We started voice recording for my videogame this week. I spent the last two days in a studio in Burbank directing the voice talent.
Two of the actors were people whose voice work I’ve been a fan of for years.
With one of them I actually listened to recordings of one of his previous characters while I was writing the script. Since we started production I’d been hoping we could get him for this role.
The other I hadn’t even dreamed of as a possibility. She’s worked with Disney in the past, which suggested that we probably couldn’t afford her, but when I got the audition clips there was her name … .
So, over the past two days I enjoyed the treat of having two of my favorite voices on the planet reading MY LINES. They both turned in excellent performances. They both were a pleasure to work with. And they both said complementary things about the script afterwards.
Oh that must be so cool. Whenever I do something like watch a movie adapted from a book, or something similar, I always wonder what it must be like to have your imagination playing out right in front of you.
You going to drop subtle hints at release time so we know what to look for?
Sadly I cannot. Which kills me because I really want to talk about it. We still haven’t announced the title publicly so I have to be extremely circumspect about what I say.
The coolest part was when they came up with a reading that I completely didn’t anticipate. I was like “Whoa, I didn’t realize THAT was in there!”
I’ll probably do a MPSIMS or Cafe Society thread when we announce. I’m hoping they’ll let us go public at E3 this year but I still don’t have any confirmation on that.
It’s really a semi-perverse, somewhat geeky thrill, isn’t it? In my case, it was only once, on my first game (in 1960, for 20 minutes), and I didn’t have any input at all into the voice direction. But first there was the experience of hearing your characters being “brought to life” by a real bona-fide actor, and then the realization of “Hey, they’re reading stuff that I wrote!”
We had a pseudo-celebrity B-lister, and he went around the office with entourage in tow, and everybody got all excited. But I had the reaction, “Yeah, whatever – I want to meet the guy who did Professor Utonium’s voice on ‘Powerpuff Girls!’ He rocks!”
That really is the coolest part. We would get voice files back from recording, and the stuff that seemed funniest when we were writing it came out fine. But then some of the stuff that we’d just basically written as throwaways, they nailed it. Got exactly what the reference was, found double entendres that we hadn’t intended, or just “sold” the material and made it funnier than it had a right to be.
That’s so cool. I’ve become more interested in who does videogame voices lately; in the last year I’ve been grinding through Baldur’s Gate 1/2, Knights of the Old Republic 1/2, and the Neverwinter Nights games, and find that stuff really fascinating. It’s funny when you turn up names you don’t expect; I had a few “omg!” moments, I know. (I think the funniest were realizing that the woman who voices Bastila in KotOR also does the halfling Mazzy in Baldur’s Gate 2, and that the guy who did the voicing for Anomen in BG2 has - among many other things - voiced The Brain on Animaniacs.)
Okay, if it’s someone who’s at Jodi Benson’s star level, then I’m guessing Paige O’Hara. Or maybe Liz Callaway, except that she’d fall somewhere below Ms. Benson.
Potentially Lea Salonga, except that (a) she’s the biggest star of the bunch, and (b) she doesn’t typically do voice-over work.
She’s known for a lot more than just Disney work. In fact, she’s done a lot more work for Warner Brothers, so mentioning Disney in this context would be a bit odd.
Me, I’m just bummed that it’s not the delectable Jodi Benson. Sigh.
I’ve become more interested in who does videogame voices lately; in the last year I’ve been grinding through Baldur’s Gate 1/2, Knights of the Old Republic 1/2, and the Neverwinter Nights games, and find that stuff really fascinating. It’s funny when you turn up names you don’t expect; I had a few “omg!” moments, I know. (I think the funniest were realizing that the woman who voices Bastila in KotOR also does the halfling Mazzy in Baldur’s Gate 2, and that the guy who did the voicing for Anomen in BG2 has - among many other things - voiced The Brain on Animaniacs.)