IGPX - Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco Pt. 2

Earlier this week, we posted the first part of this interview. We're finishing it up now, but stick around for an interview with the director of the upcoming series on Sunday!


Do you think they'll change the country of origin of the main team? Instead of Team USA, make it Team Japan, Team Germany?

SA: Umm... . maybe. I doubt it though. The team right now, is...

JD: Well, Takeshi is Japanese-American. Amy is American. And Liz is, right now anyway, Brazilian. I don't know how that'll end up playing out. So, our core team is somewhat of an international team already. I'm sure Cartoon Network Latin America isn't going to have a problem with Liz being Latino, so I don't know that that'll happen too much. There aren't any flags from countries or anything like that. I mean, they could just say someone is from wherever they want, but I don't know that they'll need to.

SA: I mean, we have that stuff in the introduction of the different teams, but after that, you don't really hear it. It's not like, you know, “The Italian Stallions!”

JD: There should be.

SA: Yes, there should be. Maybe in the third season. [laughs] But yeah, not a whole lot of flag-waving and that kind of stuff, so we wouldn't expect much changing. There's not the opportunity to put in different languages to show that teams have to be from here or there. It's supposed to be an international kind of deal, so hopefully they'll do the same thing and have different dialects to represent that the characters are from all over.

A question then, for some of the more hardcore anime fans out there. Are you going to be releasing the Japanese dub at the same time?

SA: I believe. That's more of a DVD question for us. That's what we're planning on doing though, is having both the Japanese mix and the dub on the same DVD. So yeah, I think so.

JD: But one's going to be better. We're just going to leave that for you to decide.

Can you tell us a little bit about the whole voice acting thing? Like, what it was like working with all these big name people? This is really something that's completely different for an animated series.

JD: It's different for them, too. Haley (Joel Osmont)'s a good example. He was very eager to do the project and he had never done anything like this. He had done two video games, which is totally different, because you go in a room and go “blah blah blah” and they're like, “Great, bye!” Here, he's gotta match and for people who haven't done it, it's a skill. At the same time, Haley is a classically trained actor who brings a different skill that a lot of anime actors don't have. It's not that they're not good, but he'll bring a realism, and that's kind of why we wanted him there. He's used to having to have a camera on his face and deliver a line and have it mean what it's supposed to mean and clearly be conveyed. So, from my point of view, it was really interesting trying to get Haley to stick to lip flap, but still do what we wanted him to do right. A lot of it involved us writing on the fly and making sure that things worked. When you're writing a script, lip flap doesn't always work. Then you get in there and you're like, “Oh geez, we need like, ten more words.” You know, and it was sort of just an eye-opening all around for me.

SA: It was the same for me. Before you do it, it's very intimidating, but then they get in there and you're like, “Oh, these guys are good. Okay, this is cool.” For the guys that were new to ADR, which is the type of recording that we do, it's kind of fun to work with them and get them into the character because it really is a skill. It's harder than you would imagine. And then for some the guys, like, it's amazing. Mark Hamill's a total pro and when he comes in, it's like, it goes down and Woah! You meet him and you're like, “Oh wow, it's Mark,” and he gets in there and just transforms. It really is crazy. He becomes this new person and his voice comes out and it's like, “Woaaah. Yeah, this is what it's like when dudes are good at it. This is what it feels like!” You know, we just turn the mic on and tell him to go, and he's awesome. Lance (Henrikson) is kind of the same way. He's used to doing it and he's a real natural. They'll give you a natural read, which is what we're going for. We want the characters to be real. The show's going to be a lot of racing, but there's going to be a lot of character-based drama too, so you've got to be able to connect with the characters and what they're saying has to feel real. You can't just have it feel like two guys having a fake argument. They really have to sell it. Hopefully that's what they bring and hopefully that makes a difference.

With the music for the show, you said that NINJA TUNE is doing the music. Is that stuff they've already done, or new stuff?

