The casting of Dreidel of the Dead didn’t take place until after photography had been completed and the movie was being edited. It allowed me to better understand the amount of time each character had to speak and therefore what they could say in that time. It allowed for variations in the dialog, and to allow the actors to improvise to a degree.
Finding the voices was the tricky part, but everyone involved did exactly what was needed and more.
THE CAST
ELI KATZ (Daniel Hirsh)
Daniel was a find, a random appearance the algorithm put in my Instagram feed with him singing The King of Old Broadway from The Producers at karaoke and there was my Eli Katz. They even look alike, albeit Dan had a little more hair and is a foot shorter than Eli and Dan even admitted to be likened to Jay Sherman, the inspiration for Eli’s look. I needed someone who could do everything, Eli has the confidence, and the sarcasm, but is broken from the death of his mother, and is awkward around Ruthie. Eli sings, and Eli does impressions. So Dan had to do it all.
RUTHIE FRANKEL (Tina Marie Serra)
Tina is a delight. Working out of Berlin she was an easy choice to play Eli’s love interest Ruthie. She could play it any way, and gave me so much to work with I could have Ruthie as over confident, or unsure of herself, sardonic and a pain in the butt, and in your face and mean, before decided that maybe Ruthie is on the Asperger’s spectrum to a degree and has emotional detachment, as well as Perpetual Dissatisfaction Syndrome, of which she was disappointed as she wanted something better.
MRS GOLDFARB and PEARL (Mandy Grant-Grierson)
Mandy has a wealth of experience in the business, over 13 years as a script supervisor as well as dialect coach, and it was a pleasure working with her as a voice actor so much that the original request for her to voice Pearl was doubled up to include her voicing Mrs Goldfarb too. You wouldn’t know. The snarky Pearl couldn’t be more different to the lovely jelly making octogenarian Mrs G.
ESTHER KATZ (L Renée Penn)
Lydia and I will definitely be working together again. In fact I will get the whole band back together for my next project. Lydia was great, originally reading for Barbara Streiner but having such a wonderful working manner and voice that she prompted me to create the character of Esther Katz for her. Giving Eli’s late mother a voice was one of the best decisions made and prompted solely by Lydia’s ability.
BLOOM (Frank Falzon)
Frank the Tank was great. I called him in and his one line was done in one hit. And when your project is small, you need professionals to come in, do their job and then head out into the sunset. Frank did this and I can’t recommend him enough.
MORTY (Rob Stoller)
Similarly Rob was great, wheezing and coughing his way through the reading exactly as asked, chuckling amidst Morty’s death throes. Again, the entire cast I would work with again and would recommend if you need a single line character read, or a voice to carry your production.
BARBARA STREINER (Lisa Baarns)
Lisa came in after I struggled to find the right Barbara, the news reporter in the chopper over the military roadblock. Lisa has hundreds of voice over 7,500+ voiceovers and audiobooks under her belt so it was a slam dunk. Get a professional in to read the lines. In out, job done.
RABBI VACMAN (Darren Smith)
It was inevitable that I would need to voice someone or, in this case, something. Rabbi Vacman, Eli’s defective Roomba, his robot vacuum cleaner. I will still take the credit. I would like to thank the Academy…
THE CREW
Darren did everything (yawn). Wrote the script. Designed and built the sets. Designed and made the characters. Lit the sets. Animated the movie. Edited the movie. Found the cast. Found a musician. Found music and effects. Edited the trailer. Built the website. And all whilst working a 9-5 office job and out of pocket too. No wonder I am tired, and broke.
Dreidel of the Dead 