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[Blade Master Model 42]

A friend of mine has embarked on a video game project, and he asked me to be his Vocal Casting Director. So, when he told me he needed high quality voices for a few villains, I thought Bay12.

As of right now, I don't have a script or lines to run for the characters, so this is primarily an interest check. I love to hear voice samples though. When I do receive a script, or just the lines to run, I'll post them in this thread. I will also ask that, for the official auditions, the same lines are used for each character, so I'm not looking at two different auditions on two different lines.

I'm looking for 5 voices.

1 Big Bad, who is cold, calculating, and manipulative.

I will also require 4 Lesser Villains, for whom I was given the keyword insane. You should be able to give your voice a deranged quality for these roles, and naturally we'll want different styles of madness. More details on these as they come to me.

Feel free to audition for multiple spots when the time comes.

For anyone who tries out, whichever spot you shoot for, there are some requirements:

1. Good recording quality. You'll probably need a stable, fixed position, good quality microphone, and depending on how breathy you are, maybe a breath screen or whatever they're called. Just take a ruined sock, and stretch it over a wire hanger, should stop 'wind ' sounds nicely. If you're still having trouble, try turning the mic sensitivity down.

2. Vocal variance. I was asked to make sure you could vary your pitch somewhat, as my friend only has so many filters.

3. You can't be afraid to cuss a little. As stated before, I don't have a script yet, but expect the occasional F bomb at the minimum.

As for the game itself, it's going to be a Horror RPG, and it'll eventually come out on the PC. I don't have many more details, but what I do have can be found here.

Also, if this isn't something you'd be interested in doing, but you know someone who would, please direct them to me. I'd really appreciate it.

[freeformschooler]

I can't begin to explain how much I would love to do this but I haven't trained my voice so I don't have much pitch variation. I do look forward to the game, though.

[Blade Master Model 42]

I can't begin to explain how much I would love to do this but I haven't trained my voice so I don't have much pitch variation. I do look forward to the game, though.

I will make sure to spread the word when it does come out. And even if you don't feel confident about the pitch variation, please, feel free to try anyway. Right now, I have nobody for this.

[Rooster]

Before this thread proves that Bay 12 DOESN'T get things done let's estabilish some rules:

1)You cannot be demanding. This is an internet forum we're talking here, and you are requesting free help. You see a while a go I was a voice actor for my friend, and this ended poorly. Everyone quit because he was a jerkass.

2)You should accept most if not all willing. Despite this being a forum with lots of traffic, I doubt you'll get a lot of people willing to help.

With this being said I believe I can send in a sample of my acting qualities as a minor villian, but first you'll have to post a sample monologue I could freely interpret according to my abilities, ok?

[nenjin]

I'd also lower your expectations on sound quality. A screen is one thing. But I'm guessing 90% of people will try to record in their own bedroom with a mic intended for online gaming. That's going to get you some shit sound files.

I'd love to try this but those are my primary reasons for not trying it. Voice audio that isn't consistent sticks out like a sore thumb, and people you're asking to help are going to be recording in a variety of environments under a bunch of different conditions.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Before this thread proves that Bay 12 DOESN'T get things done let's estabilish some rules:

1)You cannot be demanding. This is an internet forum we're talking here, and you are requesting free help. You see a while a go I was a voice actor for my friend, and this ended poorly. Everyone quit because he was a jerkass.

2)You should accept most if not all willing. Despite this being a forum with lots of traffic, I doubt you'll get a lot of people willing to help.

With this being said I believe I can send in a sample of my acting qualities as a minor villian, but first you'll have to post a sample monologue I could freely interpret according to my abilities, ok?

When I get some of the script to let people try, I'll put it up here.

I'd also lower your expectations of on sound quality. A screen is one thing. But I'm guessing 90% of people will try to record in their own bedroom with a mic intended for online gaming. That's going to get you some shit sound files.

I'd love to try this but those are my primary reasons for not trying it. Voice audio that isn't consistent sticks out like a sore thumb, and people you're asking to help are going to be recording in a variety of environments under a bunch of different conditions.

My friend was very insistent about the sound quality. I'd be happy provided it's free of most background noises (at least for the most part), and there isn't 'popping' from people exceeding the volume the microphone wants to record.

I realize I am asking for a fair deal of effort for basically no reward, and I'll try to refrain from being overly pushy or critical.

[nenjin]

Well, I won't be joining unless I can get my hands on a friend's mic (a REALLY nice radio announcer's mic with a real screen.)

I just hope you've got a good sound engineer, that can balance it all out.

[The Fool]

I would love to help, but I have no idea what kind of sound quality (relatively) I have with my mic. I have Skype if you want to check. If that doesn't work for you, just let me know.

