Wazzup PIlipinas!
World-class athletes, world-class performers, world-class beauties – this is what Filipinos have proven so far with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Lea Salonga, and Pia Wurtzbach, just to name a few. These celebrities have conquered international stages (and boxing rings, for that matter) to show the world how much talent and potential our country possesses.
But not all world-class Filipino talents always get the limelight, especially in front of the camera. Sometimes, these talents come in the form of recorded voices from the recording booth, masked behind characters in commercials, animation, foreign films and soap opera, telephony systems, mobile applications, GPS, and even video games.
And that’s us, voice artists.
We are the anonymous voices behind the famous cartoon characters, Koreanovela stars, anime, and many more. You may have bumped into us at the mall, or stood in line behind us in the cinema, and you didn’t have any idea that we were the voice of the commercial you just heard, or the movie trailer you have just seen, or the video game you have just played.
If you have gone to any arcade and played the famous game “Transformers: Human Alliance,” I’ll let you in on a secret – the voices you hear in that video game are voices of your kababayans.
When I built my voiceover company, Creativoices Productions, I had a vision that the Philippines will become the center of voiceover excellence in Asia. I believe that we have skills and talents that are truly world-class, and Filipino voiceover artists are no exception. That’s why in 2008, I took the opportunity to present my company’s talent pool to SEGA Games, and long story short, I was able to close the deal for my company to do the voices of several of their games – Harley Davidson King of the Road, Golden Gun, Operation Ghost, and Transformers: Human Alliance.
I directed the handful of voice artists who took hundreds of hours inside the recording booth to bring to life the characters in those SEGA arcade games. We recorded tens of thousands of lines, reactions and expressions, everything the characters would say for every button you could possibly press during the game. The end result is an enjoyable (and somewhat addictive) gaming experience for kids of all ages.
In the last decade, the voice acting industry has gotten bigger and bigger in the Philippines. The Philippines has been known to be a good English-speaking country, and we have a far more neutral accent than most of our Asian counterparts, which makes us a preferred choice when it comes to English voiceover projects.
But more than just our English speaking skills, I believe that the voice acting industry in the Philippines grew not because of the demand for Filipino voice artists, but because of the SUPPLY. And I would claim my stake that it is through my school, the Philippine Center for Voice Acting, that the standards of voice acting in the country was raised to a level that can be truly considered world-class. We have produced hundreds of voice artists that now thrive in the industry, voicing for commercials, dubbing, corporate videos, e-learning materials, mobile apps, video games, audiobooks and many more. My school also opened the doors of the voice acting industry to those who aspire to be part of it.
And just a shameless plug… if you would like to learn how to become a Filipino voice artist, grab your copy of my book, “Gusto Kong Maging Voice Talent,” now available in all leading bookstores nationwide!
The impact I have made in the industry was even recognized by international voiceover organizations. I was the only Filipino/Asian panelist who was invited to the Voiceover International Creative Experience (VOICE) Convention in Anaheim, California, in 2012. And just recently, Voiceover Herald – the leading online source for voiceover news – recognized my contributions to the industry and did a feature about me on their website.
I am so proud of my SEGA voiceover team, and I believe they deserve the recognition for the pride they have brought to our country. Below are clips from some of our recording sessions, just to put a face behind the voices. Watch and see them in action… and if you can’t call it “world-class,” then I don’t know what is.
Contributed by: Pocholo “The VoiceMaster” Gonzales
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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