Post by Madame Director on Jun 3, 2012 9:12:16 GMT -6
Some of you may wonder how all of this got started, with The Manga Project and everything else involved. It's kind of a long story, actually.
A couple years ago, when I was still living in Utah, I was hanging out with a bunch of friends. I think we'd either just finished watching Fruits Basket (for the umpteenth time) or were watching it, but we started talking about voice acting and how the story never got finished with the anime and how sad that was. And, either as a group idea, or my idea alone, I'm not really sure, we decided that eventually someone should make a radio drama based off the manga to finish off the story.
Well, the idea sat in the back of my head for a year or two. Then I moved to Texas. While going between starting a new job and ending an old one, the idea kept popping up to do the radio drama. So I finally broke down and called up my friends, who were still living in Utah, and told them I was actually going to go ahead and do it.
From there, plans began to come together. I would go mostly off of the manga, but would take some creative license when writing the scripts so that it would fit a more audio format, and not rely on the visual. To do that, I decided transcribing directly from the manga was the best bet, then editing it as necessary. But before I even began with the script writing, I had a fairly basic idea of several of the main cast members and gave them the chance to "audition" for the roles to see if they really were what I was looking for, because I knew I did not want this to sound like the anime.
Well, once that started up, one of my other friends introduced me to the Voice Actor's Alliance (VAA) where I started posting the other auditions (where most of the cast actually came from). The others are people I "discovered" and had just the right voice for what I was looking for that I just knew they were a match, and, so far, I"ve been pretty right about that.
So, with the majority of the cast chosen, I went ahead and started writing the script. (I know, totally backwards from what it should be, right? But then I'm not exactly the most conventional so there you have it. ;) ) Regardless, with that going on, lines were sent out and started to be recorded.
But before I actually started on producing Fruits Basket, I wanted to try out the program I was going to use, which is Audacity. I had never worked with the program before, never done any kind of vocal editing, radio drama, or otherwise related, unless you count making AMV's, which I don't. I had a few basic lessons from my mom, who used the program to record music from old records, and my friend, Refi, who was more experienced in the voice acting realm.
As a sort of "practice" project, I formatted part of one of my fan fictions into a radio drama format. The story was called Shadows From The Past and was based off of the Black Blood Brothers fandom. I started casting for that show pretty much at the same time I started casting for Fruits Basket. However, before I actually started working on Shadows, I found I had enough cast to work on Fruits Basket, so I started on that instead.
Despite this rather backwards approach, since Shadows was supposed to be my "test" subject, in a manner of speaking, to learn the program, I was more than gungho about doing both. And what had originally been meant as a mere exercise in mixing and learning a program became a full production,when I realized that if I only did part of the story, I would not only be cheating the story and my actors, but the audience as well. I had to stop thinking small and do the whole thing.
From this decision, The Manga Project studio was born, because every good professional, and non-professional, seems to know that if you do more than one production, you need a studio name behind it. Always behind this thought was the idea that we would be for the fans and by the fans. No one would be paid to be in these shows. It was all to be volunteer work, a work of love.
We have had several setbacks. Many rough patches showed up, actors having to drop out for various reasons, having to recast, scripting, and other matters, including finding an original composer for our major show, Fruits Basket. Despite these setbacks, we are still here and going strong.
We are still all learning as we go. Most of our actors are pretty new to the industry, with little or no previous experience. Some come from more experience from other productions, including other fan based projects and professional work in radio, voice over, and movie productions. We are diverse, but we all hold a few things in common, a love for a good story, a love for acting, and a desire to share our talents with the world.
Since our inception, back around March of 2010, which is when I decided to actually start doing something with Fruits Basket, ideas have percolated in my mind. We have already shared presentations of our projects at a small convention, including panels about voice acting, and plan to continue seeking to present at panels, not only about our studio and its productions, but about voice acting and directing in general.
We are always looking for new voices to add to our shows, and for new shows to add under our studio banner. We plan on continuing to grow and become stronger, more experienced, and therefor producing even better shows than we previously have.
