Due to the kind-hearted “driver’s” help, Yan Mu Lin arrived at the auditions on time. He did not expect that the audition would be so extreme. The hotel’s huge performance hall was filled with people. It was almost impossible for him to recognize anyone, let alone his classmates.
The waiting process was slow. At the entrance, he got a queueing number, moved to the back, and brought out a fashion magazine he found in his dorm from his backpack.
When Yan Mu Lin could, he would try to remember this world’s fashion and entertainment industry’s celebrities, so that he had a general idea of who they were when he ran into them.
While the others gathered around the front desk as much as possible, Yan Mu Lin chose a corner to sit in. Other people definitely wanted to choose a good position. They wanted to catch the director’s attention, and impress him, so that they could be remembered, and might even get a good movie.
Compared to TV dramas and movies, an anime focused on voice. It had to be filled with the character’s qualities, or else the people would not remember it. The CVs who wanted to use《Pan Jinlian》’s reputation were numerous like a school of silver carps moving down a stream. Anime did not use actors, only CVs.
Not that far away from Yan Mu Lin were two men beside each other, and were talking about something he did not understand. Yan Mu Lin, who was sitting on the corner, couldn’t see them, but their voices were too loud. He couldn’t continue reading the magazine, so he closed it and listened to their gossip about the voice acting industry.
The so-called gossip was nothing more than which female CV held which director’s thigh, which male celebrity had an affair with another male celebrity, which first-rate female CV was actually a rich businessman’s kept mistress for many years, and even gave birth to several children for the businessman, but never married into the family and so on.
Listening to them gossip, Yan Mu Lin felt that compared to reading gossip magazine, and watching programs, this was more pleasant to listen to. It was amusing, and could pass the time. The air-conditioning inside the room was a bit high, so Yan Mu Lin’s drenched shirt was already blown dry. While listening to gossip, the time flew so fast that the people in the front row already left, and only half of them were left. However, as they enter the audition room, the rate in which the CVs were leaving was getting faster. Yan Mu Lin started to sense an unfriendly atmosphere.
Counting the number of people in front of him, Yan Mu Lin checked his number and went to the bathroom. When he came back, he heard the staff calling numbers and giving each of them a piece of paper. What was written on it was only known by the person.
Yan Mu Lin was in the bathroom when a conversation took place between the people inside the control room.
The director handed a stack of paper to the assistant director and said, “Give these papers to the people outside. I haven’t heard what I wanted to hear.”
The assistant director felt very helpless, but still took the papers and said: “There’s still more than half left, we could surely find someone.” ”
The director tapped his pen on the list, and waved his hand: “Distribute the papers first. ”
The assistant director was on his way out when the director said, “The green one is for men, while the blue one is for the women!”
The director didn’t know if the assistant director heard him properly, but they have been working together for many years, so he should be able to understand what he was thinking.
As a result, when Yan Mu Lin saw the contents of the blue paper on his hand, his face’s expression changed a bit, but she did not think much about it. He just thought that the director was very good at finding a capable CV.
Those who auditioned previously, and those who were auditioning now, had different scripts. This was done to avoid a CV from passing through running water. All the scripts were completely different.
When Yan Mu Lin went to the bathroom just now, he heard a CV who recently finished his audition talking to his broker. He mentioned the contents of the audition, how the director immediately told them to leave, and that there were many famous CVs that were extremely uncomfortable with this treatment. There would surely be some complaints, but the rules were set by other people. Unless you were a superstar, people would not come and directly hire you.
After the two loud voice actors went in, it turned really silent. He looked around and saw a comparatively small and delicate man come out with a dark face. He sat back down, not saying a word.
His friend asked him, “How was it? Did you get rejected?”
The delicate man suddenly said, “That was fucking bullshit. It wasn’t even an audition at all, I only read a sentence and he told me to stop!”
His friend continued to ask, “Why?”
The man said, “I don’t think the director was listening at all!”
His friend motioned for him to whisper, “Why are you speaking so loudly? If it was heard by the staff, and they told Director Chen then your future path will definitely be rough. I heard Director Chen is a narrow-minded man!”
The delicate man looked around and saw Yan Mu Lin who was behind them, and said to him, “Brother, did you hear anything?”
Yan Mu Lin looked up innocently and smiled, “I’m sorry, you spoke too loudly, so I accidentally heard it.”
The delicate man was called Ah D by his close friend, Ah Sang. Ah D asked Ah Sang, “Who was that man, have you seen him before?”
Ah Sang shook his head, “He’s probably new. I don’t know him either. It’s almost my turn, I’ll go prepare.”
The person from before looked familiar, as if I’ve seen him before. If he was a newcomer that passed the preliminary audition, then《Pan Jinlian》’s standards would be too low. Even if he really was, then that newcomer would probably fail this audition.
The newcomer Yan Mu Lin, who “cannot pass”, was at this moment, a little confused while looking at the blue paper. He looked at the requirements written on the paper, and proceeded to get into character. In the past, he already worked as a female voice. Adjusting his voice, Yan Mu Lin’s entire person turned into another, he was fully immersed into the role he wanted to perform.
