Why is Michael Hollick (voice of Niko Bellic) Unhappy?

[QUOTE="bobaban"]He should have read his contract.CPM_basic

Agreed. It's his own fault for not reading it. Now he's just playing cry baby. No one likes a cry baby. Good luck getting hired now you wanker.... $100k in 15 months for talking into a microphone.....

I'd have asked for a million!

The guy started the job doing the mo-cap for Nikko then they hired him to do the voice also. Rockstar didnt even tell him he was doing mo-cap for GTAIV until 2-3 weeks after he was hired.(they told him the game was called Frozen or something)

The guy started the job doing the mo-cap for Nikko then they hired him to do the voice also. Rockstar didnt even tell him he was doing mo-cap for GTAIV until 2-3 weeks after he was hired.(they told him the game was called Frozen or something)

7thSIN

Mocap work is just as hard (or easy) as voice actor work. Again, the devs do about 99% of the work, the actors are easily replaceable and are already overpaid as it is.

[QUOTE="7thSIN"]

The guy started the job doing the mo-cap for Nikko then they hired him to do the voice also. Rockstar didnt even tell him he was doing mo-cap for GTAIV until 2-3 weeks after he was hired.(they told him the game was called Frozen or something)

-Wheels-

Mocap work is just as hard (or easy) as voice actor work. Again, the devs do about 99% of the work, the actors are easily replaceable and are already overpaid as it is.

The guy did voice and mo-cap for 1 year and 8 months, 100k isnt much for almost 2 years worth of work on such a high profile project.

[QUOTE="-Wheels-"][QUOTE="7thSIN"]

The guy started the job doing the mo-cap for Nikko then they hired him to do the voice also. Rockstar didnt even tell him he was doing mo-cap for GTAIV until 2-3 weeks after he was hired.(they told him the game was called Frozen or something)

7thSIN

Mocap work is just as hard (or easy) as voice actor work. Again, the devs do about 99% of the work, the actors are easily replaceable and are already overpaid as it is.

The guy did voice and mo-cap for 1 year and 8 months, 100k isnt much for almost 2 years worth of work on such a high profile project.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't 8 hours a day of mo-cap, it takes about as long to record mo-cap data as it does to voice act some lines. And the mo-cap data is intensively cleaned up and re-done by animators, thousands upon thousands of animations for every character in the game for multiple years. This guy got paid adiquately, trust me, he got paid more for doing less work. He doesn't need more. I'll keep saying it.

100K for 15 months is NOT a lot of money.

The game made millions and millions of dollars.

The guy did voice and mo-cap for 1 year and 8 months, 100k isnt much for almost 2 years worth of work on such a high profile project. 7thSIN

Considering the work-load, it is. It's not difficult to do voice work. It really isn't.

Motion-capture? Please.

100K for 15 months is NOT a lot of money.

The game made millions and millions of dollars.

kingman03

That doesn't mean his workload actually warranted more money than what he got. In fact, it could be argued that he got more than was truely required for his labor.

The guy is good enough to be on broadway, the guy has talent, although not superstar talent. My buddy went to college and got a four year degree in computer science at an average college and pulls in 125k per year and probably does less work. The pay just doesnt seem right, even if hes a B list actor.7thSIN

Ok, a degree in computer science is insanely broad. Making games is not a cake walk, the average career for a programmer is 6 years because the work is just that stressful. And there's no way after 4 years at an average college he's even working at a game company unless he put many hours of his own time in on the side.

Michael Hollick is just a greedy bastard crying that he didn't get more than he was owed because the game he was in went on to become the bestselling game ever.Ket87

He's not whining to Rockstar. Many people have that conception, and they're wrong. Rockstar paid him as they paid most voice-actors, and those parameters were well-established. He's whining to the Screen Actors Guild.

The issue isn't how difficult it is compared to the jobs of others in the industry. After all, voice actors for cartoons and animated films don't have a job that's any more difficult, and they get residuals. So what makes videogame voice actors so different? Considering actors in every other medium tend to get some sort of residual, doesn't it make sense that he expects the group he is a part of to deliver similar benefits for videogame voice work?

