VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

jsgilbert · Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 8:57 am Post subject:

I only mentioned the "5 minute" issue because, you presented numbers that were based upon it. A 10 -20% variation is one thing, but if it is indeed 7 or 7.5 minutes, etc. then it is quite an entirely different data set. And sin e you seemed to be pondering whether continued auditioning via this P2P made sense for YOUI'd suggest that looking at 7 minutes (which is still far too fast in my opinion to properly analyze copy), but what do I know.

Another thing to look at is the 22 gigs = $2,500. It would seem that the projects you were awarded were int he $100 or less range for the most part. You might want to look at the price ranges of the auditions you had been doing. If for example the bulk of the jobs you won were $100, and of the 1,226 auditions, only 300 were in that price category, then you have some additional valuable information.

As for a comment I saw about 10% booking ratio. What a crock.

As for the 10% booking ration b.s. I'm not sure who, what or when those numbers may apply. Among a group of v.o. talent I work with and call friends, most of whom have names you would never recognize, but simply the history of earning $250,000 per year fairly regularly in v.o., non have anywhere close to a 10% booking ratio. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago when auditions tended to be more localized, you might see 6 or 7%, but certainly not know. Consider that many talent today, will have less than a 10% chance of even having an average VoiceBank audition heard. One of my agents alone will often present 40 top talent's auditions to a project. That's top talent. Nobody there booking 10%.

"Doing well", "being busy", going "full time" are completely subjective terms. Booking ratios are completely subject to what you are auditioning for. You could book one job and a year later go condo shopping, or you could be booking like a demon and hanging out on fiver.com.
_________________
j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com

"today is the first day of the rest of the week"

Ben Amos · Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 9:15 am Post subject:

I agree completely, JS., especially with your last point. I'd much sooner book a single gig that pays residuals till the cows come home than be booking like a madman for $100 at a time. I had lunch with one of the local SAG-AFTRA board members yesterday, and that was the crux of his message, when it arose in conversation.
_________________
"Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish." - Jean de la Fontaine

Philip Banks · Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 9:21 am Post subject:

P2P ...... All you need to know is that the ugliest boy in school does not get to ask all the girls to line up so he may get to choose one for a date.

Jason Huggins · Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 9:24 am Post subject:

Yes, if that was the case then my pricing would be low. It was actually around $5000 for the 22 jobs. $2500 in actual job postings, and another $2500 for referrals and repeat business. Even though those aren't really high paying jobs, most of them were 1-2 minute and in the area of $250.

If my booking ratio was 10%, I would be ecstatic! I'd be killing it! That would be around 120 jobs on this P2P, and (even if they were all just $150) I would have made upwards of $18,000 this year in the amount of time I spent (whatever that really may be).

Maybe my audition time is impacting my booking ratio. I just did an audition, and it took about 4 minutes. This was, however, an audition that was looking for my signature voice, and was written well enough that I didn't need to read it 10 times to get the copy.

Experiment #1: Does auditioning more effectively increase my booking ratio?

Experiment #2: Does taking more time to break down the copy increase my booking ratio?

You are totally right about the numbers, and I DEFINITELY value and appreciate your input (and all of the other experienced VOs input). It truly does take a lot of my time (maybe getting closer to 20%), but that's probably my fault for taking the time to audition for people who won't hire me anyway.

Ben Amos · Posted: Thu May 02, 2013 9:35 am Post subject:

My agency auditions have informed my P2P auditions in that I learned to do multiple takes back-to-back, then sort out the wheat from the chaff in editing. Not exactly an epiphany for many, I'm sure, but it gives me stuff to work with in case that particular audition needs to be Frankensteined together.

Blew my mind when my producer on a project told me to relax about not getting it in one take. She played back the best of the 9 passes that we did after some keyboard wizardry and it sounded AMAZING. For some reason, I had it in my head that submitting auditions like that was cheating. It's called voiceover. Smile

_________________
"Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish." - Jean de la Fontaine

captain54 · Lucky 700 Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 744 Location: chicago

It's interesting.. no one every really mentions the ratio of bookings/auditions in terms of the auditions that are SAG-AFTRA agency submissions.. because there is no way to really track those numbers.. but probably shocking and discouraging... becomes akin to winning the lottery...

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 12:47 pm Post subject:

Jason Huggins · Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 3:15 pm Post subject:

I can see your point, but the flaw with that is that the producer is listening to 75 other voices at the same time. When I call a producer and he/she listens to my demo, I'm not being pitted against anyone but the voice in the producer's head (which is really all we are competing against anyway).

When all is said and done, if I fix my process and only audition for stuff I should audition for, and take a bit more time with the auditions, it IS one more basket with eggs. Getting $5000 worth of work after spending $300 is still not a bad investment...until I've got car companies shipping me vehicles after a session, I'll probably keep diversifying Smile

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 5:55 pm Post subject:

jsgilbert · Posted: Mon May 06, 2013 10:50 am Post subject:

Demos are mostly ignored. That's pretty much the size of it. If you have an incredible network of advocacy and somebody says I "have" to hear your demo, and vouches for you, then...

I've had way too many individuals who barely knew what end of a microphone get an overlapped audio engineer come in and have them do 40 takes, then beautifully produce the work, to the point where demos mean far less than they used to.

If I am casting via an online casting service (sorry I hate the term P2P), I can tell whether your gear and/or recording environment are up to snuff, natural tendencies at copy interpretation, personal choices, vocal aspects, limitations, deficiencies, strengths and specifically what you sound like reading copy that I've written or will be producing (or both).

I have often been surprised at reads that I expected to be much stronger, reads that blew me away and sadly reads that were destroyed by an individuals lack of understanding of acoustics and audio engineering.
_________________
j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com

"today is the first day of the rest of the week"