Games creators and publishers are becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea of using talent from outside ‘the industry’. Professional writers and musicians are now an established part of the development process – and thanks to titles such as L.A. Noire, stage and screen actors are becoming just as valued.
However, the idea of using a talent agency can be daunting, given many of them are London-based and the costs and conditions being entirely mysterious to most games companies. Now, however, there is a way to find out whether your next project can benefit from some expert performance input.
The Masques is a new talent agency based in Scotland, which represents a wide range of actors, from theatre, television and film. The company is keen to meet development studios and offer its services to the games industry across Scotland and the UK.
Offering services from voice overs (from full on performance, through to voice overs, narration or even promo videos), to motion capture, The Masques focuses on supporting and nurturing Scottish talent and working with local companies wherever possible.
Founded by Stephen James Martin and Belinda Love in 2010, the agency is now offering its services directly to Scotland’s games companies.
We spoke to Belinda about the company’s plans for the agency and how it can help digital media and interactive companies…
“We’ve signed some excellent talent already, well versed in a variety of performance mediums including: theatre, film, television, commercial, corporate, voiceover, vocalists and musicians. Our clients are also keen to explore more mediums of performance and increase their body of work in more contemporary areas. We’d be delighted if interactive companies would consider our growing portfolio of clients during future casting processes for human performance elements of corporate or creative projects, whether it be a simple voiceover recording or more.
We appreciate that interactive media companies often have very individual needs when it comes to projects, and we are keen to tailor our services accordingly. We would aim to make our part in the production process as fluid, mutually beneficial, and productive as possible.
We are keen to work with as many creative industries that require a human performance element in Scotland as possible, and we also have a small but ambitious in-house initiative called Making Traques which will work with creative practitioners, projects and organisations to help encourage creative futures in Scotland, interactive media being a strong part of that encouragement since it is an industry that Scotland should be proud of.”
If you have a project in the pipeline which is going to need any sort of input from a performing artist, or even if you’re simply interested in finding out whether that sort of input would work for you, then get in touch with Stephen or Belinda and find out.
You can find The Masques online, check out the company’s current artist roster, read the latest news on the blog, or follow the company on Twitter.
The Masques has even created a dedicated Resources page, providing information on the organisations, agencies and opportunities for performing artists in Scotland (a bit like your lovely Scottishgames.net, only more organised AND comprehensive). We’ve now updated the SG Who’s Who page, just to try and keep up…