Saturday, October 03, 2009
SAG & AFTRA Reach Tentative Pact With Some Video Game Companies
Deadline.com: "Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) today announced they have reached tentative agreements with video game companies on new contracts. The agreements -- which become effective upon ratification and remain in full force until March 30, 2011 – achieve parity between the AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild contracts and include contemporaneous expiration dates of March 30, 2011."
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6 comments:
Question, and you can call me dumb for asking but I don't understand...
What do SAG and AFTRA have to do with video games???
I can see a stretch for AFTRA but SAG? I am not quite sure. This seems to me like unions over stepping their bound to force power and make more money. At least video games are played on a televisions and not the "silver screen." Some one please correct me if I am speaking incorrectly.
It also feels that this statement is very vague. Who do the unions collectively bargain with for a contract agreement? Why isn't that group named?
How does the agreement with video game companies play into getting raises across the board? This article at the least is misleading, but so is the information from the unions I believe.
A couple of comments for Cody. SAG is included when studios make animated films and actors simply provide the voices, so it seems fair that they would also work with voice actors for video games. They are simply another form of entertainment that takes place on the screen. SAG's webpage says that they cover film, television, industrials, music videos, commercials, video games and modern media (read: Internet).
It's very interesting to read the comments from SAG members underneath the article. They are convinced that SAG and AFTRA are moving closer and closer to a merger, and that SAG keeps screwing itself in these types of deals in order to weaken to AFTRA's level to do so. The press release in general is weak and misleading, and completely masks this undercurrent of tandem activity among the two unions. It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future.
Words of experience: Never. Underestimate. The. Impact. Of. Good. Voice. Acting.
There's even an alumni from the School of Drama who's fairly well known in the voice acting community; Derek Stephen Prince. He comes back every so often to do workshops on VOs with the actors and attend the local anime convention. I'm playing a video game with him in it right now.
But honestly, voiceovers can make or break a game narratively. What may just be a convention of the genre actually hurts the storytelling; games use animations, not people. Animated film has come into its own as a medium -- video games are still getting there. Hardware rendering limitations have left characters blocky and with cartoonish emotions. Only now with extremely specialized graphics hardware do developers have the opportunity to render expressions in real time. No matter how beautiful the game is, however, if the voices suck the player will spend most of the experience in agony.
Take Arkham Asylum as an example of voice acting done right. Batman has been played by many different actors over the years; it would have been relatively easy to cash in on Nolan's franchise by assigning Christian Bale to the roll (ignoring his filming commitments, if he'd actually want to do it, etc). However, Christian Bale just isn't a good voice actor; watch the dub of Howl's Moving Castle, a beautiful movie turned mediocre by expressionless actors. Arkham Asylum uses the voice actors of the animated TV series - Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker. The experience is amazing; a completely rendered and internally consistent world without par in the superhero game genre. Kingdom Hearts is another excellent example; the VOs tap the complete roster of Disney talent.
The article itself is slightly misleading; I do agree with the commenter who states that SAG is getting pushed aside by AFTRA. The problem with new technology and new mediums is that no one is exactly sure how to treat it or how to make money off of it.
Oh well, here's hoping this is a step towards games developing artistically and narratively.
Its quite interesting to see the performance unions slowly adjusting to the existence of video games. I do wonder if final push was brought about by the video game Brutal Legend since it has famous voices ranging from Jack Black to Ozzy Osborn, but that's truly a minor point. I'll admit to being a little bit surprised that SAG and AFTRA did not get involved with video games sooner given that in the last ten or so years the emphasis on motion capture and voice acting has become a big point in game story telling. I guess I just thought that once video games needed people who could actually model emotions and convey said emotions in their voice work that it'd be an obvious union to pair up with the major acting unions to get a bigger field of people to use.
It surprised me (and apparently Cody too) to hear that these two unions represent video game actors as well. While obviously both groups ought to have some representation, it seems like there are likely a very different set of needs, issues, and pressures to be dealt with. Like so many things, as an uneducated outside observer, I would think that more unions with a more specific focus would be more effective at actually effectively providing for their members. It doesn't seem like the video game acting industry (when so many games now have little or no acting) is big enough to require the weight of SAG to bargain evenly.
I was wondering when something like this would come up. We've talked a lot about people being upset about online video and film, but not about video gaming. I would have assumed it would be a similar contract as other forms of media such as DVDs...etc. but I guess not.
I'm glad that voice actors are being advocated for more now--it seems that they never get as much credit, while their talent can be even better than screen actors.
I disagree with others about the video game voice over market not being big enough for SAG intervention--why does it have to be its own market? I think in times like these actors would be dying to do anything to get some cash, and if they now of union coverage in another genre, that can mean more jobs.
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