I’m getting yelled at by people on Twitter because I support my union (SAG-AFTRA)’s efforts to negotiate a better contract for voice performers like myself who perform in video games.
The most frequent complaint goes something like this: “actors work for maybe a few days at most on a game, and they want residual payments?! Programmers and others who work on those same games spend literally years of their lives on them, and they don’t get residuals! Actors are greedy jerks!”
I can’t speak to the fairness or unfairness of residuals or lack of residuals for programmers, artists, composers, and others who game developers and publishers, because that’s not my job, and I don’t know what, precisely, their contracts are. I certainly don’t believe that there is some sort of feud or lack of shared interest between us (the actors) and them, and I fully support all the people who work on games — especially the huge blockbuster games that pull in profits that are in line with the biggest blockbuster movies — getting the very best contract, with the best compensation and best working conditions that they possibly can.
But I did not give my union authorization to call a strike on my behalf because of this issue. I voted to authorize a strike because our employers in the games industry refuse to negotiate with us at all about some very, very important issues surrounding our working conditions.
Let me share some excerpts from an email I got from SAG-AFTRA recently (emphasis mine):
You may have heard that billion-dollar companies like Activision, Warner Bros., Disney and Rockstar Games are against sharing any of their record-setting profits with the performers who help make their games awesome. But…
DID YOU KNOW…
Our employers have rejected every proposal that we’ve put on the table? That includes the community’s proposals to reduce vocally stressful sessions to two hours, […]
This, right here, is reason enough to strike, as far as I am concerned. I fully realize that for anyone who doesn’t work as a voice actor it sounds insane to care about vocally stressful sessions. I realize that when you hear that actors want to reduce those sessions to two hours or less, it can easily create an impression that actors are lazy and entitled, and don’t want to work as hard as other people do.
(Edit to clarify: Some folks seem to think I’m arguing that voice actors should never have to work more than two hours a day. That’s not what I’m arguing for, at all. I’m arguing that sessions which are vocally stressful should be limited to two hours. Other sessions, with regular dialog and scenes, are typically six to eight hours, and I’m not arguing to change that.)
Listen, if you truly feel that way, I hope you’ll do something to give you some perspective on what this actually means. I really want to help everyone understand what we do when we use our voices to bring video game characters to life, and why the expectations (I believe they are demands) from our employers are unreasonable.
Okay? Let’s get started. Since you probably don’t have a video game script at hand, we’re going to simulate it. I want you to grab your favorite book, and I want you to read, out loud, twenty pages from it. Really put your heart and soul into the dialog, and bring it to life. I need to feel emotion, and I need to be invested in the characters. Now, go do it again, but just slightly different this time, because we’re going to need options. Okay, you’re doing great. You’ve been at it for about two hours now (if you average around six minutes a page, like I do), so take a ten minute break. Drink some hot tea with lemon and honey in it, and then go read it one last time.
So you’re about three hours into it — that’s it! Just three hours! Five hours less than an average (union-negotiated) workday! Your sinuses are feeling a little raw, because you’ve pushed a lot of sound and moisture out of your body. You probably feel some emotional fatigue, because you’ve been putting a lot of emotion into your work. But you’re a professional, so you don’t complain. In fact, you’re grateful for the job, because if you’re lucky you’ll get to do this maybe twice a month. And, honestly, this is still better than coal mining, right? Right.
Okay. Still with me? Good. You can eat lunch now, if you want. You probably go for something with a lot of salt in it, because it soothes your vocal chords. I’m a big fan of the chicken soup, though sometimes I’ll have a burrito, because #burritowatch.
Lunch is over. You’ve been at work for about 4 and a half or five hours at this point. You’re going to go read another ten pages from your book, but I’m only going to ask you to do it once, because you’re probably in the zone by now and you are nailing most things on the first take.
It’s time for the call outs, and then you’re done for the day. Maybe you’re done for the whole job! Awesome. Here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to make a spreadsheet, with 40 rows on it. In each row, you’re going to put a line of dialog that you’re going to do three times in a row before you move on to the next line. This spreadsheet will have a few columns, with the dialog in the first column, and some direction in the second column. There’s a third column, usually, but that’s got information in it that’s not relevant to our job as actors, so ignore it.
I’ve made you a sample of a few lines from a military game I made up, to help you get started:
You’re going to do each of those three times, sometimes four times. You’re also going to do this for three more hours. Don’t worry, you can take a couple of short breaks — and you’ll need them — to drink some more of that tea you’re getting sick of.
If you’ve done this as I asked, it’s now six or seven hours after you started. Don’t talk at all for the rest of the day, and don’t make any plans to go audition for any other voice work for the rest of the week, because your voice is wrecked. Don’t go to any kind of day job that requires you to talk with anyone, either, because you’re not going to be able to do that. Oh, and over years and years of this, it’s going to build up into serious and permanent damage … and then you’re not going to be able to work with your voice anymore.
The fact that our employers won’t even talk with us about this growing problem, that affects the ability of all voice performers to take care of themselves, is reason enough to go on strike until they will.
But there’s more. Our employers also refuse:
[…] to hire stunt safety coordinators to protect actors’ well-being in the PCap volume, to share with us and/or our representatives the actual name of the games we work on, and to outline the nature of the work we’ll be doing?
Working in Motion Capture is amazing, and that technology has allowed some of the most incredible works of videogame art in history to be created. The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 4, are just a few of the titles that have been brought to life by talented performers using their voices and their movements to create a realism that was unheard of fifteen years ago. It can be dangerous work, especially when there are fights involved, so when we work in live action film or television, there is always a trained, qualified, professional stunt coordinator on set to ensure that nothing goes wrong and nobody gets hurt. The performers who work in those scenes should be afforded the same protection we get when we’re on a traditional film or television set.
And I totally get the desire for studios to protect their upcoming releases by using codenames for various projects when we audition, but asking — in this case expecting — us to go into something with absolutely zero knowledge about the project, or what we’ll be expected to do if we are cast, is completely unreasonable. Maybe someone has a moral objection to the content of a game, and they’d like to know what it is before they commit to it. Maybe they get to see three pages of the script (usually just single lines with no context) and they wouldn’t take the job if they found out the part was just one scene, followed by sixty pages of call outs, being delivered by several different characters. Or maybe they just aren’t into the project when they find out what it is. The point is, expecting actors — or anyone — to commit to a job without knowing exactly what it entails just defies common sense. We have got to be able to figure out a compromise that fairly and equitably addresses everyone’s concerns. You know, a negotiation.
But it gets worse, because these people, who have refused to address a single proposal from SAG-AFTRA, have some ideas of their own that they apparently expect us to just accept without question:
Our employers want to be able to fine you $2,500 if you show up late or are not “attentive to the services for which [you] have been engaged.” This means you could be fined for almost anything: checking an incoming text, posting to your Twitter feed, even zoning out for a second. If a producer feels you are being “inattentive,” they want the option to fine you $2,500.
