Being “Used”

Voice actor/Voice coach Bettye Zoller raises an interesting issue in an online VO forum about how our auditions get used for other purposes than just job-seeking.

Read below to see her cautionary words on this topic.

CourVO

Increasingly, I’ve been told that producers sometimes put a notice out on the "pay to play" vo sites on the internet because that is the way the get, for no money, a bunch of voice talents reading their copy. Then, they play some of the auditions for a client to illustrate how good their ideas for a campaign or a narration script are. In other words, the copy writer doesn’t talk well.

This is a great way to get great vo talents (he weeds out the not so great auditions) to read his copy and assembles it to play in a big committee meeting at some big corporation where they are meeting to hear his ideas about whatever the project is at that time.

Another way producers use our auditions online is to assemble a professional sounding demo of "some of their work." Over time, a producer or writer could gather quite a few professional reads of copy he’s written and pass it off as "real work for big jobs."

So we are doing free auditions that get used but the "job" never happens. Maybe there never was a "job." That happens too. The audition is just to "pitch a potential client" on letting some advertising agency or producer do the firm’s next campaign. The campaign isn’t even a real "job" yet, only an "idea" that may or may not happen. All of the online audition companies have these, unknowingly or otherwise. We’re working free too much.

I’m looking at the number of online auditions that just float off into cyberspace and I never hear anything more about my work. Something should be done to improve this situation. The major online audition sites need to take a hard look at how they handle business and try to change it. If an audition is sent out to hundreds of their subscribers, have they checked it out to see if it is a real job or just an unpaid audition or idea? Who gets the job? Can it be proven the job happened? What are the stats on a person who puts out an audition online for us to spend time on?

And another thought: NEVER EVER read all of the copy in an online audition. Change some words or don’t read important stuff like phone numbers. And NEVER EVER read the firm name. Change it! Say "at XYZ, we strive to…" Do something so the custom audition cannot be used without your permission. In the "old days" we were paid to do a "spec job" … one that might or might not happen…and we still should be.

Food for thought..
Bettye Zoller Seitz/VOICEOVERS!
Voice Speech Improvement-Voiceover Coach,
Voiceovers and Recording Studio