Voiceover News November 2012

November was a busy and wonderfully varied month at BigFish Media towers:

We provided the translation of a French script into English for a video for the French retailer Castorama, we gave Voice Training to aspiring voice artist Doron from London and did the audio production for on-hold prompts for Tasman Industries which were voiced by Sandy.

Corrie recorded a new set of trails and imaging liners for UCB Radio and a voiceover for the O.R.Society. Sally recorded a voiceover for a video of the patients' guide to Colomycin, Charlotte voiced two videos for Tribal Fusion in her American accent and Michelle and Sara were both featured on a commercial for the Intercontinental Aqaba Hotel which aired on Mood FM Jordan.

The very talented Katrin dubbed the voices of several characters - in English, German and French -for Trion World's new "End of Nations" video game, American voiceover talents Kari voiced for Ernst and Young and Paul for Easi-Dec. 

Our huge volume of work for Bowers and Wilkins continued with Vladimir recording in Russian, Michel in French, Ruben in Spanish. The German was voiced by Christoph and Steffan did the English version of their airplay app

Simon recorded a voiceover for an animation for E-landers, David V voiced for Sony and Ricky was the Voice of God at this year's Butcher Shop of the Year Awards in London, working alongside BBC Radio 4's Garry Richardson as well as voicing a video for Balfour Beatty

New BigFish Media photographs

Here at BigFish Media we have been so busy recording voiceovers that it has taken us years to get the voiceover booth and office looking great.

So our Engineer John recently took some photos:

And we hope that will improve our voiceover recording service to you in future.

Voiceover News October 2012

Last month I managed a short break away in West Wales and left the voiceover business in the hands of John, James and Andrew. It’s still here so they must have done well!

While I was in Wales I met James K who also took my new photograph. I  think he has a great sideline there!  James K also recorded a voiceover for the University of Bolton, James voiced a web video for RISO printers and I recorded a massive E-Learning project for BT and an EDF induction training video.

Stephanie recorded her first voiceover for us which was a large job of several web videos for JayBe beds, Corrie voiced an animation for Clik and Penny recorded on-hold voiceovers for HFE for which we also did the audio production

For our international voices Ruben recorded a Spanish voiceover for Bowers and Wilkins' mini-theatre, Christoph recorded the German and Valentino took care of the Italian version. Matt C and Colin C

voiced animations for Otrivin, South African Voiceover Artist Ruan recorded a voiceover for a staff training video for Vodafone and Ma voiced in Chinese Mandarin for a video for Centrica Energy.

Voiceover News September 2012

Here at BigFish Media towers, September was a varied month and we had some high profile voiceover sessions.

Paul S voiced a 4-part TV documentary series about Britannia Royal Naval College, provisionally entitled "Officers and Gentlemen" which is due to be shown on the History Channel.  Sarah J voiced five reports on ITV1's "This Morning" about the "Seven Deadly Sins of Soap" which are currently being aired; she also voiced on-hold prompts for Harrow School. And the BBC's "The One Show" hired our studio to record their presenter Maggie Aderne Pocock Voicing to Picture on four films on the theme of demolition.

Voiceover Artist Jo Lamb hired our studio  to record for Storewars and we carried out the translation of an English script to Chinese for a video for Centrica Energy.

Adam recorded a voiceover for Walden University. Young UK voice artist Sally, New Zealand voice artist Toby and Indian voiceover artist Rita recorded a staff training animation for Vodafone; Mike also voiced for Vodafone Global Enterprise on a separate project.

Michelle recorded more on hold prompts for John Lewis Insurance and a web video for the Net Director Software Suite. Lisa G recorded the female voiceover for Road Angel; Steffan did the male part. He also recorded another voiceover for an SAB Miller animation.

Chris H voiced for Cisco, Ricky voiced for Chiltern International Fire, Andrew recorded a voiceover for Dechert Comprehend and James K recorded the voiceovers for several more football DVD promos.

Will voiceover agencies let me audition for them?

We have had several enquiries in the last week or so - either on email or via our Facebook page - about whether people can just come and do a voiceover audition for us.

I am afraid that in the voiceover world you will need a professionally-produced showreel to get taken seriously by anyone in this industry – whether that is future potential voiceover clients or any reputable voiceover agent or voiceover directory.

