Episode 12 - The Animation Casting Director - Dave Peacock

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Both - Hi! Welcome to the VO Social

Leah - We're going to be doing some very exciting things today; Nic is going to be telling me about her fun experience meeting - who?

Nic - Dave peacock of Peacock Sound!

Both – Oooooooh

N They're pretty big players in the animation game, Leah.

L Yes, no joke, no joke and also, we are going to be bringing you little tiny snippets of the most exciting things people found out about when they were at a huge voiceover conference down in the South of England and… what else are we doing… Oh yes! And…

N Exciting new feature!

L Yeah…segment darling, segment.

N Oh, sorry.

L It’s a podcast, we've got a segment… Should we keep it as a surprise?

N I don't know…

L Well - you're just not going to want to miss it, that's the main thing.

N Okay, yeah. Well, let's keep it as a surprise - so many surprises in this

particular podcast!

L Yes! Oh actually, well, that's a good point, we've already got one surprise. Let's tell everybody what the segment is and then keep the super-exciting surprise till the end.

N Because that's even more exciting than the segmentfeature…

L Even more exciting than the segment feature.

N What's the official term - you work in the media more than I do…

L Well, we're calling it… I don't know! I want to call it a segment. I'm

gonna call it segment, you can call it whatever the heck you like.

N Segment.

L Segment.

N As my mum says, “you can call me anything you want, just don't call me early in the morning!”

L Lovely, I won't. [Laughter] So, the segment - the exciting segment - is

Show-Off’s Corner.

N (singing) Show Off’s Corner

L Oh lovely!

N I just made that up right now!

L That’s brilliant.

N Shall I give you another harmony one? (Sings very low, like a hippopotamus) Show Off’s Corner

L More!

N (High, like a surprised nightingale) Show Off’s Corner

L And more?

N (Whispered, enthusiastic) Show! Off’s! Corner!

L More, more! Are there any more?! What’s in there?

[Laughter]

N I don’t know! (Jumping up and down with each word) Show Off’s Corner (Twirling down a spiral staircase of music) Showwww Offffs Cornerrrrr

L I'm on board with that.

N Let's get straight into the Dave Peacock

L Mm-hmm

N As it were

L Mmm-hmm!

N So - sorry Dave - I want to prelude this with just saying how much of a ruddy great guy Dave Peacock is - I wrote to him because I'm a big fan of his work and I was like: “please can I interview you for our random little podcast” and he was like: “Yeah!” and that was kind of it! So we found a little quiet spot in London… just about… and we had a big old discussion and he just freely challenged me about all sorts of nonsense for almost two hours!

L What does he… what is it… tell us…errr…

N Oh sorry, of course yes! Dave Peacock is a – er – oh no I should have prepped this bit!

L Oh no! Well.. maybe you can remember. What is his job?

N He is a casting director, voice director and all-round amazing sound

whiz guy…

L Examples of his work?

N Go Jetters…

L Yeah!

N Thunderbirds…

L Woo!

N Octonauts

L Ooh yes!

N And because I have a two-year-old, they are now part of my life, so I just wanted to talk to him about all things animation really. So I went armed with a million and one questions and we chattedchattedchatted and it was bloody lovely. So, I don't know much about the casting process for animation, so I was asking him a little bit about that… and I have a question for you Leah. How long do you think it would take to cast an animation – like - from start to

finish?

L Oh, weeks I would think at least. Because you’ve got to find all the people…

N Mmm-hmm, and liaise with the client and so on – well, he told me it all

happens actually really quickly!

L Oh!

N This nugget about one project being a long casting process puts the rest of normal casting time process into context, have a listen…

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Dave - That was a nice long casting process - it was, probably like, altogether eight days

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N – EIGHT DAYS

L Long?!

N Yeah, that’s long.

L Nooo… you must have to know everybody… he must already have to have all those people in his head.

N Well, this is why it puts in the context, and helps us understand, how often you sort of often hear the same actors popping up because ultimately time is money for these people - and what happens is, the client will have a budget for casting which will allow X amount of days, and they’ll only be able to see a certain amount of people on those days. So all of us being like “Sure, just get us in like, I'll give it a wee go” is really tough…

L …and expensive…

N …and expensive, and he gets a lot of that.

