Greg Weisman Interview, Part Two: Voice Directing

He also had the opportunity to assist dialogue director Sue Blu with pickup sessions while working on the several series with her at Sony. These were Starship Troopers (the official show link is http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/kids/roughnec... http://www.trooperpx.com/RSTC/series.html also is also worth checking out) and Max Steel -- see sites at http://www.maxsteeltv.com and http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/kids/maxsteel... Greg's big opportunity came when a former USC student, Jonathan Klein, asked him to voice direct a new English adaptation of the Japanese series 3x3 EYES which the company wanted to make a more prestige -- and union -- project.. If you're not familiar with the series, you can get more information at http://www.pioneer-ent.com/ and http://www.sazan.net/digest/news/, but be aware this series is considered for ages 13 and up in the United States. Greg recruited many of the voice talents he'd worked with on other projects, including Christian Campbell (Josh McGrath/Max Steel from Max Steel), Brigitte Bako (Angela from Gargoyles), and Edward Asner (Hudson from Gargoyles) as leading characters.

Automatic Dialogue Replacement (the technical term for the dubbing process, often called ADR) differs from creating original animated product. When animation's created, the process goes from script to voice record, then storyboard and animation. With ADR, the finished animation already exists. Greg told me that the challenge is "translating Japanese to English not only literally… also idioms and that it fits the lip synch."

At the time of our conversation, Greg had just begun work as voice director for the new Disney series Team Atlantis, based on the summer movie release Atlantis (see http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/atla... for the official movie website). Of the first session he said, "It was fun but it's too early to say how the whole thing will go." He looks forward to the challenge and feels all his work up until now prepared him to helm voice directing for a series. (NOTE: not long after this was published, Disney decided to shelve the Team Atlantis series. The exact reason is unknown. There are plans for a direct-to-video using some of the completed material.)

Greg also enjoys directing original radio plays every summer at the "Gathering of the Gargoyles," an annual convention dedicated to the Gargoyles series he worked on as supervising producer. The convention's official website is http://gathering.gargoyles-fans.org/

Join me next month for the final installment of my conversation with Greg, where we discuss the differences between writer and story-editor.

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