2001-12-17 - 3:01 a.m.
#100: No Need for Da Big Secret Hobby, Yah?
Note to self: Does everybody remember this (if you don't, click the link and find out what everybody's been raving about and stop feeling left out and sane!)? Well now you can get it shockwave style, on DVD and VHS, get the Gameboy Colour game, learn the lyrics and meet fans! And just before your brain melts altogether, get the info on this wacky group in english so that it finally all makes sense. And if it doesn't, go sit someplace really high and crow like a chicken until the voices finally stop singing.... "YATTA! YATTA! YATTA!" *dances from one bent leg to another with my arms crooked*
Well. I guess it's about the time everybody's been waiting for. The time when I reveal.... THE SECRET! (and no, it has nothing to do with my pants)
....
Actually, when I think about it, it's not really THAT much of a secret. In fact, the only people who DON'T know about this hobby of mine are people in the AAC and from University. And even then, at least four people from the former would probably already know what I'm going to write about; and those four account for about a third of people in the AAC who read and write journal entries. Therefore, the only people who'd actually see this and go, "ohhhhhhh...." are the last two-third journal readers of the club and none at all for my friends who go to university (or at least, I think none of my friends from university reads this. I think). And when you compare it to the number of people who DO know the so called "secret" (i.e. not from AAC or University) it really isn't such a BIG secret afterall. Hence the title for this particular journal entry is erroneous and should be replaced simply with "No Need for Da Hobby, Yah?", in order to reflect the contents of the journal: which aren't so secret at all.
....
Oh, what the hey. It's my journal, and I've just reached 100 entries. I think I'm allowed a little leeway in terms of going all nutty on this particular hobby in order to commemorate the ten months it took me to reach this point (course, I could have reached it sooner if I had kept up my "one entry oer day" habit.... Just under 4 months, in fact. I took almost 3 times as long to get here than I really should have. Rats.). So here it goes! For the benefit of the two-thirds of journal readers in the AAC and no one in my University friends clique! I present to you: THE HOBBY!
....
Gee, I'm all embarassed and shy now and I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll write the entry tomorrow, instead. Right now, it's time for my nap. (kidding! kidding! It's meant to be suspense! Building up a small amount of hype that I intend to dash upon the rocks by completely not meeting your expectations whatsoever! I learned from the master, y'see.)
[Ironically, I took several days worth of a break here, distracted as I was by the onset of evening and its heralding the perfect conditions for playing Deus Ex. It's one of those games (along with Thief and System Shock 2, all featuring the same project leader funnily enough) that's almost unplayable during the day in my room: which lets in a most unhealthy amount of light in spite of curtains. So instead of working on this journal entry, I was off playing games and ignoring the fact that it's way behind on current events instead. I guess that John Romero comparison wasn't completely far off, heh.]
Okay. Now. Before I feel the sudden urge to go off and continue with my game again.... Hmmmm.... I'm in a high place, with a sniper rifle, a Master rating in rifles skill and scores of MJ12 troopers wandering about the streets below and unaware of my presence several stories up. Life is so very, very sweet, mwehehehehehe.... Sorry. I'll get to the point now. The POINT of this entire entry is discuss that hobby which I've kept secret all this time because I thought it would make a great 100th journal entry where I would reveal that secret. Right. And that secret hobby is!
!
Wait for it.... *gets kicked in the head by a Random Impatient Passerby* Ow! Well, okay. My hobby is voice acting. Online. Online voice acting. Like, recording my voice into wav, encoding into mp3 and sending it off to producers who mix my voice along with other peoples in order to produce a final product which is hopefully a radioplay drama available in a variety of media formats.
.... Well, okay then. Now that I've gotten that out of the way after a lot of verbal fumbling, doesn't it seem rather anticlimatic? It probably is! Probably a fairly silly secret too, now that I think about it.... But hopefully the one for the 200th entry will be more stimulating! But that's then and this is now, so let's just stick to the subject at present.
So. Voice acting. Online. What exactly does that involve? Surprisingly very little for my part. A 10 dollar microphone, a good audio recording/editing program and lots of free time and you've got yourself an aspiring voice actor. Skill in vocal work is also rather helpful, but not strictly necessary initially.... It often comes from a lot of practice and experimentation with ones voice range.
Erm. Hmmmm. This isn't going very well at all. I don't really want to write in a formal tone like this. Let's try this again. First have a look at my amateur voice acting resume and if that doesn't put you off with its possibly silly and far too indepth group clique nature.... Read on. I'm sure I'll put you off with further passages instead. ^_^
I guess the best place to start would be how I got started in this whole thing and why I continue to be part of it to this day. Which isn't actually very long at all.... But let's tell this right: This all started back in November 1999 when I was but a tender age of 19 (yeah right). It was also back when I used to roam newsgroups regularly as a way of filling up my time, making friends online and then getting so thoroughly sick of the idiots who ruined it all that I had to quit several months later before I collapsed from an aneurysm. It's a long story, one which I don't really feel like going into.... Although you can read a bit about the aftermath when I returned to the newsgroups I once read regularly here.
Anyway, I was reading through my preferred newsgroup of the time: alt.games.final-fantasy-- errrrr.... If you're planning on visiting, don't tell them I sent you. Not that I think anyone will recognise my name after being away for so long, but even an INKLING of my presence may stir up some old trouble. It's another long story. Mainly about a guy who wouldn't give up hounding his online girlfriend in AGFF (alt.games.final-fantasy), blamed me for breaking them up and had this TWISTED obsession about them getting back together; culminating in a piece of written prose he emailed to her (and she then passed on to me) which depicted him as a purely misunderstood, heartbroken man who was sent to prison for hunting down and strangling his once-GF to death. There were other people and situations too, but he was one of the main detractors from the overall happy, silly feeling I had when I first joined the group. I sure hope he's getting therapy now. Really. That boy had a lot of unhealthy anger to deal with; not to mention a strange, almost incestuous relationship with his twin brother who shared the exact same opinions as him. That last bit could have been misconstrued on my part, but it certainly looked that way to me.
