VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Scott Pollak

Okay, to me, this takes the cake.
The Mother of all horrendous P2P leads.
From V123:

"I am currently a student and have a textbook which would be easier for me to learn via an audiobook. It is a medical textbook in dermatology and thus has many pictures.

The textbook is 968 pages but the actual text is ~911 with ~788 words per page.

I will provide the entire textbook for the process"

Budget: $1000 - $2500 depending on quality

I did some calculations and 911 pages, averaging 788 words per page, comes to almost 718,000 words. At roughly 9300 words per audio hour, we're talking a SEVENTY-SEVEN HOUR NARRATION FOLKS!

And wait, that's not the best part!

It's a MEDICAL BOOK! So you KNOW there are going to be a zillion great medical terms in it. There are even some in the sample script he provided, such as: evanescent, edematous, dermatographism, urticarial vasculitis and many more.

77 hours of narration, with a realistic 4:1 hour of production time would be over 300 hours of work. Or several months. For a MAXIMUM of $2500. Or around $8/hour.

The most frightening part?

He already had 11 auditions submitted!

OMG. I mean, truly, OMG.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:58 pm Post subject:

It's obviously atrocious, but I also wouldn't expect a medical student to have the first clue about audiobook rates.
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

ccpetersen · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:59 pm Post subject:

he'll learn soon enough that what he paid won't be enough to compensate for the mispronounced words.

And, a medical student who can't bother to learn by reading? Do you really want this kind of person as your doctor?

How is he/she/it going to keep up with literature in his/her/its field? Read patient records?

Jacob Ekstroem · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:53 am Post subject:

Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:04 am Post subject:

It's not the STUDENT who worries me, it's the people who RESPONDED TO THE AUDITION! OMG... they have NO CLUE what they're getting themselves into!

BTW, some years ago I was actually a 'standardized test patient' part-time for a company that tested foreign medical students studying here in the States, working on acquiring their residency. We tested them in a number of areas such as inter-personal skills, communication skills and so on. It was frightening how many of them failed.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

Chuck Davis · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:31 am Post subject:

That one must have been a repost. I remember seeing that audition over a month ago on V123.
_________________
Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com

Fran McClellan · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 6:08 am Post subject:

Hmmm...wonder if the publisher of the textbook would like to know how much demand there is for an audiobook version (and hopefully they would pay quite a bit more to have it done Wink

)
_________________
Back into the murky lurk from whence I came
--
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:49 am Post subject:

well ... he doesn't mention any kind of time line. what if i read 1/2 a page a day -1st thing in the morning - as a warm up - then billed him $20/week thru - say mid-july, we'd be all good, right?

cheap
right
fast

pick 2.
_________________
"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

Bruce · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:47 am Post subject:

I'm more worried that a future dermatologist doesn't physically want to look at one of his text books. What kind of frikkin' doctor is he going to be?

B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

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

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:01 am Post subject:

i repeat:

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:16 am Post subject:

dr. van nostrand -- freckle's ugly cousin
_________________
sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:27 am Post subject:

personally, i prefer a julliard trained dermatologist.
_________________
"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:33 am Post subject:

yes, or as an alternative, a colorado school of mines-trained dermatologist
_________________
sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:39 am Post subject:

well - they BOTH have "picking" experience!

WE are ON today!
_________________
"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

Mike Harrison · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:48 am Post subject:

There may be some things we can learn by reading text or listening to speech. But for something like this, what kind of person considering themselves to be a committed professional – especially a doctor – would choose to forego any visual examples of the various steps or before-and-after views of procedures they will be expected to perform?

Sadly, somewhere, out there, also exists a 180° clone of this type of person; he or she who chooses to learn by pictures only.

(In a nod to our dearly departed Dick Tufeld) "Danger, Will Robinson!"
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.