Who get's it and for HOW much??

James Donaldson · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Posts: 7

I too have a problem with the volume of voices chasing clients on this site and others like it. In the offline world the agencies do the sorting and forward to a client the auditions or send to auditions those voices they think are best suited to a project. That is an enormous help to a producer such as myself -

Consider this - I have a documentary to cast with a narrator. I want for instance a middle age, baritone - I want him to be able to massage the copy in a particular way. And I have two days to cast. Now either they will send over a half-dozen voices to audition or they'll do it themselves and send me a cd or file. From those I choose - or call another agency if those auditions don't satisfy me. (And they charge the client, not talent, as is done here.)

I can't remember any project that I have ever worked on where I sorted through or had the time to screen 100 - 300+ auditions. It's just not feasible. That's the agencies job.

My educated guess is that no more than 20 replies to v123 leads get a listen. And the rest are generally nuked. (Now those twenty may not be chronologically done - but I think whether the first twenty, the middle twenty or the last twenty - that's all folks.)

Which is why repeat business is so important. That is my pre-occupation here. Getting a handful of clients that keep coming back for more. And worry less and less about auditions.

As far as prices go - maybe it's the lowballers who are getting some of the work - but on average a producer has a budget in hand and you either play or pass on his prices. For me fees only matter with the top
4% of voiceover stars -(the likes of Peter Thomas, Bill St James, Hal Douglas, Larry Kenny, Fred Collins, and the "gentle bear" - and my favorite - Alan "Enterprise Cars" Bleviss....etc.) These pros are expensive but worth every far above scale penny. (And if you aren't aware of who they are you're in the wrong business!) Everyone else (and sometimes these guys) works scale (or something close) - at least here in NYC.

One other note - any audition whether here or in a studio, the producer generally knows by the time you have read your second sentence if you are his man or woman. There's no need to listen beyond that. It's not the overall read but the nuances that a producer is listening for. Phrasing, tone, pace, voice - punching the right words (how would you massage *succulent* for example to make it sound appetizing?) - whoever is creating the spot already knows in his/her mind exactly what they are listening for - so in those twenty picks I mentioned above - you have maybe two sentences of script to convey the message or you are nuked. Anything more than a paragraph of copy in a cyber-demo is a waste of your and my time. You have to understand how quickly the sorting is done by the voice-seekers as they are dubbed here.

I'm rambling I guess .....

Suffice it to say that this is a brave new adventure but many of the tried and true rules still apply.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006, 21:00 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello James,

Welcome to the forums. Your concerns are totally valid and we understand your position.
Regarding the amount of talents auditioning for a single lead and the amount of auditions really being heard, well (as you probably know) Voice123 is doing a few upgrades really soon, ones that will help address these.

A new filtering tool ¨Voice123 SmartCast¨ soon will give the options to the clients on selecting how many auditions they want to listen to, also will act as a filtering agent for selecting the most appropriate talents to audition.

Voice123 is changing and improving to become more professionally focused and at the same time offer better chances of landing gigs.

We’ll be able to see these very soon.

Sal Monistere · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 3

John, may I say 'DUhhhh' for all of us who didn't think of this already? Now my question is, you posted in late October... how long do you think it'll take to find out if Voice 123 agrees... and puts the plan into action? As crazy as this may seem, would anyone consider being 'categorized' as
(1.) New-willing to work for $25
(2.) Some experience-willing to work for $50
(3) Exp Voice - $100 minimum
(4) Seasoned Pro - If ya gotta ask, you can't afford it.
Now I'm being a little silly, I know, but is there SOME way to separate the low budget gigs from the 'professional level' gigs.??? Voice 123???

Alex Torrenegra · Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006, 15:26 (GMT) Post subject:

Thank you all for your comments. We agree with them and we are developing plans to address them. I assure you it is just a matter of time.

Please keep the criticism coming!

Robert Jadah · **Voice Talent** Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 2627

Gents:
Just my three-cents' worth:
John's right, of course, but the high-end bookings will still go through agencies and producers. By and large, Voice 123 posters are rummaging for non-professional voice deals. It's a bazaar, and if we don't want to perform for the multitudes, we shouldn't be here.
I think the problem is a rampant scatter-gun optimism, where far too many V123'ers submit to each and every posting. When I see 252 replies to a very specific request, I know that a lot of talents are wildly submitting Generics from desk jobs in the real world. It clutters the scene for no sensible reason.
Respectfully, though, I don't see the need for some tiered filtering system when we already have one. It's called 'Delete'. Much in line with John's theme, I'm down to submitting 4 or 5 suitable auds a week now. My frenzy factor is way down, and my booking percentage is up.
And Sal, I listened to your primary demo. For what it's worth, I thought it ruled. Great flexibility, production, range, etc.
No wonder it's tough to get gigs around here.
Robert Jadah