VoiceBunny : The Good the Bad and the Horribly Horribly Ugly

Hey Everyone,

I'm posting from NYC, in Astoria, during the day, so this isn't so random.

This is a review of Voicebunny which I believe has made a change or two recently that I think really hits home and I suggest everyone read on about this. Here's  a few key points I've noticed about Voicebunny.

Speed: Gotta get in on those auditions fast. If you audition you get paid for the audition itself. It may be a buck or two or 5 bucks. But, you get paid for an audition. The client requests say 10 auditions and as long as you get into the first batch and you follow the specs, you usually get the audition confirmed. NOTE: You need to get the notification that your audition is confirmed and accepted.

What get's your audition accepted?

Here's the key WEIRD thing about Voicebunny. Initially, all my auditions that I somehow managed to get in quickly were almost always accepted. A few times I got rejected because of different reasons. First, I didn't do the audition script TWICE, which was requested. That pissed me off a bit. Other times I was too late in putting the upload in. All totally understandable.

******READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO JOIN VOICEBUNNY*******
As of recently, there was a slough of auditions for a specific guys blog. He wanted it to sound conversational, he wanted it to sound as if you were saying it as if you were thinking it out. I understand that totally. It happens. The script was kind of like a rant. So, I gave it a go.

4 out of 5 of my auditions were rejected, for the reason, "Did not do the specifications necessary for the audition", now here's the rub and the fun part. That one audition that was accepted ended up getting the job. So 5 jobs with the exact same specs on the audition, that I did the exact same way, I got 4 rejections and 1 clean job.

This brings me to the conclusion that, Voicebunny now does what it wants. It doesn't matter whether the specs are correct, they just want to get x amount of auditions and if they think audition doesn't sound great, they reject it. For no good reason.

In turn, I refused the job and cancelled my account with them. I've been getting much more jobs from v123 and voices and these jobs are too cheap for me to waste my time on.


SHOULD YOU JOIN VOICEBUNNY?

If you are a real true beginner, then yes join voicebunny. You will be making very small amounts of money but you will be honing the recording and producing skill. That is very useful.

You also should have voicebunny set up on your desktop every moment you are able to record so that you can jump on auditions. The unfortunate thing about the recent change is that you may not get that $1 for the audition anymore, but it's a free audition so do it.

If you are a seasoned VO artist, DO NOT JOIN VBUNNY. Here are the reasons.

1) INSULTING rates. I literally saw a job that auditioned for 50 cents and the job itself payed less than $2. That is THE MOST insulting thing I have ever seen.  Know that you are worth more than that. Non-union vo is low-paying but THAT SHIT is fucked up.

2) AUDITION payments: A few months ago, a majority of auditions were accepted and as long as you were in, you'd speed through and make few bucks on the audition. Now, they reject for no particular reason, they don't specify if you email them. BELIEVE ME I know. You're going to find yourself fighting for 4 dollar principles. Which is a rage growing pain!

3) EXPECTATIONS OF SPEED AND QUALITY for CHEAP!! You are going to be asked to do jobs within hours, that is something I have never had to do with Voices or V123 and I PAY THEM! This expectation that you owe them that kind of speed for literally no money, is ridiculous.

4) Literally NO SUPPORT that is worth anything. I cancelled my account, they basically said that if I cancel my account I would not get paid for my previous auditions because it took a month to get the money. That's the type of company that is. Imagine if you quit a job and they say, "Oh you won't get paid this weeks check, because you're leaving now."  That's Voicebunny for ya!

My Viewpoint:

It took a lot of crap for me to build up this hatred, however, I did do a fair amount of work with Voicebunny, I did multiple tutorials and commercialish stuff. It was on the low end but it was good. I thought of it as , "Hey, money is money. I need it."

Voicebunny was always on the edge of a good idea. But, never as concrete of a decision as Voice123 or Voices. The moment I got 4 rejections on auditions, it was pretty shocking. I do to many jobs in VO to have this happen. Anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The Last Few Weeks of the Non-Union Voice Artists Part One

I've finally made my way back to NYC this month. I've been back for about a month and a few days. Within that month, it has become clear that I may have to join the union soon. This is a scary decision for me. But, lets start from the beginning.

PART ONE:
Back to NYC.

I'm going to be 100 percent honest here. I came back to NYC with goals. To do my best improv and vo work. I started to listen to some Tony Robbins. In the discs I listened to, they said that I need to set aside at least 15 minutes every day to do some exercise, incantations, and visualizations.

My goals: Become a great VO artist, Become a great Improv Artist, Find a great girlfriend, and live life to the fullest and make people's live's that much better.

The first day back, I got myself settled in. The second day, I set up my recording studio. The third day, I had my first audition from Access and it was for Dairy Queen.

I decided to start the day by walking with the tapes, become grateful for all the things I had and try and run. I'm not a healthy person but I did what I could. I also did all the incantations and visualizations. It felt amazing. I came into the audition and did it.  Don't know if it went well. Apparently, it did.

I get a call that they want to book me for the DQ voice over. I think to myself, don't count your eggs, because it had happened before. I got a job and midway through they basically fired me and hired someone. That was soul crushing.

I go into the recording studio, the directors are patched in and I just take direction and do it.

So, I just did my first VO for a TV commercial. I am STOKED. Here's a few things you should know.

1) I don't know how much I'll make. (it's SAG AFTRA scale, so who knows)
2) I officially do a Taft Hartley waiver that says the next job I do i can do as non-union but the job after I must join.
3) AFTRA is 3000 bucks.
4) Joining union means no non-union jobs.

Weeks later, I find out I made about $500 for the hour of work and I think it was for the usage of the VO for like 13 weeks. I don't know if I get paid that much as long as they use it. I have no clue. Suffice to say, I wouldn't be coming close to that $3000. Eck!

But, I did my first VO for a TV commercial. As I write this now, I am on hold for another DQ audition.

Okay I'm going to address some questions that may arise from this blog post.

1) How do you get an agent?
a) I got it through shutupandtalk, a class with Roger Becker. It's 6 weeks and he basically teaches you about voice over. Mind you, I was training with Doriane Elliot a casting director at the time and we were in the process of recording a demo. Roger was very specific that you need a demo, the fact that I had a record date meant that he could recommend me. Also, mind you, I had done LOTS of non-union vo (produced it  myself).  Short answer to this: Take classes and one on ones with casting directors, do agent meetups, AND have a produced demo done or ready to be done.

2) How do you audition?
a) This was a first gig but I think a big part was that I wasn't tired. I did a little exercise. I was ready to go. I read the script 10 or so times in a row with no inflections. I did lots of hand gestures. Also, this is an interesting one, don't get all weird postured in the waiting room, walk around, do a superhero posture, get that positivity going. The tapes helped with this. I think being thankful for what you have, what you have accomplished, and the people in your life is a key aspect to feeling good. A person who feels good and confident and energetic is what people want to HEAR!!! If you have this dialogue of desperateness, it will bleed through. Have fun!! There are so many things in life that are not fun, make this fun!!