Alternative to VAA?

[Greeny]

You could say I'm a proponent of more voice acting in VNs, and I've already had the announcement made that my next project, In Orbit will have full voice acting. I'm planning to start auditions as soon as I finish one route completely.
There's just one problem... the Voice Acting Alliance.

[ cue Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, lightning strikes in the background ]

It's pretty much what everyone points to when talking about voice acting, but I have my doubts about it.
First of all, I've had a run-in with the moderatorship, which seems to be... uptight, to say it politely. I created an account there, and as an upstanding community member, proceeded to make a polite introductory post. Within 5 minutes, I was flagged as a "spambot" and permanently banned. No chance for appeal.

In case you're wondering: I'm not a spambot. Spamming is not among my programming routines.

Secondly, their terms for auditions seems to strictly enforce a "PG-13" rating, which seems awfully odd to me considering the field. From the sounds of it, going beyond not posting mature content, you're not even allowed to host auditions for projects which have what is vaguely defined as "questionble content".

I can only assume any attempt on my behalf to host auditions for my "rated Mature" project would result in another perma-ban.

I could go on to mention concerns about the reputation of the voice actors there, but I'm not here to slander. What I want to know is: What viable alternative places are there for hosting open auditions?
I don't know if enough voice actors frequent Lemma Soft to make an audition post in the Recruitment forum a viability. Although I've got one or two roles I'm prepared to pre-cast directly, from my connections, I'd like to avoid having to seek out the entire cast directly if possible, especially because I've got a number of rather difficult roles. That is to say, all of them.

[DaFool]

Hmmm, can't Ayu hook you up? Better have a ready team that works well together rather than scrambling people from all over the place and hoping they have the same bitrate settings.

[VAPMichaelaLaws]

Hello!!

Representative and Project Head of the online professional talent company, Voiceiyuu!

We have a range of voice acting talents available to hire on that have all been interviewed and approved for professional quality and skill. To name a few projects we are involved in, we have voice actors in:

• Seduce Me
• The Guardian's Spell
• Project Dualis

And the majority of the Voice Talents for Kendo Crush are also members of Voiceiyuu.

We have a thread on here so you can see more information if you would like to look into us =) We would love to work with you!
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 38&t=18878

-Michaela Laws

[sake-bento]

Are you planning on handling all the casting, direction, and actor management on your own, or are you looking for a casting director or group who can manage all of that for you?

Here's a bit of copy pasta from something I wrote in a previous thread:

If you're looking to hire off the internet for money, you can post at places like Voice123, Voices.com, and the newly created VoiceBunny. VoiceBunny is a little bit different from the others, but it's probably the fastest. You're likely to get better quality of acting and mic if you work off one of these sites, and actors tend to be more reliable here. For 10,000 words, a (very rough, very low) estimate would be $500-1000 for an efficient actor.

The last option is finding a casting director. They will find and manage your actors for you, and make everything work together. Potentially more expensive than using a casting website, since you're paying someone to do the hard parts, but probably the best in between if you're looking for a good sound and a low cost. To be completely honest, all of these online casting groups basically pull from the same talent pool, so picking one is just a matter of negotiating cost and figuring out which casting director you like the most. To the best of my knowledge, these groups offer casting ONLY - not direction. You'd still be tasked with handling that part on your own.

Here are the ones I know of who work with VNs:

IUCasting - My casting group. I'm a jerk and I put this at the top of the list. >___> I've done fully voiced games for sakevisual as well as battle voices for Winter Wolves and Nekomura Games.

Voiceyuu - A nice group that does a lot to promote and encourage their voice actors, including interviews, contests, and other things. LSF games they're involved with include Seduce Me and The Guardian's Spell.

Asynja Casting - Another group that's done a lot of VN stuff. LSF games they're involved with include Pyrite Heart and Icebound.

