Watercolor's Character Voice Demo

[Watercolor]

Please forgive the poor quality of my mic, and I don't have any background music.

Most characters are originals, and dialogue is purely improvised.

Character imitations are: Raven (Teen Titans), Mac's Brother (Foster's home for imaginary Friends), Edith Ann (Edith Ann)

http://www.brokenlights.com/Watercolor-CharacterDemo.mp3

This is just a rough demo, so any advice is welcome.
Much thanks!
Watercolor
aka Mizuiro

[ClymAngus]

Formalities first, hello I'm Clym, it's a pleasure to make your aquaintence.

Good news and bad news, that was a really good sampler you've got a good range and all the different characters were distinct enough not to be confusing.....

The bad news, you really need a pop shield, doesn't have to be expensive (old pair of tights over a bent out coat hanger has been known to work quite well) but without one from a quality perspective your "P's" and "B's" are killing you.

But technical stuff aside, I thought that was pretty niffty. :mrgreen:

[Watercolor]

Thanks for the feed back. I'll work on that. I'll check and see about fixing it ^^ I see the places you mean. I never thought of the stocking trick...i've gotta try that., much thanks!
MIZZY!

[Lucien]

I know this is only a rough demo, but as you put it up to be commented on, I shall not hold back (*insert evil laugh here*)
A) It sounds like you're running through all your voices, going from one to the next, instead of giving each it's own individual energy. Running through voices is good for practice, but for a demo, you want to have each voice polished as much as possible.
B) As previously mentioned, you need to either angle your mic so you avoid all those ugly sounding pops, or get some kind of pop filter.
C) Your energy sounded very low. This resulted in making all of your voices sound quiet, as well as unmotivated/unemotional. It's hard to convince someone that you're angry when you're talking at a low volume, and sort of grumbling through your lines. The entire demo had this feeling of "I'm in the bedroom and it's midnight, so I have to make sure I don't wake up Mommy and Daddy."
I can hear in your voice that you have the potential to just 'er rip, so just keep practicing.

[ClymAngus]

Good points all L, but a little light on "How" to improve. Maybe it's about time someone wrote an article (or recorded one) about coaching actors?

That's always the problem with demo reels I've found, because the actor is floundering around in the dark about what to put on (especially if they're just getting started on the board) all demos of that type are going to be a little bit bitty? Wouldn't you agree?

I thought watercolours demo sounded reasonable, of course experiencing even a feint shadow of the emotion your character is supposed to be feeling will improve your performance. Switching emotions on and off like that does take a lot of practice and requires a certain mind set. Personal experience is a great way of tapping into that emotive state. If your character is supposed to be angry remember the last time you were angry, or imagine a situation that would make you personally angry. Play the events through in your mind then speak the lines. This is where audio helps a lot. With stage work you have to keep shifting emotive states, audio is a little more forgiving as you can always stop recording :)

Acting is a nerve wracking thing to do, because you have to perform. Humans (unless their exebitionists) don't generally don't like doing this as their afraid of looking silly, being laughed at etc. It's important to understand that this is a natural way of thinking, but with time and practice it shouldn't get in the way of your performance.

[Lucien]

Good points all L, but a little light on "How" to improve. Maybe it's about time someone wrote an article (or recorded one) about coaching actors?

I say she should just keep on doing what she's doing. She obviously has material from which she can read outloud, and should continue to get comments about her performances. I'm not sure what else one can do. The more you can teach yourself, the better I say.
As far as the specifications for making a proper demo, I would be happy to inform anyone who wishes of what I know about making a demo.

[ClymAngus]

Yes, Practice, practice, practice, of course, but a few short cuts can't hurt.
R.A.D.A. seems to be doing very out of those at the moment. :)

[ClymAngus]

OK If I reply I'm getting a little bit too of thread for my liking. WaterColour all that I've said stands. Nikkita we are PM.

[Watercolor]

This is all helping me a lot. I really appreciate the points you have brought up, and will look in to improveing them.

one thing i think i need is more scripts, samples in which to act off of. I take a few lines from things i have seen or heard, but i want these to be impressions of me, not of someone else's. I don't want to just "Immiate" them, i want to get good at it.
So again, thanks so much for listening, and i'll work on it.

One thing that is going to help is that sound card i ordered. My soundcard i have now is grade a CHEAP! like i can't hear myself when i record...i'm not kidding. i honestly can't until i get it done, and my volume is all the way up, and i'm still having trouble getting loud enough....again, something i will work on.
I am working with Gold wave, and hope to learn more about what it has to offer in clearing up my messes, so i'll play around and record some more. Hopefully you can help me adjust my mic settings to be clear enough...right now, they are really low, and the quality could be tons better.

Again thanks!
*goes off to practice*