James McBean, Voice Talent

I am reminded today of client/talent relations. Many times I find myself not only voicing a commercial for a client, but also writing and creating the concept of the commercial itself. And in these times of less money being spent on advertising, it is tantamount that you give your client exactly what they want.

Now is not the time to be trying to change the world. Now is the time to hold on to what you have, and do your best to develop new relationships however hard it may be. Case in point. I have a new client who is also new to advertising period. He is new to advertising because he is not spending his own money, but spending found government money. Not easy to find, but this type of client is out there spending stimulus money on projects the government deeds worthy.

He also knows what he wants. He can hear it in his head. He is just as much a media advertising expert as the next guy (or so he thinks) because he watches TV and listens to the radio like we all do. We have to remember this this is "mass media." It's out there for everybody to see and hear. Unlike most businesses, where their business is their alone. We have no secrets. So anybody feels empowered to be part of the creative process when it comes to making commercials for themselves.

Let them. You have no other choice. If you want to stay alive in this game you have to bite your tong and become a good listener. Who knows, maybe in the end the commercial will end up being even better than you had initially thought. I know in my case it did.

I am constantly looking for any glimmer of hope. Any sign that says "Don't worry Jim, the VO business might just be bigger than you think next year". I have one that I want to share with you.

The Wall Street Journal printed an article two days ago that shows some hope. Here's how it applies to the VO business. Ad trends are now showing a bit of recovery for first quarter of 2010. But with that recovery, production stratagies are changing. No longer will the big name actor or sports figure play into the budget equation. It's just too expensive, and the risk is way to high. We can thank Tiger Woods for at least some of this new enlightenment. But new ad trends have more to do with is than you can imagine.

• Live TV commercials may return to the talk show
• Social Networking Personalities may be the new pitch masters
• Animated characters may replace big name stars
• On line & mobile advertising is looking sexier all the time
• Employees may become pitch men
• More ads made on the cheap in an effort to reach digital savy potential customers

I don't know about you, but in my opinion this is all good news to the voice over actor. Advertising trends may come and go, but the trend that remains the fall-back are the utility men and women of the voice over business. Animation needs us, amateur pitch men need us to wrap them professionally, low cost video production will always look to us. Especially with the dawn of portable video delivery systems.

Just a few days ago when I was visiting a production house in Washington DC metro, I was asked if I did voice work. I answered "yes, yes I do". Immediately I was then asked "what my politics were". I thought it strange that such a question would be asked of a talking head such as myself, but then thought the person questioning me must produce for a particular party in the DC market. My hunch was right. I was then given the option to choose a party. What?! This made absolutely no sense to me.

OK I get it. But to "get it", and then consider what it is that voice over actors do just doesn't make sense to me. Why would it matter what politics I leaned toward? After all, this is voice over - talking head stuff. I am a no-name actor with no recognizable voice. Could it be that I won't read the script with the right passion for the subject matter because I don't agree with it? Certainly that must be the reason. But to even consider that is disrespectful to the craft itself. And if that were the case, then all of us would also have to know, and be well acquainted with each and every product that we sell. That would mean that I would of had to of have cardinal knowledge of the adult diapers that I just sold on cable. Or, I would of had to of played (and liked) with that super soaker water gun that I just did VO for on Cartoon Network.

Voice over isn't an endorsement. It's an acting job. When Spielberg puts a voice to a movie trailer about an adventure in outer space, the voice over actor didn't actually go there. He or she didn't ride the hover cycle that is featured in 120 frames of the trailer. The voice over actor just knew how to sell a story.

That's what we do. Tell stories.