We know of a company that asks would-be voice talent to audition via a premium-rate phone line. You simply cannot judge someone's talent on the phone.

We simply don’t have the time or resources to audition everyone who makes contact. Most people will need some experience  - ether of acting, public speaking or broadcasting - behind them to be able to perform to the standard required in a session. 

All that said, we do take on a few people who have more unusual or rare voices, accents or languages who are less experienced. But even then they will have invested the time and money either in voice training or to make a showreel.

Voiceover News August 2012

Here is what our team of Voiceover Artists have been working on during August 2012:

Adam recorded an American voiceover for an Exponential training DVD, Alain voiced in a Chinese accent for eBay; Leonor did the same but in French and Vladimir recorded another Russian voiceover for Bowers and Wilkins.

Ricky recorded an induction video for Centrica's South Humber Bank Power Station, another video for Centrica's ITH hydraulic tensioning equipment. Steffan recorded a voiceover for the Fusion Core Solar application for CCTV systems, James K voiced for the website of Pulsar Watches and Alec was booked again to voice for Erwinaze.

Both Sally and Scottish voice artist Angus voiced an advert for Daikin Air Conditioning for transmission on Mood FM Jordan. Sally also recorded a voiceover for Forest Nebusal.

Gwen voiced for Narbeth Council Museum, BBC Radio 2 Newsreader Fran recorded her first voiceover with us - for Blackmore Estates, Audrey voiced on-hold prompts for Gwalia Housing Association, Michelle's voice was used for Beadles' service plan and Sue recorded voiceovers for a psychic advisor line.

I am delighted to say that BigFish Media is going from strength to strength. Despite the economic situation August was our busiest month - ever.

August also saw the arrival of two new team members John and James A are our new Audio Editors/Studio Engineers who have just worked on a huge E-Learning project for BT/Cisco. They will work alongside Andrew (Sales & Marketing/Studio Engineer), Nathan (Audio Producer/Studio Engineer) and James K (Audio Producer).

In other news, we carried out the audio production for an advert for HiQ - voiced by Simon - airing on Awaz Radio in High Wycombe, gave Voice Training to Kathy from Brighton, made a voicereel for former Broadcaster Patrick M from Sussex and Ricky carried out another day of training at UCA in Farhnam, Surrey.

Voiceover News July 2012

Here is what our team of voiceover artists, voice coaches and audio producers got up to in July:

This month we gave voice training to Alexandra from London, we made a voicereel for Singer Debra Andrew-Oliver from Surrey and we wrote and did the audio production for both the website audio and on-hold voice prompts for Chris Ball and Son Roofing; Immy provided the voiceovers.

Michelle recorded more on-hold voiceover prompts for the John Lewis Partnership and a web infomercial for Ford B-Max, Gwen voiced more adverts for National Trust Wales airing on radio stations across Wales, Natalie recorded a web video for RPM Sports Powerspin, Jules recorded a voiceover for G-Forces' Service Booking software and another for SCA. And both Sally and Corrie voiced adverts for transmission on Mood FM in Jordan.

Ricky voiced a TV commercial for the ZaZa Bazaar restaurant in Bristol airing on ITV1 West and 25 new videos on the Direct Line Holidays website. Darren voiced for the Brooklands Museum Trust, Matt H recorded several more voiceovers for Billy Oh Sheds and James K voiced several web videos for JTX fitness machines.

Christoph recorded a German voiceover for Bowers and Wilkins, Ruben S was the Spanish voice and Michel recorded the French version. Max recorded another Italian voiceover for Actemra and once again Ruben S voiced for them in Spanish.

Voiceover News June 2012

Well June was certainly an interesting and varied month for our voiceover team. I recorded voiceovers for Kee Safety International and Simtomax - a treatment for Coeliac Disease. I even managed a week away in the Tunisian sunshine. It was my first week off since last June; Nathan and Andrew bravely held things together in my absence.

One of our child voiceover talents Jasmine voiced a video called "Olympic Dream" to be shown at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, we gave voice training to Radio Presenter and Newsreader Grant from Leceistershire, we made a voicereel for actor Clive Dancey from Hertfordshire and Elsevier hired our recording studio for a plastic surgeon to talk about his work.

