Not my words, but those of voice actress Jennifer Hale (paraphrased) in an interview revealed on GamaSutra.
Gamasutra, BTW is a pretty cool site to visit if you’re seeking a VO career in games. Immerse yourself in this site for starters…lots of links and info.
Hale is listed in Franklin Hall’s list of “TOP 50 VOICE ACTORS OF ALL TIME“.
Her credits include Clash of the Titans Video Game, Star Wars The Clone Wars TV series, G-I Joe: Renegades TV series, and much much more.
In her interview, what struck me was this comment: “…There’s a moment where a director communicates with you what’s going on, what they need…there’s a moment that a spark happens inside the actor. And you can see it if you’re really engaging the actor, really looking, you can see when that spark fires. You need to get off the button and let it go. Let them talk, let ‘em act…”
Love it!
Take a few moments to read the whole Gamasutra interview. Whether you’re aspiring to do game voices, animation, commercials, e-learning, or audiobooks…there’s wise advice for all Voice actors in this Gamasutra interview.
CourVO
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HAHA!
Her experiences with this issue are golden Dave!
“But in voice recording it’s just you by yourself in a booth. It’s the equivalent of doing a one person show for four hours with a couple of pee breaks.”
This article is something I whole heartedly agree with in her effort to get writers and directors to understand that the actor ~IS~ on board, and possesses the talent (not the writer – or the director, lol), which, given the intellectual abilities of said actor/ actress that tallent can actually give the venture at hand more reality and a more vivid life than they could…
So when it comes to the talent, let the talent perfect the dialogue. Let the genius of the talent perfect the moment. And finally, lol…
Understand that the talent DOES do real acting lmao!
Richard,
Thanks — as always — for your observations… I appreciate your responding to so many of my blog articles as you drill down through.
Have a great weekend!
Dave C
As always Dave, I think your efforts deserve the credit where credit’s due.
As you know I too am a member of Gamasutra, and have come across projects that solicit talent but once you respond the solicitation changes, including the contracts they offer. I’m like – hey, you wouldn’t pull these change ups when negotiating with a union member, why treat me differently – oh, that’s right, I forgot… the reason why you’re not negotiating with the union is because you’re trying to test your boundaries to see how much you can exploit this talent for… – That’s when I get up and leave.
They sometimes come back with a fairer offer lol.
On a different topic, Went down and took a look around the Mob Experience today… looks rather exciting, not to mention since my wife is Sicilian I think she’d love to tour the facility… I’m like hey honey, you might even see uncle Gaghliano there somewhere… she laughed.
I’ve started to format my soundtrack designs into Demo versions so that I can actually have a physical DemoReel on disk. Not too sure how I’m gonna format the Sound Effects DemoReel Disk, perhaps I’ll do it like Sound Designs does it (with narration), I’ve branded the soundtrack designs DemoReel with a “DarkspARCS Design FX Studios…. Laaaaas Vegas!” watermark ….
>^.^<
Anywho, you have a great weekend yourself my friend; one day we'll have to do the Zion weekend warrior thing! (I can build a GREAT campfire!)
Great, Richard…
I wanna see your pics of “The Narrows” when you get back!
Dave C