This might be less of a normal blog post and more of a rant, so stream of consciousness here we go!
I’ve been doing voiceover professionally (meaning being paid) since 2012. I trained for many months before finally booking my first gig voicing a deep sea diver for a hair salon. Yes I still remember my first paid gig. I’m all about working for free to help others or when you’re starting out to get your reps in and get your feet under you to get better. It’s all part of the process you know? But these days, I see more and more ads to hire voice talent with no pay, or payment in “exposure”. Yes, I know there are more talent out there just starting out and need those reps and maybe I’m being unfair as to where I am at in my career, but it just seems there’s more to me than before.
Websites like Casting Call Club that have 3-4 times as many unpaid jobs than paid ones and the paid ones are $10. Hardly worth the effort. I’m the kind of guy who likes to have as many fishing poles in the water in terms of finding work from freelance sites, to P2P, to agents to direct marketing to my own social media marketing on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok so I see all the unpaid ads on these platforms as well as places like Craigslist, etc. Funny thing to me is, a lot of the unpaid jobs come with all kinds of stipulations. Things like studio requirements, full buyouts, very picky in terms of the quality they get. They want a pro voice with the best studio and all the ability, but they aren’t willing to pay for it. Then maybe you shouldn’t be making this project until you have funding. Am I off base in saying that? I’m not saying you need to charge full GVAA rates for everything, but as Bill Murray said in Caddyshack, “How about a little something for the effort?”
Problem is, there will always be voice actors who will take those free jobs. Maybe they don’t know better or don’t care. Maybe they feel there might be something that could come out of that relationship down the road. I myself have garnered a few long term clients that have paid well out of a volunteer job that I knocked their socks off. How often does that happen? I don’t know. You will have to use your own judgement or ask another VO talent their thoughts. Thing is a lot of us might feel bad asking for what we deserve. Sometimes the job takes only a half hour to do. Promos don’t take that long to do. Clients see a quick turnaround and think, well that didn’t take him long, why are we paying XYZ? It’s everything that goes into that half hour of work they don’t see. The classes, the demos, the building the home studio, the reps that we have put in to get us where we can knock that spot out in a half hour.
Let me know your opinions. I love to hear what you think. Keep it nice please. Share with your other talent friends and let’s keep the conversation going.