From Egg to Frog: The Making of “Animals Do WHAT?!?” Part Two
Written by FableVision’s Creative Director, Leigh Hallisey, and Vice President of audiyo-yo, Anne Richards
Creative Director Leigh Hallisey continues the story of how "Animals Do WHAT?!?" came to life. If you missed Part 1, check it out here!
Step Three: The Froglet, aka, Scripting, Casting, and Recording
First page of the script for Episode Two: Annoying Animal Roommates
Writing ten 18-20 minute episodes of “Animals Do WHAT?!?” would mean generating about 200 pages of scripts, so I was going to need a second writer, one who shared a similar style, sense of humor, and approach to making educational and entertaining content for young audiences. As with any series, the episodes needed to blend seamlessly into a single voice, which could have been tricky given the show’s unique format and medium. We were lucky enough to tap writer, producer, and editor Matt Fornwald on the shoulder, who immediately understood the silly/smart tightrope we were walking.
To say Matt and I vibed would be an understatement. We thrived on creating the most absurd situations for Chuck – an eating contest between Chuck and a python, Chuck infiltrating a naked mole rat colony by dressing up in a naked mole rat costume, Chuck sharing an apartment with a Tasmanian Devil – to provoke hilarious reactions from Sierra and Jedda and create unforgettable auditory landscapes. We pushed the boundaries to figure out what was acceptable in terms of grossness: for example, Chuck picking up wombat poop was okay, but eating it wasn’t.
For Dr. Arlo Firkins, our very Type-A, serious scientist who would rather be alone in a lab researching than on a show, we took every opportunity to make him slowly lose his cool until he exploded, like constant interruptions from a school field trip, being trapped in a submarine with a bee, and recording a segment from a mall food court.
At each step of the way in scripting, our partners at Audible weighed in with helpful feedback, encouraging us to lean into the most intriguing animal facts, weighing in on what kids would find most delightful and crazy, and helping us brainstorm what would help our audience follow along in audio.
Once our scripts were finalized, it was time to cast these amazing characters who had been living in all of our heads for months and bring them to life. I’ve been at FableVision for almost two decades, and this part of the production process never fails to be magical.
Executive Producer and audiyo-yo Vice President Anne Richards is tagging in for the next part of our “Animals Do WHAT?!?” journey.
Casting and Recording
Picking up from Leigh! (An intimidating task as she actually gets paid to write funny stuff all day every day, but I’ll be as entertaining as I can…).
With our scripts ready for production, it was time to find talented voice actors to bring our characters to life. Casting is always critical to the success of any production, but in podcasts, the voice talent really is everything. Our actors are our ambassadors, bringing our ideas to life and right to kids’ ears. They are our listeners’ trusted companions and, at the same time, over-the-top entertainers who can paint the picture of a scene without any visuals to lean on. For “Animals Do WHAT?!?,” the actors also had to walk a tightrope between delivering animal facts in a comprehensible way and playing fast-paced comedic scenes where they were literally running away from crocodiles (among other things). So casting was a tall order!
The good news is that the incredible pool of talented voice actors working today never ceases to amaze me. The other good news is we got to work with an awesome Casting Director, Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick, who seems to know every working voice actor on both coasts and many in between! We briefed Danielle on the creative and the contract terms – it’s really important that auditioning actors know what they’re signing up for – pulled together character descriptions and audition sides, and got down to finding our stars.
At audiyo-yo, we are committed to authenticity in casting, which means we prioritize hiring performers whose real-life identities, cultural backgrounds, or experiences align with the characters they are going to play. Even though the audience only hears the actor's voices, that authenticity always comes through in the final product. But with a high-concept project like “Animals Do WHAT?!?,” our characters didn’t have defined backstories to cast towards. We knew we wanted a diverse cast, but we were able to be totally open to what that diversity could look like (with one exception – Jedda was Australian, so we knew we were looking for an Aussie actor for that role).
We asked Danielle to gather auditions from a wide range of actors and comedians who could have fun with these parts. And man did we hit the jackpot! After an amazing set of auditions, we consulted with our partners at Audible and cast four insanely talented actors for our main roles – Brent Mukai as Chuck, Zehra Fazal as Sierra, Nerida Bronwen as Jedda, and Isaac Robinson-Smith as Arlo. We would also need a group of utility actors who could cover multiple secondary roles – for instance, playing Chuck’s aunt in one episode, a talking fire alarm in another, and a commercial narrator in a third. We rounded out the rest of our cast with the incredibly agile group of Gian Raffaele DiCostanzo, Risa Mei, Elena Rey, and Marc Thompson.
The best experience in casting is when the actors bring both exactly what you had in your head when reading the scripts and also something new and surprising – and that was exactly what we got with our incredible “Animals Do WHAT?!?” cast.
