Category Archives: SAG

Union or Non-Union, is that the voiceover question?

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Earlier this week I received an email from an active Non-Union voice talent. Let’s call this voiceover person, Terry, to cover all the gender bases. Terry felt that since they’ve been Non-Union, (not a member of SAG/AFTRA) that they could make more money by being a Union member exclusively. In Terry’s mind movie trailers, National Retailer TV and Radio accounts, the biggest of the big voiceover jobs are just sitting there ripe for the picking. Terry’s very experienced with 15 years of full-time freelance voiceovers behind the microphone. Like dreams of those dancing sugarplums Terry’s thinking that the bump “up” to Union status is the way to go to advance Terry’s career.

But is it true? Would Terry make more as a Union voiceover talent?

My opinion…it depends. Timing, meaning right place and right time are important, Terry’s vocal skill set, Terry’s physical location may also make a difference.

What about Financial Core? Doesn’t Fi-Core allow you to do BOTH Union and Non-Union work? Sometimes being Fi-Core can be a great benefit if you’re in the right location, conversely you can become a vo pariah if you live somewhere else.

These are questions I’d love to have discussed by those of you in the know about such things. I’m Fi-Core myself. I lost my agent in NYC because I was Fi-Core, yet for years outside of NYC, I was the voice of Circuit City (RIP), Nissan and Lenscrafters. Those gigs provided enough income to…well…to be life changing.

My bread and butter, the day in day out gigs are always non-union. Sometimes they pay very well, even above Union voice rates, most of the time not. I’ve always looked at this as a volume game and with volume one can become very financially successful.

What are your thoughts? Are you an experienced talent who has done both as Financial Core or previously one now the other? Are you a full-time Union voiceover talent? With the internet the tables have more than turned, they’ve been flipped over and it’s anyone’s game anymore.

We’d love to hear what you have to say on the issue.

Also, if you’re searching for professional union and non-union voiceover talent please visit us at SunSpots. Search here for voice talent.

Thanks in advance for your input.
Tom


Recording equipment category at GuitarCenter.com

SAG says "Check Your Backside" to it's union members

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Good morning!
I just saw this article in Variety online…

With the resumption of SAG’s contract talks in limbo, the guild’s toughening up its ban on members working for nonunion producers. The Screen Actors Guild recently notified its 120,000 members in a “Check Your Backside” message that, starting on Jan. 1, it will “vigorously” enforce the ban on nonunion work for new-media productions.

“Rule One states that ‘no member shall work for a producer who is not signatory to the appropriate SAG agreement,’” SAG said in the missive. “Rule One is printed on the back of every SAG membership card. SAG members may also work on new-media projects if they are covered under an AFTRA collective bargaining agreement.”

SAG’s master contract expired June 30 — the same day the majors made their final offer — and members currently work under the expired contract’s terms in features, primetime and new media. SAG’s negotiating committee met Wednesday with federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez about its stalled contract negotiations, but no date’s been set for restarting talks between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

Earlier this year, SAG’s national board unanimously OKd the move to launch the Rule One campaign. “The goal is to make sure that members insist on basic protections when they work in new media,” national director of organizing Todd Amorde told Daily Variety.

Guild leaders have become increasingly concerned in recent years over actors circumventing discipline under Rule One. SAG announced last year that members filing for “financial core” status — under which a member resigns SAG membership and withholds dues spent by the guild on political activities but can still work on union jobs — generally won’t be allowed back into the guild.

Aside from expulsion, Rule One violators can be fined or suspended after a trial board hearing.

With SAG and the majors awaiting the next step in the mediation process, the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees and the AMPTP will return to the bargaining table today — seven months after they concluded three days of negotiations without reaching a deal. Both sides have set aside three days for the talks.

The current IATSE deal expires in August and covers about 25,000 West Coast workers in 18 locals. If the AMPTP can make a deal with IATSE, it will mark the sixth such pact signed by the majors this year, following deals with the DGA, WGA and casting directors plus two TV agreements with AFTRA.

Before turning to mediation, SAG unsuccessfully attempted to restart negotiations Sept. 30 by announcing a trio of “threshold” issues: new-media jurisdiction for all productions, rather than the $15,000-per-minute budget threshold the majors propose; securing residual fees for made-for-Internet productions when those productions are reused on new-media platforms; and continuing force majeure protections for actors, which the majors have sought to eliminate.

