Hi Adam! Sadly I'm one of the people who near enough hated your LeChuck, the rest of your work is pretty damn good though, never knew you were Moose and your long Demo Vid on your site has some good clips in it!
To me though, Earl Boen is burned into my mind as LeChuck so it really is difficult for me to feel right with someone else doing the lines (same really if someone were to replace Dom as Guybrush!). I will admit that for Episode 1 though your "flow" fits better as you came first, so the direction felt more tailored to your vocal style. When Earl came back to re-done those, I get he had to change slightly to keep in rhythm with your lines so it wouldn't mean too much work from TellTale having to reanimate him, etc.
Could some exchanges be done through tele-conferencing between the studios? Perhaps just for the cutscenes, so you could have the interaction, and then go back to individual work afterwards?
Whoa! The Moose bit really shocked me (in a good way ;-)).
I could tell that *place name of the Voodoo Lady's voice actress here* was the same woman doing Catherine Krebbs, but the LeChuck - Moose difference is INCREDIBLE. What I've learned / heard about voice acting, this is actually what makes a good voice actor: not so much a unique voice but how much you can do with it.
And, yeah, don't worry too much about the replacement of the lines in Episode 1. Whoever would have dubbed LeChuck in Episode 1 other than Earl, people still would have wanted Mr. Boen back. It's the classic "a sequel can never be as good as the original" syndrome. Same thing with Charity and Alexandra. (Though, if I'm totally honest, both of them do not sound like Elaine to me. I would love to hear recordings of other female voice actresses auditioning for Elaine's part).
Awesome! Shocking people is my #1 goal in VO Mermaid... well #2 behind paying the bills. ;-)
Versatility IS a big selling point for a VO artist, so I've worked very hard on expanding my range. Gaming VO work is an absolute blast! Barring a very few VERY BAD games I've voiced... I ain't naming ANY developers but rest assured, my telltale projects have never EVER bored me. They put TONS of thought into their characters, and it shows.
Sure I often get called in to read a TV spot or documentary script as my boring old self. But rarely do those clients ask me to die a blood curdling death 50 different ways to Sunday, kill a guy same way, same amount, and become so many varied personalities, all in a one hour session. If it's an extremely intense character/scene I'm performing, the amount of adrenaline spent can be incredibly exhilarating and exhausting all at once.
As for the LeChuck subject, I am on board with everybody else. Earl is the one true LeChuck. I'm still holding out hope that Moose will return though. If forced to choose, I'd have to say I had more fun reading his parts. I was a bit more comfortable becoming Moose, as his original voice was my own creation (obviously not for LeChuck). Moose is one of my favorite character of all time, which is why he is featured so heavily in my gaming character reel:
Don't get me wrong, I'm also VERY proud of my LeChuck work (he's all over my reel too) I'm just saying... I'm sure George (and all the billions of fans) would ALWAYS prefer James Earl Jones over a last minute replacement as the Dark Sith Lord, no? ;-)
The script for a feature film might be a hundred pages long, average five or six lines per page (if that), and the entire cast could sit down and read through it in a couple of hours. Say there are ten cast members. That's ten session fees, and you've just recorded the whole thing. When I worked on television shows, they'd put maybe a third or a half of the cast in the booth at a time, do a run through for each, and have the entire thing recorded in an afternoon.
The scripts for CMI and EMI were 4-5 inches thick (literally) and might've had 20 lines per page. I had just shy of 4,000 lines for EMI, and that was just me. And very little of it was in chunks where I could've sat down with the other actors and read it in sequence. Aside from the cutscenes, it was completely broken up and in random order, due to all of the branching dialogue. It took 24-25 four-hour sessions to record my lines for EMI. I was in the booth recording from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM five days a week for about three weeks. Then, even if it were easy to coordinate which other actors should come in when (a nightmare -- I can't even imagine how you'd organize the script to make that possible), you'd first have to double the number of sessions, since my portion was perhaps half the script, and then double, triple or even quadruple that number -- depending on how well you could coordinate who's coming and leaving at what times -- since other actors are standing around while I'm reading my lines and vice versa.
This is all napkin calculation, of course, but hopefully it illustrates why putting everybody together just isn't feasible for dialogue-intensive games like adventure games. It could easily cost twenty times as much to voice an adventure game as it does to voice a feature film if you were to record it the same way. Then consider that unless it's a AAA title, your average game has a fraction of the budget of your average feature film or television show, and it's easy to see why it's done this way.
