Take a look at something… READ What do you see in the box above? The word READ, yes? Now here’s a fun exercise: Try NOT to see the word READ there. Try to see a series of four random symbols with no particular meaning. Go ahead… I’ll wait. Can’t do it, can you? No matter [...]
Archive for the ‘Reflection’ category
Unlearning
August 25, 2009Internationally speaking…
August 14, 2009After four weeks of toiling in my dialects and accents workshop, here’s what I’ve discovered: My British accent isn’t too shabby. I did a credible Claude Rains riff for the final exercise. And in Prototypes class last evening, my Hugh Grant takeoff favorably impressed some of my fellow actors, who didn’t even realize that it [...]
Studied prototypical
August 5, 2009Given that I’ve been working so much on character acting of late — I’m three-fourths of the way through a class on dialects, and I just wrapped a workshop on acting for animation and video game projects, with another of the latter coming this weekend — I haven’t been working much in my natural voice. [...]
Making it do what it do
July 30, 2009If I’ve learned anything in my recent voiceover workouts — and let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that I have — it’s about the essential importance of acting over voice quality. Or, as Sirenetta told our accents and dialects class, “Play the scene, and the voice will follow.” It’s taking a while — [...]
Blimey!
July 24, 2009In an effort to expand my vocal repertoire, I’m taking a four-week seminar on accents and dialects. One might suppose that this aspect of voice acting would come easily to me, given that (a) I’ve lived on three continents, as well as in both Hawaii and the polyglot Bay Area, and (b) I have friends [...]
Magic Monday
June 22, 2009I went on an audition today. Already I can hear you asking, “How did it go?” If you mean from the perspective of booking the job, who knows? I’ve never been any good at judging these things. So I’m learning to evaluate from a different POV: Did I do everything I went there to do? [...]
Carnegie Hall, and step on it
June 2, 2009Last Saturday, my chorus — Voices in Harmony, northern California’s premier men’s a cappella chorus (thank you, Blatant Plug Department) — presented its annual spring concert. Yours truly had the honor of narrating the chorus segments of the show. It occurs to me that if I was as comfortable behind the mic in the studio [...]
Positive direction
May 22, 2009My four-week workshop on self-directing skills has concluded, and what have I learned? That my self-directing skills need work. Not that that’s a shocker. Actually, I’m proud of the work I did during these four weeks. My script analysis, though still light-years from perfection, is improving. I’m getting better at asking the right questions about [...]
Horatio
May 15, 2009At last evening’s workshop, one of my fellow actors shared an epiphany she’d experienced in a private coaching session earlier in the day. “How would you describe yourself?” the coach had asked her. “Strong,” my colleague replied. “Authoritative. Forceful.” “But you’re not that way at all,” said the coach. “You’re funny. Friendly. Lively. Engaging. And [...]
The Voiceover Entrance Exam
May 6, 2009Every now and again, I read something that makes me say to myself, “I wish I’d written that.” Today’s entry into this continually expanding category is The Voiceover Entrance Exam, a brilliantly succinct, pull-no-punches e-book that every — and yes, I do mean every — new or aspiring voiceover talent should devour like a hunk [...]
