Quick Post Skype ISDN or Call In

Okay, I haven't been asked this question but I do have an opinion and this is gonna be quick.

ISDN, as far as I know, costs an arm and a leg. So, if you're non union, don't mess with it. Not worth your time AT ALL!

Here's the key note, if you don't have ISDN audition ANYWAY, and say in the audition note, I don't have ISDN but I have recorded and had people call in and direct and it always turned out amazingly.

ANYONE who requires ISDN and it's a 100 job is an ASS. Or here's another one, if they say WE don't pay for studio time  ASS.  First off, if they have a sound engineer online ready to listen in, then they aren't poor. If they are a serious enough company, they will book a studio and have you come in with a sound engineer THEY paid for and give you direction. That's what happens in Union gigs.

SKYPE. Anyone who asks for skype probably just wants a telephone conference but doesn't really know it.

SKYPE is bad for a number of reasons.

    1) Cause of Insecurity. You're staring at your own FACE. 

    2) Cause of bad direction. If you do weird hand motions and face stuff, then the direction may just         assume that the audience will hear that, when the fact is THEY WONT!

    3) Dependance on Internet. Have you ever skyped with someone who doesn't skype. It may be painful.

    4) What you see HAS NOTHING to do with what you hear. If you had the choice between listening to a VO alone or watching the actor do it, you should just listen because YOU FOCUS a sense.

    5) The Illusion of professionalism. I don't know about you guys, but I do it in my room and it aint clean, fancy or look like a studio. UGH

CALL IN CONFERENCE

Here's the great thing about the OLD call in. It's simple. You can have one ear bud in on ear next to a microphone and everytime they talk they wouldn't be heard. You would have the director in your ear. That is amazing. 

So, my opinon, get them to call in. Brag about doing call ins with great companies and they loved it.  Say it's easy and you've done it a million times. Know why it works and sell it. 

The First Job I Rejected

Hey All,

Admittedly, I may have rejected a few jobs in the past, but this one is gonna stick with me.

I got an email from a job that I auditioned for. It was $250 for 8000 words. Admittedly, I probably shouldn't have auditioned for this, however, when you audition and audition. The occasional 250 slips by and it isn't until this happens that you get a punch in the face of "Maybe I should have looked".

So, right off the bat. My bad. However, I would do it again. Why? Because it's a rat race, you want to audition as quick as you can and I have literally NEVER auditioned and won something that was like this. I found out that I have auditioned for 3k jobs in just voices.com. I'm not about to slow down, but no regrets. But, I have to eat a little crow but hey it was worth it.

First off, lets calculate. Once you get into the 1000 or more words category, it gets a little sketchy as to actually how much work it will be. I calculated it out. Roughly 1 hour of recorded time. This would be my minimum rate for an audiobook. Okay that's the situation, timewise.

Next up, what are the specs. This particular job required a Naming process. This means each file has to be specifically named. That takes time. It may not seem like much but having the document in the background of an editor is just added time and confusion.

Third, how is this different than an audiobook. With audiobooks, I've only done maybe 7 and every time, I have literally NEVER been asked for a pickup on a line or a character note except one producer and that was HORRID and I will never work with them again. For some reason, and I assume it's because it's really cheap labor, they leave that in the hands of the audiobook producer and narrator (you), With any corporate learning thing, you HAVE pickups.

Fourth are there rewrites? According to the client, there may be small rewrites in the future. This is extra time and inputting a sentence into a previously edited piece no matter how long takes time. 

Five, will you enjoy it? That's kind of the pull of an audiobook right? You want to read a book and delve in. With corporate, it's not fun, no matter what you do.

Okay folks, so I get the email and it states, "I usually ask for 2 takes of each segment but you can do one take" RED FLAG, "I have a few minor rewrites" RED FLAG 

I send an email back, because I'm curious. It's a job. I want him to realize that this is kind of slave labor for me, so I'd do it with stipulations. 1) Only two rounds of pickups 2) Each round must be at once no piecemeal. 3) Rewrites and Corrections for my errors all count as pickups 4) Any rewrites after the second round up to 1/2 a page are extra (50). 5) State that this job would normally cost at LEAST twice as much. 

