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  RAND UNWRAPPED

  Confessions of a ROBOTECH Warrior

  by Frank Catalano

  Rand Unwrapped – Confessions of a Robotech Warrior Copyright © 2012 Frank Catalano

  Copying material from this work in whole or part is strictly forbidden by law without author’s prior written permission.

  Author’s Representative:

  The Creative Edge

  Anthony Carter

  [email protected]

  eBook ISBN: 9781625171986

  Print ISBN: 1456543652

  Print ISBN-13: 9781456543655

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2011900925

  Cover art by Tommy Yune, provided courtesy of Harmony Gold Inc., USA©1985-2012. All rights reserved.

  No creative work happens without the support of family and friends. A special thank you to:

  Brenda Catalano

  Alexandra Catalano

  Francesca Catalano

  and

  Ronald J. Wong.

  Dedicated to the memory of

  Carl Macek

  (1951 - 2010)

  A very special thank you to

  Harmony Gold

  Frank Agrama – Chairman and CEO

  Christy Duran – President and General Counsel

  Tommy Yune – Creative Director

  and

  Robotech series staff and writers

  Gregory Snegoff

  Robert Barron

  Greg Finley

  Steve Kramer

  Mike Reynolds

  Tao Will

  Ardwight Chamberlain

  Jason Klassi

  Jim Wager

  Steve Flood

  Books by Frank Catalano

  Art of the Monologue

  Monologues they haven’t heard yet

  The Creative Audience

  The collaborative role of the audience in the creation of the visual and performing arts

  White Knight Black Night

  Short monologues for auditions

  The Resting Place

  a play

  Autumn Sweet

  a play

  Rand Unwrapped

  Confessions of a Robotech Warrior

  Table of Contents

  Forward Making Pictures Talk What’s this book about anyway?

  Chapter 1 Creating a character from a picture

  Chapter 2 Everybody’s Got to Start Somewhere

  Chapter 3 Arriving at Robotech

  Chapter 4 Playing Admiral Rick Hunter (well… not really)

  Chapter 5 Becoming Rand

  Chapter 6 Heroes

  Chapter 7 Bullies

  Chapter 8 Rook, Dante Alighieri and Caitlin Burkowitz

  Chapter 9 Playing Guns

  Chapter 10 We Are All Robotech Warriors

  Rand’s Creed

  FORWARD

  * * *

  Making Pictures Talk What’s this book about anyway?

  Before I set out to do anything, I like to define what it is I am attempting to do before I begin. In this book, I want to explore my internal choices for performing the voice for the animated character of Rand in The New Generation season of the Robotech television series. The creation of this character was the result of an ongoing process of exploration and discovery. I didn’t walk in the door on the first day of recording with all the answers but rather created choices for the character bit by bit as the series progressed. This is a book about my journey as an actor and connection of events from my past experiences (as best as I can remember) in finding the character of Rand in the animated television series Robotech. It is not a book about The New Generation or it’s characters or plot line. I will leave those elements to the Robotech fans to teach me.

  CHAPTER 1

  * * *

  Creating a character from a picture

  “I wonder what the heck is going on around here?”

  - Episode 9 – The Genesis Pits

  As an acting teacher, many students have asked me the question. What’s the best way to create a character for an audition or within a play or film? The quick answer is that the clues for any character can be found within the framework of the underlying script provided by the writer. The written script, like a blue print, contains a combination of character traits including action (how the character moves and reacts to a specific environment), a physical description (what does the character look like) and dialogue (how does the character speak, what do they say and how do they say it). An actor uses these elements in making choices to effectively portray a particular character. They can consider what is contained in the script including the writer’s physical description of the character and dialogue components. What does the character say when they talk about themselves and what do other characters within the piece say about the character? In addition, an actor can analyze other characters within the piece as they relate to their character. Actors become investigators making notes of how other characters behave around the character they are playing. Much of the information provided by writers is presented through either visual or oral exposition. Exposition can be in the form of visual flashbacks or dialogue. It allows both the audience and the actor playing the role some understanding about the character’s past. The actor can then assimilate all of these factors and make specific choices about how they will portray the character within a particular moment in a film or play. This process takes place over a given period of time through rehearsals and readings. However, for an audition, the creative dynamic is much different.

