So you've got yourself a video game.
No, not from the store – this game you're developing. You've got
coding, animation, music, writing, everything you need to make your
vision come to life. But you're going to take it a step further –
you're going to incorporate voice acting. Words will spew from your
characters' mouths, players will hear them, and they will love them.
(Hopefully.)
Ah, yes. Hmm. Voice acting. A new beast
to be tamed. You conquered coding, you recruited animators, you have
a regular A-team going, but mayhap the whole VO thing is uncharted
territory for you. Where do you even begin?
Now I know if any agencies or
experienced game developers are reading this, they might scoff, throw
back their manes of hair (because they're sassy, you see, possibly
also from an 80s hair band), and say, “You think we don't know any of this?! You sad, silly little man!” However, a lot of
indie game developers just don't quite know where to begin, and even
if they do, they often accidentally step on a lot of toes. A friend
of mine once lamented that there was no template for indie game
developers to hire voice actors, leading to a lot of confusion,
misinformation and wasted time. This article is my attempt to correct
that.
You may also consider reading Tamara Ryan's own article on hiring voice actors for indie projects, as it offers some new perspectives and insight this article might not spend as much time on. (You remember Tamara - we just interviewed her a month or two ago.)
This whole series will be split into three parts focusing on three different areas - Before You Begin (what to expect and how to prepare), Holding Auditions (rules and guidelines for finding voice acting talent), and Once You Have Your Actors (advice for efficiently getting the reads you need from your hired actors). Today we're focusing on what you should bear in mind before throwing wide the doors to your auditions.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Have
more than just an idea.
Every so often, I get cast in something that, in the end, never sees
the light of day. I know you have this awesome idea for your project
(jousting penguins with rapiers and
jetpacks?!
It's an overnight success!), but don't go riding into the sunset on
that particular horse before checking to see if you have reins, a
saddle or stirrups. (This isn't Breath of the Wild. You can't just
hop on some random mare and pat it on the head for two minutes until
it likes you.)
A voice actor's time is precious. It's a common joke that actors are
starving artists, and there's truth to that punchline. Many of them
work full-time jobs on top of spending what little free time they
have left working on their passion. They've already accepted that
they're not going to be cast for most of what they audition for.
However, it's a different sort of punch in the gut when they are cast
for something and the project never pans out because the project
creator lost interest or decided they don't actually have the time to
work on it.
Before throwing open the doors to your casting call, make sure you
actually have some resources gathered (for example, scripts and
working game code written) and a plan (like deadlines and funding).
Otherwise you stand to get a bunch of people excited and invested in
something that dies before liftoff.
On a similar note...
Ask
yourself honestly if you really have the time, motivation and ability
to see the project through.
Mistakes happen, setbacks delay the project. This is unfortunate, but
also common. Don't beat yourself up too much if a game takes longer
to bring to fruition than you were expecting. However, you do need to
anticipate them and ask yourself how much you really want this thing
to happen. Is it a neat idea you want to chip away at in your spare
time, a labor of love out of your plenty? Or is it something you're
firmly committed to, something you absolutely have to create lest you
go crazy?
First of all, the passion you feel when initializing your dream
project is the honeymoon phase of the wedding. Eventually every
newlywed has to return to their ramshackle apartment downtown and put
up with the one they're now sworn to, and eventually you'll start
wishing you could hang out with your friends or binge Netflix instead
of throwing all your spare time into game production.
Secondly, well...loved ones die. Renters get evicted. The innocent
break their own limbs and have to pay for them. Partners drop out of
the project. No matter how flat and even the way forward looks at
first, some obstacle you never saw will blindside you. Those are
setbacks. Those are normal. Now will they defeat you and kill the
project, or will you acknowledge them as inevitable and keep
soldiering on?
Have
a plan.
When do you want your game to come out? When do you want the demo
playable? How many characters will need to be voiced? How much are
you willing to pay the actors? Will this game pay at all, or is it a
“portfolio project”? (Rule of thumb: if you're making any money on this game at all, you should pay the actors involved, too. If you're not making any money, feel free to promote it as a "portfolio project.") How will you fund your game? How much
funding will it need? If you want actors to sign non-disclosure
agreements, what will those look like? Will you pay actors using
PayPal or some other service? Will they need Skype, Discord, or some
other communication software?
