Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with acting

Speak the speech trippingly. Or pitched low. Or with a mumble.

grumblebee — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:07:15 -0800

Is there a resource that lists and explains the various effects one can use to accessorized speech, such as altering pitch, speeding up, slowing down, etc.? As a director, I often have to help actors make vocal choices. My company regularly employs doubling -- that is using one actor to play multiple parts. So that the audience doesn't get confused, it's great if the actor makes each of his characters sound different.

Some actors are naturally gifted this way. Others need help.

Note: like most modern actors and directors, I take a psychological approach to character work. So I would never simply tell an actor something like "speak more quickly" or "raise your pitch." But once we've done the psychological work, it would be awesome to see an array of choices from which you could pick an appropriate set of effects.

The vocal instrument is flexible but not infinite. There are only so many things one can do while speaking: add gruffness/gravel, change the pitch, change the speed, change the degree of annunciation, try an accent, etc.

I would like a complete list. The perfect list would include effect, example (e.g. an actor who naturally talks with that effect, such as George C. Scott for gravel) and any hints/pitfalls to help create the effect without hurting your voice.

I have a bunch of Voice-For-The-Actor books, but none has the list I'm looking for. If such a list doesn't exist, maybe we could compile one together here.

Actor needs headshots

Joleta — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:13:40 -0800

Need recommendations for photographers experienced in taking actor headshots, in/near Chicago. My husband is active in community theater and needs some good headshots. I'd like this to be my Christamas present to him. Please recommend a photographer in the Chicago area who is experienced doing headshots for professional actors. (And yes, I know this will not be cheap.)

me me me ME me me meeee

2or3whiskeysodas — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:11:16 -0800

Vocal warm-up suggestions for a play that requires me to talk loudly for about an hour straight, and then sing loudly for another hour? I'm performing a (virtually) one-man show that has me speaking, sometimes yelling, for about an hour in Act I. In Act II I'm singing almost throughout, including one song where I have to go full-on high-pitched ROCK POWER.

Additionally, my character has a kind of pinched voice, even when singing, and doesn't sing from the diaphragm at all. I'm trying to work on getting the same effect without murdering my throat, but it's tricky.

I've read a bunch of threads here with general warm-up advice and some great recommendations for teas, lozenges and other stuff I can ingest, many of which I'm eager to try. However, can anyone point me at some specific warm-up exercises I could be trying? The show opens in (oh shit oh shit oh shit) a week and I don't want to go mute halfway in!

Help! Thanks!

How can I get better at reading aloud?

No-sword — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:05:01 -0800

How can I learn to read aloud with more feeling? When I read a poem or a script or a passage from a book aloud, it always sounds really flat and uninteresting. I feel like I have a few gimmicky ways of varying my tone and I just re-use them over and over again. By the time I get to the end of a sonnet, even I'm bored.

How can I get better? I know practice will be required but at the moment I don't even know what I should be trying to do. I'm not looking to make a stage debut or become a professional-level voice actor or anything — just to be able to say "hey, this poem/soliloquy/page is awesome, listen to this" and not send people to sleep when I proceed to read the awesome text aloud.

Please advertise to me.

shakespeherian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:50:17 -0800

Is there anyplace online to find whatever television ad campaigns from a specific company happen to be playing nationally in the US currently? A friend of mine was recently in a Honda commercial and has started getting residual checks, so she knows that they're airing. However, she doesn't know what the commercial is about or anything that's said in the ad, and I don't know that it's particularly interesting or funny enough to have popped up on YouTube. She does know that the spot is called 'Think About It,' but apart from that I have nothing to go on. I'm not asking anyone to find the commercial for me, but is there any way (other than staring blankly at the teevee for hours) that I can attempt to track down this commercial?

Playing good mentor/bad mentor

Admiral Haddock — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:56:49 -0800

Tutoring a 14 year old. How to be supportive of dreams and yet practical? I'm tutoring a fantastic 14 year old as part of a program focused on getting inner-city kids into good high schools (and from there, on to college). My student is very interested in acting, and wants to apply to an arts-oriented high school and then go to college and get into the movie business and be a famous actor. Hooray!

I've never seen him act--I take on faith that he's good, but I know he's got a great personality and is very funny and bright. But acting is a tough row to hoe, and I'd like to make sure that he keeps his options open.

We haven't talked at all about how hard it can be to make a living as an actor. Is this something we should do? He's very interested in school--but primarily, it seems, as a means to getting to be an actor--and I don't want to stifle that enthusiasm. The tutoring program is really geared towards nuts and bolts (and we don't have much time with the kids), so I don't have a lot of visibility into the rest of his life, though I do know that few people in his family finished high school.

Any advice?

Bonus question: he's asked me to pull together some materials on colleges that have good programs in film/theatre. I was thinking USC and NYU, but this is not my area. What should he have on his radar?

