VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Bruce]

I promised I’d report on one of my next P2P producer experiences and here we go. I posted the job here first but since I only got a few responses I decided to go to two big P2P sites (A and B) and list. I’m sure response was low from here because the rates were on the low end (auto clients…what are you gonna do with ‘em?) and I think our people have the smarts to audition for things they feel comfortable doing. These are powerful ads and I asked for big, bold and confident reads.

The main test for our purposes here was how do generic demos compare to custom auditions…can you confidently hire people just off of their demos? I listened to all generic demos first, ranking them as I went, then ranked all of the custom demos. My system was:

4 – Very appropriate, worth considering for this job
3 – Competent voice talent, probably not right for this job though
2 – Poor level of talent and/or poor quality of demo
1 – Wasting their time and money, no idea how to read or record well

I got just under 100 responses in a short period of time. Speaking of that, both audition submissions were placed by me mid-afternoon Eastern Time on Friday last week. Both services sent me acknowledgements within half an hour but A had the job posted within an hour, while the B people went home for the weekend and didn’t post it until first thing Monday morning. A people had three days to respond, B people had one day.

Out of these responses I was able to rank 7 of the generic demos as a “4”.

Out of those 7, only 3 sent a custom audition worthy of considering.

Surprisingly, maybe, 2 of the people ranked a “3” for their general demos got a “4” from me for their custom auditions and were included in the client presentation. These two were the only ones out of the whole batch who went “up a grade”. Many, many of the people I ranked lower for their custom audition than their demo because they had dramatically lower audio quality in the audition. Bad audio equipment, poor work with the mic, and often lots of room bounce due to lack of sound absorbing material in their recording space. Clearly their demos belied their actual working conditions.

Side note: This is not a vote for getting “certified” by a third party that you meet certain technical criteria. Many of the auditioners had fine audio chains and the ability to speak English clearly, but they had absolutely no idea of how to read this kind of commercial. Such certification would have been no help to me here.

Conclusion: When using less trustworthy sources of talent (I’m speaking of P2P sites versus trusted agents and production houses who can vouch for the quality of their talent and their recording environment) it appears that custom demos are a necessary process.


Some other observations: the audio quality of the keepers was good enough for me to mix with the client’s jingle and make half-length versions of the commercial to show them how they sounded in the mix, so this just confirms again you should be aware that your audition could be used if you don’t take precautions. Now I changed the copy to make it unusable on the air and told the auditioners so, so I had only a few watermarked auditions. However, ALL of the watermarked auditions were done in a VERY annoying fashion, so I recommend avoiding watermarking and instead modify the copy a bit if the client hasn’t done so already, and/or record 70 or 80% or some reasonable portion of what they want.

Seven people sent me a generic demo as their custom demo. Sorry, but that’s no help at all. A few people used Auto Dealer Demos for their generic... a good idea.

You may not be familiar with one P2P’s rating system for producers. It’s four stars and the international “No” symbol. This is the meaning they assign to them:

4 – Likely hiring
3 – Considering
2 – Maybe
1 – Not likely
Ø – Never again

Kind of optimistic…except for that last one. They really insist that you rank every audition so I did this time. It was kind of a sadistic feeling to rank about ten of these people “Never again”, but then again, someone needs to tell them. Of course now I look back on all those hopeful sounding “maybe”s that I’ve gotten and realize they were ranking me a 2 on a scale of 4………..whatever.

I hope this helps you understand how the other half might see things.

Oh yes, two were sent from this site and, of course, the client hasn't finished making up their mind as of this posting.

Back to my voice talent hat.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[bobsouer]

Bruce,

Extremely helpful observations. Thank you! Do you mind if I do a blog post pointing to this?
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
ISDN, Source Connect, phone patch

[Donna]

Very interesting information, Bruce. BTW, love your new look, you swashbuckler, you!

[Pam]

Great info Bruce! Thanks for posting this.
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Pam Tierney
www.pamtierneyvo.com
imdb profile http://imdb.com/name/nm1941932/

Now what did I come in here for?

[Chrissy]

Thanks for taking the time to gather this information together it certainly is a help.

[Tom Test]

Bruce, this really is a service to all of us. Thank you!
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Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com

[JBarrett]

Bruce, thank you for this insightful peek at "the other side".
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[Lance Blair]

Thanks Bruce! Polished generic auditions don't answer the question can you do this job now?

As for watermarks, I've been reluctant to use them as I'm afraid that some listener might dislike the type of watermark and be put off by it. So I tend to omit a phrase or sentence from the last paragraph. Is that worse?
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Lee Gordon]

[JBarrett]

The mess that I see behind that ranking system is that there's no way for an artist to know the real meaning behind the rank they receive for a given job. Is it the potential client's impression of their overall quality, or just their match for the job? While most of those ranks are worded to imply the latter, only the person applying the ranks can answer that question, which is (I believe) why I've heard many artists discourage others from paying attention to the ranks they receive.

If the artist can't know the true reason that a given rank was applied, showing that rank to the artist just promotes confusion and mis-interpretation, even though this particular site claims that the ranks can be trusted. Unless they've queried every single job seeker about the reasons behind the ranks they applied, it's all a guessing game.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/

[Bruce]

On the topic of ratings/rankings: Without coming out and saying it, I wanted indicate that the whole system is very subjective and deeply flawed really. I'm glad that very few people ever rate my auditions because now I trust none of them to be a reflection of my abilities good or bad.

Truths are: one, the only ranking that counts is you got the job or you're one of the 96 who didn't, and two it's no shame to be among the 96.

Like most producers I have a vocal style I'm seeking in my head, which I tried to describe in my directions, and seven people came closest to my idea and also showed the technical ability to send me decent audio. I've now turned it over to a handful of people at an auto dealer chain who will make their own decision on who to employ.

Lance, on what to cut out of an audition script, maybe it's better to think of what you should leave in. Most important would be key phrases and technical terms and the client's name or any slogans....something that tells them you know how to represent them well. I often leave out something in the middle so they definitely hear the open and close. With industrial scripts I'll sometimes read a couple of particularly "interesting" or challenging paragraphs instead of just the opening to show my level of ability and to shake things up among the 50 versions of the same thing. I can't tell you how well it works, but I certainly feel better when I do it that way.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[bobbinbeamo]

Very interesting, Bruce. Thanks for the time and effort to share the experience here.
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Bobbin Beam
www.bobbinbeam.com
blog.bobbinbeam.com

[Lance Blair]

Bruce, I'll often go for the meatier middle script or ending instead of the header as well.

I don't omit any good things, just random superfluous phrases that don't contain the subject.
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[TheVoiceOfBob]

I always look at the watermarking as a delicate balance. I don't want to do some sort of really annoying watermark and your comments here support that. Then again I am afraid of making it too subtle. I fear that the prospective client will feel I made a mistake, not a watermark.

Bruce, your post here is very informative! Thank you. That's a keeper.
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Try to imagine a world where there is no such thing as hypothetical situations.

The Voice of Bob

[Tom Test]

Bruce, I sometimes watermark with an audible very short soft beep that might happen once or twice in a 30 sec script. Compared to those auditions with "annoying" watermarks, would mine be considered annoying? (I can send a sample if you want).

Again, thanks!
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Best regards,
Tom Test
"The Voice You Trust"
www.tomtest.com