Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

No, I didn’t pick ‘em…but I DID find this website that claims THEY know what they’re talking about when it comes to this stuff, and ‘just passing it along to my VO peeps.

Workin’ on what I think’s gonna be a good article for post tomorrow…hope you’ll stop back by!

CourVO

Martin Sheen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Seth Green, Adam Baldwin.

‘Sounds like a pretty good casting call for a Hollywood flick, but it’s not.  Those cinematic stars (and a few more) are but voices in a video game called: “MASS EFFECT 2″

The game-maker says Mass Effect2, “…is a scifi adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life forms and mysterious uncharted planets.”

See what we’re up against as voice-actors?  Apparently stories about VO sacks of money on the front porch are filtering up through SoCal agents…either that, or the economy is in worse shape than I thought.

Anyway, you can read more about it HERE, on the “WorthPlaying.com” website.

CourVO

Sure it’s a cartoon, but most kids would never get all the grown-up humor and inuendo written into the story lines.  And how hard must it be to continue keeping the energy going for a cartoon character for 10 years?!!

For answers, insights, and a pretty good article on Tom Kenny – who has always voiced the character of the sqare-panted-one — click HERE.

CourVO

This is an article compiled by a gamer site, so there’s that caveat… and be ready for the fact that most of the voices are British…but this is still a fun read.

Click HERE.

CourVO

‘Came across a righteous article on voice-acting for video games on the BACKSTAGE.COM website. The site bills itself as “The Actors Resource”.  Cool.  We qualify.  VO artists MORE than qualify.

The blog article leans heavily on an interview with Todd Resnick, casting executive of Resnick Interactive Development and founder and CEO of Gamecues Corp.

Click HERE for a link to the Backstage.com blog article.  It’s a quick read well worth the time.

BTW, Todd is also part of an outstanding team of coaches cobbled together by Pat Fraley for an upcoming Demo workshop at Buzzy’s Studio in LA.

Pat does all his coaching sessions with excellence. I’m still thinking about going, but there’s only room for a dozen or so.

Click HERE to see the info on this upcoming workshop.

CourVO

‘Found this pretty spot-on assessment of what it takes to be a voice actor for cartoons on a kidz website.

While not terribly in-depth, it shows at least a modicum of honesty and a  perceptive understanding of the biz.

‘S a short read…and just another clue of how far-reaching and multi-faceted the opportunities in voice-acting can be!

CourVO

The Comic Book Industry’s biggest convention of the year is coming up in about two weeks in San Diego, and there’s a significant VoiceActing presence.

It’s called Comic-Con.  HERE’s their website.

Legendary voice actors June Foray and Stan Freberg will be special guests.

Know how I tracked-down all this info?  On Voice Chasers — a site whose stated purpose is to be “…one of the leading online destinations for information related to voice acting.”

‘Might not be a bad idea to register (for free) on this site, and knock around with some of the established names there.

At any rate, click HERE to see more information on VoiceChasers about Comic-Con voiceacting focus…or you can sift through a rather busy and complicated Comic-Con website on your own if you’d like. 

CourVO

HERE’s a quick link to an article published in late May. 

I just found it, so it’s new to me, and a pretty good analysis of the draw of video games for voice actors…. a draw powerful enough to lure some recognizable Hollywood names.

Interested in knowing more about voicing for video games?  Read JS Gilbert’s Q&A with me on breaking into videogames…HERE and HERE.

CourVO

   Click HERE to see the brief story about a spectacular new Star Wars game out that has the distinction of being maybe the first video game with not a single line of text the player will have to read…only voice-actors’ voices to carry the storyline.

Aside from that, it’s one of the best kick-ass game “trailers” I’ve ever seen.  The animation is incredible!

CourvO

Back before Matthew Lesko began wearing that ridiculous suit with question marks all over it, he had what appeared to be a legitimate publication called "Information USA" (this is pre-internet, when you had to buy books).

I won't go into whether Lesko is a scam artist, but back then, his premise was simple, and today it's still true:  In an obscure office or cubicle somewhere there is an expert at some very specialized endeavour, who is basically very happy to share their knowledge if someone would just ask.

I like to ask.

The most recent person I asked is anything but obscure, but he IS an expert, and his name is JS Gilbert. 

Those of you who frequent this blog may remember a couple of exchanges I had with JS earlier this year about the challenges of doing VO for video games.  At that time, I had hoped to pry more nuggets of information from JS.

  Well, he came through with a whole gravel truck of knowledge!

I think JS kinda prefers not to make a splash.  He's obviously a hard worker, and highly successful in this niche, but doesn't even have his own web-page (yet, he says).  But he certainly has some meaty answers to my neophyte questions about the video game industry.

-Has the economy hurt gaming opportunities for voice-actors?
-Do you need to enjoy video games to be good at voicing them?
-What special equipment does a voice actor need to move into this area?
-Do you work in your studio, or theirs?
-How do you approach this industry for work?
-Where do you find practice material?
-Does the industry hire only Union talent?

So prolific were his anwers that I'm blogging them in two parts.  The first half is below-the-fold.  JS was worried his answers were too wordy.  Well, 'turns out he's an excellent writer too.

I think you'll find them extremely revealing, helpful, and, honestly….inspiring.

More info about JS HERE.

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