Meeting again

Inside the recording studio, Lucas sat at a soundproof booth, chatting animatedly with Danny and Ken. After a while, Ken excused himself, leaving the two of them alone. It was finally time for Lucas to rehearse his lines as Ted.

A flat-screen TV, separated by transparent glass, flickered to life, playing a scene from the film.

Danny, who was seated just beside Lucas, leaned in and whispered, "Watch me voice my character. It'll give you an idea of the voice acting."

Lucas nodded. The scene on the TV shifted to an animated stage where the Lorax stepped into view. As the character's mouth opened, Danny's voice harmonized perfectly, "Hello, everybody. Thanks for coming," he cleared his throat before continuing, "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. And I'd like to say a few words, if you please, regarding the story that you're 'bout to see-- It actually happened--just take it from me. But there's more to this story than what's on the page, so please pay attention while I set the stage."

On the TV, the Lorax tossed a card at the audience and sauntered off stage as the curtains parted, revealing the plastic world of Thneedville. Lucas watched the scene intently, impressed by the visuals even though the audio track was yet to be fully edited. It was his first time voicing an animated character, and the experience was surreal.

Danny continued, "We open in Thneedville, a city, they say, That was plastic and fake, and they liked it that way. A Town Without Nature. Not one living tree. So what happened to them? Cue the music! Let's see --" He then nodded at Lucas, signaling it was his turn.

Lucas took a deep breath, focusing on the screen as he waited for his cues. The camera panned across rows of identical houses, adorned with electric trees instead of street lamps. Moments later, his character, Ted, appeared on-screen, hopping out of his second-floor bedroom window and navigating down a series of stairs before flipping over the railing and landing gracefully on his scooter.

Ted snapped on his goggles, revved his engine, and took off down the street. The camera pulled back to reveal a breathtaking view of the entire neighborhood. In perfect synchronization, the front doors of all the houses opened, and the citizens of Thneedville spilled out onto the streets, singing and skipping merrily. Although the audio was muted, Lucas could almost hear their joyful melody.

Ted hopped off his scooter and retrieved a remote-controlled airplane from his bag. He launched it into the sky, but instead of crashing into someone's backyard as expected, the plane soared gracefully past the obstacle. The homeowner, rather than being upset, smiled warmly at Ted.

Lucas glanced at the script in front of him, trying to infuse his voice with the same underlying excitement and youthful vigor as his character. "Yes," he read aloud, testing out the tone.

On the screen, Ted raced up to the front door of a house and rang the doorbell multiple times. As the door opened, the camera shifted into a slow-motion fantasy sequence, revealing Audrey - a beautiful and cool teenage girl who was much too old for Ted, though he didn't seem to notice. He looked at her adoringly, suddenly self-conscious in her presence.

Lucas couldn't help but chuckle at Ted's infatuation. He read out Audrey's line from the script, "Oh, hi, Ted."

Lucas tried to imitate Ted's cool act yet nervous, "Oh, hey, Audrey. Hi."

Audrey's next line appeared on the script, "Did your ball land in my backyard again?"

Lucas practiced his response, mimicking Ted's slightly nervous yet defensive tone, "What!? No. Model airplane. This time."

Time flew by as Lucas spent the next ten minutes rehearsing his lines. Finally, it was time to review his performance. They replayed the scene, and Lucas listened to his voice through the headset, analyzing his delivery and trying to improve upon it.

As the scene played back, Lucas couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, I think I overdid the voice there a little bit," he admitted to Danny, feeling self-conscious about his performance. Hearing his own voice was already strange enough, but hearing it while trying to sound young and full of vigor was even more surreal.

Danny chuckled, "Actually, you didn't do that bad, Lucas. It was pretty good." He paused for a moment before adding, "Maybe you're just not used to hearing your own voice so clearly, and it's also challenging to act like a teenager."

Lucas chuckled, slightly embarrassed. "You're right. I guess I'm just not used to it yet. But I still think I could do better."

Danny smiled reassuringly, "Well, practice makes perfect. You'll get there with more practice. But in my opinion, you already did well enough to start recording for real."

