What's All This Then?

Hello!

Take a seat, get comfortable, can I get you something to drink? Excellent, well let's get started then.

My name is Paul, Paul Michael Patrick McDonough. I have a Masters Degree in Historical Research from the University of Lancaster, I specialise in Film History in the U.S. and Russia, and the Modernisation and 'Modernity Crisis' of Industrialised America. Yes yes.. I know what you're thinking:

"Paul, Paul... 'Modernisation?' 'Modernity?' for real? Come on, we all know that 'modernisation' is far too broad a concept to even be contemplating this late on a Sunday evening and 'Modernity' probably isn't really a word!

But I know DIFFERENT! I've read books! I have a piece of paper that tells me I've read books! But do you know what the most important thing that I've learned in my excessive tour of Historical Research? It was how to use editing software to present my own features and allow my fellow students to see how human perception of film had developed. It's an interesting and very odd way of learning how to film, and how to produce content. I'm not saying that my visualisation or understanding of filming technique is better than anyone else, good lord no! It's just, you know, different!

I mean, not many people think about it because it's pretty much taught to us from birth, but how does the human brain cope with scenes that cut from one person to the next from various angles? At what stage to we leave our own sense of reality, at the cinema or at home, and start to become part of the film? How do we disconnect from a film and separate it from reality? Potentially all important questions, but to try and figure it out I do one of two things:

1. Watch your pet Cat/s, Dog/s or various other pet animals try to deal with things on the televisualbox.
2. Secretly watch your friends and family as they watch a film at either the cinema or at home.




I'm not sure what you'll find when you do it, but I'm sure you can come up with your own answers, and derive from that your own way of figuring out how to capture an audience.

But you know what, NONE of that is important, it's just INTERESTING, and that's what this blog is... choc full of interesting! This is just to let you know a little bit more about who I am, essentially, under this handsome, sexy exterior.

So after I left university I set off on my journey to become a teacher... a teacher... of religion! (Yes, it's true!) Essentially cross-curricular teachers get paid more than subject specialists and I'm all about the money. Half-way through this experience I met a young wayward man by the name of Steve Gregson, and that... they say... is that. We started making safety first and I'm taking a year out from my education to do something that very few people get a chance to do.

But what now? Let me tell you about my one exciting talent I've had from a very young age. You see, when I was young, I used to get frustrated at how unbelievable scouse (that's Liverpudlian to the Americans reading this) accents were on television, and how silly they sounded. It took effort, but I essentially got rid of my accent and just went with a jolly old British one. Uncannily, I found that I was pretty good at copying character voices and accents from the television (this was a by-product of trying to find an accent that I wanted to keep).

Today, after a lifetime of constantly just copying the various ways in which people speak off of the television I've found myself with quite a flexible voice. A hobby of mine is going into shops and using a different accent to talk to the cashier with, to date... no-one has pulled me up on it, heck, I even sneak up behind friends, use a different voice and watch their face change from 'polite but helpful' to 'I hate you' in mere seconds.

What I'm saying, is I want to voice act, like... professionally. I do a lot of the voice acting on Safety First, and Steve and I have a great idea to help push our talents in podcast form, so keep an eye out for that.

So... after that lengthy introduction, this blog will outline the journey of my rise (hopefully) to fame. I'll keep you all informed and if you've got any helpful hints, or if you want to know more about what's going on or how to do stuff, don't hesitate to tweet, facebook or comment right here!

I'm also thinking of reading out the blogs in a different voice each time I write one, recording it and putting it up separately... just as a kind of indication of talent.. in case there's a talent scout out there a-waiting.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Don't Talk With Your Mouth Full!

Paul