September 29, 2014 We all love and appreciate high quality voiceovers in our RPGs and graphic adventures. Gone are the days of "You were almost a Jill sandwich," and in its place are voiceovers from veteran voice actors such as Yuri Lowenthal or Jennifer Hale. With interactive entertainment becoming more cinematic, voiceovers have become more of a necessity than a nice added bonus. Even indie games sport professional quality voiceovers nowadays and provide a nice springboard to showcase up-and-coming talent. One of these rising stars is Jill Melancon, who gave a lively performance as Holiday, the lead character in Giant Spacekat's acclaimed debut, Revolution 60. We had a chance to speak with Ms. Melancon about her experiences as a voiceover artist, and here is what she had to say. Jill: I worked at my college radio station, and that led to a job at a large commercial radio station in Atlanta. As part of your job, you have to record commercials all the time... that's where it started. But also, when I was in second grade, a teacher asked me to record some short stories for the class because she liked my voice, LOL. Jill: VO: all of the actors from the Simpsons! Especially Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. They have such incredible range! Acting: all the badass women... especially Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies and Robin Wright in House of Cards. Jill: I like that word "spirited," LOL. I didn't know a lot of the story when we started... there wasn't a full script yet. When I auditioned, there weren't even lines to read — they gave me a description of each of the characters and told me to come up with some lines they might say. Holiday was described as having the attitude of Jane Shepard in Mass Effect, so that was where I started. I was a high school teacher for several years, and pulled on that "teacher" voice often! And I speak fluent sarcasm, so that part wasn't hard. :-) Jill: As I mentioned, when we started, I didn't have a full script. I would get the lines for a specific scene, and we would record that. I had been sent a visual image of Holiday before we recorded anything, so I knew what she looked like as a starting point. Occasionally, the developers would send me a finished scene to look at, which was really cool (and helpful for future sessions). Jill: As far as I know, everyone recorded in their home studios like I did. Giant SpaceKat is in the Boston area, and I'm down in Atlanta. The designers would schedule a Skype session with me, and I would record a few takes of each line and email them in separate files... they would then listen, evaluate, and either suggest changes, or we'd move on to the next line. We recorded in sections, spread out over a couple of years.

Advantages: scheduling was easier — they only had to deal with one actress' schedule at a time, instead of trying to find a time when all of us were free.

Disadvantages: you have no one to play off of. Occasionally, I'd have a sound file of the other person (if they had already recorded that scene) for a particularly dramatic scene to give me some idea of the level they were playing at so I could match it.

The hardest part for me was recording fight sounds — grunts, moans, screams — completely out of context! Jill: I can't really answer that question — I never worked directly with Amanda, since we were in different places, and I haven't seen her scenes. Jill: So glad to hear you enjoyed the game! Here's the irony... I don't own any Apple products and can't play my own game, LOL! Jill: Nothing as cool as this. I've done some commercials, some eLearning work (lots of medical terminology!), and some audiobooks. This was my first video game. Jill: Of course I'd love to do more video games — I have my fingers crossed for a sequel to Revolution 60. And my dream job would be a recurring character on a show like The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, or Archer. Jill: Be prepared to spend a lot of money (on training, on equipment, etc. — you have to invest in this just like you would in any other career), and a lot of time (we're talking years) before you ever make any money. A very small percentage of people can do the work full time (I don't, for example). Also, make sure you have a thick skin — you are gonna get rejected way more than you are gonna get hired. :-) Jill: I really hope everyone is enjoying the game — it was one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life, and I hope that comes across!