Heads up for Voice Acting opportunity

Ok, real hush-hush like, know wha' I mean?

We'll be looking for the following voices in a couple of weeks:

1) Male: American accent but not heavy, maybe Brooklyn.

2) Female: Boston accent, "almost English" according to the writer.

Character voices:

1) Male: Gruff, deeper, Brooklyn (see Team Fortress 2's Scout but add the gruff in).

2) Male: Japanese accent but speaking American.

3) Male: Chinese accent, in America.

4) Female: Woo-woo hippie, maybe "big mama" maybe "flower power" + too much pot.

5) Male: Ned Flanders (ie The Simpsons) like.

Yes, generally light American accents (more global mah) but with various twists in it.

We'll be approaching a certain studio at the top of the hill in Bangsar. Take a turn up Cotton Road and you'll get there.

Good luck!

Auditions, Auditioning and Audition (the book)

I've had my first dose of being on the other side of the audition table for the first time recently, as the HR dude for The Oral Stage. They were casting for their upcoming 2 productions, Orkishly called Quikworks and Biggworks (the Biggworks play's called The Illusion, by Pierre Corneille but the adapted English version by Tony Kushner). Interestingly, not long before that I bought quite a treasure called Audition by Michael Shurtleff, quite cheap at Kinokuniya (sorry I think I bought the last copy there). And of course, not long before that I had a successful audition for Rose Rose I Love You, which I'd like to reflect on with all I've learned since.

Auditions
I'd previously heard of some producers' dislike for posting auditions on kakiseni.com . Also, I'd heard of their dislike for open auditions at all. I never quite understood why until I did myself - not so much the latter but the former. I did get a considerable amount of response from the posting - I was quite surprised how quickly some came in. For the first set of auditions, the number of people who followed-up with properly booked auditions was about 2/3rds of the number of people who made contact. And the number of people who actually showed up was about 2/3rds of that. The result at the end of the day was that about 2/3rds of those who came in were suitable for casting (note that this production was looking to take in newbies). 2/3rds of 2/3rds of 2/3rds is 29.630%, or under 30%. Having 15 decent candidates at the end of 2 days (about 8-10 hours in total) isn't the best of results. And some of the nonsense people you have to go through for these results.

Oops. I just realised that I've mentioned some of this before.

The 2nd set of auditions proved better in terms of quality. Of course, the people who came were more experienced (with an exception or two). But more of the candidates who came were through word of mouth, many of whom I've worked with before. So - people through word of mouth tend to be more eligible than through mass calling.

Interestingly, and perhaps shockingly, of all the people who got rejected only ONE asked for feedback on how to be better. Here's my response in user-friendly format:

• Keep going for auditions – the practice is good.
• Keep trying your best – casting is very subjective and sometimes it may not be a matter of ability.
• Watch plays – they provide great sources of inspiration and learning (sometimes it’s what to do, sometimes it’s what NOT to do).
• For monologues – have a couple prepared, and get them from established plays (unless you’re an amazing writer). Make them interesting, they don’t have to follow the piece that you got them from but that could serve as a guideline. Practice it, you’ve all the time in the world to prepare a monologue. By “interesting” I mean dramatically interesting – you must be heavily emotionally involved. Something must vary over the duration – your emotion could change, your tone must change, your feel, your thoughts. Your physicality may or may not vary, depending on your piece.
• For readings – much like the above, without the preparation time. You don’t have the context the piece is from, so you can do ANYTHING you want to with it. Make it interesting. Make it ridiculous. It’s all up to you, just make sure it shows what you’re capable of. For example, you could take a piece and go “1st half I’m angry with you, 2nd half I’m madly in love with you”. A useful guideline is to 1) think of all the possible ways of reading that piece, 2) choose the one that’s slightly unusual that you think you could pull off and 3) do it.
• For improvs – watch Whose Line Is It Anyway on TV and Actorlympics on stage. They’re great inspiration. Basically, you can do ANYTHING with what you’re given – a useful guide is to take the most unlikely thing (if you prefer funny) or the worst thing (if you prefer drama) and make it happen, then react to it. The key is to keep introducing events to a scene so it flows and things keep happening so you got things to react to. For example (going with the funny), the scene is “you’re about to have sex with your boyfriend and something happens”. So you ask if he has a condom, he goes “yes” and pulls out some chewing gum. You react, you start arguing. Your Dad walks in (new event). You react, now you start defending yourself. Your boyfriend reveals that your Dad is his uncle (new event). You react, shock and horror. Your Mum walks in (new event). Of course, you could choose to end it with that, depending on how long you’ve been going on. You get the idea?
  

