Judge This Man's Acting Ability

[Ben]

An acquaintance of mine put together a demo reel to show to prospective agents and casting folk. I agreed to distribute it to third parties who are neither friends nor family to the man, so he could get an honest appraisal of his abilities.

I am making the file available to all of you, in case you'd like to be a part of this exercise. It's a 107 meg AVI, here:

http://www.montorusa.com/crap/Demo.avi

Since my upload speed is not good, this could take quite a while to download. If anyone's got a faster place they can host it at, let me know and I'll move it over there.

Be as brutally honest as you can. I don't derive pleasure from hearing he's great, or disappointment from hearing he sucks.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Christ on the Cross!!! 107 MB!!!

I will download this tonight from home, as I don't want 107 megs worth of content coming through the pipe at work. This is one of those times where the Jolt Country Direct Connect Hub would come in handy. (I don't know how to get my router to send all requests to port 411 to my DC Hub computer, though -- not saying it cannot be done, but I haven't looked this up yet).

Then again, I have 15GB of transfer bandwidth for each month, and the site normally is around 1 GB. So maybe I shouldn't be such a pantywaist and just host the goddamn file for you.

[Ben]

Yeah, maybe not.

Then again, what have I ever done for you?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

What the hell are you talking about?

I will host it when I get home. If I don't, it means that Monto Rusa will be slower than normal, and it's usually slower then two cans of molasses trying to fuck on a hill.

[Ben]

Also, rather than just judging acting ability, also (if you would) provide feedback on the demo reel itself. Is it in the right order, should there be less of one, more of the other, etc, etc... Whatever you got. All feedback is welcome and encouraged.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I should note that I am still not home yet, so my earlier promises are still valid.

6:47pm and still working. I'm like some kind of CODING MACHINE. And not just any kind of machine, no, a fearsome, hateful piece of tech like Destro's Weather Dominator or something. It's snowing in Egypt because I'm so fucking dedicated!!!

Oh, right, did I mention that I got into work at 11:45am? No? Good.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

OK, currently downloading.

I can't help but be influenced by the name of the directory you stored it in, though. Should I be?

[Ben]

No, not at all. That's just a little subdirectory where I put stuff that I couldn't figure out where else to put it.

Also, I'm a little concerned by the fact that "The Judge", a horribly self-important, conceited windbag, seems to be posting around the same time I am.

I don't want anyone to get the impression that that's me, is all.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

No prob, after all, the likelihood of the guy posting -- or finding -- a thread that starts off with "judge this man" is pretty low. So it's logical that he missed it, and not explainable by the fact that he is you.

[Ben]

Say, anyone feel like judging that man's acting ability, or anything?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

OK, here we go!!


There's four scenes, so I will comment on each scene individually with the headings SCENE ONE through SCENE FOUR.

First Scene:

Overall, I think he's smiling a bit too much for the beginning of the scene. It sounds like he's going to need to bully his friends into going along with this or something, while instead he's kind of playing the part like he got found out right away.

The look he gives for the line, "like a pyramid" at 1:38 is good.

I dunno, it seemed like there should have been some sort of facial tic there for the "yes" that immediately followed that line. He can do the arched eyebrow thing, so maybe that should have gone there? I don't know what specifically, but something.

"And be surprised to know" (1:55): Heh, heh, heh, good expression there. (Ditto, "they could afford one.)

The looking into the camera at 2:43 was probably a fuck-up, right? I am presuming so, but yeah, that seems really out of place. I will go ahead and blame the director there.


SECOND SCENE

This one is really solid, I think it's the best one overall. The guy seems to do a great job playing the creepy rapist. In fact, I would think that if he is considering posting to bulletin boards under a handle, "Creepy Rapist" has his name all over it.

It's kind of a short scene, but regardless of its length, he definitely nailed that bit.


THIRD SCENE

This one seemed a little rough, as it was short and the lighting seemed to be all wrong. The guy is playing the part of someone who just got shot down? Or someone who just got found or something? In this case, I think that his face was going through a few too many contortions for the scene, but it's difficult to say that for sure without really knowing anything more about the character than in those few seconds.


FOURTH SCENE

The hands of exasperation thing while re-doing the line was funny.

The look he gives the woman when she is trying to determine whether or not he is the guy on his license was really solid, probably the best and most genuine expression of the reel.

The eye bulge for "I have cash" was good, too.

I'm guessing the jumping around at the very end was intentionally supposed to be over the top -- but yeah, he should have put his foot through the glass, and then HIS FOOT THROUGH YOU, BENJAMIN.

But yeah, overall there is good work there. There were definitely some bits where he was a tad off, but I am guessing that if you're playing a part in a movie or TV show or something you do thirty thousand takes and doing them exactly as per instruction of the director rather than having to kind of figure out the best way to go about it yourself as an actor and how it will look, as in something like this. (Of course, I could be totally wrong in thinking that, what do I know.)


Wait, are you going to send him this verbatim? Because the whole "I will call this SCENE ONE" and then use the term "First Scene" thing is something I do for the benefit of the BBS, and it would get me punched in the cunt in the real world. So chop that out, if you are, please.

[Roody_Yogurt]

There are a lot of bits where his charisma pulls things off, but there is this and that where he could work on things.

His character in the first bit seems really happy-go-lucky and it doesn't really lend itself to the bits where he's trying to explain to this friends why, logically, they should join his scheme. I don't quite get the feeling that the character really believes in his own arguments (especially in the bit about the lady's mother).

Well, in any case, I don't know how much of what's represented is due to the director's choice (assuming he wasn't his own director). I would think that a good director might be better about utilising more of the good stuff.

So, does he seem talented? Yeah, I'd say so.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Be as brutally honest as you can. I don't derive pleasure from hearing he's great, or disappointment from hearing he sucks.

I just wanted to confirm that we all do derive pleasure from hearing how Ben sucks, so please consider that when posting to this thread as well.

Seriously, man, was that second burger cooked by you or hatched? It looks like it just escaped the Island of Dr. Moreau.

[Ben]

The first burger is Ben's House O Burgers' Best Burger Ever Burger.

The second burger is Clash's Large, Or Possibly Medium-Large Burger.

[Bears]

We took a vote. We'd rather eat Clash than his medium (or possibly large) sized burger.

Bears live in a very democratic society. You wouldn't think this, offhand, but they do. We do.

[Lex]

The first burger is Ben's House O Burgers' Best Burger Ever Burger.

The second burger is Clash's Large, Or Possibly Medium-Large Burger.

Hehheheh.