VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

rcz1978 · Joined: 29 Mar 2010 Posts: 4

Recommended that I post this to the general board:

Hello, all! Not new to recording voices and the production world, but new to the Professional VO world!

It's taken me a long while to get my home studio setup with the right gear and decent sound deadening materials, but am finally decent to get going on my career in VO.

I took a master course last July in VO for training. By no means do I think that instantly I am now a professional, but I have always thought I did have the desire and drive to do this. I had a voice coach take me through a professionally recorded demo for narration and commercial (and in the near future would love to do animation and VG... I LOVE goofy characters aside from my real voice). My instructor felt I had an excellent range in my abilities, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to start getting work.

There was recommendations of doing voices.com or voice123.com, but have recently read some terrible things about those member-based services that they aren't all they're cracked up to be and that no one should have to pay to be a talent.

I'm taking a shot in the dark and seeing if anyone has any recommendations to some good places to look for work. I'm sure there's a plethora of places online and I have searched on google a lot and trying to find little cliques of organizations to explore. I came upon this BB by chance and seems to be a wonderful community of people in the industry.

While I know there is an established scale rate out there, I do have trouble deciding what I should charge, but that's a whole other topic and need to take baby steps.

I am working on a good landing page for my work, but for now my demos are found at vfademos.com/rczaplinski.

I would like to know if my concerns are on-the-mark or should I be signing up for these outside websites like VOICES or VOICE123? There's got to be a lot of other means to getting my demos out to potential clients.

I appreciate any response and would value any feedback you have for me in regards to anything.

I really wish I started doing this about 5 years ago. Life happens and you just get busy, but I'm finally doing this and am very excited about it.

Best,
Ryan

bobsouer · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:13 pm Post subject:

Ryan,

There's a ton of gold buried in the archives here, including much discussion about Voices.com and Voice123.com, plus and minus. I would recommend you use the search function. Also, take time to read through the archives of Philip Banks' posts and Bruce Miles' posts.

I think you'll find that there is no "golden method" for building a successful voiceover business. Each of us has our own path filled with both success and failure. I don't remember which old inventor it was who said "the fastest way to success is to increase your number of failures"; but he hit the nail right on the head. Persist, keep growing and improving and you will succeed.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:40 am Post subject:

One of these sites may work for you so if you have $300 you can afford to lose then why not take the gamble?

Bruce · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:34 am Post subject:

When you search also try the term "V123". We've often abbreviated it, much in the same way Harry Potter and his associates often say, "He Who Must Not Be Named".

B
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bobsouer · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:40 am Post subject:

Bruce,

You mean Voldemort? Ninja

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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

Lizden · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:54 am Post subject:

Bob!...Nooooooooooooo! Wink

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Bruce · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:00 am Post subject:

Damn it man! Now you've gone and done it. Now everyone will know it's really Voldemort123 that's behind all this!

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 · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:04 am Post subject:

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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

rcz1978 · Joined: 29 Mar 2010 Posts: 4

Thank you very much, everyone for your input, I really appreciate it. I'm still trying to find my way around all the archives and if I brought up questions that make the eyes roll in the back of your head that has been asked many times I apologize. I will navigate around and find some info.

I also appreciate the feedback on these sites. I guess it would be hard to take some of these people's word for it when they say they haven't got much work from it, BUT then again maybe they just didn't have the voice these companies were looking for, so I'm sure it varies between each person. I might have a voice that person X absolutely wasn't picturing, but then person Y wants a voice exactly matching mine. I gotta start somewhere and would be willing to at least try some of these places out and see. Not everyone's voice is the same, so I have to keep that in mind that this is my voice and no one elses.

Truly though, thank you for all your input! I really appreciate it very much and am happy to be here amongst great people!

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:10 am Post subject:

i don't usually chime in on the ptp sites but i will say this: when a colleague told me yesterday he pays $30 a month for access to auditions (but hasn't landed anything yet), my resposne was "someone is LOVING your $30 a month." that someone, of course, is the person/people behind the ptp site. multiply his $30 by hundreds or thousands of "members" and whose interests are at stake?

ymmv.
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asnively · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:13 am Post subject:

But, if you're not otherwise represented, and a dollar a days gets you access to pro scripts with which to practice, and you're clever enough to use this lever to improve as a viable talent, then I can see the potential value.
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Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:15 am Post subject:

indeed! um, i left out that part Embarrassed

, where he said he gets a lot of benefit from it merely from the practice and hearing what others are doing.
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

Philip Banks · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:24 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure how my skills as a Baseball player would improve if I paid $30 per month to hang out with the little leaguers.

bobsouer · Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 3:31 pm Post subject:

Philip,

Do they have little leagues in cricket?
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express