Software – One of the Great Money Monsters

How much money have you spent on software that ends up gathering dust (anyone have a good computer reference?) because it just didn’t really work the way you wanted it to work? I can’t pinpoint the $ exactly (they told me there wouldn’t be any math in voiceovers), but I know that I have purchased lots of software that I stopped using in frustration.

As an aside, because I have always been an early adopter of technology, I have been asking software to do more than it was designed to do since about 1987. I spent hours on the phone with the developer of a piece of writing software working with him to make it possible to write a dual column script and keep the video and audio tracking together. When Word came along and with it the table function, all was right with the world, but it simply wasn’t possible back in the late 80′s.

But back to this abandoned software. Most of it has to do with bookkeeping, marketing and CRM. For example, for invoicing, I have gone back and forth between Quicken and QuickBooks a couple of times. It just so happens that there IS math in voiceovers, so it is important to have some sort of easy and streamlined method of keeping track of invoices and receipts. Makes things easier when tax time rolls around.

My brain shut down after a year or so using QuickBooks (which isn’t cheap) and I went back to Quicken Home & Business. Again, not cheap, but hey – shrugging my shoulders – these are business expenses. But two issues were bugging me about Quicken. The first was that some of my clients couldn’t see any data on the pdf invoices generated in Quicken. After 3 chat sessions with 4 people in India regarding this issue (with each one of them telling me that this wasn’t Quicken’s fault), plus an email response to an irritated Tweet I posted, it turns out that the PDF’s are being generated by an off-brand PDF maker with a license date 4 years earlier than the version of Quicken that I was using. So people with new Adobe reader upgrades were unable to see the content. The Quicken solution! Generate the Invoice in Quicken. Save it to my desktop. Open it again on my computer using the latest version of Adobe Reader and resave the file. It should now be readable. Uh-huh. Several more steps. Un-uh. Not acceptable.

The second issue was that if I deposited more than one check at a time, I couldn’t figure out how to allocate the funds to separate jobs. After a phone call to to Quicken support I discovered that Quicken can’t do this. Sigh. QuickBooks could do that, but – like I said – QuickBooks and I had a misunderstanding in the accounting department.

They did refund the support fee I paid, I’ll give them that much. So now I am trying Freshbooks and facing the fact that it really isn’t imperative that my bank account and my invoicing are connected.

Then there is the CRM. Outlook Business Contact Manager. (Buzzer sound) ACT! (Buzzer sound). Trying ZOHO right now.

Both of these are cloud based and have free versions to try out before deciding to purchase the upgraded software. Starting to love the cloud. Once I get these two things figured out, my next project will be Email Marketing.

So, now instead of the Great Money Monster, I am dealing with the Great Time-Suck Monster!

With Trepidation I Present “In a World…”

Just what we need, more exposure for the voice over business! So, I am somewhat hesitant to bring this up, but since most of the people who will chance across this post will already be in the business, or already interested in the business, I suppose it won’t do any harm.

From watching the trailer, this looks like a delightfully funny little film about life in the rarefied air of the Los Angeles voiceover market where there is a chance of someone actually hiring you (man or woman, but mostly man) to do a movie trailer.

Lake Bell wrote, produces and stars in the film, with some other familiar real-life voiceover “stars” in the Los Angeles market including Joe Cipriano and Marc Graue. In fact, now that I think about it, this might make a good pilot for a sitcom that takes place in a renowned recording studio in someplace like  - say Burbank – where the charismatic and desperately creative  studio owner – say whose name rhymes with brow… no, wait, scratch that, just what we need, MORE exposure for our business.

Most people know when they watch “So You Think You Can Dance” and “The Voice,” that only a few people can REALLY make it. But most people who see anything about the voiceover business think they can do it. So, no, I take it all back.

But since I did bring it up, here without any further ado – the official trailer for “In a World…”

Anonymity Means Never Having to Say You are Sorry for NOT Auditioning

There are lots of opinions on the Pay-2-Play websites. P2P sites are automated sites that, for a fee, send you audition opportunities. These sites are one of today’s auditioning paradigms – along with agents who send us auditions, potential clients finding our websites and sending us an audition and repeat clients asking for an audition for new projects.

Many people hate the P2P’s. Many people like them. A few people love them. I am somewhat ambivalent, because most of my work comes from other sources, yet I get enough projects through them to justify the money and time spent. And of those two elements, the time element is the greater of the two. The less time it takes the better.

