I have asked VOICE123 to make voice seekers open auditions!

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

I have suggested to VOICE123 that they establish some policy for voice seekers and punish those who do not open auditions in a very timely manner, resulting in banning them from the site for repeated offenses. After all, if a voice seeker seldom opens auds or opens only a very few, then that voice seeker should either be LIMITED as to the number of auds they can receive or banned after a time. Don't punish us, the members, with people who truly have little or no interest in hearing us or worse, who are "imposters" or "playing a joke" or whatever. Weed them out! And also, give WARNINGS to voice seekers who hardly ever rate us or who rate obviously unfairly...see how often the voice seeker is giving low ratings to good voice pros and cut them off and get rid of them. So add your thoughts to mine...and TELL THE VOICE 123 staff. By the way, I read posts here saying "they don't respond." Maybe it's because I've been a member since 2003 amd personally know some of the staff, but I find responses very forthcoming and the staff members with whom I am personally acquainted and get together with when I'm travelling where they are to be terrific people genuinly interested in members' thoughts. So keep trying to get thru. They are inundated right now as you might imagine with new system but it will settle out.\\
www.voicesvoices.co,\m
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scott feighner · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 227

Ronald T Robinson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 1008

My response - based on my capacities as a communicator, my years of experience, my maturity and my education is: "Fat f***in' chance!"

These people (V-123) will do absolutely nothing to inhibit, curtail, chastise or punish the Seekers in any way because.... without them - it's all over but the yelling!

As for Talent?: There's always new meat coming down the chute to be run through the grinder and put on the shelf - On Sale! Smile

Philip Banks · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 404

Buyers will not be told how to shop. Talent needs to have a rock star reputation before asking that all the brown M&Ms are taken out of the jar.

Gregory Houser · **Voice Talent** Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 177

I think Phil here pretty much summed up my response.

Bob Bergen · **Voice Talent** Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 224

Philip Banks · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 404

Very well put Bob. Were it possible I would be SAG/AFTRA in a heartbeat but for fairly obvious reasons I'm not. That said I am a full Equity member here in the UK and for my US gigs the agreements, where applicable, are on a par with what I would receive over here. Needless to say we have to grown up about these things.

Too much of the wanting to run with the Hare and the Hounds with a lot of people and whilst I respect the right to choose i would worry about my ability were I hired simply because the client liked me because I was $50 cheaper.

As far as I'm aware a non-union voice on a network TV commercial is the only bargain as the people who sell the advertising don't have two ratecards

"Ok Mr Smith as you used non union talent you get your air time at 50% off!"

Yesterday I went into a restaurant to audition it for a meal out next weekend. No way was I going to pay but they still should've fed me, after all there was a potential table for 5 up for grabs.

Anthony Reece · **Voice Talent** Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 53

Hey Bob and all, you know Bob is right here, yet I agree that it is very frustrating for us non-union talent who take the time to cut a custom sample to "spec", only to see it was never opened. Some even ask for a completely produced sample and on occasion, I must admit I do actually producer a spec if the budget is right, and have won jobs here and there after investing an hour or so doing so.

But the truth is, as a talent who also wears a casting / producers hat and uses the site for talent auditions if I can't find the talent in my own dB right for the part / gig, I know there are times we find what the client wants in the first 10 - 12 demos, so as much as it hurts me to admit it, I can see it from both sides.

Having said this - my thinking is, it is more important for the voice 123 team to 'pre-screen' the talent seekers better and by telephone EVERYTIME as do agents, to assure 1) they are a legitimate business, or prospect, 2) they are not some 16-year old kid playing games just for fun, 3) the prospect actually has the funds "available now" to pay talent hired, 4) the seeker is actually ready to hire the talent NOW, not in 2 -3 months. I've had all of these happen to me more than once, so I know other talent must relate to this too. Hang in there all and keep the faith.

