Has anyone tried voicing this webcomic yet?

[WinterRose]

It would seem a perfect candidate for a fan-produced audio as a kind of listen-along or slideshow in flash. I've been catching myself up on this at work recently, and in my free time I've been donating voice work to different Star Trek and Doctor Who fan productions. And I found myself thinking I'd love a chance to voice Belkar, Elan/Nale, or Vaarsuvius.

I can't imagine that something like this hasn't been suggested, or that someone hasn't solicited Mr. Burlew for his permission to do a fan adaptation. But in the fan production boards I hit, there's no mention of The Order of the Stick. No mention of it in the FAQ either. Did I miss it? Has it not been suggested? Has it been verboten? Is it worth pursuing?

I wouldn't dream of not asking first. Would trying to put something together, audio-wise be frowned on or welcomed? It would be, as a necessity, a strictly non-profit production. The only gain being having done it in the first place, and sharing it with other fans of the comic. What do you think gentlemen & ladies?

[originalpimp]

Personally, if it hasn't been done, I'd love to be a part of it. I've been getting into some VAing work myself lately, and I think this would be a fun and incredibly epic thing to do.

[WinterRose]

I may have to look into the possibility of doing this audio in my spare time if I can get the actors, and the author is nice enough to not go. "NO!!" Well... Given the material, I'd find no shortage of people willing to audition and voice for this. I'd just have to find people who could produce quality recordings with decent equipment who'd be up for this. I'm thinking it over now. And open to suggestions.

The first thing that immediately comes to mind is that while I'd likely be able to get most of the player characters and principals cast, there's so many incidental, walk through and bit parts that our cast would have to double up, or be called upon to do bit characters as well. Otherwise the cast would run into the hundreds if you had to hold auditions for each little role.

[originalpimp]

I think the idea of having the main cast do the bit parts makes more sense. Or even having a few people cast specifically to do lots of bit parts. Doesn't make sense to me to have hundreds of people cast just for a single strip or line.

[WinterRose]

Another thing that occurs to me is that the actress we get for Haley would have something of a heavy acting challenge waiting on her. I am thinking of course of the long part of the plot where she's suffering from aphasia (speaking gibberish). To get this right, we'd need translations of Haley's lines so the actress could inflect them properly.

Of course it occurs to me that with translations, you COULD just have the actress speak the lines normally, then mix under her lines with the same line backwards. Just enough to be audible and show that she's speaking nonsense. But not obscuring her lines. Essentially an effect to show that she's speaking abnormally, while we, the listeners are privvy to what she's saying. Though if this were animated, we could just use subtitles. But we don't have that luxury with an audio.

[shadzar]

I was thinking this would make a great cartoon.

Wendee Lee, Hillary Haig, Jessica Boone, Amanda Winn Lee, Luci Christianson(sp)...all these could do Haley without blinking an eye.

Chris Patton would have to be Elan.

Crispin Freeman as Belkar.

Steve Blume as Nale.

I could do this for days and for every character.

[WinterRose]

I was thinking Nale and Elan would be voiced by the same actor. This would have to be someone who could pull off a good and simple as well as an evil and dastardly version of the same voice. As well, later on you'd get this actor having to play the evil version of himself PRETENDING to be the good version of himself. Sometimes not very well. ^_^ Which sounds a lot easier than it is.

[Zen_Heart]

I think this is a fantastic idea! I would love to either watch or participate in this, but Vaarsuvius, Kyrie, and their kids would be difficult--the voice actor would need to maintain a fairly ambiguously-gendered voice.

[shadzar]

I think this is a fantastic idea! I would love to either watch or participate in this, but Vaarsuvius, Kyrie, and their kids would be difficult--the voice actor would need to maintain a fairly ambiguously-gendered voice.

How about the people that played voiced the ugly step sisters in Shrek?

Then again Chris Patton has a voice that can be either or, like in Nerima Daikon.

[factotum]

Somebody actually sang "O Buddy Roy" (the song that Elan sang after Roy's death)--that's the only example I can think of where something in the strip has actually been voiced.

[Lissou]

The comic where Roy dies has been voiced in Czech. I know I heard it at some point, but I'm not sure where it was.

If it's legal, I'd love to take part in such a project. I'm afraid I wouldn't have that much time to give, though. Plus, I have a French accent, not extremely strong, but it's there. I probably couldn't voice any of the main characters because of that. (Well, Haley. I couldn't voice the others anyways since I'm female and my voice is probably not androgynous enough).

If you get a "go ahead", feel free to contact me, at any rate.

[TerraImmorits]

I was thinking Nale and Elan would be voiced by the same actor. This would have to be someone who could pull off a good and simple as well as an evil and dastardly version of the same voice. As well, later on you'd get this actor having to play the evil version of himself PRETENDING to be the good version of himself. Sometimes not very well. ^_^ Which sounds a lot easier than it is.

I'm dense, a long time reader, and have simple-to-state beliefs... the only thing seperating me and Elan is hair colour, reality, and the fact that I realize my spleen is important. (Going without clothes does make you invisible, though.)

...called it, if I ever get a mic? :smalltongue:

[factotum]

Can you sing? Going back to what I said earlier, it's going to be necessary for Elan to do that!

[Andore Mordre]

Dibs on the demon roaches.

[WinterRose]

Actually, I'm thinking hard on this at the moment. The big problem for me being which part in the Order of the Stick would I wanna do? I'm interested in three different people. But I wouldn't wanna do em all. That wouldn't be fair to the other actors.

I'm a high enough Baritone that I tend to get mistaken for a woman about half the time on the phone. Especially if I pitch my voice up. So Vaarsuvius would actually be darned easy for me. The same ability applies to Belkar in that I can get higher for a halfling's voice.

