Date: April 30th
Location: Actors' Guild Hub at Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7RJ
Time: 19.00 - 21.00

The video games industry is a huge new employer of actors and yet, as performance in games is relatively new, one that many actors know little about.

Increasingly, video games want to look more and more realistic so they may use performance capture to get this (instead of key animation).

This workshop is aimed at those who are keen to get into this sphere of work. 

Kate will discuss the processes involved in providing performance capture and voice and will show video examples of games she's worked on, bring sample texts to explore and allow time for questions about the industry. 

Kate Saxon

Trained as an actor, Kate moved into directing opera and theatre and now works across the disciplines of theatre, television, video games (garnering several BAFTA wins), VR and film. As a Performance and Cinematic Director for Video Games, Kate has directed capture shoots for large budget games such as the ambitious twice BAFTA nominated Mafia III which Kate filmed in Los Angeles. Other titles include 2016 BAFTA winner Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture; 2015 BAFTA winner Alien: Isolation and Witcher 3, the most nominated game in the Game Awards 2015, Fable 2, Fable 3, Far Cry 3 Co-Op, Little Big Planet 3, as well as being one of the voice directors on Tom Clancy’s Wildlands and The Division and many many others. Kate is often called upon to direct A-list actors in games, including notably Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, John Cleese, Simon Pegg, Richard Madden and Judi Dench. Kate has also directed VR games for Sony.

For TV, Kate directed episodes 2 and 3 of the current series of Call The Midwife, was one of 15 UK female screen directors selected for BAFTA Elevate and additionally for the Directors UK High End TV Drama Scheme, through which she worked on Silent Witness. In 2013, Kate was trained by the BBC to direct multi-camera for Eastenders and since then has directed 28 episodes, a one-off for the Red Button and 3 episodes of Doctors.

Kate was Voice Director on Paramount’s Animated Feature Film, Capture The Flag, which won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film 2016.

Having directed over 35 theatre productions, Kate is currently working with Olivier Award winner, Jess Swale, developing her new play The Mission. In 2018, Kate directed Phil Daniels in the title roles of Jekyll and Hyde, which toured for the Rose Theatre & Touring Consortium. As Associate Artist of Shared Experience Theatre, she directed their most recent production: As You Like It.

Kate is Chair of Stage Directors UK.

**Please note all contact or questions regarding this workshop should come through the TAG office. Please do not contact the workshop leader directly with questions**