VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

Philip Banks · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:01 am Post subject: VOAS

I am declaring ALL of March Voice Over Audition Strike month. Comrades will you join me? I fully expect to be underwhelmed by the level of support.

Am I saying do nothing Comrades? No.

Unless the audition is a SPECIFIC request for you to submit and it is for a fee which would keep you solvent for a week OR it is a bulk audition with the potential to earn a SH*T load of cash ..IGNORE IT!

Every day VO people, good and bad alike give away 1,000s of hours to so-called businesses for little of no return.

Example. Audition for $200 job get 100 auditions (not unusual). If every audition took 15 minutes and the auditions were costed at minimum wage of $7.25 per hour that's 25 hours work or $181.25. That's just WRONG!

People will stop wasting your time when you stop allowing them.

Brother Philip Banks - Portgordon Voiceoverists Collective and Collie Walkers Affiliated 342.

Slogan "Are we refusing to audition? You bet VOAS!"

heyguido · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:24 am Post subject:

Brilliant! Laugh

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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:43 am Post subject:

I'm way ahead of you.

A few days ago I refused to audition for a lead to narrate the ENTIRE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE, for a price range from $6000 - $16,000.

There are 774, 746 words in the Bible. At a comfortable rate of 150 wpm, that comes to 5165 minutes of narration, or about 86 hours of finished audio. Times, of course, editing and endless hours of attempting to look up pronunciations.

So, being generous, REALLY generous, I figured 4 hours times the 86 = 344 hours of work. (As if). And being SUPER generous, I assumed they'd pay the top end, $16,000. Which would equate to $46/hour. But at the low end, $6000, it equals a pathetic $17/hour. Nonetheless, nearly 50 lucky folks have auditioned for the job, which, by the way, states:

We need a voice. But not just a good voice, we need a great voice. A voice which is up to the challenge of reading what many consider to be the greatest book in the English language: the Holy Bible.

So...l a 'great voice'. For $17 - $46/hour over the next several months of your life.

Not for me, no thanks. (And I've already narrated parts of the Bible for Zondervan in the past at a much better rate)
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

Lee Gordon · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 9:16 am Post subject:

When I got the audition notice for the bible this morning, there was no $16,000 upper end, just a flat six grand. I didn't even bother doing the math before trashing it.
There is, however, something life affirming about summarily tossing a four-figure audition directly into the discard pile.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 9:45 am Post subject:

Lee, you have to open the lead to see the range of $6000-$16,000. So add to that the joy of trashing a FIVE figure lead!
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

Kim Fuller · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:21 am Post subject:

Anybody who is remotely tempted to do that job should really take a good look at Leviticus in the King James, read it to themselves out loud for a chapter or three, and then go sit in a corner and think about what they almost did.

Bish · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:43 am Post subject:

Like everyone, I trashed that one... easy. I've also trashed many more derisory requests to audition... and personal invitations.

I think Philip's point is not about the obvious bin-fodder that we all will happily throw away... it's about that $300/$500 job... you know, the one that we will quite happily take if handed to us by an existing client.... no problem, I'll have that on your desk by tomorrow morning... but competing with 100 others for that same job is not a good use of anyone's time. The current system that allows someone to post a $300 job and waste the time of 100s of VOs is at fault.

The only way to stop it is to refuse to play and withdraw. That's great if you're sitting on a buffer... but grand gestures come with a price tag, and I've got to pay the mortgage! Even if working VOs pull back from auditioning for the $300 gigs, there will still be enough responders to keep the system going. I'm reminded of Arthur Dent standing in front of the bulldozer.... or even Don Quixote (for the more classically inclined).

My personal threshold is going up all the time... but, to be honest, if I see an audition for a gig that has my name written all over it... it may be difficult not to audition... even if it doesn't represent a week's solvency (which, by the way, is a really nice yardstick).
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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.

Scott Pollak · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 1:10 pm Post subject:

Foog · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:58 pm Post subject:

Philip Banks · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:05 am Post subject:

42? Dollars or pounds? Laugh

Type in a number - In the last 12 months or so, apart from the nonsense leads like "read the Bible" mentioned above, what was the biggest fee offered to a VO in the specs of an audition request that you have seen? No names, no details, no back story, doesn't matter whether you got the job or not, no fee range (rate $58.95- $84,000).
If you audition and you get the job you will be paid .....

$

My answer $4,500

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:14 am Post subject:

Including leads from agents?

I'd have to go back and see, but I want to say I got one agency lead that paid in the range of $20,000.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

Philip Banks · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 5:21 am Post subject:

Any source. It's just interesting to see what's out there, apart from me, obviously.

Kelly Brennan · Contributor Joined: 07 Dec 2011 Posts: 31

$11,500

Would like to see this more often, but once in a while is fine for now!

Frank F · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:12 am Post subject:

I am with Phillip, $4,500.00.

I have not "auditioned" in three years nor will I; and the work still comes in. OK I am not on any P2P site either.

F2
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

Scott Pollak · Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 10:16 am Post subject:

I think a fair estimate is 90% of my work comes to me now, either via repeat business, referrals or people simply discovering me via web search. I do still audition, particularly for agency leads, but the jobs from those auditions, as well as the few I audition for on V123, comprise a very small part of my overall income.

A trend I've seen in this past year in particular is getting referrals from WITHIN a company for whom I've worked. That is, someone will contact me from ABC company saying, "Hey, Marcie in our company said you did some v/o work for her and we're working on a project in our department and wanted to see if you'd be interested."

Love those kinds of referrals. They're already sold on you because their co-workers have already used - and obviously, LIKED - you.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com