Some lessons I've learned about how I've posted auditions on kakiseni.com:

• Make it very clear that you need to book your audition time (maybe don't even put a time there to force them to make contact)
• Minimum 20 minute slots are better - maybe 30mins is ideal (allows for breaks)
• State consequences of tardiness (if any)
• Make it clear that it's theatre

On a final note on these auditions, I think the director's choice of cast is most interesting. Not necessarily in a good way.

Audition
Picked up this book on a whim when at Kinokuniya (love the place, they need another one in a more friendly location) and thought I'd need to audition seriously well over the next few months to make sure I'm constantly performing. Even though it's old (printed in the late 70s), it kicks ass. Damned useful reference for that 30mins (or thereabouts) where you have to give it your all for that job.

It's main crux is the 12 guideposts he recommends people to follow in bringing a reading to life - Relationship, "What Are You Fighting For?" Conflict, The Moment Before, Humour, Opposites, Discoveries, Communication and Competition, Important, Find the Events, Place, "Game Playing and Role Playing" and "Mystery and Secret". Some notes on what I liked and learned:

• Ask "Where is the love?" in every scene and always find one (or a distinct lack of one). Find it in your scene-partner (or blame him/her for the lack of it) and fight for it. Love is a powerful creator of emotional commitment.
• Make things IMPORTANT. The character talks about something or is in a scene because s/he finds it important. It may be inane to you, but regardless it's life or death for your him/her.
• The desire to change someone else is very powerful and always leads to conflict between people. Use it.
• Revenge is another very very powerful emotion.
• "Ignore so-and-so" does NOT mean shutting him/her out. It an intentional means of communicating silently to get what you want.
• Limiting yourself may be the most dangerous thing to do. Always find a way to have your character do it. ie don't say "But s/he wouldn't do that!"

Aside from that, there are a great many notes and pointers about 'the little things' that make all the difference. The book's scattered with little anecdotes and examples from the writer's experiences, and it's always nice to hear of how now-greats such as Dustin Hoffman and Robert de Niro had such humble beginnings. Highly recommended.

Auditioning
My Rose Rose I Love You audition turned out quite nicely in that I almost didn't go, thinking it'd be too soon after Tunku. Very happy I went, as I landed a supporting lead role with my name on the postcard (and in the papers - NST's Streets p8 20th Oct)! Wahey and happiness!!! I had a great audition, though I'm not quite sure what cinched it for me. Definitely it's an overall thing - a decent amount of skill and talent and a healthy dose of confidence and self-worth. Let's see if I can compile a list of what worked:

• Not getting intimidated by a room full of Girl Power
• Not caring that I wasn't listened to after a minute of "Tell us about yourself" (I didn't ramble on, just waited as they were obviously deciding on something)
• Going in wanting to give them my shining best
• Singing like I just didn't care

What didn't work:

• Not being daring enough with my reading (I read for a lead role but didn't take enough time or create enough physicality where relevant)
• Not sufficiently different between my 1st and 2nd reading

I think I should have asked for a minute or two to just skim through the script to get a better idea of the scene. Perhaps even asked the context. In the end, absolutely no regrets. I got far more than I expected to, and am working with such a different group that the experience alone is invaluable.

Thanks, guys.

Into the final quarter

Yes yes it's been too long. Maybe I've been too scared to face my thoughts, my reflections. Maybe I just haven't had time, running around desperately making this wonderful life of mine work.

Responsible citizenship

So let's start with being a good Malaysian. Save our judiciary (oh dammit requires a Facebook account). Ok this one's good too. Check it out, e-mail the dude, sign the petition.

Moving on to being a good Earthling. Join the protest against Burmese (Myanmarese?) tyrannical crackdowns. According to my Dad, 50 years ago Burma was ahead of Malaysia. HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED. That's what 20 years of military dictatorship does to your country.

Just to add to that note, Sri Lanka was ahead of us 50 years ago too. Now's what happens when civil war doesn't end. The Philippines were ahead of us 30 years ago (in fact, even ahead of Japan). Now's what happens when corruption is rife, and military coups come by every so often. Are we fucking lucky? Hell yes. We have it so damn good here, we have to compare against the best in the world to get upset.

