Behind-the-scenes voice recording for Mafia II
- By Elizabeth Tobey
- 2K Games
- Sr Manager, Interactive Marketing
- |
- Wed Aug 25, 2010
Jack Scalici, Director of Creative Production at 2K Games, spent a significant amount of time over the past couple years in recording studios for Mafia II helping capture the amazing voice work you hear in Empire Bay. It's not often you get to see clips of what goes on during those recording sessions, but today I have a small snippet for you from behind-the-scenes. You may recognize this voice from the radio broadcasts in Mafia II - it's the voice from one of the game's DJs.
Here are some pieces of trivia, straight from Jack, about this recording session:
- The actor's name is Jim Thorton. He's a professional DJ on an AM radio station in LA, a 50's buff, and is one of the best voice actors I've worked with on any project.
- That old school ribbon mic he's speaking into is his and he brought it to the session. It required some non-standard connectors to get it working with the modern equipment. The audio you hear in the movie was recorded directly from that mic. The modern mic we used for all non-DJ characters in the game can be seen directly behind it. The smoking jacket and the old glasses he's wearing are also his.
- Jim is smoking an unlit cigarette because the studio had just renovated that voiceover booth and they didn't want us stinking up the place. For anyone who doesn't know, the walls of VO booths are lined with cloth.
- Jim's whiskey glass is filled with apple juice. We ran out of whiskey the night before.
- Jim's character, radio host Gary Stevens, is Empire Bay's champion of morality and traditional values. He urges its citizens to resist the evils of rock 'n roll.
- We sometimes recorded for up to 16 hours a day. This particular recording session with Jim ended at midnight.
- We normally don't record video of actors who portray characters you'll never meet in the game (Gary Stevens is just a voice on your radio) but Jim got so into his character that I decided to film the performance so I could show the guys over at 2K Czech. This was filmed at 1080p. I added the old newsreel effects afterwards.
