How should it be done ? I want to gather all experience you have earned so far in this thread.
1. Getting actors
Volunteer for specific parts or volunteer for participating only ?
To increase willingness to participate, some tried to ask people out which roles they would like to have, so their voice would feature exactly their preferred characters ( or the other way round )
Unfortunately, this requires people to study the plot and to make themselves familiar with the characters.
As we germans say : "Wer die Wahl hat hat die Qual." ( One who has to chose is suffering )
Most people are willing to help, but they prefer if this requires nothing more than recording GIVEN lines and sending them per email.
To get actors to record lines, I think it is best to ask willing people for their email and demand them to reply with recorded stuff attached. Leaving post production to campaign designer himself ( don't expect actors to uncomfort themselves with nose reduction, filtering or whatever )
Specific roles OK, but thats on request only.
2. Double-booking ?
What are your thoughts about double-booking roles ? As campaign maker, you could assign specific roles to more than one actor, then you can choose which one fits in best. And, in case some people just disappear and never report back as they were supposed to do, you don't have to run after your samples or start asking around for other actors again. This greatly delays release date.
On the other hand, people might feel offended if they have done work, and it doesnt appear ingame. "Sorry, you voice just sucks, I took someone else!" . Well, thank you Mr.Garibaldi.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have people multiple roles recorded with a guarantee they will be taken at least for one.
3.Postproduction
Done by actors or by campaign maker ?
If 50 people can do a requested postproduction on their own, this saves you a lot of time. On the other hand, it scares away voiceactors, cripples "consistency" of all the samples for the campaign and might delay release further. After all, releasing early is worth a night without sleep, isn't it ?
4. Instructions
What shall instructions for voiceactors cover ?
1. record these lines
2. save as *****01.wav up to *****23.wav with ***** compression ( or as mp3 or whatever , something no fancy codec has to be installed for ? )
3. send to "email"
4. wait for campaign with YOUR voice being released so you can hear yourself ingame and wait for HOLLYWOOD calling.
I'd appreciate comments, thoughts, reliable procedures and such.