I can do a charismatic heroic type as well, which makes me wanna do Elan, especially since that would mean getting to do Nale as well and all the neat acting stuff that would entail. The only thing that puts me off of that is the singing bits... I'm a decent singer, but horribly self-conscious about it. That and I've got no real musical training. Just a good ear, pitch and instinct.

So really, when I do this (and it's looking more and more like I will at some point in the future), I'll be listening to the auditions with an ear toward a MUCH better Elan than me, and content myself with either V or Belkar. I'd love to do Belkar, but if a better one than me auditions, I'll fall back to V. Of course... I could still do an Elan if I got someone else to sing... *Mine is an evil laugh*

Something else I'm self-conscious about is asking for race-specific people to audition for a part. I don't wanna offend anyone. But at the same time, you CAN hear the difference between speech from someone of caucasoid or african descent cos of how the voice resonates in the different bone structures of the skull. I wouldn't want fans to hear Roy and go, "Aw man.. they couldn't get a black guy to do Roy?" If I'm gonna do this, I wanna get it right.

Other thoughts... When I do this, I'd love to be able to let Mr. Burlew weigh in on the choices for the characters. There's nothing like the opinion of the original author when it comes to getting something like this done. Just listen to the older audiobook versions of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' books that he does if you need convincing of that.

I don't wanna be an audio snob, but if this is going to sound good, I'm gonna have to be. That means a good condenser microphone setup from the people that can produce a good clear sound at 44100 hertz at least. Saved as MP3's at 16 bit, 192kbps. Essentially, CD-quality recordings.

Oh. And the disintegrate spell, in my own imagination, is totally the sound that a dalek's gun makes, since the effect seems so similar. ^_^

[Silverraptor]

I'm sorry but there was a thread like this opened a while ago and Roland St. Jude said we weren't allowed. But if he changed his mind then I would like to do Shojo.

[WinterRose]

I'm sorry but there was a thread like this opened a while ago and Roland St. Jude said we weren't allowed. But if he changed his mind then I would like to do Shojo.

Ahh phooey. Who's Roland St. Jude? I'm kinda new.

[Andore Mordre]

Ahh phooey. Who's Roland St. Jude? I'm kinda new.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=4945

This guy.

[Jimorian]

Yeah, it's VERY unlikely that Rich will give permission, any derivative works dilute the value of his copyright, and he's understandably very careful with it.

However, it's a shame to see such enthusiasm go to waste, so here's an idea:

Ask one of the fan comic creators if you can do this for their work. It's not quite as "cool" as doing the real OOTS, but there are some very good ones in the fan comic forum.

Then, just maybe, if you have a high-quality product to show for it when you're done, you'll have some darned good ammunition to use to approach Rich with later. :smallwink:

[WinterRose]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?u=4945

This guy.

Okay. So a super mod. Gotcha. Has he been given authority by Mr. Burlew to nix any fan productions like this on his behalf, or do I need to speak to Mr. Burlew himself? Like I said, I wouldn't wanna do this without his permission. It'd be a damn shame if we couldn't though. I'd also want to make it clear that NO-ONE would be profiting from this.

[WinterRose]

Yeah, it's VERY unlikely that Rich will give permission, any derivative works dilute the value of his copyright, and he's understandably very careful with it.

However, it's a shame to see such enthusiasm go to waste, so here's an idea:

Ask one of the fan comic creators if you can do this for their work. It's not quite as "cool" as doing the real OOTS, but there are some very good ones in the fan comic forum.

Then, just maybe, if you have a high-quality product to show for it when you're done, you'll have some darned good ammunition to use to approach Rich with later. :smallwink:

Ahhh, okay. Well, if he won't, he won't. There's no harm in asking. The worst that could happen is that he could pop on and go "NO! CEASE & DESIST!" which I'd be fine with. That is a nice idea though. Maybe making a demo of the kind of thing we could come up with to see if that could be a convincer. In any case, it's all just an idea at the moment anyway. I'd have to script it for the actors instead of making them read the comic for their lines. (Busy nights kinda hampers getting the comic to load sometimes.) Thanks!

[Silverraptor]

Ahhh, okay. Well, if he won't, he won't. There's no harm in asking. The worst that could happen is that he could pop on and go "NO! CEASE & DESIST!" which I'd be fine with. That is a nice idea though. Maybe making a demo of the kind of thing we could come up with to see if that could be a convincer. In any case, it's all just an idea at the moment anyway. I'd have to script it for the actors instead of making them read the comic for their lines. (Busy nights kinda hampers getting the comic to load sometimes.) Thanks!

Just send a pm and/or e-mail to Rich and the Super mod and see what they say.

[Elyk80]

yea me and my friends do that all the time

[Silverraptor]

yea me and my friends do that all the time

Do what? Record your voices on the computer over OOTS dialog or pm/e-mail Rich for permission to do so?

[Elyk80]

Do what? Record your voices on the computer over OOTS dialog or pm/e-mail Rich for permission to do so?

No, we just say it normally!

[Silverraptor]

No, we just say it normally!

Ahhhhh....

[[TS] Shadow]

As long as we get permission, I would love to do some voice acting work. I'm in my school's drama club, so I have experience with the whole "acting" thing. And recording lines will be WAY easier than performing them in front of an audience, because if I don't like how they sound, I can keep on trying until I get the desired effect.

