BossTrigger Winter 2010 Demo Reel

[BossTrigger]

- - BossTrigger's Winter 2010 Demo Reel - -

http://www.box.net/shared/qgauun54zv

Yikes, so...first time doing one of these. I found I did that thing where I thought about what would go into it and how I would organize it but ended up spending far too much time planning and just did whatever this nonsense is and hoped for the best.

Bottom line: It turned out a tad longer than expected (bizarre considering how my range isn't particularly extensive) but it's under 1:30 so that's pleasing. I've got more than my fair share of irks with it but I figured instead of obsessing over making it absolutely perfect I'd upload it as sort of a marker for any progress I'll make in the future.

Critiques greatly appreciated; and don't be afraid to dig into it. If it's constructive and hasn't been said I'd really appreciate the insight.

Mixing: You.

Music: Prince Of Tennis, Hellsing, School Days, Kuroshitsuji, .hack//ROOTS, Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Scrapped Princess, Myst III: Exile, Suzuka, Zero No Tsukaima

Special Thanks: Touketsu and BlackSilkNinja for helping me sift through takes and forcing me make decisions when all I wanted to do was pout. Zekkai for musical consultation. Sarifus for assisting with audio editing, providing additional music, and generally just being helpful. And Robin Williams for "Patch Adams."

[Monotori]

Sorry I don't have time for more right now, but damn you have a lower range, there.

And you have a great sense of timing.

EDIT: Thanks for pointing that out. Mwahahaha.

[BossTrigger]

Sorry I don't have time for more right now, but damn you have a lower range, there.

And you have a great sense of timing.

I really appreciate this, but damn you for getting to this thread before I was able to fix my typo!

Demon Reel. That's what this is. A showcase of my demonic talents.

Tarnation! And thanks again!

[Aussieroth]

......... Holy F***balls that is an amazing range... seriously, the first two I did not believe that was you... and then came others.... Mate, if a random guy says that you can't act, then he believes Uwe Boll is worthy of an oscar for alone in the dark.

[One-Winged-Chaos]

Marry me?

I've been waiting for this for quite some time and you did not disappoint. I'm actually quite surprised with your range, you should show that off more often. Although I am disappointed that I didn't hear GILFTrigger in there but I'll let that slide.

[BossTrigger]

@Aussieroth: Many thanks. And Uwe Bole is brilliant THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

@One-Winged-Chaos: Many thanks as well. And because of that I will now re-do this entire reel doing every line in that voice.

Attention All Sentient Lifeforms: Apparently I was clicking around the page and rated my thread 1 star. I request everyone do the same.

[Seymour]

That wasn't too bad, I like some of the deeper ranges and synical styles.
Not really much to pick at, but uuuh, keep up the good work, I guess? XD

[Rhapsody~Duskbane]

Well done good sir! I had no idea you could go that deep or that high. Excellent range. There's not really much I can say on how to improve at the moment. But I'll come up with something.

[Tonberry King]

This was a fantastic demo reel, BossTrigger! I love the abrupt jump between high and low voices near the beginning. Your range is one of your strong points, so I'm glad you really showed that off to great effect. The editing was smooth and consistent too.

And about the one-star rating, it's actually a forum glitch. It will generally say to everyone that tries to rate the thread that they have already rated it, making them assume that they were the one-star vote. It's actually just a flaw in the boards. XD I would rate you five stars... but yeah... ;)

[Sukisho]

I thought it was alright overall. However some of the voices, like the second one, really seemed to be pushing your range a bit over. It sounded rather forced, as they didn't seem to carry the same strength behind them as the others. I think you currently do better in the medium to higher range then the lower end.


And yeah the Ratings are glitched (is trying to get a higher staff to disable them)

[BossTrigger]

That wasn't too bad, I like some of the deeper ranges and synical styles.
Not really much to pick at, but uuuh, keep up the good work, I guess? XD

Oh god please pick at it. Even nitpicks are really, really helpful, if you have the time.


