A Guide To Abridging

A guide to abridging.

The following contains about 8 in depth steps involved in abridging. If you're A.D.D. like me you're probably scared by how many words this has. Never fear, a lot of it is fattened by personal anecdotes or examples to help prove a point. Skimming should give you everything you need to know.
I wrote this because there are a lot of mistakes that I thought were obvious but many still make them. There are also many mistakes that should've been obvious to me but never the less I made them. So, you may find that most of this is an insult to your intelligence to be mentioned. That may be true, but no matter how brilliant and perfect you obviously are, there still may be things that haven't crossed your mind.
There is no such thing as being an expert when it comes to abridging. The only person who can be considered an expert is Littlekiriboh because he was the original Abridger and therefore sets the stage for what defines abridging. If you disagree with anything I say, then by all means prove me wrong. However, please keep in mind that some of this is really just a tendency or a matter of opinion. Not everything is a 100% statement.
It is my hope that reading this will make for better future abridges. Please learn from my mistakes as well as the mistakes of other.

Step 1 - Picking Your Anime
The biggest mistake you can make is thinking "This Anime is funny. If I abridge it, it will be even funnier." When you choose an anime, make sure it is one that takes itself seriously. For instance, imagine if someone were to abridge Family Guy (yes, I'm aware it's not Japanese). The series is random, offensive, lacks depth, and takes every cheap punch line it can. So, what's left for you to do? Long story short, it's ill-advised  to try making funny into funny. ...you're too late.
Personally, I don't recommend picking a series that's overly serious either. I've seen a couple of abridgers succeed with really dark and serious anime, but many find it difficult.
Another personal recommendation I have is abridging children's shows. Maybe it's because the writer's on children's shows are more prone to plot-holes and unintended innuendos, or maybe I just get a kick out of watching children's cartoon characters curse like a MOTHER FUCKER!
Note: These are personal opinions that are not 100% and very likely arguable.

Step 2 - Getting the Footage
I put this before scripting because before you even bother scripting, you should make sure you'll be able to use the footage from the anime in the first place. I will never recommend any method other than DVD rips. I can't stop people from using torrents and such, but I think it's much more respectful to purchase the DVDs and go from there.
Once you have the DVDs, one way you can rip them is by downloading the free version of Next Video Converter. The free version has limitations, but I really don't see anything you need it to do that it can't. That said, this won't work for some DVDs. I'm pretty sure any anime Gonzo is involved in won't work. This is why I recommend checking before you bother scripting, because it narrows the list pretty fast when you can't even use the footage.

Step 3 - Scripting
Okay, I will emphasize the individual importance of each step, but no doubt the most important step as far as your series goes is your scripting. It's also the step I can give the least advise on. The script has to be yours after all. I can tell you how I do it. First I watch an episode all the way through, then I  start it again and script in an adjacent word document whilst pausing and playing the episode rather frequently.
Advise I can give.
1. Don't force it. Ever. Your jokes will be funnier and much more natural if you just allow them to come as they may. This means that scripting can take a long time. In my experience, this is the longest part. It can take me a week (assuming I have the energy to work on it every day). Then again, it can also take me no more than a night some times. Either way, it has to happen at its own pace. Don't worry about 'deadlines'. To quote hbi2k. "A late episode is only late until it comes out, but a bad episode is bad forever."
2. Scripting with friends is fun. It can also produce amazing results. However, you need to establish a good group dynamic. My experience with WAHStudios has been a positive one no doubt, but I think our earlier episodes would've been better had we better communicated. You have to be able to be honest with each other when a joke is bad or just not great. You also have to trust that your friends  aren't going to be vengeful when they critique your jokes (this works both ways). Also, make sure that the joke is understood by everyone. This doesn't sound hard, but even a subtle change in word choice can tamper with a joke. On the other hand, the way your friend words it can sometimes be an improvement, so be open minded.
3. For your first episode, try to limit your sex jokes. I mean literally, look at the number of sexual jokes you make and reduce some percentage of them. It's a common mistake to overdo sex jokes that many are guilty of. I'm no exception. So, learn from this mistake others have made.

