Question for Feb. 15-21, 2010

[Amby Leigh]

How do you get yourself to act out difficult emotions?

[Subaru-camui]

I guess I wacth the episode I am doing, usually if the episode is sad It makes me sad. I act out the scene before recording, do some other practices to make sure i have the right emotion and give it my all

[Steven Mane]

1. I think about the emotion I want to convey.
2. I clear my mind, focusing only on the feel of the emotion.
3. I start reading the line and roll.
4. If I don't like Take 1, there's always Take 2.

[codeblackhayate]

I don't have a hard time with emotions, so much as laughs. Laughs are really hard to do well, so I usually either skip them, do the ha ha cop out, or turn them into giggles instead. >__>

[Gan Xingba]

I suppose what I try to do is not just act out an emotion (ie: be angry, be sad, etc), but figure out why the character is feeling that emotion and then base my performance on that. If they're worried, what are they worried about? If they're shifting between different kinds of moods, what's their reason for that? You know, get into their heads, try to think like them. If I can manage that, it makes the emotions easier.

That's probably really basic acting 101 stuff...but then I haven't taken a real drama class since sixth grade.

[4getregret]

I always put myself in the position of the character when I try to convey any and all emotions. From the moment I turn on the microphone and hit that record button, I am no longer a voice actor; I am the character.

[Kei]

How do you get yourself to act out difficult emotions?

It helps me immensely to get into character, and go through the scene once or twice getting into the mood of the scene. Once I get into the scene the lines tend to come out like a natural reaction.

With fandubs it's a little different, we have faces to use as a base for the emotion which is something interesting to play off of...though lip flaps have the tendency to compromise your freedom.

[Matt Cruea]

I don't really have a ritual or anything. I will read through an entire script first and then will normally recite the lines in the conversation before mine so I will react to that line realistically instead of just reading lines from a script.

Funnier Answer: I torture myself until I truly do feel the emotion. It's called method acting.

[BlauweGiraf]

Trying to act out sadness is pretty difficult for me, so I guess getting into character, rehearsing the lines, trying to really get the feel of what I'm recording.
Watching and hearing over the clip I'm recording over also helps.

[Aziral]

I don't always go by this but when trying to get myself to act out difficult emotions, I try to remember moments in my life where I may have experienced an emotion similar to it.

Or I simply watch something that can make me feel that emotion before recording. XD

[McTricky]

I'm powered by music. Final Fantasy X Ending Theme. Listening to that gets me in the state of mind for a crying, or upset line.

Evil laughs I can't do, period.

[Sera Phia]

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

I get into the mood, give it a couple of shots, and then listen to it. Repeat until I get it the way I want it to sound, or take a break and go over the emotion before returning to the mic again.

(It's laughs that get me, really. I love crying XD)

[Heaven Incarnate]

Vocal references work wonders for me.

But if I read about the scene and figure out the general theme of it and put myself in the character's shoes, I can imagine how I would react to those specific events and act on them. Listen to it a few times, make sure it sounds natural enough, then hope for the best.

[Midnightmoonproductions]

I put myself in the character's shoes. If the scene is one where they just lost their loved one I imagine in my mind that a loved one has died and trick my mind into believing it's true then I run through the lines then record.

^.^v

[Estellise]

Honestly I do better with emotion by looking at the character convey an act of some sort. Like when people put up audio samples, I feel like I can feel the emotion in lines better if I see what they are doing.

But it really does help to act like your the character as well. You have to feel every emotion the character does. I feel if you make faces or move it can really make your lines come out nicely.

[MissAck]

Difficult emotions... hmm
Usually I would end up reading the line more than a few times and look up extra definitions on the emotion. Once I've got a good hint of what exactly this emotion is asking for, I just keep saying it.
There have been times where I think of something that's happened to me and go off of that, just for extra help.

[ichigo_m]

I think about what would make me feel that way...
Usually it works xD