The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over (46 page)

Many large companies have in-house production units, while others hire outside production houses and work with agents. There will usually be someone who is in charge of coordinating promotion and advertising that may require the use of voiceover performers.

One problem in reaching people who use voice talent is figuring out which companies are likely to need your services. Some possibilities are:

• Watch local TV and listen to the radio.
  Look for local advertisers who are doing commercials with voiceover talent.
  
• Call advertisers and ask who coordinates their radio and TV advertising.
  Radio stations frequently use station staff for local commercials, and will not charge their advertisers a talent fee. You need to convince these advertisers why they should pay you to do voiceover work when the radio station does it for free. This can be a real challenge! When talking directly to radio advertisers, you need to put yourself in a class above the radio DJ. Some advertisers like the celebrity tie-in by using station talent. Others may simply prefer to spend as little as possible on advertising. You can get work from these people, but you may need to educate them so they understand the value of using you instead of doing it themselves or using a DJ for their commercials. You may find that they have other uses for voiceover talent for which you would be far more qualified than a DJ.
  
• Contact your local chamber of commerce.
  Get a list of the largest companies in your area. Many of them will use voiceover performers and some will do in-house production.
  
• Check the local newspapers.
  Call advertisers that you think might be likely prospects.
  
• Use resource directories.
  Many cities have a resource directory or a service bureau that can provide you with specific information about businesses in the area. Or, your chamber of commerce may be able to provide this information.
  

When you contact a nonbroadcast business that has a production unit, start by asking to talk to the creative, promotion, or marketing department. You should talk to a producer or director. Don’t ask for advertising or sales, or you may be connected to a sales rep. If you ask for the production department, you may end up talking to someone running an assembly line.

Television stations can be a good source for bookings. They use voiceover for all sorts of projects, many of which are never aired. At a TV station, the production department handles most audio and video production. Some TV stations may even have separate production units for commercials, station promotion, and sales and marketing projects. Start by asking to talk to the production manager, an executive producer, or someone in creative services. You may end up talking to someone in the promotion department, because a promotion producer frequently uses more voiceover talent than anyone else at the station.

Recording studios usually will not be a good source for work, simply because most recording studios specialize in music recording. Usually, those that produce a lot of commercials work with performers hired by an ad agency or client. Some studios do a limited amount of producing and writing, and may book their voiceover talent from a pool of performers they work with regularly. In most cities, there are at least one or two studios that specialize in producing radio commercials. Use good judgment when sending your demo to recording studios. You might be wasting your time, but then, you never know from where your next job might appear. Some studios will recommend voice talent when asked.

Of course, contacting advertising agencies directly is another good way to reach the person who books talent. At an ad agency, the person you want to reach is the in-house agency producer (AP). Some ad agencies may have several in-house producers, and some agencies have account executives (AE) who work double duty as producers. If there is any doubt, ask to speak to the person who books or approves voiceover talent.

There are no hard-and-fast rules here. As you call around, you just need to try to find the correct contact person. Once you connect, use the basic marketing techniques described in this chapter to promote yourself.

As you can see, the amount of marketing research and legwork can be daunting. If you take it in small steps, and in an organized manner, you will, in time, develop a consistent and effective marketing plan.

In
Chapter 22
, “Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Voiceover,” Robert Sciglimpaglia, a voice actor and practicing attorney, provides a detailed look at the legal aspects of working in voiceover.

Many experienced producers have a very good understanding of what it takes to record a quality voice track, or produce a complete production. They have been through the production process many times and know what it is like to work with voice talent of all levels of experience. There are many others, however, who have no experience working with voice talent, and have absolutely no idea of what is involved in voice recording and audio production. For a voice talent just getting started, the unfortunate reality is that many first-time clients will be inexperienced and uneducated in the world of audio production, voice recording, and voiceover work in general. As a voice actor, it’s not your job to educate your client, but that may be something you’ll need to do as part of your negotiations.

Another aspect of voiceover reality is that other producers eager to maximize their profits may be willing to take advantage of beginning voice
talent. If you don’t know your personal worth, and how to negotiate your fee, it could be a very long time before you begin to see any financial success as a voice actor.

Keep in mind, as you talk to prospective clients, that the fee they offer is not necessarily the fee you will actually receive for professional work. Your potential client may have a price in mind, which is based on completely uneducated and unrealistic expectations. You, on the other hand, may have a fee in mind that is considerably different, based on your knowledge of your investment, your understanding of what it will take to complete their job, and your level of skill. The purpose of a negotiation is to arrive at a level of compensation that is mutually agreeable to both parties. The bottom line in this business is “everything is negotiable.” If a prospective client is unwilling to negotiate with you regarding your compensation, you may be wise to reconsider working with that individual.

