Multiple issues: Large projects, Deadlines, and Client communication
I’ve gotten a few LARGE projects in my time on VoiceBunny, and some of them have made me wonder about a few issues.
1: Projects with a TON of files: It’s a huge time consuming process to edit all of the audio for a large project already. When you have to break down an hour of audio into 85 different separate wave files, it gets….tedious. (I’m not even exaggerating about the 85 files bit!) It seems to me that perhaps we might consider having some sort of rate for editing into so many individual files. I’m pretty sure I spent at least an extra hour because of all of those files on one project alone. Between the editing, and then uploading, and the making sure you uploaded the RIGHT file to the RIGHT part on the webpage. It’s grueling. I feel like talent should be compensated extra when so much extra editing is required.
2: Direct communication with the clients: This has been an issue I’ve discussed on many occasions with different people at VB, as far back as when Tara was doing interviews with the voice talents about 2 years or so ago. We need some method by which to directly communicate with clients. Whether it be to clear up some confusion on their script, a pronunciation, or to communicate deadline issues or revisions. I’d been told in the past that there was a feature in the works for this, but it’s still yet to come to fruition.
3: Deadlines for projects: Have we ever considered making turnaround time something that the talent can set as one of their options? For most of the smaller projects the turnaround time is usually pretty reasonable. But with 8k word projects that can require many hours of recording and editing, I’ve found that for a part time VO, it can be daunting to get those completed in the time allotted sometimes. For example, the project I just submitted last night would have had less revisions required had I the time to go to bed last night and re-listen to all of the audio again today with fresh ears before submitting it.
I know most of these issues are probably things you guys have already considered and dismissed, but I wanted to bring them up. You can never make a change if you don’t at least ask, right?
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Brian,
I've chatted with Tara, and Angela, and anyone else I can about all of these points. Let me give you what I gather:
1- They have improved the pay for the "multipart" projects a little. Not a lot, but a token. Frankly I think that, whenever there is a project that needs more than 10-15 separate files, that should automatically become the job of whatever Bunny "project manager" is listening to the project. For the unfairly low rates that Bunny pays us, all we should have to do is read. But, since that's not going to happen... This is one of the major factors in why I no longer take large projects from VB anymore. It's almost a bad business move for me to take the script for the amount they offer. If it's going to be labor intensive to edit, I'd make less than minimum wage. I'll pass. I just set my rates really high in the top 2 word count categories so those don't even get offered to me anymore.
2- I just commented on this in another post on this wall. Check it out. According to Angela when I talked to her last month, this is coming. According to Tara when I talked to her last year, this was coming... So is the point in the Universe when the sun will expand to reach the Earth's orbit. Can you guess which I think will happen first?
3- They really don't care. They'd say, you should have rejected the project and let someone with the available time do it. It's ridiculous, but it's they way they feel. There are some situations where you can "Flag" a project and a Support person can "Stop the Clock" on some jobs. I'd start trying that when you've reached a point where project quality will suffer. Or, I can honestly say that I've had situations where I've uploaded un-edited (breath noise, mispronunciations... all the hairy grit) and then flagged it, telling them that the time was short and I'd fix it in revisions. They're going to bounce it back to you before it's sent to the client anyway. If they're not willing to set the appropriate time for the job to be done right, then they don't really have a valid reason to complain about you using the necessary processes to deliver top quality work.
When it comes down to it, the client is hiring YOU, the actor. Not VoiceBunny the service. YOU are going to represent them in their project. The client wants Your voice, and a top quality job done. Do what you need to do to keep the client happy. If VB doesn't agree with that, that says something about the way THEY do business, not you.
I really liked your post, up until the last 2 sentences. You almost seem as if you're apologizing for writing what you did. You shouldn't. VoiceBunny isn't your boss. Don't let them treat you as anything less than an equal. I don't think, to their credit, that they try to do that. But they really don't do enough to discredit it either... What they really are is your business partner. As your partner, it's in their best interest to do whatever it takes to keep your work process streamlined and efficient. After all, they get paid when you do your job well.
Now stop reading and get back to work!
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Brian
Thank you for your comment.
Let me go over each one of your points.
1. We have added an extra payment for each file you have to edit and upload to the website. Currently, we pay you $1 per additional file regardless of the project's length. However, I do understand that the bigger the project, the longer it takes to edit and upload the files and, as such, the work is much more than when splitting and cutting a 5 or 6 part project. We know we still have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to bigger part projects (deadline and reward wise). If you have comments on how we could improve this or any suggestions I could bring to the team, I would appreciate it a lot! We have some ideas, but you know best!
2. I already replied to the other post about this point. You can go check it out and reply there if you have any questions.
3. We have studied the option of allowing you to choose the deadlines for the projects. However, as we want to provide a deadline that is as accurate as possible given all the processes that go behind the scenes (quality control of both project and recording, revisions, etc.), we need to calculate those deadlines ourselves. Also, the deadlines for the projects are calculated by making an average of the time you usually take to submit your projects. This way, we're calculating the actual time you're taking to submit the projects based on real data stored in our system based on your regular behavior. When it comes to long projects, I am going to make sure we investigate how long it's been given to complete those and gather all the necessary information to find a way around this problem.
Hope this helped, but any comment or extra question you may have, please reply here. Either me or one of our voice actors will get back to you as well.