Our employers want to be able to fine the union $50,000-$100,000 if your franchised agent doesn’t send you out on certain auditions (like Atmospheric Voices or One Hour One Voice sessions)?
I’m sorry. What? The studios want to fine SAG-AFTRA up to $100,000 if our agents don’t send us out on an audition? Because these same people who refuse to discuss any of our proposals for this upcoming contract believe … what, exactly? That they own us all and they can force our agents to do whatever they want them to do? This makes literally no sense at all.
If your agent chooses not to submit you for certain auditions, our employers want to put into our contract language forcing SAG-AFTRA to revoke your agent’s union franchise. This would mean that your agency would not be able to send you out on any union jobs, including those in animation, TV/film, commercials, etc.
So this is ludicrous. I can not think of a single instance in the history of the entertainment industry where a studio of any sort has asked for and gotten something like this. If my agent doesn’t submit me for something, for whatever reason, that’s between my agent and me. Maybe I don’t want to work for a certain studio, so my agent doesn’t submit me for their projects. Maybe I don’t want to work with a certain director, or another performer or whatever I feel like because I’m a sentient human being who makes his own decisions. These employers (at video game companies and video game studios) want to have the option of preventing our agents from submitting us for any work at all, and that’s outrageous. Our relationship with our agents is, frankly, none of any studio’s business. (Edit 9/24/15 5:54pm): I just remembered that SAG doesn’t have a franchise agreement with agents at the moment, and hasn’t for some time. So there is no franchise to revoke (as I understand it, now).
IT’S NOT JUST SECONDARY PAYMENTS WE’RE FIGHTING FOR. IT’S THE FUTURE OF THE WORK WE DO.
We are at a crossroads, and we have a choice to make.
This is the crux of it, really. It really, really, really and honestly and truly isn’t about money. Sure, payment and compensation is certainly part of it, but it’s not all of it, and it isn’t even the biggest part of it. We really are fighting for the future of our ability to work in this business.
If we stand united, we have a chance to make real gains in this contract and to avoid these onerous rules and fines. SAG-AFTRA is one union now. We have power we’ve never had before, and it needs to be deployed now.
If we don’t stand together, we won’t even be able to maintain the status quo.
That’s why your Negotiating Committee, Executive Committee and National Board have all voted unanimously to support this action. Now, it’s in your hands. We hope you’ll join us and vote YES for a strike authorization.
Voting YES for a strike authorization does NOT mean we are on strike, it does NOT mean that we have to strike or that we will strike. It simply means that you authorize your Negotiating Committee and elected representatives to call for a strike against video game companies as a last resort, in order to make sure that your safety and well-being are protected, and that your future is free from any unnecessary fines and penalties. A strike authorization gives your Negotiating Committee real power at the bargaining table.
I love the work that I do. I’m grateful for the work that I have, and I’ve been lucky to work with some incredibly talented people on both sides of the recording studio glass. This isn’t about making enemies of the other creative people in the business, be they directors, studio engineers, artists, programmers, sound designers, writers, etc. This is about a handful of extremely wealthy, extremely powerful people trying to take away our ability to make a living, to take care of our voices, and to be safe on the set.
We in the voice acting community — along with the programmers and engineers, of course — have helped video games grow into a multi-billion dollar industry. Video games rival movies not because we push buttons and get loot, but because video games tell amazing stories that touch our lives in ways that movies can not.
I sincerely hope that a strike won’t be necessary. I sincerely hope that our employers will come to the negotiating table and talk with us in good faith, to reach an agreement that’s fair.
But if they won’t, I’ll go on strike unless and until they will, because I believe that #PerformanceMatters.
Here, here! At least up until you appropriated #BlackLivesMatter, but hey, not your fault a privileged white guy can’t find an employer that is actually reasonable.
Performance does matter, that’s what it says, so it’s good. Appropriating basic words? Reading too much into this
So what you’re saying here is, the ONLY thing that can “Matter” in a hashtag is black lives?
Because I think #KindnessMatters and #GrammarMatters and #WomenMatter and #ChildrenMatter and #MusicMatters and #WritersMatter and there are all sorts of other causes that might want or use the word “matter” in their hashtags.
Yes, I absolutely believe that Black Lives Matter. But that doesn’t mean that using the word “matter” in a hash tag on Twitter in any way says that they don’t (unless it’s the #AllLivesMatter hashtag, because let’s face it, that one really means #BlackLivesDon’tMatter).
All lives should matter no? What makes black lives more special than anyone else’s? Skin color? Special treatment based on skin color/gender/sexual orientation is not equality. Sorry.
Wow, you really don’t get it, do you?
Thanks so much for the details on the situation, Wil. I saw the #PerformanceMatters all over Twitter and had no idea what was going on. Now that I do, I’m in full support of the endeavor.
I say screw what other people think,I think they deserve it cause I wouldn’t and didn’t buy Arkham Origins just due to it not having the voice of Batman Kevin Conroy it’s a shame he doesn’t residuals.
Well written, especially for those of us on the outside of the industry. Hopefully it won’t come to a strike, but perhaps it’s what’s needed to shake people up a bit and decide to hear another perspective.
In regards to other staff working on games, I know that many people at a certain level in a company can get stock options, which increase in value over the long term if a company can continue to produce good content. That is somewhat akin to residuals, as you’re banking on the future success of the products you’re producing.
One Question: Will this affect Kickstarter-backed or other crowdfunded games? I’ll support you regardless. It’s just that your targets in this post are the Take-Twos, the EAs, the Activisions, the Sonys, and the Microsofts of the world rather than the games that are usually backed on Kickstarter (including one–Broken Age–wherein you lent your vocal talents). Will the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization have any effect whatsoever on crowdfunded games or do those not count?
Yeah, if we go on strike, it will be a full walkout. That really sucks for smaller publishers, but there is a way to make it awesome for all of us! Any signatory to the union, regardless of size, can usually sign something called an “interim agreement”, which typically contains the last, best offer from SAG-AFTRA before the walkout. If a publisher is non-union, SAG-AFTRA actors can’t work for them, anyway, so nothing would change for those producers (though they could sign interim agreements and suddenly find themselves with a huge talent pool that wants to work, but isn’t working for the bigger companies).
sadly after reading some of the stories from QA testers this DOES NOT surprise me even a little bit
Trust me, designers don’t have it much better. I used to design games for two major children’s studios. My longest work week was 105 hours, during which I slept at my desk at the studio.In the three years I worked there, my shortest week was 65 hours. The studio’s policy was that if you worked a 24 hour day, you could have 6 hours off, otherwise catch naps when you can. For this effort, and for the creation of three games that won Parent’s Choice awards I was paid $33,000 a year. Which I gladly accepted because I was young and foolish and, hey “I make games for a living” sounds like the dream.
I wish voice actors all the best luck. I wish that game designers and developers would unionize and stop accepting that somehow the wonder of making video games is supposed to make up for poor working conditions.
Honestly I didn’t know people would be upset. There is nothing wrong with any profession utilizing the power of the worker in a strike. You have my full support sir.