We are The Manga Project, and we're here to stay.
A couple years ago, when I was still living in Utah, I was hanging out with a bunch of friends. I think we'd either just finished watching Fruits Basket (for the umpteenth time) or were watching it, but we started talking about voice acting and how the story never got finished with the anime and how sad that was. And, either as a group idea, or my idea alone, I'm not really sure, we decided that eventually someone should make a radio drama based off the manga to finish off the story.
Well, the idea sat in the back of my head for a year or two. Then I moved to Texas. While going between starting a new job and ending an old one, the idea kept popping up to do the radio drama. So I finally broke down and called up my friends, who were still living in Utah, and told them I was actually going to go ahead and do it.
From there, plans began to come together. I would go mostly off of the manga, but would take some creative license when writing the scripts so that it would fit a more audio format, and not rely on the visual. To do that, I decided transcribing directly from the manga was the best bet, then editing it as necessary. But before I even began with the script writing, I had a fairly basic idea of several of the main cast members and gave them the chance to "audition" for the roles to see if they really were what I was looking for, because I knew I did not want this to sound like the anime.
Well, once that started up, one of my other friends introduced me to the Voice Actor's Alliance (VAA) where I started posting the other auditions (where most of the cast actually came from). The others are people I "discovered" and had just the right voice for what I was looking for that I just knew they were a match, and, so far, I"ve been pretty right about that.
So, with the majority of the cast chosen, I went ahead and started writing the script. (I know, totally backwards from what it should be, right? But then I'm not exactly the most conventional so there you have it. ;) ) Regardless, with that going on, lines were sent out and started to be recorded.
But before I actually started on producing Fruits Basket, I wanted to try out the program I was going to use, which is Audacity. I had never worked with the program before, never done any kind of vocal editing, radio drama, or otherwise related, unless you count making AMV's, which I don't. I had a few basic lessons from my mom, who used the program to record music from old records, and my friend, Refi, who was more experienced in the voice acting realm.
As a sort of "practice" project, I formatted part of one of my fan fictions into a radio drama format. The story was called Shadows From The Past and was based off of the Black Blood Brothers fandom. I started casting for that show pretty much at the same time I started casting for Fruits Basket. However, before I actually started working on Shadows, I found I had enough cast to work on Fruits Basket, so I started on that instead.
Despite this rather backwards approach, since Shadows was supposed to be my "test" subject, in a manner of speaking, to learn the program, I was more than gungho about doing both. And what had originally been meant as a mere exercise in mixing and learning a program became a full production,when I realized that if I only did part of the story, I would not only be cheating the story and my actors, but the audience as well. I had to stop thinking small and do the whole thing.
From this decision, The Manga Project studio was born, because every good professional, and non-professional, seems to know that if you do more than one production, you need a studio name behind it. Always behind this thought was the idea that we would be for the fans and by the fans. No one would be paid to be in these shows. It was all to be volunteer work, a work of love.
We have had several setbacks. Many rough patches showed up, actors having to drop out for various reasons, having to recast, scripting, and other matters, including finding an original composer for our major show, Fruits Basket. Despite these setbacks, we are still here and going strong.
We are still all learning as we go. Most of our actors are pretty new to the industry, with little or no previous experience. Some come from more experience from other productions, including other fan based projects and professional work in radio, voice over, and movie productions. We are diverse, but we all hold a few things in common, a love for a good story, a love for acting, and a desire to share our talents with the world.
Since our inception, back around March of 2010, which is when I decided to actually start doing something with Fruits Basket, ideas have percolated in my mind. We have already shared presentations of our projects at a small convention, including panels about voice acting, and plan to continue seeking to present at panels, not only about our studio and its productions, but about voice acting and directing in general.
We are always looking for new voices to add to our shows, and for new shows to add under our studio banner. We plan on continuing to grow and become stronger, more experienced, and therefor producing even better shows than we previously have.
We are The Manga Project, and we're here to stay.