How to intimidate larger people?

d. z. wang — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:41:28 -0800

Actors (and dangerous people), explain to me what behavioral or visual cues make people look scary. I just saw a play where a scrawny, unassuming character had to stare down someone much larger, and the actor really pulled it off. The fascinating part was the contrast between the dialogue and the behavior: reading a transcript later, you'd think the other guy just got bored and wandered off, but in the moment it was somehow clear that he was permitted a graceful exit out of the goodness of his victim's heart. How did he do that?

Opera N00b Performance Anxiety

hermitosis — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:51:53 -0800

I was just cast in an opera! Problem: I have never been in an opera before, and am not really a "musical" person. Please help me keep from falling flat on my face! Though I have landed a major role in an upcoming comic opera production, I don't know how to sing opera -- I have a lot of training as a performer but I haven't done any actual singing onstage in many years, let alone opera. The director and conductor have assured me that they have no problem with my character speak-singing most of his lines a la Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, and that I was cast because of what I would hopefully bring to the character in terms of acting. I trust the director completely and think everything will be fine... eventually.

The director keeps reminding me that it doesn't really matter what notes I'm singing, it's all really about when I start and stop singing. I have the book, and cd's of both the whole score and the piano music. But really none of this stuff means anything to me. I can sight read enough to pick out a melody, but when I look through all these pages of music notation, I can barely tell what I'm looking at. It's an original opera, so I don't have like a cast recording I can listen to.

By the time we're done rehearsing I'm sure I'll have that down. It's the first week of rehearsal that has me freaked. Tonight is a read-through with the whole cast, all of whom will be real live opera people. I can't help dreading that I'm going to look like a total ignoramus and wind up slowing things down. I'm sure they'll wonder why I was cast instead of an actual tenor. I am planning to go in and be confident and friendly, but I'm a little psyched out at this point.

If you have any advice to help get me through this rehearsal process I'd be happy to hear it. I only have two and a half weeks, I'll do whatever I have to do to ace this.

Help my son become a model

IndigoSkye — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:15:10 -0800

We just saw the proofs for our 6-year old son's head shots. We've signed up with an agency in town that doesn't charge a fee and only makes money when our son gets a gig. What else can we do to help our son launch his modeling / acting career? Ever since he was an infant everyone has told us to put our son in modeling or acting. We were told by those who have their own kids who did modeling or were in the industry themselves that he has the perfect temperament and was damn cute to boot. But we waited until we knew it was something he wanted to do. It's clear now he wants to be a performer.

So we went and found a reputable agency and got some great head shots. We've started to take him to some commercial shoots (but without compensation, so there's no pressure) to get him accustomed to whats involved in being a model. If at any time he wants to quit, we quit. We're not going to push him, or do the pageant thing, but we want to be as supportive as possible. We hope to use any money he makes from modeling to build his college fund and start him in acting classes outside of school.

What's next? Are there important websites we should list his head shots on? Precautions we should take?

How to act like I know how to act

2or3whiskeysodas — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:48:16 -0800

Help me develop the skills needed to carry an (essentially) one-man stage show despite never having even vaguely considering acting. If I get the part, I assume we'll start rehearsals in late autumn. A local playwright and head of a successful theater troupe has asked me to audition for the lead in a production they'll be staging in December. If I get the role, I'll be portraying a still-living, quasi-legendary singer songwriter. The show is bound to be a big deal–this is the second production they've staged about this person and the last one was a huge smash.

The musical aspect shouldn't be too big a challenge for me. That said, it looks as though it's going to be pretty much just me on stage for the first half of the show, and I'm 100% clueless when it comes to acting. But I'm super excited to give it a shot! If I get the part, I'll talk to local folks about seeking classes and stuff like that. Otherwise, what resources can the Hive Mind recommend? I'm open to anything. Thanks!

Audiobooks a gogo

ocherdraco — Fri, 08 May 2009 07:02:24 -0800

How does one become voice talent for audiobooks? I love reading aloud (in high school I read most of The Grapes of Wrath out loud to my classmates), and have often been told I'm good at it.

I'm not interested in voiceover for advertising or other kinds of voice acting, just audiobooks.

The Academy loves films like these

pseudostrabismus — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:49:22 -0800

Scene Suggestions Filter: Please suggest scenes from modern movies or plays, for two female characters, where one or both have an "impediment"- cognitive handicap, physical disability, or intoxication. More specifics included. Helping a friend find scenes for a Meisner acting class that's almost all females. She needs strong scenes from movies and plays that fit these criteria:

Scene is for two women
Age range for both women is 17-35
Language is modern English, not too period (1950s is probably as early as it can go, 70s-present is better)
Scene is important or climactic in the structure of the story
One or both women must have an "impediment" during the scene

(Disclaimer: "Impediment" is a politically incorrect term that lumps together a whole lot of unrelated things as a type of acting challenge. I apologize for its lumpiness: please don't derail the thread with a discussion of how it's not a great term. For what it's worth, I don't like it either, but it's the Meisner Technique term for a kind of practice has won a lot of actors a lot of Oscars, and I couldn't think of any succinct way to re-phrase it. Basically the idea is to give the actors something consistent and physical or verbal to research, then portray throughout the scene, and that interferes with the character's ability to get what they want. I really don't mean to offend anyone, and I apologize in advance for using a term that's making me cringe.)

