Diaspora Voice Acting Casting Call

[karajorma]

While Diaspora isn't quite at the point where we are ready to start adding the voice acting just yet, we've reached the point where we can start looking for people. Having an idea what sort of people we'll have available means that we can tailor some of our roles to fit them a bit better rather than simply waiting until everything is done and expecting our actors to read their lines like robots (Unless we decide to add a 1st CW Raider to our R1 line up. In which case we'll want you to sound exactly like a robot. ).

Since Shattered Armistice doesn't show any events explicitly shown by the TV show we don't need people to do impressions of the cast. If you can do a good Adama impression, that's great but we don't need it just yet. We'd still love to hear it though.

We have a variety of major and minor parts we'll need to fill. We're going to start with stuff from message.tbl as that is the most generic stuff. For those of you who don't know much about the engine, message.tbl handles the generic stuff from the redshirts you fly with like "Behind you!" or "DRADIS contacts!"

Here's a list of sample entries.

• All Clear - "Area clear, no DRADIS contacts."
• Arrive Enemy - "Hostiles on DRADIS."
• Attack My Target - "Copy that, this kill is mine."
• Backup - "Backup has arrived, standing by for your orders."
• Red Team Arrived - "Red team reporting in."
• Check your six - "Check your six! Check your six!"
• Death - "Systems failing... I can't---"
• Green Team Arrived - "This is Green Team, awaiting orders.."
• Depart - "Copy that, breaking off and heading home."
• Disable My Target - "Wilco sir, disabling their engines."
• Disarm My Target - "Copy that, disarming your target."
• Engage Enemy - "It's about time! Weapons are hot!"
• Purple Team Arrived - "This is Purple team, ready for orders."
• Blue Team Arrived - "This is Blue team, ready for action."
• Help - "No joy! No joy! Get this bandit off me!"
• Ignore My Target - "Wilco, seeking other targets."
• No - "I'm sorry sir, I can't do that."
• No Target - Dosing up on chamalla, sir? DRADIS is clear..."
• Friendly Fire - "Friendly fire! Break off!"
• Player Dead - "What's your status sir? Sir? SIR?!"
• Praise Player Kill - "Nice aim, sir!"
• Praise Own Kill - "Target splashed, sir!"
• Praise Player Getting Multiple Kills - "You're on fire today, sir!"
• Out of Missiles - "Damn, I'm out of ammo!"
• Need Repair - "I'm getting fraked up here!"
• Stray/AWOL/Desertion Warning - "You're going the wrong way, sir."
• Traitor - "Time to die, traitor!"
• Yes - "Copy that."
• Low on Fuel - "I'm Bingo Fuel sir."
• Out of Fuel - "Shutting down engines, sir."
• Out of Bullets - "Guns are dry sir."

You may choose to record these or you can try to record a set of lines that cover the same situations but with different words. Feel free to be creative but bear in mind that Colonial pilots won't always be facing Cylons (for instance in multiplayer TvT) and any messages that do refer to toasters are going to sound rather strange there. Try to keep swearing to a very occasional frak or gods damn. We'd like to see all the lines covered so that we can judge your range.

In general we're probably simply going to use your lines to judge your acting ability prior to a callback but the team reserve the right to use any voice acting samples sent to us (with credit) in any way we see fit for the game. (I say that mainly so that we don't have any issues if we can't contact someone who provides samples but want to use them in the game anyway).

Make sure that any voice acting you send us is as clear as possible. You may be the next Robert De Niro but it won't count for anything if we can hardly hear your voice over pops, clicks and the whine of your processor fan. Each of the lines should be in a separate 16bit 44khz stereo  wav file. The entire set should then be archived (preferably rar or 7zip) before emailing them to diasporavoices [AT] googlemail.com. Please do not send mp3 files as we can't use them in the game so they will most likely be filed in the bin.

[vorlon010]

I sent mine in earlier. One thing that you may want to try and play with if you get enough contributers is the idea that different accents correlate with different colonies. You might find some ships are crewed mostly by Aeralon people, for example. Or you could take a little creative license, and use other accents (eg. Aussie) for one of the other colonies (saaayy... Picon or something).

There's a bunch of info (probably non-canon, but hey) on the makeup of the colonies and their representation in the RPG sourcebook, so you could tie it in with that

[Deckard]

Cat had a very peculiar accent; as well as Baltar ( and yeah, he does not fly.. )

Ok, if I access to the appropiate equipment to record stuff then I'll send you some too. This is not going to be easy though..

[Frost]

Just heard about Diaspora earlier today from a fellow BSG fan... he saw the voice acting casting call and directed me here. I actually do voice acting semi-professionally (as in good enough to get paid, but not often enough that it's actually a career) and have been on a couple of mods before (as always, usually having to do with something I'm a fan of; and being a huge BSG fan, couldn't pass this up).

I won't be able to get any studio recording time in till the weekend, but would passing along samples of other work I've done suffice till then?

[karajorma]

The casting call will be open until at least mid-April so there is no huge rush.

I'll update the thread with a warning a week before I close it so no need to worry it will be closed tomorrow.

[Darkblade]

Dropped a load to your gmail account.

[Something]

Dropped a load to your gmail account.

Sinful! Clean it up at once

Anyway, I'll look into recording these and send an e-mail off to you.

[renayiiq]

Hi, I'm ghost001's wife. I'll probably be submitting my stuff to you guys in a day or two, at least, if my voice clears up. I'll definitely send them before Wednesday (will be on the road and then in MD at Grandma's, she doesn't own a computer and I'll be there for a month).

[karajorma]

Cool. BSG is one of the few sci-fi shows to have a fairly equal ratio of women to men as fighter pilots so the more women who apply, the better.

[Morwen]

So I tried recording on my microphone, but the quality sucked as there's too much confusio... I meant noise. Is there any way I can reduce background noise? :S

[Dilmah G]

So I tried recording on my microphone, but the quality sucked as there's too much confusio... I meant noise. Is there any way I can reduce background noise? :S

Do you have a laptop? Move into a different room

If not, turn down the sensitivity on the microphone, on audacity I use 0.1 to great effect

[Echelon9]

So I tried recording on my microphone, but the quality sucked as there's too much confusio... I meant noise. Is there any way I can reduce background noise? :S

Audacity also had a built in plugin for ambient background noise cancellation. Just record a couple of additional seconds of ambient noise before you start speaking, and it will do a decent job of then removing that ambient noise from the period when you're speaking.

[LordNecro]

I'm an aussie so if you need some one to trial let me know

[karajorma]

Surely the thread is already letting you know.

[odo2063]

do we want to have non-nativ speakers?

[Meleardil]

12 colonies = at least 12 accents. Is there a cylon accent, or they adapt?

[Mobius]

I guess there should be more than 12 accents. Each colony would be various in terms of dialects.

[The E]

12 colonies = at least 12 accents. Is there a cylon accent, or they adapt?

They adapt, I guess. Remember D'Anna Bier's introduction? While she was with the fleet, she had a New Zealand accent, but the Three (?) that appeared at the end of that episode in a movie theater on Caprica had an american accent. So, their accents seem to depend on wether or not they were infiltrating colonial society.

[Mobius]

Adapting is extremely important, unless you live with Sagittarians...

[Cobra]

I've sent mine in.