A little ditty about the voice actors strike...

Thanks for sharing the link.

I've read articles and thoughts from both sides that seem to have merit. I'd have to really study the issue to form a truly educated opinion. That said, this job is brutal and under-regulated, and it does seem that tighter controls are needed at bare minimum.

The second one really surprised (and disheartened) me. Why not let them actually - you know - prepare for a role, so they can understand it and therefore deliver the best performance they can? They sign NDAs, so secrecy shouldn't be a problem.

If they don't let them get into a character, the VAs lose because they do a worse job (not necessarily a bad one, but not to their full potential) and their resumés are impacted, the studio gets a worse performance and worse reviews, and the publisher gets less money. I really don't see the advantage

Plus, most of these people are probably pretty passionate, since like most artsy jobs it can be hard to make a living/catch a break, so I'd imagine it would be annoying for them not to be able to get into their characters properly simply because of that - enjoying their work. At least, that's how I'd be if I did voice acting

I don't feel like I know enough about this whole thing to render a solid opinion about everything, but I definitely support the VAs here.

I do remember reading about one game developer who touched on this issue and said VA leaks have been a problem, which is why they do this.

I've seen Hale and Meer say in an interview (Asking if they play the game.) That if they'd known the context of some of the scenes or what the characters were doing, that they would have changed the way they gave their performance. But that once it's on screen it's too late. I think it was one of the more of insightful moments in terms of those lines you think are terribly acted.

I have experience being in a recording studio for hours on end as well. These arent kids struggling along in a band some sort of concessions need to be made for experienced professionals doing the job you ask of them.

The previous thread on this was moved to the Off Topic Section after it was determined that ME:A is not one of the games involved in the strike action.  It is unlikely, therefore, that it will have any impact on ME:A itself.

Timing is a funny thing.

So, just after posting here yesterday, I went down to eat, the (Canadian) news was on, and lo and behold there was a story about this very strike!

They briefly interviewed Jennifer Hale and David Hayter while they were picketing and showed a few clips from the ME3 Reinstated trailer. TV news doesn't generally go very deep and can lack context because they like to cut up what the interviewee is actually saying, but Hayter said the rules concerning voice acting haven't changed all that much since the 80s, which is sort of depressing since the industry has, and Hale talked about having to do obscene amounts of auditions to get a job.

I always find it a bit weird to actually see someone I usually only hear, and with many different faces. She even looked quite different from the one image I have seen of her on her IMDB page, her hair is shorter with some blue in it. But even hearing her talk normally was quite strange in itself. She's usually so intense in the roles I've heard her in, so hearing her talk casually and quickly in a pretty upbeat manner was almost uncanny, like hearing a friend suddenly change their cadence and mannerisms completely I had a similar experience playing Fallout 4, because before then I'd always heard Courtenay Taylor do angry/sarcastic/snarky characters, so hearing her say genuinely nice things was both strange and pretty cool at the same time.

Anyway, Hale seemed pretty laid back despite being on the picket line, laughing while making *efforts* and dying gurgles for the camera Which also made me think of that DA:I video with Brian Bloom (Varric) talking about how voice actors can do things to help them act/get in character that actors can't, from standing on their toes, to Steve Downes wearing a special pair of cowboy boots only when he's voicing Master Chief, to poking yourself in the neck to get that gurgle just right, which Hale was doing. And how, like Bloom says, VAs can do that because no one sees them.

Just semi-random thoughts and musings Does anyone else find it strange to see VAs, especially after hearing them as (a) character(s) for ages beforehand?

Yeah, this is part of what I meant in my post when I said that both sides had valid arguments. The studios/publishers have seemingly been willing to make most of the reasonable, health and well-being based adjustments.

The huge divide seems to be in the issue of pay. They remain far apart on that issue. At this point, I tend to agree more with the publishers' side of that particular argument. I think the actors are likely aiming too high with their demands. Still, as I said, I'd have to study the issue in detail in order to form a truly educated opinion.

Just some idea of the numbers here, the minimum VA union wage is $825/day + plus health & retirement payments, expenses, catering & car fare.

Experienced VAs might work on a game for double or triple scale, so $1,650 - $2,475/day. The better known VAs will get paid $5,000 - $10,000/day for their work, while the best known ones $40,000-$50,000/day.

Now the union is asking for residuals on top of this which amounts to a bonus pay equal to their pay scale at 2M, 4M, 6M and 8M (max) copies of the game sold. So that's 2x/3x/4x/5x what they're making now. Regardless of where the game actually might break even on costs.

So a VA earning the min. day rate of $825/day, want an additional $825/day (for a game that sold 2M copies) up to additional $3,300/day's work (so, $4,125/day) for a game that sold 8M or more copies. Now think double-scale, triple-scale, and high end talent costs (up to $200,000 - $250,000/DAY) and you can see why the studios might be... a bit reluctant on this point.

I'm all for improving VA working conditions (and as it's been pointed out, the studios seem to be onboard with that), but these residuals demands are just... ridiculous IMO. VA is already a sizable chunk of a BioWare game's budget. DAI for example had nearly 130 VAs for the English version alone. I can only imagine what the studio would do if this went through...

That said, if there were a studio-wide bonus given out for a great performing game, I feel the VAs should certainly have their share of that.

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And you prove that how?

I think for a lot of the leaks it wouldn't be too hard, people have put unannounced games on their LinkedIn profiles or when talking to press mentioned games so it would be pretty easy to single out people for that.  Otherwise it is probably easier to dismiss or even ignore the anonymous comments that don't have a specific person attached to the comments.

There is recording of Nolan North confirming The Last of Us 2 while being on stage and in front of cameras.

Not to get into it but keep in mind a VA's don't work daily. How much they make in a day may sound like a lot but they don't work per day (because they can't, for a multitude of reasons).

Might be a little more apt to say they make that amount per week, cause that's a bit more to the actual truth. I mean if the 'minimum' was 800 a day, 5 days a week it wouldn't really be much of a thing at that point. Buuuut that's not how it works.

Definitely agree developers should also be getting residuals, but residuals are more important to a person who doesn't really have a consistent job. Also dev not getting payed over time for crunch time that's illegal, well with in the US anyway. Dunno about Canada, I just assume it's roughly the same.