There's nothing like being in the booth with the other actors and playing off them. And we did that for the cutscenes for EMI (though not CMI or TMI). But as great as it is to have that interaction, it just isn't possible for games like these.
Thanks for the insight there, Dom! I thought budget might have come into play with the voice recording. I think it shows in EfMI that you guys recorded the cutscenes in groups, because some of those conversations just have so much life in them - which was essential for the game, as the 3D models didn't exactly exude life and character.
Anyway, I love your work and you're the perfect voice for Guybrush. Thanks again for the reply.
Sure I often get called in to read a TV spot or documentary script as my boring old self. But rarely do those clients ask me to die a blood curdling death 50 different ways to Sunday, kill a guy same way, same amount, and become so many varied personalities, all in a one hour session. If it's an extremely intense character/scene I'm performing, the amount of adrenaline spent can be incredibly exhilarating and exhausting all at once.
That gets me wondering, what is the strangest thing you've ever had to record? Because Dom had to voice Guybrush drowning in acid, so I was wondering if your remember a line or scene you had to voice that was particularly strange?
That gets me wondering, what is the strangest thing you've ever had to record? Because Dom had to voice Guybrush drowning in acid, so I was wondering if your remember a line or scene you had to voice that was particularly strange?
Surely getting dragged off by the hidden people was pretty strange.
You know this voice over actors sometimes you think they just do the work and move on. I though dominic and Adam just moved on. It looks like they are genuinely fans of the games.
About Adam i also felt uncomfortable with him in the beginning doing voice over for Lechuck, but as the story progressed he kept getting comfortable for my ear. I must admit if Earl definetly retires from voice work, Adam should fill the job. Why? I think its pretty hard for someone to do an almost identical voice of Earl. But whats most important, it's that Adam gave him his own style as it progressed and it went from "ugh" to "he is beginning to feel more and more like Lechuck" and why is that? i believe he just didnt forced it.
I do hope we get a new addition to the series. Adam you have worked for some games i would like to play, and one looks like an MMORPG. Atleast in the beginning of the 3 minutes.
Just watched your voice reel adam, the versatility of some of you VO guys never ceases to amaze me. Also, it would be pretty sweet to drop one of those "Rated M for Mature"s into a Monkey Island ep. (Fake pirate video game ad, mayhaps?)
That gets me wondering, what is the strangest thing you've ever had to record? Because Dom had to voice Guybrush drowning in acid, so I was wondering if your remember a line or scene you had to voice that was particularly strange?
Ahh, you've got those two brain cells working again... hmmmm.... stangest VO?
Well, all the dying and killing has kinda become second nature. And I've been put in so many strange places in my gaming VO career that I would be hard pressed to pick one from the many. As I type I'm looking at some of the cover art I've got framed on my office walls, hoping they will help me to remember (I've posted some of said cover art as photos on my profile page here to give you a better idea of some of the games I've worked on). Lets see...
I guess if you had a gun to my head, I'd have to choose the time a freshly cooked steak (I usually ask for medium well) was brought into the studio so I could chew on it while I read my lines for one of the trucker characters I did in a now ancient arcade and PS2 game called The King of Route 66. That was definitely a trip! And tasty!
Maybe not so strange... odd or uncomfortable would be better adjectives... are some of the projects where I'm called upon to read obviously translated scripts. Japanese, and Russian stuff in particular. Often times in those cases there's just no proper way to deliver a line that correctly conveys what was originally intended for a more exotic tongue. The results have often led to some fairly bizarre dialogue. Which in turn often leads to "five minutes before everyone in the studio can stop laughing hysterically" moments.
You know this voice over actors sometimes you think they just do the work and move on. I though dominic and Adam just moved on. It looks like they are genuinely fans of the games.
About Adam i also felt uncomfortable with him in the beginning doing voice over for Lechuck, but as the story progressed he kept getting comfortable for my ear. I must admit if Earl definetly retires from voice work, Adam should fill the job. Why? I think its pretty hard for someone to do an almost identical voice of Earl. But whats most important, it's that Adam gave him his own style as it progressed and it went from "ugh" to "he is beginning to feel more and more like Lechuck" and why is that? i believe he just didnt forced it.
I do hope we get a new addition to the series. Adam you have worked for some games i would like to play, and one looks like an MMORPG. Atleast in the beginning of the 3 minutes.