The "impediment" can be:
A physical disability (ie, blindness or cerebral palsy)
A mental disability
A mental illness
Alcohol or drug intoxication

Good scenes for men include stuff from Rain Man or My Left Foot.
Can you think of any good scenes for two women?
So far we have The Miracle Worker and a few more.
Thanks in advance

Dazzle An Audience In Two Lines Or Less?

Lipstick Thespian — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:06:13 -0800

How Can I Make Walk-On Characters More Vital? I'm in the middle of a run of the show Jeffery by Paul Rudnick and am cast in a variety of walk-on, one or two-line bit parts. I'm having trouble with line readings that are so short, and in making my time on stage fill up more space.

Any working actors on Mefi who can give some tips on more fully-realized smaller parts?

Also - bonus points for helping with the logistics of rapid-fire costume changes - I have three in the first 20 minutes of show time, plus prop placement and my entrances could be smoother.

Where to study acting/theatre in London?

NorthCoastCafe — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:05:06 -0800

Where in London could a US citizen approaching retirement age study acting? No interest in an academic degree, but a strong desire to persue a life-long ambition to act and be involved in theatre. Some previous study and experience in college.

Sketching a performance

Jeff Howard — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:13:15 -0800

How do actors, dancers or musicians compare different takes of their performance during rehearsal in order to iterate and improve? I'm interested in how they "sketch" the variations.

are acting lessons a good idea for me?

krautland — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:19:57 -0800

are acting lessons a good idea for me? I must have held a million presentations in the last twelve months and I noticed how much my delivery has changed. I find it much easier to read people now - when to move on to the next page, when to elaborate, when they 'get it,' those sorts of things. I have fallen into a pattern - how to start, how to explain a piece of work I am presenting, how I make people understand it. I used to think I was pretty good at presenting my work before and only now that I've practiced this relentlessly out there I realize how mistaken I was. I was the quintessential nerdy designer, stumbling and mumbling from page to page.

I wonder how to keep improving my presentations - I wonder if there are speaking tactics that would help me especially when I'm presenting work to people I don't know yet, if there are ways to win over my audience that I am not aware of. you can't work on issues you are not aware of yourself.

so that's where acting classes come in. I wonder if they'd be useful for me of if there is something entirely different I should be considering to work on my presentation and people skills. making strangers like you doesn't come natural to germans.

to those who have taken acting classes: what were your experiences? what would you recommend I look out for?

unrealistic thespianic fantasies

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:22:53 -0800

How can I do some semi-serious acting quite soon in a big city? I'd like to do some acting. I did it in college but not for 10 years or so. I would like to find something kind of serious, by which I mean a production actually trying to tackle something cool--I'd be open to comedy but not necessarily improv. I just am inexplicably filled with the desire to be part of a community, learning lines and blocking and performing. This isn't a career choice, I got other stuff to do, so I want to do this, like, now.

I've considered community theater, paying for acting classes with an emphasis on performance, putting on some kind of one-man show at comedy clubs, trying out for talent agencies that cast for commercials and TV spots, or just showing up at a real audition or two with a homemade headshot. They all have pros and cons...ideally I'd like to magically wake up rehearsing for a production of the Mercy Seat on a tiny black box stage tomorrow or a DV web series or something...am I missing an easy route to this modest dream?

I'm in DC, which has a great theater scene, but I don't know any people in it. For the purposes of this question please assume I'd be pretty good at this. I act interested in what people say at my job all the time and they totally buy it. Tonys here I come!

HOOOOOONNNNKK

backseatpilot — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:41:33 -0800

I need to be able to blow my nose. Very loudly. I'm not sick, but I've been cast in a show and my character needs to blow his nose several times during the performance. Without actually being congested, I need to produce the trumpety, goose-call type of nose blow that would make a librarian's head explode and a classroom full of test-taking students snap their pencils in half with frustration. How do I achieve this?

Drama, drama everywhere...but not a play in sight?

dejah420 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:49:47 -0800

Help me find free age appropriate plays/skits/acting exercises for my 6 year old. My son is a voracious reader, and his reading tests into the middle school range, but just because his vocabulary is advanced, doesn't mean he's really ready to deal with the themes in adult/young adult theatre.

