Proper Pricing for Multiple Reads
I've seen this more and more lately. But a client asking for 3 or 4 takes, but only paying for the word count of a single take.
I've only seen one client that actually repeated the script multiple times to cover the word count for each take they wanted.
So something like on the order form, a spot for # of Takes or something similar, that multiplies the word count for the end quote. At the very least, some addition to the quote needs to take place, as my pricing, and I'm sure many talent's as well, is based on what I am willing to accept for that specific count and does not include the word count being multiplied by multiple takes.
Thanks,
Jeff
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Hey Jeff!
We understand that your rates are meant to be for just one take and that's how the system is actually designed for. Some of our talents do submit several takes per project. This because submitting more than one take helps reduce the time of the project and the possibility of getting revisions. However, keep in mind that this is completely optional and the takes should be well edited and separated from one another.
If you get projects where clients are asking for several takes right from the start and you don't feel comfortable submitting more than one, please submit one take following the client's remarks and flag the project to let our production management team know about it. We will keep track of these projects so we can push a new feature to the system.
Hope this helped!
Hi Angela,
I know we've talked about this before, and everyone at Support has always been helpful when I've Flagged for this reason. I just need to chip in my support for Jeff. There is really a LOT that we as Talent need to be thinking about while running our business, especially when VB isn't our only income stream for VO work. For you to say "just flag it..." makes it seem like that's all there is to it. Think about it.
The client asks for 3-4 takes, presumably that means they're willing to pay for 3-4 takes.
SO, if we just read the ONE take as you suggest, we're short-changing ourselves and VB of the commission on the other 2-3 takes.
If I Flag it first and tell Support that I should be paid 3 times the amount for 3 times the work (which we all should agree is fair) and they agree and pay me for it, then either you need to go back to the client and request more money, or VB needs to eat the loss of paying me what my time is worth. Either way, since it's after the initial posting, it's a Lose-Lose proposition.
Mostly, I lose, because instead of being able to do the job NOW, which is the time I have worked into my schedule of other projects, I have to wait until Support gets back to me saying the additional pay (which is not a Reward, by the way) has been approved. Maybe, by the time it's approved, it's after my normal working hours, or it's approved when I'm working on another project that's going to shoot my voice for the rest of the day (Heavy singing, or Call-outs, or Growling Character work, etc...) Now, this project has to wait, and the client needs to wait until the next day for me to do the work...
OR, maybe, by then you will have given my project away to someone else (via the Backup Project system) and I'll get NONE of the payment, because Support got back to me too late...
ALL of this could easily be resolved by you putting a drop-down box on the initial New Project form: Number of Takes Requested:
With that, you get paid what you should get paid up-front. We get paid our normal rates. The client gets their project ON TIME and happy with our work so they book us again... AND your poor, over-worked/under-paid Support Team don't have to listen to us whiney Talent complaining about this part any more... I don't see how ANYBODY Loses out of this!
Thanks for listening, and sorry for Hijacking your Post, Jeff!
Chris
Hi Chris!
Thank you very much for this idea.
As I told Jeff, we're gathering all the cases so we can get a feature for this on the system. All your reasons make complete sense and we're building our case to get a feature like this built. We are improving the project flow and we already have this idea on queue of changes to implement.
However, in the meantime, the idea is for you guys to let us know as you've been doing up to now. To avoid the situation where our team takes a bit longer to reply, maybe you can submit the takes and let us know you did via email so we can provide the proper credit. WDYT? This could be another option while we work on a solution for this!