TetraGenesis
Member
Those are great requests, they deserve them all. It's amazing what the industry has been able to get away with in regards to actors purely. The industry's growth has far outpaced its treatment of talent.
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Major VIdeogame Voice Actors Union Considers Strike With #PreformanceMatters Campaign
- Thread starter Mushroomer25
- Start date
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yeah that's a good point. It'd encourage VAs to seek out likely-to-be-popular AAA games, instead of encouraging them to do give a strong performance. Still, I do sympathize with their plight and there isn't any simple solution, so who am I to say what they should or shouldn't ask for...
Correction: SAG-AFTRA isn't a division of the Screen Actors Guild it IS the Screen Actors Guild, following its merger with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists).
I'm all for regulations. Less so for residuals, since it seems there are bigger fish to fry outside of VO, and the voice actors likely to work in a blockbuster are also more likely to land consistent work.
I'm all for regulations. Less so for residuals, since it seems there are bigger fish to fry outside of VO, and the voice actors likely to work in a blockbuster are also more likely to land consistent work.
Technically all three are. It's just that North is a definite full union member, Bailey is definitely ficore, and Baker is at least ficore.
You've no idea of how much irreversible damage the vocal chords can sustain if they're forced to yell in quick succession. Permanent voice loss is a very real possibility, and with it, the VO's livelihood. The vocal chords are very fragile in general even just clearing your throat can put wear and tear on them, at least in the form of micro calluses and polyps.
heliosRAzi
Banned
It would be the same thing if the other professions got bonuses, too. Those who worked on a shitty game that sold at least 2 mil would get bonuses, but a great game selling poorly would not. Because it's all about the money.
EatinOlives
Member
Most shitty performances are due to bad writing, bad voice directing, or in many cases both. A good example is Dinklage, a very capable actor, putting in a bad performance for Destiny. He couldn't do anything with writing and directing that badly.
StrangeTaco
Member
Just so you are aware this is a rumor that Schemmel himself clarified, he only passed out because he miscalculated the amount of air he needed to do the SS4 transformation yell in GT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk2Ici4gG1Q (video quality does leave something to be desired)
On Topic: I'm honestly curious how much they are paid for their work, never actually looked too much into it.
dancrane212
Member
That article seems a little bit disingenuous in regards to payments, as it doesn't cover minimum session fees or buyouts.
Quavillion
Banned
They should be happy with having a job and being part of this unique art form. If they want to be greedy, the door is right next to them. They can take that so-called "talent" somewhere else. I play games to PLAY--not to listen to some B-tier wanna be who couldn't make it in Hollywood.
"[Video] games are more like cars or books or comics. The creators aren't the focus. The creation is." --Danny O'Dwyer
"[Video] games are more like cars or books or comics. The creators aren't the focus. The creation is." --Danny O'Dwyer
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
That payment figure isn't accurate lol.
Crazymoogle
Member
SAG is an interesting wrinkle for studios because it really puts pressure on VO scheduling/budgets. There's no out to do a few dev voices to fill the gaps, save time, or whatever. You go all union, all the way.
Does this mean any mocap? Big studios will fight to the bloody end against that. I guess it depends where they draw the line between animation mocap and voice performance work mocap.
er...huh?
So again I'm not aware of what happens in a SAG strike but does that immediately kill existing contracts? Joe can't come to work so joe's contract is dead and Company X can use scabs or internal actors instead?
Does this mean any mocap? Big studios will fight to the bloody end against that. I guess it depends where they draw the line between animation mocap and voice performance work mocap.
er...huh?
So again I'm not aware of what happens in a SAG strike but does that immediately kill existing contracts? Joe can't come to work so joe's contract is dead and Company X can use scabs or internal actors instead?
Residuals could work well if it was in a similar way to some indie movies.
For example the actor gets paid full scale (or double scale) and gives away any rights of residuals, or the actor works half scale and will receive residuals if the game does well. But that would only probably work for smaller games, AAA titles not so much.
sensui-tomo
Member
I wonder how gaf VA Feep feels about this strike. Then again, I'm not sure if Feep is union or not. IIRC the union was a reason why almost every cast member of MGS had to use a fake name.
I'll say for a moment here - as a developer, I actually do make residuals/royalties off a couple of games I worked on. They're so fucking tiny though that they don't factor into my living and it just about costs me as much money to promote those games than I make back. A game I worked on recently made it to Steam. I will earn less than 3 digits off my residuals for it.
However, residuals for anything in the industry are just about unheard of, and are usually used to get someone for cheap now and pay them more later. It doesn't always work out. In fact, in many cases, it DOESN'T work out, and the studio goes under and you're up shit creek. Many actors pay more in dues than they get back from residuals. What residuals mostly provide jobs for is the accountants at the studios and the union.
Which is why I'm all for setting some good ground rules on labor time, stress, etc, but am parting out residuals. They're not all they're cracked up to be.
Also, using a variant of BlackLivesMatter is indefensible.
dancrane212
Member
So the residuals would be for all SAG members who worked on the project? Not just bigger, more known, actors? It's going to take quite the strike to bring that dream about - everything I've ever read/heard about publishers and the mere mention of royalties doesn't paint a good picture for SAG's changes.
I'm sure publishers would be more than willing to take non-union actors to make sure no one watching from the development side gets any ideas from a successful strike. I sure it's a similar situation where there is more development talent than open positions but if it could work for one group in a similar situation you never know...
You've got me curious now. Is there a better figure out there?