Glenda voiced an advert for Malt-O-Meal cereal airing on Mood FM Jordan, Andrea recorded another voiceover for the financial planning app Life Cash Pro and Corrie recorded web videos for EasyWheels and Meyertech.

Peter O voiced for Actemra and Simon lent his rich deep voice to FERO.

And Tony recorded another Italian voiceover for Bowers and Wilkins and Christoph recorded another German voiceover for Actemra.

Voiceover News May 2012

We are delighted to say that Corrie is the new female voice for United Christian Broadcasting. Among our other female voiceover artists, Michelle recorded on hold prompts for Blinc Tenant Referencing, Andrea voiced another phone app for Life Cash, Glenda recorded a second voiceover for I-Salon software, Jen F voiced on-hold prompts for Mortara Dolby, Jill recorded a voiceover for DEFRA and Rose voiced an advert for Barakat Jewellery airing on Mood FM Jordan.

Ricky was the Voice of God at the 2012 Purple Apple Awards Ceremony in London alongside the former Rugby Player Austin Healey and also recorded a voiceover for Centrica. Among our other male voiceover artists Brian recorded a voiceover for SHL Talent Analytics, Mike voiced for the BeMilo Phone Network, Matt H has recorded more voiceovers for more BillyOh shed videos, Peter O recorded a voiceover for PYX, James K voiced an advert for Everton Direct being aired on Radio City in Liverpool and Marcus recorded a voiceover for Enviro Power Services.

Alain recorded a voiceover in Chinese for an Ipad app for Bowers and Wilkins, Masashi did the same in Japanese, Tony voiced in Italian and Ruben S recorded the Spanish version. Michel voiced a video for Actemra.

We did the audio production for a Smyth's Toys ad voiced by Graeme which was and aired on Clyde 1 and our voiceover studio was used to record an interview for National Public Radio about Captain Beefheart. And later this month I look forward to taking a long-overdue break and leaving Andrew and Nathan in charge!

Voice over News for April 2012

Here is what our team of voiceover artists have been up to in April 2012:

Mike recorded a voiceover for a BFBS video for the Ministry of Defence, Marcus voiced a Landrover advert for Mood FM, Jordan, James K is the new radio station imaging voice for UCB, Matt H recorded more voiceovers for videos for BillyOh sheds and Ricky voiced three Team Prevent UK conference videos as well as videos for Kee Safety International and Lockheed Martin.

Glenda recorded a voiceover for a video for I-Salon Software, Sally voiced a patient guide to the drug Colomycin, Andrea recorded another voice over for the LifeCash financial planning app and Corrie voiced on-hold voice prompts for Breakeryard.

Amongst our International Voiceover Artists, Christoph has recorded a voice over in German for an Ipad app for Bowers and Wilkins,

We also made a voicereel for Sally from Suffolk and we carried out audio production for two web videos for Matchbook.com

Dave C voiced a commercial for Image Furniture being aired on Mood FM in Jordan, Kiko recorded a voiceover for a rally in Cancun, Mexico, Michel recorded a French voice over for an Ipad app for Bowers and Wilkins and Maire lent her Southern Irish voiceover talents to a training video for Tesco.

How do I use Skype for voiceover sessions?

We'd heard a lot about it. For a long time.And to be honest we thought that our voiceover agency had no need of it especially as the quality seemed so poor.

My only dealings with Skype had been with - what we later found out to be - an audio producer calling us using a Skype phone to give us a voiceover job but the line kept cutting out and he had the nerve to say OUR phone wasn't working!

Anyway, as more and more people are using Skype to direct sessions - and it would be a free way to cope with voiceover sessions abroad - we thought we'd invest in it. Which we did.

But could we get it to work? We tried and tried and tried. I guess every voiceover studio set up is different so it was very hard to work why it wasn’t working properly: we could either record a voiceover but not hear the director on Skype or we could hear the client on Skype but the Adobe Audion would also record them - neither of which worked for us! As I am sure you will understand.

I even got round our local PC expert who said the only way around it was to upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7 but that would mean that our lovely new super-dooper sound cards in both PCs wouldn’t work. Arrgh.

Anyway to cut a long story short, we fiddled about with all the sound cards on the PCs and used a cheap old pair of speakers to listen to the caller on Skype - while maintaining the audio either from the voiceover booth or on ISDN through the main speakers. So now the client can chat away happily on Skype and not get recorded.