If you're thinking to handle this all on your own, a LemmaSoft thread will probably suffice. The voice acting community is very small, and good looking projects are often passed around within that circle. Zeiva did this recently with success, and I think Samu-kun did this with Sunrider, also with success.

[Angie]

First of all, I've had a run-in with the moderatorship, which seems to be... uptight, to say it politely. I created an account there, and as an upstanding community member, proceeded to make a polite introductory post. Within 5 minutes, I was flagged as a "spambot" and permanently banned. No chance for appeal.

That's indeed weird - doesn't sites have the 'warning' system?

[Greeny]

[ Greeny swivels chair, turns to face Ayu and Voiceiyuu ]

"I've been expecting you."

[ cue Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, lightning strikes in the background ]

Are you planning on handling all the casting, direction, and actor management on your own, or are you looking for a casting director or group who can manage all of that for you?

Yes, I'm really rather specifically looking for viable options for handling auditions and management myself. Gliese Productions is intending to handle more voice-acted projects in the future, so I think there's a great benefit in learning these aspects myself.

In addition, while it may seem on the surface my primary skills are either Writing or Programming, I'm actually hoping to become primarily a Project Manager and Director myself, so dealing with the voice actors more directly is important to me. I do have some minor experience with acting, so I can probably translate that into directing for voice actors.

Thank you for the tips, especially

If you're thinking to handle this all on your own, a LemmaSoft thread will probably suffice. The voice acting community is very small, and good looking projects are often passed around within that circle. Zeiva did this recently with success, and I think Samu-kun did this with Sunrider, also with success.

It really makes a big difference to me knowing this has worked out in the past.

That's indeed weird - doesn't sites have the 'warning' system?

I think robots don't get warnings. They're treated as second-class citizens. It's pure racism.

[Angie]

I think robots don't get warnings. They're treated as second-class citizens. It's pure racism.

Well, I would say something wrong with the site. When they qualify human beings as robots... there certainly is something wrong o0

It just really shocked me, to be honest. I believe you couldn't write anything that would make you look like robot or second-class citizen...

[Greeny]

The proof is in the pudding.

[Shoko]

The Voice Actor's Club sounds good for you. They allow mature projects as long as the audition thread is worksafe.

[Greeny]

The Voice Actor's Club sounds good for you. They allow mature projects as long as the audition thread is worksafe.

Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks a bunch!

[KiloTango]

For what it's worth, that message looks like the result of an auto-filter going wrong or something. It might be worth getting in touch with the admins and asking what caused them to flag you as a spambot.

[Greeny]

No, it was definitely a moderator's doing. There was a moderator browsing the board just as I was banned. And I tried to get in contact with them, but recieved no response.

[Mad Harlequin]

This is making me reconsider becoming active on VAA again . . . and just when I thought I had enough courage for it.

I had an account there ages ago to try to get myself some experience. I didn't meet with any success, but I made and lost a friend there (it's a long and painful story; I doubt anyone needs to hear it). After that happened I couldn't operate on the forum without feeling hurt.

Greeny, could it be possible somebody mistook you for a previously banned troll or something?

[Greeny]

This is making me reconsider becoming active on VAA again . . . and just when I thought I had enough courage for it. :(

I had an account there ages ago to try to get myself some experience. I didn't meet with any success, but I made and lost a friend there (it's a long and painful story; I doubt anyone needs to hear it). After that happened I couldn't operate on the forum without feeling hurt.

Greeny, could it be possible somebody mistook you for a previously banned troll or something?

I hope I'm not responsible for costing you an opportunity or anything...

Anyways, I don't think it would say "spambot" if it was for seeming like a troll. Also, how could a magnificent individual such as myself ever get mistaken for a troll?

[Angie]

Anyways, I don't think it would say "spambot" if it was for seeming like a troll. Also, how could a magnificent individual such as myself ever get mistaken for a troll?

Isn't getting mistaken for a robot worse?

I agree with Harlequin, though. They could make a hasty decision (and maybe they already regret throwing out such magnificent individual so easily).