I trust your judgement. Strikes are really just a dramatic example of a market sorting itself out. Eff em. Get what you can get.
As a video game designer, I am ashamed of the people above me in the industry who cannot see the importance of keeping the actors happy. We often rely on very specific actor’s voices in games to give a character a soul. By overworking the actor, we lose that character, and any ability to continue making their games.
I support SAG-AFTRA, because I support great games.
Wow. Very enlightening. I’ve always said that my dream job would be voice acting but I’ve never truly pursued it. It sounds tougher than I imagined but still intriguing nonetheless. I hope that the industry will somehow recognize that you are not expendable. I feel that many “successful” industries/businesses develop a sense that they are untouchable and often forget how they got to where they are. They create obligatory “appreciation” days to give the illusion that they care but at the end of the day, everyone’s expendable in their eyes. Good luck!
I hope it does come to a strike and I hope the programmers and game designers realize that they should unionize as well and I hope they all walk. The way companies like Ubisoft and Konami treat their talent is despicable but we as a gaming community still buy the product knowing the abuse that the hard working people who actually make the game go through and it time they stood up for themselves cause we certainly are not.
Right on, Wil. You’re preaching to the choir. These demands by management are nuts.
I do some sports radio broadcasting part-time in which I’ve done four 1.5 to 2.5 hour events over two days. After that, I’m wiped out. Even with 5 hour breaks between the events on the same day. It sounds easy (how hard is talking?), but it takes more out of you than you expect. I don’t know if I could do the day you describe without my voice giving out, so mad props to you and the others that get it done and best of luck on a resolution.
I thought voice acting was just sitting in a booth for a couple of hours making silly voices. Then I saw “I Know That Voice”, and it opened my eyes to how much work is involved in what you do. I hope your union stands firm against the extortion (the ‘x’ makes it sound cooler) of these studios. Know that you have support from fans all over. We’ve got your back.
totally behind you on this.
as a gamer/artist i hadn’t thought quite the same way about this, as ‘behind-the-scenes’ clips only show a few moments of a voice session, however when reading your breakdowns of a standard day, and the toll it can take, along with the contractual minefield, it’s easy to understand why this is so important.
add to that the safety concerns on-set – when you see the amount of time actors spend not only recording their voice work, but also the physicality of training and filming MoCap – for reference, check out the work Camilla Luddington did to bring Lara Croft to life recently – safety should be paramount, and multi-billion dollar AAA companies cannot keep acting like the Wild West when it comes to employee rights.
this isn’t the 80’s anymore. Hollywood’s not perfect either, but if the games industry wants to be legitimized as the film and television industries, they need to treat the people who keep the industry growing in a similar fashion when it comes to safety, work hours and regulation. it’s just common sense and decency.
I’m a university professor. Giving lectures for 3 hours a day can be very demanding physically, emotionally, and (obviously) intellectually. I wholly support you guys.
As a programmer, who is sometimes treated unfairly in the past, I had to fight for what I now have. As a gamer of 30+ years, I can attest to listening to some of the best and most grueling performances from a voice actor. I am on board with you fighting for what you deserve. I have talked a little with Yuri Lowenthal on Twitter, asking him questions about performance. I asked him what the most taxing jobs were. He stated, “Any of the combat games, like CoD, etc. Besides that, probably the Spider Splicer in Bioshock 2.” He went on further to say that he prepares by staying hydrated and pacing himself. https://twitter.com/PheistEwon/status/641282389746913280 Since this is his career, I can imagine, with the ranges and number of times screaming, damage might occur. I am not sure if the devs or sound studio will rush people, or what the conditions are. I support your decision. I want to support the actors who I have followed all these years.
Thank you for this explanation, Wil. I’ve seen the hashtags all over the place but couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. I was a little concerned, even, ’cause I’m a huge fan of voice acting and voice actors. I really appreciate the work you all do.
IGN reported about this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFDwAcOw-0), and now I’m finally convinced that Big Video Games are really pulling their strings. I’ve never seen anything so one-sided on their site before. They only mention the residual payments issue, referring to it as one of “the biggest demands”. They never mention the ludicrous demands of the employers. They spend most of the video insinuating that voice actors are being stubborn and greedy. They even mock the union’s name, because they are children. I just wanted to bring that to your attention, because you might want to respond to that, or sever ties with IGN, or something. Anyway, good luck with your contracts!
I’m a call center operator so I talk for a living. After 8 hours on a slow day, my voice cracks. On a busy day? I’m lucky if I have a voice left. And that’s with just a normal speaking voice. So voice over actors wanting reasonable hours makes sense to me. But the rest of that stuff the industry is trying to pull is total BS. Good luck, Wil and your fellow VO actors. I hope you don’t have to strike but I’m with you guys all the way.
Agreed. If content is king, as everyone seems to say now, then creators and performers need to be able to fight for their content. It’s insidious, they want to turn art/performance/creative output into a commodity.
BTW, I’ve been listening to Ready Player One lately. Great character work, Wil! Nice subtle choices, really effective.
The thing that really bothers me about the video game industry is that the major publishers expect to make money like blockbuster movies, but they don’t want to treat their productions like it. So developers/crew and cast don’t get the needed protection like they do on a film production. You have workers that work ridiculous hours to meet zero hour deadlines, so that trickles down to the actors because you’ve got a stressed out producer who NEEDS THIS NOW DAMNIT. The work conditions in the video game industry are notoriously appalling.
If the major publishers want to hire SAG-AFTRA actors, then they need to comply with Union standards that all productions in the movie industry need to as well. They balloon out their budgets to spend money on things that push all people involved in development into terrible work conditions, and that’s not okay. I’d argue that developers need to start forming their own unions, but that’s a separate issue. But with SAG-AFTRA pushing for more negotiation power, that could set a precedent for other groups to do the same, and to improve the overall working conditions of the video game industry.
You grew the industry? The industry has been growing without voice actors for decades. Game developers don’t often get royalties for years of work building games to get them on the shelf or in this day and age, digital store front. What makes you entitled to royalties on products you put at most a week or two of work on recording a few dialog lines?
No this is nothing more than the equivalent of union strong arming tactics trying to get what you feel you’re “entitled” to. You got paid already to lend your voice to a product, expecting to gain a percentage of sales as well is no less greedy than the publishers themselves. The difference? Those publishers fund the game, the marketing, and the voice actor’s paycheck.
Really? That’s honestly what your takeaway from this post is?
No my take away is you believe yourself to be more important to the industry than you actually are, and feel that although voice actors as it is, is often some of the highest portion of costs on a project as it is, you deserve more when all is said and done. Yes Wil, it’s soooo incredibly difficult work putting a bit of emotion into lines, I do get that a good vo in a game isn’t automatic, this is true, anyone just need to look at Peter Dinklage’s uninspired voice overs for Destiny to see not everyone can do it well. But at the end of the day, you’re in a sound booth recording lines that someone else wrote the script for. There are intensely far more difficult occupations out there than being an actor or a voice actor.
