Listen to that inner voice.
You know what your voice-over services are worth, and you know there is a minimum fee below which you are not comfortable. Sometimes you do a job for less because you just feel like it, and sometimes you accept an assignment against your better judgement. Last week I went part way down that path, and got off before things went too far, but it left an unpleasant taste.
I responded to a notice for a low budget job. I have no idea what possessed me – maybe I thought it would be a quick bolus of cash to pay for a few tanks full of gas for our vacation trip. The first sign that it was a mistake was when the client (she turned out to be a talent agent of some kind, and the fact that she was posting online for voice talent indicates that she doesn’t deal with voice-over very often) wrote me to request an audition of a few paragraphs of the script and said that, if chosen, I would be paid after the audio was delivered along with any changes the client requested. I usually require a 50% deposit. I went ahead and auditioned anyway. Just before our trip I got another email from the agent, stating that her client was trying to choose between me and one other talent, and could I please audition the whole script. It was a short script, and probably my ego got in the way, telling me I had made the cut and wasn’t that nice. As it happens, I had removed a piece of Sonex from my booth since I needed it for my mobile recording studio, and that little change livened up my room a bit and the audio sounded particularly nice. I sent the audio off with confidence that the client would be impressed. I was so taken with the sound that I sent the file to my friend George Whittam, since we had been talking about such things recently and I wanted him to hear the change. He was impressed too.
While away I received an email from the agent, forwarding comments from her client:
“We need Mary to read the script straight through, it sounds a little choppy and edited. Have her send you 3 different read throughs un-edited, with different inflections. Have Mary include two more lines at the end of the read [the additional lines were included in the email].”
We are still talking about an audition here! I finally came to my full senses and wrote back:
“I'm very sorry, but I'm not going to be able to help you. For a low budget project like this, it simply is not possible for me to do 4 different complete reads for an audition. And if your client is this demanding in the audition phase it's only going to get worse.
Best wishes &c”
The agent wrote me back an incoherent email, the gist of which was, “don’t ever darken my door again”.
I felt rather bad about it, because I don’t like conflict. If it had gone the way I initially envisioned, it would have been nice to get gasoline money out of it. But it went the way many low budget projects go – the way of completely unreasonable expectations. It just isn’t worth it, unless it’s for a client you already know and like and they need a favor and you trust them not to go overboard. Otherwise, you are in effect saying, "my time and talent are not worth much - go ahead and abuse me."
I make a lot of mistakes. That was one of them. I hope I have finally learned to resist the temptation to respond to such requests in the future. They always seem to bring me into contact with unpleasant people.
Ugh. You know?
Fortunately I got some nice new clients right after that who paid for my vacation. A reward for being sensible, undoubtedly.
I responded to a notice for a low budget job. I have no idea what possessed me – maybe I thought it would be a quick bolus of cash to pay for a few tanks full of gas for our vacation trip. The first sign that it was a mistake was when the client (she turned out to be a talent agent of some kind, and the fact that she was posting online for voice talent indicates that she doesn’t deal with voice-over very often) wrote me to request an audition of a few paragraphs of the script and said that, if chosen, I would be paid after the audio was delivered along with any changes the client requested. I usually require a 50% deposit. I went ahead and auditioned anyway. Just before our trip I got another email from the agent, stating that her client was trying to choose between me and one other talent, and could I please audition the whole script. It was a short script, and probably my ego got in the way, telling me I had made the cut and wasn’t that nice. As it happens, I had removed a piece of Sonex from my booth since I needed it for my mobile recording studio, and that little change livened up my room a bit and the audio sounded particularly nice. I sent the audio off with confidence that the client would be impressed. I was so taken with the sound that I sent the file to my friend George Whittam, since we had been talking about such things recently and I wanted him to hear the change. He was impressed too.
While away I received an email from the agent, forwarding comments from her client:
“We need Mary to read the script straight through, it sounds a little choppy and edited. Have her send you 3 different read throughs un-edited, with different inflections. Have Mary include two more lines at the end of the read [the additional lines were included in the email].”
We are still talking about an audition here! I finally came to my full senses and wrote back:
“I'm very sorry, but I'm not going to be able to help you. For a low budget project like this, it simply is not possible for me to do 4 different complete reads for an audition. And if your client is this demanding in the audition phase it's only going to get worse.
Best wishes &c”
The agent wrote me back an incoherent email, the gist of which was, “don’t ever darken my door again”.
I felt rather bad about it, because I don’t like conflict. If it had gone the way I initially envisioned, it would have been nice to get gasoline money out of it. But it went the way many low budget projects go – the way of completely unreasonable expectations. It just isn’t worth it, unless it’s for a client you already know and like and they need a favor and you trust them not to go overboard. Otherwise, you are in effect saying, "my time and talent are not worth much - go ahead and abuse me."
I make a lot of mistakes. That was one of them. I hope I have finally learned to resist the temptation to respond to such requests in the future. They always seem to bring me into contact with unpleasant people.
Ugh. You know?
Fortunately I got some nice new clients right after that who paid for my vacation. A reward for being sensible, undoubtedly.
Labels: perceived value, voice-over auditions
posted by MCM Voices at
8/06/2008
6 Comments:
Alright Kreskin, knock it off. You can't predict the future.
You thought maybe this job was the right way to go and as you went down the path...you got diverted by weather or common sense or some damn thing. Money is AN indicator but not the only one.
The point is you knew when to get off and the agent was fighting for their client and not you. If you never get work from an agent overseeing low budget project with clients who want 12 auditions, are you really that bad off?
I think not.
Of course I fully expect to hear the whole tawdry story some day.
Remember what my friend Bob Frost always said:
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Best always,
- Peter
We do these things because NO ONE likes leaving money on the table. It's unfortunate that your experiences seem par for the course.
I can't see where you made any mistakes. You took a chance (nothing wrong with hoping for the best in people), and you ran the business you wanted to run, reasonably and professionally.
As far as I'm concerned they got off light. If someone had approached me like that about any of my talent at my old agency we instantly would've started talking about paid demos, and sessions/use at double scale, plus an additional 20% for studio/direction time.
That and I'm pals with several assistants and booth directors around town, and we tend to warn each other about certain projects.
The only "mistake" made in this whole scenario was from the agent slamming the door on a possible business relationship. Didn't they respond positively to your read? Well that means there's money to be made there.
Whatta stupid "agent"...
Thank-you Peter and SAG - I really appreciate your comments, which make me feel a bit better about "the whole tawdry affair". LOL!
like the man said...at least you knew when to bail.
still doesn't take the sting out of the so-called agent's reaction. but perhaps your "agent" will have the same experience as the last "agent" who gave me such verbal abuse -- he folded after less than a year in the business and took work in a completely unrelated field ('security', where he can evidently bark orders and try to intimidate people to his black heart's content).
in such cases, i hold in mind one of my many favorite quotes from "the maltese falcon": 'the cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter..."
maybe the subsequent good clients who came your way was some of that "karma".
rg
I agree with Peter, good one that you knew when to get off the train. It's taken me awhile to see the signs, but better to stop the process at the audition stage when you get that "UGH" feeling.
Good post!
Rowell, I would not be at all surprised to see this agency go under. Quite apart from the woman's rudeness, her willingness to allow her client to demand, as Philip Banks put it, "first class service on an economy class ticket" shows a serious lack of vision and professionalism, especially since the client's comments suggested that they were either smokin' something, or trying to get something for nothing.
Ugh!!!
Kitzie!! Thank-you for stopping by!
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