Video game actors considering strike

Not a gun, but a paycheck. Acting will always be a buyer's market, that's why collective bargaining is needed.

Jait_sl said:

I remember that time someone put a gun to a persons head and said scream into this microphone for 8 hours! Fucks sake, it's not a minimum wage job where you need protection from exploitation.

Or just do what everyone does for screaming special effects: Hire Mike Patton.

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To be fair, I remember Patton making some (mild) complaints about what he needs to do to undo his vocal stress he puts himself through in a few interviews.

Celestein_sl said:

Your glottal folds are like any muscle, it gets tired, gets stressed, you have to exercise and train it to go long sessions.

It's not like being an endurance runner, but if you think it's easy, it's not. It's probably the least crazy part of their demands.

edit: and as Vaclav pointed out, it's kinda like actors losing/gaining weight or buffing up for roles, for certain styles of voice you have to train really hard *which changes your voice* and then undo it for your next role if they want what you originally had.

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Yes and as a programmer i may as well go demand a raise because of finger stress.

Boo fucking hoo. It's part of the occupation they chose.

As a programmer you can bargain collectively to ask for regular checks of the ergonomics of your work space to prevent back/shoulder/neck/elbow/wrist/finger/eyes problems!

I listen to a lot of anime voice actors at cons. Same story, long hours and low pay. It can get strenuous when you deal with the screaming. Been staying on top of this through twitter at least with some of the big name VOs like Steve Blum, Travis Willingham, Tara Strong, Yuri Lowenthal, etc. Has a chance to get somewhere with this I guess.

Celestein_sl said:

edit: and as Vaclav pointed out, it's kinda like actors losing/gaining weight or buffing up for roles, for certain styles of voice you have to train really hard *which changes your voice* and then undo it for your next role if they want what you originally had.

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That's not how I took Patton's comments technically - if you've not listened to FNM/Bungle/Phantomas/etc not too mention his other works, he tends to do various vocal stresses while maintaining something like a 7 octave range or some such on an almost daily basis - so while similar, he's not really got a "normal" he adjusts back to - I've tried to cover his singing some myself and I personally feel like I went through a bout of Strepp after some of the gutteral stuff. [falsetto stuff doesn't hurt too bad though, i.e. I started a joke]

Needless_sl said:

Yes and as a programmer i may as well go demand a raise because of finger stress.

Boo fucking hoo. It's part of the occupation they chose.

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Not only dumb but also wrong:Does Workman's Comp Cover Repetitive Strain Injuries?

Sorry that you're too stupid to realise your shitty job is wrecking your health.

Itzena_sl said:

Not only dumb but also wrong:Does Workman's Comp Cover Repetitive Strain Injuries?

Sorry that you're too stupid to realise your shitty job is wrecking your health.

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Did you not recognize the sarcasm or are you merely pretending to be retarded?

This isn't completely unreasonable.

Counterpoint: Video Game Voice acting is the sort of job that any college drama major would LOVE to have. I won't say it takes no skill, because it does take some skill. It just doesn't takemuch.

So.. uhh.. reasonable or not, they really got no leverage here. Go on strike and watch 1st years at UCLA or UCSD get all the work.

I'd say that there's a huge difference in the quality between a 1st year at UCLA and a professionally-trained voice actor.

Still, residuals are an extremely unreasonable demand.

Any idea what % of video games use actual made-for/unique content?

Thinking through how many times I've heard various clips in different games seems a lot get recycled from film or other games.

I've no idea what Voice Actor wages are like so it's hard for me to say they should earn more or less. What instantly puts me off from this drama is asking for residuals. VA is way, way down on the list of people who deserve residuals for games.

k^M_sl said:

Any idea what % of video games use actual made-for/unique content?

Thinking through how many times I've heard various clips in different games seems a lot get recycled from film or other games.

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In the film industry, there's something called the "pirate ship." It's when you do sound effects for a movie, then save all those sound effects and bring them along with you onto your next job, so each time you're required to make less and less unique sounds. I imagine there's something similar for the video game industry.

Kriptini_sl said:

Did you not recognize the sarcasm or are you merely pretending to be retarded?

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Poe's Law.