29
The Changing World of Voiceover
In This Chapter
An Industry in Flux
It goes without saying that, as with most industries, voiceover has grown through a series of changes and adjustments since the early days of radio back in the 1920s.
However, since the early 2,000s, advances in technology, online coaching, the advent of Internet casting, and a variety of economic and other factors have resulted in changes to the voiceover industry at a pace never before seen. While some of these changes are definitely for the good, other changes are seen as devaluing the role of the voice actor and still others have been a complete surprise and only time will tell how the industry will ultimately be affected.
This chapter is about the future of voiceover as seen by some of the top professional in the business. It should be noted that some of the observations and comments in this chapter may be controversial. The opinions expressed are those of the individual professionals and do not necessarily represent those of the author or publisher.
J. Michael Collins
With over twenty years as a professional voice actor, J. Michael Collins has worked with some of the biggest companies, brands, sports leagues, and organizations on the planet. He has established himself as a leading authority in the online casting marketplace and has become recognized as an industry leading talent coach and demo producer. J. Michael is a 10-time Voice Arts Award winner as a voice actor, demo producer, script writer, and casting director.
The Future of the Industry
© J. Michael Collins. All rights reserved.
A recent chat with a very prominent LA casting director who shall remain nameless made me do a double take. I have long been vocal in articulating my belief that the voiceover casting landscape has changed and will continue to change in fundamental ways, but to hear this person say, “I think agents will be gone in five years,” stopped me in my tracks.
I’m not sure I agree with that assessment. Union work will continue to represent the best work available, and agents will continue to be an integral part of that process, but this hyperbolic comment from someone so well-positioned tells a broader story.
For too long an old guard of LA & NYC talent, agents, casting directors, network executives, and other power brokers have ignored technological shifts and economic trends that are shaping our industry. They slept as Voices.com metastasized from a quirky and effective means of connecting non-union talent with mid-level and low-level buyers into a Morgan Stanley-funded industry wrecking ball determined to own as much of the marketplace as possible. While worst case scenarios are unlikely to come to pass with regard to Voices.com’s ambitions, the industry can no longer afford to ignore the reality that the playing field has changed.
While we may at times feel adrift in a leaderless and rudderless Wild West of a business, now is the time for talent to seize the opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the nascent fight between lethargic vested interests and amoral corporate entities.
Too often talent are force-fed the myth that the market is saturated with competition. Yes, in Los Angeles and New York there are indeed fewer major-agency roster spots and actual high-end union jobs than talent to do them, but this does not hold true for the 99 percent of voiceover work that exists outside of this closed sphere, much of which pays rates that are at or above union scale. In fact, while hundreds of thousands of people are buying USB mics and hanging their shingles on Skid Row five-dollar-a-holler online sites, there are perhaps only a few thousand professional voice actors around North America who are sufficiently skilled to make a full time living in this industry. If you are one of them, you will not go hungry.
It is imperative, however, that today’s talent do not make the same mistakes of their forebears, and that they remain vigilant about protecting an industry that is growing rapidly in terms of overall sales volume, opportunities, and, (with certain obvious exceptions,) even in terms of pay. This means we must think about what our field looks like five years from now, ten years from now, and twenty years from now. No one can predict the future with perfect accuracy, but by observing current trends both economic and technological, we can retain control over how we work, and not concede dominion over our voices to the array of corporations that see us as a means to a lucrative end.
What does the future look like to me?
The future of voiceover looks a lot like any other freelance industry that has been shifted to an online-based market structure, with one glaring exception: Unlike many other freelance professions, ours requires a unique combination of training, natural artistic spark, and the physical capacity to produce a sound that others find pleasing, (which is a very long-winded way of saying: a good voice.) Quality voice actors are not a dime a dozen. We are, in fact, quite rare, and our scarcity gives us power. It is up to us to understand how to use it.
The future of voiceover is online casting. My LA casting director friend knows this, and so do my agents. There are a handful among the industry’s glitterati who have yet to accommodate themselves to this reality, but just as a pre-historic T-Rex observing the blazing fireball moving ever closer to Earth could not get out of its way, so too will the inevitable forces of technology and economics require industry dinosaurs to adapt or perish.
Agents will not die en masse, though some will certainly wander aimlessly towards extinction. Others will follow the example of leaders like the VO Agent Alliance and demand fair treatment of their talent, even if that means fewer clients. Some will find ways to emulate and improve upon the original online casting concepts put forth by sites like Voice123 and Voices.com, and move their businesses into the twenty first century while gathering jobs from corners of the industry they would never have ventured into before. Still others may leverage existing casting platforms into symbiotic relationships, possibly also incorporating on camera work.
