Development…
So, this week I was lucky enough to be back in Bedford performing some rehearsed readings as part of ‘Stage Write’. Starting on Wednesday, two brand new plays were performed each night, with the audience getting to join in after the pieces in a discussion to help the writers develop their work.
Out of the eight plays, I was involved in four, so I was extremely relieved that we would be performing script in hand.
For several people, including myself, this was a brand new experience and I was incredibly excited. I got to work with people that I already knew, and also people that I had heard of but never met!
Rehearsals kicked off on Monday and I rehearsed two of the four that I was in. The first was called ‘The Valley’, and was set in the USA. I felt slightly concerned about this one, as I had read it a few times and didn’t really understand it. It wasn’t until I got to rehearsals that I was told that it was only half of the play, and the second part hadn’t been written yet. The relief washed over me, I wasn’t being stupid!! I dragged out my American accent and we got to work. We only had 5 hours rehearsal plus a tech for each play so it was a very intense rehearsal process, but it was exciting! Decisions had to made and run with so that we could actually get through the whole play before performing it!
The second play was called ‘Our Brand New Future’. Like the first one, there was a lot of talk about technology, and how it affects our lives. I played a woman who had become a celebrity, and technology really didn’t do her many favours. It was a complete contrast to ‘The Valley’, but I enjoyed them both so much. Due to time restraints, we didn’t get too far into both plays in rehearsal, and I was desperate to carry on. But it had to wait until another day…
Tuesday brought rehearsals for the other two plays, which again were complete opposites to everything else. First up was ‘All’s Well’, a two hander about a rekindled relationship. Yet again I found myself faced with the daunting task of acting with someone insanely more talented than myself! I don’t know where all these actors have been hiding, but they all came out of the woodwork and put my acting skills to shame! This was also my first time being directed by one of my friends who I have only previously acted with before. I don’t know why I thought it would be strange having him direct me, but it was huge fun, working with 2 amazing boys certainly made my day!
The final performance that I was in was called ‘Cake’, which was a play written for radio. It revolved around a family who own a cake shop! This was right up my alley! I like not having to think too much when I work on plays (I probably shouldn’t admit that!), and this script was family friendly, with gentle humour, and fun for all. I loved it! Once more I had to whip out my generic northern accent, which was put to great use in several projects last year! As we were performing in the theatre and not in a radio studio, we imagined it as a live recording with a studio audience, which was lovely when we actually got to the performance.
Wednesday rolled around and it was a long day! We went back to the first two plays, which would be performed that night. We had another two hours of rehearsal, followed by a tech run. The morning was spent on ‘The Valley’, which grew on me as the rehearsal progressed. I became more excited at finding out what would happen next in the story, it was only a few hours until we’d get to meet the writer.
We had a few minutes break for some food before starting rehearsals for ‘Our Brave New Future’, when a man we didn’t know came into the auditorium. It was the writer! I suddenly felt pressure with him being there. I obviously wanted to do his writing justice, and I kept wondering if I was doing the right things to make the character into what was inside his head when creating her. I had a chat with him and became a bit more relaxed. It was really nice to have him in the room while rehearsing. We had a few questions about the script that he was able to answer straight away, and he said he really enjoyed it, bonus!
The performances of the shows went really well that night. The post-show discussions were good, but we were all gutted to find out that the writer of ‘The Valley’ didn’t know what she was going to do with the rest of the play! Aaagh! We want to know what happens! I really enjoyed ‘Our Brave New Future’, despite feeling like I was going to die throughout the whole play... As I was playing a celebrity, I decided that I would wear my new beautiful £5 leopard print shoes, only to find that I would be standing on a stage block in the same spot for almost an hour. Those shoes are high! I honestly thought that I would fall off my shoes, fall off the block and land in a heap about fifteen times. When I was finally able to get down, it was the biggest relief of my life!! Despite that, I think it was probably my favourite performance of the week.
There were two more plays on Thursday, but I wasn’t involved in them. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it over to see them and I was gutted. I heard they were fantastic. Ugh!
