"double bubble"

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Permalink Reply by J S Gilbert on March 23, 2009 at 1:14pm

I think you will find that particularly in today's world where there is both a growing empowerment in terms of creativity and a lowerring of budgets across the board that many of us wear many hats. Back when commercials (everything) was shot on film running a buck per second and editing was tricky and expensive you found the craft of the shooter was highly prized. Nowadays the tendency is to go with prosumer cameras and shoot hours of tape or in the case of the new P2 and other tapeless systems, to stuff up a hard drive.

On the voiceover side, we may also underconsider the skills set required to "get the job done".

As a result, we see lots of people flocking to voiceover from many types of persuits. Many come from advertising, or crew becuase they sense the exposure to the project and the process will assist them in getting to do the voice work.

Additionally, we see voice talent who after years (or in some cases) weeks start to market themselves out as producers, directors, writers, shooters, etc. Obviously this is done for the same reaon, to increase billings and get a bigger piece of the pie.

I am a creative director/ producer or what some call one of the new "hybrid" shops. I partcularly enjoy when I work on projects that have budgets that allow me to bring in a team of gifted people, but frequently budgets tend to be fairly modest. Thus I may find myself in the role of shooting B roll to save money on a second camera or I might have to direct and handle soundman functions. Sometimes that means putting the B roll camera on sticks and asking anyone handy to monitor it.

Spending more time to develop a work-flow scenario that allowws us to get the job done, on budget and to the clients satisfaction, is now the single most paramount task. It often means shooting run and gun and only slightly adherig to storyboards. It can mean hanging locations or angles to take advantage of natural lighting.

The end result of this work isn't often goin to win awards, but if it sells our clients products or services, then we've done what we set up to accomplish.

I think therefore there are a lot of people out there that do v.o. and also work a camera and/or can cut a bit in Avid or FCP or Premiere or whatever.

If my commitment to voiceover has been thousands of hours of auditioning, study and work, but on the "shooter side", it's been a trip to the 2 day Hollywood course, a few classes in FCP and 100 hours of shooting and rough cut editing low budget commercials, I am hesitant to say that I am a shooter and voiceover.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Ewart .. on March 25, 2009 at 5:12am

Thanks for your comment JS. I do echo your thoughts. Nothing irritates me more when booking crew for shoots when a person says he can do "Stedicam" for instance just to get the job. Then when it comes to the crunch you find him scratching his head over the kit wondering which bit goes where.

Or the helicopter company i worked with in New zealand in 1994 when I was filming the whitbread round the world race who said, "yes we know how to fit a continental camera mount into our aircraft". When we turned up to leap into the helicopter, they too were gathered round the equipment scratching their heads.
I am a great believer in getting the right guys or gals for the job but will never shun a good "all-rounder".

I made the conscious decision about 5 years ago that humping camera kit around for the last 25 years or so, my back would not last forever so was looking for another avenue to follow. Having been involved in Amateur Operatics since the tender age of 8, then studied drama at college along with Film and TV Production, something a career as an actor would have been the route to go if the Cameraman direction failed to flourish.

So Now I am building on my enthusiastic bent for voice over work. I know I have a long way to go looking at some of the impressive testimonials of voice over professionals but I have the drive and dedication to make the transition work!

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