I would really like to be Belkar. I think I can pull off his character well. However, seeing as there are many people who would be fighting over that role, I wouldn't mind doing some other roles as well. Hinjo, for one, is a role that I think I could pull off relatively well. I'm also surprised that nobody has taken a jump at voicing the MitD. I would so love to be his voice. I also wouldn't mind playing some of the bit parts as well (like the fruit pie sorcerer.) Really, I'm game for anything that you would want me to do.

However, I would like to know how this is being presented. Is it going to be like a slideshow, showing specific panels with the voices played over them? If so, will the speach balloons still be intact? Or will it be just audio, with the action explained by a narrator? Or will it be a flash cartoon? How it's presented is as important as the voice talent itself. This is a devoted fanbase though, so I doubt you'll have much trouble there.

Good luck, and when the AC battle comes around, you better be waiting for the thousands who want to voice "That Guy with a Halberd."

[ranagrande]

I too would love to help with this if it were to be allowed. I would especially like to try for Xykon or the Monster in the Darkness, but I'd be happy with anyone.

[Prime32]

Ask one of the fan comic creators if you can do this for their work. It's not quite as "cool" as doing the real OOTS, but there are some very good ones in the fan comic forum.Ooh! Do Anti-Heroes (http://www.antiheroescomic.com/)!

You could ask for help from the Voice Acting Alliance, or Club, or Guild, or whatever it is they're called. :smallconfused:

[Cleverdan22]

Wow, I've always thought myself fairly good at voice acting, and wanted to try it. I've even read a few comics out loud to myself in character voices. If this gets going, I'd be happy to lend my voice for Elan, Nale, Belkar, Hinjo (Doesn't necessarily need to sound Asian, does it?), maybe Xykon or Redcloak.

I'm also up for any other thing involving voice acting somebody wants done.

[Silverraptor]

Well we need an update. Did we get permission from Rich or the moderators yet?:smallconfused:

[stabbybelkar]

Can you sing? Going back to what I said earlier, it's going to be necessary for Elan to do that!

In that case I call dibs on eather :belkar: or maybe V

[stabbybelkar]

Ooh! Do Anti-Heroes (http://www.antiheroescomic.com/)!

You could ask for help from the Voice Acting Alliance, or Club, or Guild, or whatever it is they're called. :smallconfused:

OOH!! yeah! I could so do Kaal or Aldran

[Lupy]

I had a thread about this a while ago, and I pmed one of the mods about it, Rawhide perhaps, and he said no.

You can ask if you want, but you need permission and I doubt you'll have a better time getting it than I did. :smallwink:

[WinterRose]

Chapter... um.. something or other: ANSWERING QUESTIONS AS I READ.

How this would be presented? At the moment, unless I learn to do powerpoint slideshows which is more work than I'd wanna do, It would be strictly audio. That said, I'd want to release the audios as free downloads under creative commons so whomever felt like taking our audio afterward could put it to a slideshow, or outright animate it in Flash or something.

I'd had the idea, (and this may be dating myself) for those of you that remember storybooks and filmstrips that came with their own pre-recorded audio track. You'd get that little *DINK!* or *DING!* that told you when to turn the page, or advance the frame. (There's a good one you can sample off the beginning of De La Soul's album, 'De La Soul Is Dead') The idea being that you could be reading along with the comic, or in the books and know when to turn the page, or go to the next comic.

As well, at the beginning of each comic, I'd thought to have the dominant character in that particular comic read something like "The Order of the Stick: Number Three-Thirty-Nine." so the listener knew where they were. It's easy for a listener to get distracted by something for a moment and when their attention gets back, they're all, "Oh wait, what strip am I on?" This way? You know.

The audio would be a straight delivery of the dialogue as an audio drama with no exposition other than what you see in the comic itself, with sampled sounds and maybe bits of music used for stuff if necessary for dramatic or comedic cues. I may have to find some Karaoke bits for some things, like Elan's moving "Oh Buddy Roy".

The intention was to draft from both here AND the Voice Acting Alliance. I've had some good luck with getting parts for myself over on the VAA, and maybe just today had the second episode of something come out that I'm in. (See: Star Trek: Outpost at Giant Gnome Productions)

As for contacting Rich directly, this is what I just sent him:


Hi there. I've been working with different people doing audio dramas lately, and am really looking to do something good. One comic I always find myself performing aloud when I'm reading it is Order of the Stick. I was looking to get your permission to do a fan audio of the strip. NO PROFIT WHATSOEVER will be made or expected from the production.

Naturally, I'd be looking to do a CD-Quality Production at 192 KBPS at 16 bit 44100 hertz. I'd be looking to cast people individually who could record at that quality with podcast quality condenser mikes so as to make it sound entirely professional. I'd be looking to write up a script (preferably with translations of Haley's garbled bits between the Inn and Elan's return in Azure City.). The actors themselves would record their bits and send them to me, and I'd edit them together with sounds, bits of music. All that good stuff.

Once edited together, I'd be making them freely downloadable out of my rapidshare box unless someone wanted to host a page for it. I'd wanna do it as a creative commons kinda deal, so if someone wanted to take our audio and animate it, or do up a slideshow or flash cartoon of it, they could, unless that was unacceptable to ya.

I have heard that this idea was floated once and nixed in the past. I heard a good suggestion in a thread I started about this that we do just a little bit of it and submit it to you as a kind of demo of what we're capable of. Ya know... so you know it's not going to suck beforehand.

The idea is to have a kind of 'play it along in the background kind of soundtrack you can have to the strip or the collected books themselves. A bit like the tapes you'd put in a tape player for an old filmstrip in school, or a read along storybook, complete with the sound cues for when you turn the page. Or maybe for a more current example, you might think of 'Rifftrax'.

