Akadot: Where does the "Burn Up W" project stand?

Amanda: [in a tearful drawl] "Burn Up W" has been postponed.

Jason: We've done all the script work on it, it's ready to go but they've decided that their production schedule is packed. We have a cast pretty much assembled but the start date has been delayed. That's just the way the business works. However, we've bid on several other anime projects that look promising.

Akadot: What are your future plans with Gaijin? Where do you want to take this production company?

Amanda: I definitely want to do anime, it's so much fun. We also want to branch out into producing live-action. We've talked about a couple of shorts.

Jason: Anyone with a D.V. camera can make a short, why not us.

Amanda: (laughs) And we're as much a moron as the next guy.

Jason: We're just like everybody else in Hollywood, we have our production company. Except we can hire union actors. We still want to do the anime, we know people in the business, friends in the business. We're not going to get rich off it any time soon unless we start distributing ourselves. That is something else we've talked about.

Amanda: Going to Japan, and putting a couple of bids on projects ourselves.

Jason: Expanding the company in that direction is definitely in our mission statement. Realistically, we have to start small, do what we're doing now, bidding on projects and getting sub-contract work.

Akadot: Are you guys doing outside voice-over work in the interim?

Amanda: I just finished "Oni" for Microsoft, that's going to be out this month.

Jason: It's a game for the Playstation, PC and Mac. I just did some work for A.D. Vision when I was back home for the holidays. It's like one of those things you always go back to. We have "Spriggan" coming out in February, work we did awhile back. It's one of those things where we went back home years ago, did some work, and years later it's coming out in the theater.

Amanda: I think ADV originally wanted to go union with "Spriggan." Try to get like Rutger Hauer to do the voice. Now, we are hoping that with companies like ours, that is more of an option. As the anime companies get large, and going union is something they want to do, they can sub-contract to us and avoid becoming SAG signatories themselves.

Jason: It would allow them to be more flexible. Like ADV, they're based in Texas, which is a right-to work state. It makes no sense for them to go union. Bandai is out here in California but they do a lot of their work up in Canada.

Akadot: How much more does it cost ADV to do work through you rather than produce in-house?

Amanda: In-house is always cheaper for them. They have the studio, staff directors, writers, editors etc.

Jason: We're more expensive only because it's sub-contract work not because we are a SAG signatory, though. ADV pays more than union rates anyway.

Amanda: We are slated to pay the same as ADV rates. The only difference is that our productions will be union and so the actors can get credit for their health insurance, pension, welfare.

Jason: To me, there's the basis for why as actors we should fight for something like that. Acting is such a bohemian existence. It doesn't make sense for companies not to support unions. For the few pennies more that companies have to pay in residuals in the long run, the actor can get valuable benefits.

Amanda: It's a matter of respect as well. It's showing appreciation to the actor, showing that the actor makes a valued contribution.

Akadot: Is there a high turn over rate, then, in anime at the moment?

Jason: Only in the fact that where a lot of voice acting is done, voice acting in the anime sense, is outside the major markets. There are several studios in New York and L.A., but there are a lot elsewhere. ADV is out of Houston. There's a studio out of Dallas that does "Dragonball Z." So actors get to a point at which they realize that they don't just want to do this all their lives, they want to expand their acting horizons. And for that they need to then join the union.

Amanda: That was the point we got to.

Jason: We were very comfortable as voice actors. When we moved out here people were amazed that we made a living acting and then decided to leave it. But there was a feeling that there was a ceiling, I was going to make that the rest of my life.

Amanda: Anime and non-union commercials the rest of our lives verses go for the big one and come out here.

Akadot: Is there more of a loyalty factor for companies that go SAG?

Amanda: I personally would be more loyal to a company that paid for my pension, health and welfare, that would guarantee that if something aired on television I would see residuals.

Akadot: So there's a choice that a voice actor needs to make: either continuing to do non-union anime dubbing or joining a union for more work and money but having to leave anime?

Jason: I've done commercials, I've done industrials, I've done infomercials that were non-union and, compared to what I would make union, it's ridiculous. The disparity between union and non-union on-camera work is way greater than the disparity between union and non-union voice acting. There are people who seek out the work of voice actors but it isn't the primary reason they see a title. They see a title because they've heard it's amazing, they've been looking forward to it. Look at "Princess Mononoke." That had huge stars in it but it didn't do gangbusters at the box office. So that shows that the money that can be generated from the voice acting element of an anime is minuscule. There's no money in the market so actors have to supplement with screen work and they can't do both unless the voice acting project is union.

Akadot: How do you see yourself changing the way anime is dubbed?

Jason: Well, it is growing in popularity despite box office failures such as "Mononoke." I don't even know if they lost money on that but in Hollywood terms it's a failure. There's only room for growth as far as the popularity goes.

Amanda: And slowly but surely anime is becoming more mainstream. You see more regular commercials that are anime influenced. Some of the character designs for "Tarzan," especially when he was a little kid, are very anime inspired. More people are starting to recognize anime as a style. The question is where is anime going to go next. Is it going to stay in the video market or is going to move into television and theaters.

Jason: To go to the next level, production value is going to have to hit a level that the mass market expects from their entertainment. The mass market is pretty savvy when it comes to production value.

Amanda: The minimal production value is matching up mouth flaps. You want to go further. You want to have good actors, a director in there that's experienced, who knows what points of the story to focus on.

Jason: There's going to be a need for our company, to take it to the next level.