Bill Black (voice director)

Bill Black is a musician who also casts and directs voice actors and performs sound effects design.

Early life

Bill Black (real name William Thomas Blackwell III) was born in Long Beach, California. August 18 1960. He started out in music on bass guitar in the Los Angeles clubs with a rockabilly trio, James Intveld and the Rockin' Shadows.^[1] Black left and was replaced by Patrick Woodward. The band split up when Ricky Nelson asked drummer Ricky Intveld and Woodward to join his backing band. All were killed on 31 December 1985 when the plane in which they were travelling crashed in De Kalb, Texas less than two miles from a landing strip at approximately 5.14pm. In 1983 Black joined the Huntington Beach pop punk rock group "The Earwigs"^[2] and stayed with them until they split up in 1987.

Career

In the late 1980s, Black was contracted by Activision to create audio and MIDI tracks for their games. In 1995 he began sound design & casting & directing character voice over for video games under the name Big Fat Kitty Productions (later Bill Black Audio Video). He worked with Geoff Farr to design sound for Gina & TL, a 2002 Sundance Film Festival pick for animated shorts. The same year, Black and composer Paul Chiten created the sound that opens and closes the Tokyo Stock Exchange.^[3] Black is now the CFO of Buzzart Enterprises Inc., the publishing company of Buzzy Linhart. Black currently lectures regularly at USC Viterbi School of Engineering and is also voiceover casting and dialogue director.^[1]

Television and film

Black’s musical compositions have been used in Law and Order and the Showtime series StreetTime.^[4]

CBS Series Law and Order Criminal Intent Episode 119 with Paul Chiten.

CBS Movie of the Week Spring Break Shark Attack with Paul Chiten.

ABC Sports The Extremist with John Sinclair

Showtime The Red Shoe Diaries Episode 15 Forbidden Zone with Jay Reynolds ^[5]

