Yesterday, 21st April 2016, saw the completion of all voice recording for my MA film project, currently under the working title 'The Optimist'.
My last few film projects, including 'Gopher Golf', have relied on slapstick comedy to tell their stories, so I wanted my next project to feel "more serious" and feel more emotional. The script for the 'Optimist' was the result. The film is also different because it is based on personal experiences in real life, rather than comedic situations. I also wanted 'Optimist' to rely more on dialogue compared to the last few projects I've worked on, which have only used foley artistry or have been completely silent.
Six roles needed to be cast - the first was the Narrator. My film took a lot of inspiration from the works of Adam Elliott, an animator from Melbourne who also directs films about his own personal experiences. His films are essentially biographies of fictional people, partly inspired by people he knows in real life. His films are often told by one narrator - including popular Australian actors such as Geoffrey Rush, Barry Humphries and John Flaus. Rush in particular narrates Elliott's film 'Harvie Krumpet' in a calm, natural tone, so this inspired me to tell the story of 'The Optimist' using a narrator. My tutor Sarah Ann Kennedy recommended me to actor Terence Chapman. After one meeting and read-through, we all agreed Terence was a perfect choice.
Terence found the rest of the cast, including his daughter Gracie Chapman as the young girl, Oliver Stawarski-Beavan as the young boy Tom, and Anthony Lally as Tom's carer. In voice acting, it is usual for older actors to voice the parts of children in animation, but 'Optimist' has a much more serious tone so I wanted all of the characters and dialogue to sound completely natural, both in the acting and writing. I was really excited that an 8 year old boy and girl Terence knew were both excited to record their voices for this project. We did search for boys with autism to play the part of Tom, the boy with autism, but this proved to be too challenging as it's hard to get boys with autism to say what you want them to say.
For the carer's voice, Anthony uses a soft Mancunian voice as Gracie and Oliver both also sounded Mancunian. However, the accents were watered down as I wanted the film to have a more universal appeal. The only other characters to speak are a stereotypical British man and a French man for a quick 'throwaway gag', both of which were voiced by Terence.
The voice session lasted for about two hours, with Phil Holmes as the sound engineer and Gracie and Oliver's parents also there.
