The Legend of Xanadu Dub Project - Auditions Wanted

[SamIAm]

You might not know it if you haven’t been hanging around the PCEFX forums, but following our translation of the PC-FX's only shooter Zeroigar, elmer and I have been hard at work over the past year on simultaneously translating two PC Engine CD ARPGs by Nihon Falcom, The Legend of Xanadu and The Legend of Xanadu II.

Well, there is exciting news: we're essentially finished. All of the hacking, translating, editing and graphical work is done, and it looks great. There is one more big task that remains, however, and that’s making an English dub for the voiced parts (Japanese versions on youtube here and here).

Would you be interested in lending your voice to these fantastic games? Do you know anyone else who might be? Please have a look at our character list page, where you'll find everything you need to audition. There are roughly fifty parts to fill, some large, some small, and we’re going to need a broad cast of actors to pull this off. When we do, though, it’s going to be something really special.

Links:

The character list

An introduction to The Legend of Xanadu

Screenshots of the translations

A basic intro for non-gamers, to show to your Great Aunt Formaldehyde to convince her to audition

The dub-scripts are 100% finished, and the audio project files are completely set up with BGM, sound effects, and every clip-position marked. Literally the only thing left to do is copy and paste a few hundred clips after people get them recorded and sent to us.

The initial casting period will end May 19th. Feel free to ask any questions. We hope to hear from you soon!

(Oh, and subtitles are impossible due to hardware resource constraints, by the way. The tentative plan is to also release the scripts in case people don’t want to use the dub.)

[FinalBaton]

That's one awesome project, good luck to you guys!

I think on the 'character list' page, you should put timecodes(start time and end time of the line or block of dialogue, in reference to one of the 2 jap dialogue vids you guys compiled) next to each line/block of dialogue. That way people can hear and see the japanese counterpart of each line, know how long the line has to be, and get an even better feel of the context!

Just a suggestion

Eh I might try my hand at this myself

[elmer]

I think on the 'character list' page, you should put timecodes(start time and end time of the line or block of dialogue, in reference to one of the 2 jap dialogue vids you guys compiled) next to each line/block of dialogue. That way people can hear and see the japanese counterpart of each line, know how long the line has to be, and get an even better feel of the context!

That may well be a good idea ... thanks for suggesting it!

I'm sure that SamIAm will seriously consider adding that information when he wakes up tomorrow (he's on Japanese time).

As for the length of each audition line ... that's already on the "Character List" page, isn't it?

I'm sure that more context would be nice ... but I'm not really sure just how much useful context you're going to get for a line-or-two audition without seeing the full script, unless you actually understand Japanese and can follow what the other characters are saying in the video.

Even with the script, I had a tough time following some of the fast back-and-forth in the cutscene videos, and that's after spending over a year working on the game, and knowing the story inside-and-out!

[FinalBaton]

Yeah those are good points. My suggestion doesn't seem that useful now that I think about it.
Hadn't seen the audition lines' durations on the page

[SamIAm]

Yeah, I thought about adding youtube links, but the problem is that don't want people to get too hung up on how the Japanese voices sound. For one thing, it might put people off from even trying to audition because they're afraid that they don't sound exactly the same, and for another, it might influence some to copy the Japanese intonation and performance styles when what we really need is for people to create their own.

Anyway, don't hesitate to audition! The more, the merrier!

And thanks for the encouragement.

[EmperorIng]

I've been eagerly awaiting this for some time. I hope you guys get lots of good auditions!

I assume you've hit up some of the larger sites that have collections or sub-boards of voice-actors?

[SamIAm]

Thanks!

There have got to be places I don't know about. Did you have any particular place in mind?

[cj iwakura]

Thanks!

There have got to be places I don't know about. Did you have any particular place in mind?

Voice Acting Alliance is pretty much THE go-to place, though quality may vary.
http://voiceactingalliance.com/

That's how I got the Shikigami dub done. (Just have to release it...)

[elmer]

Thanks!
There have got to be places I don't know about. Did you have any particular place in mind?

Voice Acting Alliance is pretty much THE go-to place, though quality may vary.
http://voiceactingalliance.com/

Thanks for the tip!

Yep, we were going to try them, but I heard that their site had been hacked, and when I go there, FireFox pops up a message ...

Deceptive Site!

This web page at voiceactingalliance.com has been reported as a deceptive site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.

And I've not been brave-enough to ignore the warning, yet.