If I remember correctly, none of the fellas at telltale ever actually asked me to do an outright mimic of Earl's LeChuck. I do seem to remember playback of his work to give me an idea of the character. But when all was said and done, it really was more of a re-imagining of Zombie LeChucks voice.
The MMORPG game you're referencing is League of Legends I believe. It's become fairly popular, and it supposed to be fun. It also happens to be one of the few games I've appeared in that I've never actually played at all. I am, however, a gamer folks. Have been since Pong. So I can and will talk about more than myself and my career. Don't get me wrong, I L.O.V.E. what I do for a living, and thank my lucky stars I am able to do it passably well. Just don't want folks to think that all I'll talk about is: Adam Harrington, Big Important Voice Over Guy.
I'm just a long-haired California dude who would spend 25 hours a day playing GTA, Resident Evil, or Madden if I could afford to... or if my wife would let me. ;-)
The bulk of my "glorious" VO career entails auditioning for gigs (10% of which I'll actually book... if I'm lucky) in my garage, in my sweatpants usually.
It is what it is.
That is of course until I start doing prime-time promos for CBS, and Trailers for summer block-busters. THAT'S when my head will get all swole up, and I won't have time for people who actually participate in and enjoy my work. ;-)
And it IS "pretty cool" work. Every little person in my life tells me so, and I tend to believe them more than the big people when it comes to matters of "pretty cool".
Just watched your voice reel adam, the versatility of some of you VO guys never ceases to amaze me. Also, it would be pretty sweet to drop one of those "Rated M for Mature"s into a Monkey Island ep. (Fake pirate video game ad, mayhaps?)
Hell, I'd come in to sweep up the studio... run for coffee and Ritz-Bitz... trim Jory's silky-smooth ponytail... anything to get credits on any future MI projects. I truly miss those characters. In-game, AND in-studio characters.
Adam, it is awesome to know that you also did Moose.
I was wondering, did you also did one of the diving judges in "Escape from Monkey Island"? Because the "hippy" Judge sounds a lot like Moose, unless it is your long lost twin brother ;-)
You did a good LeChuck, my only complaint would be your "Har har har".
If it's an extremely intense character/scene I'm performing, the amount of adrenaline spent can be incredibly exhilarating and exhausting all at once.
I would imagine it's harder to voice act the horrified victim than the bloodthirsty killer. All I can look back on is amateur theater and screaming onstage (as in getting the "just right scream") always used to be the hardest part for me.
I was a bit more comfortable becoming Moose, as his original voice was my own creation.
It's a 100 % match and you sound perfectly natural as him.
Hell, I'd come in to sweep up the studio... run for coffee and Ritz-Bitz... trim Jory's silky-smooth ponytail... anything to get credits on any future MI projects. I truly miss those characters. In-game, AND in-studio characters.
I'll watch the skies for the Moose Signal.
Well, making nice with the forum folk is a good start
Seems like Moose was a popular character (I liked him,) and Santino was awesome (and you can't have Santino without Moose.)
Also, I used to play King of Route 66 when I was an arcade kid. It is pretty hilarious that you did those voices. I can't believe you did the blaxploitation guy as well, that may be the best part.
Whoa, we got another voice actor around here! Wohoo!
Mr. Harrington, if you don't mind I have a coulpe of curiosities...
- First of all, do you happen to know why Boen decided to return when the games had already been started?
- And second, I would love to be a voice actor some day, but I'm wondering... How do you start? And do you need to get an agent or something like that? Here in Argentina there isn't a big market for voice acting as there is in the USA, but I'm just wondering that things.
I could tell it wasn't Earl Boen doing the voice, but he has a very distinctive tone. I'm sure it's hard to step in when someone else originated a character, especially one from a classic series. I thought it was a good performance.
- First of all, do you happen to know why Boen decided to return when the games had already been started?
I remember reading Earl Boen would just do 1 recording, so as such they needed to do it when the 4 & 5 dialogue was done yet. And due to the episodic nature of ToMI that wasn't when 1 was being shipped, hence the need for a "stand-in"... just what I heard though.
@ Harrington: Hi! Good to see more people working on the games we loved here.
Looked at your game trialer (the 8 min one) and I have to say, the audio is a bit over the place. The announcements are much louder than the ingame VO work. And amongst them there is a big gap too (LeChuck - other stuff for example). Some of it is barely audioable for me. So I suppose it would look a bit more professional if you could level the volume.
