Disembodied voices: That’s what we are. If you work in Voiceover,
either as a voice artist, casting director, agent, producer or director,
you belong to the ranks of those who are heard and rarely seen. Think
about it; there are those of us who have done business together successfully
for years and never met one-on-one. We recognice each other by voice
print, not by physical characteristics. This is one job where not only
does it not matter what you look like, you can literally “phone
it in” if the situation dictates. And now, through the wizardry
of modern technology we are becoming more ephemeral than ever before.
Okay, let’s rewind and see how this evolved. Though he probably
didn’t realize it, the concept of voiceover dates back to L. Frank
Baum when, at the beginning of the 20th century, he wrote the Wizard
of Oz. You remember the carnival barker is transported to Oz in his
hot air balloon and, upon his landing, is subsequently hailed as a wizard
by the citizens of that fair city. In order to keep up appearances,
the “wizard” uses early 20th century gadgetry to refashion
himself as a disembodied (there’s that word again) head with an
impressive amplified voice to support the illusion. “Pay no attention
to that man behind the curtain!”
Now, take that concept and fast forward through the 20th century. Voiceover
moved from fantasy to reality via the old Movie Tone newsreels and film
promotion. As technology progressed developing first radio then tv,
voices were needed to tout upcoming
programs and commercial prod-ucts. The need for specific voice over
talent begat the voice over agent who glibly sent actors all over town
for auditions.This approach worked well for awhile but also resulted
in a lot of running around for the talent and created harried, disgruntled
casting directors who found themselves multi-tasking (long before the
term was ever invented) as they tried to hold auditions with one ear
while the other was glued to the phone re-scheduling half the actors
they had originally called in for that day. Major hassle.
Then along came a prominent talent agent named Charles Stern, who thought
“there must be a better way”. In an effort to make life
easier for the casting director (thereby facilitating the more frequent
use of his clients), he moved the voiceover audition into the agent’s
office. Now all the casting director had to do was deliver the copy
to the agent. The talent agencies then assumed the responsibility of
scheduling the talent, recording the auditions, and delivering a tape,
(or in later years a CD) of the auditions directly to the casting director.
With the advent of the FAX machine, the front end time-line of this
scenario was sped up appreciably. Madison Avenue could simply FAX copy
to a west coast talent agency and expect to have the auditions delivered
the next day by overnight courier. This, too, worked well for a time
but also created a major expense for the agents in runners and overnight
deliveries. Ouch!
Enter Jeff Hixon who thought, “there must be a better way.”
At the end of the 20th Century he began to research the idea of using
the World Wide Web to more readily facilitate the transfer of not only
printed information, but “the actor’s actual voice”
over the internet. Hixon saw the need for a “faster way to do
it”, and set out to build “an appropriate bridge”
between the ad agency and the talent agency. Voicebank.net was born.
Voicebank.net allows advertising agencies to privately post casting
projects and audition talent over the internet. Once the advertising
agency is registered with Voicebank.net, it can use the internet to
deliver copy & story boards for a commercial or other project and
invite agents to have their talent audition. Once “invited to
the party”, the talent agencies record their talent’s auditions
directly to their hard drive, then “log-on” and upload the
auditions to the ad agency who, using Voicebank.net as the conduit,
in turn, downloads the information and burns it directly to CD or emails
selected auditions to the powers-that-be that make the final determination
(clients included) as to who gets the gig. Privacy is guaranteed by
a system of codes and passwords. “No information passes between
the ad agency and the talent agency outside the box,” assures
Hixon. And, so far, no one has had to leave the office. Some haven’t
even had to leave home. Wow.
Talent agencies tend to update their house CDs on the average of once
every 18 months. On the other hand, agencies registered with Voicebank.net
not only have their house CDs audio available on-line at all times,
they also have the ability to alter this information at their discretion.
For example, new talent added to the roster, ongoing talent who have
scored major campaigns, etc., can be readily added or altered at anytime
by the talent agency. In short, nothing ever has to be out-of-date.
But Hixon cautions, “Voicebank doesn’t replace good agenting.”
It just makes it alot easier.
Then came Brian Liebler, an actor by trade, who landed a major commercial
campaign and wanted to promote it. Of course his agent had just completed
the re-vamp of their house CD so it was too late to include the new
spot on his house minute. The only alternative left to Liebler was to
re-edit his personal CD and send it out to the multiples of creative
directors at ad agencies. Not only did this necessitate quantities of
duplication, it also meant a lot of lickin’, stickin’ and
stuffin’. “There must be a better way,” thought Liebler
and IPRO Exchange was born.
Providing a conduit for the voice actor to the voice over industry at
large, IPROExchange.com services advertising agencies, network and promo
producers, casting directors and talent agencies alike. In an effort
to make its service “user friendly” to its subscribers,
IPRO Exchange has developed a system of cataloguing its registered actors
by vocal type. “it’s a service unique to the industry,”
says Lynne Thompson, IPRO’s head of marketing. An actor submits
a demo, it’s evaluated by IPRO and “tagged according to
vocal type.” It affords the listener an “accordion like”
search of available matching vocal types. So if you’re a casting
director looking
for a quirky voice for an animation job, you can hop on the IPROExchange.com
website, and, with the click of a mouse, select from the list of vocal
categories available, click “search” to start auditioning
voices. You don’t even have to do this during office hours. Gee.
IPRO Exchange also allocates its talent subscribers five minutes of
playback time to showcase themselves and can link to an actor’s
indivicual website. Given the impetus behind its conception, it comes
as no surprise that a “current work” category is also available.
As thompson succinctly put it, IPRO Exchange gives the actor “the
tools to self-market professionally” in addition to providing
“an unobtrusive way to stay in front of people.”
While each organization came about from different perspectives, both
IPRO Exchange and Voicebank.net are alike in that they provide similar
services to ad agencies, talent agencies and casting directors. In addition,
Voicebank.net offers the actor opportunities to market himself directly
through a new service called Premium Pages. There the actor’s
name is linked to their our portfolio which can accom-modate any combination
of information including not only voiceover reference, but video, graphics,
resume, and contact information. Though Voicebank is located in Los
Angeles and IPRO Exchange is based in New York City, both function globally
via the internet, so you, as the voice actor, casting director, talent
agency or ad exec can avail yourself of needed information anytime,
from any computer. It’s important to note that both services are
open to represented and unrepresented talent alike. In fact, for those
seeking representation, this can be a great way to find an agent.
We’ll close with an oh-so-typical Hollywood story. Once upon a
time there was an agent who requested, via a personal recommendation,
that an actress submit her CD. Delighted to have the interest, she did
as requested. NORESOPNSE! She mailed a second package and dutifully
made her follow-up phone calls. AGAIN, NO RESPONSE! She contacted her
liason and they agreed the third time would surely be the charm. Months
went by. Nada. In frustration, she registered with an internet service
and lo and behold, guess who sent her an email requesting her CD? You
got it. Does this story end happily ever after? Stay tuned - or on-line.
We’ve come a long way from Oz.
- Laurel van der Linde
UNDERGROUND AUDIO