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D So when people go “oh, get me in” I will have to be really, really sure because you're costing the production quite a bit of money in “getting you in” and a percentage of their time that they have to hit this, so we have to be really sure - because it's also our reputation.

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N I'm sure we've all done the whole “I'll just send them an email and obviously they’ll answer the email and they’ll just get me in because they’ll be like ‘oh yeah she seems really nice’, and I'll just go in and I'll see how it goes”, but it just doesn't happen like that. Which is, you know, a shame when you're trying to get into it… but that's why I wanted to talk to him, because I'd love to get into it and I wanted a few tips. For my Voice Studies MA I did a thesis on “Consistency Of Character Voice Creation”, so I asked him how they deal with keeping a check on vocal consistency… because they work on a lot of projects that, you know, run for season after seas… sorry, series over here isn't it? Series after series after series. So, here are some tips

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D So, we take voice references. It's a little clip of the voice basically. So, for Octonauts I've probably got two hundred and fifty clips, which is basically every, single creature that’s ever appeared, in what episode, and who played them. Also, I find, to help actors, stance is a really good thing to lock into - especially when you're switching between characters… and also just key phrases as well. There was a panda from Birmingham an actress was playing, and she kept drifting off character so she’d keep going “bamboo! Bamboo!” and then that brought her back in!

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L That is a really famous Birmingham phrase though actually.

N Bamboo…

L That's all they say, pretty much.

N Yeah, yeah, they love their bamboo in Birmingham. There's a good tongue twister! Anyway, I had a couple of other tips as well…

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D To find a phrase; this is what I try to do. There was an actor I was working with who was covering quite a lot of characters, and there's one of his characters which was turning into one of the other ones. So I was just like; “he's a plumber but he doesn’t do toilets” and so beforehand he's like (gruff cockney accent) “I don't do toilets, don’t do toilets” and then,

basically, he’d get into it. So it’s just sort of to give vocal and personality traits, and just – basically - put him in the right place. Directions like “make them light on their feet” and things like that, you know, “put him in plimsoles” - things like that where you just go like “oh yeah, all right, fine” and you can just instantly, sort of – hopefully - you know, grab hold of it, rather than being all faffy. It's shorthand to get the quickest - the best performance out of somebody the quickest way.

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N (Gruff cockney) Don’t do toilets.

L (joining in too) Nah, don’t do toilets

N I can’t wait to play a character that doesn't do toilets! So, I suppose what's nice about that is that the consistency thing is a two-way process… in the sense that he's responsible for it as the director, as well as you are. But I suppose you need to try and take responsibility for your side of it and make sure you're, you know, you're really remembering and embedding the character. But I also like the fact that he's noticing and pointing out from his perspective also, how much voice and physicality in the body are connected! Because all we yabber on about in voice coaching is how voice is a holistic process, and you can't have just a random disembodied voice - and he talks about giving the character a stance and a posture and, you know, a little gesture and stuff. So I love the fact that he sees that from his instinctive point of view as well – so it's all about the body as well, and how that can affect the character and the voice. Then we talked a little bit about vocal safety, which is a big thing - particularly in character voicing - because, you know, if you get excited and start doing a character like this (unintelligible straining) and then you realise you can't sustain it for, like, eight seconds, let alone eight series - then you're going to be in difficulties. So I asked him for his thoughts on vocal safety.

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D I'm very aware of vocal safety, and always check with the actors that they're happy to maintain character in a certain place, and if their voice is getting ready to fall - so stop. And if the producer’s going “aw but can’t we just do another hour” it’s just like, “No, we can’t go another hour, not if you want them happy” because vocal safety is very, very important… and then also to try and teach techniques for screaming and projection which isn't straining your vocal chords.

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N So I was like… “what do you mean by that?” …because obviously, as a voice coach that's something I do a lot.

L How do you scream without damaging your voice?

N Well yeah, I know the answer to that question but I was interested in what he knew about that as a director - and someone who is ultimately, a little bit responsible for vocal safety. Firstly, I think it's lovely that he takes the stance and says “No, actually we need to stop”, I think that's really responsible - so I asked him - and I'll explain this clip afterwards, because it's a bit visual.