But I was back on Friday, ready for my two-hander! This one made me incredibly nervous. I was shaking before I went on. It was ridiculous, I knew what I was doing, I had the script in my hand! I had been fine in rehearsals, I don’t know what it was. Thankfully my nerves turned into fabulous energy and I had a cracking time doing the play. There was quite a long discussion after the performance which was good, there were lots of ideas about its development, and I wouldn’t mind giving the play another go after a re-write, I really enjoyed it! The character I played was the type of person that I really don’t like, but it was a challenge to try and make her into a real person, I hope I did okay!
After our performance I got to watch the other play that night called ‘The Widow’. It was performed by one man, and was almost an hour long. I was absolutely transfixed by the actor. He was amazing. When I was performing I was obviously aware that I had a script in my hand, but when I watched this one, I was amazed by how much I didn’t notice it at all. It was so well acted, and I did shed a tiny tear at the end, I will admit it! It got me thinking about how much I want to be a better actor, aaagh!!!
Saturday brought with it the final two plays, and I was sad that it was all going to be over. But we had a show to do first! Rehearsals went really well, and we got to run it a few times which was lovely! When we got to the performance, the room seemed to turn electric. People were laughing hard, and our performances really seemed to lift. I wouldn’t be going too far if I said I’m pretty sure every single person enjoyed it. I loved performing it. As much as I love the theatre, I wouldn’t mind getting into radio! It was fantastic!
The final play was about a drag queen. I won’t put the name of it up just in case it offends anyone, but it was another piece that I really liked. Again it was only a short piece as the play hasn’t been completed but what I saw, I really enjoyed. Unfortunately my ignorance came shining through during the discussion afterwards. When themes were discussed and people were debating over it, my brain just shut down. I had no idea what was going on! Big words were used, and I felt like I was the dunce in school again. It didn’t take away anything from the performance for me, I still thought it was fantastic, I just obviously don’t understand when people put messages into their plays.
When I was asked if I was free to be involved in the week, I didn’t really think about doing it for myself. I said yes because I wanted to help out people who have helped me, and it wasn’t about the acting, it was for the benefit of the writers. As the week went on, I found that I was learning so much, and I’ve actually taken lots away from the week. I’ve learned that I’m a very lazy actor and need to work on scripts more before I get into rehearsals! I’ve met and worked with some fantastic actors this week, and seeing them perform made me really push myself to try and get to that standard of work. People did come up to me and said that they enjoyed what I did, but I don’t think I was completely satisfied. I know they weren’t full polished performances, but I always want to do the best that I can.
I also came up with my own idea for a new play (yes, another one!), I know it’s hard for me to write, but I’m determined to get at least one draft finished pretty soon! There shouldn’t be any reason why I can’t do it. The writers that I met are just human, the same as me, if they can write something, so can I.
I’ve had lots of thoughts about doing more actor training, but I’ve never had the money to be able to go anywhere and study further, and work has come my way anyway, but this week has given me so much, and I just want to keep going! It’s so inspiring working in this industry, I’m constantly meeting new people that make me want to do so much. I just need to pull my finger out and get going!
Bring on the next challenge!
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
A-Z of acting. C is for...
Castings and Creation.
I’m going to start by talking about castings. Well, just one casting that I stumbled upon at the beginning of this week.
I was doing my usual daily trawl of my casting website of choice when I found a casting for a short film that was to be shot not too far from where I live. It seemed to be quite a sweet story from the brief. It mainly revolved around a young couple during a war, and their love story. There would also be an older actress playing the role of the female later on in life.
There were specifics, as always. The requirements were as follows: UK English Accent. Tick. Soft Voice. I can do that, tick. 160 cm / 5ft 3in - 175 cm / 5ft 9in. I’m 5ft 5, tick. The final requirement baffled me. I’m not going to write down exactly what it was for fear of the whole world knowing too much about me, but it had a weight specification. Weight! Mostly castings include a size in the form of slim, medium build, large etc, or even an actual clothing size. I’m fine with this. They may have already bought the costume and need someone to fit it. No problem. But to ask for someone a specific weight was going a bit too far in my eyes. Not impressed. Yes, I was deemed too heavy to play the role, but surely that’s not right. Hmm.
