2024 - 12/2024 Meeting

Page Created:  12/15/24.  Last Updated:  01/25/25.

JONATHAN TODD ROSS

ONLINE

Website:  <https://www.jonathantoddross.com/>

SOCIAL MEDIA

FaceBook:  <https://www.facebook.com/jonathantoddross>

Instagram <https://www.instagram.com/jtoddross/>

Internet Movie Data Base:  <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1475002/>

TikTok:  <https://www.tiktok.com/@jonathanross8102>

SHORT FILM

The Universe of Scotch & Haagen-Dazs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SztOTseYnSs

Meeting Date:  December 14, 2024.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church.  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Attendance: 20 + 7.

Meeting Program:  Talk / Q & A w/Film Maker / Voice Actor / Audio Book Narrator.

Notes:

Desserts, Beverages, & More Brought to the Christmas Cafe:

Jerri Angermueller.....Crackers.  Cream Cheese.  Gingerbread.

Bobbi Bauer..............Sparkling Cider.  Klondike Bar Ice Cream.

Thomas Bauer..........Yogurt

Lonny Buinis.............Pastries, Gluten Free.

Kathy Cannarozzi.....Pastries.

Philip De Parto..........Milk.  Coffee,  Mini Cupcakes, Store Bought.  Pumpkin Spice & Pecan Cookies, Store Bought.

David Fischer............Donuts, Cinnamon.  Donuts, Chocolate.

Claire Fisher..............Brownies, Homemade.

Charles Garofalo.......Soda.  Ice Cream.

Cirino Gonzales........Pretzel Balls.  Cookies.

Steven Herr................Gingerbread Sugar Cookies

James Kim................Hot Dogs on Rolls.  Pastries, Korean Bakery.

Roberto Lopez..........Cinnamon Coffee Cake.

Debra Matofsky.........Cookies,

Randie O'Neil............Viennese Swirls, Homemade.  Triple Threat Brownies, Homemade.

Ingrid Staats..............Vegetables & Dip,  Hot Cups.

John Upton................Cinnamon Rolls, Homemade.

Gregory Warden........Cupcakes

Pamela Webber.........Butterscotch Truffle.  Chocolate Truffle.  Fruit Platter & Whip Dip.

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from  THE STARSHIP EXPRESS  Copyright 2025  Philip J De Parto:

The Saturday, December 14, 2024 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was preceded by a Christmas Cafe of cakes, cookies, cupcakes, donuts, buns, ice cream, and other goodies.  A complete list of who-brought-what appears on the club website under 2024 - 12/2024 Meeting.

Our evening's speaker was Jonathan Todd Ross.  Jonathan is a voice actor, an audio book narrator, a film maker, and a script writer.  He is best known for his voice acting on the anime series YU-GI-OH!, ONE PIECE, and POKEMON.

Our speaker was bitten by the acting bug when he was five years old.  His parents took him to see E.T.  He didn't understand everything that was going on in the movie, but he knew, I WANT TO DO THAT!  He was a theater kid in grade school and high school and went to New York University for Musical Theater.

After graduation he did what most new actors do, he worked a day job so that he could do theater at night.  At this time (the early 2000s) New York was the hub of anime dubbing, which consisted of matching your voice to the movement of a character's lips.  A friend of a friend passed along a voice acting opportunity.

Jonathan had the two qualifications the position required:  he worked cheap and he could be at the recording studio to audition in an hour's time.  He got the job.

The role was a part on ULTRAMAN.  ULTRAMAN was the lowest rung on the anime totem pole.  It was a low stakes, rag tag operation.  But it was work that paid better than a lot of other hustles.  More importantly, it was industry work.  That landeded him an agent who was able to get him some radio vocie over gigs.

Meanwhile, his former ULTRAMAN director was scaling the corporate ladder and became the director or the high profile series, YU-GI-OH!  The director liked him and hired him.  The higher ups did not and fired him the next day.  Our speaker asked why he had been fired and was told that the higher-ups felt the voice he used for Marik was too similar to that by another actor in the cast.  He pitched a number of different voices to the director until they hit on one that would work and was rehired the following day.

YU-GI-OH! became a huge hi.  He realized that he had made the big time when Marik was issued as a Funko-Pop collectible and was an alternative cover for TV GUIDE.  Most people who ask for his autograph at conventions had watched the show (and other series he had voiced) when they were eleven.

The anime voice acting led to a career as an audio book narrator.  He started out with Middle Grade books (LEAP by Jane Bresin Zalbed was his first book) but he does a bit of everything.  SPACE UNICORN BLUES by T J Berry may be his favorite narrated book; the Chris Nashawaty's THE FUTURE WAS NOW, about science fiction movies of the summer of 1982 is also up there.

Most of his recordings are done at his home studio (a converted closet) and are done as Punch and Roll:  read until you make a mistake, stop, rewind, overdub and continue reading from that point.  Audible has a great studio in Newark and sometimes has a live cast of actors record there as a group.  He had been working with a cast of 20 on a William Gibson book when covid struck and sent everyone home to record their parts individually.

Our speaker works only with major publishers.  These are union jobs and come with all kinds of perks.  The best advice he received from an audio book diretor was to do acting, not shtick.  He usually reads a book in its entirety before recording it, but occasionally there is only time to sample it.  This backfired when he discovered a hundred pages in that the main character in one book was supposed to have a New Zealand accent.