Lucas shook his head, determined. "No, I want to do my best in this. I don't feel like I've reached my full potential yet."

Danny shrugged, "In my opinion, you did great. Your voice harmonized perfectly with the character's mouth movements. But it's your call."

Lucas didn't want to settle for a mediocre performance. As a rising star, he was well-compensated for his voice acting work, but it was the animators who really deserved the credit. They poured their hearts and souls into bringing these characters to life, only to be underpaid for their efforts. He couldn't let them down.

Voice acting, to Lucas, wasn't just about matching his voice to the character's mouth movements; it was about evoking emotion, about making the audience feel something. He wanted to give it his all, to do justice to the story and the hardworking animators.

Danny left him alone, and Lucas continued rehearsing for another thirty minutes. His performance improved with each take, but he still felt like something was missing.

Later, in his Mind Workshop, Lucas plan to delve deeper. Apart from honing his acting skills, he knew he could also practice his voice acting in his mental space.

Before he could dive into his Mind Workshop, Lucas decided to take a much-needed break. As he stepped out of the recording booth, he noticed a camera in the corner, presumably there to capture behind-the-scenes footage. He made his way to the lounge room the studio had arranged for voice cast members like himself.

To his surprise, the room was already occupied by a few people, including Taylor Swift, who was deep in conversation with the executive, Ken. Taylor's eyes widened in pleasant surprise as she spotted him.

Lucas smiled and approached them, "Hey, I didn't expect to see you here."

Taylor chuckled, "You too."

Ken interjected, "Lucas, Taylor will be voicing a character in the same movie as you. Isn't that a coincidence?"

Lucas couldn't help but grin and said mockingly, "What are the odds? This is going to be fun."

The other voice cast members in the room couldn't help but steal glances at the two rising stars. After all, their recent music video collaboration was on its way to reaching a hundred million views in just a short time.

Ken, who was seated next to Lucas, couldn't help but ask, "So, you two, any chance we'll see a collaboration between the both of you for another music video?"

Taylor smiled coyly, glancing at Lucas. "I don't know. What do you think, Lucas?"

Lucas shrugged with a chuckle, "Why not?"

Just then, a man joined their table, and Ken made introductions, "Everyone, this is Chris Renaud, the director of 'L Lorax'."

"Nice to meet you," Lucas said, shaking Chris's hand.

"The pleasure's mine," Chris replied, looking visibly starstruck. "I'm a bit overwhelmed here. You two are just so popular right now. Mind if we take a picture later?"

Lucas couldn't help but chuckle, and after a while, the voice cast members started mingling with each other. Although they would be recording in separate booths, with only two or three cast members voicing together in the same room, it was still nice to get to know their co-stars.

The lounge buzzed with activity as some of the cast members requested selfies with Lucas and Taylor, who obliged without any fuss.

Finally, it was time to head to their respective booths to start recording.

Lucas and Taylor were paired up in the same booth, as they were both newcomers to voice acting compared to the others, and their characters had many interactions. Recording together would help them both deliver better performances.

As they waited for their turn, they used the time to catch up like old friends. Although they'd only collaborated once and met a few times before, they'd developed a familiarity that felt like they'd known each other for years.

"You already recorded ahead of me, didn't you?" Taylor asked Lucas.

Lucas smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, but it was just a practice run. I don't think it was good enough for the final take."

"Now I'm even more curious to hear it," Taylor teased. "How about we record together?"

"Sure, but give me a moment to rest my voice first," Lucas said, chuckling.

"No problem," Taylor said, standing up and putting on a headset.

The staff then signaled for Taylor to start her rehearsal.

While Lucas appeared to be napping with his eyes closed, he was actually diving deep into his Mind Workshop. Although only three minutes passed in the real world, it felt like hours had gone by inside his mental space.

Feeling refreshed, Lucas opened his eyes and stood up and joined Taylor at the microphone, signaling that he was ready to start recording.

The staff queued up a scene where Lucas and Taylor's characters interacted, and they prepared to record their lines together.