Would doing a demo for you to consider meet with your approval? As much as I'd like to do this, I'd really like to get your permission first before I started work on a script the actors could read from. For that matter, I'd love to get input on how you'd like the characters to sound, or what music or sound cues you'd like to have used for any given thing you have an opinion on. But let's work on you being able to go "Hmm. Fabulous idea. Let's hear what you can do, kid." first.

Thanks for your time. Hope this finds you well. And thank you for a wonderful story. (Ugh... that sounded like sweet-talk. Thanks anyway though. ^_^)

-WinterRose

[[TS] Shadow]

Wow...That's an amazing letter. Great job: a good letter to Rich give a good first impression, which is what we need if we are to get this done.

Anyway, since we ARE recording a demo, you'll probably have to have auditions for all of the major characters within the first story arc now.

You'll definately need:
Roy
Elan
Haley
Belkar
Durkon
Vaarsuvius

You should probably have:
Xykon
Redcloak
MitD
Nale
Sabine
Thog
Yikyik
Hylgia
Zz'dtri

It would be good to have an idea of who you want to play:
Miko
Shojo
Celia
Hinjo
Diago
Kazumi
Eugene

EDIT: Oh, and I has a question. If and when we are asked to send in lines, what file type do you want us to send them as? Mp3, wav? Also, should we record all of our lines as seperate files, or keep them in one long file that you can edit down?

[Shadic]

Here is my voice, for reference. (http://shadic.fleepa.net/Sounds/ShadicVoice.mp3)

I'm willing to do any male voices, probably one of the gruffer characters. I'm not sure I could do Roy, but I'd love to try. Durkon is probably out of the question with his accent.

Depending on when I get the time, I may try out several voice samples relatively soon. I'll try and go for the commonly recognized ones.

[WinterRose]

As far as the file type goes and given the limitations of my e-mail, I'm going to want a CD-Quality MP3 file. That means recorded at 44100 Hertz, 16 bit stereo, and saved at 192 kbps (That's Kilobytes Per Second for the uninitiated. ^_^) I'd ask that you use a microphone that can record you in the 44100 hertz range so we get a good sound out of you without hisses, clicks or pops. Happily, a condenser microphone is not a HUGE outlay of money nowadays with all the podcast kits out there. One can usually be picked up pretty reasonably if you look.

I'd want you to record at least 3 or 4 takes per line so I'd be able to pick and choose which combination of lines from different people went well with one another. The one big drawback to a collaborative effort like this is that we don't get the benefit of a director in the room with all the actors, or the chemistry we might get between them. So with a choice, there's that much more of a chance that we can get a good sound going on.

Files would be sent to an e-mail address if they're under 10 Megs (Hotmail, don't'cha know.) unless I open a GMail account for it, which could do 20 megs. For things above that, I'd have to ask that someone put it on some kind of file sharing site I could download it directly from. I haven't even written up a script for the demo yet. Once I have that, plus some lines for people to try out with for audition things I could listen to, THEN you can hit me with voice samples and such.

Thanks for the list of the principal and ancillary characters there TS_Shadow. That will help a lot. One thing any of the people that wanna do principals may wanna keep in mind is that they'll be called upon depending on their gender to submit lines for any of the walk-throughs and incidental characters as well. So if you get a part, that wouldn't be the ONLY part you get. We might cast one or two other people to be (VARIOUS NPC'S & MONSTERS) but the less people we have to cast for this, the better. So I'll be looking for people who can do distinct and seperate voices as well to double up on roles. Which if you're serious about being part of this is not going to be a problem for you.

I will say that I will be doing either V, Belkar or Elan. One of those three is gonna be me depending on what I get for auditions for those. The role I do will be the one I don't get better auditions for. (Ay, I get to do ONE of em!) So if you're only interested in doing one character and NO OTHER, then this probably isn't for you. Okay. Going home from work now. ^_^

[Raenir Salazar]

I would love Church's VA from RedvsBlue to do Belkar.

This would be an awesome project, the video part of it if you were to do it should be 8-bit theater chaos style.

[Shadic]

As far as the file type goes and given the limitations of my e-mail, I'm going to want a CD-Quality MP3 file. That means recorded at 44100 Hertz, 16 bit stereo, and saved at 192 kbps (That's Kilobytes Per Second for the uninitiated. ^_^) I'd ask that you use a microphone that can record you in the 44100 hertz range so we get a good sound out of you without hisses, clicks or pops. Happily, a condenser microphone is not a HUGE outlay of money nowadays with all the podcast kits out there. One can usually be picked up pretty reasonably if you look.

I think you're going to have trouble with that. Granted, samples can certainly be taken that are better than mine (I was talking quietly with the mic about an inch from my mouth,) but I can't see rounding up a reasonable crew very easily.

Although, something like this could be picked up. Easily the best microphone I found for a decent price. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601)

[WinterRose]

I think you're going to have trouble with that. Granted, samples can certainly be taken that are better than mine (I was talking quietly with the mic about an inch from my mouth,) but I can't see rounding up a reasonable crew very easily.

Although, something like this could be picked up. Easily the best microphone I found for a decent price. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836111601)

Well... there are decently priced good condenser mikes out there for those that know how to shop and where to look. I don't want to be exclusive of talented people that have enthusiasm for what could be a long term project. But at the same time, if we're going to get approval to do this, then I need people who have good equipment and know how to use it. 22000 hertz microphones that sound like a gamer's headset or a cellular phone just aren't going to cut it for a professional sound. It may be a LITTLE steep, but if you want to get into voice acting or podcasting, the right equipment is (sadly) the price of admission.

