VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[BBeen]

Here's the scoop. I just finished acouple of radio commercial spots that I got paid a VERY fair price for. In the studio I was directed to lose pretty much all inflection and do an almost completely monotone read. This direction came from the guy at the ad agency, while the client sat in on the session. The ad agency was happy with the reads, the client seemed to be happy with the reads, and the commercials are aired. I just received the CD yesterday as although it sounds exactly like what they wanted I am extremely unhappy with the spots since there is a total lack of emotion. Should I be concerned about this or just let it go???

[Philip Banks]

...........ours is not to reason why......

I've often said that many voice overs should put a note where they can see it, it reads "It's not about me".

All credit to you for giving the client and agency what was required. The choice you have is whether or not to put it on your demo. Some people who listen to your demo audio may not understand that you were responding well to direction and could conclude that what they heard was you at your best.

[Deirdre]

My friend, it is what it is.

It's like reading something that includes bad grammar because the client insists. We are artists, but we are servants also. As we serve, we try to bring as much art as we can to the service at hand. But he who pays the piper calls the tune, blah blah blah.

What you are left with after this adventure is a happy client, a happy ad agency, a nice lump in your checking account, and a finished recording you will never use in a demo.


fixed an infernal typo
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[John M]

So you're not supposed to go Orson Welles on the client?

"You can't begin a sentence with 'In July'! It's bad copy! You're losing your heads! The right reading is the one I'm giving you!"

[Andy]

None of the stuff I've done for the local agencies where I reside have made it to any demo, Bud. Most of it is motored 40 seconds of copy stuffed into a 28 and a half second sack. I also have a regional, DR TV ad going right now for which I'd rather not claim ownership. It paid nice, but I'd just as soon hide in the shadows.

I'm working on one right now with a local agency that's a total hoot. I'd post it here, but I don't think the client would appreciate that. We've been tinkering with it since before the 4th of July. It's a 60 script that the client's grant writer has been insisting be crammed into a thirty. The best I could do "naturally" was :33. Then I "time machined" the other 3 seconds. Truly, it's the most ridiculous piece of trash you'd ever wanna hear. But ya know? Every time I've been asked to tinker, my studio rate meter clicks away like a NY Checker Cab. Got an email from the AE on Friday: "Hey, Speedy. We think they're gonna go for :60. Standby. I've been asked to compile rates on the media buy." Yeah baby.

As DB and Barrister Banksey already wrote, If your clients are happy, you be happy.

[BBeen]

Thanks I feel better now, although...I had hoped to use something on my demo. Maybe I'll post a sample up here for an opinion.

[mcm]

Just wanted to say, vo-bb rocks. Where else can somebody post on a Sunday morning and have 4 supportive, soothing responses within half an hour?

You guys are the best.

Bud, congratulations. Sounds like you did great!

[Andy]

Well, Mary, I guess ya can tell we ain't Church Folk.

[lisaloo]

This is something I call the "anti-read", and it is very, very popular these days -- so don't feel as though you can't use it on a demo. If the spots are well-produced and sound good (in every other way), it would be smart to include a piece of one of them on your commercial reel.

After all, it would be an accurate representation of your ability to do something that is being requested more and more often of late -- and since it will be different from other things on the demo, nobody will assume that this is all you're capable of.

Over the years I have included plenty of finished spots I wasn't personally over the moon in love with - simply because they represented something that needed to be there. Know what I mean?

Lisa

[Dave]

Yeah,

I agree with Lisa.

I have had several gigs in the last year or so that wanted the "anti-read" style. Some of them I thought sounded pretty bogus but a couple of them I was really pleased with...and they went on my demo. Not cause I'm in love with them or feel that they are some of my best work...my clients do! It's whats selling so why not! Hey we're voice "actors" so lets just do it and chuckle all the way to the bank.
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. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.