His short film, THE UNIVERSE OF SCOTCH & HAAGEN DAZS, was made when his wife (whom he met on the set of a soap opera), was pregnant.  It was made for $ 500.00 plus a number of favors called in.  It was sold to the Dust Channel for the same amount.

More about the talk appears on th club website at 2024 - 12/2024 Meeting.

Meeting Notes:

Knew that he wanted to be involved with acting ever since he saw E.T. when he was 5.  I want to do that!

Theater kid in grade and high school.

Went to NYU for Musical Theater.

His claim to fame is voice acting Marik and Yami Marik in Yu-Gi-Oh!

His two milestones to fame were the Funko Pop collectible of Marik and the TV Guide Collectible Cover of the same character.

Most anime voice dubbing was done in New York in the early 2000's and consisted of matching your voice to the movement of the character's lips.

He received a call from the friend of a friend of a friend asking if he could audition for a voice part for the anime series, Ultraman within an hour.  "We heard you work cheap."

That job landed him an agent who started getting him voice over radio work.

Ultraman was the lowest rung on the anime totem pole.  It was a low stakes, rag tag operation.

The series director moved over to the much higher-profile Yu-Gi-Oh! and asked Jonathan to audition.

He was hired one day and fired the next.

He learned that he had been fired from a fellow actor on an off-off-Broadway show.  Back then everyone doing anime voice overs was from a musical theater performer background.

His colleague was Jonathan's replacement.

He asked the director why he had been fired.  The director informed him that the higher-ups felt that the voice he used for Marik was too similar to another voice in the cast.   He tried out a number of different voices.  They liked one and rehired him, so the following day he informed his colleague that he had been replaced.

Jonathan demonstrated a number of voices he pitched, including the one they ultimately selected.

Worked on first reboot of TEENAGED MUTANT NINJA TURTLES.

Most voice over dubbing is done as ADR and you never see anyone except sometimes the Director and the Producer.

TMNT was done with a group of actors.

POKEMON was a smash hit.  In Japan it is a family series, but it had to be toned down for American audiences as it was marketed as a kid's show.  It's like viewing DIE HARD on the USA network.

Most of the people who come up to him at conventions are adults who watched the shows when they were 11 years old.

Advances in technology have made entry into audio book narration a very low barrier.

The first audio book he narrated was LEAP by Jane Breskin Zalben, a Middle Grade work.

He only works with major publishers.  He always says Yes!

Works with major publishers a Union Jobs with all kinds of perks.

Most recordings are done as Punch and Roll.  You read until you mistake, stop, rewind, and overdub and keep reading from that point.

Audible has a great studio in Newark.  They have the voice actors record there.  They are known for using large casts.  He was working with 20 actors on a William Gibson book when the pandemic struck and everyone then worked from home.

He hated it when an old school audio producer kept him slowing down his reading.  The book went and won an award.

Discussion between Jonathan and audience members about Neil Gaiman's voice narration style.

His experience in anime voice overs led him to lots of work for Middle Grade sf & fantasy.

Was part of a full cast audio book recording of 30 Days of Night.

Great advice from a director:  Do acting, not silly schtick.

Uses a Shure SM7B microphone.

He usually reads a book front to back before recording, but sometimes there is not enough time and he has to skim and sample.

This was a problem for one book where the author did not mention that the character spoke in a New Zealand accent until page 175.

Punctuation is your friend.  It is never truly silent.  Commas, periods, and ellipses can imply thoughts and state of mind.

In the old days before the entry barriers to voice work came down, it was "My way or highway."

The Yami Marik voice was very hard to do.  Water, water, water.  Tea, tea, tea.  Occasionally whiskey.

Sometimes you get a word pronunciation guide from the author.  Sometimes they say, I just made it up, go with what you feel sounds right.

Great thing about science fiction is that most books are part of a series and the publisher usually keeps the same narrator.

SPACE UNICORN BLUES by T J Berry may be his favorite book that he has narrated.

You get very angry at yourself when you realize you messed something up.

He was part of an evening of one act plays.  The only thing the New York Times said about the play was that he was handsome.

Ran scavanger hunts as team building exercises for corporate clients.

Limited experience in Soap Operas.  Soaps are a great training ground for young actors.  He started as a background extra, graduated to the guy who delivers a package, and ultimately got a couple of lines in A GUIDING LIGHT after he appeared in the ESPN adaptation of THE BRONX IS BURNING.

Loved narrating THE FUTURE WAS NOW by Chris Nashawaty, a book about the science fiction films of the 1980s.

Met actor Henry Winkler when he was workshopping the Happy Days Musical with Gary Marshall, music by Paul Williams.

THE UNIVERSE OF SCOTCH & HAAGEN DASZ

.....Done for $ 500.00 plus favors called in.

.....Done while wife was pregnant.

.....Taught himself FX and Editing

.....Played at film festivals.

.....Paid $ 500.00 by Dust Channel to have on their website.

.....Led him to meet author Seth Grahame-Smith and baseball icon Chase Utley.

Screenplay for CAPTAIN NEW JERSEY play grew out of his Middle School heartbreak at Superman losing his powers in SUPERMAN 2.