Keeping it Interesting

Work is fun. Work is work. Work pays the bills! Really, I enjoy all the voice over work that I'm privileged to do everyday. Along with just being grateful for jobs coming my way, the joy of voice over work often comes from the variety of projects that come my way. It is fun and interesting, and I usually learn something from each and every project. Although I have always done all kinds of voice over work, sometimes, the jobs that come in are heavy in one genre, such as e-learning......for awhile, and then things switch and it maybe something else: corporate narrations, IVR or phone messaging, commercials, promo, imaging, etc.

The past month or so has been especially interesting and varied with all kinds of new and unexpected projects. I recorded a large batch of medical center commercials both for television and radio which were recorded in another studio here in Houston - Audio Bob. This used to be how all my jobs were recorded - driving into town, working in a studio, with an engineer and a producer/director in attendance. It was really fun to work with "real people" again like I used to! The fact that it was such a nice large project was gravy.....

Work that has come directly to me often finds me via my web site. I just never know who will be calling or emailing me with what kind of project. In addition to a slew of large e-learning, commercial, and IVR projects here in my studio, I've had several wonderful and new narration opportunities. I narrated a very well done documentary style production for the American Museum of Natural History in NY, a moving airplane accident case study for AOPA, and several different voices of the women's suffrage movement for a PBS special all via phone patch.

Political commercials are definitely on the upswing, too, as you may have noticed, and I've voiced several in the past week - usually at the last minute - via ISDN. In fact, I missed one, just because I was invited out to lunch!! Note to self, don’t leave the studio during an election year. J

Throw in a variety of smaller market commercials for all kinds of clients, a few radio imaging projects, some regular repeat work for IVR and phone messaging clients and the interest level grows. The variety of clients, producers, and projects open to voice over talent now that we can work from our own studios via the internet is amazing compared to how we used to work... Of course, it all requires more background/non voice over work from us as well. Marketing, bookkeeping, producing, editing, and just generally keeping track of a business all take a lot of time and attention. But that can all be interesting, too. Marketing, alone, is a topic worthy of a great deal of time and attention, and something to be talked about in more detail in another article.

Until we meet again, “Be well and prosper!”

American Museum of Natural History Video Narration

I was very pleased to view the final production of the video that I narrated for the American Museum of Natural History recently: The Polar Intro for the Race to the End of the Earth. It was such a pleasure to work with the producers, and I'm very proud to be a part of this wonderful project.

I do love to record narrations, and I'm particularly interested in doing more documentary narration. Of course, I always enjoy corporate narrations and recording commercials, e-learning, on hold/IVR and more!

Don't You Just Love it When.....

Don't you just love it when, as a professional voice talent, you get a narration job and then find out that you have to match the scratch track done by a non-professional? Sometimes, it's not a huge issue, but more often than not, whoever is reading it is speaking way too fast with pauses and inflections that don't come near to the way you would do it - and they are usually not reading in the style that the client wants, either. So, for example, you might need to be soft and mellow - while still reading at double or triple time in order to fit the time limitations of the video.

Often the client will want to send you the video to "match" the scratch track. I don't think they realize how time consuming it is for us to view and time each section. It is important to let them know that it will take you much more time to do that than to just voice it. If at all possible, try to get the client to time those sections for you and send time codes with each line or paragraph of the script - depending on what drives the timing. Otherwise, you will need to increase your fee to take the time to do that for yourself... or just eat it.

In all fairness, sometimes this just can't be helped and clients are very sympathetic and apologetic. Another person narrated the video and then the "powers that be" decide that they want someone different. There may not be time for your client to re-edit the video to your track. They just need to drop it in. If it's been narrated by another professional, your chances are better of it being less painless, but still, we're all individuals with our own timing and style, so it can be a challenge. If you're working in a studio with another engineer, it's easier, but if you're on your own, you get all the extra work to make it right.

A little thing I do to help get the timings right is to play the video while recording the audio track from my computer. Then, it’s easier to isolate the voice in my audio software to time it exactly. That’s half the battle right there – determining exactly what those timings are. Then, in these situations, I record section by section in order to time it perfectly with the scratch track. When it’s all been recorded, I check my sound levels from section to section and normalize the levels. I also need to make sure that it flows naturally from each section to the next and sounds like it was recorded all at once even though I’ve had to chop it up to work. I clean up the air between each section, too, so that I don’t have any little stray noises – breaths or parts of breaths, other noises leading into or out of a section. I really turn the headphones up for that part, because I want to end up with a perfectly clean audio track that the client will be pleased with. Or I want to end up with perfectly clean individual audio files for the client to drop in….and be pleased with.

After all, no matter what the task or what it takes to get there, that’s the name of the game…..keeping the client happy!

