Chapter 20 - Evidently some Explorers were wanted,... or at least thier voices were.

Bioware, the creators of the massively popular series, Mass Effect, put out a call for fans and people with some interest and capability in voice over work. The call was for #ExplorersWanted. And it was an opportunity to voice one or both of two minor roles that could be a part of the upcoming release, Andromeda.

The one I thought I could pull off and have the most fun with was "the Tough Mercenary" role. But I also wanted to give the Vidmaker "Jordan Tate" a good shot as well.

I perused over the official rules to make sure I was on board with what the people who'd be judging it at Bioware wanted.

I didn't add in any extra stuff, no superfluous self explanatory info, no accents, and no reading/secondary partners. For those of you that have never done voice over, auditions are your time to shine. To show that you are invested in that bit of copy, that you've managed to carve out a characterization from what you've been given, and bring it to life.

Which is also why the rules they posted up said to not get dressed up, not to go overboard with fake accents, or makeup, or vid effects. Voice over, at it's heart, is ACTING. Probably why they urged people to use their own voice as opposed to hamming it up.

I've listened to probably 200 of the entries myself, just to see what sort of variety is out there from the ones that were submitted under the hashtag ExplorersWanted. But I didn't do that until after I made time, to practice and read the lines until I didn't need to read them.

That was about 4 days, 3 hours each, reciting, reconfiguring, and attempting to find the characters that were essentially variations of myself in the Mass Effect world. I listened to youtube reels with many of the esteemed and skilled actors playing the major roles, just to get a gravitas and emotion for what they endure, feel, emote, and speak like.

I came up with these two final auditions. First up, the Tough Mercenary.

This one was really pulled from the years I spent as a security guard, I used to video blog those long nights after work (for a whole other separate project), and recently, I heard how world weary my voice sounded. How indifferent it was at that point and time working late nights and dealing with people.

To switch gear to the role of Jordan Tate, I thought back to my younger and more energetic years, especially when I was back in art school. I wanted a bit more of an aggressive edge, a little paparazzi infused sort of audible nosiness, but still irritably honest at heart.

Of the two I was surprised how much more comfortable I felt doing Jordan Tate. But that's probably more because there was an energy and vitality to bounce off of in my mental picture of him. Which in contrast to how I was picturing the Tough Mercenary, I didn't see him as being a man of many words unless he was pressed into replying.

But to get to this point, one has to warm up... like this.

Every bit of that video was all recorded one right after another. That is an average warm up session for me. I get voices out, play around, make the mistakes early. Experiment, play back, record again. I try things all the time to find new voices, to find new methods of expression. No one cares what you look like, you can be anything in voice acting. So do that.

I have no idea how many people are going to enter this, nor what the competition will pan out being like. In the end, I just had to remember that "the audition is the job", and do my best with what I had.

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Chapter 19 - Voice Actors coming to KC!!!

I am so freaking stoked as I got an email from Planet Comicon today that had this in it. I think I will enjoy meeting these pros, very very much this year.

Suddenly, this show can't get here fast enough. I'm really really hoping for two others on my wishlist, Steve Blum, and the Ant Man himself, Paul Rudd. 

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Chapter 18 - the British are coming! (Not really, it's just me with an english accent)

I had a freaking blast today in the recording booth, as never mind I love just being up there and hanging with the wonderful people, but it also was the day I was able to go all out fish and chips styled British accent and it felt good.

Like rain on a english cottage good.

The script was pretty funny and I got to say insanely re-wrung word pronunciations of many words, which made me laugh.

I will say also, the tongue twisting rhymes I've been practicing came in handy as heck today.

So did drinking Earl Gray this morning, and watching and listening to Benedict Cumberbatch and a binge watch of all the Harry Potter films over this weekend.

I think I'm starting to drift into method acting territory again.

Now I hope an Australian accent is needed in the future soon. I feel the need to honor my hero Steve Irwin. :)

- Mario

Chapter 17 - Sometimes a conversation about a potato can forecast a cookie

I can't say more than the fact that after joking around with how a potato would be voiced while heating up in a microwave, I was given the chance to do a bit part as the voice of a cookie...

It pays to be weird and not so serious at times.

Chapter 16 - Another audition to warm up for. This time correctly.

Had another short audition, and this one needed a lot more energy, because of the attitude needed. It called for an cable television announcer sort of feel from maybe the late 90s.

But it also was necessary for remember to properly warm up and stay on target mentally.

