Right now there are a lot of people working really hard on post-production for “CELL.” The score’s being written as sound design works like mad to make a final mix that will blow everyone away. Visual effects are being rendered and rough cuts of episodes being put together as fast as humanly possible. We do launch the show in just over a month you know.

Since we wrapped, I’ve found myself handing things off to other people to work on things until I can get back in the loop and approve of them. Clearly I can’t do everything myself. That’s just the way things work. Having said that, I find myself missing the daily interaction with the story that I had for so long. So I decided to do something about it.

It may not sound like much, but we never locked down our opening titles. Again it may not sound like much, but this will be the first thing anyone ever sees of “CELL.” That’s kind of a big deal.

I never wanted the titles to be anything over-the-top but they have to be a little interesting. Then recently we started developing our ARG for “CELL.” Kelley Donoghue came up with a great idea for a part of the ARG. It gave me an idea about someway that we could bring in parts of the ARG into the titles and help bring it all full-circle. It was then and there that I decided that I was going to do the opening titles.

This would be me

The idea was really about creating a 3D space but the only problem is that I have no experience in 3D rendering outside of some work I did in 1996. Did I mention that we’re premiering the first episode in 3 days!!!

This is where I really started to quote the mantras in my head that got me on this road to begin with.

“We’re not tied to who we were.”

“Times have changed and we all have the ability to work hard and make things happen.”

“Anything that needs to be done CAN be done with determination and hard work.”

“Holy crap I have to learn how to use a 3D engine to make a title and I have very little time to do it oh my deity I’m gonna die.”

(That last one wasn’t so much of a mantra as it was something I distinctly remember telling myself at 4 a.m. as I stared at the monitor of my computer.)

I preceded to forget that last one and focused on the others. This is where I really learned to love the internet. I did some research and found Blender.

Blender saved my titles!

Blender is an open source 3D content creation suite. One great thing about Blender… it’s free.  So I downloaded it and stared at the screen dumbfounded.

That got me by for a minute and then I decided I had to get to work. I worked through the tutorials I found online and got the basics on how to work in Blender and 3D engines in general. With deadlines looming, I decided that I needed to skip the rest of the tutorials and start working on the titles or else they’d never get done.

It was slow going at first and with a lot of frustration. Whenever I got stuck I would Google the question and usually found a good answer. I ended up creating a scene and began the animation part of the scene. Then frustration hit again.

“I can’t animate a lamp distance??? But how am I supposed to make this work without changing the lamp distance? There has to be some way!” I said that at least 10 times in one night as I was struggling through the final animation of the titles. I searched for hours trying to find the answer and no one had it. In fact I finally concluded that it couldn’t be done. The entire basis of the titles was down the drain so I had to rethink everything. Or did I?

In my searching I found a new beta version of Blender that said it would animate everything. I downloaded it with fingers crossed. 20 minutes later I was done and rendering the scene. Whew.

I did it! I conquered the 3D scene and made my own titles! “Conquer” may be a strong word. “Pelted into into boredom with a throw pillow” might be a little more accurate.

But would he have been a conqueror if he used a pillow? I think not.

I won’t be winning any Streamy’s for my titles. That doesn’t matter though.

What matters is that I saw something that needed to be done and I made it happen. It took time and effort and not a lot of sleep, but in the end it was done.

That’s what new media can be for independent producers. If you care enough about the project then you can make it happen with hard work and effort. If you don’t know how to do something, learn. The tools are out there for all of us to use. We just have to find them.

And many thanks to Blender 2.5. The new interface is great and a big improvement from the earlier version. 2.5 is still a little buggy at times but it made my life a LOT easier and helped get our episode on the screen this Friday. And no, Blender isn’t sponsoring this blog post or “CELL.” Although if they’re interested then I’m sure we can make some arrangements.

I’ve broken it down into ten different things you need to look for when creating a character. Of course, as books and books have been written on this subject, this is certainly not a complete list.

1. Character Traits. Sometimes you get a character breakdown, but not always. So, look in the text. How does your character speak? What do the other characters say about yours? Try and find as many adjectives as possible.