Phew. Another crisis averted. And our voiceover recording service to our clients improved.

Should a client deduct National Insurance from my Voiceover?

Running a voiceover business is stressful enough on a day-to-day basis and then sometimes you get a completely random phone call to raise those stress levels.

We'll leave the name of the TV company out of the picture, but some girl - and I use the word girl deliberately - rang us up asking for the National Insurance number of one of our voiceover artists who had recently completed a job for them.

We don't keep this sort of information on file as we don’t need it. But she really didn’t like it when I said that neither do we hold such information - and even if we did we would not pass it on.

The caller then said that they had to deduct national insurance from a payment which was due to us. Fortunately she wasn’t really on the ball as the invoice had already been settled in full. A few minutes later I received this email which had been sent to all her colleagues:

Hi


I have just spoken to Ricky Salmon at Big Fish Ltd. I asked him for an NI number as we have to deduct NI from all our voices. He was very rude and unhelpful and seems to think he knows more about what we pay and do not pay to the Government than we do. Unfortunately we have already paid the invoice in question and he said he was not prepared to divulge that information. I have informed him that if we do not have NI numbers no invoices will be paid to him in the future. I suggest we give this company a wide birth and do not use artists booked under them.

My reply:

I simply said that I do not have that information and even if I did have it I wouldn’t divulge it as you do not need it.


You should not deduct NI when paying another Limited Company as a Limited Company does not pay NI, individuals do.


I have already had this discussion with another company who finally agreed that they were misinterpreting the law and refunded the NI. Therefore I will not give out this information as without it you cannot deduct NI. I am acting on information given to me by my accountant.

After a worrying night - thinking that I had over-reacted and maybe waited a day or so before sending my reply, the following day I received this email from someone older and wiser:

One of my programme managers has made me aware of correspondence between you and our accounts department which took place yesterday. I’m in agreement with you re the NI deductions but that isn’t the reason I’m contacting you directly. I’m basically concerned that a member of accounts could send a circular advising us not to use your services when it’s actually an editorial decision as opposed to accounts having a personal issue.

Phew. Although an apology would have been nice. Although the line "he seems to think he knows more about what we pay and do not pay to the Government than we do" still rankles. Even if just running a voiceover agency, I actually do.

Voiceover News for March 2012

Here is what our team of voiceover artists got up to in March 2012:

The National Trust hired our recording studio to record a voiceover for several commercials for transmission on Heart FM. We made voicereels for Leadership Coach Ann Lewis from the Isle of Wight and Oxford University undergraduate Ziad Samaha. We also gave Voice Training to Christine from Surrey.

For the male voiceover artists, Ricky voiced web videos for Simponi and the drug Remicade which treats Crohn's Disease, Steffan recorded a voiceover for the Bite job search website, Matt H voiced more videos for BillyOh sheds, Brian voiced a video for Brolly Caddy, Matthew recorded a voiceover for a web video for Epic Trading Services and Paul S voiced for Matchbook.com.

Mike provided the voice of a bespectacled green pig for the Helms UK website, James K voiced an advert aired on Mood FM, Mark W recorded a voiceover for a web video for SHL Central and Alec voiced another web video for Erwinaze.

For the female voiceover artists, Andrea recorded a web video for Life Cash, Sarah J voiced for Rosneft, Natalie recorded voiceovers for two web videos for Hunter Wellington Boots and Michelle recorded on-hold voiceovers for Vauxhall Motor Insurance.

And finally for the international voiceover artists Luis recorded a voiceover for a video for Fusion, Adam voiced a commercial for OFFTEC for Mood FM in Jordan and Aneta recorded a voiceover for Reward Gateway.

Voiceover Scam resolved

In a previous post which we posted here, we mentioned a scam by voicecontacts.com, who promise to send voiceover contacts for a fee but don't send anything or communicate with you in any way.

Anyway much to my surprise, and to Papal's credit, we got our money back. Even though Paypal say that they will only refund money if the item purchased is tangible, we got all our money refunded.

How do I avoid a Voiceover Scam?

I was reading a very interesting article about the voiceover business recently on the internet and this particular site recommended growing your voiceover contact list quickly by using voicecontacts.com. I wish that I could remember the website on which I saw the link.

