Last Friday, March 17th, 2006, I went to an audition to be a voice over artist for a video game company. The company is called Mad Doc Software and they are located in Wilmington, MA. This was a real fun audition since it was not the standard film or theater audition that I am used too. I signed a NDA so I can’t talk about the game I was reading for but I can talk about what the audition was like.

When I arrived at the office it looked like the standard high tech corporate office that you could see anywhere, including high end card reader security. There was one major difference that was immediately apparent; the lights where all shut off. The only thing lighting the main cubicle area was the glowing loving warmth of computer monitors. I am a programmer also so I felt right at home. I was escorted to the guy running the audition by a young man in a concert t-shirt and jeans, this place was laid back, just the type of place I would want to work for. I was considering giving them my computer programming resume as well, but thought better of it. My new purpose in life is to try and do less and less computer work and more and more acting. I am down to 16 hours of computer work a week.

The guy running the audition is named Scott and he is the sound engineer for the company. We talked for awhile about computer games and what the company does. I used to play lots and lots of video games before I started my acting journey so I was in my element. On their website you can see that they have made some nice expansion packs for big games like Empire Earth II and Dungeon Siege. Next I went into a room that was set up as a sound booth where I found a microphone and a headset. It was set up so that he could speak to me through the headset and could hear what I was speaking through the mic in the next room. In front of me was a music stand with some dialog and some drawings of the characters they wanted me to read for. We did some sound tests and then I was ready to roll.

I looked at the character portrait, read the sample dialog and then came up with a character voice that seemed to fit. I was instructed to read each line twice and then move on to the next character. This was a lot of fun coming up with different voices, and even though I was not being watched and only my voice mattered I ended making lots of movements and gestures as I did the audition. I probably looked like a crazy person but I feel this helped me create emotion and excitement in my voice. After reading for about 8 characters the audition was over. Now I have to wait till June before I hear anything back. I really hope I get this gig because even though I am not playing computer games very often these days, I still have fond memories staying up all night playing some of my favorite games. It would be cool combining two of my favorite things, acting and games.

‘Tis all for now.

Tags: Empire Earth II, Dungeon Siege, Audition, Voice Over Artist, Mad Doc Software, Computer Programmer