VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Deirdre]

"Competition" is universal.

Except for my staff announcing stuff for WBZ, I rarely do anything local.
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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Diane Maggipinto]

I wondered about that, Deirdre. I am chagrined to say I don't know precisely what IS staff announcing. Are you reading the news? Slating the day? Voicing promos? Just curious.
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sitting at #8, though not as present as I'd like to be. Hello!

www.d3voiceworks.com

[Deirdre]

My job as a "staff announcer" comprises the reading of station promotions and in-house commercials for the radio station, web, some radio/TV combo things.
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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Travis]

O.K. Heres' the deal about L.A.

Los Angeles/Hollywood is the entertainment capitol of the world. For all the crying about "runaway production" etc. there is nothing else that comes close. Of course there is good work that is done elsewhere, but the overwhelming amount of professional "showbiz" work is done here. The studios and production companies are here. The vast majority of top talent lives here, If you want to work with the top talent, on the top productions, there is really no place else to be.

Now, that said, it's important for anybody who is planning to head here to be aware of a few things.

(1) There are probably about 70,000, (yes, that's seventy-thousand) voice-over demo tapes in curculation here. About half of the actors have made some sort of demo, hoping to get some voice work. Of those, about six-thousand actually have representation for voice-over. SAG estimates that less than ten-percent of their member actors in Los Angeles had any union employment last year. My estimate is that there are about 2-thousand professional voice talents who earn a living from v.o. in Southern California.

(2) There's this thing called the "Hollywood System", which doesn't actually exist, but it does. Its purpose is to keep performers away from people who hire talent. Hollywood couldn't exist without the "system". That means that the unions, agents, managers, casting directors, etc. are there as gatekeepers to keep you from getting work, not, as you would expect to help you get work. It takes the typical performer about a decade before they figure this out.

(3) Everybody (your mechanic, the guy who took your order at the fast food restaurant) has, or is working on a script and has hopes of getting it made into a movie.

(4) The business is so vast here, If you get work on a project, it's quite likely that you won't know anybody else working on the production.

(5) Everybody's extremely nice to everybody else here, because the guy sweeping around your table just might be the next director of the next project you want to work on. People who were extemely nice to you yesterday can stab you in the back today if works to their advantage.

(6) Everybody's scared to death all the time. Every director's scared to death that the little local commercial you're on won't catapult them to a 6-picture deal. Everybody's afraid they'll never work again.

(7) Every week, about 4-thousand homecoming kings and queens arrive to find success in showbiz. Every week about 3500 leave, discouraged. 499 find some other way to earn a living.

( 8 ) There is no "Making It" in Hollywood. The more succes you get, the more insecure you feel.

(9) If you really need to try Hollywood, there's no time like the present.
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Travis
www.VOTalent.com

[Gregory Best]

Just a little over an hour from LA, and I hardly ever go there. I hate the congestion and TRAFFIC. I live in rural San Diego County on just under an acre and a half on the side of a gradually sloping hill with a view of a forest and mountains. We couldn't afford to buy it at today's prices. What we paid for our home a number of years ago would be only a down payment for some houses here today (especially closer to the beach.) I like equity, errr retirement investment, as I tell myself.


Greg