GKN Weekly Update 12/11/12 – **** You, Pay Me

Good Morning Fellow Faffers, VOICE’ers, VO Mixer’ers, and other groovy folks! Did you have a good weekend? I did! I went to a friend’s birthday party on Friday night and Saturday I hosted my annual Chanukah dinner. I prepped & roasted a turkey all by myself for the first time and nobody died! I stuffed it with apples & oranges and seasoned it with Herbs de Provence. Tasty!

GKN EDUCATION NOTICE!!!

On Tuesday, December 18th, I will be leading the VoiceoverXtra webinar: Marketing Strategies and Measuring Success at 9PM. Here’s the link. I’m gonna talk about why you should have a marketing plan, how to make one, and how you know it’s working. It’s gonna be fun on a bun!

So, did the blog title attract your attention? I wasn’t trying to be cute (well, maybe a little). If you’re a girl, you may be a bit put off and I apologize. If you’re a guy, you’re thinking “Hey! That’s from Goodfellas!”. You are correct, sir!

It also happens to be the title of an amazing seminar that took place last year at a conference in San Francisco. I stumbled upon the video of it a few weeks ago and I want to share it with you.

Why? If you’re a voice talent (or any other business entity) and you’ve had trouble getting a client to pay up, this is for you. Just replace the word “designer” with “voice talent” and you’re all set to go. BTW they drop a few F-bombs so put your headphones on!

Here’s the video: https://vimeo.com/22053820

TIP OF THE WEEK: I’m very fortunate that I’ve never been stiffed on a voiceover gig. Just lucky, I guess! I also try to be prepared and communicate as effectively as I can from the outset. If things start out weird before I even land the job (too much haggling over price, poor communication, etc.) then I walk away. One thing I have come up with is a list of questions I ask the second I do land the gig. I call it the “You hired me? Awesome!” list. And here it is!

• What’s the deadline?
• Please make sure I have the finalized script before I start recording. (Format the script Times New Roman 12 point font double-spaced if possible)
• Are there any big words or names of people/places/things in the script that I may need help with?
• If it’s more than a one-page narration, do you want to hear a sample first for pace, tone, etc.?
• Do you want the sound files raw or edited?
• If you want it edited, will the files need to be spliced? If so, I charge $1 per file.
• What format do you want the sound files? (Default is .mp3 mono 128 kbps)
• How do you want the sound files delivered? (Default is DropBox)
• Here is my Retake Policy:
• • A single round of revisions requested by the client (e.g. a single word/sentence adjustment, emphasis, tone, pronunciation) is included
  • Major revisions (e.g. adjusted/added sections of script greater than one line, but less than 50% of the total script) are $50 each, and total re-reads (greater than 50% adjusted) would be $100
• Please send me your company’s full contact info along with your form of payment and billing cycle so I can invoice you properly.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright

STUFF!: “Snow White and The Huntsman”, yuck! Then I watched “The Sting” to get the bad taste out of my mouth…

From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…