Got anything lined up with TTG? Their 2 new titles? Or would that be top TOP (NDA) secret if it was the plan anyway...?
Adam, it is awesome to know that you also did Moose.
I was wondering, did you also did one of the diving judges in "Escape from Monkey Island"? Because the "hippy" Judge sounds a lot like Moose, unless it is your long lost twin brother ;-)
You did a good LeChuck, my only complaint would be your "Har har har".
I've only worked on TOMI so far. So, not me.
I noticed I received a few similar complaints about the "Har Har" bit here on the tt site. I actually sat at my desk her and belted out a few alternate takes to myself. My wife is used to sudden unexpected schizophrenic outbursts from the garage, and unfortunately she's probably the only one who will ever hear my new and improved "Harrrr"s. Oh well, water under the bridge and all that. Thanks for the other kind words though.
I would imagine it's harder to voice act the horrified victim than the bloodthirsty killer. All I can look back on is amateur theater and screaming onstage (as in getting the "just right scream") always used to be the hardest part for me.
It's a 100 % match and you sound perfectly natural as him.
Yeah if I have multiple bookings in a day I always ask my agent to try setting the gaming gigs last. Kinda difficult to do an intimate tv spot right after screaming 'til my eyes about pop out of my head for an hour or two. Yeah dying can be pretty taxing... pretty damn fun too. The fake kind anyway.
Hey Adam, good to see you back again. I've got a couple more questions to throw at you if you don't mind. I was just wondering, did you have any knowledge of the Monkey Island series before voicing LeChuck and Moose? And also, how much of Tales of Monkey Island have you had the time to play through, if any?
Well, making nice with the forum folk is a good start
Seems like Moose was a popular character (I liked him,) and Santino was awesome (and you can't have Santino without Moose.)
Also, I used to play King of Route 66 when I was an arcade kid. It is pretty hilarious that you did those voices. I can't believe you did the blaxploitation guy as well, that may be the best part.
I've heard you guys hold some sway, I'll try hard not to piss anyone off.
Soul Man is one of my all time favorites. I grew up in the ghettos of East Oakland so that's pretty much how I talked for the first 18 years of my life. Still slip into the pattern sometimes, mostly when I'm really REALLY mad.
Whoa, we got another voice actor around here! Wohoo!
Mr. Harrington, if you don't mind I have a coulpe of curiosities...
- First of all, do you happen to know why Boen decided to return when the games had already been started?
- And second, I would love to be a voice actor some day, but I'm wondering... How do you start? And do you need to get an agent or something like that? Here in Argentina there isn't a big market for voice acting as there is in the USA, but I'm just wondering that things.
Thank you in advance and welcome!
-Not exactly sure what the circumstance was regarding Earl's return.
-You might be surprised! Argentina is a huge country, and I'm sure there is some kind of VO business going on down there. You just have to seek it out. The best advice I gan give you is to find an acting school that also offers VO coaching. After a few classes you and your instructor should have a better idea if VO might be a career option for you. The next steps would then be a demo and an agent down there. There must be at lest one talent agency in Venezuela that offers voice talent services.
If you have trouble finding an agent you can always try the "pay-to-play" sites, Voices.com or Voice123 (there are others but those are the biggest). For a small fee they will send actual auditions to anyone. They can be a good jumping off point for new talent without representation. The pay is fairly low on most gigs there, but the auditions themselves make good practice tools.
I remember reading Earl Boen would just do 1 recording, so as such they needed to do it when the 4 & 5 dialogue was done yet. And due to the episodic nature of ToMI that wasn't when 1 was being shipped, hence the need for a "stand-in"... just what I heard though.
@ Harrington: Hi! Good to see more people working on the games we loved here.
Looked at your game trialer (the 8 min one) and I have to say, the audio is a bit over the place. The announcements are much louder than the ingame VO work. And amongst them there is a big gap too (LeChuck - other stuff for example). Some of it is barely audioable for me. So I suppose it would look a bit more professional if you could level the volume.
Got anything lined up with TTG? Their 2 new titles? Or would that be top TOP (NDA) secret if it was the plan anyway...?
Yeah, I did my videos myself as a sort of a side project, teaching myself to edit and tweak the sound along the way, and I'm still figuring the whole process out. The character reel is still a work in progress. I'm finding more and more of my work on youtube to add to the reel while at the same time trying to edit it down to 2 or 3 minutes.
I'm much happier with the gaming trailer reel I put together as a sort of sister project to the character reel.
