Production - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 257

Cosgrove Hall's history was to develop lip-sync. We had not tried it before … Chorlton 's mouth
shapes were perfunctory, Cinderella only nodded to the music, and the Pied Piper just smiled
enigmatically, although one rat managed a monologue with an open-and-shut mouth and
tongue and plenty of saliva! Toad and his chums had to be convincing speakers, especially as
the likes of Sir Michael Hordern, Ian Carmichael, Beryl Reid, David Jason, Richard Pearson and
Una Stubbs were voicing such legendary dialogue.
The vocal cast for Gilbert and Sullivan : Wyn Davies, Sandra Dugdale, Steven Pimlott, Christopher
Gillet, Anna Burford and Roland Wood.
Voices
Vocal performances can really make or break a i lm. For the Pied Piper of Hamelin , before Robert
Hardy delivered the narration, another actor had recorded the script, but he was too big and
too fruity, and not keen on responding to any direction. If we had proceeded the vocals would
simply have been a voice-over, and that is death for an animated i lm. Everything must be done
to integrate a voice into the world of the i lm. In the 1990s many very literate and very beautiful
i lms were made in the UK, based on various classics, all with high-proi le actors delivering
pitch-perfect studio performances, which somehow did not connect with the performances
of the puppets and the drawings. As with puppets, it's the little improvised vocal moments
and the reactions to the physical surroundings from a character that plant it in the imagined
world. The more physicality the better. As voices are usually recorded way ahead of any i lming,
the director needs to help the actors visualise what and where their characters are. Ideally, the
whole cast needs to be in the same studio at the same time, bouncing of each
other. It is traditional for actors to record their lines in order, leaving a suitable gap,
with no overlap, so that the timing can be tightened or loosened. This is great
for the editor and director to have freedom in assembling the dialogue track,
balancing the sound as necessary, cutting bits that don't work after all, but it takes
a very good actor not to anticipate this gap. Often, when a line of dialogue is due
to be interrupted, you hear the voice just rising in a small cadenza. I would be very