overcast #032
Ricky and Phil continue their discussion of Acting, particularly as it relates to voiceover work for machinima. This second of two parts of coverage recaps info from part 1, continues the discussion, and finishes up with a live cold reading / coaching session.
Thank you for listening! Your feedback makes this show what it is, so bring it on.
This Week’s Hot List (URLs from the show’s content):
- Music Credits for this show:
- Opening music is by Nine Inch Nails, from the album Ghosts, the track title is “26 Ghosts III,” from the third CD in that 4-disc set.
- Segue music is also by Nine Inch Nails, a remix by Overman from the album Year Zero, the track title is “Me, I’m Not.”.
- These musical selections are used under the Creative Commons license graciously chosen by the artist. Please consider supporting them with a music purchase if you enjoy what you hear.
- Machinima Film Festival 2008
- Sam Midwood and Harrison Heller: Winners of the Molotov Alva Machinima.com Contest
- Sam Midwood’s Overcast Promo Video: Being John Machinima
- Dragon*Con Film Festival 2008
- Topic: Acting, Part 2
- Video Mentioned: Family Guy recording session
- Garrick by Margaret Barton is a well-written biography of one of the world’s greatest actors.
- The Disreputable Profession: the Actor in Society by Mendel Kohansky is the only book I’ve found that actually tells the history of actors as a profession in society. Did you know that actors could not vote until the late 1800’s because they were not considered real citizens? You see, pretending to be something you are not (acting) is lying and lying is a sin. Kohanksy, an Israeli scholar, writes remarkably well; there’s not a single page that isn’t filled with fascinating information.
- The cold reading: a scene from “Hughie” by Eugene O’Neill
- Resources from last episode (still relevant here):
- Gamasutra - “Giving Games A Voice: Sony’s Dialog Manager Greg deBeer Speaks” Note the
comment by Eric Webb (another voice casting director) which are almost as good as the interview. -Ricky - Best single book on Modernism: Modernism by Peter Gay
- Stanislavsky’s An Actor Prepares is a good start with his theories, but be warned it’s cut and badly translated. Wikipedia entry on Stan is good.
- Historical anthology of writings on acting: Actors on Acting by Toby Cole
- Best source on the Group Theatre is: The Fervent Years by Harold Clurman
- Actor’s Studio has a myriad of references. A good history is: A Method to Their Madness by Foster Hirsch
- Best Single book on acting for the beginner (remember it’s geared towards the Theatre): Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen
- Wonderful alternative view of “Method” oriented acting is: The End of Acting by Richard Maltby
- Unfortunately, there are no Voice Acting books that aren’t geared towards the voice/cartoon industry, so I have none to recommend. Instead take a look at a new documentary on voice actors coming on DVD in July called “Adventures in Voice Acting”
- Also, good basic books on Oral Interpretation are a good source for how to use your voice in crafting a story.
Comment by digitalphil — June 28, 2008 at 1:42 am
Unbelievable content in this latest overcast episode! Ricky, I would certainly be withdrawing from my acting and screenplay courses at my local community college after listening to your thorough lecture on acting.
I find it inspiring that both of you have a tremendous resource of knowledge and experience in Machinima and acting as an art.
Excellent work on this release.
Comment by Xanatos — June 28, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Loved the machinima voice-acting segment. That was grand. A lot of people who struggle with voiceover acting just need to constantly keep in mind the needed emotion for the line and to just strictly listen to the quality of sound and content after they give it a few tries, and redo if necessary. So many people just need to come to a simple realization that hey, this is well.. acting for a movie! That’s all. Looking forward to the next podcast.
Comment by Tom — June 29, 2008 at 1:17 am
I was offline almost two weeks (moving to new apartment) and first thing I did after going online was to check is there a new podcast. What a pleasant surprise.
You guys can have one 2 hours show every day, it will not be to much.
About festivals and movies where nobody care about technique… one of the problems is that non Machinima festivals have very restricted copyrights rules – if you don’t own a movie, you can’t participate.
Or, simply – Machinima is forbidden anywhere outside Machinima dedicated events.
Of course, this is case with game based Machinima.
Non game Machinima is Anymation, and with Anymation (if you don’t use game based Machinima parts) you can go anywhere.
So, I am sorry but it must be said: if you are serious, if you want for your movies to go places, if you brave and good – Machinima is dead. Long live the Anymation.
hi hi, I am back.
Comment by Zuckerman — June 30, 2008 at 1:16 pm
thanks for the “congratz” for my short flick, whatzitzname, guys. great show as always. awhat r u guys planning for the festival? gonna do some drunken live broadcasts maybe?
Comment by overman — June 30, 2008 at 4:05 pm
@zuckerman, I don’t know about the “drunken” part, but I’m sure we’ll be looking for opportunities to do some live stuff from both the New York Festival and the Expo the following weekend in Montreal.
Comment by Mongoose — July 1, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Hot damn, guys, that was one of the best voice acting classes I’ve ever heard. More! More! More!
Comment by bllius — July 1, 2008 at 7:49 pm
More of a directing class.
Comment by todnyc — July 2, 2008 at 3:26 am
About half-way in I forgot you were talking about machinima.
Bravo on that.
Comment by Johnnie Ingram — July 2, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Finally got around to listening to this. Superb stuff, highly entertaining and very informative. I’m really looking forward to whatever you guys decide to do next episode.
One problem, though - where’s the link to the youtube vid of the Family Guy cast? I was looking forward to that!
Comment by overman — July 2, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Oh man, I can’t believe I forgot that! Adding it above now, and here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t926G1FFzL4
Comment by Russell — July 4, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Thanks guys. Most appreciated. The first part was really interesting, but this more practical part was perfect for application lessons. I liked the idea of asking actors to read the previous lines to their own to get a feel for how to act the reply.
All in all a very useful topic
Comment by Nefarious Guy — July 9, 2008 at 11:45 am
Finally got around to listening to this, and as usual, it was great! Fantastic acting advice. And thanks for the congrats on “Clockwork”.
Comment by ACTORSandCREW — July 24, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Fantastic stuff, truly. Not often you find someone who’s taking the the method to new places. Nice fresh take on things, guys. Thanks! If you’re interested in synidcating some of this content with us, contact me off-list…
Best,
Dave