Casting Directors in top positions will remain secure, but those on the margins will need to reinvent their role to adapt to the new world of VO. That means focusing on core relationships and demonstrating their value by creating efficiencies in the field of talent placement that improve upon and work hand-in-hand with online service offerings.
The union must decide if voiceover will be a priority, or if they will concede the space permanently. There is no middle ground, and what happens to voice actors today will happen to on camera actors tomorrow. If the prospect of George Clooney being required to have a .com site account to audition for future work doesn’t terrify SAG/AFTRA, it should. When companies like Morgan Stanley begin to enter an industry, they aren’t dipping their toe in the water; they play for keeps. Moreover, Morgan Stanley is just the first. If and when Amazon, Facebook, Google or others target the entertainment industry with an eye towards control, having a successful playbook to counter those efforts will serve the union well. Voiceover may be the Czechoslovakia of the entertainment industry, but the enemy, whomever they may turn out to be, has their eyes on France.
Finally, talent must hold the line. If you are selling national usage rights on bottom-of-the-barrel sites for twenty dollars, you are not only a fool but a traitor to your colleagues and your industry. Educate yourselves about fair pay. Understand usage and how to calculate appropriate fees. Just ask. This industry is incredibly kind, giving, and selfless, and we will gladly help. Ask me. Reach out anytime.
Talent are also responsible for not spewing incendiary hyperbole and grabbing pitchforks and torches unless absolutely appropriate. The twenty dollar national spot guy? Hang him by his ankles and run him out of town on a rail, but those who disparagingly refer to, “The pay to play world,” and sneer at any online work are equally responsible for the dangers we face. Ignoring reality won’t make it go away. Instead, we must demand that online casting sites act in an ethical and transparent manner. Ultimately, casting sites that exist to claim a piece of the transaction are the real threat. Those which act strictly as a matchmaker and job aggregator should be supported vocally and actively, and we should proudly and publicly embrace our memberships on those platforms.
There is no room in our industry for privilege and elitism. We are all in this together, and if you think your status and residuals protect you, wait a while and see if you still feel the same way in a few years when the industry has moved beyond your knowledge of it. With threats from massive corporations and AI looming on the horizon, it is up to us not to buckle under when asked to cut rates, even if it means walking away from work… but it is equally critical that we support the growing middle and upper middle class in our industry, the non-broadcast narration voices and those working regional and local commercials. As media becomes more targeted and consumers reject one-size-fits-all approaches this kind of work will be in most of our futures. None of us are too good for it.
Hugh p. Klitzke
voiceoverfortheactor.com - #VO4TA
Hugh P. Klitzke is a Voiceover Studio Manager for a leading bicoastal talent agency, one of very few voiceover casting directors working full time for any talent agency in New York City. He has directed over 115,000 auditions of all kinds, and counting. Hugh blogs and teaches classes at voiceoverfortheactor.com.
So... What about the Future? a Casting Director's Perspective
© Hugh P. Klitzke. All rights reserved.
So, what about the future? I'm always loathe to prognosticate—too easy to be proven wrong. James’ book is already filled with lots of good information about the present state of the voiceover industry—so, it falls to me to take a few guesses about where it may go.
Actors who used to do “only commercials” or “only promo” will find that with education, research and practice they can move from one type of voiceover work to a type they may never have explored before. What if a charactery quirky cartoony “guy” develops the knack for a political read? Politicals are loaded with sarcasm and anger—something funny people do really well. Or perhaps a “wry best friend” flattens some of her rougher edges and becomes a charming, down to earth narrator who is also able to land a joke with perfect timing.
As online education has improved, talent interested in pursuing voiceover will find very effective training away from the more traditional centers of the voiceover universe (NYC, LA, CHI, DAL) This will make it much less of a work “I just fell into” and more of a learned craft. More people interested will mean more competition and more competition will lead to an even greater variety of participants.
Overall, diversity of casting will become more and more prevalent. Women's casting will become voices of authority more often rather than their usual roles of comfort or sensuality. Instead of the presumption of peer to peer advertising (only 45 year old men will want to hear other 45 year old men talk about this car)—I think we’ll move more towards the casting of voices that reflect what a producer wants to say about their product and less about who they are selling to. And consequently, when it does happen, the casting director interaction will become much less of a “get them in and out quick” experience and much more of a workspace with patience, consideration and attention to detail and specificity.