With our voice crew assembled, it was finally time to record! Working with the deeply experienced and patient engineer Matt Longoria – who also did our sound design and post-production (and yes, this is a different Matt than our writer Matt Fornwald!) – we set up remote records with all of the actors. As we logged into Zoom for each session, scripts and call sheets in hand, we had to repeatedly fight giggles while marking the best takes for each line as Leigh directed the actors. Thank goodness most of us were on mute!
It‘s always energizing to get to see the amount of talent and effort the actors pour into every take, and this production was no exception – whether it was Brent running in place as he vocalized Chuck’s escape from his bull nemesis Dr. Toro, Isaac’s devilish expression as he played out Arlo’s revenge on his bully of a brother, or Zehra’s ironic smile as she responded to yet another absurd bit of wrongheadedness from Chuck, the actors’ expressiveness came through their voices into every take! We knew we had something special on our hands. Now it was time to put the final pieces together.
Step Four: The Frog, aka, Post-Production and Delivery
Farting manatees “Animals Do WHAT?!?” marketing video created for FableVision’s social media accounts
Post-production is probably the least glamorous portion of the podcast process, but it’s also truly where the magic happens. All of those great takes from the actors need to be placed in the right order, layered with sound effects – in our case, approximately ten thousand animal snorts, grunts, sniffs, and paw-steps – and cut together with underscore and transitions to create a full auditory experience. We were so lucky to have Matt Longoria on the “Animals Do WHAT?!?” crew to pull everything together into a complete, seamless, and truly silly final product. Both Leigh and I have collaborated with Matt many times over our years in kids media, and we knew he would bring the perfect combination of thoughtful logic – e.g., “How does Sierra sound when she’s talking to Chuck when he’s on location in a different environment?” – and kid-friendly fun – e.g., “What if I amp up the farts on those manatees?”
Matt dug into editing and started to sort out the many considerations in making the ideas on the page come to life for listeners. There were a LOT of environments and circumstances to consider. Given the show’s magazine format, we had segments “in the studio” with Sierra playing host and sharing key animal facts, “on location” with Chuck and Jedda getting up close and personal with everything from naked mole rats in Kenya to cockroaches in a Brooklyn escape room, “Such Serious Science” segments with Arlo popping up in locations from mall food courts to a submarine exploring the Mariana trench, game shows with a live studio audience, and ad-breaks promoting everything from swans who chase off intruders to tardigrade-themed water bottles, just for starters. Each one of these segments and locations had to have a distinct audio identity to help listeners orient themselves, sound effects to bring the animals and physical comedy to life, and musical underscore to communicate the vibe of each scene, be it Chuck’s emotional love for an adorable baby elephant or the absurdity of him being chased by a crocodile. Matt kept all of those creative plates spinning beautifully, weaving all of the elements together into a seamless, start-to-finish experience that feels like a real nature show. Well, a very unhinged one.
As Matt started the process of assembling buy takes into an audio timeline and drafting in initial sound effects, there was one last piece we needed to make “Animals Do WHAT?!?” feel like a real (if ridiculous) magazine-style show – a theme song! We called up our friends and frequent collaborators The Wilders to help us out. The Wilders are a collective of musicians, composers, and audio post experts who truly get the assignment each and every time. In this case, this was the assignment: “This theme should be the antithesis of every nature documentary in existence. It’s not gentle, soothing, or filled with rainforest sounds. It’s like a TMZ/Monster Truck Rally commercial mashup, heavy guitar riffs, and lots of reverb. Appealing and funny for kids.” The Wilders delivered, as always, with a hilarious and chaotic theme that captured the show’s absurdity and rocked so hard in a ridiculous way while still remaining kid-friendly.
With the theme song finalized and dropped in, Matt sent around drafts of the fully assembled episodes for review. We shared them with the team at Audible and noted each episode for edits, creative suggestions, or simple “LOL!”s until each episode was just as we wanted it. Matt output the final files, we uploaded them to Audible’s system, and it was time to launch! “Animals Do WHAT?!?” was ready for its close-up.
Final Thoughts, aka, Hopping Off Into the Sunset
Working on an original project with brand new characters and stories, from concept all the way through production, is a rarity in the current media landscape. We were so fortunate to have an awesome client in Audible, whose original inspiration, excitement, and thoughtful notes – not to mention deep experience making audio-forward stories – propelled us along every step of the way. As this blog has shown, it really takes a village to make a children’s podcast, and we are so lucky in the group of individuals who contributed to “Animals Do WHAT?!?” If a group of lions is a “Pride” and a group of owls is a “Parliament,” we might need a name for the amazing and talented group that brought this show together. How about “a Federation of FableVisionaries”?