The sound is a bit rough on this one as well, but as a whole I like it much better.
As far as professionalism is concerned, most agents, mine included, still send audio only VO reels to prospective clients and mine were done by a professional. I'm just a dumb ol' voiceover guy when it comes down to techie brass tacks, and I know better than to try and produce my own reels. The videos were really just a fun project for me. You can hear my professional reels at my website posted below. Scroll down and click: "VO Reels"
As for TT, as I mentioned here before, I did a few voices on the new Puzzle Agent game, and am holding out hope that Moose makes at least one appearance on any new MI titles. If anything new pops up I'll keep you all posted. As much as TT will allow me anyway.
You could make a dubbed version of the scene and put it on Youtube.
Heh, heh. I just finished TONS of auditions and I recorded lines for a new downloadable puzzle game earlier today so I'm all talked out. The microphone is retired for the night. Maybe tomorrow.
Heh, heh. I just finished TONS of auditions and I recorded lines for a new downloadable puzzle game earlier today so I'm all talked out. The microphone is retired for the night. Maybe tomorrow.
Which one, might I ask? Was it that one for BigFish with 'Jade' in the title?
Hey Adam, good to see you back again. I've got a couple more questions to throw at you if you don't mind. I was just wondering, did you have any knowledge of the Monkey Island series before voicing LeChuck and Moose? And also, how much of Tales of Monkey Island have you had the time to play through, if any?
Hey now Hayden! First guy to talk to me here. G'day Mate.
I must admit I wasn't aware of the Title until I got the first auditions in early 2009. I have played some, but am mostly familiar with the game through hours of scouring walkthroughs on youtube for clips to add to my reel. MI truly is a one of a kind title, and as I've said before the thought put into every aspect of the game: character development, writing, humor, game-play, score, editing, etc. is mind-boggling. These guys do their homework. Even on the understated Puzzle Agent, the waters run deep.
Hey now Hayden! First guy to talk to me here. G'day Mate.
I must admit I wasn't aware of the Title until I got the first auditions in early 2009. I have played some, but am mostly familiar with the game through hours of scouring walkthroughs on youtube for clips to add to my reel. MI truly is a one of a kind title, and as I've said before the thought put into every aspect of the game: character development, writing, humor, game-play, score, editing, etc. is mind-boggling. These guys do their homework. Even on the understated Puzzle Agent, the waters run deep.
Yeah, it's not really a series that many are aware of unless they're actually fans of the adventure game genre. I agree with you about the quality of the MI games, every element of the games are just so near-perfect, and those aspects that you listed really are what Telltale pride themselves on (their character development actually being better than LucasArts', in my opinion). I'm glad you feel the same way as the fans.
Hi Adam, it's great to see another voice actor answering the fans' questions! I loved your performance on the first and third episodes, and I didn't even notice it wasn't Earl Boen until I read the complaints on the forums and I loved Moose. Don't feel bad for having been replaced by Boen, it's not because you're a bad voice actor (which you aren't, and if Telltale thought you were, they wouldn't have hired you to voice Moose, Scruffman and Isaac, right?), it's just because Earl has voiced LeChuck on all the Monkey Island games and it would be weird to replace him now. I don't really have any question that hasn't been answered already, I just dropped by to tell you to keep up with the great work.
Hayden and Neelo, thanks guys. You're the reason we do all this hard work in the first place, and if you guys aren't happy, then we're not doing our jobs hard enough. Gonna call it a night soon. I'm so glad I found this forum. I'll check in here again tomorrow night.
Not sure when the English version will be up and running, but the turn around is usually pretty quick on these smaller titles.
I played a mysterious phone caller who guides the player called "The Voice".
It's no Monkey Island to be sure, but it pays the bills.
Ah, it's a Deck13 game. Yeah, they're a German company and have released all of their games in German first before moving onto an English translation. From my experience with their games (well... game) their English translations are reasonably good, so there should be no "five minutes before everyone in the studio can stop laughing hysterically" moments, as you described them earlier .
Hayden and Neelo, thanks guys. You're the reason we do all this hard work in the first place, and if you guys aren't happy, then we're not doing our jobs hard enough. Gonna call it a night soon. I'm so glad I found this forum. I'll check in here again tomorrow night.
Thanks Adam, that's nice of you to say so. Have a good night man.