Happily however, with more people podcasting, the price of a condenser mike is dropping all the time. I'd recommend a Cardioid pickup pattern on it as well. If you get a USB condenser mike (no Pre-amp necessary there) make sure it's plugged into a USB 2.0 port.

[Lupy]

Feh, I'll look into getting a mic.

I could probably do Elan fairly well with my not-dropped-yet voice.

[[TS] Shadow]

I've been wondering what we should record for an audition and where we should send the files.

[TerraImmorits]

On second thought, I'm probably too low to voice Elan. And with a condition of tone deafness (and 80% natural hearing loss in one ear!) I would like be unable to sing it, properly. Hm.

Well, I'll snag a mike and see if there's a place in the cast at all for my wacky voice. :smallcool:

[Lissou]

I think it's likely this won't be allowed.

However, I'd suggest either trying a fan comic or making something from scratch.

That might sound weird, but in France (well, on French websites), there are less webcomics, but there are also web"series"... That are only by sound. Obvously the type of humour is a bit different, adpated to the fact you don't SEE anything.
Most of the time, it's only one or two people doing all the voices (with some speech-changing programs as well as accents to differenciate the characters easily).

These usually update only about once a month, but they have a good following.

Anyway, I realise it's completely different from your first goal and idea, but I think it might work if people here are motivated to do that. Of course the drawback is you'd need a writer for the texts.

Either way, I'm available for voices, I'll send my sample whenever you start taking them (best to first know what we'd be voicing exactly, after all).

[WinterRose]

Shadow;6083285']I've been wondering what we should record for an audition and where we should send the files.

Well, nothing quite yet. I've not come up with the audition bits yet. I've been spending the last week or so catching up with the comic at work between calls really. That said, I'm nearly done. I'm up to about strip 650 now. Once I've got perspective on the whole thing, I can start writing up the scripts we need.

...Or just get the URL's to the strips themselves since they'll be straight adaptations. That way you can kinda see the 'expressions' and action to get clues as to how they should be read. I should do that actually. No need to duplicate work that's already been done, and in such a superior fashion. All I REALLY need is all the translations of Haley's lines later on when she's suffering from Aphasia for Haley's actress. Assuming we get that far.

I'll let you know when I'm ready. ^_^

[Cleverdan22]

Do you need some recorded auditions. Because I recorded some Elan lines if you want them.

[Raenir Salazar]

should I contribute some audition lines now or is it better to wait until official word on this?

[WinterRose]

I'm working on it, folks. I just came up with a list of all the characters we need people for in comics 1 - 100. I secured a gmail box for people to send auditions to. Now I'm coming up with character descriptions and some lines to read with each one. When I'm ready, I'll start a new thread for it, and crosspost over on the Voice Acting Alliance to see who's interested.

[Silverraptor]

I'm working on it, folks. I just came up with a list of all the characters we need people for in comics 1 - 100. I secured a gmail box for people to send auditions to. Now I'm coming up with character descriptions and some lines to read with each one. When I'm ready, I'll start a new thread for it, and crosspost over on the Voice Acting Alliance to see who's interested.

Could we also get lines from Oots comic and read them out as well?:smallconfused:

[[TS] Shadow]

Well, nothing quite yet. I've not come up with the audition bits yet. I've been spending the last week or so catching up with the comic at work between calls really. That said, I'm nearly done. I'm up to about strip 650 now. Once I've got perspective on the whole thing, I can start writing up the scripts we need.

...Or just get the URL's to the strips themselves since they'll be straight adaptations. That way you can kinda see the 'expressions' and action to get clues as to how they should be read. I should do that actually. No need to duplicate work that's already been done, and in such a superior fashion. All I REALLY need is all the translations of Haley's lines later on when she's suffering from Aphasia for Haley's actress. Assuming we get that far.

I'll let you know when I'm ready. ^_^

You haven't finished reading the comic yet and you're hanging out here? Just the thread titles themselves are spoilers!

[Stormthorn]

Ahh phooey. Who's Roland St. Jude? I'm kinda new.

He's a fallen paladin bound in the service of The Giant.


And this sounds really fun, but i doubt we can get the OK. The Giant seems very protective of his work. Im not saying he is paranoid...its just that he is a lot like the record companies in being hellbent on maintaining control of what he owns.

I would send a clip of my voice but i dont own recording equipment, or sound editing software, or a site to post it on.

[Berserk Monk]

Yeah, actually, there have been attempts to make an oots flash cartoon. I remember seeing one of those forums awhile back. It got shut down.

[WinterRose]

It was mentioned earlier in the thread that we may not get permission to do this. I contacted Mr. Burlew via private message, but as yet have had no reply. Considering that silence belies consent, I decided to go ahead and make the preliminary preparations to do a formal audition and demo we could do in order to show him how good it could be in order to secure his blessing. If he still goes NO! i'll totally abide by that. But with such obvious enthusiasm for the project by people who enjoy the comic... I'm sure I can put something together that will sound good enough for at least serious consideration. That's the hope anyway.

[Raenir Salazar]

so whats the gmail account to send the auditions to?

[stabbybelkar]

OK, so since the Giant won't aprove this for OOTS maybe we should do Anti-Heros

[Lissou]

It was mentioned earlier in the thread that we may not get permission to do this. I contacted Mr. Burlew via private message, but as yet have had no reply. Considering that silence belies consent, I decided to go ahead and make the preliminary preparations to do a formal audition and demo we could do in order to show him how good it could be in order to secure his blessing. If he still goes NO! i'll totally abide by that. But with such obvious enthusiasm for the project by people who enjoy the comic... I'm sure I can put something together that will sound good enough for at least serious consideration. That's the hope anyway.