[Philip Banks]

I do agree with including the"anti-read" or the unaffected style on a demo but it still needs to shine so include thing that aren't to your taste but never put on anything that really jars because if it makes you feel uncomfortable you can be certain it will have a similar effect on others. A demo is about "if you've got it, flaunt it". What will others think on hearing this piece of audio? You will give YOU the benefit of the doubt, producers won't!

[lisaloo]

Weeeeeelllll . . .

I hear where you're coming from, Phil -- and yet (with me, there is always an "and yet" . . .)



Getting work in this business is (these days, anyways) not always about what WE are most comfy with. Yes, I agree that your demo should be something you are proud of, but at the same time it is imperative that it reflect the Reality of What Gets Booked.

For example, one of my current commercial demos features (quite prominently) a TV spot I did for Allstate. It is far from what I might consider my most "showy" work, but hey -- it was the vocal component of a network Class A BEE-YOO-TI-FUL commercial for the women's soccer team and totally indicative of the biggest trend in VO (to wit: that which sounds as if it were voiced by someone who is not a professional VO but an actual woman playing soccer for the US team).

If I chose to stream the entire spot with visuals and all, it would make a grown man cry (as such things are designed to do), but even so, the VO alone tells people that I can back WAY off and sound like, well . . . like people imagine Mia Hamm sounds.

That's all I'm saying . . . we should never let our own ego, training or personal preferences stand between us and what the buyer wants to hear. Provided the track is well-produced and sounds good in every other way, let 'er rip. After all, one cannot always eat one's "art" for dinner, nor pay the ol' mortage with it.



Lisa

[Philip Banks]

I probably wasn't clear enough in identifying the style of read in terms of what jars. If someone has audio and it is perfectly clear to all that what was done was in the style of the commercial and it does it well then it's a showreel/demo piece - like it or not.

Do people hear you or do they get involved? If people hear you reading something badly (unaffected read) rather than take pity on the man who has no health insurance, you haven't really given the director what he wanted. When you're looking for demo material, look elsewhere. When the director is looking for a voice for a similar style of read he will do likewise.

Network TV sports documentary. Opening credits. CGI dragon roars and breaths flames and smoke. Where do you go to record the sound of a dragon? No one questions the sound, they just enjoy the documentary "believing" the dragon. Here comes the ego bit ..... My dragon is so darn brilliant it has no place on my demo. Now the ego damage bit, I sometimes get paid not to be noticed.

Ask any producer or director and they'll tell you that one of the worst sounds in the world is a voice over trying and failing not to sound like a voice over followed by a voice over trying to sound like a voice over. Both of the former beat a non voice over trying to sound like a voice over

If anyone ever says at the end of a session
"Hey, great mic technique"
"Mmmm some nice tones"
"Thanks for all your hard work, we have something we can use in there"

Conclude - Oh dear, as bad as that! They loved you so much they never called again.

Listen out for this end of session comment.

"Ok, thanks (monotone unaffected non read read). What's your availability for next Tuesday?"

[audio'connell]

I go away for a weekend and all h-e-double hockey sticks breaks loose.

Can't Bud compromise on the demo thing with this spot?

Option 1: Include 7-10 sec of the spot in a montage with other commercials...its simply shows a "style" that can be put together with other styles including straight read, announcer read, ballsy voice etc.

Option 2: Include the voice on a character voice demo

BTW, if its Banks v. Lisa toe to toe, I pick Lisa.

Just b4 the match, whisper in Lisa's ear something like "union's suck" or "union's are worthless" and then let her into the cage.

Poor Banks would be certainly be lucky to come out with his Neuman (or Electro-Voice or AKG) in one piece!

Of course, the above is meant in HUMOR :lol: as I'm often chided by Ms. Cooper for being unclear about such things and thereby misunderstood (or worse....just not funny :shock: )
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- Peter
audioconnell Voice Over Talent
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent

[Deirdre]

</Funnay> = teh SuXX0Rz!!!11!111!!!!ONE!

RE: the above assuagement----

My intent was merely to say that sometimes

sometimes

you knock yourself out, please the producer
please the ad exec
please the client

and have nothing to put on a demo.

That's all I'm sayin'.
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