This was a fantastic demo reel, BossTrigger! I love the abrupt jump between high and low voices near the beginning. Your range is one of your strong points, so I'm glad you really showed that off to great effect.

That was definitely on purpose. The plan was to start out with my strongest voice (as per "The Code Of Demo Reels" subsection 4) but my strongest voices are simila-...well...identical to my natural voice, and I assumed that starting off with a voice that sounds exactly like my natural speaking voice might be a bit distracting and might take the listener out of the moment of the voice itself. For the record if anyone disagrees with the decision I'd appreciate some insight on anything I overlooked.

Also, thank you for listening!


I thought it was alright overall. However some of the voices, like the second one, really seemed to be pushing your range a bit over. It sounded rather forced, as they didn't seem to carry the same strength behind them as the others. I think you currently do better in the medium to higher range then the lower end.


And yeah the Ratings are glitched (is trying to get a higher staff to disable them)

Oh yeah. I was struggling to achieve proper resonance with my more chesty voices and noticed I'm projecting the sound more downward than forward. Sort of tightens up my throat too, and the 2nd voice is a very good example of that conflict of interests between wishful thinking and muscle memory. Thanks for the critique!

And huh, that's odd about the ratings. Thanks for the notice (this applies to Tonberry King as well).

[Zekkai]

Oh so this is what you needed those soundtracks for! Haha!

Although that I have been your student for quite some time now, and exposed to some of your capabilities, I have to say, even this was extremely impressive and showed your skills amazingly! You definitely put a lot of work into this (coughespeciallysinceyouhavebeenworkingonthisevenb eforewestartedtalkingregularlycough). I have a feeling that the community will be hearing a lot more of you now! ^^

[Chaos-X]

I have to say, I clicked on this for the reason that it was rated one star. I was thinking "It can't really be THAT bad can it?" I was completely amazed that it was nothing short of being a great demo.

Overall I really like how quickly things moved along. It gave it a sense of excitement (for me at least) and really made it flow well. And as many have already said, the range is incredible.

The second voice you did was really one of the only ones I had somewhat of a problem with. While the deepness of it was really good, it was a little hard for me to understand what you were saying there.

For the eighth voice I don't feel like it ended strongly enough. It may just be me but the way you said "passing" at the end didn't really get me like many of your other voices did.

I really enjoyed listening to your demo though. You really don't sound like an amatuer at all. Keep up the good work. ^_^

[The Pawt]

A couple of hours later than I said I'd have this critique out, but what the footises.

You may read the following in Sarifus' voice if you please.

"There are dozens of enemy ships..." - I love this line for a ton of reasons! First, it's in great contrast, vocal-wise, to your normal speaking tone in the intro. Second, it really wasn't the kind of emotion and voice I'd have expected if I'd just seen the line written out on paper, but it worked fantastically. Third, even though the line itself doesn't carry much impact or epic BADABOOM feeling, the BGM hits fairly close to home at doing just that, which made it fit even more as a first voice. Simply awesome!

"I... I remember..." - Ooooh, I know this kind of voice. I can do something pretty close to it myself and the problems I have with this line are the same as everytime I've tried to do that kind of voice myself. It gets you out of breath really quickly and since it's not only a really low pitched voice, but also has a growl, there's a lot to keep in mind just to pull off the voice. In this case, the acting really suffered. It sounded like the voice was holding you back, like it wasn't giving you enough room to act out in, if that makes any sense. Even after practice it's a tough-as-shit voice to pull off really well, but I think that if you keep at it, you could learn to use this well. As for now, though? Not all that impressive. It was good juxtaposition (That's the word, right?) from the meek and high-pitched first voice.

"Hey, don't waste your time..." - My god, man! Why don't you always talk this smooth and dead sexy? I'd tap it with the FORCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS! Ahem, but honestly, yes, this is a damn smooth voice you're pulling off here and the tone is aboslutely great. The way you kind of hit the last syllables makes it impossible for the listener to NOT imagine the character smiling at that point, which is impressive, I'd say! I don't think I've ever had such a clear picture of something painted in my head from just a voice before!

