MELBOURNE MOCAP WEEKENDER WORKSHOP

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd January 2023. *SOLD OUT*

Mocap performer training is here in Melbourne! Train in one of the most thrilling performance media – and learn not just how to ‘do mocap’, but how to ‘do it well’. In stunning collaboration with Dreamscreen Australia and Tracklab, Captivate brings you the only independent mocap training courses in Australia.

WHAT IS IT?

This is an action-packed two-day course, which throws you right into the craft of performing for Performance Capture and Motion Capture.

Performance Capture and Motion Capture are used commonly across the film and tv industries world-wide. However despite its wide use, it is still a medium that most actors have not had the chance to work in – and therefore have not had the opportunity to hone their craft.

A big part of getting comfortable with mocap for the first time involves demystifying the tech and experiencing shoot procedure. This generally happens the first time you get to put on a mocap suit and have a play. Beyond that though, in the same way that we can make acting choices to suit theatre or screen, there are performance elements that flatter the mocap technology and deliver the best results. We can learn how our actions streamline, enhance or hinder the production process. And so our resulting work is the difference between just jumping in a suit and doing a performance, versus working with craft, knowledge and collaboration to ‘do it well’.

This workshop will throw you into first-hand experience working for mocap: how the technology works, how a mocap shoot runs, what may be expected of an actor during a shoot and how we curate our best work. We will romp through a range of elements such as studio protocols, movement concepts, physical story-telling and creature creation… and explore these through common industry contexts such as shooting animated scenes and gaming characters.

In addition to focused workshop sessions out of the mocap volume, each day you will absolutely be in the mocap suit and in the volume to apply the skills you have explored. It will be active, it will be energetic and it will be exhilarating.

By the end of the workshop you will have a thorough familiarity with the tech and how you interact with it. That is, you will be industry-ready to step into a shoot and deliver high-quality material. And the more of us there are doing this, the more the industry grows!

WHEN IS IT?

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd January, 2023

10:00am to 6:00pm

WHERE IS IT?

Dreamscreen Australia

77 Willandra Drive, Epping, Melbourne. 3076

WHO IS IT FOR?

This workshop is ideal for performers from a range of backgrounds: actors, musical theatre performers, opera performers, stunt performers, dancers; as well as those with a particular ‘special skill’ such as martial arts, acrobatics, elite sports etc. We will both encourage you to utilise your preexisting strengths as well as explore new performance skills – and as such we cater for all levels of experience, ability and fitness. Having said that, mocap performance can often be very energy-demanding – so the fitter you are, the more you can throw yourself into the a range of work.

Captivate advocates for diverse and equitable work- and learning-spaces. We also fiercely protect safe work- and learning-spaces for all of our participants. If you have any concerns, questions or requests for support of any kind please get in touch with us.

HOW MUCH IS IT?

COURSE FEES:

EARLY BIRD: $635 (register and finalise payment by 30th November 2022)
CONCESSION: $655
STANDARD: $695

A 50% deposit is requested upon registration, and we ask that fees are finalised by 7th January.

We accept online transfer (no additional fee) and PayPal (3% additional fee). Let us know what is the easiest method of payment for you.

HOW DO I JOIN IN?

We have now sold out this course and we are now taking Waiting List Places. If you’d like to go on the list, send through a registration form and we will let you know if a place becomes available. There are also more mocap opportunities in the pipeline for 2023, so we will get in touch with you as soon as they are launched and give you ‘first refusal’ on a place.

SIGN ME UP

COVID-Safe Learning

The health and safety of our students, tutors, venue staff, all of our family and friends, and the wider community is absolutely vital. Captivate is dedicated to running this course strictly within the most up-to-date Government-advised COVID-Safe guidelines. We require that all participants at the workshop have full and up-to-date vaccination against Covid-19.

A complete account of the current policies will be given to all students shortly prior to the course commencement; and will include (but are not limited to) measures such as the wearing of masks as appropriate, room/equipment cleaning, adequate ventilation and workshop content that facilitates social distancing throughout the session. Students and tutors will be asked to stay home if they have shown any signs related to a COVID-19 infection, and/or if are a household contact of an active COVID-19 case.

About your tutor:

Lyndall Grant

Lyndall is a Fight Director, Movement Director, actor and Motion Capture Specialist who works in Australia and Internationally for stage and screen.  She is a senior teacher and Management Committee member for the Society of Australian Fight Directors, and certified Dramatic Combat teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat.  Lyndall currently teaches Stage Combat at the Victorian College of the Arts (The University of Melbourne) and 16th Street Actors Studio.  Lyndall trained as an actor as London’s ArtsEd School of Acting, before specialising in fight performance and physical performance.  She began working as a fight director in London in 2010. In 2013 Lyndall established Captivate Action Ltd. in the U.K., as the first company to specialise in training and performance in action and Motion Capture, and brought this company home to Australia in 2015.  Lyndall has been an actor and Movement Captain in Melbourne’s production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from its opening in 2019 until 2022.

Recent fight/movement directing credits include:  An American in Paris (GWB); Atlantis, The Return, Looking for Alibrandi, Because the Night, Cloudstreet (Malthouse Theatre);  As You Like It, Berlin, The Lifespan of a Fact, Torch the Place, Cosi, Storm Boy, The Violent Outburst that Lead Me To you, The Architect, The Lady in the Van, Hungry Ghosts, Vivid White, Macbeth, Minnie and Liraz, Melbourne Talam, Lillith the Jungle Girl, Straight White Men (Melbourne Theatre Company); Il Viaggio a Reims (Opera Australia); Punk Rock (45 Downstairs); No Exemptions (Shift Theatre); Alice in Winterland, The Wind in the Willow, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Rose Theatre Kingston, U.K.); Lohengrin (Melbourne Opera). 

We’re looking forward to working with you!

Got questions? Get in touch