I'm sure publishers would be more than willing to take non-union actors to make sure no one watching from the development side gets any ideas from a successful strike. I sure it's a similar situation where there is more development talent than open positions but if it could work for one group in a similar situation you never know...
You've got me curious now. Is there a better figure out there?
What
Last time there was a problem getting voice over work wishing SAG , every videogame just went to Canada for dubbing. This resulted in games like maverick Hunter X on psp as well as megaman powered up receiving a slightly more amateurish performance but I feel that SAGs demands will only lead to something similar in the future. I wish them the best of luck though , if the voice over work in a game is pretty bad I think it can lead to lower sales , atleast give VO people a deal comparable to radio work.
I've no idea if it's common knowledge, so with NDAs and all that I probably can't say
But as I've stated earlier, voice actors who get a lot of work can do well for themselves, but not on the same planet as big time TV or film actors.
CrichtonKicks
Member
North and the other actors who consistently get cast in major AAA titles stand to really benefit though. Troy Baker would be looking at near the max bonus for TLOU, Bioshock, MGSV, Arkham Knight, and COD AW.
IIRC the last time they tried this it was shot down, partly due to the way games sales are pretty much a big secret. Television has ratings which are common knowledge, films have box office receipts which are again common knowledge, whereas sales of games are hidden until PR needs a good headline.
I'm in an interesting position, and I don't want to say too much here because I have friends on both sides of this argument. (I'm a game developer whose last project was a SAG-AFTRA production, featuring Wil Wheaton, Laura Bailey, and Yuri Lowenthal, as well a non-union voice actor who has worked in numerous video games myself.)
Vocal stress can be significant, and I fully support additional restrictions on hours with regard to battle reax and any shouted lines. Stunt coordinators...well, it's hard to draw the line. It seems ridiculous to hire one for performance capture for dialogue, for instance, or just walking around. How about a jog, or a run? But if the actor is doing anything that could be remotely considered a "stunt", yeah, there should be someone there.
Residuals are a tricky subject. Everyone says "actors should benefit if their project succeeds!" but no one says they should suffer if the project fails. In the end, residuals are just *more money*, but automatically entered into a riskier bet by the producers involved. Do I support higher pay for SAG AFTRA actors? A slight increase would sit okay with me, though there are currently no "tiers" for productions like there are for movies...there are "low budget" and "ultra low budget" options for films and television, and no such options currently exist for indies. Even though the actors are taking home a day rate of $800 for four hours, I would shell out around $1350 for four hours due to the union and agent's fee. Increasing that much higher right now is rough.
The union is fighting for its actors, true. And who could blame them? But animators almost never get residuals. Neither do 3-D modelers, or programmers, or people who, even in my opinion as a voice actor, matter far more to the final product.
ALL that said, the bonuses are low, and almost exclusively triggered by AAA titles. I generally support the Union's demands, here, even though I'm not personally a member (I'm eligible to join, but most of my current work is non-union). I'd like to see them introduce tiers to support lower budget productions, get rid of ficore entirely, and offer more flexible arrangements for performance capture and foley work. But whatever.
I agree that other areas also need unions. I will point out that only the highest tier voice actors can ever charge 2x-4x scale, though, and even then, they'll still work for 1x a fair share of the time. A tons of projects pay less, as non-union.
Most VA's I know aren't really living it up.
infinit777
Member
I'm not saying I'm for or against the strike, but I really dislike the fact that if a game has 1 sag member as a voice in it then the rest of the voice actors must be sag members...
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
The fuck is this?
jackissocool
Member
Good, I support all worker organizing efforts.
Of course they are, a couple of hours in a booth and a nice fat pay check for millions.
Oh wait, that would be Hollywood A-listers.
You are of course right, most VA's are jobbing actors going from one role or audition to the next whilst trying to land that big juicy role that pays really well.
All true, but that's just because the gigs are not full time. Like most contract work, you have to hustle for jobs when your contract runs out. Most contractors of other disciplines do not have agents though like many VO actors do.
Didn't know this. Still sounds like trouble though. Reading lines, passing out or even losing your voice from all the vocal work back to back.
Kiefer Sutherland was a mistake tbh.
She is pretty high profile. She went from voicing Peach, Toad and Birdo for Nintendo from 1999 to 2007 then straight into voicing Cortana.
well that and the fact that a lot of actors just suck at voice acting. The same applies to theatre.
IdreamofHIME
Member
True and the producers/writers should get a cut, which is why Swifts recent strike against Apple was good for the industry...all be it focused more on the singers.
The difference with gaming though, is people aren't buying games for these voice actors...they are buying them for the gameplay experience the underpaid developer is creating.
Troy Baker is a man in demand, but it's not because he's Tom Cruise or George Clooney, he's not carrying those games. He's hired because he's multi talented (can also do mocap)and cheap. You remove the cheap factor from the equation and there's plenty of other people a studio can get in.
Trigonometrize.
Member
Maybe if enough strike Atlus will be forced to have Japanese voices in West release of Persona 5
I'm half joking.
I'm half joking.
TetraGenesis
Member
First off, go fuck yourself. Secondly, the reason voice talent in games is inconsistent (although it gets better every year, with more and more stellar standouts) is because it's hard to attract better actors (or a larger variety of good actors) when you pay so little and treat them so poorly. Like it or not, there are so so so many people trying to act and only a small percentage of them are any good. If you want good actors to choose your project over the thousands of others out there you have to be willing to pay.
Try telling that to 3/4 of film crews.
I'm not aware of any agencies for any other discipline in game development though. Except perhaps QA.
Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists