A Day in the Life: Actor Lester Purry
A seasoned actor who has been onstage at some of the top regional theaters in the country as well as in well-received indies and short films, Lester Purry’s maiden voyage into the land of motion capture was both unlike anything he’d done before and, in some ways, a lot like things he’d done before.
Here’s his story of becoming a key character in an upcoming major videogame release, the sequel to a very popular game by one of the top companies…
“I thought it was for a voice over when I went in to meet with the producers. I was surprised to find out I was being considered to play a character in the game. The process was really interesting because I felt like I was auditioning for a theater piece, as far as the technique.
Lester in Othello
“For film and TV, you do something once or twice and you’re done. In theater, they give you several redirects and even ask you to do one version on your own. I was in the room with a producer for fifteen minutes getting different direction on a monologue. Got a thank you and then I left. And a couple weeks later, they called and booked me with no call back.
“I’d never seen motion capture done before, though before the shoot I watched some of the behind-the-scenes footage from AVATAR to get an idea of what to expect. The studio we shot in had done everything from Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.
“First we did a table read and I got a breakdown for my character. The wild thing is, for any film and all the theater I’d done, you have sets and costume. We had none of those. In lieu of a costume, I wore a neoprene scuba suit with the mo cap dots all over it and I also had mo cap dots all over my face. It took 2 hours to have those put on. (See top of post, left side, for a close-up of Lester with the mo cap dots on his face.)
“Shooting was so interesting because they have over 400 cameras lining all the walls, all focused on you. (See top of post, right side, for a shot of the studio.) First you go in for a test and you say a few words to make sure the movement of your lips and jaw are tracking. You do certain body movements and then you go off and they put everything in the computer.
No Mo Cap!
“You basically have nothing around you. You are hitting blind marks and, from take to take, you have to remember within a couple of inches where your blocking is. The director and the boom guy can be right there in the shot and because they don’t have the mo cap stuff on, they are invisible. I, on the other hand, had to leave the studio right after they were done shooting me because the mo cap cameras would catch me even if I wasn’t in the scene.
“Being in a situation acting with no sets and no costumes really took me all the way back to being a little kid in the south playing pretend with a stick or something like that, with no assistance from the environment, making it all up in my head. I can’t wait to see how it looks when the game is released.”
Lester Purry can be found on DVD in the short film BOOKIE, a film noir set in Seattle jazz scene in 1963, and is currently working on the independent film, SEA OF DREAMS, which will be hitting the film festival circuit when it is completed. To get more information on Lester or to contact him, visit his website, www.LesterPurry.com.
Know anyone who could use an entertainment industry insider? Encourage them to sign up on the YII home page to receive our Mogul Mindset eBlasts today!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: gaming, Lester Purry, motion capture, video games
