Game Actors for All

I don't know if this will affect his availability for RiD, so this may just be a complete shitpost.

He sounds like he really sick of doing this...

 

I thought I saw Steve Blum in a photograph for season four of RID, but that was a guess on my part and it could be someone else. We do know that season four voice recording is/was underway. Dunno if RID has a future beyond season four. I think not, four seasons seems like a good place to finish.

 

That's sad that that has to happen. I hope things are resolved peacefully and as soon as possible so that Blum can return to RID.

 

He's striking against video game voice work, so I think he'll still do show work.

 

He specifically mentions that TV and film already abide by some of what they're requesting. I think RID (and RB, he's Heatwave, member?) will continue to enjoy his talent even throughout this strike.

If not? Well, he made a compelling case in that audio file for the need for this strike. I'm in support.

 

"Steve Blum" is not on strike, *all* SAG-AFTRA voice actors are on strike.

 

The voice actor strike has nothing to do with tv/movie projects. It's only for video/computer games.

 

That's good. So the producers of Star Wars Rebels won't kill off Zeb.

 

It's video games only so unless they're doing a TLK tie in or a sequel to Devastation, this won't impact the Transformers franchise.

 

They're striking OVER video games, but I'm not clear if that means they're just not working on game projects, or if they're not working at all.

 

what improvements are they asking for?

 

Better safety conditions. I think pay may also be up for discussion too, though I don't know.

 

1. limit 'vocally stressful' work to 2 hours per session.
   
   
2. Require stunt coordinators for Mo-Cap sessions.
   
   
3. Advanced info on, Character to be played/How they fit into the story/How many sessions/Type of content covered.
   
   
4. Secondary compensation for each 2 million units sold capped at 8million, with a total payout at 8mil being £3300, if that was distributed evenly that would be a payment of $825 to every voice actor that worked on the game for each 2mil sold.
   

 

That is all reasonable

 

If I may ask, how different is voice acting in video games and TV shows/films? Is is that video game studios treat voice actors worse than TV/film studios?

 

Some of them have done mo-cap sessions before, like Nolan North in the Uncharted games.

Mo-Cap is a physically demanding task that actually could result in injury, being in a botched stunt or misdirection. A stunt coordinator would probably oversee this stuff to make it less frequent. I don't know the exacts, but that's my interpretation of the issue.

 

Well for starters, this is the script for an episode of scrubs:


About the average size of a tv script. Now here is a script of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV:

FUCKIN MASSIVE.

VO work is not only tiresome because of the amount of lines you have to read, but nowadays voice actors will sometimes have to do motion capture:

What Steve Blum is on about is that they don't let them take breaks in between sessions. And by the end them and their voices are physically worn out.

Not only that, but voice actors in games hardly ever get credit/recognition. Going back to GTA IV, in the end credits it takes 10 whole minutes before they start listing the game's cast:

 

Also a major difference between games and animation for TV and film is how vocally taxing the work itself is. Games require massive variations of grunts, screams, and other assorted wordless noises that cumulatively rip an actor's throat to shreds.

 

I recall that Liam O'Brien (Underbite, Kickback) was working on the epic video game Asura's Wrath, and it took such a strain on his voice that he couldn't speak for some time.  

I felt sorry for him, admired his work on the game, but thought that was a special case. I didn't realize that it was the norm for most actors in that genre.  

Those improvements sound reasonable and beneficial indeed, and should be implemented.