Forum Decorum

I belong to a slew of groups on LinkedIn – including a large number of voiceover related groups. Why is it that there seems to be a plethora of unprofessional comments. Social media has been around for years now and it amazes me how people don’t seem to understand that what they post is there for the world to see (when a group is an open group).

I felt compelled to comment today on one of them after a couple of people actually started slamming a legitimate producer for not posting his undying thanks to the group. His post was 6 MONTHS ago and people are still posting comments with links to their demos. And now some are complaining that he hasn’t posted to say thank you!?

It is an International Group with members from all over the world, and perhaps members with little time on social media or little time in the voiceover business, so – as a long time full-time voice talent – with a background as a producer – and an early adopter of technology and social media – may I offer a bit of advice? Thanks…

First of all. When someone posts looking for talent, it is fairly easy to click on their profile link and do some due diligence to see if they are “real” company. Check out their website. Is it professional? Can you check out who some of their clients are?

Then, reply privately! There is no need for two or more pages of voice talent shouting “pick me, pick me!” Really, take a look at any thread where someone has posted that they are looking for talent. It screams desperation.

And understand that producer seek talent in a lot of places. This particular producer posted to a group that specifically includes people that say they do eLearning work, so it was logical that he would post a request for people who do eLearning, but he probably was looking in other places as well. Even if this was the only group he posted to, a lot of people DID contact him privately, so he may not come back here…until the next time he needs talent.

But, if you look at the original post – it was 6 months ago! My goodness! Why are people still posting to the thread? And worse yet, castigating him? Why would he ever come back?

There are groups where introducing yourself when you join is encouraged. If you are joining a group where voiceover is not the main focus – then, certainly introduce yourself to the group and provide links to your demos.

Then watch the other introductions as they come in – and send PRIVATE responses to those people who may (or are) seeking the kinds of skills you possess.

The more professional, helpful, respectful and funny you are in the posts you do make to public forums, the more people will think of you as a professional and someone they would like to do business with.

Another of my favorite MediaPost Pubs: Out to Launch

Want to see some of the most interesting, clever, stylish or funny of the new ads (mostly video, but some print too) being produced around the world? They are even including a random iPhone app of the week (what about my droid app of the week?).

Sign up to get Out to Launch – another of the multitude of enewsletters published by MediaPost.

This week they are showcasing spots for Orbitz which are pretty funny, Tetley Tea from an Australian firm, and Jagermeister’s first ad in the US. Just wish my internet connection was faster! Takes a while to download and play them.

Content is a woman, distribution is a man.

While I am not directly involved in content creation as a producer anymore, or on the distribution side of things, this article caught my eye because of my interest in seeing good content.

I’m pretty sure I have posted links to this guy’s article before - Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is CEO of WatchMojo.com, a producer of premium video content.

These two articles talk about online content and exclusivity and include what seems to be an accurate picture of content being a “woman” and distribution, a “man.”

He postulates…

By and large, distribution companies

-        never make any promises,

-        have no-strings-attached offerings,

-        make no commitments,

-        rarely seek exclusivity, and

-        when they do, it’s usually too good to be true.

Content owners, meanwhile,

-        enter distribution deals with expectations,

-        believe the promises they hear,

-        expect a commitment, and

-        want a guarantee.

In his second article on the same subject, he adds a third and fourth element to this relationship – the advertiser and the viewer and then it REALLY gets complicated. Good reading.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/154309/is-online-video-about-to-enter-an-era-of-exclusivi.html

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/163080/does-exclusive-content-matter.html#reply

Video Marketing Works – When Done Right

One of the electronic publications that I read faithfully is MediaPost’s Online Video Insider.

The latest column – Bulleted Points Miss the Point, by Jerry Bader, took me on a little trip down memory lane and at the same time gave me some very interesting facts about online video marketing.

As a video producer and scriptwriter in a former life – I spent long hours with colleagues discussing what it was we were actually supposed to be doing for the client. Guiding them to the right media for their message was what we all hoped would be the answer from the bosses. And most of the time, in most of the companies I had the pleasure to do business with – either full-time or as a free lancer – we were afforded this power.

And our job was to make sure that the client’s message was delivered to their specific audience within their budget and time frame in such a way as to achieve the desired effect.

Many times while I working full-time in the video and film department of a major defense contractor, the client would show up at our door wanting to “make a video.” And after reviewing their needs, it became clear that in fact, they might only need a PowerPoint presentation – with bullets! But that was 20 years or so ago – and making video presentations has come a long way since the days of 1″ machines and linear editing. Surely it is easy now to make a video! Or is it!?