To be fair the fines the studios are proposing ARE ridiculous, I am right with you on that, but believing you’re entitled to royalties as a counter proposal? That’s like a Teacher’s Union or the Auto Worker’s Union doing what they do best, trying to validate their existence via strong arming. These are the same Unions that vote for minimum wage increases across the board, then lobby to have themselves considered exempt from said min. wage increases.
As someone who as a former municipal employee was FORCED to be in a union and witnessed first hand the destructiveness and greed these unions put forth on a daily basis, threatening to take your ball and go home via striking isn’t negotiation, it never has been, it never will be. There’s a middle ground to every conflict, perhaps finding that middle ground where neither the voice actors or studios are raked over the coals over money is a better direction.
So I should just be grateful for whatever working conditions I get, and accept whatever contract the industry offers without even attempting to get something better, because …
Of course there are. You can say that for probably 90+% of jobs. You sound very close to telling me and others in my profession that we should just be glad to have a job, which is an opinion I find profoundly offensive, while at the same time recognizing that you’re absolutely entitled to hold it.
You may want to review the title of this post, where I say in big shiny letters that this ISN’T ABOUT MONEY. This is about working conditions, and ensuring that our employers at least talk with us, rather than dropping “take it or leave it” on us.
It isn’t. Negotiation is negotiation, and our employers refuse to negotiate with us, so a strike authorization is our only tool left (a tool of last resort) to convince them to do that.
I’m sorry that you had a bad experience with a union. I, however, respect and am grateful for my union, and I believe in the importance of collective bargaining.
And if I and others like me are so unimportant to your world, you probably have a ton of options for games that are created without professional voice actors that you can play instead.
“We in the voice acting community — along with the programmers and engineers, of course — have helped video games grow into a multi-billion dollar industry. Video games rival movies not because we push buttons and get loot, but because video games tell amazing stories that touch our lives in ways that movies can not.”
I’m sorry but this whole paragraph is self pandering. Did Bioware’s games suddenly get better because of a voiced protagonist? Not really, in a lot of ways they lost a ton of dialog depth and in turn role playing depth because of the switch to a voiced protagonists. Games touch people’s lives in ways movies can’t because you’re directly interacting, it has very little to do with voice overs at all. That multi-billion dollar industry would have been that way regardless.
Did gaming not have rich stories before the advent of every title requiring a group of D listers to do voice overs? No of course they didn’t, gaming has always had rich story telling, especially in RPG’s from the advent of the industry practically.
Yes yes it’s not about money yet your union advocates are asking for just that, royalties for doing a week’s worth of work in a sound booth, fancy that.
And of course you’re all for unions and collectivism, you’re a progressive, that’s par for the course. Grow government down with big business rah rah rah! Free healtcare and education that isn’t actually free never mind the quality of which ends up going down but that’s another topic entirely.
The bottom line is the industry grew itself fine prior to tech being there for voice overs, it would continue to grow itself just fine regardless. you folks need the gaming industry far more than it needs you to be quite honest. Don’t get me wrong I am certainly not against having VO’s in games by any means, but they certainly aren’t the greatest thing the game industry has ever had by a long shot.
Why DON’T the developers get residuals? Maybe that’s the question that should be asked…
It’s a great question, and I don’t know what the answer to that is.
The answer is “the tech industry isn’t unionized and never will be.”
Because when you work for a software company, you’re doing “work for hire.” I am a technical writer and when I sign a contract to work for a software company, part of the contract usually states that all work I do while I work for the company belongs to the company. And I always have to clarify with HR what they think that means? Because if I write the Great American Novel in my off hours, I really don’t want to work for a company that thinks that everything I ever wrote while I was under contract for them belongs to them.
Software developers have similar issues. If a software developer writes code in their off hours, there’s a good chance that their employers will try to claim that their apps belong to the company, as it was work done while under contract.
I’m in the software field, but not in games, so I’m not in on the exact market here, but I think it’s the same for game devs as it is for most software devs. We’re all employees of the company, so we (theoretically at least) get other benefits (insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, etc…) that aren’t extended to contractors and temporary workers (where I think actors, voice or otherwise, are categorized). In exchange, we usually sign employment agreements that hand over any rights to our creations made for our employers, including patent, trademark, and residual rights. It’s the tradeoff we make for steady, regular employment, instead of having to audition and compete with our peers for a limited number of short-term jobs.
In theory, game developers (as well as most company employees) do get a firm of residuals, if they participate in the company’s profit sharing or employee stock purchase plan, since those would at least indirectly be based on the performance of the company, but that participation also includes anything else the company did that year, so if they released 1 blockbuster and 5 stinkers, the overall performance would be lower.
My guess is that programmers aren’t unionized. And like most of the nnon-represented workforce in this country, they are so relieved to have work, they let the employer dictate all the terms. They’ve been conditioned to believe unions are predators, represented workers are rivals, are employers are benefactors whose abuses are complained about privately but not challenged because That’s Just The Way Things Are. But that’s just a guess (coming from a programmer in a different industry).
Are they also making you drive to a nearby right-to-work state? Can’t you make any of these production facilities union shops, from the janitor up through the production engineers? I live in a right-to-work state so I’m going to ask idiotic questions about the abilities of union locals to form in an adversarial workplace. Sorry about that. I wish you luck, unions are going to be desperately needed until the day that they’re not.
California, where a massive amount of video game (and thus, voice acting) work takes place, is a Right to Work state. The only reason why unions succeed at all in Hollywood is that the entertainment unions look out for each other and have dedicated members.
…correction, i may be mistaken on that front.
“Right to work” is clever use of language. A more accurate term would be “anti-unionization”. But, regardless, California is not that. Also, the only reason any union succeeds is that we all look out for each other.
I was already supportive of the strike authorization (because without knowing details I just trusted that you wouldn’t be doing it for the wrong reasons) but it really is helpful for those of us outside of the industry to see this outlined clearly and explained in layman’s terms. There will still be jerks who call you all entitled blah blah blah, but know that there are a lot of us out here who support your work as well as your ability to have working conditions that allow you to work longer.
I got as far as, ”
Okay? Let’s get started. Since you probably don’t have a video game script at hand, we’re going to simulate it. I want you to grab your favorite book, and I want you to read, out loud, twenty pages from it. Really put your heart and soul into the dialog, and bring it to life. I need to feel emotion, and I need to be invested in the characters. Now, go do it again, but just slightly different this time, because we’re going to need options. Okay, you’re doing great. You’ve been at it for about two hours now (if you average around six minutes a page, like I do), so take a ten minute break. Drink some hot tea with lemon and honey in it, and then go read it one last time.”
And just about had an aneurysm!
Here is my exact quote in parallel to your statement in the Physical Working field!
