VAMFR 029 | Interview with Erica Mendez, Part 3

Welcome to episode 29 of the Voice Acting Mastery: Field Report podcast!

You can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.vamfieldreport.com/podcast

This episode is the third and final part of Tom Bauer’s interview with his friend and voice over actor, Erica Mendez.

You might recognize Erica from her voice acting work in anime, where she’s played the voice of Gon Freecs in the 2011 anime series adaptation of Hunter X Hunter, Sailor Uranus in the Viz Media English dub of Sailor Moon and Ryuko Matoi in the popular Kill la Kill anime television series. In addition to her many voice acting accomplishments, Erica has also worked as an ADR script writer for the Netflix original anime series, Fate/Apocrypha.

In the previous episode, Tom and Erica talked about some of the challenges Erica faced while pursuing her career as a voice actor, including her struggles with being overly self-critical and how she’s learned to overcome this common stumbling block. She also shared her insights into what it takes to stay competitive in voice over, as well as some of the acting techniques she’s acquired while taking classes and how she implements what she’s learned in the booth.

In this episode, Tom and Erica wrap things up by discussing Pre-lay recording. Voice over for anime is most often recorded one actor at a time, alone in a booth long after the original animation has been completed. However, in American animation, the actors are recorded first and the animators animate the characters to fit those vocal performances. This is called pre-lay since the audio recording is made before the animation is produced. When recording for pre-lay animation, you are often reading with other actors together in the same room. This can be very different from recording all by yourself in an anime dubbing session, so Tom is eager to share Erica’s insights about the process.

The VAM Field Report will be released on the 1st Wednesday of every month so stay on the look out for it!

Download VAM Field Report Episode #29 Here (MP3)

VAMFR 028 | Interview with Erica Mendez, Part 2

Welcome to episode 28 of the Voice Acting Mastery: Field Report podcast!

You can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.vamfieldreport.com/podcast

This episode is the second part of Tom Bauer’s interview with his good friend and rising talent in the voice over industry, Erica Mendez.

Erica is probably most famous for her voice acting work in anime, taking on such roles as Gon Freecs in the 2011 anime series adaptation of Hunter X Hunter, Sailor Uranus in the Viz Media English dub of Sailor Moon and Ryuko Matoi in the popular Kill la Kill anime television series. If that wasn’t enough, Erica has also started work as an ADR script writer for the Netflix original anime series, Fate/Apocrypha.

When we last left off, Erica was discussing how she made the decision to move from her hometown of Chicago to Los Angeles to pursue her creative endeavors. While she initially intended to move to LA to become a professional animator, her previous experiences performing in online audio dramas opened a new world of opportunity for her in the area of voice acting. When she arrived in LA, a series of fortunate circumstances lined up to give her the chance to audition for voice acting jobs.

In this episode, Erica talks about some of the challenges she faced while pursuing her new voice acting career. She shares her insight into what it takes to stay competitive in voice over, as well as some of the acting techniques she’s adopted while taking classes and how she implements what she’s learned in the booth. We start this episode by delving into her process of developing characters for anime.

The VAM Field Report will be released on the 1st Wednesday of every month so stay on the look out for it!

Download VAM Field Report Episode #28 Here (MP3)

VAMFR 027 | Interview with Erica Mendez, Part 1

Welcome to episode 27 of the Voice Acting Mastery: Field Report podcast!

You can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.vamfieldreport.com/podcast

This episode is the first part of Tom Bauer’s interview with his good friend and rising talent in the voice over industry, Erica Mendez.

Erica has made amazing strides in the last few years of her career, namely in the realms of video game and anime voice over. She is probably most famous for her voice acting work as Gon Freecs in the 2011 anime series adaptation of Hunter X Hunter. She’s also voiced characters like Sailor Uranus in the Viz Media English dub of Sailor Moon and Ryuko Matoi in the popular Kill la Kill anime television series. Most recently, Erica has also started work as an ADR script writer for the Netflix original anime series, Fate/Apocrypha.

Tom first met Erica in a voice over class studying under Richard Horvitz back in March of 2013. It’s been a great honor for him getting to know her as a friend and performing alongside her as an actor in a number of anime titles.

In this first episode, we focus on how Erica made the courageous decision to move from her hometown of Chicago to Los Angeles to pursue her creative endeavors. We discuss how her love of cartoons and video games initially inspired her to become a professional animator. While she assumed she would be trying to find work as an animator once she moved to LA, her previous experience performing in online audio dramas meant that she was also open to pursuing voice acting. Once she arrived in Los Angeles, a number of fortunate circumstances lined up to give her the opportunity to audition for voice acting jobs!

The VAM Field Report will be released on the 1st Wednesday of every month so stay on the look out for it!

Download VAM Field Report Episode #27 Here (MP3)