C is also for creation, which is what I did a lot of yesterday. I was involved in a process called ‘Play In a Day’. I think it’s obvious enough what that means! I set off bright and early to get myself to Loughborough to create some wonderment! There were six of us in the cast, and we came up with ideas, devised scenes, and strung them all together to create a play that came in at just under half an hour long.
The play was called ‘The Eight Songs of Us’, was set in a nightclub, and featured songs which meant something to each character, they all had a story to tell. I was never particularly a fan of devising, and haven’t really done much of it since graduating a million years ago, so I jumped at the chance. We did a few exercises to get our brains going in the morning before we got going with it, but once we started with the songs, we were flying!
By mid-afternoon the play was complete, so all that was left to do was rehearse before the audience came in to watch in the evening. It was a really good day. Everyone was so nice, the whole day was completely relaxed, despite the fact that we had no idea what we were going to do at 9.30am, but 10 hours later we performed. The audience laughed in all the right places, and we all had a jolly good time! If I’m completely honest, I did struggle to come up with ideas at the beginning, but once we got going, I felt better about it. Devising is a useful thing to be able to do, but my brain takes a long time to warm up!
I love watching other people and seeing the different ideas that form in front of my eyes, and one of the scenes almost made me cry. It was incredibly subtle, and nothing was explained, there could have been a million different explanations to the scene, but it worked beautifully. One of the scenes that I was involved in was also a stroke of genius (not on my part unfortunately) and I’m hoping that I can possibly write something myself that uses the same format. (Yet another idea I have now, that will be added to the unfinished pile of things that I never get around to doing!)
I think I’m incredibly fortunate to be doing the thing that I love, even if I’m not working all the time. Watching something being created and also being a part of it is one of the most magical things you can do. The scene I mentioned before that moved me, almost definitely moved other people too, and to get people feeling all these different emotions is pretty special. I’ve had people come up to me in the past after performances that I’ve been in, to tell me how happy it made them feel, or took them back to their youth and brought back special memories for them, and that makes me incredibly proud indeed. I’ve never had that from any other job that I’ve had before. I’ve been a waitress in the past. Yes, people had a very enjoyable evening consuming delicious food delivered to their table by my own fair hands, but they probably don’t remember it five years on. But I bet they’d still remember a performance they have seen that moved them in some way. And that’s another reason why I do what I do. I love performing, it’s the biggest thrill there is, but knowing you’ve made a difference to people while doing something that you love has to be the cherry on top of the cake!
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
I’m going to start by talking about castings. Well, just one casting that I stumbled upon at the beginning of this week.
I was doing my usual daily trawl of my casting website of choice when I found a casting for a short film that was to be shot not too far from where I live. It seemed to be quite a sweet story from the brief. It mainly revolved around a young couple during a war, and their love story. There would also be an older actress playing the role of the female later on in life.
There were specifics, as always. The requirements were as follows: UK English Accent. Tick. Soft Voice. I can do that, tick. 160 cm / 5ft 3in - 175 cm / 5ft 9in. I’m 5ft 5, tick. The final requirement baffled me. I’m not going to write down exactly what it was for fear of the whole world knowing too much about me, but it had a weight specification. Weight! Mostly castings include a size in the form of slim, medium build, large etc, or even an actual clothing size. I’m fine with this. They may have already bought the costume and need someone to fit it. No problem. But to ask for someone a specific weight was going a bit too far in my eyes. Not impressed. Yes, I was deemed too heavy to play the role, but surely that’s not right. Hmm.
C is also for creation, which is what I did a lot of yesterday. I was involved in a process called ‘Play In a Day’. I think it’s obvious enough what that means! I set off bright and early to get myself to Loughborough to create some wonderment! There were six of us in the cast, and we came up with ideas, devised scenes, and strung them all together to create a play that came in at just under half an hour long.
The play was called ‘The Eight Songs of Us’, was set in a nightclub, and featured songs which meant something to each character, they all had a story to tell. I was never particularly a fan of devising, and haven’t really done much of it since graduating a million years ago, so I jumped at the chance. We did a few exercises to get our brains going in the morning before we got going with it, but once we started with the songs, we were flying!