From the article (which focuses on marketing)…

However using the right tool is only effective if you are using it correctly, and using it correctly means more than a technical understanding of what buttons to push. Video marketing starts with concept that is implemented by means of an appropriate script and delivered with an entertaining performance. Much of what we see on the Web is either off-the-cuff winging it by do-it-yourselfers who think they know what they’re doing but don’t, and mind-numbing corporate videos that go in one ear and out the other. The overall quality of business videos on the Web is appallingly bad — both amateur and professional alike  — and it’s often the result of business’s failure to understand how video communication works, an unwillingness to invest in hiring firms that do, and a penchant for being too impatient to stick to a clear, consistent brand messaging strategy.

From the first time PowerPoint appeared on the desktops of the engineers we have seen the quality of business presentations sink lower and lower. As software advances and everyone can “make a video” we will see more and more marginal messages being produced by people who know how to move a mouse, but don’t know how to communicate.

This quote from the article – actually the summation – clearly states the importance of the multimedia producer knowing how to communicate.

Listing a bunch of features as bulleted points is not communication, even if those bulleted points are presented as animated fly-ins beside a sterile spokesperson spouting platitudes. Real video communication requires context within the script and subtext within the performance in order to reach deeper into an audience’s psyche to create a meaningful, memorable message — that’s the essence of real video communication.

In my former life as a scriptwriter, I strove for that deeper understanding of the audience and their wants, needs, expectations as I found the “right” hook for the script. Now, as a voice talent and occasional on-camera actor, I use my background in scriptwriting and understanding the client and the script to find the right subtext as I deliver the words – looking for the “right” read.

 

Thanks for the Thanks!

Everyone likes a “thank you.” And sometimes we don’t take the time to pass along a sincere thank you to the people we interact with every day. Oh, we say “thanks” at the grocery store when we get our receipt. “Thanks” at the restaurant when someone refills our coffee cup or delivers the bill to the table. The sincerity of the “thanks” when someone hands us the bill for the meal is probably in question.

So it is nice to get a sincere thank you when none is really expected. I have toyed with the idea of sending out personal Thank You cards after sessions – and actually have some cards just for this purpose. Not many talent does this from what I can glean from various VO talent message boards. The trouble is, I am so busy just recording the jobs and creating the invoices that I simply forget!

And part of me wonders if the person opening the envelope will interpret the card as a sincere thank you – or simply as a marketing “trick.” Certainly the card has to be handwritten – or if not handwritten per se – using a service such as Send Out Cards - then with a truly unique reference to the specific project – something to indicate that it isn’t a mass mailing.

Now, I do like to receive a handwritten note, so perhaps the gesture will be taken as sincere. But the email thank you’s are great too! Just this week, I am basking in the glow of several really nice notes.

“Great job…thank you!”

“We appreciate you on SO many levels!”

“You just saved me. The next time I get to your neck of the woods… I’m buying the Starbucks.”

“Nice job. Love the voice and the read.”

“Thanks for knockin’ it out of the park again!”

“You Rock.”

“Wow that was fast! Thanks so much Connie!!!!”

And the thank you’s don’t even need to be written at all really. Case in point. I just finished an ISDN session with a client in Orange County and the first thing from the producer’s mouth was a thank you for the work I had done for them on the last project.

So – bottom line – a well-placed, sincere “thank you” is a wonderful thing. Now to just figure out what kind of “thank you” and the best way to deliver it when so much of what we do these days is through the electrons.

Cardio Needed for Conversation Muscles

Ah – the loneliness of the voiceover actor these days. Day after day – alone in our padded rooms with only the occasional directed session – we rarely get to converse with our clients - much less actually see them face-to-face. Skype does’t count. And, like anything, if you don’t use certain muscles, they atrophy.  Time for some cardio for my conversation muscles!

The VO team is usually a small one to begin with – so even if you do have a phone patch or ISDN session – you are still only talking to a small earful of people. Most of the time, it is my fingers doing the talking to the client, and my voice is reserved for the booth.

Last week, I learned that face-to-face interaction with clients and crew takes a lot more energy than I remember. After an all day on-camera shoot (OK, mostly all day) with a crew filled with old friends, followed by a day with a phone patch session, an ISDN session, a self-directed session AND an in someone else’s studio session – I was EXHAUSTED! 

The shoot part wasn’t particularly difficult, it was the people interaction part! Don’t misunderstand “difficult.”  The director, production manager, DP, LD, audio and make up person were all friends from another era in my life when I was doing much more on-camera and producing work. There were a few new people to meet too, both on the crew and the rest of the actors. But of those that I knew, it was like a college reunion.

Some of these people I have known for 20 years, but just never see much anymore as my work moved into voiceover work and into mostly out of market work from my home studio.