He is a ****ing disgrace to the people that spend days, months, and years putting the game together. He spends about 2 days and he's out. Now he wants a bigger cut then everyone on the team. **** him! If he gets even a penny more because of this I'm gonna be pissed off.-Wheels-

He spent 15 months, not 2 days.

You guys clearly have NO idea what goes into becoming a good voice actor.

The second you can put out a better performance than he did, you can insult his work, since you can't, shut up and give the man his due.

[QUOTE="7thSIN"]The guy did voice and mo-cap for 1 year and 8 months, 100k isnt much for almost 2 years worth of work on such a high profile project. Pariah_001

Considering the work-load, it is. It's not difficult to do voice work. It really isn't.

You ever done any professional voice work? Taken the voice lessons and all? Didn't think so.

This entire thread is people ripping into voice actors, well, until you learn what actually goes into putting out a believable performance, stop attempting to judge. I'll give you a hint: You don't just show up and read a script.

[QUOTE="-Wheels-"]He is a ****ing disgrace to the people that spend days, months, and years putting the game together. He spends about 2 days and he's out. Now he wants a bigger cut then everyone on the team. **** him! If he gets even a penny more because of this I'm gonna be pissed off.Andrew_Xavier

He spent 15 months, not 2 days.

You guys clearly have NO idea what goes into becoming a good voice actor.

The second you can put out a better performance than he did, you can insult his work, since you can't, shut up and give the man his due.

[QUOTE="7thSIN"]The guy did voice and mo-cap for 1 year and 8 months, 100k isnt much for almost 2 years worth of work on such a high profile project. Pariah_001

Considering the work-load, it is. It's not difficult to do voice work. It really isn't.

You ever done any professional voice work? Taken the voice lessons and all? Didn't think so.

This entire thread is people ripping into voice actors, well, until you learn what actually goes into putting out a believable performance, stop attempting to judge. I'll give you a hint: You don't just show up and read a script.

Your probably wasting your breath. Most people here seem to think vioce acting is just some cake walk.

Your probably wasting your breath. Most people here seem to think vioce acting is just some cake walk.

Marka1700

They should try to do it. Once. And make sure to have professional casting agents there to tell them how awful they did, and how much work they'd need to put in to even do low level work.

I'd bet the same people who are insulting voice actors, feel they could walk into Stratford tomorrow and pull off a critically acclaimed Shakespeare stage performance as well.

He spent 15 months, not 2 days.

You guys clearly have NO idea what goes into becoming a good voice actor.

The second you can put out a better performance than he did, you can insult his work, since you can't, shut up and give the man his due.Andrew_Xavier

Pot. Meet kettle. According to your logic, you have no idea what his "due" is. So please keep your self-righteousness to yourself.

You ever done any professional voice work? Taken the voice lessons and all? Didn't think so.Andrew_Xavier

Actually. Yes I have. My brother is in the business of capturing sound and filtering voices into dubbing buffers. I've gotten to sit in on these things while people were doing voice-work behind the glass. It is not that difficult. Over-estimating the influence of "voice lessons" won't get you very far. Even Hollywood actors who're being recruited for cartoons more and more nowadays don't have to go through "voice lessons." Most people just wing it according to what the sound workers tell them to say in whatever way they ask. Even people who get lessons have to do a lot of different takes anyway. In the end, a unique voice is oft times more desired than a trained one. Billy West and the guy who does Homer Simpson are certainly skilled, but it's not as if all that practice will give them the ability to sound like Clooney or Pullman.

What exactly do you think earns him residuals? An accent? Please. I could do one even better than he did.

This entire thread is people ripping into voice actors, well, until you learn what actually goes into putting out a believable performance, stop attempting to judge. I'll give you a hint: You don't just show up and read a script.Andrew_Xavier

Yeah, you do actually. Whatever periphery elements required after reading do not warrant a 100k+ paycheck let alone residuals.