By mid-afternoon the play was complete, so all that was left to do was rehearse before the audience came in to watch in the evening. It was a really good day. Everyone was so nice, the whole day was completely relaxed, despite the fact that we had no idea what we were going to do at 9.30am, but 10 hours later we performed. The audience laughed in all the right places, and we all had a jolly good time! If I’m completely honest, I did struggle to come up with ideas at the beginning, but once we got going, I felt better about it. Devising is a useful thing to be able to do, but my brain takes a long time to warm up!
I love watching other people and seeing the different ideas that form in front of my eyes, and one of the scenes almost made me cry. It was incredibly subtle, and nothing was explained, there could have been a million different explanations to the scene, but it worked beautifully. One of the scenes that I was involved in was also a stroke of genius (not on my part unfortunately) and I’m hoping that I can possibly write something myself that uses the same format. (Yet another idea I have now, that will be added to the unfinished pile of things that I never get around to doing!)
I think I’m incredibly fortunate to be doing the thing that I love, even if I’m not working all the time. Watching something being created and also being a part of it is one of the most magical things you can do. The scene I mentioned before that moved me, almost definitely moved other people too, and to get people feeling all these different emotions is pretty special. I’ve had people come up to me in the past after performances that I’ve been in, to tell me how happy it made them feel, or took them back to their youth and brought back special memories for them, and that makes me incredibly proud indeed. I’ve never had that from any other job that I’ve had before. I’ve been a waitress in the past. Yes, people had a very enjoyable evening consuming delicious food delivered to their table by my own fair hands, but they probably don’t remember it five years on. But I bet they’d still remember a performance they have seen that moved them in some way. And that’s another reason why I do what I do. I love performing, it’s the biggest thrill there is, but knowing you’ve made a difference to people while doing something that you love has to be the cherry on top of the cake!
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
Sunday, 10 February 2013
A-Z of Acting: B is for...
Bravery.
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realise it, but it recently dawned on me that the acting profession requires a lot of bravery. People reading this who aren’t actors/performers are probably thinking how stupid that sounds right now, but I’m going to argue my case!
Almost every day, actors show bravery. We take a look around all of the casting websites we can find, and submit our applications to a handful of jobs, mainly to be rejected before we even get to an audition. I find submitting myself for roles a horrible task. You read the casting breakdown and what the job entails, and it all sounds fantastic until you scroll down to the bit where they describe what sort of person they are looking for. And you hold in your anger when you discover they’re looking for a size zero blonde with blue eyes and a huge rack.
I think it takes a very secure person to be an actor, not that I’ve ever described myself as that before! You have to know exactly your casting type and be brave in your submissions. I always see the best in other people, but when it comes to myself, I’m not quite as confident. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed in my career, but whenever I see a casting for a ‘beautiful woman’, I immediately skip straight past it, knowing that I wouldn’t get a second look. Of course, everyone wants to think they’re pretty, but in this industry, you just have to be realistic. I know that I’ll be safe with ‘character roles’ rather than wasting my time chasing the ‘beautiful skinny lead female’ roles. Besides, yes, it would be nice to get the chance to play those roles, but character roles are much better in my opinion, you don’t have to swoon while daydreaming about the love of your life who’s off doing something heroic, you get to be the bad guy, or the comic buffoon, the ones that people talk about afterwards. That’ll do me!
If you’re lucky, and you’ve been brave enough to submit yourself for a job, and then you get called for an audition, the bravery level shoots up again. Your chance of getting this job, most of the time depends on about two minutes of your life performing in front of people who have seen the same thing repeatedly probably for several hours already. You have to find something within yourself that will be different to what everyone else has already shown, and be prepared to show it off without fear. And that’s if they’re interested. The people on these panels know what they’re looking for, and if you walk through the door and you’re not what they want, they might not even look at you. You will be performing to the tops of their heads while they scribble notes about what they do want.
But then there are also group auditions. This is where the competition gets really fierce. These auditions usually start with group activities/games, followed by sitting down at one end of the room while watching everyone else perform monologues. In a bizarre way, I really enjoy these auditions. You get to eye the competition up, hopefully come away with new monologues that you steal from people, and you get to see how much people really want this job. Sometimes you can even see the determination on people’s faces as they think there’s someone better than them there, and they try to act that little bit better! This is the audition where people also try to out-funny each other, thinking that if they can make the most people laugh, they’ve cracked it. People are putting every ounce of their being into these auditions, and they try to look as if they don’t care. Brave.