JD: It's pre-existing. Basically, we have access to their whole library. Like, everything they've ever done, or almost everything. We just kind of choose what we think will work for a certain scene, so yeah, it's like Amon Tobin and Herbaliser and all the guys we love. We just go, “Hey, this sound'll work great here,” and that's kind of how it's been. Or, I should say, Hongo does, because we sent the stuff to his guys and they sift through it and pick the tracks. Then, when it comes back over, we generally agree on what they've chosen. Sometimes we disagree and that's just when we go, “Well, this is clearly better here,” but I think that's just more of a difference between our cultures. What seems to us to be incredibly heavy with certain music to them is like, “Oh well, this is no big deal” and to us, we'll put a scene in there and they'll be like, “Why does there need to be a giant beat in there?”

SA: There always has to be a giant beat in there!

JD: So, those kinds of differences make it not always easy, but I think they like the music in general, because we love it.

Was the opening picked out of that catalogue too, or was that an original one?

JD: Well, we're still talking about that right now. We're talking to them about having a particular artist that I don't want to mention right now do the opening theme. Whatever happens, whether it's NINJA TUNE or not, there will be an original IGPX theme that will be generated for the show. We're hoping that's NINJA TUNE, but we're not sure. It was kind of a victory to get them to agree to use the music for the show because they're an independent label. They're very paranoid about large corporations, but we've had a very good relationship with them for the music in Toonami for years.

SA: And that's a big win, too, because when the show comes out, it feels like Toonami, you know? It doesn't feel like this other show and we're putting stuff around it. It feels very similar to the brand itself, so hopefully if you like Toonami and you're into the promos and trailers and stuff we make, this should be an evolution of that kind of a process. That was kind of a key.

If IG went through and okayed all the music, why bother using a different soundtrack for the Japanese version?

JD: Just because those differences will occur where we gave them some additional music and additional NINJA TUNE music. There's sort of a library of tracks where there's like, classical and militaristic dun dun dundundundun dun for action sequences and they might use those in a scene where we'd be like, “Well, there's an awesome Amon Tobin track that'll work there better,” you know? But that's just about the difference between us. They're not fans of the music. We just said, “Here's a bunch of CDs. That's the music you gotta work with later.” They're like, “Uhhhh, okay,” and they're like sifting through these CDs and trying to find something that works. For us, we've been hearing that music for years, so we're like “Oh, right here, track five of the record, it works great.” They don't have the time or the wherewithal to know the music that well, and we've known it for years. That's the reason you sometimes get different tracks. Plus, when you're a director of a show, I'm sure you hear a track that you like, and you're like, “Well, I like this track. We're sticking with this track!” you know? That's fine.

SA: That's how it goes.

As far as the content of the show goes, is it the same racetrack every time or can they race on different tracks?

SA: Oh, is the racetrack the same? It's modular. You can move different sections of the track so you can make the track feel different, but it's set in IGPX City. This city has grown around this single track and it's broadcast there, so they're always kind of on the same track, but we have this All-Star game where the track is kind of rearranged a bit. They don't go to different places, but you might see slightly different tracks. We also don't ever follow the team through every single track ever, you know. It's shots.

I just want to see if you're going to have a loop in there.

SA: Yeah. We've got the spiral, but we don't have the straight loops. We've got the big roller coaster thing and we've got the corkscrew, but I'm sure the loop is on its way.

JD: They just kind of built what they want, and go “Eh!” and change the track and now there's a loop.

Is there anything you guys want to say about the show?

JD: Watch it.

SA: Watch it.

Unison: Please, please watch it.

JD: We want more co-productions.

SA: Yeah, if this thing fails, we both get our heads cut off.

Out of curiosity, I don't know if you guys can tell us this or not, how much money exchanged hands to make this?

SA: Ah, can't tell you that.

First episode?

SA: Mm... eh... . No, can't talk about budget. [laughs] or they'll cut our heads off now.

So it's huge.

JD: Naw, not an unusual amount.

The animation looks great.

JD: They deliver amazing animation.

SA: The animation is outstanding. And it's certainly—I mean I wanna say stuff, but I can't really say anything.

JD: Five bucks!

SA: Every show you've ever seen has a higher budget, let's just say.

Alright, well we're out of questions. Thank you so much, and good luck with the project!