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COVID impacts on voice over
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George
Been Here Awhile


Joined: 09 Dec 2019
Posts: 283
Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jack Daniel wrote:
I went for the easy way out.

pretty sure there's a clause somewhere that permits the use of the easy way out during global pandemics. everyone gets a pass.
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Jack Daniel
Cinquecento


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 574
Location: SoCal

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

George wrote:
pretty sure there's a clause somewhere that permits the use of the easy way out during global pandemics.


That could be interpreted in a much, much darker way... Just sayin' :)
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Jack Daniel
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George
Been Here Awhile


Joined: 09 Dec 2019
Posts: 283
Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jack Daniel wrote:
That could be interpreted in a much, much darker way... Just sayin' Smile


i probably should have specified "where the use of emoticons is concerned." whoops. this is how we get into trouble.
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Jack Daniel
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Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 574
Location: SoCal

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

George wrote:
this is how we get into trouble.


Nah, just funnin' witcha.
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Jack Daniel
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Karyn OBryant
Cinquecento


Joined: 23 Jul 2013
Posts: 561
Location: Portlandia-adjacent

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think there's a corollary to this rule.
There are a very few clients that I normally ping on a weekly basis to let them know my availability for the coming week. I don't intend to stop.
Everyone else gets no "availability pings" during this bizarro time.

Smile

(And Jack: I, too, stretch the functional capacities of punctuation marks to their limits on a regular basis. Parentheses and such get complacent if you let them. Lazy buggers.)
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Jack Daniel
Cinquecento


Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 574
Location: SoCal

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Karyn OBryant wrote:
There are a very few clients that I normally ping on a weekly basis to let them know my availability for the coming week


Yes, and totally different ballgame--I too update reps and clients on avails as necessary, such practice being de rigueur, which I believe translates as "bitchen."

And Karyn, if we don't keep asking the important questions about the theoretical limits of punctuation, who is to say the world will not stop (and oh yes I do mean a Full Stop)?!
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Bruce
Boardmeister


Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 7921
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My marketing style has stayed pretty much the same: decades of good, responsive service gets you decades of more work through repeat business and referrals. Very little noodging is required.

I do have a "new" client right now. She's a producer/talent I met at a Faffcon years ago and about once a year we'd check in to see how the other is doing. It finally turned into a big job narrating videos training new hires for a complex and dangerous line of work. If I actually knew what some of these terms meant it could be even more thrilling I suppose. I just make it sound like I know what I'm describing.


B
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Bob Bergen
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Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 937

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, here’s how this has touched my world. I now have to update my home studio so I can work from home. Those of us who do games and animation never had to do this. The top 1% didn’t even audition from home. They would still go into their agent’s office or book one of the casting offices and (or) recording studios to record them each day. Now, all are feeling the growing pains of having to learn to do this work from home thing.

I’m kinda digging the learning curve. I’m a tech idiot, and count myself fortunate to have been able to avoid this for years. But everything happens for a reason. And, as I delve deeper into this, it’s not as scary or involved as I thought it would be.

My concern is, this is going to turn the industry upside down. Just like the commercial strike of 2000, combined with the launch of online casting turned the union vo industry upside down. Home studios for the animation voice actor won’t turn the work non union. But I fear it will close the recording studios. And, it will take away a huge percentage of my day to day human contact. I hate the idea of working from home. Animation is ensemble and collaborative. This pandemic is proving it can be done in the home studio. But my gut tells me when we can once again roam outside our homes, we won’t need to for work.
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Bruce
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Joined: 06 Jun 2005
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Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome to our world Bob. Up until 20 years ago every voice job I did was in someone else's studio, and yes I enjoyed the camaraderie of the engineers and other talents. But today I walk into another studio maybe 5 times a year, and it's usually for animation or video games. All the national commercials I do are from home these days via ISDN.

Thankfully many of the live recording Internet methods have or will have video as part of the connection process so that "human" part won't be totally gone.

B
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todd ellis
A Zillion


Joined: 02 Jan 2007
Posts: 10479
Location: little egypt

PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

indeed - i visit an outside studio about as often as bruce. then again, in general, i don't like people.

i think this deal is going to change a lot of things - some for the better - some - not so much. take college, for instance. my kid is doing his work online and thinking - "huh? i don't need your big brick buildings, now do i." - in some fields of study - yes --- he does --- in others - maybe not.

ps - welcome to the world of working in your jammies, bob!
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Bob Bergen
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Joined: 22 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I absolutely see the pros and cons. And I get it, I will have other humans involved technically.

What I will miss is chatting with my fellow cast members in the lobby before the session. Or with my executive Producer or Network Executives in the parking lot after the session. The former is just catching up with peers. The latter is where the networking happens for the next job. Or, scheduling business dinners. SO much business is conducted in the parking lot after the session.

But we shall adapt.

