Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with effect

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.

This doesn't look correct.

tizzie — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:27:11 -0800

Affect/Effect Affect/effect - which is correct in this phrase: "reset the confidence regarding government’s affect and role...." Thanks in advance.

Is it a grand gesture to anonymously give a woman I think is beautiful a banjo?

Archibald Edmund Binns — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:09:33 -0800

Is it a grand gesture to anonymously give a woman I think is beautiful a banjo? At the beginning of this semester, I briefly was in a relationship with a woman who I cared a great deal about. It didn’t end well, and really, it couldn’t have ended well. We have nothing in common. But as it is, I still think she is beautiful, and I’d like to do something truly grand, both to make this world a better (albeit stranger) place, and to give myself some closure. I have three reasons for doing this, but by all means, do not feel obligated to read them all. I’m just typing them out to see how they sound outside of my head. Skip to the end for the real question.
A few weeks ago, I had dinner with a different ex-girlfriend. We’d been together for a few months, and had some really happy moments. I was very sad when things ended, and when I went to dinner with her, I admit that I was curious to see what she thought about it. But she didn’t think about it. It was if it had never happened, she treated me the exact same way she had when we first met, with lots of care and good feelings, but absolutely nothing of the deeper connection we once had. It hurt that she didn’t seem sad that it was over, even though I honestly would never wish any sort of sadness on her. It’s seemed to me lately that all of my relationships are like this lately, sort of formal, with no real feeling on either party’s part. Someone told me years ago that they measured their life in terms of the effects they had on others, and I can’t get that thought out of my head. So, here it seems that I have the chance to affect someone that I sort of secretly love in a way that seems fantastically random and kind of wonderful.
I’ve been thinking about the word serendipity lately, how it’s supposed to be the hardest English word to translate and all that jazz. I love that word, what it means, and would like to craft a moment of serendipity for someone.
Finally, and most selfishly, I can think of nothing in this world more beautiful than this girl playing the banjo. I mean, Christ, just that mental image of her sitting under a tree in spring sunshine, picking a banjo. That is something I would keep until the worms picked it from my rotting brain.
So, I’ve got a little extra money around, and I just want to do something grand. Something magnanimous. I realize this all hinges on perfect anonymity, but I’m planning on calling musiciansfriend.com to make sure that none of my information is on the box. I’m sending it to her parent’s house, where I assume she’s spending Christmas, so I’m even less suspect (and, to clarify, I’m not stalking this girl. I have no interest in her except as an admirer, this is probably more about me than about her. I looked up her address in the phone book).
My question for you: Is this really a grand gesture, or is it creepy as hell? There is probably some chance that my e-mail or something ends up on the slip, and is it worth that risk?

Good movie driving shots for chroma keying?

wavejumper — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 08:30:30 -0800

Here's a fun one: can you think of any films that have good, usable -moving background- shots / tracking shots, that I could use as a fake "driving" backdrop for a movie I'm making? I filmed a green-screen shot of my friends driving and dancing along in a convertible (which wasn't actually moving) for their music video...and now I'm chroma-keying in various exotic and ridiculous moving backgrounds. I'm looking for things like: driving along a beach highway, driving along a beach itself, driving through a nightclub district or New York / Las Vegas downtown at night, driving through a jungle, anything crazy even (like boating shots over water, etc.), anything that looks cool, i't supposed to be ridiculous and fake and fun, that's fine, but we're also trying to make it look -awesome- :-). So recent or high-res, non-jumpy clips would be best. One shot I have so far is them driving through outer space, which is pretty cool looking.

Can you think of any films (or other sources) that have tracking shots like what I'm thinking of? I need two angles: one looking directly backwards out the rear of a moving vehicle, and one looking sideways off the side of the road as things go by. "Empty," purely background-only shots would be best of course, though with a certain amount of finess, I could remove another car in the shot and replace it with the one we filmed. I can also reverse shots that show forward-motion, so those are possibly usable as well. Thanks a lot!

Health effects of very light cigarette smoking over the long term

Simon Barclay — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:12:09 -0800

What are the health effects of very light cigarette smoking (1-3 per week) over the long term? The highly dangerous effects of cigarette smoking are well known, however (from my understanding) this is based on studies that have considered the difference between non-smokers and 1+ pack/day smokers.

So, what are the health effects of very light cigarette smoking? Define very light as being 1-3 cigarettes per week, perhaps less.

Are the effects at that dosage negligible or almost the same? Obviously I would expect it to be somewhere in between, but are there any studies that demonstrate this? One might expect that the effect of smoking is exponential, and there is a tipping point where the impact starts becoming much more pronounced with additional use. Or, one might expect that any exposure is detrimental.

I've googled it using the search terms that I could think of, but found nothing. Can anyone point to any research on this topic?

Anecdotal evidence, although interesting, would probably not be helpful in this circumstance.

Not-so-special effect

aiko — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:40:29 -0800

After Dye hit a HR tonight, they first showed him running the bases, then showed the fireworks, and then showed both on top of each other so that it looked like this. Is there a technical or industry term for doing this, viz., showing two different camera feeds at a time?

Who remembers an article about "The Paul Reiser Effect?"

mrzer0 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:49:07 -0800

The Paul Reiser Effect -- Does anyone remember an article about this? A long time ago I read on the internet an article about _something_ I don't even remember what, but the author talked about how a good joke can be really funny at first. Funny again on the second and third times. Not so funny and annoying the 4th - 6th times, but on the 7th utterance of the joke/story it becomes funny again which was dubbed something like "The Paul Reiser Effect."