Of course it's no bed of roses, but we're actively making things better (start with that petition). And we generally fight hard against overly dumbass behaviour. So, so far so good.

Life's a stage...

... and the stage is my life. In a nutshell - Tunku's over, rocked. Next up, Rose Rose I Love You (blog here). Yay, first supporting lead role! Name on postcard!! KICKASS!!!

Possible Christmas event at a shopping mall, to be confirmed in a week or so. Little dance sketch at the end of this month, which I'll find out more about soonish. Possibly stage managing a KLPac production in Dec. Possibly directing a short play I wrote, in 6 months; more info when 1) the play's written and 2) I know more.

Helping out The Oral Stage with setting up auditions for their 2 forthcoming productions (a triple-bill in end Nov and The Illusion by Pierre Cornielle in mid Dec) and managing their people database. I so love that kind of data. The Illusion's audition will be this Saturday, which should be an interesting and fun day. Interested, e-mail people.theoralstage@gmail.com to book an audition.

Their auditions last weekend was most enlightening. It was posted on kakiseni and sent out to friends of TOS, with a reasonable turnout. Some of the characters that turn up, wow. It's quite an experience sitting on the other side of an audition table. After the event, I went nerdy on the results and seems that 67 was quite a key number.
- Percentage of people who booked auditions from the number of contacts: 67%.
- Percentage of people who turned up for the audition after booking: 67%.
- Percentage of people who can possibly act from the turn-ups: 67% (by my generous estimate).

Invaluable experience, in terms of both sides of the table. I understand better why people can be hesitant about open auditions. I also see better what works and what doesn't work as an auditionee. Funnily enough, the person who irritated me the most was not the person who rambled pointlessly like he loved the sound of his own voice, but the person who took too damn long to do everything. Tell us about yourself: 3 minute answer (avg time being 1 min). Perform your monologue: 1 min to start it, 1 min to restart it, can't remember if I stopped him after 3 mins. Perform the readings: 1-2 mins to start each (of 3) readings. Do improv: 1 min to prepare, 1 min to restart. Holy shit fuck off my stage!

Another interesting point is feedback. I've been dying to give some feedback on what they could do better, but I'm reserving it for people with the initiative to ask. So far, only a few people (who know me) have asked. C'mon, sure it's hard to hear that you sucked, but don't you wanna know how NOT to suck at the next audition?

Money makes the world go round...

... and my world revolves around making enough to sustain this journey of mine. To be self-sufficient. To be able to shove it into someone's face and go - see, I did it, now go away and don't presume to tell me what to do!

Unfortunately, Tunku took a toll on my Agel and I've yet to get that engine running again. I've recently finished reading Timothy Ferriss' brilliant Four-Hour Workweek, and I'm so inspired. Been scrounging around for ideas for an automated information business, anyone with potential ideas and a desire to be more in this life give me a yell.

But thinking about all this people database thing, I've just been thinking about having some kind of actor's database here. A one-stop destination for actors, directors and producers to find each other, something superior to what kakiseni currently has. It would maintain good, clean records that ensures a certain standard to the applicants. No more "I'm a singer... for the tone-deaf club". Could it work? Not financially, but as a service for the community. Hmmm must test.

The written word

Just finished Mitch Albom's For One More Day. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. It's my first Mitch Albom, and I finished it in under 24 hours (I think). Simple, poignant, tear-jerking. I try to apply it to myself, to see what lessons I can learn from it and be personally changed by it... but I just can't. There just aren't those moments in my life. I don't know lah.

Through a magnificent series of fortunate events, I landed myself with a freelance writing job... for a marketing e-zine. Pays amazingly well for a relatively short article - I just hope my marketing bullshitting skills are up to par. Done the main article, just gotta review a book called Leadership Brand. Life is good.

Working on a short script for production next year. Working on a musical for production... sometime in my life? Well the theatres are practically packed for the next 12 months so I suppose it'll have to continue on slow-motion. Anyway we'll see.

So I semi-recently wrote a tech article on Aggregators, and had to do some research on it. To cut things really short, check out Google Reader (it'd help more if you had a Google Account). Put in the URLs (links) of all the blogs you read, and it's a one-stop centre for all your blog-reading needs! Handy stuff... except that I've put too many in there and I can't keep up. :P If you've already added blogs as your Firefox as Live Bookmarks, fret not: check out this OPML exporter extension that allows you to export all those Live Bookmarks and then you can import them into Reader (or another Aggregator out there). If you don't know what the hell I just said last sentence, ignore it - your life won't be made better by understanding it, trust me.

