Voices From The Outer Ring (Lead Role Re-Opened)
Joseph Anthony for Carson
Claude Carson works at Hildebrand Enterprises as the CFO and treasurer. Behind his sociable and charming exterior lies a man responsible for one of Winddrift's largest money laundering schemes. He doesn't ever appear to be taking his job seriously and it is a question of whether or not he cares for the corporation. Despite this, he is skilled in his field and when it comes to those he feels is a threat; he can be quite ruthless. Carson is the type of person that enjoys getting a rise out of people, and as such he is often seen pestering Lawry in his spare time. Not much is known about him outside the workplace.
His voice should come off as smooth and mature with occasional bits of snide sarcasm in between.
[Optional: You don't have to do this, but I would like it if you introduced yourself and state what made you interested in this project.]
(Monologuing) "You want to know what amazes most about all this? Here you are, staring death in the face and yet I don't see a single drop of fear in your eyes. You aren't pleading for your life or even trying to run away. That tells me two things. One: you've been in this scenario before, and this probably isn't the first barrel you've ever had to look down. That leads me to two. You must think I'm not going to pull the trigger... either by my own volition, or some way, somehow, you yourself can stop me. You're either gonna talk your way out of this, or you're hiding an ace up your sleeve. Chips are down, time to show me what you've got."
(Matter-of-factly) "With all due respect, Lawry, if you actually took the stick out of your ass and took the time to enjoy yourself, you might actually add a few extra years onto your life. The world's got more to offer than figures and spreadsheets, you know. Your office has windows for a reason. Take a look outside 'em every once in a while and maybe you'll know what I'm getting at."
Hello, I appreciate you taking an interest in this project. As with all auditions on this project, I will try my best to give you what I feel is the most constructive criticism that I can provide. After giving your audition a few listens, here is the input that I've compiled. For your strong points, I will start off by saying that your audio is very crisp and clear. I can tell you have software and equipment that is more than suitable for this project, and many other projects on this site. As for your technique, you have put out a very interesting read for Carson. I'm picking up on a slight New York accent that you chose for him, making him sound a bit more like a speakeasy mobster as opposed to a corrupt businessman. This isn't by any stretch of the imagination a problem, just something I've noticed. You already seem to have a grasp on how to inflect and you make excellent use of breaks and pauses, which I can't stress enough is key for reading these lines. When mastered, it makes the actor bring the character to life, rather than reading everything streamlined to where it just sounds like you're "just reading off the script." At the end of the first monologue, you brought it home with a very strong "Show. Me. What. You. Got." I like that. You've also made sure to avoid any plosives, popping, or interfering background noise. As for areas where you could improve, I will start off by saying that I've noticed a bit of peaking in your audio levels. This often occurs if you're being too loud for your microphone and can affect the quality of your recording. You can help remedy this by adjusting the gain control of your microphone, or by distancing yourself a bit more from it. From what I've also noticed, you may want to try enunciating your R's more. It might be due to the accent you chose for the read, but I noticed some syllables you pronounced as "ah" rather than "arr." Lastly, one of the things that glared out at me was your choice in word emphasis. In the second line to read, you dragged on the words "enjoy" and "outside." They came off as somewhat awkward sounding, and were jarring when they came up. Other than that, I think you've done a great job for this audition and put in tremendous effort. Thank you for auditioning and reading.
Thank you for the detailed feedback. I made several takes as Carson and without live direction I couldn't quite "get it" I felt this was the best one. I also listened to it a few times after posting and picked up on a few of the things you mentioned. I am very pleased that the quality is acceptable. The peaking is an easy fix, just minor level reduction on the backend without having to record again. Some of my previous auditions were a bit too low, it seems I may have overcompensated here when I adjusted gain on the frontend. For my take on Carson, I held a toy gun at a stuffed animal and the slight NY mobster voice came out, a mobster is just a corrupt businessman afterall right :P ? On subsequent listens after posting I did hear the ah's and couple of drawn out words that sounded awkward to me too, I hit the same thing on the word "offer" as well, good to know that it wasn't just me. I also had an awkward pause somewhere in there too that I had noticed yesterday but am not catching now for some reason. Thanks again for the detailed criticism, I really appreciate it.
Again, I think you did a really strong take on the character. I actually find the bit about the stuffed animal amusing, ha ha. In fact, I'm impressed you applied method acting for the part. I'd be interested in hearing your take on some of the other characters as well.