Hayden and Neelo, thanks guys. You're the reason we do all this hard work in the first place, and if you guys aren't happy, then we're not doing our jobs hard enough. Gonna call it a night soon. I'm so glad I found this forum. I'll check in here again tomorrow night.
-AH
You're welcome, and the best way to thank us is by keep doing a great job. Good night.
It took 24-25 four-hour sessions to record my lines for EMI. I was in the booth recording from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM five days a week for about three weeks.
Suddenly, I feel very bad about trying to blast through Escape in under three and a half hours and the entire series in under 16.
Comments
Being a Futurama fanboy certainly helped with the audition process.
To me though, Earl Boen is burned into my mind as LeChuck so it really is difficult for me to feel right with someone else doing the lines (same really if someone were to replace Dom as Guybrush!). I will admit that for Episode 1 though your "flow" fits better as you came first, so the direction felt more tailored to your vocal style. When Earl came back to re-done those, I get he had to change slightly to keep in rhythm with your lines so it wouldn't mean too much work from TellTale having to reanimate him, etc.
Awesome! Shocking people is my #1 goal in VO Mermaid... well #2 behind paying the bills. ;-)
Versatility IS a big selling point for a VO artist, so I've worked very hard on expanding my range. Gaming VO work is an absolute blast! Barring a very few VERY BAD games I've voiced... I ain't naming ANY developers but rest assured, my telltale projects have never EVER bored me. They put TONS of thought into their characters, and it shows.
Sure I often get called in to read a TV spot or documentary script as my boring old self. But rarely do those clients ask me to die a blood curdling death 50 different ways to Sunday, kill a guy same way, same amount, and become so many varied personalities, all in a one hour session. If it's an extremely intense character/scene I'm performing, the amount of adrenaline spent can be incredibly exhilarating and exhausting all at once.
As for the LeChuck subject, I am on board with everybody else. Earl is the one true LeChuck. I'm still holding out hope that Moose will return though. If forced to choose, I'd have to say I had more fun reading his parts. I was a bit more comfortable becoming Moose, as his original voice was my own creation (obviously not for LeChuck). Moose is one of my favorite character of all time, which is why he is featured so heavily in my gaming character reel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/harringtonvo#p/a/u/2/JzRfAVkR-Ho
Don't get me wrong, I'm also VERY proud of my LeChuck work (he's all over my reel too) I'm just saying... I'm sure George (and all the billions of fans) would ALWAYS prefer James Earl Jones over a last minute replacement as the Dark Sith Lord, no? ;-)
-AH
Thanks guys, kinda new and working out the protocol. But happy to be here.
Thanks for the insight there, Dom! I thought budget might have come into play with the voice recording. I think it shows in EfMI that you guys recorded the cutscenes in groups, because some of those conversations just have so much life in them - which was essential for the game, as the 3D models didn't exactly exude life and character.
Anyway, I love your work and you're the perfect voice for Guybrush. Thanks again for the reply.
That gets me wondering, what is the strangest thing you've ever had to record? Because Dom had to voice Guybrush drowning in acid, so I was wondering if your remember a line or scene you had to voice that was particularly strange?
Surely getting dragged off by the hidden people was pretty strange.
That's what I originally thought, but this guy's done a lot of work, so you never know if he might have done something weirder.
About Adam i also felt uncomfortable with him in the beginning doing voice over for Lechuck, but as the story progressed he kept getting comfortable for my ear. I must admit if Earl definetly retires from voice work, Adam should fill the job. Why? I think its pretty hard for someone to do an almost identical voice of Earl. But whats most important, it's that Adam gave him his own style as it progressed and it went from "ugh" to "he is beginning to feel more and more like Lechuck" and why is that? i believe he just didnt forced it.
I do hope we get a new addition to the series. Adam you have worked for some games i would like to play, and one looks like an MMORPG. Atleast in the beginning of the 3 minutes.
Ahh, you've got those two brain cells working again... hmmmm.... stangest VO?
Well, all the dying and killing has kinda become second nature. And I've been put in so many strange places in my gaming VO career that I would be hard pressed to pick one from the many. As I type I'm looking at some of the cover art I've got framed on my office walls, hoping they will help me to remember (I've posted some of said cover art as photos on my profile page here to give you a better idea of some of the games I've worked on). Lets see...
I guess if you had a gun to my head, I'd have to choose the time a freshly cooked steak (I usually ask for medium well) was brought into the studio so I could chew on it while I read my lines for one of the trucker characters I did in a now ancient arcade and PS2 game called The King of Route 66. That was definitely a trip! And tasty!
