Mark Estdale

Mark Estdale
Origin Sheffield, England
Genres Electronic
Occupation(s) CEO of Outsource Media
Voice actor
Vocal Director
Casting Director
Sound engineer
Instruments Drums, mixing
Years active 1984-1988 (music)
1994-present (video games)
Labels Native Records
Associated acts Chain, The Box, In The Nursery
Website www.OMUK.com

Mark Estdale is a British voice director, sound engineer, voice actor, and casting director. In the 1980s he worked as a sound engineer for musicians such as The Box, UV PØP, and industrial band In The Nursery. He co-founded the electronic band Chains with Peter Hope, which in 1986 released a single on Native Records.[1] In the 1990s Estdale began working on video games, and is well known in the industry for founding the voice production company Outsource Media in 1996.[2] As casting and voice director he's worked on over five hundred video games since 1995, including titles such as TimeSplitters 2, J K Rowling's Book of Spells, Clive Barker's Jericho and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.[3]

Music career

Estdale first started a career in music in the late 1970s. In 1984 he engineered the album Muscle In by the new wave band The Box. He also engineered Murmur by Sheffield industrial band Hula. From 1985 to 1988 he worked as either co-producer or sound engineer for a multitude of albums, including another release by The Box, two more releases by Hula, two releases by UV PØP, an album by the Lo-Fi and experimental band Toxic Shock, an album by jazz pianist John Avery, and three releases by industrial band In The Nursery.[1]

In 1986 Estdale co-founded the electronic band Chain with Peter Hope. The band released their debut single, "Banging on the House / Chains," in February 1986 on Native Records. Estdale co-wrote and programmed both tracks, also providing drums and co-producing with Hope.[1]

Video game career

in 1995 Estdale was hired as the voice recording engineer for the video game [2] Touche: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer for US Gold. After which he began working almost exclusively within the video games.[3] He worked as the recording engineer for GT Racers that same year, and in 1996 directed Happy Birthday Maisy and Gloriana.[3]

Outsource Media

In 1996, Estdale founded Outsource Media, a specialist voice production and dialogue company in Sheffield.[2] In 1998 Estdale began serving as a voice casting director, starting with OverBlood 2, for which he was also a voice actor. That same year he was both casting and vocal director for Incoming and Extreme-G 2.[3]

Estdale stated that the company was originally created as a lifestyle business to make sure he had time with his children, and because he found video game dialogue a creative challenge. After 2002, however, he focused on the company more intently, and it underwent significant growth.[4] The company currently provides video game dialogue services such as scriptwriting and adaption, casting, recording, and post production.[5][6] The company's stated goal is bringing the dialogue quality of film and television to video games.[2]

In 2004 Outsource Media was nominated for the Develop Industry Excellence Award for Services and Outsourcing, and their productions were nominated for 10 BAFTA Games Awards that year alone.[7]

Estdale opened an office in Los Angeles in 2005, after Hollywood studios such as DreamWorks Animation began approaching the company.[4][8] Outsource Media now has 3 recording studios in London.[5] In 2010, Estdale, who still serves as the company's Director and CEO, joined the company with TIGA, the trade association that represents the UK games industry.[5]

Through his company, Estdale has worked with game publishers and developers: Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Atari, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Activision, Konami, Namco, Telltale Games, Codemasters,[6] Climax Entertainment, Revolution Software, Relentless, Blitz Games, Rebellion Developments, Frontier Developments, and Rare.[2][8]

Beliefs on video games

Estdale is a fervent proponent of professional acting and script writing in the video game industry. He is recognised for revolutionising recording for interactive media.

“ The biggest need is educating those in control of development to understand what is needed to get results. Throwing money at voice doesn't help if the basics are wrong. The non-linearity of [a video game] means the audience may spend hours, days, even weeks with your character. The slightest [dialogue] blemish will be under a microscope. The tiniest flaw can shatter the audience's suspension of disbelief.[2] ”

He is also a proponent for video games hiring professional actors that have experience with character improvisation on stage, film, or radio, as he has stated that voice-over artists are often inexperienced with acting.[2][9] Estdale has espoused that another common industry problem is hiring voice actors late into the production, as they aren't given time to fully express their craftsmanship.[2][10]

Estdale has also been developing software tools, known as Creative Dialogue Tools (CDT) to improve the dialogue recording and editing process for video games.[4]

“ What the actor needs is something at the point of performance that they can react to. To provide that for non-linear media, you need to throw away all previous script models. What CDT does is enable the recording studio to actually emulate the game engine in the recording studio immersing the actor in the game at the point of creation.[10] ”

Discography

Technical

Video game credits

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mark Estdale Discography". Discogs. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Keefer, John (March 23, 2010). "GameCulture Goes Inside the Voice Actor's Studio". Game Culture. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Mark Estdale Filmography". IMDB. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 Davis, Elliot (October 13, 2005). "Estdale heads to Hollywood". Menda Deals. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 "Outsource Media Joins TIGA". OMUK. April 27, 2010. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  6. 1 2 "What we do". OMUK. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  7. 1 2 "Outsource Media's Mark Estdale talks about bad cheese!". SPONG. August 23, 2004. Retrieved December 21, 2013. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  8. 1 2 "Mark Estdale is speaking at the 2011 Develop Conference on "The Keys To Unlock Believable Performance". OMUK. May 7, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2013. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  9. ↑ MacKenzie, Austin (March 23, 2010). "Casting Director: Devs Need to Cast Voice Actors Sooner". Escapist Magazine. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  10. 1 2 Stuart, Keith (March 16, 2010). "Voicing concerns: the problem with video game acting". The Guardian. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  11. 1 2 "Mark Estdale". SPONG. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Mark Estdale". MetaCritic. Retrieved December 21, 2013.

Further reading

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