Legal Niches

Reasoning Behind SAG?s Game Voice Actor Contract Rejection

By pete_gallagher

A clash over pay levels for those providing atmospheric voices in videogames is the real sticking point behind still unresolved contract talks between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and videogame developers.

An LA Times story on the subject notes that under the proposed SAG deal, which an 'influential group of Hollywood voice actors has strongly opposed,' voice actors would be paid about $800 for a four-hour session that could involve up to 20 atmospheric (or non-main character) voices with up to 300 words per voice. Those opposed claim that the preceding provisions would require them to do more work for less money and would 'put undue stress on their vocal chords.'

Actors who do main character voice recording can make the same $800, but for voicing three characters, and can command double the fee for doing six to ten voices over a six-hour session.

Dee Baker, a voice actor who's work has appeared in Spore and Halo 2, added, 'Before, you were doing three characters dying a horrible death. Now you're doing 20 characters dying a horrible death. Not only will this mean less money for more experiences, it's also going to be a lot more vocally difficult.'

While the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has already approved its deal with videogame publishers, the Times article calls SAG's bargaining influence 'limited,' as 'about 80% of video game titles are performed by actors who don't work under a guild contract.' Both SAG and AFTRA are looking for ways to provide incentives for hiring union voicers.

Voice actor Dave Wittenberg says in the article he makes about $30k a year doing voice work for videogames, a figure he has to supplement with additional work in animated television shows.

Mass Effect 2 has an estimated 90 actors playing 546 characters who speak 31,000 lines of dialogue.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on December 07, 2009 (boomark / email).