No, no, no way. He probably hasn't even read it yet, do you know how much mail he's getting? And if he doesn't bother answering, I'd say it's a no.
Other people who wanted to do it say they've been told they couldn't, so I don't see it being different. I'm sorry but when it's about copyright, it's not "silence belies consent", it's "whatever isn't specifically approved is forbidden". So I wouldn't advise to go along, and at any rate I'm not going along with that and voicing anyone if you're doing this without permission. Which you are planning on doing, apparently.

[[TS] Shadow]

No, no, no way. He probably hasn't even read it yet, do you know how much mail he's getting? And if he doesn't bother answering, I'd say it's a no.
Other people who wanted to do it say they've been told they couldn't, so I don't see it being different. I'm sorry but when it's about copyright, it's not "silence belies consent", it's "whatever isn't specifically approved is forbidden". So I wouldn't advise to go along, and at any rate I'm not going along with that and voicing anyone if you're doing this without permission. Which you are planning on doing, apparently.

When it comes to copyright, you can use copyrighted material (in this case, the lines from OotS) if it is:
A) A Parody
B) A Commentary
C) A Critique

I'm not sure if what we're doing falls into any of those catagories, but even if it does, I don't think anyone would do it without permission anyway. But then again, if the Giant hasn't said anything about it yet, he still hasn't denied it yet. We aren't starting it yet, we're in the planning stages of a demo to be presented to the Giant to further secure permission. I see nothing wrong with that.

[Lissou]

Shadow;6095874']I don't think anyone would do it without permission anyway. But then again, if the Giant hasn't said anything about it yet, he still hasn't denied it yet. We aren't starting it yet, we're in the planning stages of a demo to be presented to the Giant to further secure permission. I see nothing wrong with that.

I guess. However, I need to point out the contradiction between your first and second sentence (that I quoted).

"Nobody's doing it without permission, plus he's said nothing about it" (in essence). If he's said nothing about it, he hasn't given his permission. Therefore it is without permission. That's the definition. Nobody here got the permission to do it, did they?

I just don't want people to get carried away. We keep seeing people here who did stuff without permission (like translate the strips and such", and they say "oh, yeah, I asked permission two years ago and he said nothing, so I did it anyway".

I think people underestimate how many PMs and stuff he must get. Not to mention he's busy with other stuff as well. He probably doesn't read it all, is all I'm saying. You shouldn't think "if he's saying nothing, then he's fine with it", because you have no proof that he's even aware of it, even though you sent a PM to him and it's on the forum. He just can't be anywhere at once is all I'm saying.

[WinterRose]

No, no, no way. He probably hasn't even read it yet, do you know how much mail he's getting? And if he doesn't bother answering, I'd say it's a no.
Other people who wanted to do it say they've been told they couldn't, so I don't see it being different. I'm sorry but when it's about copyright, it's not "silence belies consent", it's "whatever isn't specifically approved is forbidden". So I wouldn't advise to go along, and at any rate I'm not going along with that and voicing anyone if you're doing this without permission. Which you are planning on doing, apparently.

Not at all. He can certainly choose to exercise his option to say no at any time. I only mean to do a demo to send him in order to see if that can be a convincer. I have no intention of doing anything without his permission. Even the demo will not be posted where people can download it without his permission.

And of course this is why I'm taking my time getting the audition lines I wanted to get together for each character together. And why I haven't posted the e-mail address I secured for it yet. I'm a bit loath to do something like this if it's gonna be shot down as soon as I get started for real. Which would be taking submissions. I do have other stuff making demands on my time of late.

I'm just making the preparations if he's agreeable to give a demo a listen. I'd like to be able to jump on it the moment I get a yes before the interest and enthusiasm for the idea wanes. But under no circumstances do I want to claimjump his concept. Don't even entertain the thought.

[Cracklord]

I could do Thog :thog: very well, I'd love to do :redcloak:
and if those are taken I'll do :xykon: or :durkon:
If this is still happening of course.

[Darkhands]

Animating and voicing the comics is just too difficult without some serious investment, monetarily, personnel, time, etc. But I never thought of just doing a radio version of the comic! I like that idea. :)

Would you need to narrate what's going on like the old radio shows, or would it be assumed that listeners had a copy of the comic in front of them?

And I'm a budding voice actor myself, I've done little things like voice the Lieutenant in the Natural Selection training map, and the voice of GIR in the (never got off the ground) Invader Zim fan-animated series. I can do production work too; backgrounding, sound effects, etc.

The only thing that would worry me is that the comic can be particularly wordy... Wonderful for storytelling, but could cause problems in an audio setting. A dozen 30 second monologues per strip/episode could be really challenging from a flow perspective. You'd need to edit things, cut other things, etc, and that adds an additional layer of complexity from a permission/decision making view.

[Raenir Salazar]

pppft, time sure but money? Just uses windows movie making and jump from frame to frame like in 8Bit Theater Chaos.

[Snake-Aes]

Can shojo's voice be interpreted by Morgan Freeman?

[Lissou]

Can shojo's voice be interpreted by Morgan Freeman?

Yeah, as soon as you convince him :P

I'm sorry if I sounded to harsh or judgmental earlier. I realise I don't have all the answers, I don't know more about it than anyone, but I've seen people get over-enthusiastic about such projects and getting shot down hard, and I don't want you to spend so much time and hope for nothing.
I'm guessing a demo-thingie that's not downloadable would be okay. But if the answer to other people who tried to do that has always been "no" (as was stated in the thread) chances are it won't change this time. That's all I'm saying.

I still wish you all the luck and everything.

