Nostosis
Member
Posts: 2
I Am A(n): Semi-Professional Voice Actor, Creator/Producer, Voice/Casting Director, Writer, Artist, Musician
Pronouns: he/him
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Post by Nostosis on Feb 15, 2021 0:47:54 GMT -8
In the process of managing a project I've reached an impasse when it comes to deadlines. Right to the point, I realized I'm uncomfortable when it comes to deciding how much work I should give someone for a set time period.
For instance, if I want a 2 week deadline to keep the project on a steady pace how do I determine what is a realistic amount of lines to expect back in that time frame? Because realistically could someone do say, 50 lines in a day? Sure. It's possible. Is it realistic to expect an entire team of 14 voice actors to have that turn around? Of course not. (at least for low budget indie projects, in my case)
What one person may be able to do in a day, others may only have the capacity or time to do in a week, and so on. There are so many factors that could change what someone could reasonable be expected to do, but there's no one size fits all. You have to create a baseline and just run with it. So... Where do you draw that line in the sand? What's fair, reasonable, realistic, etc?
If anyone has any insight, I'm all ears. I'm considering starting a survey to try and gauge what the VA's believe their own limits are.
P.S. Money shouldn't matter in this either. It may be encourage people to work harder/faster, etc, but that's not my concern. People have clear, definable limits. Money won't change that.
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Feb 15, 2021 16:14:34 GMT -8
For starters -- I actually 100% disagree that money shouldn't affect the answer to your question. Yes, it's true that people have "clear, definable limits" BUT the thing you need to take into account is that paid projects are work and unpaid projects are a hobby, which means there's a VERY big difference in whether this is something to be done with the time you have to spend earning money to live, or something you can only do in your free time *outside of work* (usually only 1-2 days a week), and still have some of that free time for other non-work activities.
I've been given literally hundreds of lines to do in a few days or a week *as a job*. On the other hand, I would think that less than 50 lines in a 2-week deadline would be more standard for unpaid, hobby projects. Of course, deadlines are all over the place! Some directors will expect large amounts of lines done in a very short time for free, or give long deadlines for relatively few lines even when it's paid, but the numbers I've given are what I'd think are closest to fair/expected.
BTW, something that I know I always appreciate is when I can get future scripts all at once. It's easier to set aside ONE session to record 5-10 lines x 6 episodes all at once than it is to record 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines on different days/weeks, and then deadlines become a non-issue after the first one because I can stay ahead when I do have extra free time!
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Nostosis
Member
Posts: 2
I Am A(n): Semi-Professional Voice Actor, Creator/Producer, Voice/Casting Director, Writer, Artist, Musician
Pronouns: he/him
|
Post by Nostosis on Feb 21, 2021 16:21:12 GMT -8
For starters -- I actually 100% disagree that money shouldn't affect the answer to your question. Yes, it's true that people have "clear, definable limits" BUT the thing you need to take into account is that paid projects are work and unpaid projects are a hobby, which means there's a VERY big difference in whether this is something to be done with the time you have to spend earning money to live, or something you can only do in your free time *outside of work* (usually only 1-2 days a week), and still have some of that free time for other non-work activities. I've been given literally hundreds of lines to do in a few days or a week *as a job*. On the other hand, I would think that less than 50 lines in a 2-week deadline would be more standard for unpaid, hobby projects. Of course, deadlines are all over the place! Some directors will expect large amounts of lines done in a very short time for free, or give long deadlines for relatively few lines even when it's paid, but the numbers I've given are what I'd think are closest to fair/expected. BTW, something that I know I always appreciate is when I can get future scripts all at once. It's easier to set aside ONE session to record 5-10 lines x 6 episodes all at once than it is to record 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines, then 5-10 lines on different days/weeks, and then deadlines become a non-issue after the first one because I can stay ahead when I do have extra free time! I think you're somewhat missing why I'm asking this. I tried to not provide specifics because it's not really meant to serve a singular/specific project, but in the current moment for example this would be applied to an indie project of mine with about a $5,000 budget, the idea is more practicality to be applied to any number of other projects I've got. Some characters have hundreds of lines, others have less than 10. It's more about the principle of managing both the budget and calculating a reasonable schedule of deadlines for lines so a realistic estimated completion date can be calculated.
Providing the full script has benefits, but of course I can't just cast all 300+ characters at once, give everyone their full scripts, and expect that to be returned in a timely manner. Even if I were to fling the full 5k budget at the wall, I truly mean what I said in the original, it would make no difference. People have limits. It makes no difference to me if you're more motivated by money and willing to do more if it's paid work or not, because on principle all my projects are paid. And if you understand what people are willing to do at their peak interest, you can always work downward from there for things with less benefits like free projects. 🤷♂️
Giving someone all of their lines in advance in-theory can make sense but there are a lot of pros/cons to that as well. On one hand you do get to manage your own time better, and record the lines before the director expects them so they get them faster too. On the other hand the schedules can exist for both load bearing and budget purposes on the project. So you would effectively be doing paid work for free until you were paid. For some projects that might work, but I can't imagine it being that straight forward. Personally, I just wouldn't be comfortable asking someone to do something for free on a paid project. Even if they were willing, it would be uncomfortable to me at least. It's about professionalism and transparency. If I give you work, it's because the intent to pay you is without question. If you do it without saying anything, more power to you. It makes sense. Just not something I personally want to enable.
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Feb 21, 2021 17:07:06 GMT -8
The thing is, you keep using words like "motivated" "willing" and "interest". It's not about that. In a 40 hour work week someone can record a LOT more audio for a paying voice job during their working hours than they can record *hobby* audio with the maybe 2 hours of free time that is left to them after eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, shopping, scheduling, hygiene, pet care, other hobbies, spending time with family, errands, etc.
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Post by Lady Stardust ★ on Feb 24, 2021 9:57:43 GMT -8
I think Rebekah really hit the nail on the head here. One thing you could do is say "Ideally, we would like the audio back by X date. However, we understand cast members may have varying schedules and obligations, so if meeting this date might be a problem, please let me know and we can work out an extension!"
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