The Importance of Positivity and Clarity (A Cautionary Tale)

Hey Everyone,

This is going to be disjointed and may not make sense but bear with me. As a VO artist, you are going to get lots of auditions, you're going to work with clients directly and middle men. You really need to know who you're working with.

Clients are the one's that are buying the projects. They are the end all be all of how you get paid and whether you get another job. However, they can be pains. You have to specify how many rounds of pickups are there. Some clients tell you how many pickup rounds they need and it's up to you whether to say yes or no.

EX: I had a project where there were 52 slides and they said they needed to have the opportunity to do 2 rounds of revisions on EACH slide. If I do every slide twice in a row, then that is NOT a revision. It's just an extra take. You could do every slide twice over again and they would be within their rights to ask for that.

The middleman. Middlemen may be companies, directories, websites, or production companies. They need your talent. They will send you auditions, they will send you jobs. You need to clarify how much you'll get. You need to clarify, how many auditions you are willing to do. You need to make clear how many revisions you are willing to do.

I worked with a company that was a middleman. They hire a new casting agent. He's a little new, he words emails oddly, calls me on my phone at night asking for an audition for something within 3 hours. Not rudely but seemingly hurried. He also sends weird emails that say things like "test audition".

He sends me an email stating that he has a job for me $400, $250 for the first and $150 for the second. He says test audition but it seems like it's a job. I reply back with my auditions for it. I state audition in the email and ask, did I get the job. The next email says, You got it.

Now for the confusion, Along with this email was another email for another job. Apparently, I got that job. He is thinking I'm responding to that job, but I'm responding to THIS job. I do the job, thinking $400. He says $250. I wasn't specific in the emails, he wasn't specific in his.

My email thread goes. $400, audition?, no you got it, Files uploaded, you've got $250.  I get pissed. I think he messed up. He says, "I thought you had the job", admitting guilt in my eyes. I am HATING THIS.

Months go by, I haven't been paid. Guess what?  Gotta send an email. Wounds opened. I send an email requesting the money, he says invoice me and send all the emails. I'm already pissed, I should only have to send an invoice. I send the emails with the addition of, "Oh and you should know in the email you quote me for $400 and end up paying $250." He sends an email back of my confusion. I get pissed off. He calls me, we yell for a little bit.

I see the confusion. There were three jobs. Two emails. The thread system has failed. If you are on a thread for the wrong audition, you are doomed to confusion. I see my problem, he sees his. He apologizes so do I. He explains that it was his first month at the company and he's figured out the templates and how to do things. He explains that this client was horrendous and just horrible to work with. I made a mistake. I know that. But, it's so easy to do.

This can and does and WILL happen. You have to be open to making mistakes, you also have to be unafraid to ask questions, REALLY CLARIFY what is what.

Where does the positivity come in?

This VO work can be draining. You work relatively cheap, you don't ask for much, and you do good work. It's imperative to remind yourself how far you've come.  Stay positive. Work will come. If it does and you think you're getting screwed, calm down, breathe and COMMUNICATE. Negativity takes you out of communication. I could argue with this guy for hours based on principal. If I just stared at that thread it made sense, A-B-C-D = I get screwed. But, once I just took a breath and looked at it. There was the explanation.

Now, I have acknowledged my fault. Do I beat myself up? Do I sulk and call myself stupid? No, I move on and realize that this shit happens. This is a load off my mind. I'm happier now.

Live and Learn.