[Blade Master Model 42]

I would love to help, but I have no idea what kind of sound quality (relatively) I have with my mic. I have Skype if you want to check. If that doesn't work for you, just let me know.

My internet can't handle skype. Just record a sound file and put it up through mediafire.

[JoshuaFH]

This has piqued my interest somewhat. The only mic I have to work with is the built-in mic in my laptop, which isn't the best obviously. I suppose I could atleast audition if given a few lines, or I could just ramble off generic bad guy phrases.

I have a bit more experience than the average person, given that I was in a choir and did some public speaking in the past. Definitely not high-tier stuff, but better than nothing.

[The Fool]

Here it is. I managed to find a second mic, and I used a program (which I still loathe) to use both mics at once. The result is the sound file. Let me know how the audio quality is.

And no it's not a good example of my vocal range.

[Blade Master Model 42]

This has piqued my interest somewhat. The only mic I have to work with is the built-in mic in my laptop, which isn't the best obviously. I suppose I could atleast audition if given a few lines, or I could just ramble off generic bad guy phrases.

I have a bit more experience than the average person, given that I was in a choir and did some public speaking in the past. Definitely not high-tier stuff, but better than nothing.

We don't have the lines yet apparently, so generic bad guy phrases would be the way to go.

Here it is. I managed to find a second mic, and I used a program (which I still loathe) to use both mics at once. The result is the sound file. Let me know how the audio quality is.

And no it's not a good example of my vocal range.

The audio quality there is great.

[LordBucket]

Voice Actors needed.

I've done some voicework. If you want a quick sample, I'm the voice of Ranma Saotome in this video. I also DJd a radio music show on KLAS FM a few years ago, and I've been in a few minor non-SAG productions locally.

Will you be holding auditions via submission, or are you simply gauging interest at this point?

[Blade Master Model 42]

I am looking to fill these roles as soon as I find voices which I feel are 'appropriate' for these characters we need, but at this point in the process, I don't have lines to give people, so I'll be hesitant at best to make the choice based on the 'flavor' of the voice alone.

So to answer the question, it's primarily to gauge interest at the moment, at least until I receive the lines to give you people. I'd like to hear Villainous One Liners or other appropriate pre-submissions though.

That was a fun video by the way.

[LordBucket]

Thanks. I did a quick test and the sound quality with my current setup leaves something to be desired, so I'll have to see about fixing that. But it sounds like you're not ready to accept submissions, so I suppose I have time.

As someone who has done casting, I do have some suggestions:

 * You have 5 roles to fill but you've only described two. Give character bios for all five. Include not only personality, but also age, gender, etc.
 * You need to give some idea of the scope of the project, and an approximate number of lines for each character. You don't want to cast someone in a role and have it turn out that it requires ten more hours or ten more weeks than they expected, and then have them leave mid-production because of it. When it comes to recording time, are we going to be given lines in isolation that we can read and be done with in an hour? Or is this going to be months of going back and forth, recording scenes one at a time as the script is written over the course of the project? People need to know this.
 * You need to have people reading the same lines to compare them. Minor improvisation off those lines is fine, but asking people to come up with 'villainous one liners" means that your audition process will be evaluating the ability of people to write dialogue...which is probably not what they'll be doing during the production.
 * It's a bit strange that you say you're looking to fill the roles "as soon as' you find appropriate voices...implying a rush, but you haven't given us an audition process or lines to read. You're asking for pre-submissions, but stating that those pre-submissions won't be used to decide anything. If you're going to do this, then do it. Write character bios, formalize lines to read from, and give submission protocols. As it is, the way you're asking for submissions so you can not use them, if you'll forgive me, makes it a bit difficult to take you very seriously.
 * Give a formal protocol for submissions. Specifically, either:

A) Allow people to audition for any specific character(s) of their choosing, with a separate submission for each character they're auditioning for. And have them include with their submission if they're willing to play roles other than those they're auditioning for.

B) Require that applicants audition for all characters.

For example, what happens if someone auditions for villain A, and his voice is appropriate for villain A, but his voice is also appropriate for villain B, and his is the only voice out of your submissions that is appropriate for villain B...and you have someone else who is appropriate for villain A? The obvious thing to do is to cast the applicant for villain A as villain B, even though he didn't audition for him. But, the applicant might only be willing to do villain A. And if you then complete all your casting with him as villain B only to have him decline the role, everybody ends up wasting a lot of time.

Given that this seems to be a very casual, unpaid production and you won't be working with professional voice actors, A is probably preferable. But either way, the whole project will be vastly simpler if you address this kind of thing from day 1.