TenEightyOne Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 I've never heard of the guy... but $100,000 for a contract covering 15 months doesn't sound too bad. He'll hardly have been doing 40-hours solid each week in the mo-cap suit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikkenugent Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hollick signed the dotted line, he knew well in advance what he was to get paid long before he even said one word as Niko Bellic. I don't think Hollick ever said he disputed his contract or was tricked or treated unfairly by Rockstar. He was citing his situation as an example of the fact that all professional performers, not just him, who work in multiple industries (film, television, stage, music, radio, and video games) don't get paid the same way for video games that they do for most other things, and that it's reasonable to question why that is. The argument that an actor is less important in a video game than in a movie fails when you know that actors are paid royalties for appearing in TV commercials, which obviously are about a product and not really a story. Every time a commercial airs, the actors in it get another check, even if all they did was walk up some stairs looking hopeful while some voiceover drones about high blood pressure medication. The acting unions got that deal, but they haven't got that deal for video game actors. Hollick was questioning why not and it's not an unreasonable question. True to an extent, but even so how gaming in general is set up is the last frontier in the entertainment world. Royalties are a funny thing in entertainment and it just doesnt seem to be in fashion for the gaming industry as far as for actors is concerned. What you said about the union, even these actors in these games (if serious actors) should be in the Screen Guild which is the actor/actress union. Their performance in any fashion (entertainmentr wise) would still be protected under the union. The fact is theres no "fail" when an actor agrees to no royalties. What these men and women agree to is their own "fail" if they on their own do not fight for royalties at least with the Guild involved. If anything its still the fact that these people signed up for the job knowin full well what was in store royalties or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OJsAlibi Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 And GTA IV wouldn't have been the highest rated game of all time on PS3 and 360 without him. You could say that about anyone who worked on the game. What makes Hollick more deserving than the devs who spent 4+ years pouring their heart and souls into the game, working long days (and nights), while no doubt seeing little of their families as the release date approached? The idea of Hollick getting not just more, but substantially more money than those people is wrong IMO. Hollick's gripe was not with how Rockstar paid or compensated him for his work.. His gripe was with the Screen Actors Guild and other acting affiliated unions for not having regulations and contract clauses in place for video game related work. And he's absolutely one-hundred percent right. And practically every other voice actor who worked on IV and was asked to comment on his grievances echoed his sentiments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamcs Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 And GTA IV wouldn't have been the highest rated game of all time on PS3 and 360 without him. You could say that about anyone who worked on the game. What makes Hollick more deserving than the devs who spent 4+ years pouring their heart and souls into the game, working long days (and nights), while no doubt seeing little of their families as the release date approached? The idea of Hollick getting not just more, but substantially more money than those people is wrong IMO. Hollick's gripe was not with how Rockstar paid or compensated him for his work.. His gripe was with the Screen Actors Guild and other acting affiliated unions for not having regulations and contract clauses in place for video game related work. And he's absolutely one-hundred percent right. And practically every other voice actor who worked on IV and was asked to comment on his grievances echoed his sentiments. Hmm. Well however it works, I'm still not comfortable with the idea of Hollick receiving (potentially) millions of dollars for lending his voice, while the people that conceived, created and designed his character get little in comparison. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with that. Should the artists and programmers have a similar arrangement? (maybe they do and I'm unaware ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriaan Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 (edited) I might be mistaken here but I think Burt Reynolds (who voiced Avery Carrington in Vice City) also complained about compensation. Guess what they did to his character in Liberty City Stories... (spoiler alert) (notice that Avery doesn't speak in that game) Edited July 5, 2011 by Adriaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Without a Tongue Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I forget the exact numbers but -- as a sometimes paid writer -- I think of Chuck Palahniuk with the Fight Club movie. Brad Pitt was paid the most with like 8 million or something. Edward Norton got about half that. And Palahniuk got like 10 thousand dollars to the rights of his book that probably took at least a year to write. I'm sure he got some kind of royalties, though. It doesn't matter how famous Michael Hollick or Ray Liotta is. Voice over work for video games just hasn't been given the same attention as voice overs in animated movies. If you can get screwed over, show business will definitely do it for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbatron Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 If there's any spare cash lying around at R*, there are people far more deserving of it than voice actors. Pisses me off when guys like Hollick come away from these projects thinking that they are the stars. Yeah i would say the real stars are the guys who make the game possible, who work long ass hours and worked very hard to get where they are by going through University, rather than some guy who has been doing some plays and got a lucky break. True. I'm not trying to discredit the work of voice actors, but I'm sure their jobs are comparatively much easier than most of the devs working at R*. Can't believe he's complaining about $100k! I'm sure there are more deserving in terms of programming geniuses at R*. However, I don't think $100k is a lot for the impact Michael Hollick had on the game. That's about about £62k a year in our money adamcs, and given it's 15 months work, that's about £50k per annum. There's lots of accountants who earn more than that with only 3-4 years experience! Not saying they are undeserving, but I would suggest Hollick's skills are more unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shayan Shaffey Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 OT: what does this have to do with GTA:V? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duxfever Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Possibly whether or not he'll be used for future installments in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTAglezga Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Anyway, Michael Hollick deserves millions. He is the best actor GTA ever had. Outshining famous Hollywood actors Ray Liotta, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn and James Woods easily. No, Niko was the best character GTA ever had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabai Namona Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 (edited) I can't believe this still goes on. Michael Hollick has done his job and got paid so he should shut the f*ck up. The devs deserves more than these lazy pretentious assholes. Because of these stupid actors' unions and guilds, we get these overpaid, overacting douche-bags getting the lion's share of the takings while the ones who does all the hard work for the movie gets crap. And there is no way these stupid unions and guilds should get their way with the video game industry. R* and all game devs, continue to do the great things you do and f*ck the movie industry. They would paid these bastards as much as they please and not to be dictate by some stupid unions. My 2 Cents Edited July 7, 2011 by Dabai Namona Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_musica Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Wha Hollick should've done with the money is producing a budget film for GTA being him the star... the Asylum makes movies with that budget and "exploiting" him being niko bellic, maybe enough gamers would've seen the movie even though it would've been awful as it gets... Now being reallistic, he indeed saw a huge amount of money and got envious, however, once you sign you are done (or screwed depending on what you did/didn't read). He should really use that for his resume like the girl who misstyped she has done voice-over for GTA 5. I'm sure R* (or ther lawyer) gave her a nice and gentle call 6 o clock in the morning to tell her to correct the info. Anyways, all of this is mere speculation, like all R* future projects tend to be (Agent comes to mind, and GTA V of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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