It's funny how you can kind of bet on yourself to get some motivation going.
Today, I spent a LOT of money on improv classes. I personally, feel it helps everything in my life including voice overs.
However, it meant I better get my ass in gear and start making money.
I plowed through all my auditions from Voices. Did an audiobook audition (200 pfh) minimum so it's not slave labor. I also did an audition for my agency. Access.
Access is a great agency but it is voice over only. My old teacher Dorianne Elliot told me that I should probably try other agencies since people are going to want me for commercial and theatre. I couldn't let go an opportunity to sign with an agency especially with a vo only agency, so I took it.
Occasionally, they will email me auditions to do. Other times, I will go out and audition. This last week, I auditioned for a cartoon pilot. Those auditions, I think of as shots in the dark. I'm up against THE best so I just need someone to believe in me.
In the meantime, Voices.com and v123 are my income, so when I purchase classes I gotta get back to work. So, I auditioned and finished all my auditions by 930. GREAT!!!
I also had to do a Voices job, they wanted 3 small scripts. I also had to redo parts of a voices job. This was a little snag.
Here's what happened, when I did the job, I was getting over a flu. So, now that I'm fine, they want a sentence redo. This means a little troubleshooting.
A couple of options for this is to run the audio down a few notches as far as pitch goes. The other thing is to make sure that the volume difference is the same. If not, it's going to be obvious.
Anyways, other than that, I got another email from the guy who doesn't pay saying he is sending it tomorrow with tracking. My fingers are crossed but I'm not holding my breath.
Right now, the stress of my life is just waiting for money from jobs I've done. That is the life of a non-union voice artist.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Time to Get Back into it
I've made the decision to get back into auditioning. My time is going to start closing in on me and I need to get a system going to make some money.
Tonight, I blasted out about 20 auditions. Some of them already had about 100 auditions before it but you never know.
I find that with voices the key is not so much getting them the fastest. Which is definitely a huge part of it, but also it is a combination with not wasting your time on old auditions during prime hours.
The reason I say prime hours, is that business hours during the weekdays (+- 3 hours depending on time zone) are going to be the times where you can get the jobs quick. It requires you to audition as soon as they pop up. However, if you audition slate is full of old auditions, you really shouldn't do those in prime hours.
Here it is 1am on a Sunday night (not prime at all), so I pre-emptively empty out my audition box to prepare for the days ahead. It's a twofold reason, 1) It's better than deleting them because you get a chance at a job 2) It helps because you dont have to weed through old auditions to get to new ones.
If you get an audition notice and you have say 4 auditions around it. If you do all 4, you may be a good half hour behind the ball. Meaning, you might be 40-50 auditions in just because you didn't do the old auditions.
In conclusion, audition, audition, audition, and once monday-wednesday comes around stay near your computer when you're home and check check check to be the first on those jobs.
Good Luck!!
Tonight, I blasted out about 20 auditions. Some of them already had about 100 auditions before it but you never know.
I find that with voices the key is not so much getting them the fastest. Which is definitely a huge part of it, but also it is a combination with not wasting your time on old auditions during prime hours.
The reason I say prime hours, is that business hours during the weekdays (+- 3 hours depending on time zone) are going to be the times where you can get the jobs quick. It requires you to audition as soon as they pop up. However, if you audition slate is full of old auditions, you really shouldn't do those in prime hours.
Here it is 1am on a Sunday night (not prime at all), so I pre-emptively empty out my audition box to prepare for the days ahead. It's a twofold reason, 1) It's better than deleting them because you get a chance at a job 2) It helps because you dont have to weed through old auditions to get to new ones.
If you get an audition notice and you have say 4 auditions around it. If you do all 4, you may be a good half hour behind the ball. Meaning, you might be 40-50 auditions in just because you didn't do the old auditions.
In conclusion, audition, audition, audition, and once monday-wednesday comes around stay near your computer when you're home and check check check to be the first on those jobs.
Good Luck!!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
After Burnout Back on Track
Hey all,
I haven't posted a single thing since the new year. The fact was the move from sublet to friends couch to new sublet not only took about a week, but it also put my health in jeopardy. For the first time in a while, I was out of commission and sick. Here we are at the 16th and my body is still coughing through stuff. Eck!!
Anywho, during those weeks of no-microphone ability to record. A few interesting things happened.
1) My audiobook which was done in early December was apparently in need of another pickup. I got this email of "Hey we need you to do this, by the way can you get it done tonight?". To the response of "No, I can't upload or record anything because I'm sick and not moved into my new place yet".
I honestly feel less bad by saying that as I would have say, four months ago. I think once you get going as a non-union vo artist and you start making decent money, lets face it, you should probably be making bigger money with union-vo. Admittedly, I'm in the position where I get the big auditions from my agency, which I haven't pulled yet, but non-union vo is really cheap work.
You have to kind of have a backbone, everyone you do a job for is getting you DIRT cheap. Especially if you produce it yourself. If you can't do something, you can't do it. If you're out of town on vacation, don't stress. For a cheap job, you're as much in charge of the situation as them.
I've never had a person set a specific REAL deadline on me that happened later in the game. Usually the deadline, if important, is set even before the job is offered. I get plenty of emails saying, can you get this done by set date, if you can it's yours.