"You know..." - What's Sarifus doing in your reel? :L derp derp! But but, this was good! I liked the dark atmosphere of the scene and your more natural sounding low pitch. There were some things I wasn't that big a fan of, though. First of all, I think it would've sounded better if you let "How..." drag out a bit and added a more contemplating tone to it, since it kind of cuts off as it is now. The second is that after the pause, you abandoned the smoothness you had in the first half of the voice and added in the growl, which I think the scene could've done without. You kind of have that growly undertone in most of your medium to low voices, so it would've been cool to hear one without it. Still a good line! : D

"Well, you know what..." - This line almost suffered from the same problem as line number 2, but you managed to pull this one off better. I liked it up until the laugh, which fits contexually but the pause before it is just long enough to be awkward and the... grunting part of it? sounded off when matched up with the laughing. I think you could've cut out the laugh entirely and just gone with the spoken line.

"I-I don't care who..." - Looooving the build-up on this one! I don't know if it was by accident or not, but the way your voice sounds like it's about to crack right at the end really sells the stress and insanity of the character! Great job, Trigga!

"The good this will bring us..." - I can't nitpick this one. Nope. I won't. Favorite line of the reel GET!

"Concentrate, boy." - Again with the growly/gravelly undertones in the lower pitched voices. I really don't think this line went anywhere in terms of buildup, emotions or vocal qualities. And since it sounded kind of like the fourth voice this line fell short of what I was hoping for. Perhaps a little more scolding tone at the end to emphasize the mentor part of the character? Or maybe some hint of superiority in the character's voice to show that even though he's apparently teaching this boy something, he still knows that he's better and doesn't bother hiding it? Something at the end to put a little twist on it would've been good.

"As for me..." - Oooh, I remember this! ;3 I think this is a solid line, but listening to it repeatedly, I think you could've upped his schadenfreude and make him sound even more proud and happy over what he'd done. The laugh here I think is the weakest link. It doesn't sound natural seeing as how slow it is, but even so it lacks emotion in that it's just plain "Ha. Ha. Ha." and no feeling of "You guys ain't got shit on me, so I'm just gonna laugh at you and feel superior!" (I couldn't think of a word for it >_> ). Also, a bit more emphasis on the first syllable in bastards would've been nice as well, since it sounds kind of choppy as it is now.

"And the new seating..." - The complete lack of caring and the overall :I-faced emotion in this line is great! It's dry as hell, but not in a bad way- Since that's what you were aiming for |D Ain't got anything more to say about it!

"Heeeeey, I'm pretty sure..." - A good line to end the reel on, I thought. A stand-out voice and sweet acting throught the whole thing. Really liked the little squeel at the end!

Overall: Now, I know I nitpicked a whole lot and it might sound like I wasn't all too fond of it, but I really liked this reel. You still have some flaws you can work on, but it gave a good overview of your abilities and your range! And considering that this is your first reel, this is really, really good!

[BossTrigger]

Oh so this is what you needed those soundtracks for! Haha!

Although that I have been your student for quite some time now, and exposed to some of your capabilities, I have to say, even this was extremely impressive and showed your skills amazingly! You definitely put a lot of work into this (coughespeciallysinceyouhavebeenworkingonthisevenb eforewestartedtalkingregularlycough). I have a feeling that the community will be hearing a lot more of you now! ^^

Thank you muchly, Anthony. Also, edited the first post to include in Special Thanks Land.

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I have to say, I clicked on this for the reason that it was rated one star. I was thinking "It can't really be THAT bad can it?" I was completely amazed that it was nothing short of being a great demo.

Thanks a bunch for the listen! And yeah, there was some ratings malfunction on the site or something (Tonberry Kind and Sukisho mentioned it on the first page).

--------------------------------------


You may read the following in Sarifus' voice if you please.

Are you implying I haven't done that for everything I've read?