I get an email back stating that "I am locked in at $250" RED FLAG, "I have other jobs that are higher pay that we would come to you first" CARROT AND RED FLAG "I would only have minor rewrites" hopefully honest.

I'm gonna go on a tangent about another job. I recorded for this one guy and I recorded two takes. The energy was off, I knew it. I take another crack at it, 2 more takes, better energy, spot on. He's thinks it's great but he wants one more take. I tell him he should probably call in and listen in because after that second round it's gonna be extra. He says, "The first round was unsatisfactory so that doesn't count". As a voice actor, take this as my advice, If you record and edit and upload, it counts. You did work. The pickups aren't there for only the clients issues, it's there for your issues. A mispronunciation, a pop, a noise, that pickup is there for THE JOB. 2 pickups are more than enough. Stand your ground. DO NOT GET PUSHED ASIDE. Non union is already cheap enough, don't get cheap with yourself. Truth is, he called in (at my request) listened in and we got it. No problem at all. 

Now back to the job today, the client tossed out the FUTURE work carrot. Not only am I missing out on this but MORE WORK. It sucks doesn't it. Do this and you'll get this as possibility. He may be telling the truth but I can't bank on it. He's also LOCKED IN at 250, what if he needs that extra round. I say No, he says "I'm locked at 250". I'm out the work, what do I do. 

The truth is, I don't know. I could be leaving money on the table. Well, more at least. However, if this guy thinks that this job is okay, then do I really think he's gonna jump and pay the true price I ask for. I am literally doing this job for one tenth of the jobs I normally do. Is he willing to pay 10 times that amount. Now I hear you, "Are you saying this is worth 2500?". 

Think about it. The job is 18 single spaced pages. The average Voice over job is roughly 1 page and probably double spaced,  That's around 2k maybe more. Lets just give him a deal at 1k, that is a whopping 75 percent off. YEEESHH!!!!!

My girlfriends asked me, "Can you finish it in a day?" and I reply, "Yup!" and she thougt that would be a decent days work. But, as a voice over artist, we don't work per hour. We work per job. We don't have stability but the trade off is less work hours. An audiobook is about a full time job, try your hand at that and you may find yourself needing a month long break. It's not just recording, it's editing, it's listening and it's correcting. That is SO DRAINING. I've found that with large projects your brain only is useful maybe one hour at a time. Your voice maybe an hour or two max and then mandatory break.

We aren't the same. Non-union is not the same. So, I made the decision. No thank you. I calculated it out and it would take me about 6 hours to record/edit and about 2 hours to upload. THat would be before the pickup rounds. I already dread it. So, I rejected it. 

Someone else is bound to do it. I just can't. Know your worth people. If you're starting out, I'd do a job like this because it's a challenge, it will make you a better vo artist, and there may be a work relationship there. But if you're a vet, know your worth. 

The Slow Times (how to cope)

So everyone has droughts of jobs. I've been in a bit of one lately. It has been combined with an attempt to get a large sum of money from a client so it has been a little annoying.

The key is, just keep going. Don't let it get to you. Voice123 recently initiated what I would consider a horrible idea. It shows a star rating of your audition. The problem is, rating an audition is kind of dumb. People have this specific voice in mind that may be young or old and you may sound entirely wrong but that doesn't mean it's a bad audition it just means its not right for this job, however, 1 out of 5 stars kind of feels like an FU. Voices is much better with the listened to and thumbs up sign. All they gotta do is like it, they don't have to crap on it.

The main issue with not getting jobs is that it gets into your bones. You wonder if you're good or not and you start overcompensating or worse you stop smiling in auditions.

Remember vo clients want people to sound passionate and happy. Sometimes that can be loud energy, sometimes it can be sincere honest energy. If you ever do an audition mad, it may leak through. A true actor uses their feelings to their advantage but even the best actors have problems. The key is just to push it aside and do the work.

It's tough out there folks. If you come across a long drought try acx, voicebunny, or some contests. I'm the kind of guy who can ride the momentum of a win for a while but I'm also a guy who can take things a little personally. Just find your balance. 

When you go into those auditions, bring energy, passion, smile and just think to yourself, "I got this". A vo teacher told me that and it always helps.

"I Got This"