Voiceover Locations

[martyyahar]

I've been noticing nearly every form of media with story-based voice acting required (as opposed to just narration/ audiobooks/ industrials) is rare outside of Los Angeles (in regards to English stuff, of course).

But outside Los Angeles, is there anyplace that dubs all of the holy trinity? (The trinity being: cartoons, anime, and video games).

Anywho, i've compiled a cheat sheet of voiceover industry hotspots. Is any of it wrong or incomplete?

Key: Location (Company(s))- market

Calgary (Blue Water)- anime, cartoons, video games
Los Angeles (Sentai Filmworks)- anime, video games
Texas (Dallas/ Houston, both Funimation)- anime
Vancouver (Ocean)- anime, cartoons

and various animation companies using in-house actors for cartoons/ live-action dubbing (in Los Angeles).

Uncommonly/ Formerly:

Hong Kong (Animax Asia)- anime
London (Manga Entertainment)- anime
London (various companies)- video games
New York (NYAV Post, Central Park Media, 4Kids)- anime, cartoons, video games
Paris (AB Groupe)- cartoons, video games, very few anime
San Francisco (Berkeley Sound Artists)- video games
Singapore (Odex)- anime
Tokyo (various companies)- video games, very few anime

I also heard of Seattle and Toronto getting some work (beyond in-house cartoons for Toronto), but I really have no further info nor am I sure of this.

[Autovolt]

Toronto used to be used a lot more for video games and anime until recent years.

[martyyahar]

Interesting. Do you know the company(s)'s name(s)?

Also, I'm mainly doing this as an aspiring voice actor/ actor trying to figure out where to move to.

[Autovolt]

Originally Posted by martyyahar

Interesting. Do you know the company(s)'s name(s)?

Also, I'm mainly doing this as an aspiring voice actor/ actor trying to figure out where to move to.

Well there was Optimum Productions which was where the old Sailor Moon dub was recorded.

I don't know where DMV, USA is located in the states.

[Nightmare Crusher]

Okatron 5000, Chris Sabat's studio in Plano, Texas, does video games. Smite is probably the most well known.

[martyyahar]

Originally Posted by Autovolt

Well there was Optimum Productions which was where the old Sailor Moon dub was recorded.

I don't know where DMV, USA is located in the states.

The DMV is DC-Maryland-Virginia. I live in the Maryland Beltway area to be precise, so I'll just change it to that.

Also, thanks for the info so far.

@NightmareCrusher

Then it's settled. Dallas, here I go in some years.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Anime dubs are a non-industry compared to almost anything else. It's a tiny derivative of a foreign market - it's not really important to anyone who speaks English (besides fans of course).

LA is where everything big-name is done. New York is the non-union LA, so to speak. It's the next biggest US place besides LA, & it's where Kirbopher/Chris Niosi spent his training year. They do *tons & tons* of audiobooks, & even the prelay Western stuff over there was all non-union work. Dallas (& more importantly Austin) is a decent patch, but it's certainly not nearly as good as LA for the AAA character voice stuff. Anime dubs are done there because there's a lower standard/cost of living, & this keeps prices very low & rather enticing to anime companies like Toei etc., who want to keep prices for exports as low as possible so as not to cut into the main slice of the pie (aka Japan)

Get theater/acting training, then voice-over workshops, then once you are getting a steady stream of, say, public radio or other local promo jobs, move to New York, & if you can make a steady living & build strong connections with directors in New York, you can move to LA & join the union. It is obviously much more difficult than that, but that's more-or-less the path to doing it.

[martyyahar]

Originally Posted by huzaifa_ahmed

[...]Get theater/acting training, then voice-over workshops, then once you are getting a steady stream of, say, public radio or other local promo jobs, move to New York, & if you can make a steady living & build strong connections with directors in New York, you can move to LA & join the union. It is obviously much more difficult than that, but that's more-or-less the path to doing it.

I actually do some theater/ acting training at my college and I do plan to do minor/ unglamorous/ non-union work before moving to a real big city. I guess my problem was I thought I didn't have to move to Los Angeles to hit it big, because I saw so many actors stick with Texas (or so it seemed).

Anyhow, thanks for the advice, dude!

[SNaG]

Originally Posted by martyyahar

The DMV is DC-Maryland-Virginia. I live in the Maryland Beltway area to be precise, so I'll just change it to that.

Also, thanks for the info so far.

@NightmareCrusher

Then it's settled. Dallas, here I go in some years.

Lemme preface it with I'm just a guy, I don't know anything about you, nor do I have any intention of stomping on dreams.

But I'd like you to read this. Cynical but pretty thorough piece by Michael McConnohie.

If you're not annoyed at me for (maybe) raining on your parade, then I'll say something uplifting that you might hopefully like: rooting for you, good luck.