Infinitap Games

matt wrote:I'm not sure that's a fair criticism. I'm not sure if you've ever tried directing voice acting, but it is much tougher than it sounds. I think you need to give room to the actors to add their "voice" to the character - and own it. It is REALLY tough to say "this is exactly how I want it" and sometimes, when you have something particular in mind, it is impossible to get that from the performance.

In this particular instance, Eduardo wanted to try voices for the dolls and directed Elizabeth. He was really happy with how it turned out, and I think it was pretty cool. In the end though, it was not what I wanted.

OK if you guys spent a fairly extensive amount fo time talkking to her prior to the video clip, and gave a much richer, better detailed and direct idea of what you were shooting for, I'm concede and say ya'll got what you wanted and were not lacking direction.

looking at the video, between the way you preface it and what you and he says to her, it feels not like you guys have a firm grasp of what you are going for. The words you choose to use, the short "basic" description you use for what you want, doesn't sound like good direction, it sounds like "something like this, kinda".

"Now we're going to do the same thing, but a tiny little doll. EVIL tiny little doll. You're just ..like that just loved that he's going to pull out everything from inside his guts or something".

she is obviously trying to figure out what would work, and says she wants to know how to make it "different" which is her saying " i don't know how to do this in a unique way so it doesn't sound the same as what I just recorded".

*matt giggles* " I dunno, they're tiny, porcelain, I was thinking it would be, ya know, higher pitched and sort of .. tinier. Weaker. "

"Anything you can think of, from performance point of view, Just throw it in there and we'll tell you what we think".


Oddly even though this is not your concept to test out, Matt, you give better direction in this clip that is better defined and more focused. You'll notice once you give her a better description, she started giggling on the mic and working out what to do.

There is giving the actor/actress plenty of latitude, and then there is giving them too little to go on. From you two she got that she is the voice of an evil tiny porcelain doll that wants to rip out someone's guts. does the doll have an accent or inflection? How long or short should the takes be(does she want to keep the dialogue quick and tight or longer, drawn out and plodding)? What types of lines should she be using(you do take a minute to warn against the line that feels like a direct rip of the shining, which is good)? You don't explain here what the doll represents as a metaphor, as a story element, or as a icon within the nightmare, (you do giggle as a example, but you also don't offer similar characters or voices that have certain qualities you like or want to hear in the doll) which I think would have been much more useful to her to really develop the voice of the doll beyond the typical giggling schoolgirl voice that is typical of "evil dolls".

I've directed actors and voice acting(though I admit, not professionally). I've also reviewed and watched numerous video's studio's have done within the recording booth. I understand that it is no small feat directing, normal actors or voice actors, but directing is more than just " ok you are an animated cup sitting on a table that wants to kill someone". I will say no it is not EASY, but what you guys were giving her there was not "good" direction, it was barely direction at all.

check this if you want a more robust idea of what types of things I am talking about and consider how many you get on the checklist. (I'll admit, you do nail a few of them).

http://www.toddschick.com/Art_Of_Direct ... Talent.htm

In their defense, as someone who's acted and who's dealt with actors (not voice actors, but the same thing applies), sometimes you have a really clear picture of how you want a performer to do something in your head, sometimes you don't. To put it simply, this part of the session went on until they were satisfied with what they got. If they didn't like the direction she was taking it in, they would have given her more firm direction and kept trying until they got something they liked. When Matt made the decision to cut it, I suspect there was a lot more going into the decision than just the voice acting. I'm assuming on Matt's behalf here, I don't know if they had the budget for it, but I would think that if he wasn't happy with the voice acting, but felt it was important for the dolls to have voices, he would schedule another recording session, iron out the kinks, and be happy with it. Going into it, it seems like the most important thing about the role in Eduardo's mind was the idea of a creepy doll that talked. Matt was open to the idea, and wanted the actress to sell him on it. Ultimately, Matt felt like it didn't fit his vision to the extent that better voice acting would fix, and scrapped it.

When you're writing a character in a script, there are some important things, like how they say certain lines or do certain manneurisms that stick out in your mind, but the rest is more vague. When the actor tries it, you want to make these aspects of the performance clear, but let them feel the role out and fill in the vaguer parts themselves. Actors are artists themselves, and that's what they do. Art is something deliberate that provokes an emotional response. Artists are engineers that figure out the best way to manipulate that emotional response. Actors manipulate emotional response through performace. So, productions like this are a collaboration, and it often pays to let the artists do their thing. Sometimes a much more hands-on approach to directing helps a performance, sometimes it hurts it. It depends on the role and the actor. So, I don't fault them for how they directed this session, either.

Also, there's actual talking dolls. They have a small number of audio clips they play on a loop, and I doubt voice actors are given much direction for those. Perhaps Eduardo and Matt thought having a handful of the same audio clips they explicitly repeat would make it sound more "doll-like"? I don't know.

matt wrote: Technically, Adam (Joe's brother) designed and drew all the dolls, so direct your hate at him.

Okay then, I'll hate Adam then! Why did he have to draw the dolls so creepy?! I never ever in my biggest nightmare thought that the dolls would move, but now I'm watching all the dolls I pass in the stores like "if that arm even flinches then I am so gone out of the store." Thanks Adam!! Give me some MORE things to worry about with dolls!!!

I tend to agree with Grabthehoopka. Granted, I'm not the most experienced with voice acting direction, but I like the idea of giving a bit of direction, seeing what the actors come up with, and then continue to advise them if it's not working.

This gives you several advantages:
1) The voice actor may give you something BETTER than what you are expecting. They are artists after all.
2) It's HARD to get something really specific the line readings - at least for me. For Thomas, I did my own line readings, and there were things that I liked that I did, but I wasn't able to get it EXACTLY what I was looking for. In the end, I think I was too rigid and had to put my trust in what I hired the people to do.
3) If you don't exactly what you are looking for, it's hard to ask for it.
4) I don't think voice actors will respond well to super micromanaging.

All of that being said, the dolls were silent in my mind, so I don't think this is me "directing" in my prime. We have soooooooo much video footage, it's hard to find the best examples of directing. I do have another voice acting video of screaming, which I thought was particularly interesting. I'll upload it next week. It doesn't include a lot of direction because Elizabeth nailed it - at least in my opinion.

matt wrote: We have soooooooo much video footage, it's hard to find the best examples of directing. I do have another voice acting video of screaming, which I thought was particularly interesting. I'll upload it next week. It doesn't include a lot of direction because Elizabeth nailed it - at least in my opinion.

I hope you feature a vid of the screaming too. that'd be pretty interesting, especially with your direction and reactions in it as well.

I'm going to assume that since you had a ton of extra video, there was a lot more discussion and trial and error so you guys did put effort and tried to direct her more than this clip implies, so I'll concede and say you guys likely did what you needed to get what you did (even if it wasn't used). My only suggestion is next game, if it takes place NOT in a large house.. don't record voicework in a room like this. the splashback acoustics worked in this case because within a house they'll exist naturally. Outside, or in any other type of enviroment, it'll sound very very odd.

also where is the video of you in the booth doing lines? That i want to see.

We did a lot of work with reverb effects to sound like it was in a house, so I don't think we had an issue with splash back. I honestly don't know much about that stuff, but I trust Eduardo.

I recorded the temp audio in front of my computer with my webcam mic, so there is no video of that. haha The screaming video is up if you want to check it out.