So catching up with them in and around takes, while still making sure we were all doing our jobs and listening to the director expended lots of energy.

Just resting my eyes…

 

The spots we shot start airing January 31st, for Cox – the one I did was for Digital Telephone. Initially they are set to run only in the San Diego area, but we did some generic lines, so who knows where they might end up.

What the heck just happened?

Excuse me, did I miss something? Like the whole 2nd half of the year maybe? What is this pile of paperwork sitting here? Wait, what I meant to say was what are all these piles of paperwork sitting here? Why is that list of things to do getting longer instead of shorter?

Part of it is personal obligations – that has increased over the past year and a half or so – since my mom moved out here from across the country. Part of it is that my ability to be superwoman is diminishing due to hot flashes.

Part of it is a slight increase in the amount of time I am spending chasing down money from people I didn’t expect to have to chase down for money.

But a big part of it is the time suckers – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media message boards, my volunteer time for MCA-I, this blog, the other blog, YouTube, Wimp and my new “droid.”

I love the phone – a Samsum Fascinate, but HATE the time it takes to delete email. I am assuming that eventually the phone will get “full” and slow down everything. If I am wrong about that – will someone let me know!

You actually have to delete the mail twice – unless I have missed something (see I would need to find the time to figure it out!). Delete it from the In Box and it goes to the Trash. You can select to delete all from the Trash, but that locks up the phone for minutes while it trys to accomplish this. That really needs to be addressed.

If it has been – again – will someone please let me know. I have a lot of work to do in the next few days and it would be nice not to have to worry about the phone slowing down due to lack of memory. God forbid that my life slows down at all.

Wait – maybe that would be GOOD thing!

Gah! Facebook is wonky!

OK – I think I can clearly see my addiction now. Facebook has been going down frequently over the past few days and I find myself compulsively refreshing the screen begging that its little blue interface appears.

There are many people with whom I have no other contact other than through Facebook. No email. No phone. Just a wonky URL.

So now I need to spend some time getting additional contact information from at least some of these folks. Hold on a moment…

Ah – Facebook is back up – for the time being…

See you later!

Time Balancing Act

There has to be a better way to allocate my time. Lately I seem to be living in reaction mode. The BlackBerry has a lot to do with this I think.

Ever since I got the little pacifier, I am a slave to the flashing red light. It sits next to my keyboard while I am working on an edit or doing some research or marketing or bookkeeping - and when it starts to flash I am COMPELLED to stop what I am doing, pick it up, and see what emergency is calling.  

OK, not very many emergencies in the voiceover business, but probably more than one would expect. But usually it is something like an ad for discount travel or hotels, chain letters from friends, Facebook updates, and auditions. I also get scripts from clients for jobs and requests for quotes for possible jobs.

The point is that instead of finishing up what I am doing, I very likely stop – and react to what has just come in my inbox. Many of us do this and we are training out clients to expect this kind of instant response.

But it can really mess with my usually top notch multi-tasking abilities. Suddenly I am playing catch up on the things I stopped doing before the “emergency” and playing the “what did I come into this room for” game.

On the other hand, I have seen people take this issue to the extreme the other way – by including auto-responders to emails with a specific time spelled out that they are checking email.

“Thank you for your email. I check email at 9AM and again at 3PM. If you are writing between those times, please know that I will address your issue as soon as I see it.” (Or words to that effect.)

Given the training that my clients have received, I think this would result in some of them going elsewhere.

Getting the Right Results from a Voiceover Session

Professional video and multimedia producers know there is a lot more involved in a successful voiceover than the simply recording the voice and slapping it into a time line.

Picking the right “talent”
The process starts with the initial selection of the voice talent for a particular project.

Start early and try not to scrimp on the budget for the talent. You want a voice that will be able to get the “right” read in the shortest amount of time. If you have questions about what to budget for talent for a particular project, make a few phone calls (to another producer, to talent you respect or best yet, a talent agent) and see what the going rate should be. You can usually find someone to do the job for practically nothing, but very often what you end up paying in extra studio time to get mediocre results will more than offset the cost of hiring a professional at a fair rate.

Before you actually start listening to talent demos, reflect on your audience and your concept. In some cases you may already have an idea that you want a very young sounding hip male voice with an edgy attitude. Or a warm and friendly, yet knowledgeable mature female voice. On the other hand you may not have any idea – “you’ll know it when you hear it.”

