Gaming voices | Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Shut up and let me work…

September 8, 2011 By CourVO 4 Comments

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

Filed Under: Gaming voices, Interview, Techniques Tagged With: Gamasutra, Gamasutra.com, gameing voices, Jennifere Hale, video game vooices, VO, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voices, vooice

Living It

February 16, 2011 By CourVO 1 Comment

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

Filed Under: Careers, Games, Gaming voices, Published Articles Tagged With: ANdy Serkis, animation voices, Emily Blunt, Eminem, Gaming voices, Kevin Yon, VO, voice acting, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover talent

Tune Your Voice for ‘Toons

November 5, 2010 By CourVO Leave a Comment

In between the radio/TV commercials, E-learning, promo’s, imaging, and audiobooks, it’s easy to forget some of the best growing opportunities for your voice these days is in gaming and animation…even cartoons.

Yeah….gee…great, Dave…but where do I even start?

You start by listening in on the VoiceOverXtra-sponsored webinar featuring Bettye Zoller. In case you’ve never heard of Bettye…she’s got experience….years and years. She’s done it all, and continues to work and coach in all facets of this business. Bettye tells it like it is, and you will learn lots.

Here’s a quote from John Florian, the founder and force behind VoiceOverXtra, about this coming Monday’s webinar: ”It’s live, online, and Bettye has prepared a huge agenda of tips and resources for performing and protecting vocal health when voicing video games and cartoons. Prior attendees of Bettye’s webinars will recognize the vast amount of research and info she presents. Plus – in a lively Q&A, all questions will be answered. And everyone receives a full recording of the entire webinar – which is extremely handy in the event of a schedule conflict.”

See more info, and register for:

Your Video Game & Cartoon Voice Webinar, Monday, Nov. 8, starting at 9 p.m. ET

CourVO

Filed Under: Animation, Gaming voices Tagged With: Bettye Zoller, John Florian, voice, voice acting, voice actor, voice artist, voice over, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover talent, VoiceOverXtra.com, voicesvoices.com

Big Games, Big Names

December 11, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: Games, Gaming voices Tagged With: Games, Gaming voices, Hollywood, voice acting, voice artists, voice talent, voiceover actors, voiceover artists, Voiceovers

SAG Sacks Voice Acting Contract

October 29, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

A contract proposal hammered out between the Screen Actors Guild and video game publishers was shot down after a union vote.

That’s the lead line in a story dated 10/29/09 on the Kotaku site.

Click HERE for the details.

SIGjpg2bigger

Filed Under: Gaming voices, Unions Tagged With: Gaming voices, SAG, Sag Contract, union, voice, voice actiing, voice artists, voice over, voiceover

Top-10 VoiceOvers by Big Name Stars

September 16, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

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

Filed Under: Acting, Fun Stuff, Games, Gaming voices Tagged With: voice, voice acting, voice actors, voice overs, voiceover

VideoGame Voice Acting

August 23, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

‘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

Filed Under: Acting, Games, Gaming voices, Videogames Tagged With: Buzzy's Studio, Games, Pat Fraley, Todd Resnick, video games, videogame voices, voice actor, voice talent, voices for games

Becoming a (Cartoon) Voice Actor

August 11, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

‘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

Filed Under: Games, Gaming voices

Voice of Obi-Wan

July 23, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

‘Great little article featuring a Q & A with James Arnold Taylor who’s done many animated character voices and performed in numerous video games.

Click HERE to see the interview as featured on Home Media Magazine.

CourVO

Filed Under: Gaming voices Tagged With: Animation, animation voices, Gaming voices, Home Media Magazine, HomeMediaMagazine.com, James Arnold Taylor, voice acting, voice actors, voices for gaming

Comic Con on Voice Chasers

July 12, 2009 By CourVO Leave a Comment

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