VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[kitstern]

To those of you who belong to V123, here's a heads-up. Sometimes when I'm on hold or something I'll go to V123 and see where I am in the current line-up. I did that last week and didn't see myself so I did a talent search for my name and I WASN'T THERE. I have no idea how long that has been happening, but I wondered why I wasn't getting that much activity. Their technical department is working on the problem (I email them every day to make sure they're on it), and they said they would compensate me, but meanwhile I'm wondering how many jobs I'm losing. Buyers beware.
_________________
Enjoy life, this is not a rehearsal.

http://www.kitziestern.com/

[donrandall]

It's kinda tough to get work - or to even get noticed - when you find that two hundred others have already responded to the job before you even received notice of it.



I kinda look at it like the days when I was a radio . I needed to get someone plugged in, like right now. I would listen to the first six or eight audition tapes, try to see thru all the smoke on the resumés and then pick one. The other twenty or so applicants never had a fair shot at the job.

[Charlie Channel]

I found voice123 to be an excellent training ground for auditioning, but, I'm not sure the people who are seeking talent are finding the talent they're seeking.



If there's a place for AI (artificial intelligence), voice casting would be it. A system akin to on-line air reservation systems, which are now based on AI, is the minimum that might yield better results -- both for talent and clients.



Has anyone seen/experienced "Googlewhack!"? :lol:



http://www.googlewhack.com/



I was able to catch David Goreman's show and it was the bleeding edge -- and a great experience too!.



That's the sort of virtual casting thing needed ... sort of ...



voice123.com must think about the value-add, both for clients and talent. A flooded E-mail box helps nobody. The solicitation for a quote that included, "Deep male voice" with a response from 158 talents cracked me up.



Any number of replies that are above 10, and I don't even bother replying anymore. And, I've found about the same amount of business (good leads and jobs) off of craigslist.org.

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[kitstern]

I have a love/hate relationship with V123. I've gotten some very good jobs there, but NOT ones that I've auditioned for. I've gotten them from producers who were listening to demos on the site, liked mine and called me. That's why I'm so concerned they've lost my demos and contact information.



And I agree with Charlie, the whole auditioning process really doesn't work for talent or producers. It's a mystery to me how a lead can show up in my inbox, I go immediately to answer it and 20 others have already posted a custom demo. I pick and choose what I answer anymore, and I haven't gotten one job from auditioning.
_________________
Enjoy life, this is not a rehearsal.

http://www.kitziestern.com/

[starkeee1]

I agree. I like having the opportunity to audition for projects -- keeps me in practice. And I've only been a paid member there for three months.



Thus far I've been contacted specifically by four companies on there - two of which fizzled out to nothing, one of which I recorded a "callback" for and didn't get, and only one contact where I've been added to their roster, and their email contact on their projects have been consistent.

Also I believe a Pittsburgh agency found me on there and requested a demo, though nothing came of that.



My rate of return isn't too high considering how many auditions I send in. On the other hand, just one job will pay for the membership, most likely, and it can't hurt. But I've begun to pick and choose which things I audition for as well.



On the other hand, I have an actor friend who is French and also lived in England for a long time -- and her "triple language threat" skills, as well as her unique accent, have netted her a ton of work off of voice123. But I suppose a specialized talent like that would be something you'd more frequently search for off the net.



How have people's experiences been with other services that send leads -- the ones I know of being Interactive Voices and VoiceModels?



(Oh, and I'm new here -- I've enjoyed reading these posts for a while now, hoping to enjoy participating more in the future. I'm a mid-20s actor and voice talent in San Francisco.)



Eric Starker

starkeee@yahoo.com

www.ericstarker.com

[Bo Hudson, Female Voice]

over a year ago I actually got a paying gig from 123. The client heard my voice on the site and emailed me. I have never paid to be on the 123 web site. A few times I have gone to the 123 site and I can't find anything on me there anymore either.



My new policy is: if more than 20 or so other female voices are represented I'm not going to pay. I mean, the odds just aren't there that I'm going to get much paying work if more than 20 are auditioning against me. I know that I have a good voice for many different projects, but so do most of the other women too. If we wern't good we wouldn't be there right? I realize from listening to lots of the demos on the internet that some are not good, but most are adequate, and too a very untrained ear.....usually the CLIENT'S.......Good versus great probably isn't very detectable to them anyway. So, my new plan is to think of different ways to reach the paying client. When I first started on the internet five years ago...I found maybe a hundred other female voice talents.....and the same handfull would come up on Google....now it seems there are THOUSANDS...on hundreds of different web sites. I think I'm going to do a different kind of marketing...maybe to studios and production houses that are NOT on the internet.



"The only thing you can really count on is Change" I guess that applies to the world of voice over bigtime eh?



Best,



Bo