Another funky thing I used recently was Gmail (excuse me - Google Mail)'s Vacation Responder. Now it's a brilliant thing to use at the office (thanks Tim Ferriss), and for e-mail addresses for specific functions. I used it for the Oral Stage auditions - it'd just respond to every mail answering FAQs or asking for the relevant info I needed. It's in Settings, the General tab. However, if you encounter problems using it, this thread will help.

Enough seriousness

Indeed. Couple of colleagues from Tunku performed for Reshmonu's MTV - The Way It Makes You Move. Check it out on YouTube. Pretty good video, looks like good production quality. Don't know about Reshmonu himself endlessly swimming.

Now THIS you have to check out for the cleverness of technology. Coolness.

My self-definition of Metrosexual:

Walking into Body Shop wanting to buy a loofah ("bath lily" in Body Shop talk) and walking out spending 10 times as much, with a moisturizer ("clarifying night treatment") and a mask ("3-in-1 deep cleansing mask") in the bag. Sheesh.

fin

Yeah I'm done. About bloody time eh. Quotes coming up!

Lessons from a serial auditioner

What an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of weeks have been. Story to come, but firstly let's get the practical out of the way. 2 musical auditions, 2 film auditions, 1 film callback; and here are the lessons I shall impart from them.

1. If you're asked to prepare a monologue, make sure you create the opportunity to deliver it! At the Beauty World audition in Singapore, the director didn't ASK for the monologue (though you were told to prepare one) - after presenting your song, he just asked "do you have anything else for me?" Open-ended, and a few missed the opportunity. By extension, this applies to the song as well! This lesson I learned from a friend who is still regretting the song he didn't sing.

2. Always prepare a monologue. I was so caught by surprise at the Standoff / Taiko audition that I did the first thing that came to my head - the opening to Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. Which I think I did "too theatre" for the camera, and it ran too quickly.

3. Make sure that the accompanist works with you. Coming from a musically inexperienced background, this is very important - my accompanist for Beauty World played some funky stuff during my song that threw me off. I'm sure that it wasn't funky in the big picture, but as a noob singer I needed some very VERY simple stuff - timing and chord. Jazz it up and I shit bricks.

4. Film is a LOT quicker than theatre. This is from very basic experiences so far (ie Jarum Halus), but what it means is that you're expected to 'get into character' a lot more quickly for film castings and callbacks. I feel with theatre you've the rehearsal times to explore and discover your character before production - with film, it seems that there's minimal rehearsal time so the exploration and discovery stages need to be done before then. Most important lesson: if you have the script, USE IT TO PREPARE IMMEDIATELY.

6. Film is a lot QUIETER than theatre. Yes #5 is "use the script". Now I have an annoying automatic program in my head that goes "if you have an audience you have to project your voice". Bloody useful program on stage, not so bloody useful in front of a camera.

7. Do NOT give up. Again, drawing from my experience at Beauty World, I had a wonderful breakthrough during the dance audition. Now this bloody dance audition was CHALLENGING. Everybody else in the damned room was keeping up better than I was. Bigger, smaller, dancer-dressed, casually-dressed, what have you. I later discovered that what they did is street jazz, or something like it, and holy shitamoly it was hard. I of course had no experience with it whatsoever. They went through the choreography so fast, and asked for such funky stuff, and in a quick timing - to say I was demoralised is mild understatement. There was a time halfway through when I was ready to quit. Raise the white flag. Throw in the towel.

I suppose I was lucky that I didn't bring one to throw. I kept at it, encouraging myself, stiffening my upper lip, and just telling myself that no Singaporean is gonna make me quit - and thankfully I think I managed a half-decent performance at the end for the director. The very fact that I kept at it and continued doing it meant that more stuff got ingrained into my body, so it helped loads and I did get better and better.

8. Practise, practise, practise. Breathing exercises. Vocal exercises. Enunciation exercises. Vocal range exercises. Pitching exercises. Dance exercises. Stretching. Monologues. Rhythm exercises. Isolation exercises. Body-building exercises. Strength exercises. Talk about discipline, eh?