"I... I remember..." - Ooooh, I know this kind of voice. I can do something pretty close to it myself and the problems I have with this line are the same as everytime I've tried to do that kind of voice myself. It gets you out of breath really quickly and since it's not only a really low pitched voice, but also has a growl, there's a lot to keep in mind just to pull off the voice. In this case, the acting really suffered. It sounded like the voice was holding you back, like it wasn't giving you enough room to act out in, if that makes any sense. Even after practice it's a tough-as-shit voice to pull off really well, but I think that if you keep at it, you could learn to use this well. As for now, though? Not all that impressive. It was good juxtaposition (That's the word, right?) from the meek and high-pitched first voice.

Truth be told, I sort of just decided I needed a much lower voice in my reel. Pretty much every other voice I had done something with before, except this one (sans one audition for something) so I'm definitely not happy with it for now.


It was good juxtaposition (That's the word, right?)

Pfft. Swedes.


"Hey, don't waste your time..." - My god, man! Why don't you always talk this smooth and dead sexy? I'd tap it with the FORCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS! Ahem, but honestly, yes, this is a damn smooth voice you're pulling off here and the tone is aboslutely great. The way you kind of hit the last syllables makes it impossible for the listener to NOT imagine the character smiling at that point, which is impressive, I'd say! I don't think I've ever had such a clear picture of something painted in my head from just a voice before!

That's very kind of you! And yeah, I'm not used to putting a smile in my voice, so I was essentially shouting with a big stupid grin on my face, then scaled it back to that xD


"You know..." - What's Sarifus doing in your reel? :L derp derp! But but, this was good! I liked the dark atmosphere of the scene and your more natural sounding low pitch. There were some things I wasn't that big a fan of, though. First of all, I think it would've sounded better if you let "How..." drag out a bit and added a more contemplating tone to it, since it kind of cuts off as it is now. The second is that after the pause, you abandoned the smoothness you had in the first half of the voice and added in the growl, which I think the scene could've done without. You kind of have that growly undertone in most of your medium to low voices, so it would've been cool to hear one without it. Still a good line! : D

Originally I had intended to make the "How" sound sort of coy, but listening back I don't think I accomplished that as well either. Drat! And to be perfectly honest, I just couldn't muster enough air to maintain the smoothness in the second sense. It requires a stupid amount of concentration to shake my growl, and I can't do it for very long (especially in a low voice).


"Well, you know what..." - This line almost suffered from the same problem as line number 2, but you managed to pull this one off better. I liked it up until the laugh, which fits contexually but the pause before it is just long enough to be awkward and the... grunting part of it? sounded off when matched up with the laughing. I think you could've cut out the laugh entirely and just gone with the spoken line.

Yeah, definitely. I wanted to give the line a bit of dynamics (going from faux-wise to giggly) but it didn't work out as well as I would've liked. Meh.


"I-I don't care who..." - Looooving the build-up on this one! I don't know if it was by accident or not, but the way your voice sounds like it's about to crack right at the end really sells the stress and insanity of the character! Great job, Trigga!

Yeah that was definitely on purpose. I noticed I didn't have a lot of yelling lines in a normal voice, so I figured I'd make the most of it.


"The good this will bring us..." - I can't nitpick this one. Nope. I won't. Favorite line of the reel GET!

You would not believe how much pride I take in that line/voice. I'm glad you picked up on it.


"Concentrate, boy." - Again with the growly/gravelly undertones in the lower pitched voices. I really don't think this line went anywhere in terms of buildup, emotions or vocal qualities. And since it sounded kind of like the fourth voice this line fell short of what I was hoping for. Perhaps a little more scolding tone at the end to emphasize the mentor part of the character? Or maybe some hint of superiority in the character's voice to show that even though he's apparently teaching this boy something, he still knows that he's better and doesn't bother hiding it? Something at the end to put a little twist on it would've been good.

Wow, this one has very little dynamics. It's...wow. How did I not notice this before? Maaaaan, good call.