[WinterRose]

Animating and voicing the comics is just too difficult without some serious investment, monetarily, personnel, time, etc. But I never thought of just doing a radio version of the comic! I like that idea. :)

Would you need to narrate what's going on like the old radio shows, or would it be assumed that listeners had a copy of the comic in front of them?

The only thing that would worry me is that the comic can be particularly wordy... Wonderful for storytelling, but could cause problems in an audio setting. A dozen 30 second monologues per strip/episode could be really challenging from a flow perspective. You'd need to edit things, cut other things, etc, and that adds an additional layer of complexity from a permission/decision making view.

The way I had it in mind was a kind of audio track that people could just have playing in the background while they had a copy of the comic in front of them, complete with 'ding's to tell them when to advance to the next strip. Some things would have to be read aloud or have some creativity applied to them.

No one actually says 'I prepared Explosive Runes Today' when someone sees it on the wall. But I figure we get a little V voiceover when someone sees that before the splody sound goes off. When the characters look at Durkon and see him as a walking bandaid, how do you do that in an audio? Unless of course you do a momentary sample of the "I am stuck on band-aid cos band-aid's stuck on me" jingle and hope the reader's looking at the gag.

It can be particularly wordy. That's why I figured it might work better as a fan audio than any kind of animated cartoon. While all these monologues are going on, there's not much for the characters to do but stand around listening. Speech may be a free action in an RPG, but if you have to animate it, it's very much not. Going to audio, you can stretch that a bit and play with it. Events can happen at the rate they do in the comic.

It will however, be true to the author's text. It will not be edited down or abridged. Flow may be hindered by it, true. But as a personal choice, I've always preferred my audiobooks to be unabridged. I've always been of the opinion it's really presumptious of people to axe out an author's content after it's been published. That's the purview of editors at a publisher's. After they've published it and it's been well-recieved, it ought to stay as it was intentionally released.

When the guy who did the Daredevil movie was pitching Garth Ennis' 'Preacher' to the people at Home Box Office, he handed them copies of the trade paperbacks as what he wanted to do. He was working with Garth Ennis and crafting his scripts to hit the comic to show translation word for word. To the degree that even Ennis said 'You know... you don't HAVE to do it word for word." The director replied, "No, I really do. If I get this wrong or leave stuff out, your fanbase will crucify me."

I think the same sentiment might apply here. ^_^

I did think about it as a slideshow where you go from frame to frame in the comic. But that's a lot of photoshopping, and really, that's more effort than I can commit to with other stuff going on in my life. That's also closer to something like doing a cartoon, which has been nixed in the past by the creator. An audio you listen to while reading his comic draws more people to the site to read it, or buy the books. A cartoon precludes your having to look at the comic at all, and draws traffic away from his site if he's not hosting it. Which isn't good at all.

[Silverraptor]

All this sounds good but we can't do anything with out the say so.

[Raenir Salazar]

not sure if I got an answer for this but where do I email my audition?

[[TS] Shadow]

not sure if I got an answer for this but where do I email my audition?

WinterRose isn't posting the e-mail address untill he's sure we can get started on a demo.


I guess. However, I need to point out the contradiction between your first and second sentence (that I quoted).

"Nobody's doing it without permission, plus he's said nothing about it" (in essence). If he's said nothing about it, he hasn't given his permission. Therefore it is without permission. That's the definition. Nobody here got the permission to do it, did they?


I guess I did contradict myself. I meant that we can get started with the demo without having to get the Giant's permission (seeing as it's being made to obtain said permission) but the actual project would probably need complete aproval from Rich himself.

EDIT: I've been wondering: how many strips are we going to be distributing at once? I imagine that we'd either do 1, 5, or 10, but I'm not sure.

[Cracklord]

So, are we having a omniscient Narrator, or not?

[stabbybelkar]

All this sounds good but we can't do anything with out the say so.

thats why we should first do a Fan-Made comic such as Anti-Heros first.

[WinterRose]

You raise a good point, Shadow. As far as how many strips at once we'd be putting out. I'd like to do each strip as its own MP3. That way, people could just pop em into a playlist and sort by filename and look at them while the mp3 player of preference cycles through em. Much easier to navigate the whole thing that way I should think. I wouldn't mind doing them in bursts of 10 strips. That's a nice number of strips to do all at once in a sitting without making anyone feel overburdened. (including me)

As a side note... if we get Mr. Burlew's permission to do this... there's always the idea that as individual mp3's, and were he interested in doing that, each strip's MP3 could be hosted on the page for its strip. The ultimate for high speed connection luxury. Wanna hear as you read? Just clicky the play whatsit and listen right along. But that, as they say, is putting the horse MILES ahead of the cart.

We pop those out once a month to 45 days, and if we feel we can do more than that at once, we can revisit the deal. Though you may want to remember later as plots start to center on individual characters and the dialogue gets longer, those sessions may get to be a bit of effort for some, while others get a nice break for a month.

For Minion992929, no. No omnescient narrator need apply. The only words spoken will be the ones in the script. No liberties will be taken with Mr. Burlew's text. Again, the idea is to make something to complement the comic, not stand on its own. I would think that a production with a goal of getting people to hit the website to see the action being read or buy the books would stand a much better chance of being approved.

[WinterRose]

So I just got finished reading 'Start of Darkness' today, and it gave me a little more insight as to how some of this ought to be done. Whoever it is doing Xykon is going to need to have something of a deep voice. Someone who can do a good Darth Vader impression, yet still be lightheartedly evil and irresponsible.