It is not uncommon for clients booking through Internet audition sites to offer a fee that, at first glance, may appear reasonable, but upon closer examination is little more than minimum wage for a considerable amount of specialized work. Here are two examples of how you can evaluate a potential booking to determine if it will be worth your time and energy:

One thousand dollars—not bad for a few hours of recording time, right? But take a closer look: the project is two thousand pages long. A quick calculation will reveal that this producer is offering only $0.50 per page to record this project! Still, $1,000 is a lot of money! Or is it?

Let’s say you estimate that an average completed double-spaced page will take about 1 minute to read. Now triple that because you’ll need to edit your recordings and it will take at least an additional 2 minutes of editing time for every minute of completed voice track.

We’re now up to 6,000 minutes for recording and editing. Divide 6,000 by 60 minutes and you get 100 hours of work to complete this project. And that’s assuming everything goes extremely smoothly.

But wait a minute! You take a look at the script, and you discover the trial had something to do with the biotech Industry and there are lots of technical terms sprinkled throughout the script. Better be safe and add another minute for each page to allow for mistakes and retakes.

Let’s be conservative and estimate that it will take about 5 minutes of recording and production time for every minute of completed voice track. We’re now at 10,000 minutes—or roughly 166 hours—or about 4 weeks! At their offering fee of $1,000 you’ll be making a total income of about $6.00 per hour. The reality is that it will probably take 6 or 7 minutes for
each completed minute, so your actual work may be more and your compensation considerably lower. Even if this client is willing to negotiate a higher talent fee, it will most likely not come even close to anything reasonable for the amount of your effort involved. And don’t forget that you won’t be able to work on anything else while you’re recording this epic project. Although 50 cents per page may be a reasonable price for the client, after factoring in your time, it really isn’t a very good deal for you. Is your time—and are you—really worth that little?

This example, based on an actual audition request, shows that you need to have a very clear understanding of what your involvement will be in a project before you can realistically discuss price. Unfortunately, there are some voice talent who only look at the offered fee and don’t take the time to properly evaluate projects like this.

Before you can provide a realistic estimate, or discuss your talent fee with a prospective client, you need to know as much as possible about what you will be doing. You need to know the going market rate for comparable work, and you need to place a value on your time and performing abilities.

Consider this: You’ve auditioned for, and landed a voiceover job for a 60-second radio commercial for a midsized market. The audition took you 10 minutes to record, edit, and send out. The job will pay $150, and based on the script, you expect it will take you about a half hour to record, edit, and deliver the final project. That works out to $150 for about a half-hour’s work, or $300 per hour. Pretty good pay, right? Wrong!

That $150 gig may be the only job that came in that week—or that month. Let’s say you spent 10 hours recording and sending out auditions before you got this job, plus another 5 hours on the phone and sending out email. Now, consider what you’ve spent on phone calls, postage, your website, marketing, training, and everything else that led up to this job.

Just taking into consideration the 15 hours you spent that week, you’re looking at a gross income of about $10/hour for that $150 job. But don’t forget that the IRS will want part of that income, so you’ll actually net something in the neighborhood of $5–$7 dollars/hour for that $150 job.

The point here is that before you can negotiate a reasonable fee for your voiceover work, you must know the value of your time and talent.

If you haven’t already, start right now thinking of your voiceover work as a business. Your objective as a business owner is to make a profit, and to do that you have to be smart about how you use your time and energy, and how you price your services. As voice talent, we may never be able to change the way producers think. However, we can control the way we think about what we do, and we can control what we charge for our services.

When one of my students asks about what they should charge, I suggest they first do some homework. Find out what the best Union voice talent would be paid for the same work. You’ve spent a lot of time, money, and energy getting yourself to the point where you can market yourself as a professional voice talent who can compete with the best talent out there. You deserve to be fairly compensated for your work. Even if you’re booking your first job, that is no reason for you to undercut your worth. If you have the talent and ability to provide the same quality of work as a veteran voice actor, you should be compensated accordingly.

If you establish yourself as “working for cheap,” you may get yourself into a rut that could be difficult to get out of later on. At the very least, it will be extremely difficult raising your fee for a client you’ve already worked for at a “bargain basement rate.” In voiceover work, it’s always easier to pull you back than to push you out. The same is true with your fees. You can always lower your fees, but it can be extremely difficult to raise them.

As with many things in this world, perception is a very large factor for determining value. The way you perceive your personal value as a voice actor will affect how you determine your fees.