I believe production will fall on talent more than ever. High quality audio recording is just too easy to get and at the same time standards for audio have become more lax. Producers will sacrifice quality for efficiency. And with technology becoming cheaper daily— regional work will become more important. Why cast politicals in D.C. when the battleground states are FL, MI and VA? Talent in the area will know the pronunciation of candidates’ names and local places while performing regional accents perfectly.
The on demand world has created an expectation of on demand labor. Casting turnaround times have already become extremely short. First it was an evening email letting you know about an AM submission deadline. Now end of day turnarounds happen after getting an audition at lunch. Today pickups for spots are recorded and submitted hours after receiving them. Sometimes even as short as 90 minutes. This is a trend that will become de facto standard. And producers will look to this efficiency in different ways. A corporate scandal is reported in the press and 24 hours later scripts for a new campaign and casting for new voices are waiting for submissions. How about producing and releasing a response ad the same day a scandal breaks to keep stock prices from falling before the closing bell?
Finally I believe that there will be a greater request for a genuine sound. (As if announcing wasn’t the relic of another era already). See, first it was called “not-announcery”, then it was called “real”. Later the producers referred to it as an “actory read” and then “not sounding like a voice over talent”—they’re going to have to find a new way of asking. But reads will continue their trend towards being natural, connected and with a point of view—and this will require more acting skill than ever.
Tom Dheere
Tom Dheere (the H is silent, but he is not) is one of the most creative voice actors I’ve met. With more than two decades of experience narrating literally thousands of voiceover projects, he has kept his hand on the pulse of the industry and gained insights that can only come from working in a variety of media.
Ignore the Noise
© Tom Dheere. All rights reserved.
The world of voiceover marketing has changed massively over the past few years. Now that the barrier for entry to the voiceover industry has been lowered considerably due to the Internet and relatively cheap technology, the industry has been flooded with crappy voice talents with no training, crappy demos produced by shady demo mills, and crappy marketing materials cramming every voice seekers’ inbox. This means that traditional marketing methods are far less effective than they used to be. Cold calls, emails, newsletters, postcards, and other marketing materials now have a much less chance of being seriously considered by voice seekers (if reviewed at all) than they used to. On top of that, the saturation of mediocre talent and the proliferation of questionable pay-to-play sites has trained many voice seekers and voice talents to “bottom-feed,” making it even more difficult for professional talent to get paid rates that are commensurate with the industry standard. I don’t think it’s going to get any better in the near future.
What to do?
You need to develop an effective brand and disseminate that brand via your demo, website, logo, tagline, social media presence, and in-person presence. You need to develop meaningful relationships with both voice seekers and voice talents by being genuine, well-trained, and well-disciplined. You need to ignore the noise and be you. It’s difficult but it can be done!”
The World-Voices Organization
© Peter Bishop, President, WoVO. All rights reserved.
It all started in March, 2012 when four working voice actors, while attending a VO conference in Ventura, CA, were discussing the state of the industry. They saw the need for an industry association that would represent the interests of the working voice actor.
Shifts in the industry showed clearly that the majority of VOs saw no point in joining a union that was perceived as relevant only if you were working in major broadcast markets… not producing hours of eLearning, industrial narration, or explainer videos from your own studio. The union had failed to keep up with technical changes in the VO world: the internet, P2P sites, and online casing in general, where the vast majority of work was being offered on a non-union basis.
There is no doubt that elements in the voiceover industry are focused on driving rates down and commoditizing what we do. We have to raise the understanding and appreciation of professional voiceover talent in an industry that is under financial pressure to look the other way. Formation of an industry trade association was an idea whose time had come.
The enthusiasm from early members was confirmation that WoVO was on the right track and the organization began to grow. WoVO’s Best Practices documents gave guidelines about how to act as a professional voice talent and what to expect from others in the industry. WoVO’s position as an industry association meant that we could provide guidelines and advice for our membership, but, unlike a union, we could not set rates or tell our members what to do. The aim was simply to educate and inform, and to enable our members to make sound business decisions based on accurate information.
When it began, WoVO was seen primarily as an English-language, US-based organization. Now, we have we have active members in Canada, Spain, Latin America and many European and Asian countries. WoVO has matured since its inception and we now have a well-established mentoring program, where our more experienced members make themselves available to others in the community, providing help and guidance in any area from technical to performance to managing their business.
Our mission is to inform and educate members of the voiceover community and other voiceover business professionals about best practices, standards for ethical conduct and professional expertise as it relates to the voiceover industry.
WoVO is member-driven and administered by volunteers. Our direction is set by our members, so while our banner may read, “We, speak for those who speak for a living ” maybe it should read, “We enable those who speak for a living to speak for themselves” - but it’s not quite as catchy, is it?