Maybe not so strange... odd or uncomfortable would be better adjectives... are some of the projects where I'm called upon to read obviously translated scripts. Japanese, and Russian stuff in particular. Often times in those cases there's just no proper way to deliver a line that correctly conveys what was originally intended for a more exotic tongue. The results have often led to some fairly bizarre dialogue. Which in turn often leads to "five minutes before everyone in the studio can stop laughing hysterically" moments.
If I remember correctly, none of the fellas at telltale ever actually asked me to do an outright mimic of Earl's LeChuck. I do seem to remember playback of his work to give me an idea of the character. But when all was said and done, it really was more of a re-imagining of Zombie LeChucks voice.
The MMORPG game you're referencing is League of Legends I believe. It's become fairly popular, and it supposed to be fun. It also happens to be one of the few games I've appeared in that I've never actually played at all. I am, however, a gamer folks. Have been since Pong. So I can and will talk about more than myself and my career. Don't get me wrong, I L.O.V.E. what I do for a living, and thank my lucky stars I am able to do it passably well. Just don't want folks to think that all I'll talk about is: Adam Harrington, Big Important Voice Over Guy.
I'm just a long-haired California dude who would spend 25 hours a day playing GTA, Resident Evil, or Madden if I could afford to... or if my wife would let me. ;-)
The bulk of my "glorious" VO career entails auditioning for gigs (10% of which I'll actually book... if I'm lucky) in my garage, in my sweatpants usually.
It is what it is.
That is of course until I start doing prime-time promos for CBS, and Trailers for summer block-busters. THAT'S when my head will get all swole up, and I won't have time for people who actually participate in and enjoy my work. ;-)
And it IS "pretty cool" work. Every little person in my life tells me so, and I tend to believe them more than the big people when it comes to matters of "pretty cool".
Brenden, wherever you are... (can't find your profile here, still figuring out how to navigate the site)... you are my hero!
Hell, I'd come in to sweep up the studio... run for coffee and Ritz-Bitz... trim Jory's silky-smooth ponytail... anything to get credits on any future MI projects. I truly miss those characters. In-game, AND in-studio characters.
I'll watch the skies for the Moose Signal.
I was wondering, did you also did one of the diving judges in "Escape from Monkey Island"? Because the "hippy" Judge sounds a lot like Moose, unless it is your long lost twin brother ;-)
You did a good LeChuck, my only complaint would be your "Har har har".
I would imagine it's harder to voice act the horrified victim than the bloodthirsty killer. All I can look back on is amateur theater and screaming onstage (as in getting the "just right scream") always used to be the hardest part for me.
It's a 100 % match and you sound perfectly natural as him.
Well, making nice with the forum folk is a good start
Seems like Moose was a popular character (I liked him,) and Santino was awesome (and you can't have Santino without Moose.)
Also, I used to play King of Route 66 when I was an arcade kid. It is pretty hilarious that you did those voices. I can't believe you did the blaxploitation guy as well, that may be the best part.
Mr. Harrington, if you don't mind I have a coulpe of curiosities...
- First of all, do you happen to know why Boen decided to return when the games had already been started?
- And second, I would love to be a voice actor some day, but I'm wondering... How do you start? And do you need to get an agent or something like that? Here in Argentina there isn't a big market for voice acting as there is in the USA, but I'm just wondering that things.
Thank you in advance and welcome!
I could tell it wasn't Earl Boen doing the voice, but he has a very distinctive tone. I'm sure it's hard to step in when someone else originated a character, especially one from a classic series. I thought it was a good performance.
@ Harrington: Hi! Good to see more people working on the games we loved here.
Looked at your game trialer (the 8 min one) and I have to say, the audio is a bit over the place. The announcements are much louder than the ingame VO work. And amongst them there is a big gap too (LeChuck - other stuff for example). Some of it is barely audioable for me. So I suppose it would look a bit more professional if you could level the volume.
Got anything lined up with TTG? Their 2 new titles? Or would that be top TOP (NDA) secret if it was the plan anyway...?
I've only worked on TOMI so far. So, not me.
I noticed I received a few similar complaints about the "Har Har" bit here on the tt site. I actually sat at my desk her and belted out a few alternate takes to myself. My wife is used to sudden unexpected schizophrenic outbursts from the garage, and unfortunately she's probably the only one who will ever hear my new and improved "Harrrr"s. Oh well, water under the bridge and all that. Thanks for the other kind words though.