I've said this before, but I am easily driven to distraction, which in turn can knock my calmness game off. Case in point, if I am excitable or stressed out, I speak faster and more incoherently. Like anyone, I have that triggered from nerves, anticipation, the unknown, etc.

It's gotten to the point that the best I can do is stay as mentally on point by not only practicing my scripts, but also having fun in a warm up sense.

Thankfully, most all of my auditions have never been any earlier in the day than maybe 11 AM or so. And on days right before and on the day in question, I don't drink any sodas, or hot teas, or real cold water.

Room temp water has seemed to be the best secret weapon I can use for trying to give myself the hydration I need as well as it not being ice water, which in prior sessions made my range suffer some, and not drinking hot tea has helped keep decent elasticity to my throat. Without fail everytime I'd drink tea, I had problems with diction.

On the way to work, really daily, I sing in the truck. Every chance I can. Not because I think I can hold a candle to Bruce Dickinson (where are my Iron Maiden fans at!?), but because I want to have my vocal exercises be random and fun.

And it works for the most part, but I'm finding tongue twisters (and a book that a good friend of mind alerted me to) to be the real workout I need to be fully prepared.

Stuff like these classics work:

1. Unique New York, Unique New York, Unique New York.... (repeat and speed up as necessary)
2. A big black bug bit a big black bear
3. She sells sea shells by the sea shore
4. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
5. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? 

And if you Google exercises, there are a LOT of tips and tricks out there from working the muscles in your tongue, to keeping weight down, to diets, and so on.

To be honest laziness was the (terrible) reason I started to slip on this sort of thing, but if I want to be able to nail auditions, if I want to be able to bring the best performances possible for not only clients and my own projects (which if listened to, CAN lead to more work).

Until next time! - Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Chapter 15 - Joe Alaskey 1952- 2016

Joe Alaskey, passed away February 3rd, at the too young age of 63. He was best known for working alongside and becoming one of the successors to, the great Mel Blanc.

Alaskey voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester and Marvin the Martian. Back in 2004, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for his work on the animated program Duck Dodgers, providing the voice of the eponymous hero (and one of my own personal favorite off shoot characters developed from Looney Tunes).

Outside of his work in Looney Tunes, Alaskey provided incredible voice over work for shows such as Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, Samurai Jack, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and Avatar: The Last Airbender. So needless to say, he had a large impact for me because I loved all of those series and marveled at so much of his voice work.

Rest in peace good sir. - Mario, the Artisan Rogue

Chapter 14 - I felt like 50 percent, but you gotta give 110%, 100% of the time.

I think there is something to be said about my old Scout motto, "Be Prepared". Few days ago I got sick as all heck, and of course with getting sick, I got to coughing, sneezing,... all the things that essentially send my ability to do voice over work into another spiral of chaos. Every morning for a few days I woke up sounding like I had drank Jack Daniels the night before and woke with the feeling that my mouth was the bottom of a birdcage.

So thankfully the audition was able to be moved back a few days while I drank a lot of room temp water and ate honey like crazy.

Woke up this morning, did jaw, neck, and all kinds of stretching exercises, and kept drinking water.

Got in the soundbooth and felt pretty okay, like I was halfway prepared, but I keep remembering what Steve Blum said on VO Buzz Weekly "the audition is the job", and I went for it. Yes my throat was itchy, yes, I am still really dehydrated, but I felt that if I could keep it together for the 30 minute window of takes, and try and give variances on each run, then I might stand a shot at it.

I can't say exactly who the characters were that I did, as the particular things they were for are underwraps at the moment, but I can say that I had to do a variation on a high pitched elven voice, a very "wooden" and angry voice, and a very straw filled sort of voice for another.

I had virtually no higher end in my voice to work with, but there are ways with practice, and understanding how to work in a falsetto fashion, to get around it.

No clue really how the audition went overall from the other side of the glass, it was fun as usual, and it's always reassuring to see people smiling, but I always want that seen injection of soundless laughter to happen, because I feel like if I made them laugh, then I hopefully did my job right, at least in this sort of subject/character matter.

Either way, it was nice to get back in the booth and hear myself through high end mics (I forgot to take a picture of the new one that was in the booth) and full studio gear. A good microphone can certainly bring out the full character, but it also picks up your weaknesses like an out of work cabbie.

For those of you that don't know... that's a $2,500 microphone you see there. I think that's the most expensive mic I've recorded on to date.

Until next time, keep supporting the arts, be kind to your fellow beings, and keep believing in yourself! - Mario, the Artisan Rogue