VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Philip Banks]

Posted this on a UK site as a response to an interestig topic about very low rates but it may be worth repeating.

If you accept that the market and prices for VO work is collapsing here's something to contemplate.

At the top of the tree we see people who suck at running their businesses buying "production work" from people who suck at running their businesses who "sub contract" work to VO people who also suck at running their businesses. Net result is the end product is wasted on the target market and the person at the bottom end of the food chain can't earn a living.

We can improve perception by accepting that anyone is free to do what we do but not everyone is able to add value to a production, even at the bargain basement level.

"How dare you offer me £3, away with you foul beast before I summon a Constable!" Knee jerk reaction.

"Brilliant! Thanks for the offer. Sadly I am unable to work for less than £170 per script (or figure that works for you) so perhaps you'd like to consider putting me on your site and telling clients that I am a premium voice so a special rate applies, please ask for details" Better response? Won't work? Cost you nothing to try?

FANFARE - Here is my magic spell, my killer secret. I say YES to every job offer..EVERY SINGLE JOB OFFER..NO EXCEPTION. The thing is that there's always a polite ...BUT. Usually the "but" makes the eejits go away and when that happens they tend to feel ok about it.

With foreign imports it is possible to buy a new car in the UK for around £7,000 so it follows that Rolls Royce dealers are now struggling, doesn't it?

"Awww that's not the same you fat, bald, gobsh*te!"

Actually from a marketing point of view it is. People will go out of their way, including take on debt and pay over the odds to get what they want or feel they need. What makes them look or in our case makes their business sound good. Get the formula right and ignore the "mixed bag of voice overs in a variety colours for £4.99 + P&P" market and there is a reasonable living to be had.

[Bish]

[heyguido]

[Philip Banks]

.........and let's not forget. Winners never quit and quitters never win so you gotta for it because when the going gets tough the toughs get going as it'll move your career to the next level. It's about service to the words for those who understand that it IS voice ACTING. Paying it forward is very much giving back to the industry. When you walk through a storm hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of the lark. Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on walk on with hope in your heart and you'll never walk alone. You'll never walk alone.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. Of course, there's NOTHING quite like a McDonalds.

[Dayo]

You get what you pay for in this and every other business. Nothing has changed. But the most risky thing you can do today is be safe.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and don't ever, ever leave your cake out in the rain.
_________________
Colin Day - UK Voiceover
www.thurstonday.co.uk

[Bish]

... and as I read, the strains of Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance" churn away just below the surface, underpinning the stoicism and fortitude of the lone entrepreneur facing the hostilities of shrinking market capital.

... We few, we happy few, we band of voiceoverists; For he today that holds his rates shall be my brother, be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition; and voiceoverists now just a dollar-a-holler or a fivrr-a-shot shall think themselves accurs'd and hold their talents cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon I'm-worth-it day.
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Bruce]

Amass dear rhetoric, I see thee now!



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

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

[melissa eX]

I think the PB's need to get a room.

[Bish]

I took last Sunday off and treated myself to eight hours of Shakespeare. I think it's started to leak.
_________________
Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Leslie Humble]

May I play?

Is it to be that a penny saved is a penney earned or does a fast nickel beat a slow dime? Whether its nobler to suffer penury in silence or by raising rates forever trod the hallowed halls of Shylock. Early to bed and early to rise in service to the VO Gods shall earn your place in Valhalla only if you have paid the piper and greased the Ferryman of Styx properly. I have not yet begun to fight that which wastes my powers of the gift the giftie gie us to hear ourselves as others hear us. Don't tread on me ye placaters of satan with your purses as closed and tight as a widow taking her coals to Newcastle. Forget not the parable of the Ant and the Grasshopper lest you find that narrow is the path and straight is the way that leadeth to my eating pudding before my porridge!
_________________
There are rules to the Universe. Learn them and prosper. www.HumbleVoiceover.com

[kkuhlken]

