Day 7: Thursday, 18th Nov 2021
Morning | Edited the eLearning recordings |
Afternoon |
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Late Aft. | Had 2 video calls/webinars back to back |
Evening | Walked Ocean, my lil Shih-Tzu |
Night |
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Expanding on the highlight:
Super Red Music is a local recording and audio post production studio, the venue for the audition. The audition's IP is owned by XVZ Studio, and the audition script was shared ahead of time. There were a few characters in the script and we were given the choice to read for whichever character regardless of gender. Before the audition day, I spent some time going through and making notes for 3 characters and decided to read for the male character as his lines allowed more emotional range, also in hopes that the casting director will ask me to read the women's lines too, since I'm already there.
On the day itself, I left early as the studio was located in an area I'm not familiar with. I parked in the basement and arrived 20 minutes ahead of my slot. 20 minutes was allocated to each audition, and from what I heard there were around 48 talents auditioning over the course of 2 days. I went into the booth sooner than expected as the next talent hadn't arrived. I did some lip trill warm ups in the booth whilst waiting for the director. It didn't occur to me that I was already live in stereo so the sound engineer and some other people giggled as I hummed and 'brrr-ed' away.
The director returned, and I voiced the young male teenager's lines. "Delivery is good but try to sound younger, more like a teenager," was the feedback given, and I gave it another go. Then, as planned *wink wink*, they asked me to read the lines for the 2 other female roles. "Let's try again, but less Disney-like,", "Let's do another take, this time even slower,".
After the characters, I provided some general effort noises: running, huffing, jumping, punching, getting stabbed etc., then some cute-anime-kawaii sounds, and lastly an evil laugh. I thanked them, they thanked me, I couldn't open the booth door from inside, they opened it for me from the outside, and that was it.
I was genuinely happy and positively excited throughout this audition. This was my second ever audition in a studio and it was bloody fun. I take comfort in the fact that I did not feel nervous -- it meant I had grown, in comparison with my first time auditioning in a studio 10 months ago, when I was so nervous and I did not even know if I was allowed to drink or breathe or if I could sit while they discuss my somewhat monotonous delivery in the character (nope, this is not me being overly hard on myself, it was the constructive criticism given when I asked after the audition was over).
Afterthought
It took me almost 3 months to complete writing this series, but in the meantime, I realised something extremely important: I did not have any schedule at all, I simply worked when there was work, and auditioned when there was no work. I did not have a cut-off time, nor a dedicated day where I rest. I was burning myself out. Between juggling my main job as a voice actor and a side business, exercising a lot and still remain socially active, and constantly telling myself that my life has the flexibility that many don't and that I'm appreciative of it. But I had no structure. So to save myself from slowly going insane, I've outlined a schedule. Maybe I'll write a blog on this after somewhat sticking to it for at least half a year.
For all of you who read this entire series, thank you very much. I hope I've enlightened at least some of you on the life of a freelance voice actor. Till next time :)