The Voice123 mantra of being picky picky picky is pretty much my only option given the time I have available to scan and determine which auditions might be right up my alley.

Most of my time is tied up with those other sources; agents, repeat clients and direct contacts. I am either recording projects or auditions, marketing, bookkeeping and (more and more) simply getting out and enjoying life.

So, one thing I DO like about Voice123′s SmartCast auditions, is that the end client really doesn’t know who is getting the auditions – unless they send out a personal invitation. This provides a layer of anonymity that allows me the freedom to ignore the auditions. I can’t do that if I am contacted directly.

I’m not talking about the auditions from my agents, or past clients who know me. Although, I do occasionally get auditions (or actual projects) from these sources that I don’t feel are right for me, or the rates are lower than usual. No, I’m primarily talking about people who happen across my website and approach me with projects that fall into one of a few categories:

• badly written (either a bad translation or simply a script not written for the ear)
• budgets far too low for the work
• strange conditions that make you scratch your head in astonishment

While, the frequency of this kind of direct request is low, I HAVE to respond to the request. With Voice123, I can simply ignore the “opportunity.”

I find that I do that more and more on Voice123 during my 5 minute scans of new audition opportunities. Just today, I deleted (or ignored) any leads under $350 immediately and then looked at a couple that were in the $500 range. One was a 60 minute training piece filled with medical terms and overwritten to the point where anyone viewing this training would be asleep before the introduction was finished. I happily hit delete, $500 wasn’t enough for an hour of material to begin with – and the script would have been so un-fulfilling to read. I didn’t have to make any excuses when I declined the opportunity.

Of course, not every script is going to be an Emmy or Golden Reel winner. Not every budget is going to be top dollar. This is a fact of life.

When faced directly with a script that needs a lot of help to really be effective (or in the case of a mis-translated script) – or a budget that is well below expectations – it can become a time consuming effort to figure out what to do. You HAVE to respond because they contacted you directly. If it is a complete stranger, you have to follow whatever bread crumbs you have to do your due diligence to determine what kind of a response is needed. This takes time.

You have to take time to parse a badly translated script enough to ask for clarifications. This takes time. If it is a repeat client, you have to weigh the budget, the time, the script, the potential for future work, etc. when formulating your response. This all takes time.

So, the ability to anonymously say “no’ to an audition by simply deleting or ignoring the lead is really kind of a relief and certainly a time saver!

The Blush is Off the Rose…

My love affair with Social Media seems to be waning. I don’t find myself hanging out on Facebook as much as I used to. And I only am on LinkedIn when something really interesting pops up in my daily digests. Or when I need to moderate something on the group I manage.

And while I want to get over to the VO-BB on a more regular basis, sometimes several days pass and I realize that I have not been over there to check on the latest person to get llama duty. Not much action on the Yahoo Voiceover Email list either these days, so maybe it isn’t just me.

(Ironically, I have bumped up my Tweets a bit. That seems to be easy to do these days when every article you read has a Retweet button handy.)

Perhaps the rest of my life is vying for my attention. The class I teach during the Spring and Fall semester is over for the summer, so you would think I would have more time. But business is going really well, which means more time in the studio and more time in bookkeeping. And then, it is getting pretty nice around here and it is easy to wander out into it, with only my smart phone alerting me to the action over on Facebook.

Maybe it is just that I’m getting older and don’t want to miss anything and something in the back of my head says get out and live!

What I don’t want to have happen is to lose momentum. Just how much visibility is enough so that people remember who you are and your “brilliant” contributions to the conversation? And what am I attempting to accomplish with this visibility?

Is it more business, or strengthening my personal relationships? Probably a little of both, but lately I have leaned more toward the personal relationships – with my family, with my friends (both local and remote), and yes, with business contacts.

Social Media has actually helped these relationships. I have known many of the people I do business with for years and years and Facebook lets us peek into each other’s real world. I love seeing their children grow up! The cool vacations they take. I hurt along with them when tragedy hits. The result is a deeper connection with all of these people.

So, maybe it isn’t that the blush is off the rose, so much as the honeymoon is over. Now we are settling in for the long strong commitment.

 

 

Change is Inevitable

The only constant is change. It used to be (for those of us who remember the days of black and white television) at a fairly slow pace. Adoption of new technologies was at a slower pace. You had time to adjust – albeit some were dragged along kicking and screaming about the old days.