Step 4 - Voice Acting
This step has two parts depending on whether you're a new abridger or continuing an abridged series.
If you are starting an abridged series, then your first step in voice acting is choosing the voices. There are a lot of variables here. One of them is how many people are involved in your series. Personally, I think every abridger should try doing a series of their very own. That said, most shows will have both male and female characters. Not many voice actors can pull off the opposite sex. I find girls tend to have a harder time with male voices, mostly because they try to deepen their voices to the point of sounding painfully fake. That said, most guys that could pull off a female voice or two down because they instantly resort to their falsetto or 'head' voice. For example, Teia from LittleKiriboh's Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged. Even his Mai Valentine sounds more like a real woman than his Teia. So, no matter what's between your legs, if you voice the opposite sex, please focus more on the mannerisms of the character than the pitch of your voice. (If you edit the pitch digitally, preserve the time when you deepen a voice. This will sound more natural. If you heighten the pitch, don't preserve the time. This will prevent that rapid echo effect that makes it impossible to understand what someone says.)
Another thing to think about is the number of characters you'll have to voice. You want to make a distinctive voice for each character, but that's not always possible. When you can't, try to only double up on non-reoccurring characters or on characters with very distinctive word choice to avoid confusion.
When assigning voices, also consider what voices you can do that are unique. Personally, I always had a thing for my southern accent, so I purposely looked for a character I could use it on. Granted, some don't like my voice for Risa, and accents are rarely a good idea. You should practice them, because they'll help differentiate your voice, but a fake accent is pretty easy to spot.
My final advice is a personal tip. Avoid picking voices because "It'll be soooo funny!" No, no it's not. Unless the character has a minimal role in the show, don't use a bizarre voice as a joke in itself. These voices tend to get very annoying very quickly. Not that I want to bash scrougemaster, I'm a fan and think he has a great sense of humor, but he did a great example of a bad voice choice in his early episode of Shuffle! Abridged. For Nerine, he basically did a voice and raised the pitch to a ridiculous pitch while preserving the time (which again, I don't recommend when raising a pitch). This made it impossible to understand Nerine, thus missing some of scrougemaster's jokes (that and I'll be honest, the voice was annoying and not really funny). My apologies to scrougemaster for using him as a negative example because again he is quite talented, but no one's perfect and this was a very fitting example.

The Second Part - Continuing Abridgers Might As Well Start Here
Now for the actual process of voice acting. This requires:
-A Microphone
-A Recording Program
-An Appropriate Environment
My Microphone was a Christmas gift, so I can't give advice on how to find a good mic. I can tell you mine is a Logitech microphone, and I can tell you NOT to use the mic from a web cam, but that's about it. As for a recording program, I use Sound Forge Audio Studio 9.0 which came with my Sony Vegas 9.0 package, but I could just as easily record in the video editor in Sony Vegas alone. Also, many abridgers seem to recommend Audacity. It's a free downloadable program, and though I've only used it once or twice I found it to be perfectly user friendly. I don't know how great it is as an audio editor, but for recording it will no doubt get the job done.
As far as an appropriate environment goes, this means more than just a quiet space. True, it's important to avoid unwanted noise, but it's also important to avoid unwanted echoes. If your room has tile or wood flooring, be sure to lay down carpet, rugs, or even a thick blanket to cover the hard surfaces. Another thing to keep in mind is that just because you're out in the middle of nowhere, doesn't mean your room will be quiet. Turn of any fans or noisy air conditioners. These can make a droning noise throughout your recording and can cause a major mood killer. Also, make sure your computer isn't making noise. I know mine makes noise sometimes and if this happens you just have to wait for it to stop (or solve the problem if you're computer savvy enough to know how). My last tip here is something so stupid, so blatantly obvious, that you may find it as an insult to your intelligence that I'm even mentioning it. When you record, make sure you've turned off your TV. I'm embarrassed to say that in my first episode I was so oblivious that I forgot to turn off the TV. Thus, in the first scene of my first episode, you can hear dialog from the movie "Mambo Italiano". I joke that what you hear are the Italian neighbors arguing across the street, but yeah it's from a movie. So, just throwing this out there, make sure your environment is cleared of all noises, even once so obvious you wouldn't think to check.
When you finally, actually voice act, keep one thing in mind. Voice acting is acting. You can't let yourself be afraid to move, act things out, and give both the oral and facial expression of the lines when you're voice acting. It doesn't matter how stupid you feel, if it helps then just do it. Seriously though, just let yourself go. The audience is much more receptive when real energy is put into your voice acting.
Some other quick tips for vocal hygiene include:
-No dairy, fats, or sugars before voicing. You know that stuff that makes you need to clear your throat? Dairy, fats and sugars put that stuff there in the first place. This makes it harder to manipulate your voice to certain extremes.
-Ironically, after you voice act it is recommended that you eat dairy, fats, and sugars. This can help your throat heal up after the work you put it through. Green tea and honey are the best for this, but it all helps.
-Don't be afraid to pace yourself. Most of my recordings are down in a single afternoon, but my episode 8 took a whole weekend. This is because my episode 8 focused on Saehara and Daisuke's grandfather. Both these characters have really scratchy voices, and it hurts when I voice them too long. I tried to power through it, but that was a mistake. When I was about half way through I had done so much damage to my voice that none of my characters' voices sounded right anymore. This was especially true for Saehara and the grandfather. It was as if I'd grinded my throat so much that there was no longer any friction left to make that scratchy voice. After about 36 hours of recovery, I was able to do the voices again, but even then it was painful. So, if you're struggling, just pace yourself. Record parts every couple hours, or even wait until the next day. It'll be better in the long run.

Step 5 - Editing
This step also contains two parts. The first part is editing your recording. First, cut out all the bloopers. You should've recorded most lines at least twice. After you've cut those out, you may want to mess with pitches and such to add to differentiation (or if you're voicing chipmunks and other rodents). Don't forget to go through before calling it quits to make sure any lines that are actually supposed to be thoughts are reverbed (that echo effect). This just adds to the quality and makes you seem better for it. DON'T OVER DO IT! When in doubt, let the effect be subtle. That's better than making it impossible to understand. Also, don't forget to isolate a line before doing this effect. This prevents the echo from reaching into another line. Lastly, go through it all and try to make it a fairly consistent  volume. If you've seen my series, you're probably still mad at me for the music incidents. Learn from my failures.