Providing you get through these terrifying stages, you are then faced with the final challenge. The acting job itself. Day one of rehearsals always scares the pants off me. I know I should feel confident having got the job, but I always doubt myself and think that they’ve made a mistake and that I’ll be found out and sacked. You have to make brave choices in rehearsals, and there’s always the chance that the director won’t like what you’re doing and change it, which can be upsetting sometimes, especially if you think you’re doing well. Most of the time you get through it well, everyone is in the same boat, and you all pull together to create something spectacular.
And then you have to put it to an audience. This is quite possibly the bravest part of all. The audience are people who have paid money to come and watch you in what you’ve done. My work has mainly been in theatre so I’ll use this as my basis. The audience arrive, most of them are very excited to be seeing live theatre, and they have high hopes. People enjoy watching things, but they also enjoy slagging things off afterwards if they don’t like it. You have to put your heart and soul into every single performance. Each person deserves the best that you have to give, they’ve all paid the same money to come and see you, so you have a duty to be the best that you can be. It’s absolutely terrifying. You always want people to think the best of you, you don’t want to be that person that everyone thinks was below average to the rest of the cast, you have to expose yourself (not in that way!) every single night, and prepare for the worst. If word gets out that your performance is bad, no-one else will come to see you, and you’ll be performing to a handful of people in a large theatre, still having to give your best because they’ve paid their money, just like the people in the full house did. Terrifying.
I’m about to embark on another brave journey this week. I’m looking for an agent. I’ve spent the last five years finding my own work, but last year I barely made enough money to feed myself for a month. Last week I sat down and ordered myself a book called ‘Contacts’, which is pretty much a bible when it comes to performing. As the title suggests, it’s full of people to contact to help you on your merry way. So my next challenge, when my book arrives, is to sit down, trawl through all of the agents in there, look them up online to see if they will be suitable for me, and to write to them asking for representation, and await the outcome. Again, I’m putting myself out there, bravely. I’ll no doubt get mainly rejection emails/letters back, but I won’t give up. I have hope that one day I won’t have to keep plodding down to the job centre to be sniffed at because my chosen career isn’t good enough. I’ll walk down the high street with my head held high because those that sniff at me will be ones singing my praises when they’ve seen me being fabulous in something.
This industry might be mostly failure and rejection, but there is also hope. And it’s a courageous thing to keep going when you keep getting knocked back. You’ve just got to have determination and be brave.
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realise it, but it recently dawned on me that the acting profession requires a lot of bravery. People reading this who aren’t actors/performers are probably thinking how stupid that sounds right now, but I’m going to argue my case!
Almost every day, actors show bravery. We take a look around all of the casting websites we can find, and submit our applications to a handful of jobs, mainly to be rejected before we even get to an audition. I find submitting myself for roles a horrible task. You read the casting breakdown and what the job entails, and it all sounds fantastic until you scroll down to the bit where they describe what sort of person they are looking for. And you hold in your anger when you discover they’re looking for a size zero blonde with blue eyes and a huge rack.
I think it takes a very secure person to be an actor, not that I’ve ever described myself as that before! You have to know exactly your casting type and be brave in your submissions. I always see the best in other people, but when it comes to myself, I’m not quite as confident. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed in my career, but whenever I see a casting for a ‘beautiful woman’, I immediately skip straight past it, knowing that I wouldn’t get a second look. Of course, everyone wants to think they’re pretty, but in this industry, you just have to be realistic. I know that I’ll be safe with ‘character roles’ rather than wasting my time chasing the ‘beautiful skinny lead female’ roles. Besides, yes, it would be nice to get the chance to play those roles, but character roles are much better in my opinion, you don’t have to swoon while daydreaming about the love of your life who’s off doing something heroic, you get to be the bad guy, or the comic buffoon, the ones that people talk about afterwards. That’ll do me!
