Final Performance + Showcase + Careers
This is what you've been building toward.
Three sessions to pull everything together: translation, live Foley, your Makey Makey board, AI sounds, AI vocabulary, voice acting. Soft rehearsal first, then a full rehearsal, then the showcase.
This is the first time you use everything together. The goal isn't to be perfect — the goal is to FIND THE PROBLEMS so you can fix them before the real rehearsal.
- Makey Makey board plugged in, Scratch open with your sounds loaded
- AI sounds from Music FX ready to play on another device
- Live Foley props within arm's reach
- Voice readers know which lines they're delivering
Don't restart. Don't fix mid-take. Run it all the way through. Then talk about what went wrong.
Common issues:
- Sounds triggered at the wrong moment
- Voice reader missed a cue
- Two sounds collided and you couldn't hear either
- Someone needed to be in two places at once
- A Makey Makey trigger didn't fire
Write each problem down. Plan a fix for each.
Each group writes a one-page plan:
- Who's reading which character?
- Who's on the Makey Makey board?
- Who's running live Foley?
- Who's controlling AI sound playback?
- What's your cue for each big moment?
You've found problems and have a plan. Now you polish.
Before you rehearse, watch the recording from Day 1. Laugh. Notice everything you didn't know. Notice how far you've come. THAT'S the gap you're about to close.
- Run 1: Full performance, no stops. Just get through it.
- Notes: What needs work? Be specific.
- Run 2: Apply your fixes. Full performance again.
- Notes: What still needs work?
- Run 3: Polished performance. This is the practice for tomorrow.
Today's the day. Each group performs their polished version to the room. Optional: record your performance.
When it's your group's turn — set up, signal you're ready, and go. The room watches in silence. You bring the scene to life.
When you're not performing, you're the audience. Listen for choices each group made. Notice what's different from yours. Applaud HARD when each group finishes — they earned it.
Now — for the first time — the original Japanese audio plays.
Listen for:
- What did the original do differently from your version?
- What did YOUR version do better?
- What sounds did the original have that you didn't think of?
- What sounds did YOU have that the original didn't bother with?
There's no "right" version. There's the version the original team made, and the version YOU made. Both are real.
Before you leave, share one word that describes these 10 days. Just one.
¡Buen trabajo! You translated. You built two physical instruments. You trained an AI. You designed sound. You performed live in front of your peers. You did 10 days of work that real production studios pay people to do. You belong here.
The skills you used these 10 days — sound design, translation, performance under pressure, AI tools, collaboration — are real careers. People do this work every day.
Robert Duncan is a four-time Emmy-nominated composer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer final season, Castle, S.W.A.T., The Night Agent). He scores with piano, trumpet, pipe organ, drums — plus experimental sounds from deconstructed pianos, submarine hulls, and discarded metal. He recorded this for you.
- Audio / Sound Engineering — building, recording, mixing
- Film / Cinema Production — bringing sound, image, and story together
- Music Composition / Music Technology — what Robert Duncan does
- Theater / Performing Arts — voice work and performance
- Spanish / Linguistics / Translation Studies — translation and interpretation
- Animation — many anime studios hire artists who understand sound
- Computer Science / AI — building the tools you used (Music FX, Teachable Machine)
Schools known for these areas: Berklee, Full Sail, NYU Tisch, USC, CalArts, Belmont, Middlebury Institute. Your local state university almost certainly has versions for a fraction of the cost.
- Foley Artist — what you did, full-time. Path: audio program + apprenticeship + portfolio.
- Sound Designer — designs sound for films, games, theater. Path: bachelor's + portfolio.
- Audio Engineer — records and mixes for music, film, broadcast. Path: 2–4 year program.
- Anime / Game Localizer — translates anime, manga, games. Path: bachelor's + bilingual fluency.
- Voice Actor / Dubbing Artist — voices animated characters and dubbed films. Path: audition-based.
- Film / TV Composer — Robert Duncan's job. Path: music degree + portfolio + persistence.
- Court / Medical Interpreter — real-time translation in legal/healthcare. Path: bachelor's + state certification.
- ML/AI Engineer — builds tools like Teachable Machine. Path: computer science degree.
Two things worth knowing:
1. Not every path needs a 4-year degree. Audio engineers often start with 2-year programs. Voice acting is built on auditions, not diplomas.
2. If you speak Spanish, you have an edge. Localization, dubbing, and interpretation are growing — and bilingual professionals earn more. Heritage speakers especially: your Spanish is an asset, not just a class.
- Research — look up one school or career above. What's the actual day-to-day like?
- Watch — find a behind-the-scenes video on Foley, sound design, anime dubbing, or scoring.
- Try — translate a song lyric, TikTok caption, or meme. Notice what's hardest.
- Ask — talk to your school counselor about programs that connect to these 10 days.
The skills you used these 10 days are real. Treat them that way.