Now that your lines are perfectly meshed together, it's time to sync it with the video footage. KaiserNeko from TeamFourStar did a great tutorial about this. There were many tips that never occured to me, and I recommend viewing his. However, I'll be glad to sum much of it up. It all comes down to lip flaps. In typical anime there are about 3 lip flaps used. There's 1 open mouth, one closed mouth, and one partially open mouth in between. When do you use which though? I will never forget KaiserNeko's brilliant and artist acronym to help remember when to used the closed mouth flap.
Freaking
Pretty
Boy
Vic
Mignogna
Any syllables starting with an F, P, B, V, or M should use a closed mouth flap. When you are syncing the audio with the video you should see the sound wave. When the wave is at its highest, that's usually when you should utilize a fully open mouth flap. The rest should be partial flaps when they're talking, and closed flaps when they're not. Even in between words should use closed mouth flaps.
I will confess that I don't usually utilize this. I usually just put the footage next to the audio and just make sure the mouth is moving when characters are talking and that the mouth isn't moving when they're not. This is just me being lazy though, and when abridgers like KaiserNeko do this it makes them appear very professional. So, it's up to you how much effort you're willing to put in, but don't be afraid of quality.
You may find issues with dialog when the character is in motion. You can speed up the clip, slow it down, try using a different clip for part of the line, or who knows what else. There are many different ways to get around the obstacle, and every situation is different, so I'm afraid you may have to figure it out for yourself. Remember though, nothing is impossible if you're willing to go in frame by frame in Photoshop. Again though, this reflects how much effort you're willing to exert.
One last quick thing. If you ever add text into the footage, make sure you spell check. Your program may not underline misspelled words, so you need to proof read it. I mention this because I'm guilty of forgetting to spell check and I'm embarrassed because of it.

Step 6 - Sound Effects
This is sort of part of step 5, but I have a lot to say about it. Sound effects may a huge quality difference that I really wish I had paid attention to in my earlier episodes. After you sync the audio, watch your episode all the way through and look carefully for anything and everything that might make a sound. Doors, bushes, cars, phones (ringing and when you put them down), water, weather, electronics, and even things like stabbings and glowing lights can have sound effects. There a multiple methods to get the right sound effect.
1. THE INTERNET! There are many websites where you can download free sound effects. Because abridging is a non-profit thing anyway, you usually won't have to worry about the terms and conditions. Some may require giving credit, but I've never run across any. The websites I go to are www.grsites.com and www.soundbible.com.
2. The footage itself. Don't use sound effects from your footage if there's any background music or dialog at the time, but if the sound is isolated in the footage, then it can make for an easy opportunity.
3. Faking it. Don't underestimate your ability to record a sound effect yourself. In my episode 15 when Mio Hio jumps into the bushes, that sound is actually the sound of a plastic bag that I cut into like a palm-palm and then shook next to the mic. I would've used a pair of palm-palms, but I didn't find them until after I already uploaded the episode. The point is, ear's are easy to trick, so get creative.
Once you have your sound effect, it's just a matter of timing it right with your footage.

Step 7 - Background Music
Start looking for background music as soon as you choose your series. Look for music that fits the theme. If you have a dark or witch type of anime, look for music like Nightwish or Sonata Arctica, but avoid music with lyrics for general background music. Instead, save songs with lyrics for that one moment or episode it truly fits when you can play it and let the audience appreciate the lyrics without having to hide them. The goal is to develop a consistent soundtrack. Have a song for the happy times, the sad times, the angry fights, the hopeful inspirations, and the ominous moments. Also, some characters may demand their own background music (like Duke from Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged). Remember, loops are your friend (loops are cycles of music where you can repeat portions and rearrange them without it sounding chopped up) . If you can find some good ones, take advantage.
This step is more important than many realize, but a long period of time without background music can feel very lacking. Don't think you need music every scene, but always consider if it would help set the mood. Having music is another one of those quality improvers that hides how untalented I actually am makes you look professional.
The last thing to keep in mind when adding background is the volume. Whenever there's dialog, the music needs to be significantly lower. When there's no dialog for more than just a pause, you may want to raise it more (not too much, just enough for effect).

Step 8 - One Last Run Through
Now that everything is mixed together, watch it again. If there are any changes you want to make, make them. Even if it means rerecording something or re-scripting, there's no reason why you can't make improvements. Again, it isn't uploaded yet, so do what you want with it first. Once your satisfied, upload it and watch as millions of subscribers praise your glory. By that I mean about a third of your friends and a stalker or two. But really, enjoy and appreciate any comments you get. I personally feel good even from comments that say as little as "lol". As for trolls, just ignore them. You're perfect and you know it. Just ask Lady Gaga.

If there are any questions about abridging, tips, or just more stories like why I chose DN Angel to abridge, let me know. Otherwise, I hope this helps.