  In an audition setting, much of the work is done by the actor. They have to read the script or specific sections of the script provided by the producer for the audition. These sections are called sides and can be any number of pages culled from a full script for the purpose of the audition. The actor, when possible, tries to read the entire script to get an idea of the piece in its entirety. It gives the actor a better picture of their character’s role within the story as a whole. If the full script is not available, then the actor usually makes specific choices for the audition based upon the reading of the sides, instructions provided by the casting office or information provided by their agent. These choices might include what to wear for the character, how to move and how to speak the lines. During the audition, the actor may receive additional notes from the casting director to incorporate into the reading. Once the actor is cast in the project they can incorporate those choices into the character. However, the audition process is quite different than the production process, which incorporates the work of other performers and the director.

  Once cast in a play or film, the actor’s choices must fit within the creative framework provided by the director and the interpretations of other characters in the project. The meaning here, is that the choices of other actor’s, by their very nature, must be acknowledged and responded to by an actor’s character choices within the framework of the text. This complex creative collaboration is carefully crafted over a period of time and with the guiding hand of a good director, should result in a unified work. In film and theatre, the gestation period for the creation of a character by an actor may take place over several weeks of rehearsal or shooting. In television, there is usually a very short finite period to develop a character from the first read of the script to actual shooting. Often in television series, actors create characters over a period of episodes and seasons. This is often the result in a conscious or unconscious collaboration of the writers, producers who collectively create the character’s core over a period of episodes. They may see certain mannerism or characteristics in an actor’s interpretation of the character. They in turn write these characteristics into the script. Also, during production, the back story of a character can be developed and incorporated into f
uture episodes. Character development also takes place character to character. Often as a television or web series progresses, each actor’s choices for his or her character evolve simultaneously with those of the ensemble as a whole. The process is really never complete and can continue to evolve until the last day of shooting. In theatre, the process may continue until the last performance of the production before an audience. Now while there may be some similarities of character creation with live theatre and film, creating an animated character is a much different process.

  The production of an animated film or series is often created piece by piece like a visual artist creates a mosaic. In most cases, actors create their character choices outside of the normal ensemble format. They record their characters voices alone without the face-to-face contact they would have in a play or live action film. While they may have the voices of other characters available to them in their headphones, they often do not have the other actor in the room with them. They don’t have the visual reactions of other characters to play against. The only cue they may have is the vocal tone and emotion that they might be getting in their headphones—if they have it at all and what’s up on the screen. What I’ve described here is trying to voice a character from previously existing footage. This was the case in creating the characters for Robotech. The footage was already created in Japan and all of the actor’s that voiced characters in the series had to work with that footage. That meant, that what was up on the screen was “there” and could not be changed. The vocal read provided by a voice actor for a character had to make sense within that visual footage. An actor can also create a voice for an animated character from a storyboard.

  A storyboard is a series of images with dialogue that visually describes what the animated footage will look like before it is produced. It details the dialogue and the physical actions of the characters within each scene. In this case, the actor can work with writers and storyboard artists to create a specific voice for the character before it has been animated. The actor has the benefit of working with a storyboard illustration of the character and a visual detail of the comedic or dramatic situation. Storyboards in many ways read like a comic book version of what the animated product will look like when it is completed. The storyboard might include a detailed description of the character’s appearance or reaction within a particular scene, the lines the character speaks and may even take into consideration the mannerisms of the specific actor creating a voice for the character. This collaborative process between the actor, writer and animator can result in an animated character having many of the same physical and vocal characteristics of the actor playing the role. The final animation of the animated character of the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature Aladdin (1992) incorporated many of the mannerisms and interpretation of Robin Williams in the creation of the Genie character. However, if the Genie character had been voiced by another actor, it might not have been created in quite the same way. When an actor creates a voice from a storyboard there is a lot more flexibility.

  When a line is delivered, it is spoken to a specific set of circumstances that are present within the storyline. Why I’m making this distinction is that the process is still piece by piece – almost like creating a visual mosaic of each moment the character experiences within the framework of the work as a whole. But the actor in this case, works with the director, writers and animators to create a voice that works for the character and the particular situation. There are no requirements to sync the vocal interpretation to an already created visual setting or action. The actor can concentrate on the character and make specific choices within that particular scene. Once it is completed, there is a finished vocalized piece of the mosaic and the actor can move on to the next situation in the story. Once, the voice work is completed, the animators create the visual portion of the film around the lines that have been recorded. The actor’s voice and character choices are integrated completely into the fabric of the total work resulting in a seamless connection of voice actor and animation. The creation of a character within the framework of Japanese animae, the second creative process, is quite different.