"As for me..." - Oooh, I remember this! ;3 I think this is a solid line, but listening to it repeatedly, I think you could've upped his schadenfreude and make him sound even more proud and happy over what he'd done. The laugh here I think is the weakest link. It doesn't sound natural seeing as how slow it is, but even so it lacks emotion in that it's just plain "Ha. Ha. Ha." and no feeling of "You guys ain't got shit on me, so I'm just gonna laugh at you and feel superior!" (I couldn't think of a word for it >_> ). Also, a bit more emphasis on the first syllable in bastards would've been nice as well, since it sounds kind of choppy as it is now.

S'what I get for not re-doing this line. I just of MacGyver'd a line out of some others because I wanted another louder one. Alas, I could not fool The Pawt. A pity. A pity.


"And the new seating..." - The complete lack of caring and the overall :I-faced emotion in this line is great! It's dry as hell, but not in a bad way- Since that's what you were aiming for |D Ain't got anything more to say about it!

Yeah, this is basically me playing myself.


Overall: Now, I know I nitpicked a whole lot and it might sound like I wasn't all too fond of it, but I really liked this reel. You still have some flaws you can work on, but it gave a good overview of your abilities and your range! And considering that this is your first reel, this is really, really good!

Nitpicking is an upcoming actor's greatest ally, or some nonsense. Thanks a bunch for your time and insight, and I'm glad you enjoyed the reel as much as you did!

[Damaru]

Daayyummm you got some raanngge. Your demo was so good I couldn't even close the window. No, like literally my browser malfunctioned wouldn't let me click out. :/

xD Good job.

[BossTrigger]

Daayyummm you got some raanngge. Your demo was so good I couldn't even close the window. No, like literally my browser malfunctioned wouldn't let me click out. :/

xD Good job.

You're alright, Damaru. You're alright...

[hyperknees91]

Nice range and good acting boss man dude~

I think if anything I would change up would be the placement for the first two voices, they aren't as strong as some of your others (number 3 I would say is the best on here) and its always good to start out strong on a demo reel. Not to say they are bad or anything its just they dialogue doesn't reel you in right away for me.

I don't have any nitpicks really. Perhaps on your more projected lines they can lack a bit of power due to the thiness of your voice but that is a-ok as they are still well done. So yeah good show!

[SonicTheVA]

I am super lazy when it comes to giving critiques so forgive me if this isn't as in-depth as it's supposed to be.

This is a pretty good demo reel. It really shows your vocal range . The critiques I have are that a few of your voices need a bit more enuniation into it (especially the two voices after your normal voice). I also felt that you need to put a bit more emotions into your emotional lines, especially in the "I don't care who you are" line. I thought that line needs to feel more frustration into it...if that's what you're really going for.

Other than that, good job! =D

[Touketsu]

Already spoke to you regarding your demo bud, but I DO plan on writing out a full critique later.... so the world will know what you did. You SARS.


I also felt that you need to put a bit more emotions into your emotional lines, especially in the "I don't care who you are" line. I thought that line needs to feel more frustration into it.


I think if you're going to say that, you should specify more than simply saying "emotional lines". That's rather vague; unless you're playing a robot, EVERY line is technically an emotional line.

As for the "I don't care who you are" line, I actually thought it was really good. He sounded like he was going for more of a desperate, enraged feel, not a frustrated one. Besides, if he tried to sound overly frustrated on top of the other emotions conveyed here, it would just end up sounding over the top and false. I'm actually quite impressed; most people underact or overact yelling lines, but you managed to find a happy medium and really worked it.

[Kiora]

...damn.
With a positive meaning there X3
Any tips you could give someone for increasing range?

[BossTrigger]

...damn.
With a positive meaning there X3
Any tips you could give someone for increasing range?

Alternate between higher voices and lower voices to confuse your audience into thinking you have range. That's what I did.

...genuinely though, range is a tricky thing. Worse so it's something I'm still really struggling with. I think a big part of expanding vocal range is a combination of a few things.

