THE INTERVIEW
Chin: Can you give us a general overview of the voice production process of Samurai Warriors 2. What do you think of the translated script? Did you face any difficulty in the progress of the production?
Eric: Production: First we give the actor the script as much in advance as we possibly can, along with a detailed description.
Once we are in studio we start off every character by first having the actor run through a selection of lines that covers the whole range of emotions, deliveries and scenarios for that character. (In the case of SW2 there were lines that represented victory, defeat, in battle, death and so on.) We tell the actor what we like and where to make changes until we hear what we’re looking for. We do this so that the character is fully fleshed out right away. This helps the actor to be confident when delivering their lines because they know what’s expected of them. And it helps us to maintain continuity throughout all the lines.
When actually recording there are a lot of things to listen out for.
The most obvious things to listen for are noises that a person normally makes when they are speaking. Things like clicks, lip smacks, teeth clacks, slurs, etc…
For this we have a plethora of interesting studio code words like: Rice Crispies, Scooby, Sugar Smaks, Mick Jagger, Blueberry Juice, Horse Race, Sean Connery and many, many more.
Another really important thing to listen for is fatigue.
Voice acting is a lot harder than most people think. You need to have your energy high for each line, even when it’s a soft-spoken one. So after 200 lines you can get really worn out. Or your throat can get aggravated making your voice raspy.
If we feel that the actor is starting to get tired, we give them a break until they are ready to go back in.
The amount of lines that we do in a day always varies depending on the skill level of the actor or the difficulty of the character.
Script: I really thought the translated script was excellent. Great drama with a few touches of humour. All the characters and their story lines were really well laid out which made it really exciting to hear it unfold in studio. The writer who translated the script was actually with us during the entire production acting as the representative from Koei, and he really put a lot of effort into translating the script so that the story would be just as good in English as it was in Japanese.
Difficulties: No matter what the production is there will always be one situation or another that will throw a wrench into your plans. That’s just how it is. It can be anything from a power failure due to a fire down the street or an actor eating the wrong thing for lunch. You always have to be ready to adapt without panicking. Throughout 33 days of production on Samurai warriors 2, we certainly had our share of challenges, but in the end we still managed to deliver great performances and we wrapped the production on schedule and on budget.
Chloe: What processes do you go through when choosing a voice for a character?
Eric: We usually get an image and description of each character and we’ll use that to get an understanding of what we need from the actor to really bring the characters to life. What we will normally do is use an easily identifiable reference for what the character should sound like. For example in the case of Magoichi Saika we wanted a Han Solo type of performance. Once we’ve got a handle on who all the characters are we run through a complete audition process.
We listen to voice demos, go though our database, contact agents, and we chose who we think should audition for which part. Each actor is given a few lines and a description of the character so that they can prepare before they come into studio to record their audition. Once the auditions are all recorded we chose the best 5 or 6 for each part and send them to the developer along with a list of comments for them to make their decision as to who they want to hire for the roles. |
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We basically treat the casting for a game as if it were a feature film.
For this game we auditioned around 250 people and we ended up with a great cast of really talented actors.
Chin: How does it feel to do the voicing in Samurai Warriors 2?
Eric: In a word, awesome. We knew going in that the Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors franchises had a very big and very passionate fan base, so we felt a real responsibility to deliver voice work that would keep the game exciting and fun for them.
Chin: Do the voice actors have the difficulty, like pronouncing Japanese names in the game?
Eric: Naturally this led to some amusing pronunciations, my favourite being “Nobunaga”. The most difficult names were probably Katsuie and Kanetsugu. It was a good thing that we had a rep from Koei to help us with the Japanese names, but the actors did a great job with them.
Chloe: Does doing the voicing for a character in a game based on actual history inspire you to read about the subject?
Eric: I actually did quite a bit of research on the Sengoku Period while we were doing the voice work so that I could give the actors more background on the figures that they were portraying, and I really became interested in the history. So much so that I continued reading about it after the recording was completed. It really is fascinating.
Chin: Tell us the experiences that you gained from producing the Samurai Warriors 2 voice casting and recording. Did you do a little testing on Samurai Warriors 2? What do you think of it?
Eric: You always learn a lot of new things on every production and SW2 was no exception. I don’t know if there is any one thing that I could single out, but the hardest part of this project was doing the dubbing for the in game movies and trying to get English dialogue to fit into the mouths of character who are speaking Japanese without it coming off like Godzilla.
I still haven’t had a chance to play SW2, but I can’t wait to get my hands on it. |
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Chin: Besides Samurai Warriors 2 and Winback 2: Project Poseidon, what games do Agile Sound participated in? Are they more than only voice casting in English?
Eric: We actually cast in just about every language that you can think off. While we didn’t get to do the actual production work on it, we did provide actors in more than 20 different languages for Civilization IV and it’s expansion pack.
Chin: Do you have any advice for those who're interested in voice acting and casting?
Eric: If you want to be a voice actor you need to get professional training.
There are no shortcuts.
Once you’ve gotten your training then you need to put together your voice demo. If you are really serious about it then you’re going to have to spend some money to get your demo done by pros at a studio.
Your demo should consist of several characters, different accents, a narration and a commercial.
It is very important that your demo only consists of material that makes you shine!
Nothing will make a casting director or producer lose confidence in you faster than a really bad impression of Apu from “The Simpsons” or a weak british accent.
If you can’t do it, lose it.
To be a good casting director you need to be able to truly recognize talent, you need to understand how the industry works and most importantly you need to possess a strong, insight and comprehension of all facets of entertainment and really understand what makes a story work.
There is a language that directors and producers use when trying to get express what they are looking for. Often times they will use a pop culture reference or a stereotype or a specific trait, and you need be able to know what they’re talking about and why that is the type of character they feel that need to tell their story.