You don't necessarily need to have every single detail figured out
before looking for actors, but you do need a strategy of some sort. A
lack of details or structure is often frustrating to voice actors who
are looking for some order in their busy lives. If you tell a voice
actor, “Oh, just send me your lines whenever,” don't be too
surprised if weeks or months pass and you don't get their lines.
(Yes, voice actors should send their lines in a timely manner anyway,
but you left the door open and the dog wandered outside.)
Also make sure you decide up front with each actor how much they're
getting for the gig and when they'll be paid. Imagine you were
recently hired for a part-time or full-time job somewhere, and at the
end of the week when you ask the boss when the paycheck is due, he
shrugs and goes, “I dunno, a few weeks from now? A few months? I'll
figure it out later.” Remember, this is how voice actors are
supposed to make their living. Don't dangle a steak on the end of a
fishing line just out of reach and let them starve, man.
Write
the lines for actors to audition with, if you're going the audition
route.
Determine which lines best represent each character in question.
Usually it's best to pull from your actual script, but you can even
make up lines spur-of-the-moment if you feel they're appropriate.
Choose from a varied range of each character's emotions – line one
is a peppy introduction, line two is a heated rebuttal in an
argument, line three is commanding an army, etc. If there's a scene
in the project that you feel is crucial to the plot or character
development, try making that an audition line, possibly rewritten to
avoid spoilers. You want whoever you cast to sound natural in every
place the character is in, especially those big moments.
Try to have no fewer than three lines and no more than six. Less than
three usually doesn't paint an accurate picture of the character,
more than six is overkill. In fact, six by itself is sort of pushing
it.
Side note: improvisation is great to encourage. That said, making
your audition “lines” nothing but “just improvise” is about
as helpful as a patient telling his doctor his body hurts. Do you
want actors to nail the important scenes, the core of the character,
or are you just trying to settle for the bare minimum?
Decide if you'll want to direct the actors live or trust them to
send in their lines on their own.
A lot of indie groups prefer to let voice actors be their own
directors and send in their best takes of each line in their own
time, provided it's still within the deadline set. Others prefer to
listen in on the actors as they perform, offering critique and
feedback to help them nail the delivery. Both methods are acceptable
at the indie level and are largely up to preference. There are, of
course, pros and cons to both methods. Directing the actors live
helps ensure that the performance is exactly how you wanted it, and
that one-on-one time with your actors can help the project feel more
personal and foster relationships. On the other hand, scheduling time
with an actor can be hectic since you both need to agree on the same
time (don't forget about potential time zone differences, which can
be really fun if you're on the east coast of America and your actor
is in Australia) and things can come up that postpone the session.
Allowing actors to direct themselves in their own time is much more
schedule-efficient, but you also run the risk of not quite getting
the performance you wanted, leading to either settling (which is a
sucky alternative) or spending more time asking actors to redo
certain lines, and depending on what you two agreed on for payment,
that may require a little more money from your wallet.
When directing my own lines, I like to send devs at least three
different takes of the same line to try and cover all my bases. It's
still not a guarantee you'll get the performance you wanted, but you
could ask your actors to do the same.
Also, if you do choose to direct your actors live, be prepared to use
Skype, Discord, or some other online communication service, and let
potential actors know they'll need to have the same on their hardware
to play that role. Some services let you record the actors on your
own hardware as they're performing, but those are few and far
between, often costing money and a bunch of hoops to be jumped
through. It's not uncommon for the actors, in that case, to just
record themselves on their end and send the audio file to you when
the session is over.
NEXT TIME: Advice for holding auditions or seeking out voice talent personally. Let me know what you thought of this article; be sure to share it around to help developers everywhere, and do subscribe to the blog for the follow-up articles coming soon. Thanks for reading, everyone.
Click here to read Part 2: Holding Auditions. Click here for Part 3: Once You Have Your Actors.
NEXT TIME: Advice for holding auditions or seeking out voice talent personally. Let me know what you thought of this article; be sure to share it around to help developers everywhere, and do subscribe to the blog for the follow-up articles coming soon. Thanks for reading, everyone.
Click here to read Part 2: Holding Auditions. Click here for Part 3: Once You Have Your Actors.
It is the kind of information I have been trying to find. Thank you for writing this information. It has proved utmost beneficial for me. Jagger Rain
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and great website. Thanks for the information! Dancer Lennon River
ReplyDelete