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10/29/2004: "Making an animation: a day at the recording studio!"

So who are the people behind the voices of the animated characters? And who is the voice behind the animated character 'Veronica Bee'?

Meet the voice artists!!.. (left to right: Elise Hearst, Monique Schafter, Alex Bailey, Russell Warren and kneeling front row is Chris Baikie) September 2004: It was on a week night and 7 of us met at Tweaker New Media recording studio, to record the soundtrack for the 'Veronica Bee' animation that's featured in the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance (touring Oz in 2005). Can you guess who is the voice of Suzie Staples? Can you guess who is the voice of Veronica Bee? Which person in the photo is the voice of John Landy (boy from Yarra Valley High) who yells, "Oi, cop this," then lets a big fart rip!

Click on 'MORE' to read about 'how to make an animation' and 'OPPORTUNITY: how you too can write a script for an animation about 'To love Veronica Bee' and get it posted onto the website'.


SO HOW DO YOU MAKE AN ANIMATION!?!

STEP 1) WRITE THE SCRIPT!
For the Veronica Bee animation, it was my job to write the script. I love writing scripts for animation because my mind fills up with lots of ideas and I enjoy visualising the characters doing silly things and picturing objects popping in and out of the scene. It's like my mind is a movie screen - I see everything in animation. The most important part about writing the script is to make sure it's not too long. Animations are typically short and punchy with lots of visual humour. It's quite challenging to write a short script. Basically, I imagine what all the characters are going to say to each other and then work out ways to visually show what the characters are saying/thinking rather than having them say everything. But then, it's also important not to have too much movement/action/visuals coz the animator making the animation would probably come back to me (after they've heard the soundtrack) and say "there's way too much work invloved to make this!". So I try not to make the script any longer than a page. Ok I admit, I have cheated and changed the font size from 12 to 11 so all the words fit onto one page. Here's an example of a script that I wrote for the Veronica Bee animation that's featured in the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance. We recorded this script the day the photo was taken: ScriptForLaunchAnimation.doc (29k file) P.S. Check that I didn't cheat and make the font 11 pt...

This script took a week to write i.e.
DAY 1 - Half an hour to brainstorm ideas and write them down in point form
DAY 2 - An hour to write the first draft
DAY 3 & 4 - Work on other stuff. So then, when I reread the first draft (on the 5th day) it's like reading the script for the first time. That way I can hopefully come up with ideas about how to make the sript better
DAY 6 - An hour to edit the final draft which includes figuring out: how to best use sound fx instead of dialogue; deleting dialogue that just doesn't need to be there; deciding which dialogue and action can occur offscreen thus minimising what needs to be animated
DAY 7 - Final edit: one last read over and spell check. Then it's finished!

STEP 2) SOUND FX for the animation
Once I've written the script, I then have to find mp3 files of the sound fx. For this animation I already had some of the sound fx from the day students at Princes Hill Secondary College visited MIX FM to record sounds related to 'To love Veronica Bee'. Such as, GURHANspop.MP3 (6k file), GURHANsburp.MP3 (7k file), JAMESsfart.MP3 (42k file). Dave Jones (the awesome Flash artist who created the bumble website) had the 'wiz', 'bang' and 'pop' sound fx from when he created the website so I sent him a quick email asking him if he could kindly email me the mp3 files. Which he did! whizdown_up_cartoon.aif (144k file), takeoff.aiff (83k file), skid.aif (117k file). Plus, some of the sound fx are found at websites that you can go to and it's free to download the mp3 files. And finally, working out which sound fx would have to be created on the day everyone met at the studio e.g. a 'buzzing bee'.

STEP 3) EMAIL SCRIPT TO VOICE ARTISTS
If this animation was a big Hollywood production like 'Shrek' or 'Finding Nemo', the voice artists would receive a copy of the script probably 2-3 months before they arrive at the recording studio. And their script would be about 100+ pages long. However, this is a one-minute Pop Fiction animation, made here in Melbourne, so the voice artists receive an email of the script (word document) a couple of days before the recording session.

STEP 4) EVERYONE MEETS AT THE RECORDING STUDIO
This is the funny part! For this animation, there was 7 of us i.e. me, Murray (the recording artist who owns Tweaker New Media recording studio) plus the 5 voice artists. In fact, all of us know each other one way or another. Like, Monique, Murray, Russell and I have worked together for the past couple of years at a television production company. Chris and I have known each other since we were kids and Alex dates my sister! We're not pretending that we're creating 'Shrek' and Cameron Diaz is our talent. It's us! and we laugh a lot coz the voice artists take turns to go into a sound proof booth to record their lines which means we can hear them but they can't hear us. It's totally funny cos the script requires the artists to make funny sounds. Like, when Alex had to pretend he was a 'buzzing bee', he kept running out of breath. Monique (Veronica Bee) and Elise (Susie Staples) are real actors, so they were professional and recorded their lines no probs.

STEP 5) MORE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AT THE RECORDING STUDIO
Murray sits where the 3 computer screens are (headphones on, tapping on the keyboards, talking to the artist via a microphone beside his shoulder) Murraybackshot. I sit on the couch, or the floor, and read the script to make sure everything is going OK. <SareLookingatScript. If someone is in the recording booth and they come up with a better word than what's written in the script, no probs. Like Russell was meant to say, "oi, get this", but he preferred to say "oi, cop this" and yeh it sounded heaps better that way.

STEP 6) SARAH & MURRAY 'tweaking new media'
The voice artists get to go home and Murray and I stay back and incorporate the sound fx into the dialogue. This takes about 2 hours and we have to really concentrate on the recorded soundtrack that we've already heard heaps of times. Here's a small snippet of the end result: Conclusion.MP3 (669k file).

STEP 7) HANDOVER SOUNDTRACK TO ANIMATOR
For this script, the animator was Al Macinnes. His animation is awesome and you can check it out by going to the website's 'Honey Pot>>Animation>>Al Macinnes'. Or, check it out when the Pop Fiction Multimedia Performance tours to your school or local library! If you haven't seen the performance yet, contact us via the website's 'CONTACT' page and bug us to tour the performance to you soon! Coz it rocks!!! Oi!

OPPORTUNITY: WRITING A SCRIPT FOR A POP FICTION ANIMATION
STEP 1) Open up a 'new' word document, write a script for an animation that's related to 'To love Veronica Bee's' characters, story, themes, issues and symbols. (N.B. Make sure your script isn't longer than a page)
STEP 2) Save and copy your word document
STEP 3) Connect to the 'NET and go to bumble.com.au's 'Buzz Room>>Sarah's Bumble Blogz'. Go to this blog entry 'Making an animation: a day at the recording studio' and click on 'COMMENT'. Enter your name in the box provided, paste your document in the 'Comment' box then click on 'SUBMIT'.
STEP 4) Congrats! Everyone can visit the website's 'Buzz Room>>Sarah's Bumble Blogz' and check out your script. Who knows, maybe the Pop Fiction team might turn your script into an animation and post it onto the website's 'Honey Pot'....!