VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Frank F]

The topic says it all. "Where is the VO industry today?"

What are your thoughts as to what producers want from a VO today?

What type of "sound" are those who hire VO artists desiring? And why"

Where is the industry, as applied to the amounts of work available and pay and compared to five or ten years ago?

What type of sound is trending today?

What are the best marketing avenues in today's world? And why?

Have you discovered your genre'? Are you working at the top level of your abilities within that genre'? Are you competitive within that genre'?

Please no conjecture. Make this as factual as you are able. This little post is to see what the market trends are today and where we are; as VO artists, are headed TODAY - not in the past or in a speculative future.

Frank F
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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

[ballenberg]

I'm only saying this, moderators: Wouldn't this be more suited to Entre Nous?

[Lee Gordon]

My brief answer to any of Frank's questions: "All over the place."

Seriously, I don't think there can be a definitive answer because there are so many diverse sources of work (agents, P2Ps, existing contacts, on-line acquaintances, etc.) and there are so many "producers" of varying skill and knowledge levels, that it's difficult to generalize about what is true for the industry.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[Bob Bergen]

I think this is a great place for this, and these are great questions, Frank!

What do producers want?? Depends on the producer, the genre, etc. All producers want authenticity. They want the reads to be believable.

What sounds are in?? Everything. No matter what you sound like, there is someone who needs every conceivable sound. But- they want great actors! There are no bad voices. But there are bad actors. You may have the sound they want, but if you cannot act you might as well be mute.

Where is the work?? Everywhere. From six figure contract deals to low paying P2P, and everything in between. What's changed over the past 5-10 years. Well, the percentage that has gone non union. More are working than ever before, but statistically those that consider themselves working actors make far less than the average working actor did 10 years ago. And statistically, fewer working actors get health benefits or a pension because of the erosion of union work. Now, there's also a lot more work for everyone!! There are more animation projects being produced annually than ever before in the history of show business. In the past 10 years, dozens of cable channels have launched, needing promo announcers and program narrators. Audio books have skyrocketed. Another change is how actors have adapted to the philosophy that this is a business. A business that needs marketing, branding, etc. This next generation of vo actors know that they need to approach this like any business owner.

(I already touched upon the following 2 questions)

Best marketing?? Whatever marketing works for you. But most pursuing haven't a clue what that is. They confuse bragging for marketing. This is what I call the facebookization of show business. It does more damage than good. And just because you can doesn't mean you should. Marketing needs to be smart. Timing is key!

Next questions: Yes and yes. But it took years. Tons of training, tons of failing. Miles of acting and improv classes, as well as vo classes. And I still study. And each genre requires something different from me. But, and I end this the way I started, they all must have truth in delivery.

[Frank F]

The reason for this being in Chat rather than Entre Nous is simple: Everyone needs to answer this their own way. And I stress the EVERYONE. I did debate with myself as to wether everyone should or should not be able to answer these few questions. Chat won out.

Thank you Bob. There is a trend lurking in VO today which was not present in past years. I believe we as VO artists need to see the direction and act upon today's demands by keeping an ear to the pulse of the industry, as it is.

There is an arena where each of us have a special skill set. Bob has discovered his (and shows the effort expended to reach this point), as have I. The question remains have you discovered yours?

The questions are designed to help me define the parameters of a set of articles I desire to write about our industry today. And, also a few thoughts for each of us to become a little more introspective of what we do and how we do it.

No names will be mentioned, unless I have express permission. I am simply checking the pulse of the professional, mature, VO artist in today's markets.

Frank F
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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

[Bill Roberts]

Frank,

What are the three most apparent trends that you see lurking in VO today?
I would understand your reservations about providing answers prior to receiving the required amount of responses.

Tnx.
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VO-BB Member # 764 (Dec 2009)

[Frank F]

Funny you should ask Bill. I chose not to answer my own questions to begin with due to possibly tainting the answers from others. However, since no one with the exception of the venerable Bob Bergen wants to play, here goes:

The of today's trends in the VO industry:

1) The desire for interpretative acting is primary; or as Bob wrote: "...must have truth in delivery". Whatever the genre' producers want a VO actor to be believable in his/her role; and they (producers) are not getting what they want from the plethora of so-called talent available.

2) Some may take exception with this view of my second trend: The move away from unions is becoming a growing trend. This is due to the unions failure to offer practical solutions for it's membership and the expenses involved. Unions need to set minimal standard for membership, support members in right-to-work states, offer ways to improve our skills, help members attain a higher income, and so many other issues I cannot relate in one short post; or the unions will continue to erode membership to the lowest levels ever.

3) Lastly in this post is, Where is the work? And how do we get it? Again as Bob said the work is all over the place, however "new media" (the web) is still big. Audio books are slowly becoming tapped out, newbies are not as much of a factor anymore as they are weeding themselves out by attrition.

Producers in our industry are wanton, they are hungry for GOOD talent. If you have it, they will come.

Marketing, not self gratification is not through social media as some have hoped. That type of marketing is still "preaching to the choir". The trend is still informal virtual marketing although many are discovering that pressing the flesh gets better results.

Part of one article which is entitled "Marketing Predictions for 2014/15" indicates going back to old school ways while still embracing new technology.

Please post your viewpoints, folks.

Frank F
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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

[Bruce]

[Rognog]

Hey Frank!

These are thoughtful questions that require thoughtful answers. Since I lack both time and thoughtfulness, I'll just answer these quick and dirty-like.

I only know what producers want from me: young, sincere, energetic, guy-next-door sound.

There is more work than ever and I'm getting paid just fine.