For its part, the AMPTP’s insisted it won’t change the final offer to SAG and stressed that its terms are similar to those in the WGA, DGA and AFTRA deals.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how the voiceover and acting unions survive the economic mess we’re currently in.

Speaking of professional voice talent, if you’re a voice talent with SunSpots Productions please make sure we have your latest voiceover demo in hand so we can keep your best in front of our clients. Please send it to:
Jen Stevens
SunSpots Productions
821 Marhall Farms Road
Ocoee, Florida
34761

Cheers-
Tom

Have you noticed the changes in voiceover industry?

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Just a quick note tonight. The SunSpots Productions booking staff and I were chatting on Friday about conversations they’ve had with voice talent over the past weeks. The changes in the economy and the overall changes in our industry are affecting all of us in way or another. A few talent are having tough times finding gigs and getting a little tired of doing multiple auditions for us and other studios.

In my 20-plus years experience of doing voiceovers I’ve noticed that almost 90% of jobs now require an audition. What’s strange to me is that the clients are asking for auditions even when they’re very familiar with the voice they’re having audition. I’ve heard the reason for it is that their end client needs to hear the read to make a better decision in choosing voice talent. I totally understand that. The hard part for us as professional voice talent is that sometimes we may feel like not doing the auditions. We think, “The client knows my voice and skills. I’ve been voicing for 10 or 20 years and I have to do an audition? Please…” Well, you know what? If you don’t do the auditions, you’re 100% guaranteed to not get the job. It’s like saying that you don’t want the money. 
When the “got to have auditions” phase began about 3-4 years ago I protested it and noticed something. I was losing work. So these days, send me auditions all the time and I’ll knock em out.
Now, it’s common knowledge, to most if not all of us, that we MUST do these auditions every hour if need be or be passed over because we chose not to. Remember there’s always some new guy or gal out there waiting for that big break and you saying no could be just that.
I’ve had dreadful, animated phone calls with talent saying how it isn’t fair, they’re well known voices, they’re longtime pros, they’re big names in the biz and the clients should know their skills by now.
It comes down to this, no audition done and no work gained. 
So go ahead, it’s just a few minutes of undirected fun. Do the auditions and keep swingin’ the bat! The more you swing, the greater the chance of getting home run. I’ve been blessed to have a couple of those; I did radio and tv spots for Circuit City for many years and voiced Nissan for a few years, both as a SAG/AFTRA member.
Happy Voicing!
Tom

Exciting, New "Welcome to the Blog" Welcome Message.

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Happy New Year!

So it’s time for SunSpots to join the world of bloggers. Sure wish there was a different word for it. Blogging sounds like a Scottish mud fight.

Our plan for this blog is to keep you informed about our heroic, multi-talented SunSpots staff, our recording sessions, helpful tips for voice over talent and ad agency news and of course rants and raves.

If you have any suggestions as to what heaping piles of wisdom we should insert here please let me know at: Tom[at symbol]MySunSpots.com

If you’ve not been the main page of our web site please visit this link: http://www.SunSpotsProductions.com . You can listen to demos, book talent online and request our voice talent and audio production demo cd too.

I’ll be placing some info for new voice talent on soon. Seems to be a very popular subject. Every day we get requests from people wanting to be voice over talent and asking for advice on creating a voice demo, how to market themselves and especially how to create an affordable home studio or voice booth. We’ll have our resident ISDN expert and SunSpots Producer/Engineer Zak advise on that issue.

We’ll also be creating podcasts of our voice talent instruction with interviews and advice in the coming weeks. My belief in advising talent is, as the late James Brown said, “Just keep it real baby”. So I’ll be talking about staying away from topics that seem to mostly apply to those voicing in New York and LA. Let’s talk about what it’s like to work every day around the country doing good ole medical, narrations/industrials and such. It’s a small crowd that voices national animation, national SAG and AFTRA gigs and movie trailers. What I want to discuss is the business of voice work. The day to day business of voice work, not something that may occur rarely. Let’s talk about being voice artists and running your voiceover career as a business at the same time.

Nice to meet you.

We’ll talk again soon.

Tom