Graha Voice Actor Change?

[shoebilldreams]

I know 7.4 is the moving into the pre-next-expac era of the story, but it's still Dawntrail itself. Considering that when SE changed studios between ARR and HW, the old VAs stuck until 2.58 even though VAs from the new studio were already in the project (see: Aymeric), I don't think it'd happen until DT as an expansion is fully concluded with its patches. I imagine any contract renewal he signed covered all 7.x content.[/I]

My experience from the voice project (in the comment right above this one unless someone got a reply in) is that they record/plan in blocks. x.0 is a block, x.1 to x.3 is a block, and x.4 to x.55 is a block. It was a tremendous help in identifying "random Ishgardian soldier with one line" sort of characters when I could rule out a bunch of lads who otherwise weren't present in that block!

Who's to say if they've done exactly that in DT patches - Metem for example may have been recorded all at once in the 7.0 block - but it's how they usually operate.

[paradisea]

My experience from the voice project (in the comment right above this one unless someone got a reply in) is that they record/plan in blocks. x.0 is a block, x.1 to x.3 is a block, and x.4 to x.55 is a block. It was a tremendous help in identifying "random Ishgardian soldier with one line" sort of characters when I could rule out a bunch of lads who otherwise weren't present in that block!

Who's to say if they've done exactly that in DT patches - Metem for example may have been recorded all at once in the 7.0 block - but it's how they usually operate.

I understand this as I've used the good old "who was in the booth this cycle of patches" to figure out who's voiced some random minor character or a voiced boss fight. I, of course, also understand this because patches are recorded in advance but not years far in advance.

However, I would doubt that the way they record is necessarily the way contracts are written, otherwise there'd be way to many renewals to deal with every cycle and they'd be much more at risk of losing people between contracts, let alone dealing with delays in renegotiations when they need to keep the patch schedule going. What I personally imagine, which is of course speculation, is that they sign actors for full expansions, with the caveat that they'll be asked to come record in the established cycles. That would allow them to have steady contracts for roughly 2 year periods, which is much more stable.

That's my personal speculation based on my own area of work, but I'm not British and not familiar with British law or unions in the entertainment area.

[shoebilldreams]

However, I would doubt that the way they record is necessarily the way contracts are written, otherwise there'd be way to many renewals to deal with every cycle and they'd be much more at risk of losing people between contracts, let alone dealing with delays in renegotiations when they need to keep the patch schedule going. What I personally imagine, which is of course speculation, is that they sign actors for full expansions, with the caveat that they'll be asked to come record in the established cycles. That would allow them to have steady contracts for roughly 2 year periods, which is much more stable.

Voice acting for a one-off game? Yeah, it's possible to see a 2 year contract - you'd expect Ben Starr might have had a longer contract for FF16 because they knew the scope was going to run into the hundreds of hours.

But for something like this, the contract will be for the exact amount of studio time. So they'll know it's roughly 4 sessions of 4hrs for that character in X Expansion, for example, and they'll make a contract for that for the, say, one week those four sessions will take place. There'd usually be some stipulation for additional time, with a per hour rate, but we're talking a single extra session or running over by an hour or something. If they need the actor again, they'll set up a new contract when it's time.

A rolling contract would be considered too restrictive if it was challenged in court, because it would prevent the actor from taking other work (non-compete clauses are largely meaningless here, as are overly restrictive contracts that could prevent someone working) - being tied in to some maybe-date in 18 months' time for a single VO session preventing them from taking a six-month gig filming for TV or being in a play, for example.

Anyway that's probably far more detail than anybody needs, I just either know nothing about a subject or everything

[CosmosNovaRose]

Voice acting for a one-off game? Yeah, it's possible to see a 2 year contract - you'd expect Ben Starr might have had a longer contract for FF16 because they knew the scope was going to run into the hundreds of hours.

But for something like this, the contract will be for the exact amount of studio time. So they'll know it's roughly 4 sessions of 4hrs for that character in X Expansion, for example, and they'll make a contract for that for the, say, one week those four sessions will take place. There'd usually be some stipulation for additional time, with a per hour rate, but we're talking a single extra session or running over by an hour or something. If they need the actor again, they'll set up a new contract when it's time.

A rolling contract would be considered too restrictive if it was challenged in court, because it would prevent the actor from taking other work (non-compete clauses are largely meaningless here, as are overly restrictive contracts that could prevent someone working) - being tied in to some maybe-date in 18 months' time for a single VO session preventing them from taking a six-month gig filming for TV or being in a play, for example.

Anyway that's probably far more detail than anybody needs, I just either know nothing about a subject or everything

This is super insightful! Do you believe that it could have been a missed contract deadline for 7.4? Would this also mean that (assuming it's not Bailey) whoever voiced G'raha in 7.4 is going to voice him in 7.55? And would it be possible for Bailey to return for 8.0? Would it be possible for Bailey to send in re-recordings for 7.4 assuming they want to keep him and not the (hypothetical) new actor? Or is it the new actor's gig now?

[shoebilldreams]

This is super insightful! Do you believe that it could have been a missed contract deadline for 7.4? Would this also mean that (assuming it's not Bailey) whoever voiced G'raha in 7.4 is going to voice him in 7.55? And would it be possible for Bailey to return for 8.0? Would it be possible for Bailey to send in re-recordings for 7.4 assuming they want to keep him and not the (hypothetical) new actor? Or is it the new actor's gig now?

Honestly, if I had to speculate? I'd say recording for the x4-x5 block probably just clashed with him being the busiest man on the planet in the lead up to the Wicked release, so they got someone else to do it. They had all 3 other G'rahas available, so they wouldn't want to write him out - easier to swap the English voice out for the last block of 7.x. I see no reason why he couldn't come back for 8.0 if his schedule allows, assuming this was all just a scheduling issue. I explained in one of my other replies why it's unlikely he's just priced himself out of being in the game or something like that.

As for re-recording, it's possible - they re-recorded some Wuk Lamat lines, and even went back and re-recorded some 3.3 Asahi lines when they had the actor in for the 5.4-5.55 block! So they've got a history of going back to tidy lines up, but I suppose it depends how much he ends up saying in this block.

[KiraRavens]

My experience from the voice project (in the comment right above this one unless someone got a reply in) is that they record/plan in blocks. x.0 is a block, x.1 to x.3 is a block, and x.4 to x.55 is a block. It was a tremendous help in identifying "random Ishgardian soldier with one line" sort of characters when I could rule out a bunch of lads who otherwise weren't present in that block!

Who's to say if they've done exactly that in DT patches - Metem for example may have been recorded all at once in the 7.0 block - but it's how they usually operate.

I wrote my reply before reading this, but interesting to know