If you are a member of AFTRA, SAG, or another performing artists union, your talent fees are set by your union. Through a process of collective bargaining, these unions have determined what are considered to be reasonable performance fees for different types of work. These
scale
fees are posted on their websites at
www.aftra.com
and
www.sag.org
. These posted talent fees are not negotiable and are considered as the lowest level of compensation. Signatory producers have agreed to pay the posted minimum fees, or a higher fee that might be negotiated by an agent. This is one advantage of being a union member—you know in advance what your base talent fee will be for any given type of work. Another aspect of being a union member is that you are automatically perceived by the talent buyer as having a certain level of expertise and professionalism.

If you are nonunion, you will need to negotiate your talent fee with your client at the time you are booked. But before you can begin any sort of realistic negotiation, you need to establish a
fee schedule
that outlines your specific fees for specific types of work.

Only you can determine your personal value as a freelance voiceover performer. The process begins by identifying the type or types of voiceover work you are best suited for. Once you’ve figured out what you do best, the next step is to identify the market price for comparable voiceover work in those areas. It used to be that you could simply make some phone calls in your city to gauge the current talent fees, but no more. The Internet has changed all that, and your market is now the world. When you submit an audition, you may have no idea what city the producer is in or how your
recording will be used, so you may have no real information upon which to base your fee—yet most producers want you to provide a quote for the job you are auditioning. This is why it is important to establish your personal value as a voice talent.

You have made a major investment in developing your business and performing skills to get where you are. If your performing skills are at a level where you can effectively compete with other professional voice talent—and the fact that you are getting calls for work proves that you are—then why would you consider yourself any less professional than they are? Why should you accept a talent fee of anything less than other professional voice talent?
Low-balling
, or under pricing, your talent fees may get you the job, but the practice does a disservice not only to the voice talent accepting the fee, but to everyone else in the business as well. It tends to lower the bar, which can only result in lower quality work at cheaper prices. To get, and keep, the best clients, you need to develop a high perceived value, and provide excellent work at fair and competitive prices—not the “cheapest” price. You may be better off starting with a higher fee and negotiating to an acceptable middle-ground.

One way to set your personal talent fees is to use union scale as a starting point, even if you are nonunion. When negotiating with clients you can, of course, mention that you are nonunion and therefore can be somewhat flexible with your talent fee. By starting at union scale, you are telling your client that you are a professional and there is an industry wide value for the work you are being asked to do that needs to be appreciated. Where you go from there is up to you, and it’s what the rest of the negotiation process is about. But you’ve got to start someplace. Here are some considerations as you set your personal talent fees:

• Your experience and abilities:
  How good are you at setting character quickly, finding the right interpretation, seeing the big picture, working as a team player, taking direction, etc? The more skilled you are as a performer, the more likely you will be able to demand a higher fee—especially once you have established a name for yourself and are confident with the work you do.
  
• Prior experience and clients:
  Have you already done some work for a few satisfied clients? If so, their names may help to establish credibility and thus help to justify a higher fee. Be sure to consider any recent work for inclusion in your demo, but make sure it’s good enough in both recording quality and in performance quality.
  
• The client’s budget:
  If you’re nonunion freelance voice talent, you’ll need to be flexible and decide if you want to work for a minimal fee (which is all that many small or independent producers are willing to pay). Keep in mind that local radio stations will often give away production and voice talent for free just to get an advertiser to buy time on their station, and many independent producers will offer to do the voice work themselves in an effort to save a few bucks.
  Your challenge as a voice artist is to offer a service that is superior and more effective for the client than what they can get anywhere else.
  
• Can you justify your fee?:
  This gets back to your abilities. If you market yourself with professional print materials, a dynamite demo, and an awesome website, you had better be able to meet the level of expectations of your client when they book you for a session. If you give the appearance of an experienced pro, but can’t deliver, word will spread fast and it may be a long time before you can overcome a negative image. The challenge in setting your fee is to match the fee to your abilities and the market, and still be within the range of other freelance talent, without creating an impression that you will “work cheap” or that you are “overpriced.”
  
• Consider your market:
  Nonunion talent fees vary greatly from market to market. In order to set an appropriate fee for your services, you’ll need to find out what other voice actors are getting paid in your area or for similar work. In your own city you can call the production department of local radio and TV stations, and advertising agencies to ask what they usually pay for nonunion work. However, if the work is out of your city, you may have no other option than to simply decide if the fee offered by a producer is worth your time and energy.
  

Your training is of less importance than your abilities as an actor. Of course, you must have a great sounding demo, but you need to have the abilities to match. Don’t ever think you know all there is to know about working with voiceover copy. Continue taking classes and workshops, read books, and practice your craft daily.