Canadian actors say they have suffered temporary or even permanent damage to their vocal cords as they perform death cries, zombie howls or battle roars for two to four hours during video game voiceover work.
And they want Canada-based game developers and video game directors to help local actors more safely get the same intensity of performance to voice complex, fully drawn characters who still constantly cry and scream when confronted by enemies who attack them. want to kill.
“It’s education, training for the actor, training for everyone. It’s a concerted effort to make sure the actor doesn’t lose his voice,” Ellen Dubin, a lead voice actor in video games such as Fallout 4, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls, World Of Warcraft, Star Trek Online and Agents of Chaos, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Sometimes your throat carries a heavy burden. And it’s not necessarily just screaming, laughing, roaring. It can be whispering that is emotionally taxing,” Dubin added. On August 4, ACTRA, the Canadian actors’ union, released a survey of 260 members that found that 74.32 percent of those surveyed said video game voiceover sessions very often or almost always included loud, aggressive or extremely vocal work.
Ivan Sherry, a veteran of video game voiceovers, also on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise, the game characters get stabbed, shot, fall off cliffs, or suddenly burst into flames. “The most important thing as an actor is to make this stuff as real and lifelike as possible. That’s what gamers expect: honest, lifelike performances,” added Sherry of using his projected voice to raise gamers’ dramatic stakes and heart rate.
Actors have to go far beyond screaming in pain in the voice booth by using deft physicality while planting their faces in front of a microphone, all the while trying to avoid short- or long-term damage by shredding their vocal cords.
“You have one to replicate the sound of what it could be. That’s where you have to go, to that place. Regardless of the training, and that’s vocally stressful,” Sherry added. The ACTRA survey also reported that 42.74 percent of respondents said it took two or more days for their singing quality to return to normal after a vocally extreme voice. oversession, and 27.68 percent had considered turning down a session for fear of losing their voice, and thus future work.
That’s voiceover for local video games in a fast-growing Canadian industry. According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, video game companies in Canada generated approximately $4.3 billion in revenue in 2021, a 20 percent increase from 2019 pre-pandemic levels — and more revenue than the Hollywood-dominated Canadian film and film industry. TV industry together.
In addition to the availability of work, Canadian actors are also drawn to voice over work in gaming as the lines between what is a Hollywood tent pole and a video game are becoming increasingly blurred. A total of 937 video game companies were identified in Canada, up 35 percent from 2019, most of which operate in Ontario and Quebec, developing and manufacturing games for the global market.
ACTRA raises the alarm over vocal security issues after its sister membership of SAG-AFTRA held an artist strike against 11 major video game companies from October 2016 to September 2017 that ended with a new interactive media agreement. “I struck. I held a placard as a good Canadian because I believed in education,” recalls Dubin, who is an ACTRA and SAG-AFTRA member and regularly works on both sides of the border.
The SAG-AFTRA deal included a commitment from the employer to continue working with the US Actors’ Union on the issue of vocal stress. In Canada, Simon Lee Phillips, who has voiced a number of characters in the… Assassin’s Creed game franchise, including Assassin’s Creed Unit and Assassin’s Creed Syndicatestates that the difference in industry awareness about voice security depends on which game developers you work for.
Phillips points out that game developers are increasingly providing script breakdowns, and even the scripts themselves in advance, so that voice actors have an idea of which one-liners they’ll bark or bleat during a session. “I really enjoy working with Ubisoft. They were open to learning and understanding. Once they know this is something their artists need, they generally seem to meet them,” Phillips said. THR.
The ACTRA survey and union members recommend that as measures to guard against vocal cord stress, actors are given hourly breaks during sessions, a vocal coach is part of recording sessions, and extreme vocal work is left at the end of a performance to ensure that actors stay fresh for voice work earlier in a session.
Additionally, script breakdowns should indicate whether extreme vocal work is part of a session, and voiceover directors should be trained to enable performers to save their voices and avoid injuries to their vocal cords. Dubin adds that agents should be trained to spot pitfalls for the voice actor they represent.
“It’s instructive cops to say, ‘You know what, maybe spread this out in a few days when we play a monster or a creature where we have to scream and scream and cry and get killed, maimed or attacked, or fight against something. .” Dubin advised.
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