Yesterday I shared five reasons why you’re not getting more auditions, or better quality auditions for your voice over project postings.
Today I’ll build on that with five more tips. In many cases, the difference between getting a few auditions or many good auditions is just a couple of simple, quick fixes.
5 More Reasons You’re Not Getting Auditions
1) Must Read Entire Script:
This is always a red flag for me. I think it is for many voice talents, especially in the online realm. You may be the most honest person in the world, but not everyone is like you. Providing an audition of an entire script can be a good way for a talent to get burned. I will often skip over auditions that make this requirement, just as a way to protect myself.
Tip: Don’t require a full script read or substitute names with other information. This will set the talent at ease, knowing their audition won’t be stolen.
2) Unrealistic Budget:
“We need you to read a 4,000 word video. We’re on a tight budget. We’re looking for a talent to do this for $50.” Right there…you lost me. You also lost any quality voice talent as well. When it comes to budgets and rates, this is possibly the number one thing that will cost you quality auditions.
Tip: Be realistic about your budget. There are plenty of resources you can look to for rates (Voice123 has a rate card). If you’re really not sure, ask for quotes.
3) Unrealistic Timeline:
“We need this 15,000 word audiobook delivered by tomorrow at 12pm EST.” I do my best to offer turnaround in 24 hours or less. Most of the time, this is possible. Sometimes, it’s simply not. A number of factors could effect this. The size of the project, the time it was received, the day of the week (not everyone works on Sunday, for example.) When I see a deadline I know I can never meet, I don’t even bother auditioning.
Tip: Be realistic about the delivery time-frame. If you have a tight deadline outline it clearly in the job notes, but make sure it’s actually possible for someone to meet.
4) No Pronunciation Guide:
If I look over your audition script, and it’s filled with words I don’t know how to say, such as your company name or product name, or maybe medical or technical terms, if there is no pronunciation guide, I’m skipping it. I’d rather not audition than make a fool of myself saying your company name wrong!
Tip: Providing pronunciation guides is a great way to make talent comfortable with your script. It will get you better quality auditions every single time!
5) No Script:
I saw this on an audition the other day. It was a link to a video. The audition notes said, “here’s our video. We need to replace the voice. Please submit a custom audition of the first few lines of the video.” That’s it. No script was provided. In other words, talent auditioning were expected to transcribe the video in order to submit their custom demo. I’ll pass on this every time. So will most.
Tip: If you’d like a custom audition for your project, always provide a script. Even if it’s just a few lines.
Cover Your Bases
The more organized and detailed your project posting, the easier it is for voiceover talent to submit great quality auditions of exactly what you’re looking for. If you leave details out or put little or no effort in, you shouldn’t be surprised when you receive no auditions or poor quality ones.
Take your time. Iron out the details. Be specific. Be thorough. If you do these things you’ll be well on your way to better quality voice overs and experiences working with talent.
About the author
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Marc Scott is a Voice123 voice talent |
J.S. Gilbert
December 14, 2012
Marc,
I think you’re dead on, although I’d like to comment on point number 1. As someone who casts and hires talent, at least with commercial copy, there tends to be more of a “complete picture” that almost always requires us to have talent read the full 30 or 60 second script. This is still very much standard practice for most castings conducted by casting directors and talent agents.
Sometimes you may be auditioning for pitches, or “demos”, which technically shouldn’t be used for any purpose if the talent isn’t compensated. But in the real world, many times the person sending out the audition doesn’t stop to consider that this is an abuse of the system and the talent. It’s rare for even a talent agent to know whether an audition has been green lighted, yellow lighted or is just something the ad agency intends to “fly up the flagpole”. Such is life.
Beyond that, let’s talk about a worst case scenario; you read the whole script and somebody rips it off and uses it without compensating you. Aside from the previous scenarios I mentioned, which could occur with even a partially read script, actual usage without compensation probably happens a heck of a lot less than you think. But even when it does, what’s your loss? There really is none. Obviously this is something you wouldn’t have been compensated for and if it’s played publicly to the point where it would ever interfere with any potential work you may be considered for, you’d know about it and can take legal action. More likely, if it’s ripped off, it’s for a Bar Mitzvah intro or something somewhat innocuous that the creator of the work feels they won’t get caught doing.
So, really all it is is one more audition that you’ve done.
On the other hand, by not reading all of the copy, you may be precluded from being presented to the client and you’ve wasted yours and the casting persons time. This is the case with the castings I conduct; watermark, change words around or omit a line or two and sorry, you go straight into the reject pile. Waste of time. Sadly though, the folks who control the purse strings won’t ever say anything, they’ll just label you as “one more paranoid voice talent”, and that’s the end of that. Interestingly, while my auditions may have been ripped off many times, quite frankly I have no idea. It hasn’t bothered me one bit. I would have no greater piece of mind if I were certain they weren’t. Yet, I can name several lucrative projects I won perhaps simply because my competition was greatly reduced by this needless paranoia.
Think about it.
Sandra Johnson
December 14, 2012
You hit the nail on the head! I’ve been on Voice123 for over 6 years & avoid auditioning for clients who request the entire script or want to pay $50 for me to not only custom audition but also voice a job at that rate.
Marc Scott
December 14, 2012
Hi Sandra,
It’s my hope that with a little bit of education for Voice Seekers from Voice Talents we can start to see some positive changes in job castings that will benefit everyone involved.
Marc
purrrentice
December 15, 2012
I absolutely LOVE this and the previous article. Everything is so true!
