Actor/ Team Member training, motivation

[gotwilt]

Are there any good books or DVDs about actor training and/or motivation that everyone suggests or are partial to?

[Dead End Haunted House]

Ya I want to find like a dvd to show them to be motivated or whatever!

[Jim Warfield]

I have never understood it.
From about my 5th birthday I loved haunting and scaring and entertaining people.
It seems so natural of a way of having fun and often expressing yourself or your talents, why would we have to "sell" this desire to anyone? Shouldn't they be smart enough to see, feel and understand how much fun it is?
There can be work involved but the reward outweighs and overly compensates.
Yes, I laid in a real, and cold coffin for several hours one lonely night waiting to scare a promised car load who were to have been here already. They might never forget it, I haven't!
How patient is anyone anymore?
I could quietly wait and wait for very long time periods for that reward of seeing and hearing someone scream with real terror in their voice.
As I got older I found I also like hearing genuine compliments for this show I do and I do get alot of them, this makes it all easier too.
20 years ago I didn't know nor could do what I now do almost every night here.
The confidence did not happen in a single moment, it accumulated over time.
All of the best things in this life can only trully be enjoyed to their fullest if we learn along the way to pull in on the reins of our all-consuming ego so others can tolerate being around us, placing a night-vision cam-corder helps bring us back to who and what we really only are.
Of course I could be all wrong about everything . Let me check the film......

[Nightmaretony]

Creature Crypts used to have a fantastic DVD on actor training. They split up and the originator Alan Hopps will be selling the DVDs as well as new DVDs to complement the original. No idea of his website, though...

[lurker]

I'm with Jim. What's wrong with people? Don't they know this stuff is the greatest buzz one can get?
Well, maybe not everyone has been shown the path. So, I suggest you get yourself a copy of "Playing With Fear" by Geoff Beck. It is not a exactly training tape in the strictest sense, but it is very motivational for haunt actors. If you show them this video, and their eyes light up, then they are keepers. If they fall asleep watching, or moan after watching it, kick'em to the curb.
You can get a copy at Screamline Studios

[damon carson]

Ya I dont remember ever going through a actor training course. You just laid in the coffin like Jim said. You waited hours on end total to scare the holy jesus out of everyone and you called it a night. Its not easy teaching kids to scare. You can get the right people to do it. But there are alot of people who arent cut out for this type of work. And it is work. Wearing a hot mask for hours on end. Or uncomfortable makeup. A costume you keep getting caught on everything you pass. Big uncomfortable shoes just to make you a few inches taller. Running down a crowd of people who are members of the highschool track team and your lugging a chainsaw and tryin to start it at the same time. It definately takes a different breed of person. But the fun and excitement pays for all the blood and sweat involved!
Damon