  The second creative process is one in which animated characters are voiced to already existing animated or live action footage. In this case, the footage has been drawn and edited and the actor must fit the character’s voice within this pre-existing framework. In the case of Robotech, the characters had been drawn, edited and put into production long before any of the American voice actors that worked in the show became part of the process. I say this in total admiration of all the voice actors that worked on the project. We all literally, had to hit the ground running and had to make character choices based upon the clues that we could find written in the scripts. But remember, voice actors in Robotech often saw the script for the first time moments before they were to voice the character. In some instances, actors would get into the studio and have a few minutes to glance at their lines a few pages ahead, read the scene and try to (as best they could) to make some meaningful choices for what they were about to do. You only could hope, that the director had an idea of what was going on in the script because they had been recording it all day or better yet that they were also the writer. That was the best combination, if you could get it. Well talk more about Robotech shortly. In animae projects, you might have other factors to consider. Another actor in Japanese or English may have already voiced the character. If that is the case, there could be preconceived parameters that belonged to the character that were put there before you could even voice the first line. In animae, when you enter the project as a voice actor you are arriving late in the creative process. The overall qualities of the character often are already defined for you by the script, edited footage and perhaps a preconceived notion of what had been done before by other actors playing the same role. But this doesn’t mean that the voice actor shouldn’t approach the role creatively. The voice actor can use these parameters to interpret the role from their own point of view. Such already set parameters could include, physical mannerisms, speech patterns and relationships with other characters. Many of these things are already part of the permanent created footage. Also, let’s not forget about lip sync. This is the process by which the actor’s performance of the written lines must match as perfectly as possible to the mouth movements of the character that is seen on the screen. The actor is guided through this process by several means. The first rests in the hands of the sound engineer who cues up one or more lines of dialogue to be voiced. When the footage rolls, the character’s line or reaction is preceded by three beeps and the actor should begin to voice the character on the fourth silent or imaginary beep. Voice actors have learned to love those wonderful beeps. The serve as a helpful guide to know where to start speaking and helps the process move along more quickly. Another tool the voice actor can use is the time code that appears either on the top or bottom of the screen. It is often helpful, when a bit of dialogue or a reaction is in progress. The director might tell you to place a certain line or reaction at a specific time code. The writer/directors do this more often because they wrote the script and have a visual understanding of where the line or reaction specifically fits into the scene. This is not to say, that sometimes even with all the beeps and time codes, that you just don’t do it on the fly by looking up at the screen and saying the lines as the character does them. Also, if you don’t hit the line exactly in sync but the director likes your reading, the sound engineer can often digitally move the line a few frames forward or backward to make it fall into place. You just have to love those guys. They can save a performance by doing their digital magic. Actor’s can also rely on a well-written script to help them create their character. A well-written script means that the dialogue actually fits (is in sync) with the character’s mouth movements and that it contains the appropriate visual directions to help the actor along. It also means that the script has dialogue that fits the action, the situation and the physical gestures of the characters up on the scre
en. That is not always the case. I’ve been lucky to work with some of the best dubbing writers in the business. When the script is well written, it allows you the freedom to try different things within the framework of the character.

  Often in an anime or live action dubbing scripts voice actors will see descriptive terms in parentheses before the spoken line which indicate whether the character’s mouth is visible in frame when the lines are spoken.

  They might look like this:

  A damaged Alpha Fighter slowly making its way back to Freedom Base.

  Angle on Pilot #1 - Interior cockpit of Alpha Fighter

  PILOT #1: (MNS) Freedom Base, this is Alpha XFS one… squadron leader. Over… is anybody out there?

  This first example is (MNS) which indicates that the character’s mouth is not seen. This tells the actor that his/her character is on screen but that their mouth is not clearly visible. This may be due to any number of reasons which might include the character wearing a helmet obscuring his/her mouth or that their head my be turned away or blocked by the cockpit control panel. Sometimes, within the frame, the character’s body may be visible moving an arm or shoulders but the mouth is covered. The actor or the writer for that matter has no choice. The footage is already shot and edited, so there must be a line written there and the actor has to go with what they have and make it work. Another term is (OFF) which indicates that the character speaking is not in frame. These lines could be from a character voice coming from a speaker or one that is in the scene but is simply not in the frame. Most (MNS) lines do not require sync (unless they are tied to a specific action or reaction to something on screen) so they can be voiced just using the beeps.

  INT. FREEDOM BASE CONTROL ROOM - Angle on XFS on radar screen.