God of War 2 by SCEA

Greg deBeer, the Dialog Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment of America Foster City, sat down with Gamasutra and gave a very candid interview on the state of dialog and voice over’s in the video game industry. In this six page interview deBeer’s speaks of finding that original voice for a game, casting actors for their range, and most interestingly his thoughts on celebrities doing voice over for video games.

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Image Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Michael Hollick has voiced the most well-known character in the year’s biggest blockbuster game when he took on the role of Niko Bellic in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 4. Now Michael was paid for his work and at a little over union scale he took home roughly $100,000. Not nearly as much as a famous-faced screen actor would have netted for a large role such as this, and Mr. Hollick will most likely never see another dime for his work. No residuals or royalties will come his way at all even after his voice will be heard by millions in online campaign and television commercials due to the current structure between union contracts and the game developers and publishers themselves.

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Voice Over Video Sunday

I know of Rodney Saulsberry. You know of Rodney Saulsberry. I know that you know of Rodney Saulsberry. I know you know you I know of Rodney Saulsberry. His voice can be heard everywhere from movie trailers, to commercials, to cartoons, to video games, but he may be most well known in the industry for his voice over instructional seminars, the most recent being at the Voice Coaches Advanced Marketing Expo and Conference.

Unfortunately this isn’t a video from that seminar, but it is a short interview with Rodney on a local new station promoting his book. The interviewer doesn’t toss up the most in-depth questions (she enjoys the fact that voice over actors don’t worry about their hair), but Mr. Saulsberry does manage to get across a few good tips about the industry. My favorite part of this video — and maybe it’s just that great voice that helps get it across — is how upbeat and inspirational Rodney is. The next time he holds a seminar in the New England area you can bet that you’ll find me there.

Also, does anyone know when this clip is from? He promoting his book YOU CAN BANK ON YOUR VOICE: Your Guide to a Successful Career in Voice-Overs so my guess is sometime after 2004.

This weekend brought Stephanie from Vox Daily to the Voice Coaches Marketing Expo down in New York and with it came great voice over panels and discussions. Now a days you can’t have a proper discussion about the future of voice over without mentioning the huge potential in the video game industry.

At the Expo Evan Skolnick, VO Producer at Vicarious Visions, put on an interesting panel about the state of voice over in the gaming sector today and Stephanie has a nice write-up about it and some facts and tips about the industry as a whole. Of course, one of the most important tips is still to play the games!

Some of the more interesting aspects of the article is just the shear volume of dialogue that goes into a video game as opposed to a movie. Your standard movie averages out at about 2,000 lines of dialogue as opposed to a video game which average tops out at roughly 8,000 lines! But it doesn’t end there as your blockbuster, voice-heavy games such as Mass Effect and Fallout 3 can have as many as 70,000 lines of dialogue! Try imagining reading 70,000 lines. You may need a glass of water after that session.

The article as a whole is a concise, handy guide to the seemingly wide open world that is video game voice acting and a recommended bookmark for all interested.

Game On : Gaming Voiceovers - via Vox Daily

Voice Over Video Sunday

One thing you’ll come to learn is that I am a huge fan of the show Futurama and all the voice talents that bring it to life. Of course, one of those actor’s has been a powerhouse in the voice acting community for years and I just lap up any interview that he may do or any speaking engagement that he may have in hopes that he will impart some of his knowledge onto the listening masses.

As you may have guessed by reading the title of this post that I am speaking of Billy West. The voice of Fry, the Professor, Dr. Zoidberg, Ren, Stimpy, Billy Bastard, Doug and the list goes on and on he’s one of the quickest and creative talents in the industry today. I just wish he wouldn’t have gone on Donny Deutsches show, but that’s for another post on another site…