Redcloak... That's kind of a hard one. After seeing his very serious as hell origins, I kinda don't hear him as effete or anything anymore. Before I was hearing him kind of like Stewie, which is just a whole breed of odd, and didn't feel right. Now? I'm not sure WHAT I hear when I think of him. Most of them have voices when I read them, either in my head or aloud. Redcloak? Nada Voice.

So here's a question to keep the thread going while we hope Mr. Burlew looks at the lot of us and goes, "Sure! Do yer demo. Let's hear what you can do."

Who do you hear when you read these characters? Who would you cast in what role, to give us an idea what kind of type you hear when you read em. Aside from being fanciful, I'd love to hear what kinda voices you guys hear for these folks. That, at least, would give me an idea what direction I ought to keep in mind, casting-wise when and if this can get started.

And an open invitation to Mr. Burlew? Your input would be most paid heed to. Xykon's dialogue alone leads me to believe these people have specific sounds when you're writing em. Reader input is valuable. But nothing but nothing is as good as the creator's input on something like this. That and it'd be a hoot to hear who you think these folks sound like.

[Cleverdan22]

Pretty sure there was a thread for this a while back. See my sig for who I think should play Elan/Nale.

[[TS] Shadow]

I see Elan with a very childish, higher-pitched voice. Someone who can talk really fluently but still seems like sort of a moron. Haley, I just hear a woman's voice. Nothing real unique there. For some reason, I imagine Durkon as a more laid back Scottish Sean Connery. Don't ask me why. For Belkar, I imagine a sort of Merry/Pippen voice. It would a hilarious clash of voice and words. Vaarsuivius has an appropriately gender-neutral voice. I imagine we'll need to get a girl to voice V, because women can sound like men a lot easier than a man can sound like a woman. I can't think of any good voice for Roy, though.

Also: is there any chance we'll be voicing SoD or OtOotPCs? (If we get permission, of course.)

[Cracklord]

So I just got finished reading 'Start of Darkness' today, and it gave me a little more insight as to how some of this ought to be done. Whoever it is doing Xykon is going to need to have something of a deep voice. Someone who can do a good Darth Vader impression, yet still be lightheartedly evil and irresponsible.

Redcloak... That's kind of a hard one. After seeing his very serious as hell origins, I kinda don't hear him as effete or anything anymore. Before I was hearing him kind of like Stewie, which is just a whole breed of odd, and didn't feel right. Now? I'm not sure WHAT I hear when I think of him. Most of them have voices when I read them, either in my head or aloud. Redcloak? Nada Voice.

So here's a question to keep the thread going while we hope Mr. Burlew looks at the lot of us and goes, "Sure! Do yer demo. Let's hear what you can do."

Who do you hear when you read these characters? Who would you cast in what role, to give us an idea what kind of type you hear when you read em. Aside from being fanciful, I'd love to hear what kinda voices you guys hear for these folks. That, at least, would give me an idea what direction I ought to keep in mind, casting-wise when and if this can get started.

And an open invitation to Mr. Burlew? Your input would be most paid heed to. Xykon's dialogue alone leads me to believe these people have specific sounds when you're writing em. Reader input is valuable. But nothing but nothing is as good as the creator's input on something like this. That and it'd be a hoot to hear who you think these folks sound like.

I do a good deep, sarcastic voice. Is that any good? Redcloak should be sort of semi-deep, immature sounding (Remember he is perpetually sixteen).

[WinterRose]

Shadow;6154875']I see Elan with a very childish, higher-pitched voice. Someone who can talk really fluently but still seems like sort of a moron. Haley, I just hear a woman's voice. Nothing real unique there. For some reason, I imagine Durkon as a more laid back Scottish Sean Connery. Don't ask me why. For Belkar, I imagine a sort of Merry/Pippen voice. It would a hilarious clash of voice and words. Vaarsuivius has an appropriately gender-neutral voice. I imagine we'll need to get a girl to voice V, because women can sound like men a lot easier than a man can sound like a woman. I can't think of any good voice for Roy, though.

Also: is there any chance we'll be voicing SoD or OtOotPCs? (If we get permission, of course.)

Oddly, the whole higher voiced thing is why I was kinda pining to do Belkar, Elan or even Vaarsuvius myself. I'm a higher ranged baritone, and as an occupational hazard, tend to get called Ma'am on the phone a lot. So if I pitch up a little, I go straight into androgynous-ville, voicewise. Just my normal tone of voice? I could hit Elan/Nale pretty easy. (must... overcome... aversion... to singing...) Belkar? Make it higher, but rough and a bit nasal with a whole lot of smartass and there ya go.

I totally hear a perky voice for Haley. Not World of Warcraft Halfling Perky. But a normal-voiced female in any range but contralto that just sounds pretty HAPPY to be a rogue, and that she'll be getting richer and richer while having a good time doing what she does.

Oddly enough... I DO hear a world of warcraft voice for Durkon. That 'Wha' can ah do f'r ye?" and "See ye soon." guy. Scots-ish instead of scottish.

For Roy? Actually I hear Winston Zeddmore as voiced by Arsenio Hall.

[Silverraptor]

Just let me know when it's time to try out for Shinjo's voice.:smallsmile:

[luneix]

Hello Everyone. This voice over thing sounds really good :smallbiggrin:, and if it gets around to the demo, I have some singing experience and a young sounding voice, so might be able to help with Elan.

Luneix

[ImmortalAer]

So I just got finished reading 'Start of Darkness' today, and it gave me a little more insight as to how some of this ought to be done. Whoever it is doing Xykon is going to need to have something of a deep voice. Someone who can do a good Darth Vader impression, yet still be lightheartedly evil and irresponsible.


*ding* You called? Hell, I can even do raspy for when he can't actually laugh diabolically. ...though I love evil laughter...