Dave Courvoisier's Blog » Games

Living It

CourVO — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:07:56 +0000

Three real-world examples of voice-actors at their craft.

Three testimonies from the VO trenches.

Three VO niches YOU could achieve yourself.

First: That memorable Chrysler/Detroit/Eminem Ad we all saw during the Super-Bowl. Didja listen to the Voice Over voice?

Now meet the voice-actor, Kevin Yon, who says he delivered the signature line about a-hundred times before the producer was happy.
Read about Yon in the online version of the Detroit Free Press

Now see how Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West video game is put together with the talents of Lord of the Ring’s Andy Serkis (Gollum) doing the voice work.
Read about it on the Arstechica.com website.

Finally, motion picture star Emily Blunt (think: Devil Wears Prada) talks about the challenges of voice acting, and having a camera pointed at her so animators could mimic her facial movements, for her recent performance in the new hit animation movie: Gnomeo & Juliet. “It’s weird,” Blunt says.

Read about it on DigitalSpy.com

The recorded human voice has never before been so in demand.

‘xcuse me, but I gotta go get to work! The next job could be mine!

CourVO

Best Gaming Voices of 2009

CourVO — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:17:15 +0000

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

Big Games, Big Names

CourVO — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:24:30 +0000

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

The Voice of SpongeBob

CourVO — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:47:43 +0000

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

Top-10 VoiceOvers by Big Name Stars

CourVO — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:02:56 +0000

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

VideoGame Voice Acting

CourVO — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:27:42 +0000

‘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

Becoming a (Cartoon) Voice Actor

CourVO — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:14:17 +0000

‘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

Comic Con on Voice Chasers

CourVO — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:03:32 +0000

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

Hollywood Actors Eye Opportunities in Voicing Games

CourVO — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:23:22 +0000

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

Voice-Only Game

CourVO — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:09:37 +0000

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