And again, I’m sad for the recording studios that will close. It’s inevitable. Many have already closed when the world went non union. But with the handful still open, it was games and animation that kept them in business.
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Lee Gordon
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Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6843
Location: West Hartford, CT

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 12:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bob Bergen wrote:
as I delve deeper into this, it’s not as scary or involved as I thought it would be.


Of course it isn't. The proof is, a lot of idiots have been doing it for years. cool
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Bish
3.5 kHz


Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Posts: 3738
Location: Lost in the cultural wasteland of Long Island

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 5:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

With everyone now clamouring for remote access, things are getting interesting. Source Connect is becoming as popular as toilet paper and the internet is flooded with questions about it. No problem with that... but I'm particularly bored with the same simple question being asked again and again and again... should I pay $35 per month, of purchase outright for $650. Every day I see that at least three or four times.

OK smarty-pants... you're a business owner, do the maths. Paying monthly, you'll pay $650 in a hair over 18 months, so the question simply becomes "How long will I be using this?" (and, yes... do I have $650 laying around?)

If you think that everything will return to exactly how it was and the studios will open their doors again to normal traffic in a year or less... then monthly is the way to go. IF you believe that will happen.

On the other hand, if you think that all this will highlight the fact that an important segment of the industry was hanging on to an out-moded business practice... and that this current forced change of business practices will stick with a high percentage of the "old schoolers" it's been thrust upon... then stump up the cash and put the tool in your arsenal. Seriously... the old-school "only in-studio" people are now finding that opening their doors to remote talent may well be a good idea (duh!) and they may not want to give it up. Producers are going to agents and asking... "Who've ya got with connectivity?"

I've just worked with a couple of casting people who were part of the old-model and who have been forced into the new. Both were traditional, "come into Manhattan to audition" types. Both ran zoom directed audition sessions with me recording locally and sending them the takes they wanted. Both were working from home, and both said, "Why the hell haven't I been doing this for years!"

As has been said elsewhere in this thread... people are learning new skills... some reluctantly... some willingly. The industry will have some permanent changes when people understand the benefits of these new skills. Those that don't learn will perish. The times they are a-changin'.

Having slipped in a quick Bob Dylan... it's time for another Douglas Adams quote:
"...and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway."
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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.
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Philip Banks
Je Ne Sais Quoi


Joined: 20 Jun 2005
Posts: 11046
Location: Portgordon, Scotland

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 7:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sad times. Now there is no reason for Casting Directors, Vice Presidents, Executive Producers, Network Executives or Cast members to loiter in studio parking Lots.

"Dave, no Network Executiving to do?"

"NO! Any ways Cindy, NO castings to direct?"

"YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!"

"Yes I am, so sorry about that."
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Bob Bergen
CM


Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 937

PostPosted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 9:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bish wrote:
With everyone now clamouring for remote access, things are getting interesting. Source Connect is becoming as popular as toilet paper and the internet is flooded with questions about it. No problem with that... but I'm particularly bored with the same simple question being asked again and again and again... should I pay $35 per month, of purchase outright for $650. Every day I see that at least three or four times.

OK smarty-pants... you're a business owner, do the maths. Paying monthly, you'll pay $650 in a hair over 18 months, so the question simply becomes "How long will I be using this?" (and, yes... do I have $650 laying around?)
"


Ya know, there are no dumb questions. Something I had to remind myself when I started teaching. If they knew the answer they wouldn't ask. If things were intuitive everyone would already know the answer. It might be the 3000th time I've heard the question, but it's their first time asking. And, even if they are getting second and 10th opinions, that's just smart research.

My generation of vo, and those accustomed to working outside our home studios in animated programs and features do not think of ourselves as business owners. Nor are were in the service business as many of today's vo actors define their business model. Nor do we even have clients. We are actors. With the exception of what we know we have on the books, we have no idea where/when our next job is. Thus is the life of an actor.

And that "life of an actor" philosophy will not change with the addition of this technology. It's just another necessary disruption in the process. In the close to 40 years I've been in this, I've seen em all:

- When I got in we'd go to the ad agency to audition. Within a year all vo agents, all 5 or so of em, put in studios to record actors at their offices. Veterans hated this as they all had relationships with the ad buyers. Some refused to audition in their agent's offices and just retired. Most adapted.

- When we went from reel to reel to cassette demos many veterans resisted as this meant more than one track. Gone were our 3-5 minute combination demos.

- Then came the CD, allowing for even more tracks. Some jumped on this, others passed.

- Home studios existed (very expensive) but unless you had contracted jobs that required it daily, not an expense one needed. With every agent change in my career, all would advise against it. And, I was always willing! But there were too many options out there for me.

- Cut to today. Today for me it is a necessity. As much as I will miss the old ways, I think this is going to open many doors. It's going to be easier for producers and studios to get quick fixes. Often they would have to juggle schedules, trying to bring in as many actors into the studio as possible so as to control the number of studio rental days. This might up our sessions per episode, which will nicely be reflected in our residuals.

But back to the questions. Bring em on! I have a great network of very patient voice actors who are also tech minded. All have been extremely patient, bless em!
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