Chapter 292 - 289: Voice Acting Audition

Chapter 292: Chapter 289: Voice Acting Audition

After Jiang Xia gave his specific instructions, Meng Xiulian acted quickly. In just two days, she received nearly twenty audition requests from voice actors.

It couldn’t be helped. After all, Cat and Mouse was a massive hit all over the country, and Qitian Animation’s reputation was soaring. And this was even after they had restricted the application requirements; otherwise, the number of applicants might have more than doubled.

In other words, almost all the applicants were Si Chuan locals.

After receiving Meng Xiulian’s message, Jiang Xia brought Lin Yanwan to the company.

Eighteen people were sitting in the conference room, most of them young students. After all, this round of voice actor recruitment didn’t require a high level of professional experience. Instead, the focus was on an individual’s vocal quality and timbre—the more unique, the better.

Jiang Xia walked onto the stage and got straight to the point. "I’m sure you’ve all seen Cat and Mouse. The reason this voice actor recruitment is targeting the Sichuan-Chongqing Region is because we plan to make a dialect version. So, for the upcoming voice-over portion, please use only your hometown dialect. There are no specific lines; you’ll need to improvise on the spot based on the scene and the character’s mood. Don’t hold back. Speak freely, say whatever comes to mind."

The group looked at each other in confusion. It was the first time any of them had encountered such a voice-acting requirement.

"Alright, let’s begin the auditions for Tom and Jerry. In the dialect version, they’ll have brand new names: Fake Experienced and Fengcheche."

Jiang Xia said this in the Yu Du dialect, and many people smiled knowingly, feeling a strange sense of familiarity.

He nodded to Meng Xiulian, then walked into the recording booth with his wife and gestured for the others to begin.

The projector in the recording booth was playing "The Amorous Adventures of Fake Experienced," which was one of the few episodes Jiang Xia remembered well enough to recite all the lines from memory.

However, after auditioning several people in a row, Jiang Xia just shook his head. Leaving aside their lines, their voices just didn’t have the right ’flavor.’ On top of that, they were too reserved to really let loose with the dialect voice-over.

Frustrated, Jiang Xia went up and performed a live demonstration for the voice actors himself.

The story began with a villa enclosed by a courtyard wall, a doghouse in the corner. As the camera slowly zoomed in, Jiang Xia’s Yu Du accent rang out.

"My beloved, my darlin’, my couldn’t-love-you-more, my love-of-a-lifetime Chunchun, I’ve come to see ya, you silly thing!"

As he finished the line, Fake Experienced’s head poked out from behind the courtyard wall, perfectly illustrating the character’s actions at that moment.

Meng Xiulian was stunned. Not only was her boss great at animation, but his voice acting was incredible too. Both his delivery and expression perfectly matched the character of Fake Experienced.

The scene then shifted inside the villa, where the silhouette of a female cat putting on makeup was visible on the curtains.

"Wow, Chunchun’s still doing her makeup. So relaxed! Time to be real quiet... let’s get the cello in first, then we’ll figure out the rest."

His comical tone drew soft laughter from the room.

And so, Fake Experienced stealthily climbed over the wall and onto the doghouse, where the bulldog, Mendun’Er, was sleeping.

"’Well, well, Brother Mang’s in his pit again.’ Fake Experienced stuck his butt in the air to look down at Mendun’Er, then suddenly woke him with a sharp whistle."

"Who is it!"

"Me, me, me! C’mon out!"

Jiang Xia performed both roles by himself, leaving everyone else dumbfounded.

After finishing that scene, however, Jiang Xia had no intention of continuing. He was only giving a demonstration to show the voice actors roughly what they should be doing.

"See? Just like that. Use your words to describe every scene as much as possible. My standards aren’t high—just bring out the unique flavor of your dialect. As for the specific lines, if you get selected, we can work on polishing them later."

The voice actors nodded. After Jiang Xia’s demonstration, the candidates who went up to try voice acting improvised one after another in their various hometown dialects. The recording booth often erupted with uproarious laughter. Only Meng Xiulian was completely lost. She was a native of the Imperial Capital, and some of the dialects sounded like singing to her; she couldn’t understand a single word.

It was now clear that the task Jiang Xia had given her was far too daunting.

However, after listening to so many different accents, Jiang Xia was still not satisfied with any of the candidates for Fake Experienced. On the other hand, Lin Yanwan had already picked a girl from Rongcheng for Fengcheche, whose voice was very similar to the original.

Until he heard someone say, "Hey! Brother Mang, be a little more gentle, would ya? Oof, I finally got away."

Jiang Xia’s eyes lit up. He looked at the young voice actor and asked, "Where are you from?"

"Zhongjiang."

"You’re the one." He decided on the spot.

The accent wasn’t just similar to Fake Experienced’s; it was a perfect match.

After that, a chubby kid from Zigong was chosen for Mendun’Er. As for the other characters—Heiwa, Cheche Feng, and Eldest Cousin—the casting was more casual. They didn’t have much screen time, but to avoid overlapping accents, different people still had to be chosen.

In a single morning, Jiang Xia had more or less settled the voice cast for the dialect version.

As for the script, he would have them write it themselves. The rule was simple: the funnier, the better. This might make it very different from the original, well-known dialect version, but as long as it used the most characteristic local slang and the most down-to-earth lines, it would bring joy to the local audience.

In short, the matter of the Si Chuan dialect version was settled for now. He could now focus on drawing Slam Dunk with peace of mind. He believed it wouldn’t be long before a brand-new version of Cat and Mouse appeared on TV.

He felt a strange sense of anticipation.

After leaving the recording booth, Jiang Xia went with Li Weiya to check on the renovations next door.

It was an office of about two hundred square meters, and the renovations were nearly complete.

The main reason for the expansion was that their current office was already nearly full. To produce Slam Dunk, he needed to expand the team and create a new project group. That meant hiring more people, which in turn meant the original office would be too small.

"Godmother," Jiang Xia said, "I plan to officially launch the Slam Dunk project. I need you to help me recruit another wave of people. As for the number, it should be about five times the size of the Cat and Mouse team."

"Are you sure?" Li Weiya frowned slightly.

’The company currently has 38 employees. Even excluding the unrelated administrative, finance, and maintenance positions, that’s still 32 people. Five times that is over 160 people.’

Jiang Xia nodded. "Slam Dunk has a much larger workload than Cat and Mouse, and the production cycle is also much longer. We can produce a whole season of Cat and Mouse in two months, but for Slam Dunk, finishing one episode a month would be considered very fast."

As an industry veteran, Li Weiya naturally understood this. Most slightly larger animation projects involved several hundred people, and their production cycles were measured in years.

Compared to that, this number of people was nothing.

"Alright. I’ll post the job listings right away."