Director Chen, who was mentioned by the people outside just now, was sitting in a chair sleepily. This whole afternoon, he couldn’t find that one voice he wanted.
To the side was the assistant director who made an all-out effort to aid Director Chen to find the voice he was looking for. If they can’t find it, then they could only follow their original plan and spend a huge amount of money for a first-rate female CV. But for now, they continued listening.
The assistant director closed his eyes and signaled to the staff outside that the next voice actor could begin. Director Chen, the assistant director, and the personnel inside the control room didn’t look at the person outside. What they needed was a voice, not the person’s looks. If they saw the person, it could affect their judgement, so they could only ignore the appearance of the CV. The star’s face was the brokerage’s problem, not their animation company’s problem.
Who was Pan Jinlian?
She was well-known due to 《Water Margin》. She was the wife of Wu Dalang, the fifth concubine of Ximen Qing, she even tried to seduce her brother-in-law. She was a coquettish woman. In《Water Margin》, she was only a passerby, a supporting actress. However, the book《The Golden Lotus》pushed Pan Jinlian’s femme fatale image to the extreme.
In fact, according to the historical records, Pan Jinlian was the beloved daughter of a government official, and Wu Dalang was a 1.78m tall graduate of the civil service examination. A loving husband and wife with four children. In 《The Golden Lotus》, Pan Jinlian was born poor and was sold by traders. She was beautiful, loose, loved to sow discord, had an insatiable appetite, vicious and merciless. That was her image in the eyes of the public.
There were two paragraphs written on the blue paper. The first paragraph was when Pan Jinlian was seducing her brother-in-law, Wu Song, with words of love. This was obviously set in 《Water Margin》. The other paragraph showed a graceful and subdued woman towards her husband. The words were full of tender feelings between husband and wife.
At first glance, the two paragraphs seemed to have the same tone, but if you look closely, that was not the case. Yan Mu Lin hesitated in his mind. If he had not studied Pan Jinlian’s role, and did not know about history, he certainly wouldn’t know that Pan Jinlian and the real Pan Jinlian were actually two completely different figures.
Although he did not know whether that was what the director wanted to express in his mind, Yan Mu Lin still decided to use two different interpretations for the paragraphs. Different images naturally used different timbre and emotions.
Under the staff’s signal, Yan Mu Lin began his interpretation of the first paragraph. A part of Pan Jinlian’s phrase in the novel.
Yan Mu Lin first raised his pitch, to produce a female’s speaking voice. With a twisted feeling, one that rejects but also welcome desire, “Ximen Qing, if you keep being rude like this, I will yell for help. Let go of me. You filthy scum, I will slap you in the face!” The tone then changed and turned into a coquettish protest. It was full of pampered charm, and brimming with lust. It was as if the woman reached the peak of eroticism. Slightly gasping for breath, he cried out: “Official~ Do you really want to hook up with this slave? Are you not afraid that my family’s Dalang will find out? Official, I really need you, this servant’s at the end of her wits~” There was no need to say anything about the latter words. Any men that is into women would know that if one died under a peony flower, he’d be romantic even as a ghost.
At this time, the people who were sitting in the control room were stunned. This person was the first to express what they considered to be the “coquettish behavior of Pan Jinlian” so thoroughly. So intoxicating, charming, and flirtatious.
How will the next paragraph be expressed? Would it still charm and invigorate people? Did they see the different image expressed in the second paragraph?
Not just the assistant director on the side, even Director Chen, who was so drowsy, got very shocked. Some of the younger staff member’s faces reddened, and found themselves moving to the dark in embarrassment. The CV’s voice was so fucking powerful.
The following was the ordinary husband and wife’s daily conversation, a warmth that differed from the former. This was a completely different role.
At this moment, Yan Mu Lin, who did not know that he succeeded in attracting everyone’s attention, continued delivering the lines.
The gentle voice of a shy little wife sounded out, “Official, this slave added some sandalwood in the incense, hopefully you can sleep peacefully tonight. Does the ointment given by brother-in-law still need to be used tonight? Official, don’t, don’t do this…”
Through voices, you could let your imagination roam. A gentle wife gave her husband some sandalwood, while her husband mutter words in her ear. It then proceeded with her placing a zhuangyang plaster which led to having some cloud and rain.
The same lines showed different responses from the audience. Why was that? Yan Mu Lin knew how to pause at the perfect points. He knew which words he had to stress on, so that the audience could remember the voice and emotion he wanted to express. One of the most typical example was his previous world’s central news broadcasters. When they had to report major news one after another, they read it very quickly. If there was no pause while they were reading, no one would remember its contents. Who was that person in the news, where did they meet, what where the important points, was it good or bad news?
After Yan Mu Lin finished his audition, there was a bang. Someone’s chair fell on the ground.
Yan Mu Lin saw several people coming out of the door on the right side of the audition room.
When everyone saw him, they all looked like they’ve eaten a fly. Their faces were extremely unreadable.
Everyone’s hearts were running like thousands of grass mud horses!
Sometimes coquettish, sometimes gentle, sometimes charming. This fascinating voice that would let your imagination roam, how could it be a man! How could it be a man! How could it be a man!