“Okay? Let’s get started. Since you probably don’t have an food industry experience in kitchen work, we’re going to simulate it. I want you to grab your favorite cook-book, and I want you to read and then re-create all the items in it, hundreds of times over, and halfway through it. Really put your heart and soul into the cooking and stress dealing with waiters and waitresses screwing up orders, and bring it to life. I need to feel emotion, and I need to be invested in the dishes I create. Now, go do it again, but just slightly different this time, because we’re going to need options from snooty customers. Okay, you’re doing great. You’ve been at it for about 18 hours now (if you average around ten minutes an order, like I do), so take no fucking breaks. Drink some cold water to cool down, and then go cook another order one last time till tomorrow after your 18 hour shift ends////.
No sympathy from me.
HOWEVER! I support your work by PAYING for it when I watch it.
Maybe you should form a Union for cooks and negotiate for shorter than 18 hour shifts. That is what happened in developed countries.
In the US, Unions have been under attack by Big Business backed legislators ever since the 80s. One of the weapons that the rich share-owners have in keeping down the working class is encouraging this attitude of “I have no sympathy for these strikers, because I have it worse” that you are spouting. Having the workforce at each other’s throats distracts them from unifying across industries and making any truly significant progress for better working conditions and more equal pay between the workforce and the management.
Pretty much every western country is in need of a general strike and/or straight up revolution. Income equality has been rising constantly for decades and the rich people who are the only ones that can afford to run for election in our media centered political systems are never going to do anything to fix that.
So… what? You don’t want better conditions for yourself either? You’re perfectly fine working in an environment steeped in unhealthy eating habits, alcoholism, stress, shady deals, back-breaking work and dangerous operations? Because that’s what it sounds like.
“I don’t think you should have reasonable pay for working night shifts, or contractual security that guarantees pay or sick leave when you destroy your hand in a salamander. I support your work by PAYING for it when I eat”.
Don’t make this into a conflict between workers, because that benefits noone but those who hold the money.
“My working conditions are worse than yours. I believe the best way to fix this is to complain about how relatively good you have it, rather than campaigning to make my working conditions better.”
This is the mentality unfair labor practices thrive on. “My job sucks, so yours should too.”
One persons suffering does not discount that of anothers.
Also I might point out that had you continued to read, you would have come accross the biggest reason for the dispute. Game Companies want to force actors to audition for their games. If their agents dont force the actors to audition, they get fined 50,000 to 100,000 bucks. So if he doesnt want to audition for the lart of an Evil Natzi Murderer, too bad. Somehow i dont think you have to be worried about being fined for not working for a particular kitchen you have a moral aversion to.
Except that it isn’t exactly parallel. When you say kitchen work I will assume in a restaurant or something similar where you get hired and go in every day. Let’s make it parallel:
There are no restaurants, only large events. Charity dinners, end-of-year school banquets, etc. Every cook in the kitchen gets to make one dish. In this situation we will say the promoters are doing a Black Tie charity event and they want two appetizers, three entrees and two desserts for a total of seven cooks hired who will be hired by audition.
You get a call from your agent who tells you next week this event will be happening you should audition. You spend the next week doing two things; researching the charity (to make sure you aren’t offending any sensibilities, maybe you need a vegetarian or vegan dish and to show up with your take on Shrimp Alfredo will not be well received) then preparing and perfecting said dish. Then you realize that you need to think about the meta-game, how many are likely to bring the same thing I am? What sorts of dishes are trending at the moment? What sorts of dishes does this promoter tend to favor? Did I use this dish the last time I worked with this promoter? You get the idea.
The day comes and you walk into the audition. There are 200 people there for the seven positions. You walk in and there are four people sitting at a table opposite the cooking station they have set up for this. The owner of the room where the event will be taking place, the event promoter, the head of the charity that is throwing the event, and the Head Chef that they hired to oversee the entire kitchen. You cook your dish while being questioned and critiqued by all four of them the entire time. They taste your dish and give you notes and send you on your way.
Do this 15 or 20 times a month and maybe you get, if you’re lucky, paying work for four days that month. Does this change your view any?
It occurs to me that the things the publisher was requesting could be that tried and true tactic of asking for something so ridiculous they know will never be agreed to, just so they can use it as an example of something they are willing to drop to make it look like they are coming to the table. In turn making it look like they are making effort to negotiate, when in reality, they had no intention of really wanting that. So in effect, they dont really lose anything and are back at the status quo.
i just refuse to believe they could possibly really be wanting those conditions as they are absurd and they would know it would never happen.
Actually, if you read some of the horror stories posted by former employees of some of the big studios, and some of the things they expect from full time employees, you might not be surprised that they could honestly expect to get this type of contract for actors. Google “EA spouse” or “EA widow” if you’re looking to completely remove any desire you might have had to work in the games industry. I’m sure some of these tales are exaggerated, or are only one side of the story, but there are enough of them that there has to be some kernel of truth in there.
Sadly, too many businesses treat the people they depend on most like garbage and expect folks to just suck it up as if there were and will never be alternatives to their slavish approach. Pretty short sighted on their part. They’ll get away with it for a while, until people get fed up. If we don’t slam the door in the faces of the people who take advantage of us, we’re just asking for more of the same. All the best!!
Actually, I’m not done yet. I’ve got friends who do Tech Support over the phones all day long. and they get 2 10 minute breaks an a 30 minute lunch break in a 9 hour day. All the while talking their asses off to idiots on the phone……They also end up doing volunteer OVERTIME in order to pay bills… So still no feels for you Wil.
Screen shot of these two comments taken in case you don’t approve them. (Not a threat, just want to level the playing field here)
It seems like it’s really important to you to belittle the work I and others in my field do, and then set up the straw man that I’m somehow demanding you agree with me that what I do is really hard, so that somehow means other people’s hard work doesn’t matter.
I never made those claims. What I hope to accomplish with this post is to help anyone who hasn’t worked in my profession to get an understanding of what it’s like in my workplace, and put that into context with the demands being made upon us by our employers.
This isn’t about you.
Wasn’t Belittling you or your work, but how you can justify what you said and expect people to simplify with what your’re saying in your post about how hard it is to TALK… Hard labours don’t get residuals after we do a job, we get one pay cheque and that’s it, and that’s for a lifetime till retirement of full time work.
I respect what you do, I just don’t respect this post as I think it’s a crybaby wanting more. And if people go “AWE BABY!!! Give BABY MORE!!!’ the people who pay to see your work won’t be able to afford to in the future.
That my friend, will be a pay cut for you will it not?
Yes, because publishers never make any profits from games that they could use to pay their workers. Honestly, if your business can’t pay its workers fairly, then your business has no business being a business. If you can’t sell a product because the price is too high when paying your workers fairly, then it’s a pretty shady product to begin with.
Also, this while notion of “If we raise conditions and pay, EVERY JOB EVER WILL DISAPPEAR AND EVERYBUSINESS WILL IMPLODE” is tiiiiiired. Straight up tired. It’s about a million years old and has been chanted, screamed, yelled and stated each and every time worker’s rights advance. Raises in minimum wage? No more jobs. Five day work weeks? No more jobs! Eight hour work days? No more jobs!
