The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over by James Alburger
Authors: James Alburger
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wearing many hats—adagency rep, copywriter, producer, studio engineer, and of course, performer. Many voice actors also work as on-camera talent or in theatrical productions. After all, acting is acting, and the more versatile you are as an actor, the greater your likelihood of success in voiceover. As you master voice-acting skills, you may find yourself developing other talents as well. This diversification can provide income from several sources.
Making Money Doing Voiceover Work
There are only two ways to get paid for voiceover performing: union jobs and nonunion freelance jobs. If you are just starting out, it is a good idea to do as much nonunion work as possible before joining a performing union. It’s sort of like “on-the-job training.” Nonunion voiceover work will provide the opportunities to get the experience you need and accumulate some recordings of your work.
If you pursue voiceover work as a career, you may eventually join a union, especially if you live in a large market. However, it is not necessary to join a union to become successful. There are many independent voiceover performers in major markets who are earning substantial incomes, even though they are not members of any union. The choice of whether or not to join a union is one that only you can make—and you don’t need to make that decision now.
THE UNIONS
Nothing in this book is intended to either promote or discourage union membership. However, joining a performing union is an important decision for anyone pursuing the art of voice acting. If you are just beginning to venture into the world of voice acting, a basic knowledge of the unions is all you need. As you gain experience and do more session work, at some point you may want to consider union membership. This section covers only the basics of union membership and focuses on the U.S. union SAG-AFTRA. 1
In March, 2012, AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild) merged to form one union to represent voiceover and on-camera performers in the United States: SAG-AFTRA— www.sagaftra.org . In Canada, voiceover work is handled by ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists) — www.actra.ca . British Columbia has UBCP (Union of BC Performers)— www.ubcp.com , which is the BC branch of ACTRA. The voiceover talent union in the United Kingdom is Equity— www.equity.org.uk . Other countries with collective bargaining unions will also have one or more unions that work with voice talent. It may be necessary to contact a local talent agent to learn which union applies in your country.
The job of all unions is to ensure proper working conditions, to make sure you are paid a reasonable fee for your work, to help you get paid in a timely manner, and to provide health and retirement benefits. The degree to which these are accomplished may vary. Since the focus of this book is on the general craft and business of voiceover, I’ll limit the discussion of performing unions to SAG-AFTRA. If you will be doing voiceover work outside of the United States, you should contact the performance union in the country where you will be working. Many performance unions have agreements or affiliations with unions in other countries, so your original union will be the best place to start.
In the U.S., two major performing unions came into being in the early days of film, radio, and later, television (AFTRA and SAG). Unscrupulous producers were notorious for taking advantage of the actors and not paying performers a decent wage—some not even paying them at all. So, the unions were set up to make sure performers got paid and were treated fairly.
As the unions grew, it was decided that it was unfair for a person just working once or twice a year to have to join the union and pay dues every six months. The result was the Taft-Hartley Act, which resulted in major changes in U.S. labor-management relations. In regards to voiceover, this law
Making Money Doing Voiceover Work
There are only two ways to get paid for voiceover performing: union jobs and nonunion freelance jobs. If you are just starting out, it is a good idea to do as much nonunion work as possible before joining a performing union. It’s sort of like “on-the-job training.” Nonunion voiceover work will provide the opportunities to get the experience you need and accumulate some recordings of your work.
If you pursue voiceover work as a career, you may eventually join a union, especially if you live in a large market. However, it is not necessary to join a union to become successful. There are many independent voiceover performers in major markets who are earning substantial incomes, even though they are not members of any union. The choice of whether or not to join a union is one that only you can make—and you don’t need to make that decision now.
THE UNIONS
Nothing in this book is intended to either promote or discourage union membership. However, joining a performing union is an important decision for anyone pursuing the art of voice acting. If you are just beginning to venture into the world of voice acting, a basic knowledge of the unions is all you need. As you gain experience and do more session work, at some point you may want to consider union membership. This section covers only the basics of union membership and focuses on the U.S. union SAG-AFTRA. 1
In March, 2012, AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild) merged to form one union to represent voiceover and on-camera performers in the United States: SAG-AFTRA— www.sagaftra.org . In Canada, voiceover work is handled by ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists) — www.actra.ca . British Columbia has UBCP (Union of BC Performers)— www.ubcp.com , which is the BC branch of ACTRA. The voiceover talent union in the United Kingdom is Equity— www.equity.org.uk . Other countries with collective bargaining unions will also have one or more unions that work with voice talent. It may be necessary to contact a local talent agent to learn which union applies in your country.
The job of all unions is to ensure proper working conditions, to make sure you are paid a reasonable fee for your work, to help you get paid in a timely manner, and to provide health and retirement benefits. The degree to which these are accomplished may vary. Since the focus of this book is on the general craft and business of voiceover, I’ll limit the discussion of performing unions to SAG-AFTRA. If you will be doing voiceover work outside of the United States, you should contact the performance union in the country where you will be working. Many performance unions have agreements or affiliations with unions in other countries, so your original union will be the best place to start.
In the U.S., two major performing unions came into being in the early days of film, radio, and later, television (AFTRA and SAG). Unscrupulous producers were notorious for taking advantage of the actors and not paying performers a decent wage—some not even paying them at all. So, the unions were set up to make sure performers got paid and were treated fairly.
As the unions grew, it was decided that it was unfair for a person just working once or twice a year to have to join the union and pay dues every six months. The result was the Taft-Hartley Act, which resulted in major changes in U.S. labor-management relations. In regards to voiceover, this law