J.S. Gilbert
December 16, 2012
One more point I neglected to mention regarding “reading the whole thing”. Many voice talent, including myself have been very pleased when on occasion we’ve done an audition and then get sent a check. Either because of tight deadlines, being “close enough” or both, the client has decided that our audition was good enough to use as the final product, thus eliminating the need for an actual recording session. So, one more reason why defending your audition with a a watermark, changing the copy or not reading the whole piece, doesn’t make good sense.
Marc Scott
December 17, 2012
Hi J.S.
You bring up a good point, and I should have perhaps been a little more specific. For that point about recording the entire script, I was thinking more about videos where people are looking for 1, 2, 4 or more minutes of recording. I really don’t think it’s appropriate or necessary to record the entire script in these cases. Are they really going to listen to 10, 20, 50 or 100 auditions of their full script?
As for commercials, you raise some very good thoughts to ponder.
Marc
Marc Scott
December 17, 2012
Hi Purrrentice,
Thanks for checking out the article and for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the posts.
Marc
Dave Roberts
December 23, 2012
I would add one more thing: When a “voice seeker” posts an audition for you, and the spelling is wrong…the syntax does not make sense, and the sentences are in-congruent…I would say these voice seekers are lame at best. If they’re not willing to review their post and script for mistakes in the language they want…then they are toast. However, I must say, “I ‘m not the greatest speller either…and I do make mistakes. And as we deal with more and more foreign requests for voice over, I understand that not everyone has a great command of the English language. I’m not complaining, I’m not judging…I’m just saying.”
Dave.
Steven Lowell
December 23, 2012
I agree Dave.
The fact is that the way we write indicates so much about a person’s belief system, education, and experience.
I do not judge either, but I am the son of an English teacher. When I see I have made a typo or grammatical error, I get really annoyed at myself. I do not treat it like, “Oh, they will understand what I mean.”
I look at job descriptions, like a boss looks at resumes. I do watch for grammar, more so than spelling, because spellcheck proved all words can be spelled correctly, and not make sense at the same time.
Tommy Thompson
December 25, 2012
Thanks for bringing up the subject, Dave. I appreciate your take on the topic. I might add that I’m willing to cut a lot of slack for voice-seekers who are clearly not native English speakers. I’ll usually correct the script to my best understanding of the meaning, and note that in a tag or preview line.
David Fuller
January 4, 2013
Marc, I’d love to get a bit of your time to review a specific project I cast recently with abysmal results.
I’m a commercial producer, and always need full reads to play for my agency clients and for them to play to their clients. I usually have fair budgets for talent. In this case $1000 per spot for four 15-second spots. A couple of years ago I would post an audition with a budget of $200 for a 30-second spot and get 100 auditions in 48 hours. For this recent audition request (for a project worth $4000 to someone) I got 28, and none was close to right for the project. I don’t believe I’ve changed what I’m doing, but clearly I’m doing something wrong. I’d love it if you would try to help me figure out what that is.
Marc Scott
January 4, 2013
Hi David,
First off, thank you for reading my post and for taking a moment to comment. I appreciate it.
As for your success with your recent job posting, I’m sorry to hear that things didn’t go as you had hoped and you didn’t receive the kind of auditions you were looking for. That must be frustrating. I’d be happy to talk with you and offer any insights I can.
I just sent you an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Marc
Pamela Almand
January 4, 2013
Marc, one aspect of casting excellent quality talent that you did not mention is using SmartCast to qualify your talent by experience as well as equipment. Although this doesn’t guarantee excellence, it does help to weed out folks with a laptop and a USB mic recording in the front seat of their cars! Most successful fulltime voiceover professionals have made enough money to invest in professional studios, mics, and ISDN or Source-Connect equipment.
And David, if I see a job for which I want to audition that already has 30 or 40 auditions, I’ll take a look at the voiceseeker’s profile to see what percentage of auditions are opened, as many voiceseekers do not listen to more than 20-25 and I usually won’t bother to audition if that is the case. And as a producer, listening through all (or at least a portion of all!) might introduce you to talent for future gigs as well.
Another way to narrow down your request to quality talent might be to request SAG members, David. To join SAG you must have actually worked on a union gig- not simply be able to afford the union dues!- so those accepted are arguably already working professionals. And as a “financial core” SAG member, we can work both union and non-union projects. Sounds like you are paying prices in line with union scale so you should be able to attract excellent auditions with Marc’s tips… and I hope mine help as well.
Pam Almand
January 7, 2013
Marc, one aspect of casting excellent quality talent that you did not mention is using SmartCast to qualify your talent by experience as well as equipment. Although this doesn’t guarantee excellence, it does help to weed out folks with a laptop and a USB mic recording in the front seat of their cars! Most successful fulltime voiceover professionals have made enough money to invest in professional studios, mics, and ISDN or Source-Connect equipment.
And David, if I see a job for which I want to audition that already has 30 or 40 auditions, I’ll take a look at the voiceseeker’s profile to see what percentage of auditions are opened, as many voiceseekers do not listen to more than 20-25 and I usually won’t bother to audition if that is the case. And as a producer, listening through all (or at least a portion of all!) might introduce you to talent for future gigs as well.
Another way to narrow down your request to quality talent might be to request SAG members, David. To join SAG you must have actually worked on a union gig- not simply be able to afford the union dues!- so those accepted are arguably already working professionals. And as a “financial core” SAG member, we can work both union and non-union projects. Sounds like you are paying prices in line with union scale so you should be able to attract excellent auditions with Marc’s tips… and I hope mine help as well.