Video games

• Mech Warrior II Activision 1993 Music MIDI File editing, dialogue post-production, Japanese, Korean, French, German Japanese network dialogue ^[6]
• Shanghai Activision 1993 Music MIDI File editing
• Return To Zork Activision 1994 Music MIDI File editing
• Mech Warrior II Ghost Bears Legacy Activision 1995 casting, directing, dialogue post-production, sound effects design, voiceover acting
• Jumpstart Toddlers Knowledge Adventures 1995 sound effects design
• Sacred Ground Activision 1996 Dialogue post-production, mixing
• Hyperblade Activision 1996 Additional sound effects design, voiceover acting, dialogue post-production
• Blast Chamber Activision 1996 Sound effects design Dialogue post-production
• Elk Moon Murders Activision 1996 Dialogue post-production
• Johnny Quest Virgin Sound and Vision 1996 Sound effects design, dialogue post-production
• Nanotek Warrior Activision 1996 Sound effects design
• Mech Warrior II Mercenaries Activision 1996 voiceover direction and editing, Sound effects design, voiceover acting, German Recording and Mixing
• Zork Nemesis Activision 1996 Additional Sound effects design, Japanese, German Dialogue post-production
• Muppets Activision 1996 Music MIDI File editing Sound effects design
• Spycraft Activision 1996 Dialogue post-production MIDI File Programming, Archive M&E
• Zork French Activision 1997 Dialogue post-production
• Zork Inquisitor Activision 1997 Dialogue post-production
• Muppets Activision 1997 Dialogue post-production, Music MIDI file editing, Additional sound effects design
• I-76 German Activision 1997 Dialogue post-production
• Asteroids Activision 1998 Sound effects design
• Battlezone Activision 1997 Produced and co-directed voiceover, Dialogue post-production Sound effects design Mixed Cinematic Cut scenes and Dialogue post-production on Japanese Version
• Vigilante 8 Activision 1998 Casting Dialogue post-production
• Screaming Demons Activision 1998 Casting, Producing, and Co-Directing voiceover in English & German, Authored the Script for All Radio Segments, Sound effects design
• Jade Cocoon Crave Entertainment 1999 Dialogue post-production, Cut scene Mixing
• Call To Power Activision 1998 Casting, Directing, Sound effects design, Italian, German, French Castilian Dialogue Editing, Recording, Futzing, Mixing
• Tigger Disney 2000 Dialogue Editing, Mixing German, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Castilian
• Jet Ski Crave 2000 Dialogue post-production voiceover Actor
• Dark Reign Activision 1997 Sound effects design Dialogue post-production Mixing German, French, and Spanish
• Call To Power II Activision 2002 Casting, Directing, Sound effects design, Dialogue post-production Mixed Cinematic Cut scenes for Italian, German French, Iberian Spanish
• Mission Bravo Mattel/Gigawatt 2000 Sound effects design
• Little Mermaid Disney 2000 Dialogue post-production, Mixing German, Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish
• Aerowings Crave 2000 Casting, Directing Dialogue post-production
• Dinosaur Disney 2000 Dialogue post-production
• Ripmax RC Simulator Inertia 2000 Sound effects design
• Dark Reign II Pandemic 2000 Dialogue post-production, Recording, Mixing Sound effects design
• Star Trek Red Squad Activision 2000 Dialogue post-production
• Vampire Redemption Activision 20000 Dialogue Editing, Recording
• Toy Story II UK Activision 2000 M&E Editing for Localization
• Galerians Crave Entertainment 2000 Dialogue post-production Mixing Cut scenes
• Aerowings II Crave Entertainment 2000 Casting, Directing, Dialogue Post Production
• Shanghai Second Dynasty Activision 2000 Casting, Dialogue Post Production, Sound effects design
• Kessen II Koei 2001 Line Producer, Dialogue post-production, Cinematic Mixing
• The Weakest Link Activision 2001 Casting, Directing, Dialogue post-production
• Neverwinter Nights Atari 2002 Character voiceover Producing & Co-Directing
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein Activision 2002 Mix Cinematics for German, French, Italian, Sound effects design E-3 Demo
• Wrath Unleashed Lucas Arts 2003 Sound effects design
• Delta Force Team Sabre Novalogic 2003 Casting, Dialogue post-production
• Joint Ops Escalation Novalogic 2004 Casting, Directing, Dialogue post-production
• Joint Ops Typhoon Rising Novalogic 2004 Casting, Sound Design for Cinematic Cut Scenes
• Shadow Ops Red Mercury Atari 2004 Casting, Directing (six languages) Dialogue Post Production
• Delta Force Xtreme Novalogic 2005 Weapon SFX, Casting, Directing, Dialogue Post Production
• Delta Force Black Hawk Down Xbox & PC Novalogic 2003 2005 Casting, Directing, Dialogue Post Production ^[7]
• Lineage II The Chaotic Chronicles NC Soft 2005 Casting, Directing, dialogue post-production
• Top Gun Mastiff 2005 Cinematic Sound effects design
• World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade Vivendi Games 2007 Blizzard voiceover Casting
• Monkwerks Monkey Gods LLC - Dreamhive 2009 Sound effects design Composed Theme Song
• Snood Electronic Arts - Monkey Gods LLC 2009 Sound effects design and voiceover acting and postproduction
• War Inc. Battlezone Warmongers Inc 2011 Sound effects design^[3][8]
• Captain Fox 1 Pirate of the Mist Giunti Editore 2011 Cast & Directed US English Character Voice Over^[9]
• Captain Fox 2 The Phantom of the Seven Seas Giunti Editore 2011 Cast & Directed US English Character Voice Over^[10]
• Reality Fighters Sony Computer Entertainment Europe 2012 Additional Casting & Directing US English Cast & Directed US English Character Voice Over^[11]
• Toy Soldiers Cold War Microsoft 2012 Cast & Directed Russian & Vietnamese Character Voice Over^[12]
• Demons Score Square Enix Tokyo 2012 Cast & Directed English Character Voice Over^[13]
• Renaissance Heroes Chang You 2012 Cast & Directed additional English Character Voice Over^[14]
• Bravely Default Nintendo Square Enix 2014 Cast & Directed English Character Voice Over^[15]

References

External links

• Official site
• Imdb entry
• Interview discussing his games work