2. Setting. Where is this scene taking place? Who is there with you? Are you in public or are you alone with someone else somewhere having a private conversation? What time of day is it and what day of the week? Summer, winter, fall? Also what city does this take place in? When I’m working on a scene in class and there is nothing about the text or breakdown that makes the location clear, then I make the time recent and put it in the city where I live. That way, it’s more familiar to me.

3. Relationships. This is the crux of the whole breakdown. The rest of the breakdown hinges on your relationships with the other characters, situations, things relating to the scene. Be very specific here, but keep it relevant. If the scene is talking about a breakup between you and your boyfriend, don’t go on and on about how you like knitting or something like that. It’s not relevant to the scene. It is relevant to talk about your past love life and how this relationship fits into that. Also make sure to use “I” when referring to your character. That way, you personalize the situation. A big thing to note is to make sure you don’t just do it analytically, but also emotionally. So, going back to a breakup scene, talk about how that person makes you feel, what was different about them, what hopes you may have had with them, and how you feel about them leaving your life.  Also, explore what it is about this character that you can relate to. Even if they are a murderer or a thief, what is it about them that drove them to do this type of action that you, the actor, can relate to? Trust me, this is VERY important.

4. Scene happenings. What’s happening in the scene? Pretty simple right? You would be surprised at how many actors get up in a class and when asked what the scene is about, they can’t put together a coherent thought as to what is happening.

5. Stakes. Think about what you may be gaining or losing and what it means to your character. This is where you take the relationship breakdown and condense it into a few words. So, if your character is losing their job, the stakes are no income, possible loss of home and stability, possible troubles to marriage/significant other/kids, loss of self-respect, loss of identity, ect. There are a lot of stakes that are attached to the scene. The more you think of, the more layered your listening will becomes. It’s also very important to make the stakes as high as you can as the writer wrote that scene for a reason. You need to find out what that is.

6. Objectives/Wants/Needs. What do you as your character want? I’ve seen a lot of actors get stuck the most right here. I do too at times. If your stakes are high, then your needs/wants/objectives will need to be strong-the stronger the better. If your objective is weak, it makes the scene drag. In order to give a performance that will get you noticed, you’re choice has to be as powerful as you can make it. And here’s the clincher, make your choice one-worded. It has to be an active verb that will help to carry you through the scene. Use your objective from the top of the scene. Don’t hold it for a line that pops out at you (I’ve recently discovered that I do this).

7. Obstacles/blocks. What keeps you from reaching your objective? For instance, if the scene is about you telling someone you love them, well, that’s not as easy as you think. What if they don’t say it back? What if you aren’t even sure how they feel but you have to say it? There’s a risk right? Also, the other actor has their own objectives. I’ve noticed that the best scenes are when two actors have directly opposite objectives. Talk about conflict!

8. Physicality. What does your character look like, dress like, stand, walk, move, ect. Also, in a scene where the stakes are high, how would they respond to what’s happening? Would they want to fight or flight, or sit there in confusion? Physicality is a wonderful way to take all this homework and take it out of your head and into your body. You don’t act with your head, but with your heart, gut and, yes, sexual drive.

9. Character thoughts. There are many different techniques out there. Some break down scenes into mini-beats with their own sub-objectives and others teach you to be more organic. I won’t get into what is the best option because from my experience, I’ve seen actors struggle and succeed in each. You just have to know how you learn and how your mind works in order to know what style you want to use. I’d recommend taking classes that uses different techniques and see what works for you.

What I do instead of breaking down into beats, is to go through each line and see how each word or phrase would affect me as the character. I’d then write that down. I’d also notice if I’m using different tactics to get what I want. For example, if I’m in a scene and I’m trying to get the other person to admit they did something (like a trial attorney), then I’d try different ways to do that. Try not to take this part too literally though. This is just to get you as familiar with the text as you possibly can. These different beats will come naturally as you listen and react to the other character in the scene. The danger in character thoughts for me is that I can get stuck in my head if I’m not careful.

10. Options. Make sure you have more than one intention that may work for the scene. So, if you are in a class, on set or at an audition, and you are told to play it a different way, well you can and not get stuck.

After doing all this work, throw it away! Your focus needs to be on the other character and not your homework.

Click here to view the embedded video.