But the speed of the changes started to pick up and today, you barely have time to buy a new technology before the newest and more advanced product is available. We face it daily, so why is it so hard to accept the inevitable.

I am still using Adobe Audition 1 on my editing computer. I like it. It still works – on my XP operating system. All my computers are XP. But, I know that will have to change the next time I have to upgrade the hardware. I will not like this change – at first. I’ll kick and scream and bitch and moan. But eventually, I’ll find the groove and ignore the steady stream of new changes until the inevitable happens again.

My Musicam Prima 120 ISDN codec is a dinosaur, but it still works. When that decides to die, I may not need to replace it, because the writing appears to be on the wall for the death of ISDN.

One major sports network that depends on ISDN for rock steady communication lines has been alerted by Verizon that they will be cutting off ISDN service in East Coast markets this coming May.

http://www.rwonline.com/article/alert-for-isdn-users/218605

This truly makes me sad. My best times, other than actually being in someone else’s studio face-to-face with a dedicated engineer and producer/director, is being in my booth using my ISDN lines with a dedicated engineer and producer/director.

It works. I’m happy. The producer is happy.

But, because of the early warning signs, I have already invested in Source-Connect and have used that effectively with a couple of regular clients. It isn’t quite the same. It is much more complicated to establish the connection. The connection isn’t as reliable. I have to do so much more “engineering.” All of these things detract (at least in my own mind) from my ability to just perform.

So, now, for the first time since the undercurrent of mutterings predicting the demise of ISDN began, it looks like it might actually be happening. It is ironic that my lines have been working more the past year or so. Some of those clients are on the East Coast, so perhaps the change will affect me sooner than later.

So, time to let my technology advancement radar system loose to be sure that I am ready for the inevitable.

Interrup…what the h#%@! was that? Distrac…oooh, look at that!

Today, I am not talking about being distracted by amusing kitty videos on Facebook, although I did see at least one funny video that distracted me so far today.

And I’m not talking about the constant flow of email that comes in that – of course – needs to be handled immediately (even if it DOESN’T).

Nor am I talking about being interrupted by the dog scratching at the door, or the cat sliding across some papers which are now all over the floor and need to be picked up before the dog actually gets in to trample them with dirty paws.

And I am not talking about the frequent helicopter flyovers – both routine (the gas’em up path is over my house) and not-so-routine (the circling helo’s looking for whatever mischief is being sparked by semi-high density housing and a bad economy).

No today it is interruptions of major proportions – but an interruption with a shining light at the end the alley.

Today, the back hoes and diggers are punching through the patched concrete in preparation for laying new concrete and getting the heck OUT of my alley where rotating crews of gas company and water department and contractors have been grinding and digging and filling and repeating for the past three (yes 3!) years.

I managed to sneak in a couple of auditions today while they were on break and will be able to finish a project a bit later on after they leave for the day.  Although my limited booth time was interrupted by two phone calls – one a robo-call. (And people wonder why I am not always my bubbly self when answering the phone…)

Some distractions we can stop. I don’t HAVE to have my Facebook page open all the time. Or my Skype account. I don’t HAVE to check email constantly. Or see what is happening with my peeps on the VO-BB (wait, I do have to do that).

Some interruptions can be reduced. I can turn the ringer off on my phone (a possible problem in that I would likely forget to turn it back up). I can keep the door closed to the cats and train the dog not to scratch.

There is plenty of paperwork to do during those time when I can’t actually record. In fact, I just went through my In Box sorting and filing and found a couple of little things that almost fell through the cracks. And, of course, there is a great big outdoors that would love to spend more time with me.

Interruptions and distractions are a fact of life. But it will be so nice when this work in the alley is finally completed.

A Dozen Years and Counting..(wait make that almost 3 dozen…)

I’ve been in the voiceover business for much more than 12 years, but I got an email the other day from an occasional client and noticed that the earliest email I have from him is dated 2000. And then after looking at my current client list, I see a couple of others on-going since then, some with monthly (even weekly) work. My records for much earlier than that have either been lost for good on some dead hard drive, or packed away in boxes.