D*mmit (as if that carefully placed asterisk really masks the word), Speak English!
_________________
My full name is Karl Kuhlken (think Macauly Culkin...it rhymes)

Suave, debonair, a ladies man. Sophisticated, urbane, well heeled....no, wait...that's not me

[Pam]

Ahem....to perhaps bring this back on topic a bit, I'd also add to Colin's comment about you get what you pay for, that after having voiced 2 audiobooks for a PITA guy that is now claiming he's paying me a different, lower rate, that you also get what you are paid for. This guy was so not worth the pittance he's now claiming I'm being paid, not even worth the original rate. So It's not only buyer beware, it's seller beware as well. The best peeps, and the most professional, are those that pay you a fair wage and respect the job you do.
_________________
Pam Tierney
www.pamtierneyvo.com
imdb profile http://imdb.com/name/nm1941932/

Now what did I come in here for?

[Jen Gosnell]

Good point, Pam.

Hope he pays you soon and goes away - in these cases I think the absence of a formerly persistent headache has tangible value!

I do like the "Yes, if..." approach very much, though - the mindset of "yes" is powerful, even if you suspect your terms won't be accepted. One never knows what may come back around as a result of putting them out there.
_________________
jen@jengosnell.com
https://www.jengosnell.com
Skype: jen.gosnell
971.258.2448

[Darren Altman]

My wife Emma is frequently telling me off for moaning to her that people are offering me crap rates to voice. "It's a buyers market" she says, "people want something for nothing these days, so either agree to the work or don't, but don't moan about it after you've agreed Darren!"

With me (and I agree with everything that the 2 PB's have said) I find myself getting wound up by the fact that a company would pay £3 for a 30 word VO or £50 for a TV ad on a satelite channel. I've only been on ISDN and what I consider to be a full-time professional voiceover for 19 months, the other few years I spent auditioning full time and hoping! So I feel that I'm playing catch-up to a certain extent and really want to do good jobs for producers, get a good reputation in the industry and widen my client base. I know what you're thinking; "but are these the sort of low-ballers you really want to have a relationship with?" and you're right! But it frustrates me that there are companies out there who tell me how impressed they are with the quality of my work and my Blue Chip client list and then tell me that they will pay f%ck all for my services!!

As a professional drummer, I'm used to going out and doing a function for £150 ($240) - £250 ($400) and also a jazz gig for £50 ($80), so I know there will always be discrepencies and I've reconciled myself to that fact. But somehow, with voiceovers it's different. It's about getting to the stage where I'm regularly being asked to voice for what I consider to be a fair, decent rate for the medium.
_________________
https://www.darrenaltman.com/
http://twitter.com/darrenaltman

[Philip Banks]

It's the "think differently" approach.

VO - "Well if I don't do it for $8 someone will so it may just as well be me"

TDVO - "HE won't pay me $250 but someone has AND will again"

If you have a fairly reasonable home studio every time you audition or do a job you burn $12 per hour*. If your client is not paying that THEN you are!

Two numbers you need to know. How much do you cost? How much does your business cost to run? Do you know when you are losing money? You should as it will stop you even looking at low paying gigs unless you choose to do them for promotional or altruistic reasons.

Here's a tale of "the smart money". A friend of mine used to run a service station (Gas station) and he knew a young man named Roger. Roger had a lorry which he used to deliver cars around the UK. When Roger was broke my friend would allow Roger to fill his tank and pay him when he got paid.

One day disaster struck for Roger, his truck tyre blew miles from home and he simply to hitch a ride with someone else and try to work out how to get the money for a repair.

At home, sipping tea Roger's phone rings. Someone spotted sign the written lorry and noted the number.

"Hi, I'm the logistics director from Fiat concessionaires and we're looking for a delivery company to take the contract to collect imported Fiat cars, vans and trucks from the docks and deliver them to dealers around the UK"

Roger's reply was ...

"Well I've only got one lorry it has a blown tyre and I'm broke ..."

OR

He now owns a company that distributes 160,000 vehilces a year.

*Trust me