2) On the note of backbone, this one guy that I complained about BEFORE the new year has yet to get me my payment. I'm hoping it's just at my other sublet, so I'm dependent on my roommate to get back from Boston to check the mail.
The guy says he'll cancel the check and send it again. I requested priority mail with tracking and he said he'd take care of it. But, nonetheless, it's rough.
Here's a couple things I've found out from this situation. 1) USE PAYPAL : it makes life so much easier. I have SO many checks coming in and I feel like I have to herd kittens to get paid for my work. Especially since I moved and emailed every one of my jobs my new address, I'm pretty sure all of them mailed it to the wrong address.
I find a lot of this insulting, but what are you gonna do. I'm non-union. When the check comes, it comes. I had to wait 4 months for a commercial check to come in. Paypal is your friend. Voices.com is your friend. Everything else is kind of wishy washy.
3) I got a few jobs without auditioning. The thing about laying all those auditions down is that a lot of them take a while to go through. I ended up getting two jobs off of V123. I ended up getting redo jobs off of a voices job.
You may find yourself in a situation where you have a script that is just grammar HELL. Fix what you can, but record it. When they come back with a few sentence changes, make your stand. Say, "I can do redoes of the original script. I'll do these small changes. But, for any other rewrites, there has to be payment because it will be a different script".
Saying this ended up getting me 3x the payment of the original job. It's not being unreasonable at all. To reread an entire job should cost something. Don't be taken advantage of.
Anyways, I know this sounds like I'm jaded and hate everything, which I don't. I love vo and it's keeping me in NYC which is amazing. I just find myself in a situation where I'm waiting for payment on 2 audiobooks and one website which was done in December. Combine that with the sickness and tiredness. You get an unhappy v-o boy.
But, I am surviving. Actually doing very well. New York isn't cheap and this can be done. So, I'm hoping you take from this the following: VO is all encompassing and you have to keep track of who owes you money. If you work hard enough, jobs will eventually come to you. Have a backbone, just because you're work is inexpensive doesn't mean people can get you to do anything.
Take care everyone. Much love from NYC>
I haven't posted a single thing since the new year. The fact was the move from sublet to friends couch to new sublet not only took about a week, but it also put my health in jeopardy. For the first time in a while, I was out of commission and sick. Here we are at the 16th and my body is still coughing through stuff. Eck!!
Anywho, during those weeks of no-microphone ability to record. A few interesting things happened.
1) My audiobook which was done in early December was apparently in need of another pickup. I got this email of "Hey we need you to do this, by the way can you get it done tonight?". To the response of "No, I can't upload or record anything because I'm sick and not moved into my new place yet".
I honestly feel less bad by saying that as I would have say, four months ago. I think once you get going as a non-union vo artist and you start making decent money, lets face it, you should probably be making bigger money with union-vo. Admittedly, I'm in the position where I get the big auditions from my agency, which I haven't pulled yet, but non-union vo is really cheap work.
You have to kind of have a backbone, everyone you do a job for is getting you DIRT cheap. Especially if you produce it yourself. If you can't do something, you can't do it. If you're out of town on vacation, don't stress. For a cheap job, you're as much in charge of the situation as them.
I've never had a person set a specific REAL deadline on me that happened later in the game. Usually the deadline, if important, is set even before the job is offered. I get plenty of emails saying, can you get this done by set date, if you can it's yours.
2) On the note of backbone, this one guy that I complained about BEFORE the new year has yet to get me my payment. I'm hoping it's just at my other sublet, so I'm dependent on my roommate to get back from Boston to check the mail.
The guy says he'll cancel the check and send it again. I requested priority mail with tracking and he said he'd take care of it. But, nonetheless, it's rough.
Here's a couple things I've found out from this situation. 1) USE PAYPAL : it makes life so much easier. I have SO many checks coming in and I feel like I have to herd kittens to get paid for my work. Especially since I moved and emailed every one of my jobs my new address, I'm pretty sure all of them mailed it to the wrong address.
I find a lot of this insulting, but what are you gonna do. I'm non-union. When the check comes, it comes. I had to wait 4 months for a commercial check to come in. Paypal is your friend. Voices.com is your friend. Everything else is kind of wishy washy.
3) I got a few jobs without auditioning. The thing about laying all those auditions down is that a lot of them take a while to go through. I ended up getting two jobs off of V123. I ended up getting redo jobs off of a voices job.
You may find yourself in a situation where you have a script that is just grammar HELL. Fix what you can, but record it. When they come back with a few sentence changes, make your stand. Say, "I can do redoes of the original script. I'll do these small changes. But, for any other rewrites, there has to be payment because it will be a different script".
Saying this ended up getting me 3x the payment of the original job. It's not being unreasonable at all. To reread an entire job should cost something. Don't be taken advantage of.
Anyways, I know this sounds like I'm jaded and hate everything, which I don't. I love vo and it's keeping me in NYC which is amazing. I just find myself in a situation where I'm waiting for payment on 2 audiobooks and one website which was done in December. Combine that with the sickness and tiredness. You get an unhappy v-o boy.
But, I am surviving. Actually doing very well. New York isn't cheap and this can be done. So, I'm hoping you take from this the following: VO is all encompassing and you have to keep track of who owes you money. If you work hard enough, jobs will eventually come to you. Have a backbone, just because you're work is inexpensive doesn't mean people can get you to do anything.
Take care everyone. Much love from NYC>
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