Production - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 258

happy letting the actors naturally interrupt and encourage each other, and for this to be the
performance the animators work to, rather than constructing some of the performance in the
edit suite. But, swing and roundabouts, one actor may have given a tremendous delivery on one
take, while the other actor may not have been on top form, and you are stuck with overlapping
lines. Again, I worry about technology separating the performer and the performance.
Technology is best used to i ne-tune the performance, rather than create it.
Lead, kindly cue-light - David Holt, voice artist
Thanks to our rail service, the producer has arrived late, so now I'm reduced to ten minutes to convince
her that I can provide the funny, eccentric yet convincing, vocal characterisation for an animated dog
that hypnotises people. How many other people's Monday mornings start like this? No rehearsal, no
preparation; just a couple of lines for balance. So I give it a go. Thoughtfully, the producer has some
character designs for said hypnotising dog. He's wonderfully canine in an eccentric, cartoony way, with
sinister eyes - like the memorable Kaa in the Jungle Book . Eastern European? Chinese? Boris Karloff?
Terry-Thomas at his most malevolent? All these variations are tried. We settle for Eastern European with
a hint of Bela Lugosi. Two complete takes and I'm out the door. 'We'll be seeing you soon'. This sounds
hopeful, however, wasn't that a well-known comedy fl icking through the script?
I'm sweltering in a tiny booth recording for the xxxxth episode of a co-production. Such series will be
animated with Canadian voices and then re-voiced here in England for a native audience: hence my
participation (and perspiration). I have several characters, and this time I am working 'to picture' and
therefore working to someone else's performance. It's a strait-jacket. 'You're talking to yourself in three
different characters in this scene, which do you want to record fi rst?' Hmmm … the one with the most to
say, probably; leaving any shouting till last. 'Ooh, there's a song: it's a nice tune and you get to harmonise
with yourself. Let's give it a go'. I'm on my own, trying to hit the cues, watch the pictures and remember
each line; it becomes a demanding exercise in concentration and vocal stamina. Less an acting job, more a
technical exercise, but hopefully the audience won't hear my perspiration. Between takes I slurp draughts
of water and slide open the booth door for a snatch of another luxury: oxygen. 'Close the door when we're
recording'. 'I'm perfectly well aware of that after twenty years in the business!' I'm tempted to screech, in
my best Bette Davis. I manage restraint, pocket the eye-patch, and instead proffer a humble 'Sorry'.
Later, Ermintrude has burst a blood vessel: you can hear her udder creaking under the strain of hitting
those high Cs. In response, my Hancockesque Dougal is unimpressed and scuttles off to fi nd a bone, and
my nerdy, anorakish Brian is more interested in adding a rare form of carborundum to his ever-expanding
gravel collection. No, this is not a nightmare induced by a tropical disease, but bread and butter to
those of us in animation. It may look like the ranting of the mentally fragile, but our job as voice artists
is to turn this into some sort of reality, so that the directors can walk out of the studio with their lunacy
enshrined on tape, ready for animation. 'Oh, Dougal lands in a puddle of mud'. Thanks, that makes a
big difference. 'We're rolling!' I do the fi rst of several takes of what must seem like primal scream
therapy. 'A bit quicker …' 'Distorted the mic, sorry …' 'More of a thump on the landing …' 'Perfect,
thanks David'. My fellow artists, a select group of hideously talented individuals, are reading their scripts,
reading the paper, daydreaming, fi xing the buckle on a shoe, or (thankfully) giggling at my ravings.
There's lots of giggling in the control room too: is this at my dazzling, epoch-defi ning comic performance,
or just something rude on the internet?