Acceptable accents for BCOF

[Rejenorst]

Was wondering if anyone with a know-how of American accents could look at this list and tell me which accents would be ok for a Civil War setting? Or just write up their own with dos and donts?

Thank you!

http://dialectblog.com/northamerican-accents/
http://robertspage.com/dialects.html

I presume for example that a New Yorker accent would be out of place as an example...

EDIT: In regards to auditions:

In my experience of doing such stuff, just don't go too extreme and you should be fine. What is your regular accent if you don't mind me asking? Mine is a very light midlands accent (English) but voice versatility usually stamps that out

:edit: after reading the thread I now understand you are asking generally and not for yourself :p
walk-in voice actors? Hah! Home studio for the win! :3

It will be a mixed bag of voices and it will be tough going in terms of finding the appropriate voices.

There are a few resources at our disposal in terms of advertising on professional game voice acting web sites that feature voice actors from the Call Of Duty series to newspaper advertisements if needed.

This will be our recording program in terms of side by side options:

a)  Two studios will likely be recording on a set day: One in the UK and one in either Canberra or Sydney sometime beginning of next year. I can also book another studio I am comfortable with in Canada for individual recordings as I've dealt with them before and they have been pretty good and reliable and can FTP upload me the recorded files. I would only do this if there are enough voice actors in the area.

b)  Some voice actors will have their own semi-professional recording setups at their home (one voice actor I am dealing with is in this particular category)

c) Others I may attempt field recordings with (likely with a Yeti Pro and MD-421 microphone plugged into a DR-680 provided I can update my recording equipment in time (costs a pretty a penny (likely need 700 AUS dollars before I can upgrade effectively) and I am doing so independently of FSE as a contractor).

d) In some cases people will be/have been auditioning for parts. Those that we feel don't need any supervision we will book into studios in their area (I will likely skype call them and sort out the particulars of the actual acting and get them to make some notes to take with them and will give them the voice list spreadsheet). The studio we book will need to have an engineer on site and be able to transfer recordings to us (or the individual who is doing the voice acting). This is something we did with 2 of the NW voice actors previously.  This will be a likely option for extremely good U.S. based voice actors where we would be happy to go the extra mile to get professional recordings.

In any case I thought I would mention this since anyone is free to audition. If you want to audition then PM me and I'll send you my email address. The auditions won't require any professional recording equipment and I don't mind if the samples clip but I would expect you to record yourself yelling and acting out the following (in a similar style to NW voices):

Ready, Aim, Fire, Shoulder arms. (try to sound commanding as your shouting over enemy fire to be heard by men 10-30 meters away from you)
Don't shoot (surrender scared sounding)

[regwilliam]

watch gods and generals and Gettysburg if you want to know how accents sound in that time

[Millander]

Nothing to crazy normal sounding people wouldnt hurt.

[Newkirk]

watch gods and generals and Gettysburg if you want to know how accents sound in that time

+1

[George385]

Gods and generals, yes, Gettysburg, not so much.

Gods and generals seemed to spend quite a bit of time on the accents and getting them right.

Yes, Gettysburg does have some scenes in which the accents are right but gods and generals is just better in that way.

[Rejenorst]

I have seen Gods and Generals yes, I believe it will be difficult to get it that accurate as we will have walk in Voice actors hence I'll need to deal with the modern day accents. In some cases the actors may be able to get people to alter their accents accordingly but will have to see.

[Aiello]

It might be important to note that even if a ranker and an officer are from the same place they may have different accents. For example, East New England aristocrats have their own accent, (think J.F.K), different from the average man.

[Becker-]

Honestly for the southern faction just a simple Carolina drawl would be fine.

Here is a accent tag for a carolina drawl. Pretty much how everybody talked back then.



A northern accent is pretty tough to nail because of how little they differentiate between eachother so it ends up being a mix. Something like a southern indiana accent could work.

[Newkirk]

Honestly for the southern faction just a simple Carolina drawl would be fine.

Here is a accent tag for a carolina drawl. Pretty much how everybody talked back then.



A northern accent is pretty tough to nail because of how little they differentiate between eachother so it ends up being a mix. Something like a southern indiana accent could work.

Being from North Carolina, I like the first link there. It's a little on the far side for me, but I still think it would be good. Second link isn't bad either.

[Becker-]

Honestly for the southern faction just a simple Carolina drawl would be fine.

Here is a accent tag for a carolina drawl. Pretty much how everybody talked back then.



A northern accent is pretty tough to nail because of how little they differentiate between eachother so it ends up being a mix. Something like a southern indiana accent could work.

Being from North Carolina, I like the first link there. It's a little on the far side for me, but I still think it would be good. Second link isn't bad either.

Yeah, the first one is a bit strong, but then you have to remember that it is going to be different so it could sound a bit more dialed down.

[Rejenorst]

Ah cheers that is very helpful. What about for the North? What was the standard accent of the time that still exists today?

[Commissar Jdf]

Newkirk you and I know what NC people sound like...dey sound like dis rite hurr.

[Ryner]

Ah cheers that is very helpful. What about for the North? What was the standard accent of the time that still exists today?

Well, Northern accents vary, from , , and many others... really depends where they're from.

#Random Examples

[Docm30]

I think an upper-class so-called 'mid-Atlantic' Boston accent is probably the closest modern accent to what was common back then. Bearing in mind that your standard lower-class Boston and New York accents didn't exist.

[regwilliam]

im living in north carolina to but im from italy  so i leave it to your imgination to think of what i sound like muhaha