Most Difficult Challenge

[Julie Williams]

I saw on the Bob Bergen thread, his most difficult challenge, and it reminded me of a challenge I once had. Yes, there have been many... but this one...

Early on in my career, I needed to replace a voice on a narration. The entire piece was already put together... but they didn't like the lady they had hired. So I was listening to her in my headphones... keeping pace with her...
and they had added copy... but I still had to keep pace..

AND She had a British accent. Now, I don't do accents... but you know how if you talk to someone with an accent for a while, you start to pick it up? I had to do the entire thing... listening to the British accent...and not doing an accent as I read similar, but different copy... keeping pace with her and what I saw on the video monitor.

Needless to say, that was an exhausting session!

[VoiceHaven]

Oh my Julie!!!! I hope you charged double for that session! :shock:

[Julie Williams]

Nope... In fact, it was probably less than a couple of hundred dollars. It was back in the day when i always went to a studio to record...

Praise God for Globalization in the VO industry! It has made it harder for studios, yes. But it sure has made VO a dream career for VO Talent!

[Scoot]

Originally Posted by Julie Williams

I saw on the Bob Bergen thread, his most difficult challenge, and it reminded me of a challenge I once had. Yes, there have been many... but this one...

Early on in my career, I needed to replace a voice on a narration. The entire piece was already put together... but they didn't like the lady they had hired. So I was listening to her in my headphones... keeping pace with her...
and they had added copy... but I still had to keep pace..

AND She had a British accent. Now, I don't do accents... but you know how if you talk to someone with an accent for a while, you start to pick it up? I had to do the entire thing... listening to the British accent...and not doing an accent as I read similar, but different copy... keeping pace with her and what I saw on the video monitor.

Needless to say, that was an exhausting session!

WOW!!!! I got exhausted just by reading what you had to endure to get the job done. Never had one that challenging...

[Lee Gordon]

Originally Posted by Julie Williams

Praise God for Globalization in the VO industry! It has made it harder for studios, yes. But it sure has made VO a dream career for VO Talent!

Well, yes and no. It's great that it has become so easy to market ourselves all over the country and, indeed, all over the world. However, this technology has made it equally easy for "outsiders" to come in and invade my territory. Because it is now so easy (and cheap) for local producers to obtain market-unique voices for their spots, I find myself getting less and less business from my old regular clients. (It makes me cringe any time one of them says, "I hear you everywhere.")

I have a pretty decent voice, but it's not the world's greatest voice. I can do a decent job of voice "acting" and can be versatile with the number of styles I am capable of, but this does not always come across in a demo, especially a custom demo. I'm cooperative and directable, my voice cuts through background music better than many others and the internal clock in my head keeps excellent time. These qualities are almost impossible to convey in an mp3 file. Yet, at one time, these were my stock in trade -- the reasons producers hired me rather than somebody with perhaps a deeper voice.

Now, when I try to replace some of that business that has been lost to the internet, I am in direct competition with dozens or even hundreds of outstanding talents. The membership here is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Julie Williams]

But for a good talent... the opportunities are sooo open... You may lose a little local stuff, but you can gain so much more internationally. So much work can be done from home, and you don't have to wait for payment from a studio. To me, This is the LIFE! Record at home... swim in between... schedule so much more in one day because you can control when you record.