The struggle for other workers is their own, just as the VA:s struggles are their own. This does not exclude, but rather encourages, workers supporting each other cross-unons and -fields. The success and demands of one group of workers should not be weighed against another, but rather against their common adversaries: Those who hold money for profit rather than better conditions for the workers.
At the risk of getting caught in a never ending flats pin of #arguingwiththeinternet, (something I have vowed never to do past one interaction with a faceless stranger), Regarding your comments, here…?
…wow….just….wow…I can’t even.
I find that ‘sheeple’ opt, (all too quickly in their own personal knee-jerk existence), to using verbiage they wouldn’t’ DARE use in a face to face interaction. Apologies for referring to you as sheep. Move to strike, and moving on….
But please…in the name of decency…just stop the crucifixion and put your ‘Baby’ references firmly back into your pie-hole.
That is all.
(Wil, I’m with ya’ on this. 100%)
I’ve done both the long day of tech support job and a limited amount of voiceover work (on my own projects, I’m not a professional and have no connection to the union). They aren’t at all the same thing. In tech support, you basically spend all day reacting to other people, and while you have to be professional and audible it’s mostly just talking. Voiceover is very much acting, not talking, and it comes with a need to be perfectionist about your vocal control and performance that is far, far more physically stressful than a phone job.
It would never have occurred to me as an employer to demand that voice actors work eight hour days. That’s ridiculous, and in most contexts completely unnecessary, especially for a large game studio who can break up their recording studio time into multiple games. It’s also inevitably going to get you much lower-quality work.
The residuals issue is complex, but the working conditions issues Wil has outlined (with the caveat that I’m only going on his descriptions and have not heard the other side of things) are legitimate reasons to be very upset. They’re also pretty thoroughly stupid on the part of the studios, which is not really surprising given their track record.
So 2 hours of voice acting vs. 8 – 18 hours of phone talking is not equivalent?
They are fairly equivalent, in my experience both as a telephone interviewer and as a professional actor and voice over artist. In the booth, one has to work at the levels of stage performance to portray a character successfully. To do it much more than two hours a day is to need serious voice rest.
Telephone support is a different job, and I’ve pulled shifts of 12 hours not much worse for ware, but in a very dry environment it begins to feel sore after the 8 hour mark. It’s not as emotionally draining so you’re not going to be on the edge of tears all day, and your AES and larynx aren’t rent asunder by screaming, but in dry air the throat fatigue feels similar, if not the soft tissue damage.
8 years experience market research caller
3 years professional VO and stage, + MA Acting
Whether they are equal was not the point, the point Will was making was that the demands that the publishers are making from the voice actors regarding their working conditions are way worse than anything that your tech support guy has to deal with. Or you as a cook.
Does your employer have the right to fine you 2500 dollars if you are late for work or if he feels you are “in-attentive”?
Do you think it would be fair for your employer to fine you 2500 dollars for being distracted at your workplace, at their own discretion?
no not even slightly in my opinion anyway and that from doing a small amount of voice acting work and several phone talking, which frankly was a cake walk and thats with overtime.
This isn’t just chatting. Your two tech support buddies aren’t screaming their lungs out into a microphone while trying to be convincing as a guy who just got seriously injured. Repeatedly.
These guys are ACTORS, not just some schmucks chatting on a help line intermittently throughout a day. They’re trained to do things like projecting emotions and feelings via their voices to make those on-screen pixels more real. More believeable. More than merely two-dimensional.
That kind of emotional output DRAINS you like an all-day argument with a friend. You range through talking and screaming, putting emotions out with your voice in an effort to be heard. Hell, just reading out loud to a group of kids for two hours solid had my voice sounding like hell for the rest of the day and I wasn’t projecting emotions like these guys do.
@Wil: I appreciate what you’ve done as an entertainer. While I hope it doesn’t come down to a strike, I understand why it may happen. Big name game companies screw over us gamers with DLC and pay walls. I hope the union doesn’t drop the ball.
I agree with the point that voice acting and talking are entirely different. I’ve done voice work for small things (voiceover, narration, book reading, and no, I’m not union) in the past but my main job is tech support/quality assurance for a software company. I can spend eight hours talking with customers/dealers/clients on the phone and have my voice barely start feeling like gravel, but two to four hours of voiceover will have me not talking the next day. Narration work means you may have to read the same line five, six, maybe even ten times to get what the VOD wants, all while watching the same video or presentation so you are in synch. There is nothing quite like a VOD who thinks they can get six hours of usable material in six hours of recording. And voiceover/voice acting… don’t get me started. As Wil pointed out, the script-sheet might have the line they want and the general emphasis, you rarely know what the VOD is going to want until you are there (unless you have worked with them before). Voice acting is harder than normal acting; normal actors can use their whole body to show emotion, while voice actors have to cram all of that into their voice. You aren’t just standing in the booth and talking, your whole body is in the performance. A ‘Painful yell – 5 seconds’ line might entail posturing to get the sound out right, while an ‘Angry rage yell – 10 seconds’ will probably make you look like a Dragonball character charging up for an attack in front of the mic.
People outside of voice acting think voice work is just talking. Voice acting is acting, pure and simple. Actors don’t get told they have to audition for a job or get fined. They don’t get fined for flubbing something or not being 100% on top of things. Why should video game companies expect voice actors to be treated differently from normal actors?
What I don’t understand is why you’re making this an issue between VA:s and tech support operators, when clearly both have it bad. You’re doing both their bosses a great service when you blame other workers instead of those holding the money.
So because conditions in job A are shitty, you don’t support improving conditions in job B. Is that the gist of your complaint?
Why don’t your friends unionize and get better benefits and pay for the strenuous work they’re doing?
Thanks for an providing an excellent explanation to those of us who are unfamiliar with the situation and/or industry.
I entirely support you and SAG-AFTRA, as a fellow union member and as a fan.
Stay strong!
I sing opera, and thus know about the rigors of continuous vocalizing. I don’t think the demands of AFTRA are unreasonable at all. The vocal cords are a lot more fragile than people think, and talking all day is akin to working out all day. Having people try it for themselves with reading that many pages is a great comparison.
As an aside: lemon is horrible for your throat. Honey’s not great, but it coats, which does help mitigate irritation. Lemon will actually make the irritation worse, which slows recovery after long sessions. Drink a lot of water, and use Throat Coat tea if you need to, or suck on horehound candy. 🙂
Very interesting peek into a world that is far away and unknown to me. I don’t understand why companies like reaching such extreme circumstances before actually sitting down and talk as they probably should have done in the first place. It’s just a matter of empathy with the other human being who is working with you to create a great game. Still I feel the residual payments request sounds excessive and unjust to all the other people who did work as hard as you and for a lot more hours. Sounds like you’re requesting stuff that might be common in the TV world but it’s not in the game industry. I admit my ignorance on these matters is huge… heck, I live in Argentina… but it is exactly because of that reason that I can’t neither support or reject your opinion.
SAG/AFTRA needs to do a better job of educating the public and getting this in the news. I read 2 newspapers (ink on paper) as well as NYT Now and online news – until I saw @wilw tweets, I had no idea this was happening.
