Voice Acting and Mindfulness. ConBravo is an event I attended with my son last weekend where gamers, movie and tv enthusiasts and others gathered together to learn, share and network. It was referred to as the Annual Festival of Everything Geek. There I met Mylez who is a voice actor, devoted to building his voice acting business to a new level. He was inspired by his friend, who voiced for Sonic The Hedgehog. Mylez went on to become a voice actor in his own right, having now been in the profession for seven years.
I asked him the question, ‘as a voice actor, how do you use mindfulness to stay focused?

He explained that he makes it a practice to focus on the task at hand, and nothing else at the given time. He does his homework, thinking of what he needs to do to prepare for playing the role.
He says it is vital to do the homework and be totally prepared. He says he writes out what he needs to do to be that character. He writes out how he will endeavour to get into the character he’s playing.

He referred to the GreatUta Hagen’s  nine questions:

Who am I?
What time is it?
Where am I?
What surrounds me?
What are the given circumstances?
What are my relationships?
What do I want?
What is in my way?
What do I do to get what I want?

Utah Hagen has had a powerful influence on Twentieth Century actors. She is known for her role in Anton Chekov’s The Seagull in 1938. She also played the original Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? After that she taught budding actors in New York City at the Berghof studio. She wrote two well-known books for actors, Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor. She also taught such famous actors as Jack Lemmon, Matthew Broderick and Al Pacino.

Mylez continued to say that he delves into all the questions an actor would ask himself before getting into character.
Mylez is also an audio editor. He does production for demo reels for up and coming actors.
Depending on what they need, he creates a script, has them voice the character and then mixes it together with music and sound effects to make it sound like it’s an actual scene from a movie. Actors can then use this sample reel to promote themselves to agents.

Mylez ended by mentioning the great Latin quote, lamento mori explaining that it means you should celebrate life every day until it’s your last day on earth, so that you can have a great life and never have any regrets.

Quotes:

• You should celebrate life every day until it’s your last day on earth, so that you can have a great life and never have any regrets.

Books:

Respect for Acting by Utah Hagen

A Challenge for the Actor by Utah Hagen

Thank You Bonus:

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21 Ways To Practice Mindfulness With Your Child Every Day For 7 Minutes by Bruce Langford