But I would put my first paid voiceover work doing some TV Staff Announcing in 1975, when I was working part-time at WTIU-TV during graduate school at Indiana University. Prior to that in 1972, I wrote, voiced and produced public service announcements on KCOE-FM while at Coe College in Cedar Rapids Iowa. So if I do the math, the number of years doing something related to voiceovers is far more than my brain even allows me to count.

After landing in San Diego in the early summer of 1977, I was immediately hired at KFMB-TV, Channel 8 as a Relief Director/Floor Director. I quickly discovered that this was not what I wanted to do and by early 1978, I moved into a 2 day a week live TV staff announcing job at Channel 8.

Because I didn’t sound like your typical announcer, the radio and TV station’s production departments kept me busy doing commercials. I got my first agent that year – Nanci Washburn at Artist Management in San Diego/Orange County. She is still my agent here in southern California.

But voiceover work was not my passion. While I was getting quite well known in town as a top female voice talent, I still wanted to write and produce, so I spent the other 3 days a week free lancing as a producer/writer/on and off-camera spokesperson. I still did a lot of voiceover work and did weekend DJ work at KJQY, KYXY and Sunny 103.7.

I kept this up through some very hard times – with some solid lessons learned – until 1986 when I was hired full-time at the Hidden Film Factory in the basement of the now bulldozed Bldg 4 at General Dynamics in San Diego. It was a shock to me to see how quickly my voiceover work fell off when I wasn’t able to market myself. Travel prevented me from keeping the weekend radio shift. And while I really wasn’t aware of it at first, technology was changing the face of the voiceover business.

For nearly 9 years I had probably the best job ever – it was at the peak of GD’s business with business units across the country making everything from tanks to jets to submarines to missiles. We made videos and shot film for all of the divisions and products. And I had a chance to work with everything and everyone – people on the factory floor to engineers to Managers to the President of the company. It was a job that prepared me well for where I am today – making my living doing voiceover work.

But while the job was great, I missed free lancing. Not everyone adapts to a life style of not knowing when your next paycheck will show up, but for me I knew I wanted to go back to being my own boss.

So, when GD (I was actually wearing a Lockheed Martin badge by then) closed the doors in 1995, I was more than ready. And boy howdy had things changed. For a while, I kept up the producing and writing, but suddenly I had more passion for the performance side of things.

I will be ever grateful for the influences I had in my life back in the 90′s when it came to understanding the power of the Internet. I got some domains. Put up a couple of (hand coded) websites. Built a studio in my home. Got a great deal on an ISDN codec. All paving the way to where I am today.

So the work has been ongoing far far longer than a dozen years. And I don’t see it ending anytime soon.

Is there a lesson here? Lots of lessons. Keep your eyes open. Ask the right questions. Be honest with yourself and your abilities. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Use your critical thinking. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Know when to ask for help.

One lesson I probably still need to learn is when and how to say “no.” So, I guess that just means I’ll have to stick around this business for another dozen or so years!

 

Pro Bono or No Pro Bono or “Huh? What are you thinking?”

“Pro bono: done for free, done without compensation, for the public good”

I occasionally am asked by companies if I can provide voice tracks for little or no money. In most of these cases, the company is a not-for-profit and I can weigh the value of the public good against the value of my current bank account. OK, that’s a little flippant. At this point in my career I can afford to donate some of my time to a good cause. But even when I was just starting out, if the right cause came along, I would make the time for it.

However, it is important to remember that not-for-profit does not translate directly to not-for-money. Every group has a budget of some sort, or it will cease to be a group at some point.

I walk a tightrope on this issue, because in addition to my definitely for-profit voiceover business, I am the Executive Director of a not-for-profit 501c3 group that doesn’t have a lot of money. But, since this is a group of business people, they understand that asking people to do something for nothing only works if 1) the person is committed to the values and goals of the group, or 2) if the person is looking to showcase their abilities to the group in the hopes of more “paid” work down the line (and this works best if the person you are working for the final decision maker).

I willingly provide discounted or free services to a few select companies. In the case of for-profit companies asking me to provide services at a reduced rate, I have been known to accept some trade in addition to some dollars (if the product is something that I can use). I have even provided my voice free to regular clients when the mood strikes. Frankly, I do not get requests to provide my services for free all that often.

But asking me to provide my voice for free to an “unknown to me,” but established for-profit company for their marketing material in exchange for being considered for a future job (along with some number of other people)  is simply such an outrageous request that I am still shaking my head in wonderment.