If you’re lucky, and you’ve been brave enough to submit yourself for a job, and then you get called for an audition, the bravery level shoots up again. Your chance of getting this job, most of the time depends on about two minutes of your life performing in front of people who have seen the same thing repeatedly probably for several hours already. You have to find something within yourself that will be different to what everyone else has already shown, and be prepared to show it off without fear. And that’s if they’re interested. The people on these panels know what they’re looking for, and if you walk through the door and you’re not what they want, they might not even look at you. You will be performing to the tops of their heads while they scribble notes about what they do want.
But then there are also group auditions. This is where the competition gets really fierce. These auditions usually start with group activities/games, followed by sitting down at one end of the room while watching everyone else perform monologues. In a bizarre way, I really enjoy these auditions. You get to eye the competition up, hopefully come away with new monologues that you steal from people, and you get to see how much people really want this job. Sometimes you can even see the determination on people’s faces as they think there’s someone better than them there, and they try to act that little bit better! This is the audition where people also try to out-funny each other, thinking that if they can make the most people laugh, they’ve cracked it. People are putting every ounce of their being into these auditions, and they try to look as if they don’t care. Brave.
Providing you get through these terrifying stages, you are then faced with the final challenge. The acting job itself. Day one of rehearsals always scares the pants off me. I know I should feel confident having got the job, but I always doubt myself and think that they’ve made a mistake and that I’ll be found out and sacked. You have to make brave choices in rehearsals, and there’s always the chance that the director won’t like what you’re doing and change it, which can be upsetting sometimes, especially if you think you’re doing well. Most of the time you get through it well, everyone is in the same boat, and you all pull together to create something spectacular.
And then you have to put it to an audience. This is quite possibly the bravest part of all. The audience are people who have paid money to come and watch you in what you’ve done. My work has mainly been in theatre so I’ll use this as my basis. The audience arrive, most of them are very excited to be seeing live theatre, and they have high hopes. People enjoy watching things, but they also enjoy slagging things off afterwards if they don’t like it. You have to put your heart and soul into every single performance. Each person deserves the best that you have to give, they’ve all paid the same money to come and see you, so you have a duty to be the best that you can be. It’s absolutely terrifying. You always want people to think the best of you, you don’t want to be that person that everyone thinks was below average to the rest of the cast, you have to expose yourself (not in that way!) every single night, and prepare for the worst. If word gets out that your performance is bad, no-one else will come to see you, and you’ll be performing to a handful of people in a large theatre, still having to give your best because they’ve paid their money, just like the people in the full house did. Terrifying.
I’m about to embark on another brave journey this week. I’m looking for an agent. I’ve spent the last five years finding my own work, but last year I barely made enough money to feed myself for a month. Last week I sat down and ordered myself a book called ‘Contacts’, which is pretty much a bible when it comes to performing. As the title suggests, it’s full of people to contact to help you on your merry way. So my next challenge, when my book arrives, is to sit down, trawl through all of the agents in there, look them up online to see if they will be suitable for me, and to write to them asking for representation, and await the outcome. Again, I’m putting myself out there, bravely. I’ll no doubt get mainly rejection emails/letters back, but I won’t give up. I have hope that one day I won’t have to keep plodding down to the job centre to be sniffed at because my chosen career isn’t good enough. I’ll walk down the high street with my head held high because those that sniff at me will be ones singing my praises when they’ve seen me being fabulous in something.
This industry might be mostly failure and rejection, but there is also hope. And it’s a courageous thing to keep going when you keep getting knocked back. You’ve just got to have determination and be brave.
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
A-Z of Acting. A is for...
Audiobooks and accents!
So, last week I learned a new skill, and added a credit to my CV in the process. Yes, I am now a voice artist!
I spent most of my week locked up in a small room in Peterborough recording an audiobook for the RNIB.
I auditioned for them last summer, and just before Christmas, I was told that they had a book for me. The book landed on my mat a couple of days later and I began to read it in preparation.
The book came out last year, but was a period novel set in the 1800’s in Dorset. After studying acting in Bournemouth, I was delighted to be able to revisit the Dorset accent again. Some of the characters in the book were upper class so I had the opportunity to flex my vocal muscles and put on my posh voice too!
I finished my initial read of the book about a week before I started the recording, and pushed it to the back of my mind. I had read every word but not really taken it in properly, I wanted to be swept along with the story again as I was recording it, and felt that this was the best way to go about it.