New Studio!

Well, guess it's been quite some time since my last post! The late spring and summer have gotten away from me with graduations, family reunions, work, and continued work on the new studio. The great news is that while I was away attending a family reunion in June, my studio equipment was all moved into the new studio - thanks to my husband and sons. When I returned, I immediately started working in the new audio booth exclusively. The rest of the studio is almost complete with just a few more cosmetic touches needed.

It took about 7 months to get to this point because my contractor walked the job last December after most of the major construction of the audio booth and new roof and porch of the building were complete. We did shop around for another contractor to finish up, but my husband - fortunately, a jack of all trades - decided he'd just do it himself. Although he had to split his time between work and other major projects, he's plugged away at the studio and done a fantastic job! AND at least we know the work has been done "right the first time" - although we sure wouldn't have minded help from one of our TV favorites - Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes:)

I'm anxious for everything to be completed so that I can post pictures. There's really not much left to complete, but I'm trying to be patient until everything is perfect......and we're close. Until then, I am at least able to work in the new booth, and I'm loving being able to look out the window of the booth through the large windows of the studio to the outdoors. Such a change from the "cave" of the past 7 years! Don't get me wrong. I was thankful for it, and I did a lot of good work from there, and it was pleasant except for the fact that I had to plug the windows with foam and plywood and create a little enclosed "cave"of a booth with office dividers and comforters to eventually get the acoustics to my standards. With hours spent narrating e-learning tutorials and other long form narration, it could get a bit "other worldly". And it was always a worry with ISDN sessions as to whether the neighbors' yard services would show up at just the wrong time....

Now, I just feel so much freer and it's a joy to be in this space!

New Botox Narration

What Do You Do On A Slow Voice Over Afternoon?

Besides taking off to play hooky (which isn't a bad idea once in awhile), you can check on all those voice over web sites you've been listed on forever and update your profile and demos! If you're like me, you may have received leads from some old sites based on old rates. Makes for a sticky situation when the potential client says "but your rates on the site were...." after you quote your normal current rate. Oh, yeah, right, well..... You either have an unhappy client who may go away or you're stuck working for less than you'd really like if they don't like your explanation, and you want to be a "good guy or gal".

Some of the sites don't make it particularly easy to update your profile and demos while others are relatively simple. It's usually just a matter of finding the time or remembering to take care of it when you have some quiet time. There are sites that I'm listed on that I really just forget about until I get the occasional request from a client. I just checked on one that showed clearly printed on my profile that the last time it was updated was 2003! Yikes!

So, along with promising myself that I'm going to set aside some time during at least one day a month to double check all the downloads in my financial software to make sure all the categories are correctly listed (making it easier at tax time), I think I need to schedule regular maintenance on the many listings I have on the internet....or delete some of them. It's not particularly fun to get caught unaware!

Remember to Ask Those Questions!

Well, I have to say that I've done it again. In the heat of the moment with a busy day, a new client who was in a rush and on a budget, I agreed to "help" them out by providing an ultra quick turnaround of a short narration at a discounted rate no less! All was well, and I was aware of what I was doing. However, after providing a complete audio file - for which the client had paid via Paypal - and after having played the audio via phone for the client for confirmation......that evening I received an email telling me that the audio was too long to match the audio of their already completed video....and could I watch the video and sync my delivery to the original (client) delivery....

Ugh..well, yes, I can, but at the rate I quoted and was paid, it would have been nice to know up front that my audio had to match that timing. I should have known better, and I take responsibility for not asking that question. I knew there was a video and I knew they didn't like the audio that they had created, but due to the busy schedule that day, I didn't snap to press them on the issue of whether they could slide the audio and video to match or if it had to be absolutely timed. I mean I did discuss it to a degree, but I don't think the client even realized what they could or couldn't do. I've run into both situations in the past, and I guess, when it wasn't specified and requested by the client up front that I needed to match the exact timing of their original audio, I just didn't realize it was an issue. BUT, I should have asked and confirmed their situation before the initial recording.

So, being committed to making sure the client was well taken care of, early the next morning, I proceeded to make it work. When the client didn't seem to know whether they could even provide me with the timings of the audio, I plunged in to time them myself and match my read to theirs. To their credit, they did finally provide a script with timings, but by that time, I had already finished as I knew the client had a fast approaching deadline.

Bottom line, even if it's a very busy day and you're running in and out of the studio, it's best to try to remember to ask ALL the questions. Maybe a cheat sheet of questions to ask clients would be useful, especially on those frantic days. I asked all the OTHER questions, but forgot that very important one or at least didn't press it for a definite answer. Of course, on an already busy day, one could always just say no to the gig.....but I always try to find a way to make it work.