As seen in the videoÆs credits or in the annotations of the script, Maki DonarudoÆs voice was supplied by multiple actresses. The first, Becky Dion, was found by Jerry, and played the role quite well, with her pleasant voice and very natural laugh. However, she became unavailable some time into recording, and we had to find a replacement. Laura "Palmer" Fedick, one of the college radio stationÆs D.J.Æs, seemed to fit the bill, and she worked out quite nicely until she mysteriously disappeared. Her dialogue was largely re-recorded later, leaving only one line, which wasnÆt even supposed to be hers!
Michelle Elston, an old friend from high school and later a co-worker of mine, stepped in to continue the Maki Donarudo legacy. She recorded most of the remaining lines, until she, too, vanished without a trace.
Finally, on what would surely be the last day if only we had an actress, we searched the drama department, the music class, and anywhere else we thought might have someone appropriate, but no one would do it. Finally, we approached a young woman at random and explained the situation, and amazingly, not only did she have a perfect voice, she was willing to spend an hour or so in the closet-sized room that housed the editor! And so, Jana Durham, a teacher who turned out to be older than she looked, became the fourth and last Maki Donarudo.
Tammy Starten, the voice of Lita and Niki, was another D.J., and regrettably, her voice was consistent.
\c04\b\iGod I Hate 'Em\c00\b\i
Although Jerry and I were both dabbling with playing things backwards during the making of \b4F\b (facilitated by the video editor, which had that ability), \bGod I Hate æEm\b was JerryÆs discovery. While rewinding a tape with the music video for \bBurninÆ Down the House,\b he stopped to play a segment of it backwards, and the words "I am an asshole, am I?" came clear as a bell from the Talking Head. He began transcribing his interpretation of the backward lyrics, and shared his discovery with me when I came in later that day to work on \b4F.\b Together, we continued interpreting the song, until we had a completely new song.
Our interpretations differed slightly, and I had planned to publish my version in Ranma APA, which I was running at the time. Jerry, who had recently become a member, intended to publish his version, as well, and insisted that there should be only one. The two interpretations were mostly the same, with different lines here and there, and it \bdid\b seem repetitive to publish two, so at last I retracted my version. However, there are a few lines from my interpretation that I still believe are closer to the sound and meter. Most notably "IÆm loony when I get a hold of me" in JerryÆs version was "IÆm loony when you love me" in mine.
Ray Irish ("Mister Ray" of \bProject Ray-ko)\b related to me that on some late-night evangelical TV show, an evangelist was preaching on the evils of back-masking in popular music, and actually cited \bBurninÆ Down the House\b as an example! Perhaps, somehow, he had gotten a copy of our \bGod I Hate æEm?\b IÆm sure the title alone would be enough to attract his attention...
For the record, neither Jerry nor I really \bbelieve\b the Talking Heads intended their song to be played backwards, although I do entertain the possibility.
\i\c04\bNagisa Bonita\c00\b\i
I conceived \bNagisa Bonita\b whilst mopping the floor one day, and it started with the title. I had been playing around with other songs in my head, attempting to set the \bRanma 1/2 Nettouhen\b first season theme song to the music of The PoliceÆs \bMessage in a Bottle.\b Anyway, I must have had the Madonna song in my head, and as I sang it, I easily changed "La Isla" into "Nagisa," and from there came up with a few verses in my head before I had a chance to write it down, at which point I fleshed it out, keeping the meter as close to the original as possible, trying to make syllogisms where I could, and using occasional Japanese phrases because Madonna used Spanish in hers (and because it was easy to rhyme that way).
The next time I visited Jerry, I had him drag out \bTrue Blue,\b and played the song as I sang my version, and he liked it, too. I printed it in my APA (Ranma APA) along with a request that anyone who could do so make a recording of it.
Since Jerry and I were working on \bFast Food Freedom Fighters,\b we were using the video editing equipment a LOT, and both of us felt the need to change the pace. One day, I left to attend some classes, while he continued editing. When I returned, I looked through the window to see if it was safe to open the door (recording might be going on), and indeed there \bwas\b recording going onûûin fact, I was hearing my own lyrics being sung through the door! Jerry had taken it upon himself to find a girl to sing the song, and later constructed the video with which it is distributed. (In this case, we had laid down the audio first, and then added the video. For \b4F,\b we did the video first.) Just by accident, one section seemed to match Iczer-1Æs mouth movements with the lyrics. Jerry liked that, so he went and redid everything else so that Iczer-1 would actually sing the thing, as I had intended in the song.
Unfortunately, the grammatical errors that I wrote into the song (thanks to my deficient knowledge of Japanese at the time) will not get a chance to be fixed unless we re-record the thing, something that will not occur for quite some time, if ever.
After its premiere at Anime Expo æ92, Jerry re-recorded the opening part to give it \bproper\b credits (Amber Lind, vocals; Shawn Alisea, lyrics; Jerry Cheadle, video clipping) mostly, I think, at my behest. I dislike being undercredited, and had complained about the lack of my name on the video. He had done them that way to give it the look of an MTV video. Unfortunately, the video editor he used to clip in the new titles had a nasty frame drift, causing the previously perfectly-synched titles to miss the beats.