This is not an actors vs programmers issue; this is big companies treating their talent like property.
I support you on this Mr Wheaton, when I found out how little you actually got paid for voice work my wife an I almost felt sorry for your trade. That’s a lot of work for so little pay. And unlike the programmers you do not have a guarantee of future income. Some people do not understand that Actors are actually Pieceworkers and only earn when there is work they are hired/paid for . Stay Strong and It is your right to disagree with me .
Union yes!
I teach college and fairly often have classes back to back for three to five hours. I try not lecture for the entire class, but have discussions and other activities, at least in part because lecturing for the whole time is exhausting, both physically and emotionally, and lecturing does not involve the emotional involvement that acting does. I always end the first week of the semester, when I have to talk most of the time in all of the classes, with no voice, so the hours alone seem to me to be worth striking over.
The other things they want are ridiculous.
I have the same experience every fall – I teach high school – and at the end of the first week, I couldn’t carry on a low-level conversation even if I had the energy. Six hours of projecting only as far as the back row, maintaining pitch, tone, and speed so I don’t lose the English-learners, and still keeping track of what I’m saying, who’s listening, and which kid in the back row is texting – yeah, it’s a strain. What a lot of non-performers don’t know is that the younger performers are most at risk for permanently damaging their vocal cords, and if nodes get bad enough they require surgery, which may or may not save your voice.
Not everyone working in Hollywood lives in a mansion, and not every union is out to screw the bosses. My union has conceded to layoffs three times in twelve years, and we took a pay freeze or cut every year to keep the kindergarten classes. I don’t work at the local charter school because they’d expect me to teach eight hours a day, and I physically couldn’t take it.
Hang in there, Sag-Aftra – you’re setting safety standards that will be in place for decades to come.
Good Grief. Is there something anti-Union in the water this year? Our local teachers just spent a week+ on strike because among other things, the district wouldn’t give them a darned curriculum. (Not sure what they were expected to teach!) Wishing you all that you need for this good fight! If I was local, I’d totally bring coffee / donuts / back rubs to the picket lines (if it comes to that). Alas, geography limits me to sending Good Thoughts.
It’s been in the water since the Reagan years. It’s just more poisonous now than it’s been, I think.
Yeah. Ever since Greece’s crisis, Unions have been under re-invigorated attack all over the western world.
The best part was that it was the Government of Greece that had been forging financial data for years that led to the crisis, but the Unions received most of the blame despite the fact that theyhad been working under false information.
Anti-union mentality has been in place since unions were formed. Unions were created to make for a safer environment for employees. Owners and managers have contributed to anti-union movements since their birth because it was forcing them to act. In truth, things are much more civil now than they were in the past. Some of those conflicts were rather physical.
As much as I respect Walt Disney (his imagination, vision, talent, and artistry), he was a very vocal opponent of unions in the company. He tried to stop his people from forming or joining. He felt betrayed by those employees.
Having written code professional since 1979 I have always be frustrated by the industry. If I had been writing book text instead of code text I would get residuals as long as it was selling well. Code text got me nothing except for the pay for the hours.
I have never understood this. I don’t blame actors, authors, or other professionals that get residuals. At the same time I have always wished programs could organize and get a better deal. For basically doing nothing different from an author I get to sit and see someone else rake in profits from my years of writing. While I need to find another job to keep making even a penny.
If you want support of your good cause I would ask you to reciprocate and support those of us who do not get residuals for the same job that others do – writing text. It is particularly striking because while we are told about our great salaries when you compare them to residuals from major productions they are really not that great. And now more and more of it is off-shored where it can be done with even less ay.
You begin with a complete fallacy that taints the entire remainder: please name a single producer, studio, etc. that has refused to negotiate with you. The studios have refused to negotiate with SAG-AFTRA — that’s a whole different thing.
(Work for hire vs. residuals is also a whole different thing, but let’s not get into that yet; as you point out, that’s not really the core here.)
No, it’s not.
The whole point of a union is that we all negotiate together. I don’t personally sit across from Rockstar’s executives, but my SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee sits across from negotiators who are sent there to represent Take 2, Disney, Activision, Etc.
And therein lies the problem. If you truly want a one-size-fits-all agreement, negotiated between a corrupt 800-pound gorilla and a sociopathic 800-pound-gorilla — well, that’s what’s playing out now.
Or, Wil could say “this is what I want for this gig”, and Jane could say “okay”.
This corruption thing astounds me. Is business in the United States really as corrupt as most Americans say, or is this an article of faith? (Setting aside your horrible, horrible money people, of course.)
Actually, though I was trying not to make it too obvious, I had unions in mind as “corrupt” and corporations as “sociopathic”.
(Both of those positions are supportable on the facts: union corruption is common enough to be a stereotype, and corporations are sociopathic by design. (Also note that I’m not imputing a value judgement to “sociopathic” — that’s exactly what a corporation is supposed to be.))
To seriously answer your question: no, not at all. American corporate governance is some of the least corrupt in the world; standards of fiscal and behavioural transparency are very high. (See the note above about sociopathy, though: many people want corporate entities to be warm and fuzzy and caring, and if they’re not, call them “corrupt”. That’s not corruption.)
American government is also notably not corrupt — though it struggles with transparency. However, the intersection of government and corporations (see “military-industrial complex”, “corporate welfare”, etc.) is… well, I don’t know a single word (and “corrupt” isn’t it) is a nasty mess that leads to Bad Things.
(Many folks would like to fix this by suppressing corporate power, many other folks would like to fix this by suppressing government power. FWIW, I’m more in the latter camp.)
(Incidentally, you’ll get an interesting perspective twist if you are able to view the whole situation from a direction that puts large corporations and large unions in the same Venn circle, and then look at how their behaviours align.)
When did the sociopathic 800-pound gorilla become “Jane”?
(Heh. The best part of your comment is that if Jane is the sociopathic 800-pound gorilla, what does that make Wil?)
[Serious]ly, though: that was my point. Jane and Wil are people, who can come to a mutual agreement that allows each to get what they want.
SAG-AFTRA and Take Two (or whoever) are just Godzilla and Mothra battling each other — when you get stepped on, it doesn’t really matter that Godzilla is theoretically on your side.
Every business is an 800-pound gorilla compared to every employee. That’s why unions were invented in the first place.
Who’s Jane in this? Because if Jane is Take Two, or Disney, then that’s not an equal negotiation, even with a star like Wil.
Well said. This is the exact purpose and intent of a union. I remember you saying something about this in your book as well. About how you should be paid for auditions but if you ask the production companies black list you. Everyone’s time and talent is important and should be compensated! Even if it is a few bucks it’s better than nothing!
Also I used to front a hardcore band and after an hour on stage I couldn’t talk for days. I would just yell and talk really loud for hours to get my vox right. Nowadays I can barely yell with out pain. Keep it up man and we got your back! (I’m pretty sure you could assemble a small army right now btw)
Wil, thank you for giving a no-BS, layman’s-terms explanation of what’s going on.