I have a vast collection of plays here at the house, but I think that he's too young for them. He loves listening to Shakespeare and Voltaire for the rhythm of the language, but I know he doesn't understand it.

He loves going to plays, and seeing them on DVD, and has expressed a desire to read and act in his own play. (The local children's theatre doesn't have programs for kids his age...well, they don't have programs that involve kids *reading* anything. Sigh.)

I'm not having much luck on the intertron finding free plays for young actors using a very small cast of players. I'm not opposed to buying books of plays, or even individual plays if they're well written, but the everything I've found assumes a performance license, which is a ridiculous amount of money for something we'll use for a week and then move on. Perhaps my fu is off, or my keywords are wrong, or I"m just looking in the wrong places.

Help me find drama! (For a precocious 6 year old.)

Can you think of movies, television or radio shows which feature British actors playing American characters putting on fake British accents?

Kattullus — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:58:54 -0800

Can you think of movies, television or radio shows which feature British actors playing American characters putting on fake British accents? Extra bonus points if you can name other examples of actor from country X playing a character from country Y faking the accent of country X. In case the X/Y is confusing, here's a couple of examples:

An actor from Portugal plays a Australian character who at some points fakes a Portuguese accent.

An actor from China plays a Cambodian character who fakes a Chinese accent.

This doesn't have to be limited to English-language films.

So far I've thought of Dominic West in The Wire, Hugh Laurie in House M.D. and Lee Evans in There's Something About Mary.

For super duper extra bonus points, what on Earth should this particular phenomenon be called?

Fight! Fight!

peachfuzz — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:40:55 -0800

How does an actor sell taking a punch? I just watched Wanted, and am really curious about how movies can make hits look so realistic. Fast cuts, off-balance camera angles, artfully applied blood, and grunting do a lot, I'm sure, but in Wanted, James McAvoy's character gets beaten up an awful lot, with plenty of high-speed camera shots of his facial features being distorted by the impact (like these, only with more Angelina Jolie). How do they do that without actually hitting his pretty face? And how does Hollywood make fight scenes look realistic in general?

Making A Vagina Monologue Awesome

divabat — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:24:27 -0800

I'll be performing in next year's Vagina Monologues. How can I be awesome? Some friends from a nearby university are organising next year's V-Day and I've volunteered to help. I'll be performing "The Woman Who Loved To Make Vaginas Happy" (the story with the sex worker and the moans) - this story was suggested to me by my friends as they said I was "loud and energetic" enough to pull it off. Great! Now what?

I don't have a lot of acting experience - just a short skit here and there for school. I've done public speaking, choir, and poetry (recitals/slams) before, as well as other performance styles - but I'm just an amateur dabbler. I want to make the performance awesome - to capture the spirit of the story and entertain the audience.

Rehearsals are starting soon. What can I do to prepare? How do I effectively memorise the monologue without coming off stiff? (I've got a long list of moans to do.) Also, is it OK to adlib in TVM? Since we're performing it in Australia, I'm not sure if some of the Americanisms will translate well, and I'd feel more natural if I was able to add a spontaneous quip here and there.

Has anyone done this monologue (or one very similar) and found the material challenging? I liked the story but I'm worried that when I try to perform it I'll get a sudden case of nerves or some latent prejudice about sex workers will come up out of nowhere. This monologue requires quite a lot of confidence and slack inhibitions - how do I pull that off?

What else should I know about monologue work, stage work, or The Vagina Monologues in general? Actors, performers, directors - what are your tips for me?

(also, side question: who's generally responsible for the costuming with TVM? The actor or the crew?)

How do I make my voice sound scared.

Idiot Mittens — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:34:17 -0800

How do I make my voice sound scared? I've never had an acting lesson but I find myself on camera more and more. Next week will be the third time I've had a gun pointed at me and I have to act scared. The first two times were awful. I can do what I want with my face, but my voice sounds ridiculous and not believable in the least. Are there any tricks for this?

Another one of those "What's the word for X" comments

Bonzai — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:26:27 -0800

Is there a word for when an actor emphasizes a sentence incorrectly? For instance the other day I was watching something and someone was trying to give encouragement to someone else. The line was.

"It's not what you say. It's what you do."

It seemed obvious to me that the emphasis should have been on "say" and "do", but the actor chose to emphasis "what" and "do" which didn't make sense. For some reason I always seem to notice this and it always makes me annoyed at the director (who should catch those things)

I was thinking there should be a word for it.

So if there isn't a word already, I'm going to make one up.

ACTING!

mothershock — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:32:56 -0800

Monologue for a budding drama queen? What would you recommend as juicy, teeth-sinking-into, over-the-top dramatic monologues or scenes for a budding drama queen to act out? The cheesier the better. Bonus points for stuff not already pop-culture-ized and anything involving fainting, over-wrought prose, and super-heightened pre-teen emotional stakes.