As far as I know, my sound is trending, but there is so much work out there that every type can get work.

The best marketing venues are basically all of them, you just need to find what works for you. (cheeky but I really believe that)

My genres are audio books, e-learning, industrials, and Explainer Videos primarily, but I get work in most of the other genres as well.

To sum up: the VO industry is as good as your work ethic, business acumen, and level of persistence is. That is, as long as you have the talent, training, and tools, of course. There are thousands of ad agencies, production companies, and recording studios all over the world and many of them will work with you & pay you online.
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Tom Dheere - The "H" is Silent, but I'm Not!
www.tomdheere.com

[jsgilbert]

The topic says it all. "Where is the VO industry today?"

There is no "vo industry". I think it important for everyone to understand that we are a bunch of people joined together because we speak into microphones and have this recorded for use in a myriad of applications. We do this for many, many industries. If there is a "vo industry", it is composed of the many people who market products and services to voice talent.

What are your thoughts as to what producers want from a VO today?

Many producers want a vo who is "cheap". The trickle down means that many producers are booking half as many jobs, yet at lower rates, but trying to increase profitability for themselves. Line iteming a voice talent at $300 and hiring one for $50 is common place.

Producers want to hire their friends. They want to work with celebrities. They want to fly to L.A. or N.Y. or some foreign locale to produce their work. Producers are often doing the v.o. themselves, just as we now see shooters doing editing and art directors doing writing.

Producers want to hire SME's (subject matter experts). They want to hire their wives or husbands, kids, co-workers, favorite tv actor, musician, celebrity chef, 15 minute of famer.

There is no decent definition of "producer", so we find that the way they look for, work with, interact and compensate talent is all over the place. Focus on a particular genre of work and/ or industry to work for and some narrower parameters may exist.

What type of "sound" are those who hire VO artists desiring? And why"

More and more, it's the "sound in their head". Often it's an existing sound, but perhaps it's with a variation. It's an "I'll know it when I hear it".

Where is the industry, as applied to the amounts of work available and pay and compared to five or ten years ago?

It's extremely fragmented, with the unions still scampering to try and remain relevant. I've watched as signatory after signatory has gone by the wayside. In this past year alone, I've seen 30 or more significant companies that I have either auditioned for in the past or worked for under union contract elect to cast non-union.

The unions have made very poor inroads in electronic media and the internet. It has become too easy to identify and evaluate talent.

The unions have been very supportive of crowd sourcing, which means you now have to wonder if your auditions are even being listened to. Many of us with multiple agents will receive the same audition script for 4, 5 or more sources. Is it reasonable to believe that out of 50 talent agents submitting 50 talent each (or more) that you're even getting listened to. I discovered that none of the people repped by one of my agents had a single audition for Coca Cola or McDonald's listened to during an 18 month period. (And there were many auditions sent out)

This of course helps the unions by spreading the work out across a large body of actors. (10 actors paying dues on $30,000 each is a lot better than 1 actor paying dues on $300,000) But beyond that, it also means that many more actors will Taft Hartley and join the union at $3,000 a pop. Many to never be heard from again.

You'll also find that the number of individuals doing voices for gaming, who happen to work for gaming companies in some other capacity is up. The number of AE's, CD's and other ad agency people who are doing v.o.'s for their own or friend's projects has skyrocketed.

This leaves 80% of the talent competing in many cases for the bottom 20% of the pyramid, and I suspect that with the combination of our continuing to lower the bar and advancements in text-to-speech, we'll be seeing much of that bottom 20% of the pyramid being done by robots.

What type of sound is trending today?

Like always it seems to be in line with popular individuals from film and t.v., although the amount of work for a "30 and under" sound seems to be at an all time high.

What are the best marketing avenues in today's world? And why?

Start an ad agency, Be Seth McFarlane's sister. It's always been advocacy and will continue to be. Somebody with a sphere of influence over the who's and what's of hiring needs to want to see you do well. Otherwise it's fueled by fascination, as in "Get me the naked guy fromSurvivor" or "I want that new celebrity chef"

For the average individual paying the bills and maybe even doing a little better than that, it would seem that having several anchor clients that represent ongoing work is what does the trick; as in e-learning, corporate narration or doing local radio or tv spots.

And it is looking , more and more, every day that union nationals and better union work offering residuals are going to L.A. and N.Y. based talent, if not to the copywriters and account people themselves.

Have you discovered your genre'? Are you working at the top level of your abilities within that genre'? Are you competitive within that genre'?

I do okay. I've managed to make some necessary adjustments, but as is the case for many of us who were doing very well 15 years ago and have watched the erosion, it has represented a huge pardigm shift.

Please no conjecture. Make this as factual as you are able. This little post is to see what the market trends are today and where we are; as VO artists, are headed TODAY - not in the past or in a speculative future.

A ton of the auditions being sent aren't even for green lighted work, but simply to present as a "possibility" or are used in some other speculative fashion. Thank goodness some ad agencies still compensate and at least pay demo rate for this work, but, many, many don't and think it's quite alright.

I resigned as a producer from a project 2 years ago because I refused to be a party to exploitation of actors.

The biggest problem is that I can no longer look somebody in the eye and tell them that getting a job makes more sense than getting into voice over. That in itself is simply a sad commentary on the larger state of things.

It's pretty tough all over, voice over is no exception. Some will do well and others won't and sadly, talent often has little to do with it.
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j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com

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

[ConnieTerwilliger]

Where is the damn "like" button for telling it like it is!!!
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Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger

[Lance Blair]

http://www.insidefacebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/facebook_like_button_big.jpeg

JS is bang-on right.
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Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!