25th June 2005

Actors Achieve Video Game Success
A Melbourne company producing a video game for an American publisher approached The Rehearsal Room with a tricky problem to solve. They had a deadline to meet within the next 32 hours. This deadline required character voices to be added to the game to complete this phase of development. American actors had recorded the voices in the US, but feeling that the American performances were lack-lustre the Melbourne company wanted to re-record the soundtrack. The Rehearsal Room was interested in taking up the challenge and four actors happy to donate there services turned up the next day to meet the challenge.

Using Rehearsal Room process (click here for more details) in a makeshift sound booth the actors worked in shifts from 11am in the morning till 8pm that night recording the voices. Between 8pm and 9pm the “go takes” were selected. By 9.30pm they had been delivered and by 10.30pm they were loaded into the game. By midnight the completed demonstration phase of the game was available for the American publishers to assess.

The Future for Acting and Games Production
The Melbourne company was “very impressed” with the performances given by The Rehearsal Room actors. They had well and truly surpassed the efforts of the American recordings. They even surpassed the expectations of the Melbourne producers. “We didn’t believe it could be this good,” they said. This demonstration phase of the game’s construction is now complete. It has not only achieved the approval of the Ämerican publishers but also got the go ahead from Sony US to be released on Play Station 2.

Although no money changed hands on this occasion for The Rehearsal Room or the actors there are high hopes that the final recording of the sound track for this game and maybe many others in the future will use Rehearsal Room actors and facilities.

Rehearsal Room Plans
As the inevitable demand for quality performances in games escalates it will become more and more relevant for actors to understand the challenges of this medium. The Rehearsal Room is uniquely positioned to cater for this market locally and internationally. Plans to cast and direct actors as characters in computer games for both pre-rendered animation sequences and real-time game play are being negotiated by The Rehearsal Room. This is a challenging performance area awaiting actors with a strong performance process.

Casting Directors Assessment

Casting Director

The final week of this term has had four different casting directors assessing Rehearsal Room actors. The consistency of Rehearsal Room process was clear with very positive comments emanating from the Casting Directors. Nick Hamon, who regularly meets, assesses and advises actors in the Advanced (Level One) Workshop, congratulated the actors on how well everyone was listening.

Nick Hamon

Nick believes listening is a fundamental skill for an actor. This Advanced Workshop focuses especially on building active listening skills.

On Wednesday evening Casting Director Jo Rippon assessed the Advanced (Level Two) Workshop and the Level One MASTER CLASS. Rehearsal Room actor PAUL COUSINS said of this night … “From an actor’s perspective it was great to have such an experienced casting director visibly impressed with what she was confronted with in regards to all our performances.” Dina Mann also made very positive comments about the simplicity and effectiveness of The Rehearsal Room view of process. Richard Sarell said that these very positive comments all relate to the fact that “good process produces good results. It’s a very simple and clear equation for all actors.”

Paul Cousins Actor - Sonja Williams

Important Audition Goals
Last week three of the Casting Directors who attended The Rehearsal Room were asked to nominate the three main elements they were they were looking for from an auditioning actor. For their collected view of the essentials of audition process CLICK HERE.

SPECIAL WORKSHOP
“Home and Away” actor PAUL O'BRIEN is returning to Melbourne for a couple of days and wanted to attend a Rehearsal Room workshop during his visit. As Rehearsal Room workshops are in recess at the moment (between terms 3 and 4), a special evening is being organized. The Rehearsal Room has invited a small group of actors to spend an evening playing with half a dozen specially selected scenes. Everyone is looking forward to the night.