Adapting different sorts of speech patterns and learning how to sound like a different person without really changing your voice. Secondly is understand where your voice is coming from and how to change it. I know that sounds a bit obvious, but it comes from a lot of experimentation. Speaking from the diaphragm and feeling resonance in the chest/neck/head. Basically...if you're ever just alone and bored, start making noises and see how you make those noises. Sounds silly, but it helps you discover the mechanics or creating voices.

Also I'm not entirely sure if this is the place for questions like this. There's a whole "Help, Information, And Resources" section that can provide all the information stated here and more (and in a far more eloquent manner, I'm sure).

[Kiora]

Thank you! I know there's probably a whole slew of forums out there somewhere ^^;
I just wanted to ask YOU, specifically. I respect your opinion =)

[KingChronn]

Okay I really have to nitpick to give you a critique on anything what's so ever. This demo reel sounds outstanding for your very first go at it. I mean really.

Not very good at giving real detailed critiques one the voices one by one, buuut here I go.

First Line - One thing I right away was with the first voice was that the part "...What do we do master?" I absolutely loved the way it sounded (One of my favorites in the reel). But those few seconds between "On us..." and "...What do we" seemed to be very crucial time lost and the demo seemed to lose the tempo it started so strong with. I could sorta feel myself thinking "Alright over to the next voice now". On the line/voice in general though it painted a very clear picture in my head of the character(s) and the setting in which they would be placed.

Second line - "I remember..." ; Holy flabcakes. I like this voice a lot. The only thing I was iffy about was that at one point I had to go back a couple times to find out what it was that you said (that probably was just me not hearing right though). No real problem. Voice was awesome.

Third - I think this was your strongest in my opinion. The way the line was executed and your tone were perfect. Excellent!

Fourth - The character seemed to change for me about have way through from smooth to this slight growl, not a problem I am just not sure which you were aiming for. Though unlike the the first voice where the pauses felt a little uncomfortable. The pauses in this one felt fluid and just molded the character further. Thumbs up

Fifth - I think I ran into the same problem, their was this pause that just felt uncomfortable other than that, it got me chuckling and it was something I was really surprised to hear from you.

Sixth - Daang, some mofo's gonna die. Great line I got shivers a bit

Seventh - I really like this line, for some reason it really stood out to me. Haha not sure why. No complaints

Eighth - The voice was consistant all the way through. Not much else to say, it felt a bit monotone. But perhaps that is what you were going for

Ninth - Loved this line when I first heard it, and I love it now. Though since it was sort of out of context, perhaps the laugh at the end could have been hyped up just a smidge. It sounded a bit more like he was sitting in a throne, sipping wine, rather than chained up and knockin' on death's door.

Tenth - LOL this unlucky bastard. I absolutely love this line, it is definitely among my favorites in this demo. Something about the atomosphere you created made me laugh so hard. Wonderful.

Final - Perfect... That is all.

Now I had to listen to this reel over and over and over and over again, just to get a decent sentence written about this. I really am surprised this was your first.

I am absolutely awful at critique's but I hope this helped.

[Aldrius]

Okay, so I'm not really a great judge of these sorta things, but I figured it was about time I threw my two cents in here.

Overall, pretty cool. I think you displayed some good range and some pretty significant acting talent. I don't really know if there's anything I can effectively criticize really. I thought your delivery on the first two voices was a bit strange. The first voice sounded a little forced in some way, I can't really be more specific than that or maybe it's just that, that's the kind of character I really don't like. The second one kind of had an odd pattern of delivery. But I know that's sort of an experimental voice for you. (You should record lines with it maybe, that could help...!)

The rest of the voices all sounded really good. You were sufficiently unpleasant when you needed to be unpleasant, you were creepy when you needed to be creepy, and so forth. I wish I had some more constructive criticism to give, but I can't really think of anything. Looking forward to hearing more in the future!~

[CatSinger]

Wow! You're AMAZING! I wish I had as big a range as you did, could you maybe check out some of my demo reels on here and give me some feedback? They're all under my latest started threads... if you wouldn't mind. I'm a newb!