I arrived at the studio at about 8.45 on the Monday morning. I was quite early so I spent a good 25 minutes warming up my voice and face, much to the bewilderment of many an RNIB employee! I signed in and made my way up to the recording studio and began!
I had been quite nervous about doing the job. I was concerned that I would get bored of listening to my own voice and that people would turn it off due to my rubbish reading skills. I was put at ease by the lovely man who was recording me, and off I went.
Time went by so quickly in my little room. I was booked in for the job for 5 days, but by the end of day one, I had already recorded over 140 pages of the 471! I was a machine!
In not taking in the full extent of the book and not thinking it over before recording, I hit my first problem about half way through my first day. There were far more characters in the book than I remembered there being! I also realised that I should have written down notes on what voices I was going to use for each character, as some disappeared from the story for quite a while and then came back unexpectedly, sneaking up on me, and I had forgotten the voice that I had previously used. This meant that quite a few of the characters might have ended up sounding the same! But hopefully no-one will pick up on it too much when they get around to listening to it(!)
I got chatting to a man during my lunch break on my first day who told me about the machines that make the audiobooks, and a little shiver of fear went down my spine when he told me about the volume of CD’s that they produce. My voice could be going out in thousands! Gulp!
Overall, the book took me 3 days and about 90 minutes to record, and it came in at a recording time of 12 hours and 21 minutes. Not bad at all!
I had a really enjoyable time doing it too. Who else in their jobs can get paid for sitting down and reading a book out loud for a few days?!?
Hopefully it will lead to some more audio work, but even if it doesn’t, I had a good week. I might even try to do some of my own! Watch this space...
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
So, last week I learned a new skill, and added a credit to my CV in the process. Yes, I am now a voice artist!
I spent most of my week locked up in a small room in Peterborough recording an audiobook for the RNIB.
I auditioned for them last summer, and just before Christmas, I was told that they had a book for me. The book landed on my mat a couple of days later and I began to read it in preparation.
The book came out last year, but was a period novel set in the 1800’s in Dorset. After studying acting in Bournemouth, I was delighted to be able to revisit the Dorset accent again. Some of the characters in the book were upper class so I had the opportunity to flex my vocal muscles and put on my posh voice too!
I finished my initial read of the book about a week before I started the recording, and pushed it to the back of my mind. I had read every word but not really taken it in properly, I wanted to be swept along with the story again as I was recording it, and felt that this was the best way to go about it.
I arrived at the studio at about 8.45 on the Monday morning. I was quite early so I spent a good 25 minutes warming up my voice and face, much to the bewilderment of many an RNIB employee! I signed in and made my way up to the recording studio and began!
I had been quite nervous about doing the job. I was concerned that I would get bored of listening to my own voice and that people would turn it off due to my rubbish reading skills. I was put at ease by the lovely man who was recording me, and off I went.
Time went by so quickly in my little room. I was booked in for the job for 5 days, but by the end of day one, I had already recorded over 140 pages of the 471! I was a machine!
In not taking in the full extent of the book and not thinking it over before recording, I hit my first problem about half way through my first day. There were far more characters in the book than I remembered there being! I also realised that I should have written down notes on what voices I was going to use for each character, as some disappeared from the story for quite a while and then came back unexpectedly, sneaking up on me, and I had forgotten the voice that I had previously used. This meant that quite a few of the characters might have ended up sounding the same! But hopefully no-one will pick up on it too much when they get around to listening to it(!)
I got chatting to a man during my lunch break on my first day who told me about the machines that make the audiobooks, and a little shiver of fear went down my spine when he told me about the volume of CD’s that they produce. My voice could be going out in thousands! Gulp!
Overall, the book took me 3 days and about 90 minutes to record, and it came in at a recording time of 12 hours and 21 minutes. Not bad at all!
I had a really enjoyable time doing it too. Who else in their jobs can get paid for sitting down and reading a book out loud for a few days?!?
Hopefully it will lead to some more audio work, but even if it doesn’t, I had a good week. I might even try to do some of my own! Watch this space...
Nxxx
Twitter: @nataliecastka Facebook: Natalie Castka Actor
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