Aaaaaaaaaaaanyway (I got sidetracked AGAIN. remind me to talk some more some other time about the strange characters one can meet online....), I was reading through my preferred newsgroup of the time: alt.games.final-fantasy, when I happened upon a post asking for people willing to participate in an amateur-produced project to voice characters from Final Fantasy 8. It was one of the more unusual posts for the time.... Mainly because it was a fairly on-topic, open invitation, in a sea of off-topic posts made by cynical minded RPG players who had discussed the FF games to death enough already. So I was fairly curious. The person who posted the message was quite new to the group, having only been there for several weeks only so it was a pretty daring move on her part to put forward such a proposal. At the time, I was completely unaware that she had put that proposal out to a whole bunch of gaming online forums, so I thought I was simply doing "the new girl" a favour by nervously trying out for the role of Seifer: an arrogant, pompous ass whose sole purpose in the game is to annoy the protagonist by rivalling his own ambitions. Not at all like me, really. Ahem. *angel halo*
Her initial response to my audition lines.... Is unprintable. AHem. But to summarise: she was QUITE impressed and very, very, VERY interested in my taking part in the project. Very. I guess she liked my voice. ^^;;; Along with the other 30 friends she passed my auditions unto for approval. @_@ I've always been somewhat bemused by that. Even before auditioning for this voice project, there was a brief period of time in the AGFF where everybody was exchanging recorded wavs of each others voice to find out what everyone sounded like.... And one members immediate response to my clip was setting up a newsgroup called alt.games.final-fantasy.edwynsvoice XD Right next to alt.games.final-fantasy.dieaerisdie and alt.games.final-fantasy.robcypher along with alt.games.final-fantasy.hentai (!) I guess it must be damn easy to make newsgroups. O.o I wonder if that newsgroup of mine is still there? But in any case, this one audition was my first step into a voice acting community (I'm sure there are others out there with different interests and goals compared to the one I got into) that took me in and held on tight. And it's quite a lot of fun too! ^_^
Since that first role as Seifer I've auditioned for quite a few different productions and garnered myself many roles (as can be seen in my resume). I'm actually still bemused by it all really, in spite of the fact that it's been 2 years since I first started this. I think it's mainly due to the reaction my voice has on the ladies (and several men O.o) online, as opposed to the nill reaction I get in real life encounters. It's probably to do with the circumstances (and nothing to with the the fact that I have all the visual appeal of a randy George Lucas in drag and make up. Yeah). Hearing someone gravely say, "My sleep has given me time to atone" as Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy 7 probably doesn't have the same effect on people standing right next to you as it does to people of a niche group listening to it after downloading it from a radioplay production page. In fact, I'm pretty sure the response of people (in real life) to such a line would be, "I have a brick, and I'm not afraid to use it". Admittedly though, going completely weird ("Iiiiiii am the MIDGET KING!") has the same effect both online and off. It just scares the pants off people, really. But in any case, that kind of "wild, rabid fan" reaction to my voice has dampened over time, so now I'm getting my roles through my sheer vocal talents! Or so I think anyway. *turns to the amateur voice acting crowd I know who are reading this* Does my voice make you horny? Do I make you randy, baby? Do I??? *turns back to everyone else* Okay, now that everyone's sufficiently disturbed on this side of the crowd, let's move on.
As one might have guessed from the roles I've already mentioned (if you have not bothered to read through my resume. in which case you're violating instructions and should read it. NOW) most of the productions available for auditioning from the VA (voic acting) community I'm part of are mainly interested in anime/video game to audio drama. And there's quite a lot of them. There are several original productions based upon self-contained ideas of the creator, but they're usually fewer in number compared to the anime/video game crowd. Hence there are almost always a lot of over the top hero and villain personality roles open for audition, and I have a tendency to get roles which fall into the latter category. Thanks to my voice filled devilish intent (garnered after long hours of practice!) I've gotten more roles as villains to more productions than I can possibly remember. It doesn't really extend my vocal range, but it's something my voice can settle into rather easily.... And if I were being paid for it I would say "It pays the bills", but it doesn't so I can't. But playing villains is something I hope will never grow old for me.... Mainly because it's a range I happen to be good at, but it's also fun to think that somewhere, someone is hiding underneath their chair because they heard me say, "And now I will KILL you!" in a most over dramatic, villainous tone. I like that thought.
Some of my more favourite roles however, usually have almost absolutely nothing to do with villains. Instead, they involve cross dressers. Mad kings. Enigmatically smiling charmsters. Absentminded wizards. In other words: the really weird and funny roles. I don't get those roles very often (purely comical radioplays hardly ever come around.... unless it's a parody of an anime/video game series. in which case the villains are almost always shafted in terms of their comedy potential and I can't be bothered to audition) and I cherish the ones that do come along and pique my twisted funny bone. Especially one role (whose production sadly fell through) featured in a Pokemon parody called Bakamon, where I played Professor Oak who had an.... unhealthy fixation on Pokemon and their reproductive habits. I won't say any more, lest I harm the delicate minds of everyone reading this (I don't have to do with it with the people from the VA community. They've all heard me scream "Jiggle my Jigglypuff!" in ecstasy many times before. Oh yes. And it goes ON.)
Well. I think that's about enough of my forays into the world of amateur voice acting for now. Maybe I'll put more on later but for now I think this entry will serve as a fairly good introduction. Hopefully it wasn't too disappointing of a "big secret" for the people who weren't aware of it. ^_^;;;
