This weekend, a new article arrived on the Machiniplex3 blog, titled "On Acting in BloodSpell." The level of insight Ricky Grove's own experience enables him to bring to this analysis of the voiceover work in BloodSpell is simply priceless. As I mentioned in a comment on the blog, I learn so much just from his choice of adjectives in describing the characters and performances.
A huge highlight is hearing from both Hugh Hancock (director) and Paul AJ Hamilton (who played The Master) in the audio interview with Ricky, where they talk about the experience of bringing the characters of BloodSpell to life. Paul's performance as The Master is, for me, the acting highlight of the film; his impassioned delivery in the closing scenes of the film still give me goosebumps, even after having watched it countless times during the sound engineering. And that's just one of many great moments. For me, it was truly shocking to learn in the course of the interview that Hamilton's prior acting experience was largely "amateur." What he was able to bring to this character is a tribute to both his natural gift for the craft as well as to Hugh's skill as director.
Whether or not BloodSpell was the kind of film you enjoy, the interviews and the article in which they are framed is something I would unreservedly describe as absolute must read material for any aspiring actor or director.
Comments
Thanks a lot, Phil. I appreciate your enthusiasm and support for the site and this particular article. It was a lot of work, but I've been mulling over most of the ideas in the article for over a year. And even though it was quite long, I still had to cut quite a bit before the length became simply ridiculous. I was also suprised that Paul had only an amateur background, but I was also interested in the fact that he initially resisted Hugh's decision to use a "method approach" to working on Bloodspell. Another surprise was the influence of "role-playing games" on Hugh's ideas for visualizing the background stories for each actor.
The audio interviews with Hugh and Paul are very interesting, too. Definitely worth a listen.
-Ricky