The issue isn't how difficult it is compared to the jobs of others in the industry. After all, voice actors for cartoons and animated films don't have a job that's any more difficult, and they get residuals. So what makes videogame voice actors so different? Considering actors in every other medium tend to get some sort of residual, doesn't it make sense that he expects the group he is a part of to deliver similar benefits for videogame voice work? sonicmj1

As was pointed out a couple times before: It's more logical to assert that the Screen Actors Guild is unreasonable in its demands for royalties rather than to say that Hollick is simply being treated unfairly.

He also did Mo-cap and facial mo-cap. It's not just speaking into a microphone.

So yea it is difficult, you have to stay perfectly still yet somehow keep your eyes on the output monitor and the script at the same time as looking at the camera.

Theres a radio interveiw floating around GT where he explains what went into making the game. Including the lapdance mo-cap ;)

[QUOTE="7thSIN"]The guy is good enough to be on broadway, the guy has talent, although not superstar talent. My buddy went to college and got a four year degree in computer science at an average college and pulls in 125k per year and probably does less work. The pay just doesnt seem right, even if hes a B list actor.-Wheels-

Ok, a degree in computer science is insanely broad. Making games is not a cake walk, the average career for a programmer is 6 years because the work is just that stressful. And there's no way after 4 years at an average college he's even working at a game company unless he put many hours of his own time in on the side.

He doesnt work for a game company, he works for the gov't in Baltimore.

he should have thought about this before (or his agents should have)

GTA wasn't an unknown franchise .. everyone knew it'd do well and make a load of money

[QUOTE="Stumpt25"]Niko Bellic's voice acting sucked... if anything, he should be paying 2K for allowing him to be in such a good game...stephant_6

I need to know what happened! Give me that!

STOP!

he's been the best GTA protagonist to date, a flawed jewel of absolute gritty perfection!!!

[QUOTE="stephant_6"]

[QUOTE="Stumpt25"]Niko Bellic's voice acting sucked... if anything, he should be paying 2K for allowing him to be in such a good game...ImOldGreg

I need to know what happened! Give me that!

STOP!

he's been the best GTA protagonist to date, a flawed jewel of absolute gritty perfection!!!

I've done this before. When they call you to cast you, you dont know what the heck is going on. You get a contract, and a game Tentative title. thats it. You dont know if the game/cartoon is going to bomb (such as Freakazoid). All you can hope is for some money to bring home and publicity for yourself so you can get more work. I have never been paid that much, he is lucky.MegaTyX

Pot. Meet kettle. According to your logic, you have no idea what his "due" is. So please keep your self-righteousness to yourself.

Pariah_001

"Pot. Meet kettle" implys that I have no knowledge of what it takes to be a professional voice talent. That is simply incorrect. Had you done about 12 seconds of research, you'd realize I come from a place of actually understand voice work. Not "my brother's friend's cousin works in audio engineering, actual experience, with the voice lessons and all.

From my blog, march 27th, so you don't assume I'm making that up to make my point:

1. I do voice work professionally, yup, not joking, I'll get on mic/skype/anything with any of you at any time to prove the ridiculous amount of accents/voices/etc I can pull off. I've had training and all, pays for school Now, before you take that out of context, I've never done any *major* projects, like movies that have been in theatres, major video games, cartoons that are on tv, etc, but, I've certain done a bunch of small stuff

Claiming voice work is easy, means you have zero understanding of it. Period. VERY FEW people are talented enough to do good voice work, and even naturals go through years of training, if it was so easy, why aren't you doing it?

Even Hollywood actors who're being recruited for cartoons more and more nowadays don't have to go through "voice lessons."Pariah_001

Yeah, they only go through years of acting training/some form of education in acting/years of real life acting experience, nothing at all really.

This guy is a bloody idiot.

Greedy jerk, go tell it to the people who can't even afford a game console.

I dont get this, the success of the game was not dependant on the work of the voice actor, so why should he get any royalties? Its not as if gamers are buying GTA IV because Michael Hollick is voicing the main character....

I also highly doubt he could have gotten royalties added to his contract if he had known he was working on GTA IV. If he insisted on it they would have just gone with a different voice actor.