You could make a dubbed version of the scene and put it on Youtube.
Yeah if I have multiple bookings in a day I always ask my agent to try setting the gaming gigs last. Kinda difficult to do an intimate tv spot right after screaming 'til my eyes about pop out of my head for an hour or two. Yeah dying can be pretty taxing... pretty damn fun too. The fake kind anyway.
I've heard you guys hold some sway, I'll try hard not to piss anyone off.
Soul Man is one of my all time favorites. I grew up in the ghettos of East Oakland so that's pretty much how I talked for the first 18 years of my life. Still slip into the pattern sometimes, mostly when I'm really REALLY mad.
-Not exactly sure what the circumstance was regarding Earl's return.
-You might be surprised! Argentina is a huge country, and I'm sure there is some kind of VO business going on down there. You just have to seek it out. The best advice I gan give you is to find an acting school that also offers VO coaching. After a few classes you and your instructor should have a better idea if VO might be a career option for you. The next steps would then be a demo and an agent down there. There must be at lest one talent agency in Venezuela that offers voice talent services.
If you have trouble finding an agent you can always try the "pay-to-play" sites, Voices.com or Voice123 (there are others but those are the biggest). For a small fee they will send actual auditions to anyone. They can be a good jumping off point for new talent without representation. The pay is fairly low on most gigs there, but the auditions themselves make good practice tools.
Yeah, I did my videos myself as a sort of a side project, teaching myself to edit and tweak the sound along the way, and I'm still figuring the whole process out. The character reel is still a work in progress. I'm finding more and more of my work on youtube to add to the reel while at the same time trying to edit it down to 2 or 3 minutes.
I'm much happier with the gaming trailer reel I put together as a sort of sister project to the character reel.
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/harringtonvo#p/a/u/2/ZoHy_ZUYW8U
The sound is a bit rough on this one as well, but as a whole I like it much better.
As far as professionalism is concerned, most agents, mine included, still send audio only VO reels to prospective clients and mine were done by a professional. I'm just a dumb ol' voiceover guy when it comes down to techie brass tacks, and I know better than to try and produce my own reels. The videos were really just a fun project for me. You can hear my professional reels at my website posted below. Scroll down and click: "VO Reels"
As for TT, as I mentioned here before, I did a few voices on the new Puzzle Agent game, and am holding out hope that Moose makes at least one appearance on any new MI titles. If anything new pops up I'll keep you all posted. As much as TT will allow me anyway.
Heh, heh. I just finished TONS of auditions and I recorded lines for a new downloadable puzzle game earlier today so I'm all talked out. The microphone is retired for the night. Maybe tomorrow.
Which one, might I ask? Was it that one for BigFish with 'Jade' in the title?
Hey now Hayden! First guy to talk to me here. G'day Mate.
I must admit I wasn't aware of the Title until I got the first auditions in early 2009. I have played some, but am mostly familiar with the game through hours of scouring walkthroughs on youtube for clips to add to my reel. MI truly is a one of a kind title, and as I've said before the thought put into every aspect of the game: character development, writing, humor, game-play, score, editing, etc. is mind-boggling. These guys do their homework. Even on the understated Puzzle Agent, the waters run deep.
It's actually a GameZebo deal... I think. Originally a German game: http://www.jade-rousseau.de/?lang=en
Not sure when the English version will be up and running, but the turn around is usually pretty quick on these smaller titles.
I played a mysterious phone caller who guides the player called "The Voice".
It's no Monkey Island to be sure, but it pays the bills.
Yeah, it's not really a series that many are aware of unless they're actually fans of the adventure game genre. I agree with you about the quality of the MI games, every element of the games are just so near-perfect, and those aspects that you listed really are what Telltale pride themselves on (their character development actually being better than LucasArts', in my opinion). I'm glad you feel the same way as the fans.
-AH
Ah, it's a Deck13 game. Yeah, they're a German company and have released all of their games in German first before moving onto an English translation. From my experience with their games (well... game) their English translations are reasonably good, so there should be no "five minutes before everyone in the studio can stop laughing hysterically" moments, as you described them earlier
Thanks Adam, that's nice of you to say so. Have a good night man.
You're welcome, and the best way to thank us is by keep doing a great job. Good night.
Suddenly, I feel very bad about trying to blast through Escape in under three and a half hours and the entire series in under 16.