One word of advice: Don’t. This is a scam. This is a con. If you pay them any money you will see nothing in return. Not even an email.

If you order contacts you have to pay via Paypal. But Paypal will only refund you if you have bought a TANGIBLE asset. Which voiceover audio is not. Therefore you lose your money. You have been warned!

Update: The offending website is now offline.

Why don't female voiceover artists record movie trailers?

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook we came across this video about the world of voiceovers recently. It highlights how and why certain voiceover artists are chosen for certain  jobs. It seems that men still dominate the world of movie trailers due to their innate authority - but one woman is making headway.

While men may dominate film trailer voiceovers it seems that women still dominate the world of on-hold although we are not sure why. Phone up any of the Hastings Direct on-hold companies (and there are many of them including Insure Pink, Renew Insurance, Likewise Insurance and the wonderfully-named "Protect Your Bubble") and you will hear voice talent and MD of BigFish Media Ricky Salmon.

So - back to movie trailer voices:

In a world where women work as police, firefighters, fighter pilots, surgeons and engineers, the vast majority of movie trailers are still voiced by men.

Industry insiders cite a perception that men's voices are more authoritative and have a broader appeal to audience members. Action-and-adventure movies, they say, require the gravitas brought by male actors. And for the most part, even female-focused movies employ male voices in the trailer.

That attitude is changing. A small group of female voiceovers are starting to find work on trailers. They predict that as the audience is exposed to women's voices, the stereotypes will fade. Have a listen to this interesting article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17264883

How do I keep recording Voiceovers when I have builders in?

No one said that running a business was easy. Especially a voiceover agency when you are the boss. Long hours. Spending the weekend doing accounts and catching up on paperwork.

But that is made all the harder when the builders move in. Earlier starts - and even later finishes as we have to schedule our sessions after 4pm.

Still I am sure it will be worth all the pain in the end. At least that is what we tell ourselves as Nathan, Daniel and I sit just a little bit too close to each other for comfort or hygeine - cramped into one tiny office for weeks on end.

And when the clients come visiting to direct our voiceover sessions in person, that's when the fun starts.

The fun starts on Monday.
 

Voiceover News for February 2012

Here is what the BigFish Media happy family of voiceovers have been up to in February 2012:

Josey and Chris M recorded voiceovers for Walden University and Italian voiceover artist Max voiced an advert shown on Channel TV

Nathan our Studio Engineer and Audio Producer - recorded a voiceover for an advert for Greenwich School of Management which was shown on Flava TV.

Speaking of audio production, we made a vociereel for aspiring voice talent Paul Gazzard and completed audio dubbing for another 30 programmes for OSN TV: removing the German narration and replacing it with an English narration.

Malcolm recorded a third job for Tork, Matt H voiced for BillyOh sheds, Marcus recorded a voiceover for Samsung, Steffan voiced another SAB Miller video and Sarah J recorded a voiceover for Astella Protopic - a treatment for eczema.

Both Brian and Immy recorded for the College of Social Work, Corrie and James K recorded adverts for Mood FM in Jordan and Ricky voiced for Mitsubishi and the Global Competitiveness Forum

We also gave Voice Training to Eddie from London. Finally we welcomed Craig - a talented young Voiceover Artist.

Voiceover News January 2012

Traditionally of course in business we think of January as being one of the slow months of the year for voiceover work: everyone takes a little while to get going again after a Christmas break but here at BigFish Media  we were straight back at work even before we had intended to be.

Our star of the month was Alec who recorded two TV documentaries about the 2012 London Olympics for Five.

Mark W recorded a voiceover for the Fire Protection Association, Matt H voiced for BillyOh sheds, James K voiced an advert for Mood FM in Jordan, Luis voiced for SAB Miller and Ricky recorded voiceovers for a Lincs 2 Education Comparison Course, an E-Learning programme for Simponi and two videos for Inzpire.

Jules recorded  for Sealed Air and Nat West, Immy voiced for SAB Miller, Jacky for Qineticq and Jill voiced for the College of Social Work.

Christoph recorded a voiceover in German for Bowers and Wilkins, Ruben S did the same in Spanish and Tony voiced the Italian version.

We made a voicereel for Sky News TV Reporter Matt Smith;  we gave Voice Training to Joy from Surrey and we welcomed Katy - a young Voiceover Artist from the North East.