt, however, used a very unique slant on the voice of Treize. It wasn't what I would expect from that character, but it was a marvelous audition line and I would have been very willing to cast him in that role if I were the producer.

So, really, I tend to think either will work, if the producer keeps an open mind on the voicing. That way he/she can have the chance to cast someone really unique for the role.

[Yami no Kitsune]

Well, as even the proffessional VAs will tell you, they at least have to research the role and get to know the character a little better. You don't have to watch the whole series, or read the whole manga, but you have to have seen at least some of it and get a feel for the character.

As far as the way some people go about casting for fandubs... most fandub producers seem to be looking for the closest thing to the Japanese voice. The thing is, if you stick to exactly to what a japanese voice actor sounds like, you're just regurgitating that performance in another language. You generally have to find your own unique way of performing that character, which is where knowing the character a little better comes in! ^.~

[Azure]

Depends on the character, if they are particualy generic then it doen't matter do much. Researching really helps you get into a character, and I feel I do better with characters I "know".

[Ayame]

Oh, it's probably best to do a character you "know," but that shouldn't stop you from trying new things. My motto is: audition now, look up later.

[Fernie]

Lots of good answers, thanks a lot. Like the rest of you I usually try to do some research after I get a part, trying to get a better idea of who I'm voicing. Heck, I sometimes even become a big fan of the show that is being fandubbed, Naruto would be a good example of that.
I guess I was looking at this from more of a producer's point of view. With the difficulty of trying to get enough people to audition in the first place I'm not as choosy about finding the right voice but instead the right attitude and amount of energy. Then there’s also the (albeit small) chance that someone who’s a big fan of a show might try too hard to sound just like the character, which could affect the performance. I’m actually guilty of that one myself ^^;;.
Again, thanks a lot for the replies!

[Anonymous]

Lots of good answers, thanks a lot. Like the rest of you I usually try to do some research after I get a part, trying to get a better idea of who I'm voicing. Heck, I sometimes even become a big fan of the show that is being fandubbed, Naruto would be a good example of that.
I guess I was looking at this from more of a producer's point of view. With the difficulty of trying to get enough people to audition in the first place I'm not as choosy about finding the right voice but instead the right attitude and amount of energy. Then there’s also the (albeit small) chance that someone who’s a big fan of a show might try too hard to sound just like the character, which could affect the performance. I’m actually guilty of that one myself ^^;;.
Again, thanks a lot for the replies!

Well, then as a producer I like to have people who audition be somewhat familiar with the show, or at least having seen an episode. It bothers me when I find the perfect voice, but they can't be bothered to watch the show to get name pronounciation, or certain "quirks" a character might have.

I'll use personal experience as an example: I had an evangelion radio play a few years ago, and the people I cast had AMAZING voices for the characters. Then I listened to the lines. Half of them were saying: Uh-SOO-ka", "ee-von-jellian", etc. It gets frustrating because I didn't want to say to them "redo all your lines this instant" so there was a variation between name pronounciations between the characters. Another example, Asuka is known for her "are you stupid?" line. She says it a particular way, that makes it "special" -- if nobody knew that was "her line that she says", they'd probably end up botching it.

But yeah, I must say if I'm going to cast people I try to make as much of the video up for download as I possibly can, even go as far as hosting the episode for them to see. ^^;

[Fiona C]

If you're worried about people mispronouncing, send out a pronounciation guide WITH the lines. I know that's what... I think it was Ayla... did when she was working on "SM: Another Story". She recorded herself saying the names of things that she believed to be mispronounced often.

Might help. ^^

[Fade]

Yeah, I think that should be more up to the producer than the actors...I don't have any way of getting ahold of a lot of anime in order to research a character, but that shouldn't mean I can't audition for characters I know nothing about.

And frankly...I've never seen the point of doing a fandub where you're looking to use voices as close to the original dub cast as possible. Maybe on an RP, but...can't we be a little creative? :grin:

[Tamashii]

I agree that if you're casted you should go research the role a little bit. Sometimes knwowing more about the character gets you more interested in the role and your performance is better. I love listening to people's different interpretations of characters, they sorta sound more real.

I put up voice clips myself but that's only because when it comes to ranges, I get kinda confused with the medium ones, so it's easier for me ^^;

It's so irritating though when a producer says they'll cast accurately but just mean 'I'm gonna pick the person who's voice closes matches the character' It's okay in radio plays but they could be a bit more flexible in fandubs.

[Lucien]

I think if you ask a lot of voice actors who voice characters in anime, they will tell you that they didn't research their characters before hand, and to me this is just fine. As long as you know what the character's point of view is, and have a solid voice for him/her, you should be able to make that character 100% believable. It's the job of the director to inform you of what you need to know in order to perform the character, and to guide you through the story. So even though I think researching a character can improve the amount of involvement you feel towards that character and/or project, thus increasing the amount of effort you put into the performance, I don't think it's nessesarily required.

[Byron]

I can't think of any reason I wouldn't research a character. The director gives you a direction -- but he or she can't ACT for you, and to act effectively you need to have a character created. This involves research on the character, and then your own interpretations on the character. This makes characters interesting, rather than imitations of previous voices. If you don't do your research, you lose the actor/director synergy.

God synergy is just a big slut of a word.

[Lucien]

The thing I'm most afraid of when it comes to researching is 'over researching,' where you learn things about the characters that they themselves don't know about yet at that part of the story. Vic Mignonga made a good example when he talked about his character in Full Metal Alchamist, saying "Let's pretend that Ed get's his limbs back at the end of the series....should I know this?" I also think over-information on a character is bad; do I need to know that my character's favorite dessert is chocolate mouse, and that when he was 6, he nearly drowned in a swimming pool? If my character has some sort of reaction to either of those things in the series, then the director can just inform me right there "Alright so he's sitting at the table and they serve chocolate mouse; this guy reeeeally likes chocolate mouse." Obviously if the character has some sort of chip on his shoulder from the beginning, or there's something which affects his attitude throughout, you'd want to know what that is, but I don't know if it's nessesary to research anything more then that.
I'm of the opinion that if you learn too much arbitrary crap for your character, you lose focus on the attributes that really matter, which is why I always cringe when the character description for someone in an audition is nearly a page long. I don't think you need to know all that in order to give a good performance.

[Byron]

I'm the opposite, I think without all that random crap you can't actually play a character, you just read lines emphatically. I think you DO need to know what happens through the series, and you can mold your character's progression organically around it. Being able to understand what the character does when he's not on camera (avoiding swimming pools, eating chocolate mousse) gives you a better sense of what you should do with him when he's on camera.

[Fiona C]

Back when I got scouted for Selphie for the FF8 All British RP, I actually researched her, to find out what she was supposed to be like.

Must say, it helped my performance. ^^

[lirifox]

As a raving fan of certain series, I admit that it does make me mad sometimes when someone is cast for a role I really wanted, and they ask, "What was the character's name again?" and voice act him/her completely untrue to the character.

haha, but that's just cause I'm pouting. ^^

When I step back and look at it, why should someone know the character? Sometimes it actually helps not to.

Though when I'm cast as a character, I go out and usually watch the series or read the manga.