lifepoint1

[trent bortknob]

wat

[Gerkinman]

More Of The Same

And heres someone else who hasnt improved over the last 5 years. I remember watching this guys stuff back when i was first starting in flash, and it still looks exactly the same...

[MRat]

If you or anyone else could elaborate on any issues with my performance, it'd actually mean a whole lot to me. My Surface 2 monologue was recorded over a year ago, but it remains the most challenging role I've ever approached. I spent hours and hours just determining how to pace and build the dialogue, and even more on recording and editing as I re-did everything countless times.

That said, I assure you that I don't "half-ass" any part of my job, or not try to improve based on critiques I receive. As someone who pursues voiceover work as a career, those aren't things I can afford to do.

First off, you sound bored with the entire monologue. You hang on every line until they focus becomes you and your voice, and not the dialogue itself. It's a problem almost every anime has, but that doesn't make it ok.

You don't really emphasize anything in it. You just reads the lines with annunciation and into a clean mic.

I have to ask this, and don't be insulted by it. Have you ever taken any acting classes? Even high school level stuff? You sound like you're trying so hard to sound "cool" or "good" or to be "in character" that you forget to be a person.


It's one thing if your character is apathetic and generic and monotonous and boring and lame like that. It's the writing fine, but you don't sound like it's the writing, because the lines aren't the things that sort of character would ever actually say.

I do blame alot of it on the project leader and his lack of skill, but a bad team isn't an excuse for bad individual work.




D-Mac, do you have MSN? Add me if you do, and I'd love to chat with you about voice acting and give you a more indepth critique.



My final word is this. Forget about trying to be some character. Right now it's obvious you don't have enough experience and control to be in character and be convincing, and convincing always comes first. For now, just be yourself and say it how you would say it. It'll sound way better than what it's like now.

[sQueef]

I wish I could use flash ;(

[D-Mac]

First off, you sound bored with the entire monologue. You hang on every line until they focus becomes you and your voice, and not the dialogue itself. It's a problem almost every anime has, but that doesn't make it ok.

I wasn't expecting much to begin with, but WOOOOOOW. Not a good start to your critique at all. You've totally ignored the setting.

Also, I don't watch anime, since you brought that up for some reason.

Austin (my character) IS bored. He's been siting all alone in a strange, desolate environment for hours on end. Heck, he even SAYS he's bored. I obviously couldn't bring my energy level very high when the main emotions I was playing for were boredom, confusion and subdued frustration. I would've played Austin more excited and panicked had he just arrived in his scenario, but that isn't the case here. He begins deep in thought, and describing the strange world around him. -- That considered, using anything other than a methodical pacing would make absolutely no sense.

You don't really emphasize anything in it. You just reads the lines with annunciation and into a clean mic.

I have to ask this, and don't be insulted by it. Have you ever taken any acting classes? Even high school level stuff? You sound like you're trying so hard to sound "cool" or "good" or to be "in character" that you forget to be a person.

WOW! It's almost like you're just making up total nonsense as you go, in a desperate attempt to look good! In fact, I think you are!

If I felt that you had any decent credibility as a vocal performer or critic, your above comment might actually have been insulting to me.

There's a lot of areas I made a specific note to emphasize or place pauses in between. Frankly, I don't know how they could possibly be missed by anyone with properly working ears. I play up of confusion and frustration as Austin tries to recall and ponder through the poem,  while struggling to apply it to his current scenario. If I didn't emphasize the word "train" after the poem, I would've killed off its build. You may (somehow) not notice these things, but they're there.

Also, Austin's emotions are subdued to a degree because, frankly, that's his personality; He doesn't panic under pressure. That's nothing unusual in a serious character.

It's one thing if your character is apathetic and generic and monotonous and boring and lame like that. It's the writing fine, but you don't sound like it's the writing, because the lines aren't the things that sort of character would ever actually say.

I do blame alot of it on the project leader and his lack of skill, but a bad team isn't an excuse for bad individual work.

I'm "monotonous and boring", but I'm also "trying so hard to be cool"? Awesome. Way to completely contradict yourself.

Austin is a calm, street-smart, occasionally sarcastic black guy who isn't easily amused or excited. I had no intention or reason to portray him as anything else. -- Interesting side-note, I'm far more accustomed to playing the exact opposite type of character.

D-Mac, do you have MSN? Add me if you do, and I'd love to chat with you about voice acting and give you a more indepth critique.



My final word is this. Forget about trying to be some character. Right now it's obvious you don't have enough experience and control to be in character and be convincing, and convincing always comes first. For now, just be yourself and say it how you would say it. It'll sound way better than what it's like now.

For starters, you have no idea what my level of range, control or experience in the field of voiceover is. Be it online or offline.

Secondly, this wouldn't be the first, or even second time that I've seen you write such a utterly nonsensical "critique", and act like you know what you're talking about. You CLEARLY don't. (Cam Clarke. Huuuuuuuuuuur.)

Now, I'm not saying my performance was perfect. A year later, there's a few things I'd do slightly differently, though you didn't come close to hitting any of them. ...Or even displaying a great deal of competence as a critic.

My final word is this: Stop being so pretentious. It's doing nothing for you. Actually learn to analyze characters and scenarios instead. It's a basic skill that any would-be director requires.

And if you DO possess that skill, you sure as heck didn't display it to me.

[wolf]

im fat

please thats not the issue here.

[D-Mac]

im fat

please thats not the issue here.

I don't remember making that statement.


...but I'll stand by it to the ends of the earth.

[wolf]

I don't remember making that statement.

nice coverup but i quoted it before you deleted it you fat faggot

[Gerkinman]

Heres my character analysis...

"Yawn"

Been there seen that, next please.

[wolf]

heres my character breakdown of the user d mac

d mac
trying to act
dont give a crap
hands on a sack
thats whack
d mac

[Gerkinman]

Wolf O' Donnel is a poet
I didnt know it

Oh yeh, bustin out original ryhms like its 1995.

[wolf]

gerkinman
is a fag
posts like a hag
when hes not used as a rag
in my ass
thats crass
gerkinman

[zomfgbie]

im starting to like wolf o donell

make one about me and ill break your legs

[sQueef]

heres my character breakdown of the user d mac

d mac
trying to act
dont give a crap
hands on a sack
thats whack
d mac

I fucking lol'd.

Also D-Mac don't get so butthurt and maybe the other guys don't be so "pretentious"  

ME? I will just stand back and try to learn flash ;(

[mishkamash]

d mac is one lucky duck

[sQueef]

duck.fla  

[GRINACE]

Lmao.

[D-Mac]

Also D-Mac don't get so butthurt and maybe the other guys don't be so "pretentious".

Hardly. That's just MRat being MRat.

[rtil]

i think mrat is genuinely trying to help. the guy has been deeply engrossed in film since the day he was born, and i would know this because he pretty much never stops talking about it.

anyway, i'm no voice actor but in Surface 2 i thought it was so strange that this character was perfectly fine with the fact he just got stuck in a matrix-esque train station, playing along with the "game" the world around him, as if it happened to him every day. i'm not sure how much control you had over the way the character reacted to his environment, but no one is going to act cool and bored when we suddenly realize we're stuck in an unstable digitized world controlled by the two-watts at lifepoint1.

it's bad enough that the character has to narrate everything he does out loud to himself (typical for anime), but it's even worse when the character is acting so ordinary when something totally extraordinary is happening to him.

[psi43]

It's gay. Period.