I dont get this, the success of the game was not dependant on the work of the voice actor, so why should he get any royalties? Its not as if gamers are buying GTA IV because Michael Hollick is voicing the main character....

I also highly doubt he could have gotten royalties added to his contract if he had known he was working on GTA IV. If he insisted on it they would have just gone with a different voice actor.

Philmon

So, GTA would have sold as much as it did, and received the insanely high critical praise, if the voice acting was awful?

"Pot. Meet kettle" implys that I have no knowledge of what it takes to be a professional voice talent. That is simply incorrect. Had you done about 12 seconds of research, you'd realize I come from a place of actually understand voice work. Not "my brother's friend's cousin works in audio engineering, actual experience, with the voice lessons and all.

From my blog, march 27th, so you don't assume I'm making that up to make my point:

1. I do voice work professionally, yup, not joking, I'll get on mic/skype/anything with any of you at any time to prove the ridiculous amount of accents/voices/etc I can pull off. I've had training and all, pays for school Now, before you take that out of context, I've never done any *major* projects, like movies that have been in theatres, major video games, cartoons that are on tv, etc, but, I've certain done a bunch of small stuff

Claiming voice work is easy, means you have zero understanding of it. Period. VERY FEW people are talented enough to do good voice work, and even naturals go through years of training, if it was so easy, why aren't you doing it? Andrew_Xavier

Uuuuuuhhhh---Yeah, if you can automatically blanket statement everyone as not having any experience in the voice-over business with your opening post then it's just as easy for me not to acknowledge its lack of credibility. I realize it's extraordinarily easy for your to over-estimate every job description so as to make an ad hominem argument and just feel justified in your entire assertion, but that doesn't exactly make up for your lack of personal credibility.

It's not "my brother's friend's cousin" who works in voice editing. It's my brother. In the end, no matter how trained the voice is, he has to filter and cycle through many many hours of botched lines on the part of those "learned" voice actors to clean up their final presentation in the dub. If every single voice actor requires that his/her performance be cleaned up through many hours of filtering, your attempt to point out the importance of their training is for naught.

And In this context, "pot, meet kettle" has to do with your knowledge of Hollick's individual experience during this particular, not voice work in general. You were trying to make a point on what he individually deserves.

As for why I'm not voice-acting, well, lets just say not all of them are paid 100K for their performances.

Yeah, they only go through years of acting training/some form of education in acting/years of real life acting experience, nothing at all really.Andrew_Xavier

Yep. In the case of voice-acting, it's the final cut as carried out by the sound managers that make the bulk of the cuts sound good. The actors just along for the ride to look (or "sound" I should say) pretty after days and days of editing.

I think he should have gotten paid more. Voice actors for 2 hour long movies (animated) could get 10 Million plus. He did way more than that for a game that would rake in money and all he gets is 100K?! Also, the devs always get less, just like movie animators. That's just custom, probably because you don't directly see or hear the animator/dev. Sad, though, but it's true.WINDWAKER1

I don't know of ANY actor that got paid for 10 Million+ for a movie, but even so, they would get paid that much because they are worth it! They will increase sales because its them! Otherwords, they are ALREADY famous.

Did ANYONE know this guys name before the game came out? Let alone before he complained? Was ANYONE debating getting this game until they found it he was doing the voice? I doubt it. You could have had Pauly Shore do the voice and it would have sold the same.

He didn't get royalties because he simply wasn't worth it. He was hired for a job and he did it.

[QUOTE="Philmon"]

I dont get this, the success of the game was not dependant on the work of the voice actor, so why should he get any royalties? Its not as if gamers are buying GTA IV because Michael Hollick is voicing the main character....

I also highly doubt he could have gotten royalties added to his contract if he had known he was working on GTA IV. If he insisted on it they would have just gone with a different voice actor.

Andrew_Xavier

So, GTA would have sold as much as it did, and received the insanely high critical praise, if the voice acting was awful?

No, if it was awful, it would be the producer/director's fault. Fact is, there are thousands of people that could have done the job. He what he was SUPPOSED to do and AGREED to do: his job.

If he didn't do it, the game would have went on with someone just as good and no one would have blinked.