- 15 December, 2008 11:03 AM EST
- Mel Blanc and BPM
I was listening to some old recordings last night - listening to one of the features on disk one of this DVD set. It was a recording of Mel Blanc reading dialogue for a character in the Looney Tunes cartoon series. Being a fan of Mel Blanc and classic cartoons, I was conflicted as I listened to the raw audio - audio that was eventually processed into final form cartoon dialogue that we've all heard.
- The Exciting Part: Mel Blanc was a professional. To hear him rattle through the dialogue was to listen to an expert. I was once in radio - actually considering a career in voiceover - but my talent was nowhere near the true pros. To hear Mel at work was amazing. He was the master, and I got to hear raw audio files where he was toying with the lines, changing inflection, varying his trademark tones, and generally creating famous character traits with his voice alone. After his basic tracks were established, the studios would go to work - speeding up certain lines and, of course, adding the music and sound tweaks. This recording was just pure Mel - he spoke the lines, did some basic sound effects, and gave instructions to the production guys.
- The Depressing Part: There was something depressing about the entire experience. The best cartoons are works of art. Yet, to hear Mel rattling off the lines one by one, doing retakes and alternate voicings, stole a lot of the beauty. He was just recording tracks to tape, but he was also stripping the art down to the bare metal. He had to give directions to the guys who would process the dialogue. He had to offer multiple takes since there were multiple ways to interpret a line (inflection points, etc.) It made the whole cartooning process seem like a production factory and Mel just another worker on the line. Of course, that's exactly what cartooning is... but I didn't need to be reminded. I don't like to think that art is sometimes manufactured; that cartoons and lawnmowers share a common heritage on the production line.
This is the price we must pay for intimate process knowledge. When we look behind the curtain and see how things actually work, it's not always nice. Sure, it's exciting to figure out how business processes actually work - examining the innards and watching the gears and cogs in action. There's nothing more educational and this is the joy of doing BPM. However, the innards and gears are not always pretty. Sometimes, the details mar the beauty. Sometimes, you wish you had never seen inside the black box.
Sometimes, I wish I didn't know how things actually worked. Sometimes, I wish I were ignorant of the details (and sometimes I wish I could be ignorant of the subjunctive voice that forces one to use "were" over "was"). But you can't be in BPM and be ignorant of the innards. "Ignorance is bliss" does not apply to process work. Unfortunately, it no longer applies to Looney Tune cartoons either. Sniff... I guess I'm a romantic at heart. What a curse. A curse of too much knowledge - of seeing behind the art and watching the gears and cogs at play.