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D Don't take it from there, take it from there, so it’s putting less strain on their vocal chords…

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N So, what he illustrated with “don’t take it from there, take it from there”, was this idea of… he pointed to his laryngeal area in the middle of the neck - the larynx, where voice is made… He said “don’t take it from there” – pointing to the neck - and then said “take it from there” and pointed to his belly, which ultimately is what it's about. It's about trying to - in a way - bypass the fact that the voice is made in the throat, and see if you can just give a little bit of support from different areas, or anchor a bit more in the body and allow the breath in, and allow the support muscles to work a little more efficiently, so he's on the right track actually… and he was really interested in my thoughts and the things that I do to help, so he was taking an active interest in it which was lovely. So I was also interested to know if he had any ideas about current trends in animation, because that's useful for us if we're putting demos together.

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D Yes I do! Kids being kids - which isn't a bad trend, except if you're a female voiceover/voice actor that does children… and generally that speed thing, going the more American way of being, you know, less slow and also being less cartoony as well. Also casting comedians is a trend for the last good few years, which doesn’t see ANY sign of abating.

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N So there we go! Comedians – they love a bit of a comedian. He talks about comedy a bit more later and the speed – but less cartoony, which is an interesting juxtaposition I suppose…

L Yes… when I think about the cartoons that I watch with Toby I know that there are lots of quite, sort of, identifiable characters that he can identify with –as opposed to, like, a screaming rat on a spaceship or something

N Yeah there's a lot of really interesting indie producers as well, like, they're doing things like Abney and Teal and the slightly quirky or stuff - which feels very British to me as well. So I think we’ve still got a lot of variety out there. So, those of you out there who want to get into animation may want a few demo tips, so here we go…

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D Make it interesting. Don't segue from “little cute girl” into “old witch voice” because that’s annoying! Make it interesting, make it inventive, and if you can make it funny that's better as well, that's all good - but generally, if I'm casting, the first thing I listen to is the narration reel which gives me their natural voice… so it gives me their starting point, and it also tells me how good their acting is very quickly.

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L Well that is VERY interesting.

N Mmmm… so, he would much prefer to hear a narrative real over a mad-cartoony-look-at-all-the-voices-I-can-do reel, and also wants to start from what your real voice is, which I think is really interesting and refreshing – but, as we know from all the stuff that we watch, you hear a lot of normal, non-cartoony voices in a lot of the stuff these days, so it's interesting to hear it from the horse's mouth - as it were. Many of the listeners I'm sure, out there, will be after some audition and performance tips, so here's a few of those.

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D As regards the difference in voicing for animations than adverts and things like that; remember that the animators will have just your voice, so all of your expression has to come out in your performance. So they won't notice your little speedy eye movements - that all has to happen in your voice. So, if you think “am I being too hammy?”, you're probably not. You have to be pretty broad. The only thing that comes up consistently is speed and projection. Basically; faster and louder. I could have called my company “Faster and Louder” – because for animation, animators need something to get hold of.

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N Faster and louder.

L Faster and louder guys!

N Yep, and finally I asked what he looks for in a voice actor cause - let's be honest - that's really all we wanted to know…

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D I’d say it depends upon the role, and whether I’m casting only one role or multiple roles. If I’m casting multiple roles but one person, then obviously versatility, and the ability to maintain believable character… but generally; truth, comedy and consistency.

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L Truthcomedyconsistency, truthcomedyconsistency, right I’ve got it!

N Repeat to fade… let’s recap

Both - Truth. Comedy. Consistency

L Gotitgotitgotitgotit…

N And essentially, go big or go home, which is really interesting and I think there's something interesting in the fact that things are less cartoony but still big and fast? So it's about finding that big and fast and big enough for the animators to have something to grasp onto and animate to - but not going into

that cartoony tone place, which is interesting. So there you go, that was my lovely chat with Dave. He was also at the One Voice Conference wasn't he!

L He was at the one voice conference wasn't he! We are going to tell you more about why that is extremely, exceptionally, interesting later on in the podcast. First of all, it's time for our new… duddlerduddlerdurdurdur! (very low singing, one note) Segmennnntt… I was gonna harmonise the word segment then! What’s it called? Show Off’s Corner, rightrightright…

Both (harmonising in a disconcerting minor key) Show Off’s Cornerrrrrrrr

L – Oh, that’s foreboding. Shall we do something chirpy? Let’s go for chirpy! (chaotic attempt at harmonising that ends in a funeral dirge) Show Off’s Cornerrrrr

L Oh no! It's me. I think I'm worried about the future. There’s Trump, there’s Brexit, I mean, there's lots of things I have concerns about, and it's all coming out in my music – let’s practise again…

N Let’s make it more percussive! Show! Off’s! Corner!