So in the end it is more about pre-screening to me.
Anthony

Bettye Zoller · **Voice Talent** Joined: 03 Aug 2003 Posts: 163

Good to see responses hear to my post. Yes, I'm AFTRA and SAG, enjoy my pensions and my health coverage and my thirty five years as a union pro. Yes, I still am on Voice 123 and voices-com too and audition, knowing, of course, that I must turn non-union into union or let my five agents in various U.S. locations do that for me...it's not that hard if the prices are reasonable. I delete and do not touch voice seeker ads on either site that are under the mid three hundreds and more US dollars. Thus, I don't even waste my tim e with the cheapskate lowballers who aren't worth my time. So in this way, I've gotten some nice jobs off internet leads, not just these two sites, but from people who visit my website and "find me" at www.voicesvoices.com. You see, if you're union, you can pick and choose and not take the lowballers or make the jobs into the jobs you need...Good to hear from both Bob Bergen and Phillip Banks from the U.K. Real pros as most of you on this board know and fine fellows. All the best to you all. I'm in Denver right now teaching at the VASTA Conference (Voice and Speech Trainers Assoc.) and presenting a voiceover workshop here. Back home in Dallas soon. Taught at Voice 2007 on faculty with B. Bergen. Sorry didn't get to see you there Bob...I had a conflict when you presented cause was doing radio interview...heard your session was fabulous. And about my last post...yes, VOICE 123 responded to me as you all expected that they could do nothing to help talents get heard or rated from their site. So it's a crap shoot. What talents must decide, as I have done for myself, is to decide firmly where your time will be spent with auditioning for voice seekers from these sites, Voice 123 and voices-com. I only audition when I think it's a union possible job or is a union job or has solid money connected to it. One more thought which I've posted here previously, especially valuable I think for the newer vo people...when you audition, don't do the whole read. Just do part and skip sentences or words perhaps or change the tag line or firm name...do something sketchy so the voice seeker "hears you" but can't rip you off. And a PS regarding my previous post here re: the new VOICE 123 system and how so few of my auditions are being heard or rated...well, in the past couple of days more of my auditions have been heard I guess...but the ratings...no one seems to be rating...and the two people who did rate me...well, obviously the ratings were crazy...just not even "logical." But that's showbiz...

Bettye Zoller

Ronald T Robinson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 1008

Good advice from another "pro", Bettye.

However, given that subscribers have paid - up front - for explicit and implicit services, the delivery of those services has been, shall we say, less than stellar.

A few days ago, I received a total of ten leads - pretty good, one might expect.

Of those leads, some were low-ballers' holidays; some were already closed; some were, by then, deluged with auditions; one was for a "Gracie Allen-sound alike" (Hell, even my George Burns needs a lot of work!) and a couple of others were from Seekers who had yet to decide on a budget ("to be defined").

End result: ten deletions.

At least, I was able to avoid the ratings-system. Smile

Todd Ellis · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007, 18:02 (GMT) Post subject:

i think that is exactly what bettye is saying, ron. i delete a lot of audition requests on the new system too ... but i delete a lot less than i did on the old system. the low-ballers are always going to be there - and there will always be "talent" to fulfill that need. the only choice we need to make is "where do i draw MY line?" Bettye's is around $350 minimum ... that's actually pretty close to mine, and i KNOW bettye is a metric ton more talented that lil ole me. v123 is a bazaar - a marketplace ... maybe i like a $2 giant pretzel ... or i could be in the market for a tiffany lamp. i keep my membership - i audition for stuff i like - stuff within my budget range, stuff i feel i'm suited for and some i get - some i don't. i am content with V123 as PART of a marketing plan for my business. and with REAL pros like bettye, bob and philip (among others) hanging around i feel like i am in pretty good company.

Shelly Callahan · **Voice Talent** Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 2

Hey everybody,
I do wish that we could opt out of seeing the posts that are less than $100 pay or whatever limit we set. I too am frustrated with the $50 for a radio commercial or "not yet defined" which to me translates to cheap. I am not a big time voice over artist yet but have done enough to realize my time is worth more to me than $50 plus who knows how long it might play somewhere? It is good that there seems to be limits on how many auditions the client gets so maybe there will be a better chance that we will actually be heard.
Shelly

Barry Trussell · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Oct 2006 Posts: 47

Ah, the old balance of power ideology. We as voice talents on this site know the restrictions and limitations we must deal with here. Is there a voice seeker about, that may give us the other side of the story as to the limitations and restrictions specifically relating to this site, that you must deal with that might enlighten us to finding the happy medium?

How do you base your ratings?
Other than time limitations, reasons you may not rate?
Do you typically submit audtions only to this site?
How many audtions do you normally listen to for a gig?
What would prompt a low rating?

Barry

Amy Snively · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 1028

I think voice seekers should see a pop-up when they select "not yet defined" warning them that a huge segment of the V123 populace will delete them without further consideration unless they give us a little hint about whether we are in the same general ballpark or not.

Allison Scussel · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 928

Very good advice and feedback from everyone on this thread. I also received the lead for the "Gracie Allen" sound and didn't bother responding when the seeker said "Do your homework". I'm not a character voice nor do I claim to be. The statement "Do your homework" was directed towards a newbie and after almost 20 yrs in this business, I took offense to that. I know how to audition for projects I'm qualified to do. But if a voice seeker has to tell me to "do my homework", they're telling me to go back to school. Therefore; I'm overqualified for their requirements.

Just as SmartCast has the process of elimination when seeking talent, we have the right to eliminate Smart*** leads like that. A simple "We're looking for a "Gracie Allen" sound" would have been sufficient.

Just My Opinion.
~Allison~