POLL - Our Membership Audition Usage

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008, 18:46 (GMT) Post subject:

What cuties! They don't look bitter at all.

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 17:49 (GMT) Post subject: A few final words.

Please forgive me if I made it seem as though I was defending Voice123 in terms of the manner in which they may be doing business. I honestly didn't see that as the point.

My point being that a membership in Voice 123 is clearly for one person (and yes that doesn't explain why there are some production companies here).
My feeling was that once notified of a policy violation, at that point if indeed it was an honest mistake, then clearly that should be the end of it.

Perhaps the number of people expressing high levels of entitlement on the attached poll, as in letting anybody I want audition via my membership, have never been on the other end of the stick. It is a business model that has been and continues to be used by thousands of businesses from Costco to most gyms to the auto club.

As for the rules always changing, I beleive it was Einstein who said (after the dropping of the first A-bomb) "Everything about us is changing except for the way that we think".

The "rules" are constantly changing, expecially in a dynamic environment such as the internet and in an industry like voiceover. I entered into this industry on the tail ends of when this business required that someone be able to prefectly deliver a radio commercvial in 58.5 seconds in a single read as quickly as possible. It was also a time before the introduction of ISDN lines and home recording studios. It was even before talent agents had audition booths. And the odd thing is that, historically it wasn't all that long ago.

While I would expect anybody like a Voice123 to change and adapt, I simply cannot fault them for attempting to enforce a basic tenant of a subscription service and one that seems to be fairly obvious.

As for those of us who might be reaching out for "kid's voices", there are at least 12 women I know in V123 who I would recommend above most actual kids for numerous reasons.

Perhaps it might make sense for V123 to develop various plans to meet additional needs of its users. Until then, they seem to have made it clear what at least this policy is.

Allen Brown · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 20:15 (GMT) Post subject:

How would our keepers prove that it wasn't you doing the child's voice?

Just say you have great pitch changing software. Or, tight underwear. Or, you just inhaled helium. Or, it's a hormonal thing...comes and goes."
Wink

Diane Havens · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 20:16 (GMT) Post subject:

Quoting Einstein here is somewhat ironic in that the man also said, "Long live impudence!"

So, if Einstein were a voice actor ... no, no, that's just too funny to even try to imagine.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 20:53 (GMT) Post subject: Re: A few final words.

Diane Havens · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 21:19 (GMT) Post subject:

Actually, though he was being delightfully humorous, I think Allen raises a good point. Many people here do a wide range of voices -- accents, ages, and the like, which are not recognizable as their natural voices. How, then, could it be proven that it is or is not indeed you, the member and most excellent versatile actor, or "you", your aged Hungarian grandmother, or "you" your precocious 10 year old daughter, doing the audition?

Bearing in mind there just may be those, I repeat, just may be any so unscrupulous among us?

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 21:35 (GMT) Post subject:

Al just emailed me this pic of his new mic w/stand, mount and built in light. He got it at Costco.

And J.S., you will never be accused of being an apologist, for you're always too busy playing devil's advocate to all us naughty little monkeys. Wink

Diane Havens · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008, 23:04 (GMT) Post subject:

Yeah, he's smart -- but I was not convinced by his voice of an eight year old boy.

However, I hear he may be working on a new algortihm with the 123 team, so that our stats can be calculated by the mass of our submissions multiplied by the square of the speed of the light by which which we produced them -- no more than an hour's worth, of course. He says it will work more simply than what they now have in place.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008, 00:36 (GMT) Post subject:

There actually was a lead a couple of days ago over at Voices that called for someone to be the voie of Albert Einstein.
They didn't supply a script, so I made up my own.

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008, 02:46 (GMT) Post subject:

And it won't surprise you to know Al didn't get invited. Guess he was being smartcastigated for replying to the 8-year-old boy lead.

Doug Parks · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008, 14:52 (GMT) Post subject:

Melba, you are so deliciously evil at times.

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008, 15:33 (GMT) Post subject:

Aw, Doug....you always know how to say just what a girl wants to hear. Laughing