Game Of Thrones Season 5

As always, Game Of Thrones is back and better than ever. Season five kicked off just three weeks ago and the show continue to blow me away. Every aspect of this series is executed flawlessly, from its cinematography down to its titles. I would go as far as to say that this is the best TV series ever made.

Not only is the production quality of the show outstanding but so is the cast. There are few actors in the series that i recognize from other films however after every episode i am blown away by all of them. And there is a lot of them. The show is extremely deep and follows countless characters, and storylines.  

On top of that there are Dragons... Who doesn't like watching shows that have giant man eating winged lizards? The CGI is another aspect of the show that is phenomenal. However, the CGI of the dragons is so expensive that the show can only have them on for a limited amount of screen time. Animations can really rack up the bills fast, however I am glad that they dont over due the dragons so in the long run I'm happy with it. 

If you haven't started watching Game Of Thrones I highly recommend that you start. It will take you by surprise. 

Talk To Me

When doing casting for an animated film, it is important to pick who you want to voice your characters.  Lately it seems as though there has been a huge push to cast stars to voice animated characters.  Though a possible way to sell a film, sometimes casting stars in animated features detracts from the overall value of the film.  When I watch an animated film, I enjoy not being able to recognize the voice of an actor, for then I can suspend disbelief entirely and really put myself into the world of the film.  Immersing yourself the world of a film is much harder to do in an animated film.  Characters do not completely resemble real people and the world does not look like our world as we know it.  Stories told in animated films often involve fantastical elements such as magic and talking animals.  It can be hard enough to enter the world of an animated film without a recognizable voice that drags you back to the real world.

One of the best examples of a wonderful choice for a voice actor is Jodi Benson.  Benson voiced Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.  Her beautiful speaking and singing voice add a lot to her character.  Her voice sounds soft and young which fits the character perfectly.  The Little Mermaid  was Benson’s first time acting in an animated feature.  Her voice was fresh, new, and unrecognizable.  No face could be put to the voice, so it made the role of Ariel seem more realistic.

Lately, Disney has strayed away from using the voices of relatively unknown actors, which has decreased the quality of their films.  The most recent example of this is the use of Idina Menzel to voice Elsa in the film, Frozen.  Idina Menzel has an incredible voice.  She is a wonderful performer and actress on Broadway, but I don’t think that her voice fits the style of a Disney princess movie.  Her voice was too powerful for the role and definitely too recognizable.  Her voice didn’t match the timbre and styles of the other characters in the film which was fairly distracting.  Her voice was also very recognizable.  All I could think as I watched the film was that Elsa should be painted green and wearing a witch hat.  Her strong voice distracted me from the character Elsa, and ensured that all I could think about when Idina Menzel was singing was Wicked.

I’m not saying that studios shouldn’t cast stars as these characters because sometimes stars may have a voice that truly fits the role.  For example, Matthew Broderick voices adult Simba in The Lion King.  I cannot tell that it is Matthew Broderick, however, which allows me to suspend my disbelief and really get into the movie.  It is as if Simba has his own voice with its own tone quality and timbre.

I suggest that studios be very careful when they cast voices in animated movies, for though casting a star may help to sell a film, it can take the audience out of a movie and make it less effective.

Update

Our group has made a lot of advancements in our project since last week.  We completely changed our project idea, as well as wrote the script, casted our show, picked a location, and established shooting times.  We are very excited to begin shooting on Monday with our cast.

One of the obstacles our group ran into was casting our child.  We had to change the sex of the child from a boy to a girl (Timmy is now Ellie).  It's also difficult to meet the needs of a young child, since they are not as flexible with shooting times.  But, we have Melissa Gattine's child casted and ready to go.

We also need to pick up a few props for our project, such as the can of coins, the new stuffed animal, hot sauce, etc.  These things we will probably pick up at a local convienient store or somewhere like Wal-Mart or Wegmans.

dont look now but it might be nce outside

weathers starting to pick up and its about time. got about 1 min on my ADR transcribed and still looking for a good george w bush character/voice. any ideas for what i can combine his speech with? i was thinking another interview but im still not sure

Casting needs

A colleague from the Cinema Department asked me to relay these casting needs in case you know someone who might fit the bill based on casting you have already done:

George (20’s, M): A college student could fill this role. He is an intelligence operative in the company. In his discussion with Veronica, he is trying to deceive her into dropping her pursuit of the truth.

Jensen (20’s, M): I am looking for someone who is built like a track runner for this part. He initially toys with Veronica in the interrogation scene. As soon as a weapon is introduced to the scene, he becomes terrified. It doesn’t take long for Veronica to break him.

Vlad (30’s M): His role in setting the trap is to entice Veronica into falling into the trap. He slyly gives up bits of information until he has her hooked. Once he has Veronica in his bag, he sends Veronica on her way.

If you can help post a comment mentioning for what character you are suggesting someone and I will relay the information to the director.

Shooting schedule is form March24-31

Gabo saint bad

so weve got our script finalized and sent out. got our lead actor and a short list for actresses and almost done with the rest of the cast (minus the badguy locksmith if anyones interested). Steves working on the permission slips so we can shoot downtown.

Has anyone shot in a parking garage? help me out! few/no outlets so im low on ideas and any would be appreciated.

Thanks

dropping by

hey so i think were doing really well with our goldendoorknob project and casting tmrw and monday for a couple main characters and a couple non-speaking ones (sorry youre still important). other than that im thinking were gonna start shooting soon we got some good spots to shoot but we gotta start doing some paper work to shoot in the commons.

WOMP WOMP

So our team/group/clan (me, Travis, Alex, and Marlee) are having our casting Thursday and Monday from 7-10 in Park 277. You should all come and chill. Any extra cast auditions would be great. I'll bring cookies. Maybe? I don't know. Hmmmmmm. Marlee will bring cookies. Yeah, that's right. I volunteered her. Trololol.

(No cookies, actually. But come anyway! It'll be fun.)

(No but seriously, come. We need the extra support.)

(By we, I mean I.)

(Yeah.)

(Here's a puppy!)

Casting Call

I guess no one else has started talking about the class-wide casting call (sorry if you already have and I didn't notice you), but it might as well get started. For the T/TH 8:00 class, if we are going to do it in the evening, it should NOT be on Thursday since a bunch of us have Newswatch 16 from 5:30 till whenever (normally 9:00, but there could always be live @ 10:00). If its going to a mid-day casting call, I personally could not do it T/TH or on the weekends, but any other day is good. I'm also down for doing the casting call during class, but it is early and some potential actors may have classes.

HEYY EVERYONE!!!

Hola everyone!

I didn't really know what to put in this blog post but everyone else is introducing themselves so that works! My name is Jenna Boswell and I'm a junior TV-R major with a video concentration! I transferred to IC in the fall after going to community college on Long Island for two years. I'm not really sure exactly what I want to do in the television field but I'm hoping either something with production or casting! I'm planning on studying in Los Angeles next Spring semester to get a better idea or what I truly want to do when I grow up. My favorite television shows are Community, Vampire Diaries, Parenthood, and The Office. I recently discovered the show Chuck and can't stop watching it! Theres something about a show with a Nerd Herd that is very appealing! Besides television I also love Broadway plays and musicals! Living a train ride away from NYC I've been spoiled by live theatre since I saw Phantom of the Opera in the eighth grade. Thats about it... See ya in the AM!