OK, as I start gearing up for my next project - whichever one of the current three it turns out to be - I find myself least happy about the situation for vocals....(snip) 

I appreciate the thought behind the two replies so far...(snip) 

I appreciate the thought behind the two replies so far. However, I'm asking if there is any way OTHER than getting other folks involved to do voices to get multiple voices. The TTF packages all use pretty much the same AT&T or Microsoft voices, so getting more than one doesn't really help. In addition to just the practical need here, I've known a few folks who believe that movies can't really be art because it's almost always a team effort. Art, at it's core, is an expression of an ideal or concept by an individual. An individual can do a complete painting by themselves. They can do photography, sculpting, etc. by themselves. But to create a film in the traditional sense takes a large group of folks, and there are always compromises that have to be made to get things done at all. MS and other products in this genre promise to give us the ability to finally be able to create a movie as a complete embodiment of that ideal. As such, it's disappointing that we still fall short because of this one missing element. I suppose it's time to sit down and think about how to create a movie in MS that doesn't actually have dialog - or that has dialog that sounds ok if it sounds processed. Of course if anyone has any suggestions about non-people tools for creating voices... :mrgreen:  

Finding good actors who are suitable for particular roles in amateur productions is not easy at all, and I also I think that the main voice performances contribute 2/3 of the emotion of a movie. I begin to wonder if finding the actors first and then writing around them might be the answer. I begin to wonder if the whole of the film making quest is in making good enough, interesting enough film that a really good actor(ress) will want to work for nothing just to be involved. Will it take years and drive us all crazy?  

OK, I counted up, and Camp Handiba has one middle aged female voice, eleven teenage females, and five teenage males. I may try to go the "traditional" route, but really have serious doubts in my mind about getting 17 folks to do 400 minutes of dialog. And that's "season" 1. My outline covers two seasons of similar length. Maybe it's just too big a story to tell without financial backing? I'm starting to think that if the only answer is get that many volunteers than maybe it's time to look back at other things that are smaller. Though I'm disappointed because I'd really like to be able to find some way to tell the story. Oh well...  

I've decided, for the time being, to just wait for 1.1 to come out, and then to go ahead and "shoot" the entire episodes without vocals. I will then add subtitles to the final product. I did a little experiment with the first couple episodes using some talent over the net, and with that many folks and voices, it just wasn't working. I think for the average production using a handful of voices that the various solutions discussed on here are reasonable. But when you try to make something this big, then something has to give - either budget or vocals. Unfortunately, in this case the budget is rather absolute :mrgreen:  

I don't know how in demand my talents are, but I'm also more than happy to do voice work and give back to this community in any way I can (I play Joe and a lot of incidental characters on the Adventures of Luke and Joe). 

Well, what I'd REALLY like to do, and perhaps y'all are the folks to do it, is to hand over my script to folks who are better at the 3D production and voices, and let y'all do the project as y'all would like. I would still do the final film editing and provide the music, as well as the promotion and other after production work. But that would let me concentrate on my strong suite - telling a story - while letting those who are good at showing and/or performing a story do what they do best. I'd ideally like to complete the full series first, and then start releasing episodes to support a release a week, but am open to other suggestions. If any of y'all are interested, let me know. I'd be happy to send folks the first episode via email (just PM me with your email address) if you want to see the script. FWIW... 

If we do it as a group, perhaps there's an online workspace we could use? Then I could go ahead and post all the scripts up, and then folks could grab their parts as they get to it, and then post their bits as they complete them. As all the elements come together, then I can put them together, and then we can do a review for further edits, etc. Suggestions for where we could do this?  

Motionbox looks good once we have video to share, but it doesn't appear to allow you to upload voice/music files or the scripts. Is there some kind of collaborative workspace that would support that? Would love to start working with everyone on this, particularly since Super Chris made a great wheelchair. Maybe MS has a workspace function we could use?  

Every city is a little different. 

Every city is a little different. I placed an ad for voice actors, here in San Diego. I made it clear that this was for a movie with no budget. I had 54 responses within 7 days. I had two audition readings outside at Starbucks and settled on 11 actors for my upcoming film. Everyone arrived for the recordings on time and each was completely professional. I have never had that kind of dedication and positive attitude from musicians (of which I count myself). Now, maybe because we are only 2 hours from Hollywood we have a better allotment of actors than other cities, but it may be worth trying in any city. I placed the ad on Craigslist. I see that San Antonio also has a Craigstlist site (http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/). I placed my ad under the category of Talent. I did treat my actors very respectfully and emailed them a complete copy of the script and tried to be accommodating of their schedules for the recordings. It was really fun and I feel I can call upon them again in the future. We are scheduling a screening party for next month. I do feel going with actors may be more rewarding than using subtitles, but you get to make the decision on that one. It is your vision. Good luck.