• Listen to demos – either from an agency house CD or their website, or demos from individual talent. You can also use some new search engines specifically designed to flood your inbox with custom auditions from voice talent. www.voice123.com and http://www.voices.com/ are two websites where you can post a request with the details of your project. One caveat about many of these sites is that they are automated and anyone with a demo and a couple hundred bucks can sign up to receive your casting notice. Therefore the talent ranges from barely amateur to highly professional.
• Another approach is to talk to an agent and describe the voice in your head. If you are casting for several voices, consider a casting director. These people know their talent and will be able to assemble a more focused set of auditions rather than the avalanche of right and very wrong demos you will get with the automated systems mentioned in the previous bullet. There are also more personalized online casting services such as www.commercialvoices.com who will listen to your requirements and send notices out to a short list of professional talent who have been invited (for a fee) to be on the website.
• Make sure you are listening to the right kind of demo. If you are seeking someone to narrate a 20 page script, listen to narration demos. If the talent only has a commercial demo, chances are they may not be used to reading long form material and may not be able to wrap their brain around your 20 page script without a lot of direction. Some talent agency compilation demos only feature commercial demos, so be sure to keep this in mind.
• If you are listening to a custom demo using a portion of your script, do yourself a favor and narrow down the field to the top 5 or 6 and then hold another casting session with some specific direction. If you are using one of the online services to get your initial demos, you can do this step remotely as the talent responding will have their own/or access to studios. This will help you discern whether the talent can be directed or not…always a good thing to know even if the talent is going to “self-direct” and send you clean tracks.

How do you get the “right” read?
Remember the caution about hiring talent for long form work who have a knack for long form work? Talent used to doing commercials may be able to understand the scenario that takes place in a 60 second spot, but may not be able to understand both the forest and the trees in a 20 page (or 100 page) script. Not only that, for scripts that will take over an hour in the studio, you need to know that your voiceover person can keep the same level of energy and approach from the first sentence to the last.

The right voice will be able to quickly read through the script (or part of the script), understand the overall approach and come up with a delivery style and pace that is pretty close. It is always in your best interest to let the talent in on who the audience is and what you want them to do, feel, or think after watching the presentation. Let the talent know his or her role…fellow employee, a helpful teacher, or perhaps a trusted superior. And don’t forget to let the talent in on the level of audience understanding or interest in the subject matter.

A good narrator is digging into what really happened. They are reading under the words – around the words – between the lines. They look for the nuances of meaning that lurk beneath the ink on the page. They think about what might have happened just before they open their mouth to read a particular sentence. Was it funny? Is this a transition point in the video? You need to have all of this running around in your head too – so that you will know when the narrator’s interpretation wasn’t quite right.

As a director of voice talent, you need to be able to effectively communicate your desires so that the talent can make the right adjustments to their delivery. In general, the more professional the talent, the less they need to work with – a grunt, a look, one word – may be all it takes and the next take is starred. The best talent needs little if any direction, particularly if you have selected the right voice for the project, or if you have worked with that talent before.

Some talent may require a bit more finesse to understand what you are hearing. This is where your understanding of the script and having a large vocabulary of adjectives will come in handy. Oh, and the fewer people directing the talent the better…but you know that.

However, as a professional voice talent and scriptwriter, I have found that there are a few technical things you can do with the narrator’s script that will make the session go even more smoothly.

Technical SPECS for scripts
You may have the entire presentation in your head, but unless there is something on the script that helps the narrator see it the way you do, you will be working a lot harder than you need to. Be sure to let the talent have as much information as possible about what is happening. This may mean taking a few minutes ahead of the session to discuss it. Believe me, it is well worth the time. It also helps if the script is easy to read. I’m not getting into the actual script writing here – that’s another topic for another time – these tips are for formatting your script to help the talent move through it quickly.

• If your script includes sound bites, be sure to include a transcription of the words that the narrator will be leading into and coming out of. This will help overall continuity and flow. 
• Double space the script so that the talent has room to mark the copy.
• Use at least 12 point font.
• Use upper and lower case – ALL CAPS ARE MORE DIFFICULT TO READ. Think about it, the talent has no way of knowing if something should be capitalized if everything is capitalized. This could affect interpretation.
• Try to avoid breaking a sentence in the middle from one page to the next. This will reduce the number of times you have to stop down for page turns, as well as possible page rustle.
• If you are using a dual column editing script as a narration script, some sentences may be broken in the middle of a thought to show the editor where a new image is supposed to appear. While most professional talent can mentally take up the space and tie the sentence together, try to avoid this on the script you hand the talent.

The audio track is a critical element in your media project. By selecting the right talent in the first place, and then working with them to get the right read, your media projects will connect and communicate.

Written by Connie Terwilliger for Studio/monthly. Copyright Access Intelligence, Dynamic Media Group, publisher of Studio/monthly magazine. To subscribe, go to www.studiomonthly.com