East Coast – Left Coast – and Other Times Around the World

I live in California. Pacific Time Zone. 3 hours later than many of my agents and clients. 9 or so hours different from several other agents and clients scattered across Europe.

This means that my operating hours are not 9-5 Pacific time. They are 9 AM to 9 AM anytime. Over, the years, as more of my clients are in far flung parts of the globe, I find that I do a lot of work very early in the morning. I get up fairly early anyway, but more and more it seems as though I must be “in voice” for a 7 AM session.

Just part of the customer service.

It used to be – when I was working in the local studios, I could ask my agent to arrange for sessions between 10 and 2 so that I didn’t have to mess with the traffic. This usually worked. Not for any on-camera […]

2018-02-06T06:48:08+00:00September 28th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|
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I’ll Gladly Pay You Someday for a Voiceover Job Today

Why is it that creative businesses (mostly independent freelancers) find themselves on the short end of the stick when it comes to getting paid in a timely manner? My voiceover friend Paul Strikwerda discussed this phenomenon today in his Nethervoice blog – http://www.nethervoice.com/2013/09/18/when-a-client-owes-you/

Why is it that the sub-contractors have to wait for their money until the prime contractor gets paid. This is not the way it is supposed to work. Paul postulates as to why we find ourselves in this position of being the tail on the dog when it comes to getting paid.

When I was an active video producer, I mostly worked in-house or for a large production company and didn’t have problems with getting paid for what I did, or paying the people that worked for me. There was a much larger machine chugging along with enough accounts receivable to cover the costs of the jobs. I just […]

2018-02-06T06:48:13+00:00September 19th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings, Negotiating|Tags: , , , |
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Improv and Successful Voiceover Work?

I have long been told (and even suggest it myself) that Improv is a great training ground for voiceover pros. Instinctively I think I knew this to be true. But I have never been able to really articulate exactly why. Edge Studio published an article by Vanessa Richardson that finally clarified it for me.

Spontaneity is the word I have been using when thinking and talking about what Improv training will do to help improve delivery of a script, but it goes deeper than just being spontaneous.

The dictionary defines Spontaneous as “1. coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.” Or 2. (of a person) given to acting upon sudden impulses.”

This doesn’t really explain what is actually happening in Improv and how it might relate to reading a script.

It gets more confusing because the word improvise is defined as doing something without preparation.  We all improvise. Every day, all day, we move through our […]

2018-02-06T06:48:13+00:00September 9th, 2013|Categories: Musings, Techniques|Tags: , , , |
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Do you know someone who you can recommend?

For some reason a lot of people ask me if I know people. Do I know someone who could produce this – crew that – voice this. The answer is usually yes, but referrals are a tricky thing. There is time involved. And reputations at stake. On both sides! Actually on all three sides. The Asker, me, and the person I refer. Referrals can be a wonderful thing, but you have to be careful.

When I was producing and writing corporate media full-time, I was often asked if I could recommend people to either write a project or produce something. If I wasn’t available to do the writing project myself, I had to spend quite a bit of time evaluating the person/company needing the script and then searching my memory and Rolodex for someone who I felt might be compatible. The last thing you would want is to […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00August 6th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings|Tags: , , , |
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What did I say?

I just saw a blog post from my virtual voiceover friend and prolific blogger,  that made me laugh out loud. Just what kinds of situations do REAL working voiceover talent face as they go about the business of recording a script?

He posted three videos produced by voice actor, Paul J. Kinney, a San Francisco based talent. These are not only extremely well produced pieces, but each is a true reflection of what actually happens in directed voiceover sessions. These clips happen to be in a studio environment where the producer is just on the other side of the glass, but the same thing happens during phone patch sessions and ISDN sessions.

OK, they may be slightly exaggerated. But, I too am “guilty” as charged.


GUILTY

STANDING BY

THE […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00July 11th, 2013|Categories: Business, Recording|Tags: , , , |
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Software – One of the Great Money Monsters

How much money have you spent on software that ends up gathering dust (anyone have a good computer reference?) because it just didn’t really work the way you wanted it to work? I can’t pinpoint the $ exactly (they told me there wouldn’t be any math in voiceovers), but I know that I have purchased lots of software that I stopped using in frustration.

As an aside, because I have always been an early adopter of technology, I have been asking software to do more than it was designed to do since about 1987. I spent hours on the phone with the developer of a piece of writing software working with him to make it possible to write a dual column script and keep the video and audio tracking together. When Word came along and with it the table function, all was right with the world, but it simply wasn’t possible […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00June 18th, 2013|Categories: Business, Marketing|Tags: , , , , , , |
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With Trepidation I Present “In a World…”

Just what we need, more exposure for the voice over business! So, I am somewhat hesitant to bring this up, but since most of the people who will chance across this post will already be in the business, or already interested in the business, I suppose it won’t do any harm.

From watching the trailer, this looks like a delightfully funny little film about life in the rarefied air of the Los Angeles voiceover market where there is a chance of someone actually hiring you (man or woman, but mostly man) to do a movie trailer.

Lake Bell wrote, produces and stars in the film, with some other familiar real-life voiceover “stars” in the Los Angeles market including Joe Cipriano and Marc Graue. In fact, now that I think about it, this might make a good pilot for a sitcom that takes place in a renowned recording studio in someplace like  – […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00June 12th, 2013|Categories: Announcements, Business, Musings|Tags: , , , , |
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Anonymity Means Never Having to Say You are Sorry for NOT Auditioning

There are lots of opinions on the Pay-2-Play websites. P2P sites are automated sites that, for a fee, send you audition opportunities. These sites are one of today’s auditioning paradigms – along with agents who send us auditions, potential clients finding our websites and sending us an audition and repeat clients asking for an audition for new projects.

Many people hate the P2P’s. Many people like them. A few people love them. I am somewhat ambivalent, because most of my work comes from other sources, yet I get enough projects through them to justify the money and time spent. And of those two elements, the time element is the greater of the two. The less time it takes the better.

The Voice123 mantra of being picky picky picky is pretty much my only option given the time I have available to scan and determine which auditions might be right up my alley.

Most […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00June 10th, 2013|Categories: Auditioning|
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The Blush is Off the Rose…

My love affair with Social Media seems to be waning. I don’t find myself hanging out on Facebook as much as I used to. And I only am on LinkedIn when something really interesting pops up in my daily digests. Or when I need to moderate something on the group I manage.

And while I want to get over to the VO-BB on a more regular basis, sometimes several days pass and I realize that I have not been over there to check on the latest person to get llama duty. Not much action on the Yahoo Voiceover Email list either these days, so maybe it isn’t just me.

(Ironically, I have bumped up my Tweets a bit. That seems to be easy to do these days when every article you read has a Retweet button handy.)

Perhaps the rest of my life is vying for my attention. The class I teach during […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00June 5th, 2013|Categories: Musings|Tags: , , |
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Change is Inevitable

The only constant is change. It used to be (for those of us who remember the days of black and white television) at a fairly slow pace. Adoption of new technologies was at a slower pace. You had time to adjust – albeit some were dragged along kicking and screaming about the old days.

But the speed of the changes started to pick up and today, you barely have time to buy a new technology before the newest and more advanced product is available. We face it daily, so why is it so hard to accept the inevitable.

I am still using Adobe Audition 1 on my editing computer. I like it. It still works – on my XP operating system. All my computers are XP. But, I know that will have to change the next time I have to upgrade the hardware. I will not like this change – at first. I’ll […]

2018-02-06T06:48:14+00:00March 28th, 2013|Categories: Business, Musings, Technology|Tags: , , |
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