Learn Voice-Over for Animation
FROM
Animation Producer, Voice Director, Casting Director
Ned Lott
About Ned
Notable Works
FEATURES
- Howl’s Moving Castle*
- The Chronicles of Narnia
- Ernest & Celestine*
- The Lion King
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Adventures in Zambezia
- Monkey King: Hero is Back
- Khumba
INTERACTIVE
- Kingdom Hearts
- The Lego Movie Video Game
- The Incredibles
- The Marvel Experience
- Monsters Inc.
- Lord of the Rings
TELEVISION
- Motown Magic
*denotes Academy Award Feature Animation Nominee
Ned Lott has a wide range of producing, voice directing and casting experience for animation. He was a Producer, Voice Director, and Casting Director with the Walt Disney Studios on seven Studio Ghibli titles, including Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar™ nominated theatrical release “Howl’s Moving Castle” starring Christian Bale. Other notable accomplishments include casting Liam Neeson as the voice of “Aslan” for “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Ned also co-Produced and cast the English version of the Oscar™ nominated Animated Feature “Ernest & Celestine” starring Forest Whitaker and Paul Giamatti. Ned spent years at Disney Character Voices, voice-directing and casting projects for “Cars”, “Monsters Inc.”, “The Incredibles”, “Kingdom Hearts" “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and many other Disney/Pixar projects. Musically, he cast the Simba and Zazu singers for the re-release of “The Lion King” for the added song The Morning Report.
He directed vocal sessions with Jodi Benson as Ariel for “Little Mermaid” projects and has cast and voice directed current and former Broadway actors including Ben Vereen, Kristen Bell, Reeve Carney, and Lea Salonga for animation roles. Ned has also voice-directed Warner Bros “Lord of the Rings” projects and “The Lego Movie Video Game” with Morgan Freeman, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Ferrell. For television animated series work, Ned voice-directed multiple episodes for a musical series for Netflix called “Motown Magic”. On the International front, he voice-directed and cast animated features out of South Africa, Spain, Russia, France and China including dubbing the highest grossing Animated Feature ever created in China, "Monkey King: Hero is Back" starring Jackie Chan. He is currently Voice-Directing and Casting two Animated Feature films, one out of Peru called “Ainbo” and one out of South Africa called “Seal Team”.
"Any workshop or class done with Lott Productions should be considered a learning experience only and not an audition or guarantee of employment."
Ned Lott Voice Producing/Directing/Casting Reel
CLASSES
1. VO INTENSIVES
VIA ZOOM OR FUTURE IN-PERSON STUDIO
CHARACTER CASTING STUDIO INTENSIVE PART I
This is a full day course for students wanting to go the next step in learning audition techniques on microphone. The class is an overview of how to act as a voice-over artist for Interactive projects, television animation and animated feature films. We will cover what Hollywood casting directors look for in voice auditions, how to best create characters, how to have strong acting skills when reading scripts, best microphone techniques, and how to create a character from only a picture.
CHARACTER CASTING STUDIO INTENSIVE PART II
This part two intensive takes off where the first class left off. This class focuses using IMPROV skills in your performances, voicing multiple characters for the same project with age variance, variety and contrast, and "Directing Yourself" techniques where you prepare and record a script ahead of time, then as a class we listen, I give you feedback and then we record you again. In the afternoon, pending the studio availability, we do Loop Group exercises to picture and record scenes using ADR techniques with actual beeps.
SINGING IN CHARACTER INTENSIVE
The SINGING IN CHARACTER class is a Voice-Over Intensive emphasizing characters that sing. For years, I've had students that wanted a class featuring how to sing in character, so it's going to be dealing with this subject. Not only will we sing as the character but we'll do some dialogue as that same character, and ADR to some songs as well. It will be a singing exercise of you as the character, so you don't have to match the voice perfectly. It will be like you are doing your own version of the characters. I'm having everyone in the class pick and prepare one song from an Animated or live-action movie where the character sings a song. We'll be working on dialogue for the character as well as the song itself. I'll have you sing the whole song first, but for detailed feedback and fine-tuned direction, we'll focus on only a portion of the song. Like an "Audition cut". Note, it can as wacky and character-y as you would like, or a serious ballad song.
ANIME STUDIO INTENSIVE
This intensive focuses on auditioning, acting and dubbing for Anime. Japanese Anime is more popular than ever, and the opportunity for voice actors is continually growing. You will experience the skills to know how to audition for Anime characters, act naturally and dub to actual Anime clips in a "non-dubby" way. Exercises will include video game and feature film dubbing examples for Anime.
SOUND-A-LIKE STUDIO INTENSIVE
Opportunities to be cast as a sound-a-like are becoming frequent as more and more celebrities are voicing animated roles. This intensive focuses on the skill of sounding like someone else's voice and character, and teaches all the tricks to get as close as possible to the ultimate goal of a perfect sound-a-like. Prior to the class, you will be asked to prepare and bring to class a short recording of you doing your strongest celebrity or character voice impersonation, along with a good quality recording of the actual celebrity/character that you are attempting to sound-like. I will have additional characters that I have prepared for you to match as well for the rest of our time in the class.
2. VO PRIVATE LESSONS
VIA ZOOM OR SKYPE ONLINE
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ONE HOUR PRIVATES
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AUDITION PRIVATES PER MINUTE