Industry News
What is Voice-over? Voice-over is known as off-camera or off-stage
commentary. It is a production technique where a voice which is not
part of the narrative (non-diegetic) is used in a radio, television,
film, theatre, or other presentation. The voice-over may be spoken by
someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice
actor. It is often used to create the effect of storytelling by a character/omniscient
narrator. Pierre Charmasson of Artisan Voice gives us insight on what
you can expect to pay for these services. Read his article below and
visit his website to learn more about Artisan
Voice.
ARTISAN VOICE - Rates Explained Aside from Union scale rates;
nobody has formally introduced a "standard" by which all Voice over
(VO) rates apply. This is probably a good thing, because rates for VO
services should be commensurate with the product and service the client
is paying for. So, what should my clients expect to pay for these services?
It's both complicated and simple....and almost impossible to account
for every variable involved in formulating a quote. Let's tackle the
complicated part first. Let's say someone calls or drops me an email
and asks: "I have a :30 second commercial I need to get voiced. How
much do you charge?"
The 1st question I need to know is – Is this :30 second commercial
for Radio, TV, Cable, Internet, In-Store, Point-Of-Sale, In-arena during
a basketball game, or on a TV mounted at your corner gas station?
2nd question is - How are you going to use that :30 seconds
of my voice talent?
And finally - Where is it going to be used and for
how long? Non-union rates are almost always a buyout, so you pay for
your usage within the fee for services rendered. That taken care of,
the next step is to roughly figure out how many people that :30 second
commercial is going to reach. If it is for a Mario’s Pizza broadcast
on a small market radio station in Flagstaff, Arizona – you can probably
expect to pay about $250.00. If it is for a French Bistro broadcast
in New York on several radio stations for 13 weeks, you can expect to
pay $2,500, because it will likely be reached by millions of listeners.
Commercial work can be complicated… Narration, however... is much simpler
to breakdown. Narration (with the exception of broadcast narration for
TV) is not normally broadcast therefore the "reach" is predictable and
easier to calculate. The rate for narration is calculated like this:
Total Word Count divided by 160 (the rate at which I read a minute of
audio) = Total Minutes of finished audio, or edited,
mastered and delivered to client.
Artisan Voice Rate Structure for Narration: Standard (non-broadcast)
0 - 5 Minutes Finished Audio = $295.00 After the first 5 minutes: $25.00
per minute up to 40 minutes $20.00 per minute 40 - 60 minutes $15.00
per minute 60 and over. Artisan Voice ~ 3574 Ames Street ~ San Diego,
CA 92111 ~ 619.606.6338
The 5 minute minimum includes: A) The buy-out (ownership)
of the audio. B) Studio time to record and edit the audio, using professional
gear and software. My studio time is $150.00 an hour, minimum 1 hour.
C) Studio costs to deliver the audio, be it ISDN, FTP or Internet/Bandwidth.
D) Minor revisions (up to 1 minute or 160 words, within 30 days of delivery).
I charge what I feel is a fair rate for a quality product and excellent
service. Professional studios with much higher overhead will charge
upwards of $250.00 an hour studio time, long before you've even hired
the voice talent. Taking that into consideration, my rate is very fair
considering that I combine the studio recording time and talent fee
as one price. I hope this gives you a better understanding on what I
charge for my "professional" voice talent and I hope to speak to you
soon. For more information please visit my website at www.artisanvoice.com.
Thanks for reading! Pierre Charmasson Artisan
Voice 619-606-6338 San Diego
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