Likely, someone will do the work for free for this company – and perhaps that someone will be afforded the opportunity to compete for the other project – and perhaps they will even get the project. Fine. If I gave away everything I recorded for the chance of money down the line, I would be in debt up to my eyeballs – and that isn’t any way to run a business.

To quote Groucho Marx in Horse Feathers…

“Wagstaff: Where were we? Oh yes. How much am I paying you fellows?

Professor Two: Five thousand a year. But we’ve never been paid.

Wagstaff: Well, in that case, I’ll raise you to eight thousand. And a bonus. Bring your dog around and I’ll give him a bonus too.”

 

Excellent Advice for Self-directing Audio Book Narration

One of the things that a professional voice talent MUST have to succeed is the ability to self-direct. We do so much of our work – at least initially (and in many cases most of our work) – alone. Alone with our doubts, our insecurities, our patterns.

When we are auditioning, the ability to self-direct can be the determining factor in getting the gig. We don’t want to send out the “same” read that 95% of the rest of the talent is submitting. We want our audition to leap off the mp3 and straight into the “book that talent” column.

Last year, I tried my hand at fiction audio books for the first time. I am finishing up the 3rd. And while the verdict is still out on if I actually like this area of voice work, I have greatly enjoyed the process. Discovering how much time it REALLY takes. Is it better to have a proofer and an editor – or some combination of both? Do I like the stipend with royalty option, or just the royalty, or just a flat fee.

The first book was entirely self-produced – $100 pfh (per finished hour) stipend, plus royalties. It is coming up on a year since the book was released and the pfh has bumped up to about $175 pfh. The second book I did was a fluffly little Harlequin romance  with a pfh of around $125 – but I didn’t have to do the proofing or the editing. No royalties on this one though, so the one check is the only check I’ll be getting for that one.

I have 3 more chapters to go on the third book – a sweet southern story with a stipend of $150 pfh, plus royalties. So far I am self-producing this one. I sort of liked the team approach, but at the same time, I am used to doing everything myself – the artistic and the technical. I could be persuaded to hand off the technical, but the artistic is all in my hands. That part of the project is almost entirely in our hands. No one is listening to me as I read page after page – chapter after chapter.

Paul Alan Ruben is a Grammy award winning producer/director of audio books and he has written a wonderful article about the art of self-directing during that artistic phase of recording an audio book. He calls his directions – “techniques.”

And technique is defined as an actable performance tool whose purpose is to cause compelling storytelling.

In this article, he is interviewing his co-director – himself – who details 7 Directions that he gives – uh – himself – when working his way through the story. Here they are in a nutshell – you’ll have to read the article to get the details.

Verbalize feeling; Hold back; Flat; Less; Big; Dispassionately teach, passionately; Up the stakes!

If you record audio books – this is a must read. And I know that my co-director will be barking out a few of these orders as I finish up the last three chapters of the Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society.

Advice for Producers is Also Good Advice for Talent

Just ran across this blog post by Marc Scott cross-posted on Voice123. It is aimed at the people seeking voice talent, however it is good advice for both the seeker and the seekee! In fact, as a user of the online casting sites myself, I have a similar set of guidelines as I decide which projects to audition for.

One of the biggies for me is a poorly written script. As a long time award-winning scriptwriter and corporate producer before jumping into voiceover full-time, I wrote many many scripts for other talent to read. A well-written script is ALWAYS easier for the talent to deliver. If you are new to the art of writing a script for someone to verbalize, put your words to the test. Record yourself reading the material aloud before you send it off for auditions. If you have a hard time getting the words out, try to figure out why? Are the sentences too long? Is the script simply a transcription of a white paper? There is a big difference between writing for the eye and writing for the ear. So, when I am deciding what projects to audition for, if I find that a script just doesn’t roll off the tongue easily in a logical and interesting way, then I am likely to pass on the audition. Other factors will come into play of course, but a good script will help you get good auditions from better actors.

“Why Am I Not Receiving Quality Auditions for My Project – Part 1″ Part 2 is on his blog as well.

I’m just listing his points here – jump over to his blog to get the details.

1. Poor Direction

2. Unclear Budget

3. Poorly Written Script

4. Conflicting Information

5. The Kitchen Sink

6. Must Read Entire Script

7. Unrealistic Budget

8. Unrealistic Timeline

9. No Pronunciation Guideline

10. No Script