My question is, does anyone remember reading this?? A bunch of my co-workers remember it, but for the life of me I cannot find it. I have searched 7 years worth of IRC logs and Google in several different ways and came up empty-handed.

I am looking for a link to the original article, or an archive.org link, anything!

Help me help myself ROCK OUT

tmcw — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:54:54 -0800

Follow-up-on-somebody-elses-post (filter): Okay, so I'd like to make an eBow from scratch. Here's the schematic available. Can you help out? I can read the schematic fairly well, but I'll need to google for some of the symbols. The big question is the part about the output transformer: I have no idea what this means:

use small output transformer, with all I core metal removed and E core elements aligned.

You lost me at "transformer."

Okay, so if anyone can clarify this a bit (enumerating parts / connections would be totally awesome, if you can). That would be great.

Oh, and as far as soldering / that sort of stuff, I think I'm set.

The effects of different alcohol

Kudos — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:38:10 -0800

Why does different sorts of alcohol affect you differently? A few friends and I have come to the consensus that Wine has a more "loopy" drunk and whisky a more "brutish", or "lively" drunk. Perhaps more explination of the effects causing the affects of my friends and I are needed. Nevertheless, there definitely seems to be a major difference.

Being Influenced By Negativity in Relationships

divabat — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 05:29:36 -0800

How do I stop myself from being affected by my friends' relationship problems? I am currently in a stable 3-months relationship - he's my first boyfriend, he's brilliant and caring, and we have a great connection together. It's been amazing so far.

Many of my friends have relationships and I often become their listening ear for their relationship issues. So far, during my 3 months, many of those friends have been in volatile, unhealthy, or just plain bad relationships - often breaking up or going through trouble. Sometimes I know both parties in their partnership, which usually ends up with me hearing the same complaints twice.

While I am honoured to be trusted enough with such personal matters, it is starting to take a toll on my own relationship. I tend to take in the worries of my friends and start overthinking my own relationship - "oh, what if he's doing this? or not doing that?" etc etc. Most of the time the worry is unwarranted; any concerns and issues we face, we discuss with each other calmly and honestly. I am however a bit of a paranoid person (always have been!) and those issues still affect me!

Also I think a big part of this is the fact that this is my first (I'm 21) and I'm still trying to work out what being a girlfriend entails - I don't think I quite processed the fact that I have a boyfriend yet! So all this is really a learning experience. I've lived through various relationships via my friends for many years and now it's my turn. (the fact that we're separated by miles for about 3 months - uni holidays - doesn't help much either!)

Reading up on more successful stories helps bring back the positivity; however, the ones with negative relationships are louder and more persistent, while those who are actually happy tend to be more quiet. I do stop and think properly about my concerns, which helps too - but I don't want to be so worried all the time.

My boy is a great guy; I'm so blessed to have known him and to be with him. I don't want this relationship to be ruined unnecessarily by paranoia and insecurity. At the same time, I can't tell my friends "hey, stop dumping your issues on me" because often I'm the only person they can trust. What can I do?

Memory Man Pedal volume pot behaving strangely.

jon_kill — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:49:07 -0800

Help with a volume pot that won't turn off. I have one of these:

Lately, the pot that controls the vibrato/chorus has gone all wonky. If it is even the smallest bit on, it behaves as though it is on ten. I can counteract this by turning it violently toward "-1" and hoping that the vibrating stage doesn't jostle it any.

I don't even use that part of the effect, so I don't care if it doesn't work. I just don't want it popping on in the middle of a set. Does anyone have experience with a pot behaving like this? Workarounds and quick fixes are appreciated, as I need it for the next month of shows.

Why do my eyes get itchy when stressed ?

jacobean — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:30:45 -0800

Why do my eyes get itchy when stressed ?
OK some people get headaches, indigestion etc when stressed
-for me - my eyes get incredibly itchy when stressed.

Arriving to work with red eyes is not nice - as people asssume
you were on the vodka all night.

Has anyone ever heard of this before ?

How do I beat up an image in Photoshop?

JPowers — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 20:28:03 -0800

How do I beat up an image in Photoshop? In other words, how do I add what looks to be physical wear-and-tear to images, like this, or the border images here. I love that look.

Sudafed

punkfloyd — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 04:38:41 -0800

Why is it that Sudafed (Pseudoephedrine) seems to make me more alert and improves my ability to concentrate? Am I getting some kind of "speed" effect?

Expert Flashers needed

blag — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 04:13:31 -0800

I'm trying to replicate a Flash menu effect I saw recently. The menu was displayed as a vertical list. As the user rolled over the links, the highlighted word grew larger, pushing the other links out of the way. As they rolled off onto another word, the original link shrank and the next one grew, producing a kind of 'wave' effect. Sorry, I can't find an example. Does anyone know how I'd make this myself in MX 2004? I know how to get the words to grow and shrink on rollover but I can't figure out how to get the other buttons to move out of the way. Thanks.

Why does everything have an aura when I look at it?

Keyser Soze — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 21:40:11 -0800

In good light, when I look at a blank white sheet of paper the edge of the right looks like RGB colors seperating. Red, then yellow, then the white sheet itself. If I look at the left edge, it appears slightly blue. What is wrong with me?