You make some great points here Wil. Frankly the games industry (and to a lesser extent the computing industry) is crying out for unionization.
People shouldn’t say “well the programmers have to put up with this” but ask why it is. If you go do some research about the working practices in the gaming industry (not all of it true) you’ll understand that the management are just wanting to treat you the way they do the rest of the staff. It’s a big reason for the rise of indie gaming.
Fight on!
Count me as in the corner of you and the rest of the VA community, Wil. This very much sounds a lot like the sort of working conditions that precipitated the voice actors’ strike back in the 80s that brought in a lot of positive changes (limits on session length and limits on amount of characters one person could voice per episode before hazard pay are two of the things I know you guys got back then, though I’m sure there’s many more.)
Really, the working conditions in the gaming industry that I read about (lack of job security, insane hours) are the very things that make me NOT want to seek employment in said industry as a software developer.
Are you willing to give up union exclusivity? I don’t mind paying union rates for union talent. But exclusivity is a no-go for all but the biggest publisher. Not allowing internal team members to perform secondary and tertiary voices is crazy. If you’re willing to relax exclusivity then a lot of options will be on the table.
That’s a complex issue, isn’t it? I will say that, in general, I always prefer union organization and work over the alternative, and I’d like for anyone who wants to do union work to have that opportunity.
I’m not a negotiator on this contract, so this is just two people talking, but I know that we have various types of contracts for various budgets in the on-camera realm, so maybe something like that could be on the table for the Interactive contract?
We’re a ~20 man indie studio. Our HR guy has been doing improv for over a decade. He teaches classes. He participates in local (Seattle) commercials and what not. Suffice to say he’s pretty good at doing a lot of voices and filling in a lot of gaps. He’s also hooked into the Seattle scene so he has tons of friends who can also perform voices at the professional level. For a variety of reasons Seattle is not a union town. Not really at least. Going union means we lose access to all of that. We should be able to walk down our own halls and record some of our own voices for our video game. But a union contract prevents that. Which is crazy balls.
Of course we’re small beans and don’t matter. But so are most devs you see on Twitter. And for all of us working with unions absolutely sucks in a million ways. So, fairly or unfairly, you’re unlikely to garner much public support.
Honestly most of your requests sound very reasonable. There’s union talent we want to use. Exclusivity makes it a non-option. Which sucks. 🙁
I am pretty sure that some kind of solution can be negotiated. If, you know, the publishers would agree to negotiate with you.
Perhaps something involving the publisher getting some kind of cheap, provisional Union lisences for the in-house people doing the secondary/tertiary voices.
Hey Wil, I am from across the pound in old Blighty, with stunt safety coordinators I would have thought it be mandatory for you guys to have them, I did temp work for a studio using Motion Capture its incredible what they can do but its all real life and it makes me profoundly worried for the actors now, to learn they didn’t have the safety guidance just because its for a game rather than a tv show or film.
I haven’t had anywhere near enough experience to really have an opinion but I spent one week as a voice for a radio drama, those were the most painful times for my voice I have ever had and it was just my voice let alone putting on any accents. I never really thought about permanent damage to the voice because of this, do any group you work with provide any medical cover encase damage is sustained due to the work you do for them and their games?
So what ever happens I truly hope that the SAG-AFTRA and all the actors involved get out of this with the very least peoples having more awareness of the situation and if possible an arrangement that can make everyone (unlikely I know) happier.
Good luck Sir
This is the most self fellating blog I’ve ever seen, you are not a voice actor Wheaton, you don’t know a damn thing about this industry, stop acting like you know what its like in any capacity.
What the heck do you mean, he’s not a voice actor?
Wheaton has worked as a voice actor in cartoons, video games, audiobooks, and anime, beginning with the role of young Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH at age 10. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoon Teen Titans, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary, himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold in the episode “Fall of the Blue Beetle!”, Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, Hans in Slayers Evolution-R and Aaron Terzieff in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. He appeared as himself in a skit on nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot’s 2008 album Final Boss attempting to be a rapper, whose rhymes only involved shellfish. Wheaton later collaborated with Frontalot on “Your Friend Wil”, a track from the 2010 album Zero Day on the subject of Wheaton’s law, which states “don’t be a dick”[13][14] (the phrase was in use before Wheaton’s blog post).[15] Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). Wheaton has also narrated a number of bestselling audiobooks, mostly in the science-fiction and fantasy category, including Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Wheaton also exists in the novel’s universe, described as being joint President, along with Cory Doctorow, of the virtual world Oasis, which is the setting for much of the book), “Armada” also by Cline, Redshirts by John Scalzi, and books 6–10 of the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny.
What part of that ISN’T being a voice actor?
He also read Masters of Doom, which is a freaking fantastic book and wonderful audio book. It’s also about video games, so if anyone is interesting in late 80’s/early 90’s game development, I recommend it highly.
I’m not sure how I feel about the residuals issue, for both coders and voice actors – I’m a computer programmer and helped write an Artiste Payments system for a major UK TV studio – and it is a complicated business, to put it mildly. But at least with TV shows the producers can measure how often the show is broadcast, DVD sales etc and award royalties/residuals based on that. I have no idea how one would calculate these for games – particularly coders – %age of lines of code written that made it to the final product? Nightmare.
I think that part of the negotiation should be taken off the table (I suspect that is what the Games producers actually want).
As for the rest of the negotiation points – I am entirely on the side of SAG-AFTRA. The demands of the producers to be allowed to regulate where and how an actor should be allowed to ply their trade are ludicrous.
Just as as your typical average joe who works retail all day, 8 hours a day 5 days a week I can easily relate to this situation. Just talking and helping customers my throat can get dry, raw and hoarse. The demand of having to change your voice pitch, repeat dialogue and multiple takes of strenuous yelling would obviously take a huge toll. Do you what you must, ignore those that ‘don’t get it’.
Fully support.
This is happening everywhere. Any company that gets big seems to go full Dickens. And historically, before unions and strikes, we would send kids into mines and expect people to work in conditions akin to slavery.
Anyone who reacts with anti-union sentiment off the bat is ignorant of the basic facts. Organised labor is the only reason we have a concept of getting the weekend off, of getting overtime/ having time for ourselves in the evenings on work days, and the reason we expect to be safe in the workplace.
I especially appreciate the point about intensity of work too. I have the same issue, but anyway, your example of reading out from the book does the trick.
Well said Wil.
I fully support any group of people who take action to improve their working conditions. Anyone who argues that Group A don’t deserve improvement because Group B don’t get it or better has really failed to understand the fundamentals of worker’s rights.
It should never be a matter of whose pile of crumbs is bigger or who deserves a bigger pile of crumbs.
https://m.facebook.com/jens.rushing/posts/10153491564043784?pnref=story
Totally support you, I always assumed Voice Acting was a far more calm enviroment so the points you brought up were quite surprising. Considering you work with your voice on the line its common sense that you should be paid more or at least given better work hours. Sad that there are people that have no clue what they’re talking about in the comment as well.