Now, to be fair, Chris Rock was talking about voice acting for animation (although he could have clarified that a bit better). Yes, his delivery was funny. Hell, I laughed at first. Then I realized that his words were to full-time voice-over artists what Andy Serkis' words were to VFX professionals. Tara Strong even took note of this message well before I did.
I'm not going to jump on a soapbox. I'm not a VO Artist. However, I see enough of a parallel that I need to say SOMETHING. So I'll say this:
The award that Mr. Rock was introducing and announcing went to a movie (Rango) that used a technique that has been coined "emotion capture." It is a process where not just the voice acting was used, but the physical acting was also referenced by the animators, as shown in this featurette:
This looks and sounds to me like these actors didn't just go in a booth, say some lines, and collect a million dollars, now doesn't it?
A stage actor could claim what a tv/movie actor does is easy since they can edit it/re shoot it, etc. til they get it right.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes down to it acting either in person or via voice can be easy OR difficult depending on whats asked of you.
For a guy like Chris Rock of course voice acting is easy, he sounds just like himself. Just watch Madagascar, close your eyes and you can tell the Zebra is duh, Chris Rock.
Now take the beautiful and talented Ms. Strong. You take a dozen or so of the characters shes done, play them back one after another and you probably won't be able to tell its the same person.
One is providing a voice for a role, the other is voice acting. One is easy, the other is hard.