Both (not too terrible) Show! Off’s! Cornerrrr!

N So, it’s called Show Off’s Corner

L Yes, and so, since we've been talking about animation my personal show off thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to play you a terribly exciting - and I would say exceptional - example of an animation demo

N An exceptional example of truth, consistency…

L …And loudness? Nono, what was the other one…

N Comedy!

L Oh, it’s hilarious…

SHORT EXCERPT OF LEAH’S NEWS BULLETIN STYLE ANIMATION REEL

N Yeyyyy! Well done show off Leah!

L Thanks very much, well, since I work in news I thought I’d better use a news bulletin as my, er… and that was just a little bit of it anyway.

N I like it.

L (desperately struggling to take a compliment while simultaneously being British) Mmhmmm

N And since talking to Dave Peacock I want to redo my demo! So, I'm gonna show off… I got my little son on the microphone the other day - we've been trying to track his little voice coming along. Mainly so I can get him earning ASAP, am I right, mums out there?

L It’s about blummin time.

N He costs me so much in fruit. So, this is my little son when he was 21 months old.

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George - Hi Daddy! Hi Mummy! Hi Grandad!

N Should we go to the shop for snacks?

G (whispered) Yeh!

N - What snack would you like?

G – Ummmmm… apples.

N You're eating an apple now.

G Oowoozum pears!

N We've got some pears in the kitchen! Can you say “Hello apple!”

G Hello apple!

N Can you say yummy apple?

G Yummy apple!

N Can you say tasty Apple?

G Tase-y apple.

N Mmmm… tractor?

G Tractor.

N Dino?

G Dino… Car… Bus…Chicken…

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L Awwwmygodhe’ssogorGEOUS! He’s so gorgeous!

N We have great little sons. Now all he wants to do when he goes in the office is “Mummy singing! Singing mummy!” Climbs up there! Gets in! Good man. He’ll be earning in no time. Erm, so I suppose we should get to the…

L Key, main, huge, crucial crux of the matter yes! So, the exciting news is that we are teaming up with (faintly operatic) Gravy! For the Brain! Very musical this episode, isn’t it…

N I think we've taken the jingles too far.

L Right, yes, stop, stop Leah. If you don't know who Gravy For The Brain are, they are providers of vast quantities of exceptional quality voice over training material…

N So much quality.

L And they also run a lovely event which we went to - when was it –

N Um… this year?

L Yeah, some time this year we went to the One Voice Conference, and it was an absolute delight. There was a boat party which I remember most of… and some lovely talks, and ever such a nice bunch of people - hundreds of nice people.

N And there was an awards… I got nominated for Best Outtake – essentially, best feck-up.

L Oh I did hear that, it was amazing.

N Yeah, sadly I didn't win on the night but ultimately we're all winners… except those of us who lost… Anywho, enough about me being a loser and back to one voice because we were down there, and we thought we would - in the thick of it – get responses from the delegates.

L We wanted to know what they had heard that was the most interesting thing so far, so that - essentially - you could just get, like, all the best bits… we cherry-picked for you and here they are!

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Alison Esprit, voiceover artist - it's been really interesting listening to the promo talk by Joe Cipriani. What stood out for me was actually voicing to images, which I don't have a lot of experience doing… I've done a lot of promos - just dry read - but no imaging so, just to keep practicing and that it is it is an art and yeah - to just keep on practicing!

My name is Rebecca Devon Watson, actress-turned-voiceover – actually, the GDPR stuff kind of scared the living daylights out of me, because it never occurred to me that it applied to us as self-employed people and it really does.

My name is James Hazlare, I do some voice work and I'm also a professional event conference facilitator/moderator, and I really enjoyed seeing Joe do his keynote this morning, which was very enlightening – and I realised actually just how hard you have to work. I think it was the fact that - you know - he turned around and said “Look, if I get one in every 90 then it's not a problem, that's sort of what I expect.

My name is Martin Allinson, I'm a voiceover with a studio in Wembley in London. Today's been amazing. It's been a sort of a barrage of amazing information, but the best thing I took away was just a vocal technique; of breathing the opposite way on a line… so, if you arrive at a studio and you're a bit nervous, go through the line but breathe in on the words but don't say the words - just read the line in the air and breathe in, and then breathe out on the full-stop or the exclamation mark or the punctuation then breathe in so you get all the air you want and then get rid of it quickly.. I hope that makes sense… it works for me anyway. Good luck! [laughter]

I'm Claire Wyatt - I had a really great session doing promo voiceover and how fast - you basically have to be a chameleon; one eye looking at the screen, one eye looking at the script, working at speed, so that was great.

I'm Joanne Lamb and I'm a voice over – the legal talk, and how we really should all have contracts in place, and also terms and conditions. What scared me the most was the limited liability aspect, where you could be voicing a script that's been basically ripped off from somebody else and YOU are vulnerable.

Kirsty Gillmore, I'm a voice actor and a sound designer - Dave Peacock at the animation seminar yesterday, when he was saying that it's really important when you're recording in an animation session to consider being louder and faster, because you have to capture the attention of children - kids have very short attention spans, and making sure that you vary your volume but always keep it at a sort of a high energy, and be faster than you normally would.

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L That's our Kirsty! She's coming up as well, for the social, she's gonna be there and… louder and faster!

N Louder and faster... I need to talk to Martin Allison about what the jibberdy flibberdy that was all about!

L That was a that was a very mystifying series of words - breathe in which

direction??

N Breathe in the opposite direction on the line…

L Does it mean breathe in?

N I think he was trying to say – read through the line once, and breathe in, like you're breathing in the line… and then speak the line and then something about breathing out on the punctuation which I'm sure editors would hate… like “Thank you for calling [mad exhale]”

L [guffaws]

N There is something in it and Martin, if you’re out there, give me a call, because it must be something to do with… voice coaching and voice technique is all about a connection of thought to breath ultimately. So if, on the in-breath you read the line you're going to communicate, that's you connecting the thought that you want to communicate with the breath that you need for that thought.

L Conceptually, I like it.

N So there's something in there - I think it just needs to work out the.. the words…!

L I feel like we’ve not even mentioned the really, really important

thing actually…

N Oh my god yes!

L Because even though we mentioned the fact that we went down to the One Voice Conference and it was marvellous, and even though we mentioned

the fact that Gravy for the Brain, they do all these lovely training things and it's all well worth a look, um, we haven’t mentioned the fact that they're actually sending up their - like – pet voiceover; Peter Dickson!

N (In the style of Peter Dickson) PETER… no, no I won’t

L No that was good! That was great, perfect!

N PETERRRR DICKSONNNN!!!

L He's going to be doing what they've described as their first ever straight-up Q&A; here at the Voiceover Social North in Manchester,

N Raw! Unedited! Ready… totally naked

L Yes! I mean, that's he promised

N I mean, that was his choice

L Yeh! We didn’t even bring it up!

N We did not even bring that up. Apparently he always voices naked

L I - he's such a great guy! He’s just - he's gonna lay it all out bare, there on the table.

N Lay it on the table, Peter.

L [hectic cackling]… he’s going to be there to answer questions, and the main thing about that is we are going to ask him searching questions that are going to…

N We are going to probe, into his back-life

L And the other great, super, wonderful, lovely thing is that Gravy for the Brain are buying drinks!

N They're buying drinks and food

L Drinks and food! I don't really understand why we're not already all there waiting for it to happen…

N Because it's in July, Leah, and I have things to do.

L Oh, fine… busy, are we?

[laughter]

L Yeh, so it's gonna be really really really great.

N But we should say when the social is!

L Oh yes, it's on the 21st of July of 2018, so if you're listening to this podcast far down the line you can just disregard all of this bit, and also the next time we have a social will be when? September! And there'll be another podcast out just before that, with some more very interesting interviews with extremely cool people.

N Please send us your submissions for Show Off’s Corner!

L That's a really important thing. Send it. As you can tell from what we have presented to you today the brief is... er… broad

N I mean, voice related.

L Whatever you're like, proud of – voice related proud.

N Yeah - do we have to say anything about GDPR?

L NO! You’ve been listening to… oh wait no hang on… I'm Leah

Marks

N And I'm Nic Redman

Both (almost) and we are the VO social.

N That was almost right!

L Spot on, in my view…

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